[cs615asa] Final

[Jan Schaumann]

Chao <czhang13 at stevens.edu> wrote:
 
> Do you think a sys admin must learn perl to some extent?

Probably.  It used to be the case that perl was the de-facto scripting
language, but it no longer is.  Still, a lot of tools out there are
written in perl, and often perl is a better solution for certain kinds
of problems than others.

> Do you think a sys admin should know all the newly emerged languages?

You don't need to know all languages inside out or be great at writing
programs in them, but you need to be able to read and debug programs
written in many different languages, including at least shell, perl,
python, ruby, php, C, C++ and Java.

You will always have one or two favorite language to write programs in
yourself, but it's important to know when to choose which language (or
perhaps: when not to choose your favorite language).

> Do you think what we've learnt till today equips us ability to work as
> a sys admin?

I'm afraid this class by itself cannot do that.  I hope that this class
has given you insights into several of the topics that you need to know
about in this field, and which you should study further to deepen your
understanding.  Together with other classes (operating systems,
programming languages, networking, etc.) you would be prepared for a
junior position in system administration if you have some practical
experience.

> Does this job tend to be offered to more experienced ones?

Most of the time people look for either generally smart people with
sufficient background knowledge to start as a junior system
administrator, where they would then gain the experience needed for more
senior positions.

Practical experience really is key here, so if you are interested in
this field, you should make sure to gain experience wherever you can.
Setting up your own domain and run its web server, mail server, DNS
server etc. yourself rather than outsourcing this is a good start;
looking for internships or student positions (perhaps here at Stevens as
work-study hours with the IT center) would also provide valuable
real-world experience.

> And if I want to know how to build a website and provide service, what
> things should I learn and how? ( especially the hardware
> infrastructure part)

Hardware can really only be learned by working with it.  Ask the IT
people here at Stevens if they have work-study available, or consider
volunteering for unpaid hours.  Just observing or helping more
experienced staff handle their setup would be useful, too.

-Jan