Searching for interactive learn ressources as a beginner Sys Administrator

Posted by Logical-Shift6783@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 25 comments

Hello People!

I lost my Job and got a beginner IT Job and want to learn more about System Administration. But I stuck in tutorial hell and I am very bored...
I mean I love to learn while I am doing something.

But because my colleague at work do the whole scripting and automation stuff I really want to learn the basics and later intermediate things and help them out. Getting better and want to archive these skills. Maybe improving and can rank up.

But please in an interactive way. I am a family Father with 2 kids and have really spare time in the evening and I am exhausted after full time job and family. But I really have the drive to learn these skills. I want to be good in my job even I am 36 years old now. Fate is cruel sometimes but I got a chance with this job. I want to take this chance and getting good.

I dont have a problem if a course is a paid course/website or free ressource. If a paid website have awesome interactive learning materials, where I can really learn faster and with more fun I am in! And I can learn in a fun way BY DOING something and not get bored and tired by just watching videos it would be amazing.

Interactive because I need ideas. I need inputs but challenges too like in the real world job. Without tasks its hard to learn at home by myself if you dont have very much experience in IT....I know that sounds stupid.

I know that tutorials should not be my "all the way ressource". But I need ideas. What is possible? what can I do? What is possible in my workspace?

Sadly I cannot use the Software we use at work in my private time (with an education edition or something like that) and I am not allowed to do these things at work because I dont have the permission. But I want to change that. I want to improve and can going along with the others. I know that it is not to late for me. Even I have many responsibilities at home at my full time job there.

We work mostly with windows (little bit with linux, but not in my department). I got this job in a big company so every department is very specialized. I am in a team of hardware, device and Windows supporters and working with Software Deployment Solutions.

I was thinking about learning python (because is versatile, it could be useful for my "private" dream project (creating a video game with godot in the future) but still learning basic programming/scripting concepts that are useful for my job.

Or should I stay with powershell and take my "private dream" way behind that?
I dont have a lab at home to break some stuff but I have a potent gaming pc where I could learn virtualisation etc. But at first I want to improve my coding/scripting skills.

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Silver-Ability-3181@reddit

First of all, respect for showing up with that drive. At 36, with a full-time job, two kids, and the energy left over to want to get better that's not nothing. That's actually everything.

Let me give you a straight answer on your biggest question first, then a roadmap.

PowerShell OR Python here's the honest take:

For your job right now, PowerShell is the faster win. It's Microsoft-native, it's what your colleagues use for automation, and every Windows sysadmin skill you build connects directly to it. Python is more versatile long-term and great for your game dev dream but if you split your already-limited evening time between two languages, you'll feel like you're going nowhere fast.

My recommendation: Start with PowerShell. Build real job skills. Then layer Python in later. The programming concepts (loops, conditionals, functions, variables) transfer between both — you're not wasting time.

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The 30-minute rule. You don't have 2-hour blocks — that's fine. PowerShell skills are built in small reps. One script, one concept, one evening. The consistency matters more than the session length. PSKoans in particular is great for this because each puzzle takes 10–20 minutes.

Your gaming PC is your lab. Windows Server evaluation licenses are free from Microsoft (180 days, renewable). VirtualBox is free. You can spin up a fake "company network" at home with Active Directory, fake users, fake machines — and practice the exact same stuff your colleagues do every day. This is huge.

On Python later: Once you're comfortable with PowerShell (maybe 3–4 months), Python will feel easy because you'll already understand loops, functions, and logic. And it'll directly connect to your Godot dream. You're not choosing between them forever — you're sequencing them smartly.

The biggest mistake to avoid: Don't just read or watch. Every evening you sit down, open a terminal, type something, break something, fix it. Even if it's just 3 lines. That's how this sticks.

You're not too old. You're not behind. You have a computer, a drive, and a concrete goal. That's more than most people start with. Hit any of those buttons in the roadmap and we can go deeper on whatever interests you most.

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Logical-Shift6783@reddit (OP)

I really really appreciate your time helping me out here! thank you so much!

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Dereksversion@reddit

That was quite literally straight out of AI....

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Logical-Shift6783@reddit (OP)

so something was wrong he told me? An advice is an advice for me. And I appreciate every help from you people

Phenergan_boy@reddit

https://sadservers.com/

Sad server is nice. You can learn by doing

SadServers_com@reddit

cheers!

My goat!

gif

blush

BFguy@reddit

Holy crap I had no idea this existed!! This is super cool just solved the first on in 6 mins LOL

Binestar@reddit

1m28s, but mostly because I forgot it was level 1.

This does bring me back a bit, one of my favorite things was a "hacking" box someone showed me where the goal was to find all these little edge case misconfigurations that allowed increased privilege escalation. The goal for each step was to give the contents of a more and more secured file.

happy to hear :)

TKInstinct@reddit

Try Server Academy which has video lessons and interactive labs that will give you objectives to accomplish. Teaches you on prem and some cloud stuff.

thank you! I will take a look there. Especially the aspect of getting objectives are very important for me to learn. I hate it to just Watch videos. I want to learn by doing something

AltoGreen@reddit

Exercism has some great interactive tutorials whether you shoose Python or Powershell. I would probably go the Powershell route since that's what you touch every day.

Learning the basics in powershell and improving that later at work and then learning python for my "private enjoyment" later? Maybe you are right. My colleague at work told me: Hey just learn the basics of coding and you will understand many scripts in our software development solution more and can use it too. And you will understand more in powershell and can learn it too.

I thought learning a real language would be better at the beginning to learn these concepts and then dive into a "specialized" scripting language like powershell (because its windows related).

I think learning any language will help you learn any other language, but also powershell and python are quite different. They are both object oriented, but the syntax is very different - at least to me.

If the scripts in the software development solution are in Python, it might make sense to learn Python first. It really depends on what you think is a realistic path based on the people you work with, the roles available, the needs of the company.

The solution we worked on is baramundi management Suite. It has an in build editor called " automation studio". But you can implement Python and powershell scripts

this functions are included in this management suite

Drew707@reddit

Given that you are working in a primarily Windows environment, and you have a good gaming PC, as long as you have a Pro version of Windows as your base OS, you can install Hyper-V and spin up various VMs (both Win and Linux and others) and create a small business network all within your machine. Note that I am not sure how Hyper-V impacts gaming, though.

Matazat@reddit

And if you don't have that, you can get $200 in Azure credit for signing up and then spin up whatever you want. You only get 30 days to spend it before it expires so go nuts. After that you can use the free tier VMs for simple stuff, or if you're careful it's not too expensive to run paid tier stuff for just an hour or two a day while you're doing lab work then deallocate when you're done.

Good call. I have production function apps that are so light weight, they will essentially live in the free allocation forever until we find a reason for making them more robust.

thank you! Yeah I downloaded vmware workstation pro and already installed windows server 2025. I will build a Home lab and try to learn how to set up all the things up with gemini as a ,"virtual mentor" to give me challenges, tasks to do like in a job. (shame on me that I use mentoring from gemini)....but I thought it will be easier if gemini can give me tasks like *install a DC for your domain. Create a LAN with 3 clients etc etc.

And then if I dont understand something I ask gemini to explain me this. Or if gemini explain me how to setup something I try to ask him: WHY I am setting up these things in this way and what that means etc

KarmicDeficit@reddit

Focus on the fundamentals. DNS, DHCP, layer 1 and 2 networking, including ARP, subnetting and routing. Email, including understanding message headers, SPF, DKIM, DMARC. PowerShell, of course. Understand how to do things “the PowerShell way” by taking advantage of how it pipes objects rather than text (this won’t be a problem if you’re not already familiar with other scripting languages, but I’ve seen people writing PowerShell like it’s Bash).

Even if this stuff isn’t directly relevant to your position, a basic understanding of the fundamentals can go a long way, and a lot of sysadmins are lacking this stuff.

As far as learning it, set up a home lab. You can virtualize everything, even routers. For inspiration on what to set up, check out r/homelab.

The best way to learn PowerShell is to use it. Any time you have to do a task, see if you can automate it. If you’re interactive with Microsoft products, see if you can use PowerShell instead of the GUI.

Finally, try to understand everything as deeply as possible. If you can fix something by following instructions or running a command you found online, great — but dig deeper to understand why that fixed it.

And document everything.

Appropriate_Fee_9141@reddit

https://www.freecodecamp.org/