# interviewing linux admin

**URL:** <https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928>\
**Category:** Linux\
**Created:** [May 24, 2006, 10:08am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928 "2006-05-24T10:08:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![csaunders](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/csaunders/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@csaunders](https://community.unix.com/u/csaunders)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:08am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928/1 "2006-05-24T10:08:16Z")

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Im a solaris admin, not too familair with linux, can anyone give me 5-10 questions I should ask a Linux admin Im going to interview for a job. The job requires an experiencend Linux admin, who can do backups, system builds, create file systems, monitor, etc... in a production environment. Any help would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![grumpf](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/grumpf/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@grumpf](https://community.unix.com/u/grumpf)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928/2 "2006-05-25T06:11:27Z")

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IMHO., a linux admin should know about:  
/proc, /sys, be able to compile a (simple) programm  
most time the work is not different to solaris.  
Even when you have s support contract he should understand the value of a comunity (forums like these, mailing lists, .. ) and the need to get involved.

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**Author:** ![zazzybob](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/zazzybob/32/112_2.png) [@zazzybob](https://community.unix.com/u/zazzybob)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 8:59am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928/3 "2006-05-25T08:59:00Z")

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A browse through the [Rosetta Stone](http://bhami.com/rosetta.html) may help brush up on command differences.

Cheers  
ZB

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**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/perderabo/32/27_2.png) [@Perderabo](https://community.unix.com/u/Perderabo)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/interviewing-linux-admin/161928/4 "2006-05-25T12:51:21Z")

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I will ask a few basic questions like "Without using useradd or a management gui, but just using an editor, how do you add a user to the system?"

But mostly I like to go with broad sweeping questions:  
Which of the various filesystems available on Linux do you like the best? Why?

Let's say I ask you to spend an hour and give a Linux system a quick check for any blantant security problems. What would you look for?

You get complaints that folks cannot telnet into a linux system that should be supporting telnet. (And this used to work yesterday.) You go into the computer room and find that you can log on normally using the system console. How would you troubleshoot the telnet issue?

That is really more than enough questions. None of them have right or wrong answers. I am really looking for depth of knowledge. A person who can think of a dozen things to check to troubleshoot the telnet issue is worth much more than a person who can only state that he would check the network cable. Even if the first guy makes a few errors, this continues to be true.