There isn't a coherent course. The closest I have found to a coherent set of ideas is http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-Edition/dp/03

There isn't a coherent course. The closest I have found to a coherent set of ideas is http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-Edition/dp/0321492668 http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration... There's a rather large number of books you would have to pick up, if you wanted to go that way. What follows is a set of guidelines, not rules. You want to know at least one scripting language (Perl, Python, Ruby), the Unix shell, and SQL. On the Windows side, you need to know Powershell, or equivalent scripting language. You also need to grok logging, operating systems, and hardware to some level. (At least to be able to know when to make tradeoffs between space and access speed). Knowing various models of IPC is useful (processes, threads, evented models). You need to know networking (configuring a Cisco or Junpier device is a good, but not required skill). Knowing the fundamentals of routing, BGP, OSPF, IP, TCP, UDP, etc are essential. Amongst common technologies, you need to know DNS, email, webservers, proxies, file storage and access. Since you mentioned Quora, here's my answer to a similar question from there: http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-college-courses-for-somebody-interested-in-becoming-a-computer-system-admin-for-a-small-or-large-business/answer/Devdas-Bhagat http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-college-courses-for-...