Learn to Harness the Power of Unix, Linux, and Open Systems Technologies
Unix, in all its variations (including Linux), is a powerful computing environment, but to maximize productivity, users and administrators need to understand the "Unix way" of getting work done. I deliver classroom training that will improve students' productivity quickly, by stressing important shortcuts and pitfalls that might otherwise take years to learn. All my classes make extensive use of real-life examples, which I've accumulated during a quarter-century of professional and personal Unix experience. Important concepts introduced during the classes are immediately reinforced by hands-on exercises. Most of these classes and (with the exception of System Administration) lab exercises are equally applicable to Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, and Linux - and I've delivered classes on every one of those platforms (and delivered the C and Perl classes on Microsoft Windows, as well.) Please take a look at our Unix and Linux Training Buyer's Guide, read student comments, and then browse the following list of our standard courses. You can also view some sample questions, which are provided to help you determine if a particular class is appropriate for you. All the courses can be customized for on-site deliveries to match your requirements.
Typically a 3-day introduction for users with little or no Unix experience. Students will become comfortable with the Unix file system, and master dozens of the most important user commands. Operators, database administrators, and any user with command line access to Unix will make daily use of the information presented in this class. This is also the foundation class for further specialized system administration training. This entire class (and its follow-on, Unix/Linux Tools) is equally applicable to any Unix or Linux flavor, and can serve as a substitute for vendor-specific (Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX) introductory classes. A detailed topic listing is available here.
This class, usually offered over two days (making for a total of five days of training when combined with Introduction to Unix/Linux), expands upon many of the topics covered in the Introduction, and introduces many new commands and options. This class is appropriate for a student who has either had the Introduction class, or has had several months' experience working with Unix. After a brief review of Unix basics, the class presents additional features of the vi editor, including named buffer usage, external command output insertion and filtering, abbreviations, keyboard mapping, and numerous "set" options. Other topics include the grep "family", sort, and tr commands and options, and commands for working with binary files (strings, od, dd.) Additional shell features, useful for interactive sessions (history manipulation, file and process monitoring options, shell functions and builtins) are also included, as is an introduction to the sed and awk scripting languages, which can help students become much more productive in such tasks as file manipulation and editing. A major focus of the class is regular expression syntax and usage. The skills developed in this class are essential prerequisites for administrators and other support personnel. A detailed topic listing is available here.
Intended for Unix users and administrators already familiar with common command line usage (the Introduction to Unix/Linux and Unix/Linux Tools classes, or equivalent experience, are recommended prerequisites), this class introduces techniques for shell programming - also known as shell scripting. A focus of the class is portability (and lack thereof) between currently popular shell implementations (bash, posix, ksh88, and ksh93.) Topics covered in detail include local and environment variables, variable attributes, conditionals, iteration, branching, flow control, functions, debugging, and more, typically delivered in a three-day format. Specific commands covered include test, eval, exec, and read, plus numerous shell built-ins functions and operators. The extensive class exercises give students the opportunity to immediately write code using the techniques learned in each chapter. A two-day version of this class is available that specifically addresses programming using the "other" Unix shell, the C-shell (csh), but we recommend the standard class for any users who aren't already committed to using the C-shell. A detailed topic listing for the standard 3-day class is available here.
Typically a 4 or 5-day course for a student without Unix or Linux system administration experience. This course specifically focuses on the skills necessary to install and configure Linux or Unix. Although the hands-on lab exercises are specific to Linux on the x86 architecture, many of the topics also apply to Unix. A detailed topic listing can be found here. All students receive a course workbook, along with a copy of the textbook Essential System Administration.
A course manual, and in some cases an accompanying text, is provided with each class, and any of the classes can be customized to meet specific content or time frame requirements. One possibility, for example, is to combine elements of the Unix/Linux Tools and Shell Programming classes, which works well for somewhat experienced Unix users.
Regardless of which class(es) you select, you can be confident that your instructor will have both practical and teaching experience with the topic.
For a listing of my specific training experiences, view or download a resume (text, or pdf), or view a customer/employer list.