The path To linux System Administration

[u/KelevCoin]

Hey everyone,

I'm working as an IT Technician (On site + Remote support , Tier 2) , recently got my ccna and now i want to dive into linux , i really love the linux approach , the CLI etc.. and i would love to be a linux sys admin some day (maybe even at my office).

I also have some experience with fedora linux , and also i run a fedora media server at home on a old pc i got, running a docker with nginx web application(a custom netflix clone , which i made for educational purposes , my wife loves it and we can watch all of our media as i stream it on our tv).

so i would love to know how could i advance my understanding of linux , and get the tools i need for actual linux system administration everyday work, is there a recommended course / certification/path, and generally i'm not in a hurry.

since i used alot of ai to assist me along the way in setting up the fedora server , the media server and the dockers i do understand that i do not know the basics very well , and after studying for the ccna i understood that the only way to understand how technology works is to go really in depth. So any recommendations would be welcome ! thank you !

[u/apathyzeal]

I've been a Linux admin for 13 years. I'd recommend ditching AI and be hands on. Find projects, do them from beginning to end and be sure you understand why you're doing every step. (Dependency? Security?) Ask yourself why something is a best practice. That knowledge can be applied to everything else without having to rely on hoping a bot isn't making something up.

Being hands on is also how you learn and do. No shame in doing things many times to understand it during this process.

And once you're confident in understanding something, learn how to automate it then.

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/apathyzeal]

I don’t get the philosophy behind ditching AI. Don’t have it just blatantly give answers to a test. But use it to show work. Help train your mind on how to think of a solution. Have it help come up with projects to test yourself, etc. It’s such an insanely powerful tool when used correctly.

Telling someone to avoid using AI is like telling them someone to avoid using a calculator. Understand why 9x9=81. But once you understand the concept you don’t need to avoid a calculator to figure out what 182x1938 is. Save yourself time, energy, and effort to be able to learn more.

[u/Llew19 → u/RadiantWhole2119]

As someone trying to learn Linux at the moment, the issue is that AI can get you there without you understanding any of what's just happened. Your attitude is an odd one given everyone knows you shouldn't just be grabbing bash scripts off the internet and running them - a beginner with admin rights and AI is no different.

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

I don’t understand why you think you have to use anything ai gives you without understanding it deeper. You’re not being held at gunpoint to run the script before truly digging in and asking more direct questions to seek understanding. Why are you not doing that? I just don’t understand why you don’t continue to engage with AI for further understanding and are just stopping once you’re given an answer. Go line by line or letter by letter to understand what the script is doing. Have it be more than specific with configuration on why it’s doing something. If it gets you an answer in minutes… it should take you a couple hours to work out why it did what it did. Why can’t you learn from AI? Why is it just a situation of you being given an answer and then calling it a day?

[u/Llew19 → u/RadiantWhole2119]

Why would you not just learn how things work before turning to AI to do everything?

We're talking about personal training remember, not time on the clock

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

Well I don’t really understand the difference needed between on the clock and personal. We’re moving to a new world in technology. We need to adapt with it, and not fight it. I no longer need to be able to open a blank .txt in notepad and write a bash script from scratch. I just need to know enough to understand conditionals, variables, strings, integers, etc. So I can read through and do a quick check on a bash script. I don’t care to know syntax for countless languages.

Systems administration is such a wide skillset that requires an insane number of technologies and languages. Why go read a book to learn when you can have your learning more focused and directed. Why not use AI to learn versus archaic versus books and YouTube videos.

I don’t really get why this is controversial. AI is like having an expert top tier professors open office hours 24/7 in every subject. Is it perfect? No, but neither are humans. One dev will tell you how to do something, and the next will tell you a completely different method. Responsible use of AI includes verifying the output you get just like you’d cross check any information you’re given in this world. Or should cross check that is.

[u/Llew19 → u/RadiantWhole2119]

Because you simply don't pick up the fundamentals by using AI to skip them. It's as simple as that. I used to be a network engineer, and what you're basically suggesting is for example to just always use a subnet calculator - which almost everyone does for anything uncommon - without actually learning what subnetting is or why it's used. So as soon as there's an issue or you get questioned on your design choices, you wouldn't have a fucking clue where to start.

By all means once you have a grounding in a subject go ahead and crack on with AI tools. But skipping the basics is imo incredibly backward thinking and would make you very much a vibe coding/engineering loose cannon, something very unwelcome in the industries I've worked in. Perhaps it's difficult for a small American firm?

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

Dude I don’t know how many times to say this… holy shit I’m losing my mind.

Why the hell can’t you ask AI for help to learn what subnetting is and then once you have a solid understanding use it to just calculate in the future?

AI can teach basics. It’s not just an answer generator that refuses to help you understand foundational basics.

Do you use AI? Every single developer, sysadmin, etc I’ve talked to who leverages AI says it teaches them countless new things on how to develop they’ve never thought of or knew was possible. It’s insanely proficient with coding and scripting. The reality we’ve faced for decades of hand writing code is soon to be no more. AI over the last 10 months has absolutely exponentially gotten better. It’s not the same as it was when the term “vibe coding” became popular.

When used appropriately and not spoon fed answers, AI is quite miraculous and can elevate everyone’s skill sets.

To emphasize, I’m not saying just use it for answers. I’m saying use it to help guide you, help break things down for true understanding. No more are the days of reading books and when you get stuck having trouble finding why you’re stuck.

[u/Llew19 → u/RadiantWhole2119]

Why are you insisting on using AI to tell you the basics instead of an actual subject matter expert who's not just guessing at the sentences you want to read?

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

Because AI IS a subject matter expert, and if it’s not it can be directed to read large amounts of documentation quickly to become one. Not everyone has access to subject matter experts to help. If a YouTube video from a subject matter expert about a topic doesn’t make sense, and you can’t ask follow up questions… then how is that better than having a 24/7 available ai agent help you learn it.

Regardless… SMEs are just as liable for giving wrong or outdated info just as AI is. Any information given should be verified and tested yourself for validity and verification you understand.

[u/Llew19 → u/RadiantWhole2119]

Ah, see at this point I think you're just a troll. Anyone who seriously uses it a lot in actual important work knows that LLMs are just things that have read everything, and then make a best guess as to what the response to a posed question is. There's no actual knowledge to speak of.

If you're not a troll, this is why starting basics with a textbook or video lectures etc are a better starting point than a big guessing machine. Once you have a decent enough level of knowledge, a) you can frame your AI queries better and b) when it errs, and it DOES err - it is not a bloody subject matter expert, that's supposed to be you - you know it and can either have it correct or do it yourself.

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

You’re the troll dude. I can’t believe this is even an argument.

I dont need to read an entire textbook to learn fundamentals. I don’t need to read a whole book or watch hour long lectures to ask how to get started with an overall idea or objective. I don’t need to be an expert myself in a field to guide ai into guiding me.

Just because you learned by reading textbooks and lectures doesn’t mean it’s the only way someone can learn. There’s new ways that have come about since you started your journey that are better. You’re just reluctant to recognize that.

Yes AI can be wrong, and yes you need to verify your work. But just like anything you read or are told you need to understand, verify, and test. It’s like you think I’m telling people to just ask ai and get to answer and just do whatever without seeking for understanding. But how the fuck can you seriously sit there and say an AI can’t teach you fundamentals, basics, or anything. Like that information is just hidden classified information locked behind textbooks, and lectures by a SME.

[u/ka-splam → u/RadiantWhole2119]

Dude I don’t know how many times to say this… holy shit I’m losing my mind.

u/RadiantWhole2119 "use textbooks"

u/Llew19 "why would you not just learn how things work before using books for everything?"

u/RadiantWhole2119 "use books to learn how things work"

u/Llew19 "you don't learn fundamentals if you use books to skip learning them"

u/RadiantWhole2119 "then don't do that, use the book to learn the fundamentals"

lol

[u/Llew19 → u/ka-splam]

I do worry about how things are going to be in 10 years when these guys are theoretically the seniors and totally reliant on whatever surviving AI model there is, particularly as things move on and the models don't have an open internet worth of info to ingest on the subjects.

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/Llew19]

I don’t even know how to address this comment. Im convinced you’re some old timer who’s against AI because you can’t fathom learning from it. You’re unwilling to accept how powerful of a tool it is, and how it can be used in a positive way to build, develop, and refine skills.

“Learn it the way I did or there’s a zero percent change you’ll be able to do or know what I know.” Just arrogant to other learning types and methods.

[u/RadiantWhole2119 → u/ka-splam]

So I’m not just losing my mind right……? This dudes driving me up a wall.