1

First, the obligatory info:
15 years in the IT field (only career I’ve ever known).
2 year technical college training in SysAdmin stuff (basic networking, CCNA basics, MSCE basics)
No certifications

Career/“on job” experience in everything from Helpdesk/support, DataCenter Ops (server/san/storage/virtualization/etc), and networking (Cisco/juniper/gateway/perimeter security stuff)

Little to no programming experience (beyond basic/typical automation stuff like batch and vbs for server/OS management)
Now the details and conversational stuff:

I have worked everything from garage jobs, SMB’s and fortune 500’s… all of which has led to what seems to be a natural progression from deskside user support to SysAdmin. The last job I was at progressed from a SysAdmin (and lone IT guy for the non-profit) to what they titled the IT admin… basically I was the IT guy for any and everything, and had a part time helpdesk tech that reported to me.
So why am I here, asking you for advice? Because I am bored. What once was a passion has now become a daily grind. SysAdmin stuff is boring to me now. Can I do it… sure. Does it pay the bills… yes. Does it excite me… no. In fact, I’ve become so bored with it that I sold of my entire “home lab”!
I have spent the last 6 months at what I would consider an “easy job”… mostly 8-5, tech support, server stuff, 30 computers, 5 servers… yawn… but in working the easy job, I have spent a lot of time attempting to rediscover my “new passion”. It dawned on me that I like the integration work between systems, and the automation of said systems. I love the “single pane views” and the administration of those views (think the scan/discovery and inventory function of spiceworks).

That said - I have obtained a new job, where I will be working for what is essentially an MSP, providing assistance with testing, configuring, and implementing a portion of an IT Service Management solution (specifically the scan/discover and automate portion).
By title I will be a “Systems Administrator,” but by function I will be a bit more of an implementer, using my sysadmin knowledge to assist the entire implementation team. (IE: “why can’t the software discover the load balancer services”, or “this web service isn’t showing all servers involved”)
Everything about the job fits my desires (good pay, excellent hours, minimal offsite/travel, and very very little off hours support). I finally have a bit of excitement back, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn, and apply my skills, but I am also quite apprehensive and nervous. The biggest reason: I will need to learn JavaScript, and most specifically, AngularJS.
The job has a certain element of Development needed, in that I will have to “write” snippets of code to help the discovery process. I have been assured by them that I don’t need to be a “programmer,” nor do they expect me to ever attain to such a level.
The catch: I have never programmed, and never had much, if any, exposure to programming.

They know this, and hired me because of my SysAdmin skillset. Knowing my weakness, they have built a training plan for me, paid by them. But its all focused specifically on the ESM platform and AngularJS.
Reading up and playing with some javascript tutorials, such as codecadamy leaves me feeling like I am missing some fundamental programming knowledge, but also leaves me wanting to learn more and more!

Having never done much more than simple batch and VB scripting, is there anything more I should be self learning? What are some of the free-ish resources I can use to gain more confidence in the DevOps/Programming world? I want to be able to walk into this new job with at least a ground level knowledge, and not be completely lost during the training portion.


TL:DR: I have a new job, it stretches my skillset, need to learn some basic level of programming language, have never programmed. What resources can I use to learn the basics?

13 Spice ups
2

It’s cool that you’re foreshadowing your anticipated role. Instead of saying “They said I won’t be a developer, so I won’t develop”, you’re realizing that your path to growth is likely through development of your coding skills, so congrats :slight_smile:

I’m not a programmer, I just wanted to note that in addition to learning JS, since you’re looking at automation, I would add scripting languages (PowerShell and/or Python) to that list as a very base skill set. There’s no going wrong with either of them.

I’ve used CodeAcademy and thought it was awesome at giving me that foundation. If you didn’t get that much out of it, you must be far past me.

2 Spice ups
3

Everything works fine in DEV, and then you release to production…

dev_ops.gif

3 Spice ups
4

Javascript is object oriented programming , like many other programming languages. I have/am learning them as well. Here are some tips/things that have helped me

  • Flow charts!
  • Making flow charts of what I am trying to do/accomplish. Because the scripts have to follow the “logic” of the language writing it out in a flow chart helps me conceptualize and then code it properly.- Reviewing other scripts/code
  • Breaking down what is working and figuring out WHY and HOW it works. If you follow my posts in the Powershell forum I have a range from I FIGURED IT OUT, to What the hell does | vs ; vs , DO! You do not need to be an expert right away, if you can get it working. But learning some of the more abstract areas will help you grow in your Dev skills and be better.- Rewriting old scripts
  • This may not be there yet for you. I have ~10 or so key Powershell scripts that are my automation and infrastructure. As I have learned more/better ways I have gone back and re-written the scripts to practice my skills. I take the stance if it isn’t broke, break it, fix it and make it better.- Get a mentor!
    • This is the most important aspect. Someone that you can talk about programming with and that has experience that can help you grow.

Depending on your learning style picking up a few intro books on object oriented programming may help, or watching some training videos.

2 Spice ups
5

You’ve done scripting, which is pretty much getting your feet wet in programming.

Chances are that you’ve done some conditional statements (“if Condition A occurs, perform Task A; otherwise, perform Task B”), either deliberately or through reusing others’ scripts and code.

Programming is little more (conceptually) than transforming input into output. A very simple example:

  1. Receive bread.
  2. Open toaster oven door.
  3. Insert bread.
  4. Close toaster oven door.
  5. Determine desired toast color (toast color: light golden).
  6. Set toast color to “light golden”.
  7. Execute toasting.
  8. Open toaster oven door.
  9. Receive toast.
  10. Is toast too hot?
  11. If yes, yell loudly, drop toast, cry, rerun program.
  12. If no, place toast on plate, eat heartily

If you can break down toasting bread into steps like that, that’s programming. And really, scripting is pretty much already like that, right? You’re telling a machine to do stuff while you wait.

Because then you realize that in the Yes condition, there’s room for more coding that can happen. Maybe instead of dropping the toast and crying, you could write in a Get-Ovenmitt subroutine (or in this case, a Powershell cmdlet).

Maybe you need to toast multiple slices of bread, but can only do one at a time. So you introduce a FOR-NEXT loop or a DO-WHILE loop:

DO toasting WHILE I-still-have-bread

or

FOR (int i = nobread; i < totalamountofbread; incrementbreadcountby1) {

toast routine

}

and when you’re out of bread to be toasted, the loop ends, and you proceed to the EatHeartily subroutine. :slight_smile:

3 Spice ups
6

Hi OP, as you get started on your path to learning DevOps I just wanted to share a few resources that you might find helpful! The first is our article, 8 Ways to Learn About DevOps , which might have some helpful info on ways to get the help you need with hands-on training from Microsoft and edX.

As you continue on your journey to develop your skills you might be interested in checking out our Microsoft Official Courses On-Demand . You can complete them at your own pace, from anywhere and they provide you with solid credentials as you build your skillset. There are a ton of options and these courses blend video, text, hands-on labs and knowledge checks.

If you have any questions or if you would like any additional information feel free to reach out to me anytime! I would be more than happy to help! Wishing you the best of luck in your DevOps journey!

@Microsoft

1 Spice up
7

This is has been an interesting read so far, am sort of the in the same “rut” of wanting to find something that keeps my interest going, haven’t got the to the part of selling off my home lab, but it came close to it a couple of months ago, so shall be following this thread very closely!

8

It’s fortunate JS will be your first language, it’s one of the easiest (if you don’t have prior experience in Java, C++, Python, etc). If you want to learn it quickly take common tasks a system administrator would do and try to automate them. Try monitoring equipment using JS - get cpu usage, ram usage, etc. Try automating application deployment with versioning. Try parsing logfiles to find common errors, then see if you can automate actions based on the errors found using commonly known solutions/workarounds.

It would be wise to learn Ruby as well. Chef and Puppet (two of the major automation platforms) use it.

9

I’m coming at this from a C# perspective, which is quite a bit different because we have the massive Visual Studio suite and everything Microsoft provides, but I think there are some specialty areas where DevOps can really shine.

One issue that developers need to solve, but rarely devote time to, is deployment. We can code anything, that’s easy. But packaging a program for deployment, and installing it on other machines? I have no idea. And if my task is to deploy it remotely to dozens of users, without interrupting their work, then lord help me because the only thing I can promise is that I will mess it up somehow. But to IT, deployment is the bread and butter of their work.

Or if we make a desktop app that communicates with a SQL server, a developer doesn’t know how to do that unless he has practiced. Domain addresses are foreign to us, but we’d find some way to hardcode it into the program (that’s honestly the way many do it; they hardcode a username and password for the program too). Or could we pull the server’s address from the company’s network? That would be great. Could we use a user’s Windows profile and credentials to automatically authenticate them and check their access privileges? That would be even better! I believe Visual Studio has a library to help developers do exactly this. If you can implement it, or implement similar in other development environments, then you are doing great.

Developers are good at making a program work in their little development environment. But when expanding outside of that, it’s a new learning curve.

Additionally, we often do not know of toolkits and systems that are available. Jenkins servers, Ant tasks, and things like that are closer to IT than to software development. Configuration and coordination of multiple systems can be difficult for us, but instinctive for someone with IT experience.

And beyond that, someone could probably specialize in DevOps purely by knowing the Amazon Web Services platform, or the similar services offered by Microsoft and Google. They are too extensive for many full-time developers to keep track of.

One other thing to keep in mind: in development, there is always and “undo” button; we can dig ourselves into any problem, because we can always undo our way back out of it. The opposite is true for much of IT. Developers will always press a button to find out what it does, and we’ll press it a few more times if the result is not obvious. So never, ever give the nuclear missile launch codes to developers. Seriously:

To quote: Bowling clarified that it wasn’t a prank, but the mischievousness of an unnamed designer that brought the LAPD to his door. “Our studio is equipped with a ‘panic’ alarm in case of an armed threat, which was installed yesterday,” Bowling said. “One of our designers, who shall not be shamed, pressed it on his way out because apparently when boys find buttons that they are unsure of, their first instinct is to push it.”

10

I learned a good handful of basic coding using Unity. It was a hobby for me. I would get home from school and start working on that it was never anything i expected to become a job for me or to make money on, it was just for the entertainment and fun of learning.
Unity supports Java so you can use your basic Java coding to code up some programs very easily. Also the unity website offers a bunch of basic coding for the supported languages and has a free version of their software that lets you do a lot.