I'm really passionate about becoming a Linux administrator, but I'm a bit lost on where to begin my journey. Given that I'm homeschooled, I have a flexible schedule, which I think could be beneficial. Are there any recommended courses or practical steps I should take to get started?
4 Answers
While anyone can read books about Linux, being a true Linux admin takes more than just technical knowledge, especially without a formal college education. Try to balance your tech skills with business knowledge, soft skills, and math. Many homeschooled students struggle to fit into competitive transfer programs because they often focus solely on the tech side. Also, the job market is pretty tight, so starting with a Help Desk or Junior Admin role would be a good move unless you have industry connections.
Learning Kubernetes is super valuable since it’s widely used across cloud platforms. You can build a small cluster with a few budget Odroids or similar devices. This way, you'll get hands-on Linux experience while working with essential cloud technologies.
Check out Linux Journey! It's a great starting point for beginners. If you have an old PC lying around or access to a virtual machine, dive in and start experimenting with Linux right away!
Get hands-on by hosting projects! Set up a Proxmox server and create containers or virtual machines to run services like a web server, email server, or media server. It keeps you motivated with practical tasks and helps you learn about troubleshooting—an essential skill for any sysadmin. Plus, using VMs makes it easy to revert to a snapshot when things don’t go as planned!
And using containers like LXC with Proxmox is brilliant for experimentation. You can quickly create and destroy environments, which is perfect for learning and separating your production and test setups!