3 ms·

Some context that I couldn't fit into the < 2000 char limit (but probably should have). This is the embarrassing part. I'm actually two months into my first ju

by cz20xx 13y ago

Some context that I couldn't fit into the < 2000 char limit (but probably should have). This is the embarrassing part. I'm actually two months into my first junior level position at a colo, and I administer a group of my own servers behind a CARP'd redundant firewall that I set up. I even have access to an old Catalyst that's just sitting around. I know how to set up servers no problem, but what I don't know how to do is make a complicated cluster of machines work together. I sometimes write down hypothetical networking requests to figure out, but I haven't started building out any of those with the spare machines we have around. I don't feel inept at my job. I don't even feel like I'm useless. But what I do feel is a vast chasm of knowledge and experience between me and my superiors. Knowledge so vast that it seems unobtainable to me. My own skills and knowledge have increased dramatically, and my appetite for learning daily is, honestly, voracious. I just can't shake the feeling that I'll never be as good, with them all coming from academic backgrounds that focused on computing.

seiji 13y ago
What do you mean by "make a complicated cluster of machines work together?" At the simplest level, you have a big switch in the middle of your servers that only connects to other switches that then feed your servers. That's about all there is. You can pile on redundancies, bondings, vlans, software defined networks, and other things as needed, but with the minimum requirement of only "work together," those additional parts aren't required. (We're ignoring Internet connectivity here and just "making machines in one facility work together.") Everything is just tiny pieces. The tiny pieces get put together to grow networks larger. It can be complex, but it's not impossible to figure out. If you're working at a colo, ask a few people to draw you diagrams of how the facility's network is laid out. Then ask them to draw how a typical customer deploys their network within your facility. Ask, get confused, learn, ask more, then you'll have it all figured out pretty fast.

by cz20xx 13y ago

seiji 13y ago

What do you mean by "make a complicated cluster of machines work together?" At the simplest level, you have a big switch in the middle of your servers that only connects to other switches that then feed your servers. That's about all there is. You can pile on redundancies, bondings, vlans, software defined networks, and other things as needed, but with the minimum requirement of only "work together," those additional parts aren't required. (We're ignoring Internet connectivity here and just "making machines in one facility work together.") Everything is just tiny pieces. The tiny pieces get put together to grow networks larger. It can be complex, but it's not impossible to figure out. If you're working at a colo, ask a few people to draw you diagrams of how the facility's network is laid out. Then ask them to draw how a typical customer deploys their network within your facility. Ask, get confused, learn, ask more, then you'll have it all figured out pretty fast.