4 Reasons Server-Side Engineers Should Get LinuC (Linux Technician Certification)

This time, the server engineer is the article that recommends acquiring LinuC. In the three years since I joined the company, I have acquired about 7 technical qualifications. The qualification I was most happy to get as a server engineer was LinuC.

As you grow as a server-side engineer, everyone tends to focus on studying the target programming language and expanding the base to other languages, but once you have some knowledge in one language, we recommend studying LinuC now. To do.

Let me introduce the reason.

What is LinuC

It is a Linux engineer certification unique to Japan, which was launched in March 2018. It is planned, developed and operated by LPI-Japan, which was established in July 2000 and is engaged in certification activities for IT engineers of open technology such as Linux. (From wikipedia) https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuC

Simply put, it is a qualification for measuring the technical indicators of Linux. Until around 2017, it was called LPIC (the content is the same).

Isn't Linux the knowledge that infrastructure engineers learn? I think there are many people who think that.

If you are working as an engineer now, have you ever built a LAMP environment from scratch? LAMP environment is an abbreviation of (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) and is the basic configuration for creating WEB services. In recent years, environment construction has become easier, and functions that simplify LAMP environment construction using Docker, Vagrant, etc. are provided.

The company originally has Docker and Vagrant, and it seems that few people have said that they have started a virtual server from scratch, set apache, and displayed Hello world.

The reason is

Because terminal operation seems to be difficult

I think there are many.

The first part has become longer, but here are four reasons why server-side engineers should get LinuC.

4 Reasons to Get LinuC

(1) Because the ability to investigate when a failure occurs

I think that there may be some obstacles in operating the service.

If a stack trace appears on the screen, it is easy to identify the cause, but there may be some obstacles where the cause cannot be easily identified, and LinuC's knowledge is useful in that case.

If you have knowledge of LinuX

Easy to identify the server by looking at the apache settings Easy to find log output settings & easy to identify the most recently updated log file Easy to identify if an error is output The speed of extracting the log that seems to be the cause from the error log becomes faster. It is possible to isolate the cause of server load such as load average and network. I think that the survey speed can be expected to improve based on the knowledge of LinuC.

If there is resistance on the infrastructure side, you will be able to enter the terminal and only type the cd, ls and cat commands.

② Because you can build a local environment

If you are operating legacy content, there are probably many people who do not have a local environment built and edit the server directly with vim.

From the perspective of vimmer, I think it's a comfortable environment, but from the perspective of people who normally use editors, I think it will hinder major development.

Environment construction is the means to solve this. If you can build a local environment, you can create an equivalent environment on the virtual server, mount it locally, and then edit the editor.

By sharing the locally built image within the team, the development efficiency of other members will improve, and if you can do that, you will surely be evaluated.

③ Because it is evaluated as an engineer

I sometimes get involved in hiring personnel, but I see some people who have no experience as a server-side engineer for about 5 to 8 years.

Even if it says that I have experience building with Docker or Vagrant in my resume, when I actually ask, I often hear that I just "docker run" against the existing environment.

If this happens, it will be an anxiety factor for the hiring side that the technical range may be narrow and that it may not be possible to do anything around research ability and environment construction.

Above all, if you have obtained LinuC level 2 or so, it will be a proof that guarantees the minimum knowledge as an engineer.

Knowledge of the infrastructure side is a weapon and confidence.

④ Because it helps understanding when dealing with cloud services

With the spread of cloud services such as AWS in recent years, infrastructure knowledge can be associated with cloud services to help them gain a deeper understanding.

With the introduction of fully managed services, many companies will be able to implement the areas that were previously left to the infrastructure on the server side.

For example, when launching an instance by pressing the pop button when launching EC2, understanding what is happening behind the scenes and not understanding it will be a big factor in future AWS architects. I'm sure it will make a difference.

LinuC should get Level 1 for the time being, and if you can afford it, get Level 2

I have given the above merits. Next, I will actually describe the question range of LinuC.

LinuC Level 1

What do you think. There are so many LinuC level 1 alone.

Wouldn't it make a huge difference if you could acquire this knowledge from other server-side engineers?

Personally, it is recommended to get up to LinuC level 2.

The range of questions is listed below.

https://linuc.org/linuc2/range/

Recommended study method

Finally, I will introduce the recommended study method.

The LinuC exam is a four-choice question, so it is easier than the technical national qualifications.

However, even if you say 4 choices, it seems that all the problems cannot be solved unless you fully understand the contents, so be careful not to memorize the whole problem when studying.

The recommended books are as follows.

http://urx3.nu/6Ovn

There are red books and black books, but Level 1 is enough for Speedmaster. From Level 2, you may use Kuromoto together for a deeper understanding.

Recommended is the app

I also recommend the above books, but the most effective study method is the app.

"Linuc problem collection of Lina man and Linako" is recommended.

There is a charge, but if you do this, you will probably be able to pass, so I think cospa is better than buying a reference book.

http://urx3.nu/44Wx

Recommended book for infrastructure beginners regardless of qualification

For those who are not good at infrastructure, here are some recommended books that will make you feel closer to infrastructure.

http://urx3.nu/Lavx

This is a manga-style book called Sis Tube Girls.

At first glance it may be too cute to get out of hand, but the contents are very easy to understand, and as of 2020, up to 3 volumes have been released. From Volume 2, the technology equivalent to LinuC Level 2 is also taken up, and I think that it is for intermediate users as well as beginners.

That's the article that server-side engineers should take LinuC.

Please refer to it.