How did you move from basic commands to real sysadmin skills?

Posted by Darshan_only@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 35 comments

Hey everyone, I’ve been learning Linux for a short time and I’m comfortable with basic commands like navigation, file handling, permissions, and simple user management.

I’m now trying to understand how to move beyond just “knowing commands” and actually build real sysadmin skills.

My goal is to get into system administration / cloud (AWS) and eventually cybersecurity, so I want to focus on what actually matters in real jobs.

For those already working as sysadmins or in DevOps:

1.How did you transition from basic Linux usage to handling real systems?

2.What skills or concepts made the biggest difference for you?

3.At what point did you feel “job-ready”?

4.What kind of projects or hands-on practice helped the most?

Right now I’m using Ubuntu on a VM and trying to practice daily, but I feel like I’m stuck at the “command level” and not sure what to do next.

Would really appreciate any practical advice or roadmap based on your experience 🙏

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03263@reddit

Get web dev job at small company with no IT department
"Hey this guy knows Linux, make him do all the server stuff!"
Google how to do everything.
Suddenly, I'm sysadmin with 5+ yoe managing VMware environment, network/firewall configs, Ubuntu servers, Windows servers, databases, you name it.

SevaraB@reddit

Commands are the “how.” Topologies, HA, runbooks, etc are the “what.” Experience is the “why.”

danhof1@reddit

The jump from 'I know ls and cd' to actual sysadmin work is mostly about context and repetition. Here's what actually helped me:

**Break things on purpose.** Set up a lab environment and practice recovery. Can't restore a server if you've never broken one.
**Automate the boring stuff.** I built a little tool (TerminalNexus, shameless plug incoming) to organize my commands into clickable buttons by project. The thing is, building it forced me to actually learn what those commands were doing. If you have to script something to work with a CLI manager, you're learning twice.
**Learn one config management tool.** Ansible is the friendliest starting point. You don't need to master it, just understand the mental model of 'state defined in code.'

For feeling job-ready: I got there when I could troubleshoot something I'd never seen before using docs and logs. Not when I memorized commands.

The Ubuntu VM is perfect. Start keeping notes on what you run repeatedly. That's your automation queue.

For me, for Linux, even though I'd been using it on the desktop for a decade or so as my daily, I was given a project at work to stand up a CIS hardened server and get this vendor app working that A) wasn't written for that distro and B) wasn't designed to work with that level of security. Everything in the terminal. I learned a lot from that experience. Troubleshooting why X, Y, Z isn't working has taught me a lot more about the internals of Linux than the RHCSA did.

Trust_8067@reddit

You just learn at on the job as you go, and have to pick up new projects or responsibilities.

Thyg0d@reddit

Yup..

Or as we say: "I wonder what happens if......" "Oh shit!, not good!" "Boss! I've learned a new thing today!"

Alexandre_Man@reddit

My colleagues, who were sysadmin, showed me commands. And after a year or so I knew a lot of stuff. Also, I look at the history a lot.

dedXlights@reddit

Break something in prod 🤣

Crazy-Rest5026@reddit

This is the way

ZealousidealState127@reddit

Ideally something old you've been warning might fail for awhile. Then be the hero that fixes it and get the budget to replace it.

fdeyso@reddit

THIS. 😂

heavydrinker12@reddit

Hell yeah man. Then fix it. Then claim it was all part of the plan.

Or accidentally delete your own admin account in the process 😂 then you can tell your colleague over the phone step by step how to fix it which will also restore your account

DaftPump@reddit

What skills or concepts made the biggest difference for you?

For me it was OS comprehension in general. At the end of the day they all do the same thing. Start seeing a forest instead of trees.

At what point did you feel “job-ready”?

Never have, I ended up being the most linux literate in the companies I've been with for 25 years.

What kind of projects or hands-on practice helped the most?

The more involved config files and terminal is, the better. Config a linux host to offer files, back them up locally and remotely. This will teach you a few things.

Agree with u/dedXlights. Best way to learn how something works is to witness it fail and then fix it.

Darshan_only@reddit (OP)

This gonna help me a lot 🙏!!

k I'll hold ya to it. :D

!remindme 2 months "What'd ya learn?"

Sure buddy 🫶

bork_bork@reddit

Get a command. Test and Validate.

Wrap in a try/catch block.

Define the logging function

Send it to a remote endpoint, review the log

wezelboy@reddit

Get to know a monitoring system well. Monitor everything you can. Learn to use regular expressions. Study storage and file systems. Have a subnet mask cheat sheet readily available.

Put a simple webserver on the internet with no firewalls and watch what happens. There is probably some kind of honeypot distro that would work, or just stick with Ubuntu. You can use AWS free tier for this. Keep the server up and running until your free tier runs out after a few days. Learn to use fail2ban.

Finally, develop a penchant for some kind of alcohol. Single malt scotch, beer, wine, japanese whiskey, or all of the above.

Tall-Introduction414@reddit

1: I read a book that got me used to combining commands (pipes, etc), managing SSH keys, configuring Apache, and various server-y things. The book is pretty outdated now, but it was Linux Server Hacks from O'Reilly Publishing.

2: A friend hired me doing Linux server support (web hosting). Turned out I was really good at it.

3: Programming/scripting became quite useful. Perl, Python, Bash.

JimFknLahey@reddit

i am not a paid sysadmin - however what helped me learn unix/linux was installing different game/web/samba servers. have a old computer? setup linux or whatever on it and run your own local web server/samba/nat/dns pihole/game server and whatever else. All the crap you deal with along thata road is learning.

spidireen@reddit

Start chaining those commands together so the output of one command is the input for another. Learn about awk, sed, grep, and how to use variables and loops in shell scripts.

Look into a scripting language such as Python.

Learn about regular expressions aka regex.

Historical-Molasses2@reddit

Experience and screwing up(or preferably cleaning up other people's mistakes) and having to fix said mistakes. And most importantly getting enough experience to know what to research for a certain task. IT is always advancing and has such a depth of width of information and skills that you'll never have all the information all the time forever, so what separates the techs from the admins and engineers is being able to know where to start learning the new stuff and being able to plan out how to setup and manage new services, servers, etc.

Existing-Strength-21@reddit

Automation.

A command is a single thing thay happens to a system. An automation is a string of commands that does many things based off of changing states or decisions.

Anyone can run a command to do a thing. Or, even worse, anyone can write down a series of commands (like in an SOP) that you need to do in that order to complete a specific workflow. This is great, but still needs a person to do the series of commands. This costs time and money. Human error and biases come in to play often.

An automation though... something thay can be run on a schedule or trigger to automatically complete (almost) any task that you can think of in an IT environment.

Understanding the power of automated workflows is the Sr. Admin superpower.

I_ride_ostriches@reddit

Find a problem to solve. Solve the problem with scripting. Continue until competency is achieved.

jkma707@reddit

This is the way… Each company is different

Find a problem, solve problem

Never find problem and just say there’s a problem

Have the solution tested and working before you tell said problem then you’re on the hook

Mindestiny@reddit

Yep. It's not about specific technologies or knowing commands by heat. It's about problem solving strategy and solutioning.

Knowing how to approach the problem and the logical steps to implement the solve is way more important than memorizing syntax. Doesn't matter if it's IaaS, devops, clickops, or help desk, it's all the same root skill of broad problem solving.

AverageCowboyCentaur@reddit

Guided learning though Google Gemini. I was a powershell guy for the longest time and was teaching myself more bash I had a decent handle on it but wanted to learn more, how to script better, and just generally do everything I can via cli.

Using guided learned in Gemini was incredibly helpful. The ability to go back and forth, paste in my errors and scripts and have it help me instead of just giving me the answer changed everything. It showed me the reasoning behind every command it.

The real help was when I went over what I knew in powershell and it used that to show me the cross over commands. That was my aha moment, syncing PS to Bash and then everything sort of fell together.

I was against using AI for so long, I feel like an idiot for ignoring it as long as I did.

Law_Dividing_Citizen@reddit

Knowing commands = memorizing syntax

Memorizing syntax = useless

Understanding the system = understanding the syntax

Understanding the syntax = relaxing while Claude writes it for you and you review it and fix as needed

Make sure you’re focusing your time on understanding the system and not trying to memorize something that will initiate a change that you do not entirely understand, and then you’ll be job ready

djgizmo@reddit

move beyond commands. find workflows and HOW to solve problems.

Bboydisplay@reddit

Build a system and troubleshoot issues that come up. If you have the ability, create another VM or two, get them networked and start running an app or service on one that the others depend on. Set up a file server, DNS, DHCP, some sort of directory, maybe even host a simple web app. This is all the stuff real systems do and all the skill building you do in your home lab will translate to the bigger systems you aspire to administer.