A Tech Writer who knows Systems Administration

A Tech Writer who knows Systems Administration?

As I continue my job search, I’m finding some interest based on my Systems Administration experience. So in the interest of self-promotion, I’m going to lay out my experience.

I’ve written some books on the subject, such as the RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator / Certified Engineer exams. While they may seem like “just books,” I’m proud to say that they’ve helped thousands of people learn to be and become better Systems Administrators.

As these are “practical” exams, candidates have to install and configure a variety of servers and services. To write these books, I had to practice, practice, and practice, until I could explain each topic “inside-out.”

So when I had the opportunity to set up a “bare-metal” server lab where I worked, I decided to test myself. I described the results at the Open Source Convention (OSCON) a few years ago. It was an “Ignite” talk, where I had 20 slides, and the slide would “advance” every 15 seconds (-> 5 minutes)

As you can see from the YouTube, the title of the talk is “When a Tech Writer becomes a Systems Administrator.”

I shared my successes, along with some of my mistakes. (Tip 1: Plug in the UPS. There will be power outages!)

Details: I used VMWare ESXi Server to configure two systems. Each system had 10 drives each. I set up two drives to house the “OS” in a RAID 1 configuration, and set up the remaining drives as RAID 5.

For years afterwards, I felt honored when people of various functions asked for space on the bare-metal server that I set up. Eventually, more people moved their tests to containers and the cloud, so the bare metal system was repurposed. But the experience was fun! And it gave me empathy for the experience of the Systems Administrator.