Good beginning Linux CBT or step-by-step book

drakhan2002

I hate to admit that I'm a Linux newbie - I've been in IT for 15 years and only have had a very high level exposure to Linux. Most of my work has been focused on Windows (since it was "the thing" back in the early 90's to be involved with...) and of course, way back, Novell. Anyway...I've managed to get by without Linux knowledge until now.

Now, I have just been ask to manage an application known as Tripwire Enterprise (http://www.tripwire.com). Tripwire will be used to meet our file intergrity requirement for PCI - so, as you can imagine this is a pretty important role at the bank.

My organization is a large Fortune 500 bank - we have a lot of Unix-based stuff here for our larger enterprise level applications - mostly AIX. Anyway, rather than having a deep administrator level understanding of Unix, I only need a higher level "operator" level understanding...and it is something I won't use very often either. I just need to be fluent in the lingo of Unix...that's where Linux comes in. I figure this is the quickest way to learn outside of working hours.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good CBT they liked or a good book that will quickly get me up to speed?

Thanks much!

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Comments

BeaverC32

Are you looking at learning a certain distribution of Linux, or will any distribution do?

I used the Linux+ LearnKey training my Mike Meyers, which is vendor-neutral. I installed a copy of Ubuntu on a virtual machine, and learned the basics of Linux that way. I've always been a Windows guy, but Linux popularity is growing and I was interested in learning something new.

Also, a nice article on Linux and some certification options (if you're interested in getting certified) was in the CertMag online newsletter I subscribe to: http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/CM_SG_Article_Template.asp?articleid=2763&zoneid=269

sprkymrk

I liked the Thompson Course Technology LabSim for Linux+, it's pretty good for $40.

LabSim for Linux+

For general books on linux/unix I really liked another Thompson Course Technology product - I have the third edition, but I see the 4th edition is now available:

Guide to Unix Using Linux

And finally, if you're mostly a Windows guy like me and need to have a translator to help with linux equivelants to Windows stuff, there's this book by Mark Minasi:

Linux for Windows Administrators

dynamik

Nice links. Thanks.

JDMurray

I too like the Thompson Linux books and practically anything Linux published by O'Reilly.

Ubuntu Live Conference • July 22-24, 2007 • Portland, Oregon

ally_uk

I personally feel that O'reilly books are pretty rubbish to be honest explanations are often overcomplicated Sleep inducing tripe.

I don't want to sit then and end up reading a bible type book on a particular subject I was shown a 802.11 book the other day and was ok this is seriously over complicating matter's who the hell reads this lol

The best way to learn Linux is by doing so forget the books get youself a distro and jump in at the deep end learn from your mistakes the online community is the best way of gaining knowledge

Also learn use the Internet to learn the basic CLI commands and how the file structure is arranged I advise using a GUI at first to get a feel for the system.

Once you have mastered how to navigate and run simple commands from the shell then you can take this further and look at the next steps such as package management via GUI and shell via Aptitude

I made the switch from windows to Linux a year ago I found getting hands on with the O/S fast way of learning.

Also having a SYSADMIN baffle you with unfamiliar terms is always a bonus lol

sprkymrk

ally_uk wrote:

I personally feel that O'reilly books are pretty rubbish to be honest explanations are often overcomplicated Sleep inducing tripe.

I wouldn't go so far as to call them rubbish, but I don't care too much for the O'Reilly books either. They seem to be written by/for programmers regardless of the subject matter, which may be why JD likes them.

ally_uk wrote:

The best way to learn Linux is by doing so forget the books get youself a distro and jump in at the deep end learn from your mistakes the online community is the best way of gaining knowledge

I'll agree with the first and last parts of this statement ally, but I think "forget the books" is bad advice. Maybe you just meant that tounge-in-cheek? Whether it's Windows, Linux, or Cisco - books have always been and probably always will be an important part of learning.

JDMurray

sprkymrk wrote:

They seem to be written by/for programmers regardless of the subject matter, which may be why JD likes them.

O'Reilly books are written for the express purpose of solving problems. If I need to learn or fix something now, rather than waiting until I naturally acquire the knowledge or skill in the future, I'll pick up an O'Reilly book to find the answers and information that I need. The original intent of O'Reilly's UNIX and X Window books was to help people who couldn't solve their problems only from reading the man pages. The writing style of the books reflects what the O'Reilly editors think is best and not how the content authors actually write.

ally_uk wrote:

The best way to learn Linux is by doing so forget the books get youself a distro and jump in at the deep end learn from your mistakes the online community is the best way of gaining knowledge

This sounds like the "I don't need certifications or a degree; I'll just work hard, gain a lot of experience, and that'll bring me success in my career" argument. This is obviously not a practical strategy. You'll save yourself a lot of time and gain knowledge more quickly if you just learn the patience to properly read well-written books while you're in "the deep end." You can't learn to swim only by reading books, but it's also very difficult to learn swimming without guidance and instructions.

Slowhand

Check out LinuxCBT, they've got some pretty good training material on everything from specific distros to applications like Samba, BIND, Squid, etc. . . they've even got training on Solaris. I used some of their stuff before the Linux+ test, and it actually helped quite a bit.

JDMurray

Slowhand wrote:

they've got some pretty good training material on everything from specific distros to applications like Samba, BIND, Squid, etc. . .

I'm trying to setup BIND on an Ubuntu server right now. Even with step-by-step instructions from Ubuntu's site I still think it would easier to swallow broken glass.

Slowhand

JDMurray wrote:

Even with step-by-step instructions from Ubuntu's site I still think it would easier to swallow broken glass.

Don't be silly. There's far more bleeding, crying, and screaming when configuring BIND on Ubuntu.

*Edit: Just changing a key word, since I'm just that clever. "BIND", not "Samba". Yup, I'm a genius.*

sprkymrk

I thought Bind was pretty straight forward and easy on Fedora/Red Hat. Basically only 2-3 steps. First make sure Bind is installed and running, and second configure a basic named.conf file. I thought the syntax was pretty easy, and creating a zone file was (step 3) was fairly intuitive as well.

Is it different on Ubuntu (I've never used it)? What does Ubuntu use for package mangement?

Kaminsky

Unix in a nutshell by O'Rielly. VM server and Ubuntu. That will get you where you want to be. O'Rielly will give you the framework and then it's lots and lots of messing about with the command syntaxes given to see what you can do with them. Scripting them, passing args to them, etc, etc. Big tip, get yourself a really big csv file with lots and lots of columns and lots and lots of rows with all sorts of data in and then see what you can do with it. How you can find what your looking for and then tabulating what you want in a nice output. Then, see if you can do it on a sinle line rather than in a script.

With Unix/Linux, you get out what you put in! Simple as that! I would be amazed to find one Unx system exactly the same as any another.

The thing about unix admin is that once you know it, you know it! I recently had an interview for a job I eventually got. On my resume there was Unix experience from 10 years back and they slammed me on it. Amazingly, it was all coming back including the -a's -s's arguments, etc. When questioned on the link command, I kept replying with the alais command which the interviewer hadn't come across (korn shell) and he still looks at me funny in the office. He did say however, that I gave the best unix answers of any of the current employees quizzed at interview. I hadn't touched Unix in 10 years.

Wonderfull OS to learn. The power of it is awsome. You can also find MS versions of the awk, grep, sed, etc commands which are so usefull once you learn how to use them. However, when learning your way through sed, please remember Unix was invented by techno hippies experimenting with drugs like LSD and stuff at the time.

Get VM server and Free Ubuntu and have a lot of fun. It's a lot more exhillerating to learn than MS stuff.

ally_uk

Hey I would have hands on expereince anyday than book knowledge.

I'm the type of person who learns best by doing and learning from my mistakes. Take the network+ for example sure I have looked through that book and spent hours trying to remember cable types and facts and the OSI seven layer model.

But I have reached the conclusion that the majoirty of the N+ may be good in theory but pracicality wise it's absolute irrelevant jargon.

Thinnet? BNC'S? it's all old news

Also Who the hell needs to learn the seven layers of the OSI to setup a network? come on be realistic

Ok LAN has gone down let me just write out the seven layers of the OSI to solve the problem

oh joy it was a faulty cat 5 and my drawing indicates a problem at the physical layer lol

Seriously does anybody actually use the OSI?

Also why do people spend so much time learning subnetting? isn't CIDR a better way to go about things?

I don't agree with the statement suggesting that I don't find certification important I find the exams pointless in the respect that they are not really testing your knowledge. The majority of exams such as N+, A+ provide you with multiple choice questions. In which case it's not really knowledge you are showing it's the ability to remember facts and figures.

Give me a exam where I have to write solutions and not tick boxes that's the problem with the IT sector thesedays. You can't really anazlyze a certain individuals skills.

Imagine if you have 50 people to interview with who are all N+ qualified what sets these apart?

It's about time the exams such as A+ , N+ were geared towards more user input and you would score marks based on your solutions these exams need to be made harder and a grade scheme should be put in place.

JDMurray

ally_uk wrote:

Also Who the hell needs to learn the seven layers of the OSI to setup a network? come on be realistic

Ok LAN has gone down let me just write out the seven layers of the OSI to solve the problem

oh joy it was a faulty cat 5 and my drawing indicates a problem at the physical layer lol

Seriously does anybody actually use the OSI?

You have a very narrow opinion and experience of computer networking. There is so much more to computer networking than finding bad RJ-45 connectors and configuring NIC cards. People who aspire to be more than "cable pullers" in life would do well to study computer networking theory and architecture too.

sprkymrk

JDMurray wrote:

ally_uk wrote:

Also Who the hell needs to learn the seven layers of the OSI to setup a network? come on be realistic

Ok LAN has gone down let me just write out the seven layers of the OSI to solve the problem

oh joy it was a faulty cat 5 and my drawing indicates a problem at the physical layer lol

Seriously does anybody actually use the OSI?

You have a very narrow opinion and experience of computer networking. There is so much more to computer networking than finding bad RJ-45 connectors and configuring NIC cards. People who aspire to be more than "cable pullers" in life would do well to study computer networking theory and architecture too.

I was going to reply to ally_uk also, but decided I would be wasting my time. If ally_uk is still in the network business 2-3 years from now doing anything above basic helpdesk or cable pulls, I doubt his/her opinion will remain the same.

Slowhand

ally_uk wrote:

Hey I would have hands on expereince anyday than book knowledge.

Personally, I'd prefer both. There's no excuse for being ignorant of what's in the books, when you can read the information as well as work with the equipment, hands-on. (Which is what just about all the IT authors recommend.)

ally_uk wrote:

I'm the type of person who learns best by doing and learning from my mistakes. Take the network+ for example sure I have looked through that book and spent hours trying to remember cable types and facts and the OSI seven layer model.

But I have reached the conclusion that the majoirty of the N+ may be good in theory but pracicality wise it's absolute irrelevant jargon.

Thinnet? BNC'S? it's all old news

That's very true, a lot of the Network+ material is theory. However, if you read the recommendation by CompTIA, you'll see that you should have six months experience, preferably a year, before taking the exam. You should already know how to plug in RJ-45 cables, and connect hubs and switches. The theory you're learning is there to help you become more than just a hobbyist or technician who blindly connects equipment and hopes it works. As for the older equipment, you have to realize that it exists. They teach you about it because a lot of these technologies were forerunners to the equipment we have today, and it's important to at least understand the concepts of how networking evolved, in order to understand where it is today.

ally_uk wrote:

Also Who the hell needs to learn the seven layers of the OSI to setup a network? come on be realistic

Ok LAN has gone down let me just write out the seven layers of the OSI to solve the problem

oh joy it was a faulty cat 5 and my drawing indicates a problem at the physical layer lol

Seriously does anybody actually use the OSI?

Everyone, and I mean everyone who works in the field of networking and systems administration needs to know it. If you don't know it, you're the kind of technician that needs to go to a supervisor for help with anything but the most basic of problems. What if it wasn't just a faulty cat5 cable? What if there was physical connectivity, but the machines weren't talking? What if the issue was at layer 2 or layer 3. What if your MAC address was being blocked, what if it was an issue with ARP? The OSI model is there as a tool to help you troubleshoot networking issues, no matter where they're coming from or what's causing them.

ally_uk wrote:

Also why do people spend so much time learning subnetting? isn't CIDR a better way to go about things?

From this statement, I can tell that you don't really know what CIDR and subnetting really are. When we talk about subnetting, we're talking about figuring out how many hosts and networks here are on a particular IP address block. For example, when a customer asks my company for IP addresses, we can't simply give him hundreds or thousands, when he only needs five or six. For example, I recently worked with a company that was running out of IP addresses. Their address space is 64.84.38.0/28, and they have thirteen computers in their managed server cabinet, with four more coming in. Of course, another customer already leases the 64.84.38.16/28 and the 64.84.38.32/28 spaces, so CIDR doesn't really come into play here. Now, if we didn't know how to subnet, it'd be a little hard to help this customer purchase more IP addresses.

ally_uk wrote:

I don't agree with the statement suggesting that I don't find certification important I find the exams pointless in the respect that they are not really testing your knowledge. The majority of exams such as N+, A+ provide you with multiple choice questions. In which case it's not really knowledge you are showing it's the ability to remember facts and figures.

Give me a exam where I have to write solutions and not tick boxes that's the problem with the IT sector thesedays. You can't really anazlyze a certain individuals skills.

Imagine if you have 50 people to interview with who are all N+ qualified what sets these apart?

It's about time the exams such as A+ , N+ were geared towards more user input and you would score marks based on your solutions these exams need to be made harder and a grade scheme should be put in place.

I think it's pretty safe to say that your experience with certifications seems a little bit limited, and has probably not been very good. When you're used to being able to learn only what interests you, or only what you need for a particular project, taking on the task of learning all the information for a cert is daunting. The way some tests are given is not ideal, that's true. Somtimes you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're learning the vendor's way of doing things, and that some of this information won't really be used. However, as my networking instructor used to tell me, "first you learn to break it the Microsoft way, then you learn to break it on your own".

You need to read the books, you need hands-on experience, or you'll simply end up a paper cert. (Yes, you can be a paper cert without having cheated. All you have to do is have no clue how to apply the skills you learned while studying.) If certifications aren't for you, then I'd say focus your time on the things you find more suitable.

Slowhand

sprkymrk wrote:

Is it different on Ubuntu (I've never used it)? What does Ubuntu use for package mangement?

I believe Ubuntu uses the Debian Package Manager.

ally_uk

Or you can run aptitude from the shell

Well I am going to go the Cert route i'm 22 years old and have worked in the IT industry nearly 4 years now.

I'm not going to be wasting my time with Network+ i'm diving straight in with the CCNA followed by the CNNP i'm not going to be learning from books though i'm doing a 40 week course at uni to get hands on with the equipment.

When I troubleshoot a network problem I don't usethe OSI I only have experience with the basics such at faulty cables , switch errors , incorrect TCP/ IP settings , DNS not working I havent really been given the oppurtunity to progress it seems the SYSADMIN people like to keep their knowledge to themselves.

Although I do know the OSI off by heart lol and what layers the protocols operate at I just havent really been given a situation where I need to use it.

Slowhand

ally_uk wrote:

Or you can run aptitude from the shell

That's very true. But aptitude is just a front-end for the Advanced Package Tool, which handles dependencies and installation of Debian packages, much like RPM's are handled on Red Hat systems. I probably should have said APT, in my earlier statement, but my brain checked out around noon today.

ally_uk wrote:

I'm not going to be wasting my time with Network+ i'm diving straight in with the CCNA followed by the CNNP i'm not going to be learning from books though i'm doing a 40 week course at uni to get hands on with the equipment.

When I troubleshoot a network problem I don't usethe OSI I only have experience with the basics such at faulty cables , switch errors , incorrect TCP/ IP settings , DNS not working I havent really been given the oppurtunity to progress it seems the SYSADMIN people like to keep their knowledge to themselves.

Although I do know the OSI off by heart lol and what layers the protocols operate at I just havent really been given a situation where I need to use it.

If you're going down the Cisco route, then you'll definitely get a chance to see how the OSI model (along with the DoD model, and a slew of other guidelines and best-practices-protocols) is used to troubleshoot problems and used in the design of larger networks. It'll be very apparent when you're getting into the CCNA topics, and even moreso when you get to the CCNP studies, that the role of the OSI model is a big one when it comes to resolving issues that arise between different programs, routing protocols, and even hardware failure.

Hopefully, you'll get a chance to show those admins of yours that you've learned something, and maybe they'll be more willing to share information with you on a peer-to-peer level. Good luck on the Cisco road, and let us know how you're progressing.

sprkymrk

@ally_uk:

I can understand why you think the OSI model and "book theory" is useless, but rather than compare book learning to hands-on, think of them as complimenting each other.

Here's a link to an article written by CCIE David Davis on how he used the OSI model in his daily administration:
http://www.petri.co.il/csc_how_to_use_the_osi_model_to_troubleshoot_networks.htm

Here's one by CCIE Chris Bryant:
http://www.thebryantadvantage.com/CiscoNetworkTroubleshootingOSIModel.htm