1. Run your own servers. Rent a server and do stuff with it, run various services, host other people's stuff for free, have a favorite PC game? Run a server. Se

1. Run your own servers. Rent a server and do stuff with it, run various services, host other people's stuff for free, have a favorite PC game? Run a server. Setup and maintain common software (MySQL, Postgres, Apache, nginx, OpenSSH, BIND, Wordpress, etc, etc). Learn the init, config, and package management systems. You can learn a ton with just one machine. 2. Get a job as a "Junior" Sysadmin somewhere. Once you know enough to be dangerous you can learn how to be great by working with great people who have more experience. 3. Learn to program. Perl/Python are probably the best choices. The better programmer you are the better syadmin you'll be. Learn how to write long running daemons, network servers, and automation software. A lot of what you need to learn to do really interesting sysadmin stuff (like automating and controlling hundreds of servers, resource management, mass storage, fault tolerance, power, cooling, advanced networking) only comes into play when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars worth of equipment. Everyone is pretty much forced to learn this stuff on the job. Even a well equippped lab couldn't do a great job at preparing you for real world situations. Most of all: Find useful things you want to be able to do and then figure out how to do them. Then figure out how to do them better, cleaner, faster. Good luck. Feel free to shoot me questions. I've setup and run datacenters many times and I love this stuff.