On 8/9/05, Kevin Reiter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Piotr Rybicki wrote:
> > Hi All.
> >
> > From my experiences, good admin should have sufficient knowledge about C
> > programming. He/She sould be familiar with system functions like:
> > - fork(), waitpid()
> > - open(), read(), write()
> > - socket(), bind(), listen(), accept()
> > - shm*()
> > - ...
> >
> > I can't see the possibility about proper system understanging and tuning
> > without such knowledge. In the end, FreeBSD is written in C.
> 
> I disagree.  I know nothing about programming, so does that mean I don't
> know how to properly admin a server?  I can shell script, lockdown and
> monitor services, tune the system using the included tools, install and
> uninstall software, and configure firewall rules - all of which are the
> basic (I think) major requirements to admin a *nix server.  None of that
> requires any knowledge of programming in *any* language.
> 

Shell script is a language too :-)


> > I've found out, that people with poor understanding of C system
> > functions are also poor admins, when we speak about high volume servers.
> > They simply can't diagnose/explain/solve heavy traffic problems.
> 
> Knowledge of networking protocols, network performance tuning, and
> networking in general is a good base of knowledge - where does programming
> come into play?  I know lots of good programmers who couldn't get 2
> systems to communicate over a VPN tunnel, so why would I trust them to
> maintain a server?
> 
> Diagnosing a connectivity issue requires that a person have knowledge of
> programming in what way?  You can modify C code all day long, and then
> discover the wrong gateway IP was being used, which was why you couldn't
> ping Google in the first place.  No coding involved.
> 
> Regarding heavy traffic problems, if you don't know how to setup and
> configure the server to begin with, programming won't save you.
> 
> > If i'd have to make a choice of recruitment, that would be important
> > topic at the interview.
> 
> Pure nonsense.  Hire me as a programmer, and I'll talk programming to you
> all day.  Hire me as an admin, I'll tell you to hire a programmer if you
> need that capacity.
> 
> > For the purpose of certification, I'd suggest for example a piece(s) of
> > broken/badly written C code with questions about a problem there.
> 
> I suggest that programming knowledge be left for programming certs.
> 
> The LPI, RHCE, Linux+ and Solaris tests (that I know of) don't require any
> knowledge of C programming - why is *BSD so different that it's certs
> *should* require it?
> 
> -Kevin
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-- 
Regards,
Ye Wei
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