Scripting?

Hello all, I'm currently going through school to get my associates degree. My school has a Network Admin program and one of my classes is Unix. I hate coding and programming and so far this class has been extremely stressful. So I was wondering how much net admin's use scripting and what type of scripting is used? We've been doing loops which I can't stand and I'm starting to get worried about having to do this in my career when I really wanted to get away from this.

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EdTheLad

Hate is a very strong word, suck it up and learn it, you will be thankful when you eventually master it. As a network admin, knowing how to script can save you days of work. At a minimum learn unix well and bash scripting. Python is becoming the next hot thing in networking. For motivation maybe you should look at TCL which is inbuilt on most current cisco IOS. Have a look at expect, expect can be used in a script to telnet/ssh to a router and execute a command. As a basic example, imagine your boss asks you to check what version each router is running, you could manually ssh to each device and check, which would take you all day or run a quick script.

fredrikjj

xxhieixx wrote: »

Hello all, I'm currently going through school to get my associates degree. My school has a Network Admin program and one of my classes is Unix. I hate coding and programming and so far this class has been extremely stressful. So I was wondering how much net admin's use scripting and what type of scripting is used? We've been doing loops which I can't stand and I'm starting to get worried about having to do this in my career when I really wanted to get away from this.

How much you use scripting probably depends on a lot on the environment and where you are at in your career. For example, in some environments you will be breaking the rules by writing your own scripts that interact with networking boxes (but you might execute someone else's script). In others you will be allowed to do the kind of read only tasks like Ed described, like logging into a box and checking version, etc. In an entry level position you're probably not going to do that though because you are not going to be trusted to not f things up.

In a mid to high level "network engineer" role you'll probably be allowed to do scripting if you think it's something that will be useful. If you are in a very high level design/architect role you might not be scripting at all because you are not as involved in the day to day operations of the network. Big networks, like ISPs, will likely have programming/scripting specialists that handle development of scripts and tools like that.

xxhieixx

Thanks for the responses. Simple scripting is fine, I've just been really struggling with this class lately. I had my Unix class today and the teacher did make me feel a lot better along with my other classmates, it's good to know it's not just me!

I honestly had no idea Net Admin's "scripted" (it's programming to me). I really dislike programming and didn't think I'd be involved in it at all. Reading the script is fine, but actually creating one can get frustrating. Apparently this is normal, I was really stressing out and felt stupid with this class. I was really starting to question if I chose the right career but after talking with some people and getting some responses to this thread I do feel better. I also think I'm burned out from school as I've been going full time non stop (spring/summer classes included) since August of 2013.

Thanks again for responding, I will definitely continue to work with Unix (don't really have a choice anyway, I have to take an advanced Unix class after this lol). and try not to stress out so much.

shodown

Scripting is becoming the norm in the network work. You need to learn as much as you can now. When you get your 1st few jobs your scripting will set you apart from the other admins. You won't be able to do any fancy scripting right away, but you can automate small things like logging into devices and checking the routing tables.

Like I said in another post, friends of mine who work in VERY LARGE networks, they want to take away all CLI access. They want the engineers to be able to script out every change they need to do.

Mishra

I think school programming classes give scripting a bad taste. My feeling is that when students are hit with random homework assignments like a ton of bricks, it doesn't make sense and it turns you off.

The better approach would be to have you setup active directory, then write a script to automate it. Continue to introduce scripting with practical means and it will show you that it is actually useful.

For the OP, I think scripting (not programming) is a very clear look into the type of logical deduction that you will have to do on a daily basis to be a good engineer. If the logic, "if...then" turns you off in scripting then I actually would use that as serious criteria into your IT career evaluation.

My disclaimer with this advice is everyone is different so my word isn't gospel.

networker050184

Do yourself a favor and learn it. I wish I would have a long time ago.

xxhieixx

Alright, thanks for all the feedback everyone! I guess this is something I just need to embrace. I'm not too thrilled about it but hopefully with practice it won't turn me off so much. As I said before, real simple scripts are fine...it's really doing these for, while, and until loops that I have a hard time with. If then statement are ok, we had to take a basic visual logic class before this one and I did good with those, it's the loops I really struggle with. Our recent project had us read in an input file and we had to output it to look a certain way....that was probably the most stressful assignment I've had so far. After that project happened I started to feel really down about the class but I felt a lot better after class today and we're past the hard part now thankfully.

Being decent or good at scripting seems like a far way off to me but I'll keep practicing, seems like the industry is really headed that way based on what everyone is saying. Do any of you have any suggestions on what I could do to keep practicing? Should I really focus in on for and while/until loops or will that come more with experience once I start working?

networker050184

I would think of it more as how to solve a problem not what type of tool to practice with. For example you don't want to use VTP, but creating a VLAN manually on all your switches is a pain. How could you solve that with a script? Loop through a file with all of your switches perhaps? For each one in there ssh in and enter the commands? Work through something like that and you'll get to messing with more and more stuff as you try new things. That's how I got started.