Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 17:02:57 -0500 From: "Matthew D. Fuller" <fullermd@over-yonder.net> To: Dru <dlavigne6@sympatico.ca>, freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: direction for training Message-ID: <20040704220257.GS77848@over-yonder.net> In-Reply-To: <20040704153508.GA58009@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> References: <20040702183604.A41037-100000@xena.mikey.net> <40E758D9.9060609@softweyr.com> <20040704083710.A546@dru.domain.org> <20040704153508.GA58009@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk>
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On Sun, Jul 04, 2004 at 04:35:08PM +0100 I heard the voice of Matthew Seaman, and lo! it spake thus: > > Consider, for example vinum(8). To use vinum, you should understand > concepts like "what is RAID 1", "hardware vs software raid" and > "what are the pros- and cons- of using volumne management", none of > which are FreeBSD specific. Background knowledge should include > what alternative RAID systems are available on various different > OSes -- to just list a few of the software RAID systems: Solaris > ODS, Vertias VxVM, vinum(8), RaidFrame, LVM, even if it doesn't go > much beyond a one-liner describing each of them. > > Such is the basic theory that anyone working on any sort of system > would have to learn about first. *BSD specific material then > follows in, say, the practical details of using vinum -- how to > build a RAID filesystem, installing the system using a mirrored > root, recovery from a failed hard drive, interaction with GEOM under > 5.x, etc. That's not to mention related things like ccd(4) or > atacontrol(8). And, coincidentally (or not), these details are precisely the sort of thing most of us would never bother to store in our heads, since it's right there in the manpages or the handbooks or the websites and can be pulled out in moments when we need it. It's the background knowledge and the context we need to "know", so we'll know where to look and know how to understand the details of setting up one implementation. > Going beyond mere regurgitation of facts and starting to do useful > problem solving requires integration of knowledge from many such > modules. And is terribly difficult to test on a small scale, in much the same way that a map containing all the detail is the same size as the territory. This is why experience must, practically (wet dreams of Personnel personnel to the contrary), always trump examination or training or certification. And, of course, if you COULD make the test sufficiently hard and sufficiently realistic to substitute for experience, you'd need the experience to pass the test, making it useless for what seems to be the purpose of certifications as alternatives to experience. You might say there's a little problem there 8-} -- Matthew Fuller (MF4839) | fullermd@over-yonder.net Systems/Network Administrator | http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/ "The only reason I'm burning my candle at both ends, is because I haven't figured out how to light the middle yet"
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