We are gratified to start with the story of Mehdi, a SysAdmin and DevOps Engineer from Iran.
Pentium 133, DevOps, and everything in between
I’m Mehdi Hamidi, a DevOps Specialist with 5 years of work experience in System Administration and DevOps. I believe my current position grew from of a change in direction I took early in my education. And I think I have been lucky in my life. So, let me tell you my “techie life” story…
In the beginning
When I was 13, my aunt had a Pentium 133 computer and I was curious about how a computer works. I almost immediately started writing code, before having my own computer. I had read a QBasic book and I was writing the code on… paper. My first memorable achievement, which I’m still incredibly proud of, was a Qbasic Code to calculate prime numbers up to 1000.
It was six months before I could visit my aunt again.The code worked fine.
I am very happy to share my story about how LPI has changed my life and helped me in pursuing my goals.
Linux and Open Source: many kernels ago
The first Linux environment that I was involved with was RedHat Linux 7.2 in high school. I loved writing code in C and testing it on Linux. At that time I started learning the Linux commands.
At the university, courses required mostly Microsoft environments and C# language; however, I always kept an eye on Linux.
The path seemed clear: to get my Master of Science, send out CVs, start work. But halfway through my postgrad program, I found out that it wasn’t what I expected. I needed something more practical, something that I could do. I left the university. But I wasn’t quitting the computer field: I was looking for a way to get more involved in something that was not teached in universities, something related to my technical goals, by which I could become a prominent expert.
The Linux Community and me
I immediately started looking for a community of developers and SysAdmins in Iran. I started attending the Tehran LUG meeting and the other events such as the Ubuntu Release Parties.
Then I opened my Twitter account. Twitter had an undeniable impact on allowing me to connect with my technical friends as well as industry experts.
It seemed that It was for a big change. I quit my routine job and went for learning PHP, as I wanted my applications web-based. The problem is: I genuinely hated PHP! It seemed the end of the line. But I was wrong.
I hadn’t realized that having a good knowledge of Linux is a great key for aspiring to System Administrator positions. I heard of LPI for the first time at an Ubuntu Release Party. Meanwhile, a SysAdmin friend told me a small company was developing its private cloud. I wasn’t sure what it was about, but it was something Linux related, and that was enough. ;-)
After two months studying Linux and virtualization, I started the job. Meanwhile, I bought a Raspberry Pi and built up a home server, just to keep me (more) busy. I implemented a Wordpress blog with Apache on that Raspberry Pi with a single core CPU. Just imagine, what would happen with all of the LAMP stack on a single SD Card…
This was the beginning of my learning about web servers, logs, optimization. I implemented an NFS server for home file sharing. I started synching my Phone Contacts with CardDav Server on Raspberry Pi. Thank you, RaspberryPi, for making a junior SysAdmin of me!
The LPI Certification
And then LPI came into play. I wanted to give more consistency to my CV through a worldwide acknowledged certification. That’s why I attended an LPI exam.
I signed up for preparation classes for LPIC-1. The classes were dramatically important to help me navigate through the topics and objectives of the exam.
I started to read the reference books, which contain the majority of exam objectives, and took notes from the most important parts, which I referred to on the next iteration of studying. The most significant insight I got during the studying phase, when I was involved in many important details, was the many gaps in my knowledge. Study made me aware of my weaknesses and lack of knowledge, which I wouldn’t have found out otherwise. The details matter, because they distinguish between a beginner and experienced system administrator. LPIC-1 made me involved in the details, and that is the most significant effect it had on my techie life.
Although the exam was tougher than I expected, I passed and I became an LPIC-1 certified professional.
Me, a DevOps, today
My approach to my career involves continuous learning. I implemented Zabbix monitoring for the company I was working in. The need for agile development and integration made me go in Docker and Jenkins direction. Nginx. SaltStack. And then microservices and Kubernetes.
I applied for LPIC-2 preparation classes, two years ago, in order to apply for more professional work positions. I want to dare: again, and more. It’s time to prove myself going for LPIC-2!
Source: lpi.org
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