Re: Teaching System Administration with limited hands-on

[alban@tsdis02.nascom.nasa.gov (David Alban)]

Dan Marner <dmarner@marada-corp.com> wrote:
> Does anyone out there have ideas, experience or pointers to resources for
> teaching system administration with little or no hands-on? 

You said each student has/will have access to a shell account on an
HP-UX machine.  I think that a very important facet of unix systems
administration is knowledge of the workings of, and differences
between the different shells.

Almost everything a user or admin does on a unix box involves a
shell, if only indirectly.  So I think that almost everything one
does on a unix box can be improved by becoming as much an expert on
shells as one can.  Most knowledge about shells is portable.  And
you can learn shells with a couple of books, man pages, and a
non-privileged account.

I'd feel much better about a shell-clueful newbie admin having root
than one who wasn't as clueful about shells.

David

P.S.  Processes would also be a good topic.  I guess the idea is that
      it is important not only to understand what you do to
      administer unix, but also to understand how unix systems work.
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