Entries by Dave Cohen

How to tail (follow) Linux Logs

If you’re wondering how to follow Linux logs for a process or systemd unit (service), here are the commands you want: Traditional, File-based logs For a traditional service (a long-running process that logs to one or more files), you can use traditional Linux tools to check the logs. A common command might be: tail -f […]

What Are “DevOps” Skills?

Someone recently asked me about DevOps ‘courses’ which got me thinking about what the required skillsets are for getting into roles that include the word “DevOps” in the title or description. I’ve been working in various “DevOpsy” roles professionally for about 7 years now and I still don’t know exactly what it means. Each company […]

How to Install Ansible on Ubuntu Linux

The official Ansible installation instructions are WRONG, and will result in a bunch of errors and wasted time troubleshooting. Here’s how to install the newest version of Ansible on Ubuntu or Debian (or any other Linux distro, provided you swap out aptitude for your own package management commands). Note:  This installs the NEWEST ‘stable’ version […]

My Favorite Computer Games

I’ve played a lot of computer games over the years. They’re what got me into computers in the ’90s, and several of them are responsible for me getting into Linux, programming, and system administration. Just FYI: these contain affiliate links to the humble bundle store.   Deus Ex (the original 1999 masterpiece) Easily my favorite game […]

Thoughts Worth Thinking About

I was just chatting with a friend about software, infrastructure, modern architectures and methodologies, and just sysadmin stuff in general. After getting up for a few minutes to grab a drink, here’s what I found waiting for me in the chat room. I’m sharing it, with his permission:   I find it funny. Everyone is […]

I was wrong about Docker

I recently found an answer that I gave someone to a Facebook chat question in ~2016-2017, and was amazed at how “technically right” I was (i.e. totally wrong for the career question that I was answering). I just wanted to post this to show that I am often too technologically focused, and that this can […]

The Hardest (and most fun) Problems to Troubleshoot

I recently wrote a FAQ-style post about System Administration and technology careers in general. One of the best questions I was asked was about what kinds of really interesting troubleshooting problems I’ve had to deal with. Here’s that question, along with my answer: What’s one of the most interesting things you’ve had to troubleshoot / […]

System Administration Careers: Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re wondering whether or not a System Administration career is right for you, this article might help. Someone just sent me some questions about what a career in System Administration is like, and asked some questions that I hadn’t thought to answer on YouTube or here on the tutorialinux blog. Since I’ve been working […]

Amazon AWS Basics Tutorial: Setting Up a Load-Balanced, Auto-Scaling Webserver

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to build load-balanced, highly available, self-healing infrastructure on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. If you’ve been wondering how to get started with “DevOps,” “Cloud” System Administration, and public cloud providers in general, this is the series for you. Amazon’s Cloud Services are vast — there are an […]

New Books Added to the Sysadmin Reading List!

I’ve just added some more amazing books to the sysadmin reading list page. These are books that I’ve read over the last year which are so spectacular that I think every sysadmin (or aspiring sysadmin) needs to read and digest them. Some standouts from the list above: The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction I […]