Virtualization & SAN Admin but why Linux?

[Superdoc]

Hey Guys!,

Myself I been an computer geek for almost a decade while i haven't worked on big brand hardware setups, I'm trying to getting into VMware Administration and SAN administration, i was asked whether i know Linux and i said No, I do not understand why Linux knowledge is necessary for Storage and vmware, is it because the hardware appliance inbuilt with linux?

 

[Handruin]

Hey Guys!,

Myself I been an computer geek for almost a decade while i haven't worked on big brand hardware setups, I'm trying to getting into VMware Administration and SAN administration, i was asked whether i know Linux and i said No, I do not understand why Linux knowledge is necessary for Storage and vmware, is it because the hardware appliance inbuilt with linux?

There would be several reasons I could see Linux being a useful skill-set to have when becoming a VMware and storage administrator. If I were to hire a VMware administrator and/or a storage administrator I would also require them to know their way around Linux. I wouldn't need them to be a Linux guru but they should be able to install various Linux distros, manage and understand permissions and security, install packages and/or drivers, download packaged sources and compile (ala make) into a binary, perform updates, add/mount new devices (both local and remote), edit config files and be familiar with one or more text editor. I happen to be both a VMware administrator and a storage admin and can attest that it is a needed skill. I'm not a Linux guru but I know enough of the basics and advanced components to be able to do the job.

I'll start with VMware first and then move onto storage. With vmware and specifically their vSphere lineup, you will find that organizations/businesses may gravitate and adopt appliances that are typically built on some distribution of Linux (be it Redhat, SLES, Xubuntu, CentOS, etc) due to many reasons. They may also install their own Linux OS vs Windows for many of the same reasons (licensing, security, reliability, cost). I'm not arguing for or against any particular OS in this discussion but these may be some of the reasons why knowing Linux is a preferred skill. In addition to the guest OS management, you would also need to know how to dig into the details of ESXi when problems occur. Their hypervisor software, albeit not exactly Linux, acts, smells, and feels very similar when you SSH directly into a server. There will be times when you also need to deploy their management appliance and use their remote ESX top tool for performance troubleshooting. This is all done through a shell log in. At various points in time I've also managed and moved VMs using SCP from one ESXi to another. Little things like this are rare but can get you out of bad situations or make life easier.

As for a storage administrator, it should seem pretty straight forward that for allocating and managing storage to host/servers you should know how to manage the underlying OS to be able to add/remove/extend/troubleshoot the filesystem. You will need to know various types of filesystem formats to administer this for the end-user's needs. This would be for block-based storage provisioning. For file-based storage provisioning, you will also need to know the various formats like NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, etc to be able to connect the storage to Linux hosts.

TL;DR In short, you would be a much more refined VMware and storage administrator knowing both Linux and Windows. I wouldn't hire a person without this skill.

 

[Superdoc]

Appreciate the time taken to reply with so much in detail, Thank you very much. I understand now why linux is essential for both vmware and storage, right now i'm exercising/practicing on Ubuntu server, do you recommend any book or video section for absolute beginners like me? I have worked a bit on powershell hence I feel that its going to be easier to learn faster.

 

[Handruin]

Appreciate the time taken to reply with so much in detail, Thank you very much. I understand now why linux is essential for both vmware and storage, right now i'm exercising/practicing on Ubuntu server, do you recommend any book or video section for absolute beginners like me? I have worked a bit on powershell hence I feel that its going to be easier to learn faster.

I don't have any personal recommendations for Linux books but maybe someone else can chime in with suggestions. My recommendation was going to be to start playing with Linux but you've indicated that you started doing this already. I've learned Linux over the years by running into problems I couldn't solve. When I couldn't solve the issue, I worked through it by searching through Google and asking in various forums. I tried various things and there was plenty of times of beating my head against the desk. Like anything new and complex, the harder you work through it the more you'll remember and appreciate it. Reading a book isn't a bad idea and it might suite your learning style more than mine, but I rather just try first and then ask after.

Powershell might be more in line with Linux shell scripting (sh, bash, etc) and not entirely representative of the OS in general. Both are very powerful in helping you administer your systems but learning the basics of the OS is a different path than writing scripts. If you run into specific Linux questions feel free to ask them in the forums here. There are several seasoned Linux users/admins in the forums that can help you figure out some of your questions.

 

[mehulsharma]

A very informative video about OpenStack. Trainer explains it in a very simplified manner , helped me a lot in understanding the basic concept of virtualization and cloud computing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B9dGufrtmY

 

[Howell]

I can't imagine why someone would require you to learn Linux specifically to administrate vmware or SANs. There are some basic concepts that are common to OS abstraction or storage abstraction that would be important to know but these are not OS dependent by any means. The technology that has become ESXi has history in Linux so the command line commands are very similar and it would not be a total loss to know. Additionally, many SANs are built with *nix like file and command structure under the hood. But access like that under the hood is so rarely needed and under such specific circumstances that paid support will be on the phone with you anyway and can give you the commands.

My recommendations for learning Linux:
From the commandline: How to navigate to a file, edit it , and change permissions on the file.
Learn how your ubuntu installation gets from powered off to the fully running system (one example). You will learn about runlevels, configuration scripts, the folder structure, and more. Hit up FAQs and Ubuntu forums for more info.

This not enough to know to administer linux systems but more than enough to administer wmware and SANs.

 

[Chewy509]

Exactly what Handruin said.

In addition to Ubuntu, I would highly recommend you learn CentOS and either Slackware or Arch or Gentoo Linux as well... This will give you a good overview the differences between the major distros. For bonus value, I would learn FreeBSD and Solaris11 (or OpenIndiana in lieu of Sol11) specifically focusing on ZFS and everything it brings to the table. (Using ZFS exported via iSCSI brings another important skill in storage technologies that is useful for smaller ESXi setups).

 

[Superdoc]

Thanks all, thank for clarifying and giving suggestions, i'll definitely look in to that, i will be back to the forum soon.

Regards