My six tenets for learning to be a Linux SysAdmin

I have been working with Linux operating systems for a little over a year and a half now, and as I have learned and developed my skills I have come to develop my own philosophy for starting off in the world of open source software. These tenets have become a part of my every day life and have allowed me to blossom and become more comfortable as I embark on my journey toward becoming a system administrator, and I think that it can also assist new Linux users who may be looking to start the same journey

Be Curious

As my mentor Mr David stated early on in my teachings, “if you aren’t curious then this pathway probably isn’t for you”, and no truer words have been spoken. Well other than Dr Pepper being one of the best sodas to ever exist.

Exploring Linux, different desktop environments, different terminal emulators, or even changing the appearance of your desktop background all takes some form of curiosity. This curiosity drives those of us who are looking to become system admins and those who are already sysadmins. curiosity and the willingness to learn new things drives us to find solutions to problems that we run into and even problems we have created. “How can I shorten this command so that I don’t have to type as much while still getting the same result?”, “What may have caused my screen orientation to change after I used it last and what are possible solutions. Do I need to update my drivers, are there any files that may be corrupted?”, and many more questions like these have been actual situations I have run into and I was able to fix it without having to completely start from scratch.

Be Destructive…Responsibly

I love destroying my computer and fixing it…well not my main working machine (I’m not that outrageous). Create a sandbox, I’d even go so far as to say a VirtualBox, that you can have fun in and try new things. This goes hand in hand with being curious and finding out how you can destroy and fix your machine is very important in helping to develop your problem solving skills.

I had the misfortune of having to rebuild my entire PC due to running out of space and my computer was unable to access all of my files because of this. As painful as it was, and frustrating after trying every tip provided to me by ancient texts from the forgotten years of the early 2000’s, it provided me a nice refresher course on properly setting up my computer so that I can avoid the same problems in the future as. After this mishap I created a virtual machine where I take the time to create problems and then fix them on my own to see if I am able. If I can’t I research similar problems and try out many solutions to see which works. generally most solutions are the same but just done in a different way which is okay. Do this only in your virtual machine so that nothing on your main machine is ruined accidentally.

Ask Questions, Ask For Help

In my opinion, there is no room for ego in the open source community. Knowledge should be shared without heckling new Linux users especially because a lot goes into being willing to learn a new operating system where you are behind the wheel significantly more and because we all started in the same spot. I think having a great mentor like Mr David has allowed me to feel more comfortable asking questions.

There are times where I will be absolutely stumped on a problem and it seems unsolvable and I bring it up in our meetings and Mr David, in all of his seemingly infinite wisdom, will take a glance at my problem and give a simple answer like “You are missing a space” or “your syntax has an error, instead of -e you need -E” and recently “So you have two lines that are duplicates and are conflicting because of it.” There is no shaming or mocking and more often than not we laugh about it because as much as I have improved upon catching errors, even the small things still escape me. Constantly getting help like this has added more drive into becoming a great sysadmin. Curiosity has also been a driving force in my studies when going through Using and Administering Linux: Volume 1-3 because my computer is not set up the same as it is asked of the reader of the book, because of this I have to tweak my approach to certain experiments and I discuss these with Mr David and look at how I came to the solution and how it may impact my studies in these volumes further down the line.

Eat Sleep and Breathe Notes

Notes will be your saving grace as you begin your studies. A similar tenet is already in Volume 1 of Using and administering Linux (Chapter 3 page 68 to be exact) and it discusses the importance of good documentation when writing and fixing code. I am taking this a step further for those who are new like me. Writing down notes in your books, on sticky notes, even on loose leaf paper and using it as a bookmark will save you a lot of confusion in the event you have to start from scratch.

As I have stated before I had to rebuild my computer from scratch, and as I was going through each step in volume 1 I ran into a plethora of problems, and past me was looking out for future me because there were a good amount of notes where I had the same problem and there were tips on how to resolve those problems. Granted there was a bunch of name calling involved in those notes, but they saved me a lot of headaches. When I use both of my virtual machines I have gotten into the habit of notating in my snapshots (saved state for a virtual machine) where I have left off in my studies, such as what chapter, what page, and what experiment I left off on. taking this a step further I also talk about what problems I ran into so that when I start up again I know what trouble I may run into as well as working on a fix. I do this as well after I fix any problems I have been having and detail the steps I took to get the solution and even basic updates.

De(fault(y)) Technology

As comfortable as default sounds, it can also hinder you from exploring the full potential of your abilities as well as your operating system. You can use Linux for your run of the mill everyday tasks like opening emails or sending funny cat photos to your coworkers, but if you’re looking to take the helm of your PC you probably aren’t here for that and want more. When setting up my PC in 2023/2024 to run fedora (not my virtual machine), I allowed fedora to set up my file system for me because I wasn’t sure what a btrfs was, or LVM thin provision posting, and so with fedora in control and using default “cozy” settings to set up my directories all the heavy lifting was done.

Or so I thought.

Because I ran the default settings for fedora installation, I wasn’t able to fiddle with my file systems in order to shrink or expand them in order to make more space for directories which would have easily allowed me to continue to work with all the files and settings I had acquired and changed for over a year. When setting up my computer I was sure to manually set up my PC and I am glad I did this and learned how to do this, because with all the…very important totally studies related files that aren’t a bunch of desktop background image apps, I have had to expand directories a few times in order to upgrade my PC as well as add on mandatory drivers.

Learn Your Hardware

Not all of your problems with your computer will be able to be fixed simply by updating drivers or tweaking a file with a text editing app. Sometimes the problem will come from a faulty hardware or a cable that came unplugged. It is important to know what the hardware for your pc does and what to do when something fails ( because machines do fail no matter how well we take care of them).

In my free time I will often end up watching videos of computer repairs and refurbishment as well as part installations and specs for new devices as a way to gain knowledge on the inner workings of computers and what to do if my CPU fan were to fail or I need to install a new internal hard drive. Since I do maintenance on my PCs, the basic fan dusting and verifying cables are still intact…and maybe adding the occasional sticker, I also work with my hands and get a good idea of what it takes to work on a PC even if it isnt mine. This can help you become more comfortable doing any repairs yourself, this goes hand in hand with being curious, a personal tenet I mentioned earlier.

I have a long way to go toward becoming a sysadmin as I continue my studies, but I wanted to take this time to share what I have learned along the way. Who knows, maybe someone will see these tips in the future and the path I took and use it as they chart their own path.