This stuff isn't taught per se, you learn it bit by bit as you solve each problem that you face. Some of it is taught. I learned about HAproxy second-hand, bef

This stuff isn't taught per se, you learn it bit by bit as you solve each problem that you face. Some of it is taught. I learned about HAproxy second-hand, before any problem had to be solved. I do agree that much of this has to be learned initially through experience, but I also believe much of it can be taught. Teaching it in a classroom wouldn't work, though, as Ops only exists when there's something to operate. It's my perpetual dilemma: few startups have enough [1] scale to warrant having a senior enough sysadmin to be a mentor, let alone another one or two more junior ones, but large companies are awkward environments for experimentation. I try and dump some bits of wisdom/experience to my blog. Shameless plug: http://blog.maxkalashnikov.com http://blog.maxkalashnikov.com [1] Even Disqus is borderline in terms of traffic. Moore's law and even its more linear corollary for I/O can take one a long way.