SDN controllers such as OpenDaylight, ONOS, RYU and APIC-EM run on Linux. A new breed of network devices from companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Cumulus Linux use Linux. When I worked full-time as a network engineer, my Linux skills helped me with the tasks of design, implementation, and support of enterprise networks. Here is a list of some of the command-line utilities I recommend to network engineers. It can give you useful information about what’s running on network hosts.
- Many Network infrastructure devices (both software and appliance) run the Linux kernel and use iptables.
- That is why I was wondering, what things I need to know?
- Fedora also offers users an incredible arsenal of open-source tools, built-in support for containerized applications, and consistent access to cutting-edge features and software.
- Then you can figure out where you need to go next and if a book is required.
- VS Code comes with powerful features and can be installed on any popular Linux OS.
- Nmap allows you to quickly verify that; just run the Nmap command followed by the hostname or fully qualified domain name.
An Interview Coach prepares you for that crucial interaction with targeted employers—your booster rocket above the competition. Virtual Lab provides hands-on, real-world practice using your newly gained skills on projects defined by industry experts, adding practical experience to your resume. Labs, periodic Master Classes, and access to an Online Professional Community allow you to solidify your technical expertise. They really helped me navigate my career change into software development. I was going to go the self taught route but I came across their website and it seemed like a cost effective alternative. The projects at the end of the program were challenging and really helped you showcase your skills and standout amongst other bootcamp graduates.
- It just put down on black and white what I had learned that day.
- However, again that is just to help your own understanding and help your skills.
- RHEL itself is commonly chosen as the operating system for enterprise-level systems.
- Dive in for free with a 10-day trial of the O’Reilly learning platform—then explore all the other resources our members count on to build skills and solve problems every day.
- With different flavors called “distributions or distros,” there are currently more than 2 hundred in the industry!
- If you looking to learn Python, you need to know Linux too as a basic Operating system, Until you run Python scripting in Windows Box.
- We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book.
If you’re in the market for a new laptop, have you considered buying a Chromebook? In the future, CentOS Stream is likely to become the best option for anyone seeking an RHEL-adjacent linux for network engineers distribution. Much like Fedora, CentOS Stream is a distribution that stays in line with the development of RHEL. It serves as the upstream edition of RHEL, meaning that the content in the latest edition of CentOS Stream is likely to appear in RHEL’s next release.
If you are a networking professional or an infrastructure engineer involved with networks, extensive knowledge of Linux networking is a must. Another powerful and reliable option for network engineers is openSUSE. OpenSUSE is impressively stable and offers frequent new releases, making it a good option if you prefer to avoid broken packages while still taking advantage of the latest software releases. Fedora also offers users an incredible arsenal of open-source tools, built-in support for containerized applications, and consistent access to cutting-edge features and software. Displays the distribution name and version with additional information, useful when network engineers or developers want to know which distribution to work with for a particular project. Linux and coding are becoming very valuable skills for network engineers that want to expand their horizons in new areas such as SDN, network automation, and DevOps.
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I’ve used iperf many times to troubleshoot network slowness issues, verify whether the ISP would honor the DSCP marking, and measure the jitter value of UDP traffic. We have already written a post about using iperf in distributed monitoring, so I encourage you to read that if you want to learn more. As the networking landscape continues to evolve, the importance of Linux for network engineers will only increase. Linux is more than just an operating system; it is an essential tool for network engineers. For network engineers, automation can simplify complex processes such as configuration management, network monitoring, and log analysis. Linux also supports a wide range of network protocols and can be used to simulate network environments, which is invaluable for testing and development.
That is why I was wondering, what things I need to know? It is really impossible to learn vast Linux starting from the book like Linux Bible. Linux is a tool that is Opensource and you can build a lot of network tools for your company to save a lot of money.
Open your linux shell and try everything explained above and boost your skills daily,we learn better with more hands-on experience. Imagine you have just been hired by Simco Financial Services, Inc., to join their Network Engineering team. In this initial project, you will demonstrate your ability to analyze network traffic, configure a basic network, and make an RDP/VNC connection on… The best approach would be to use either an old laptop and install Debian based Linux on it or to buy a single board computer such as the Raspberry Pi.
Ping sweep on a IPv4 subnet
That makes it an easy way to transfer files between two computers. Another use case is testing whether your firewall is blocking certain traffic. For example, execute netcat in server mode on a host behind your firewall and then execute netcat in client mode from outside the firewall. If you can read on the server whatever you type on the client, then the firewall is not filtering the connection.
Syslog Server
And Most of the Cloud-based system underlay built on top of Linux based code, which adds advantages there. With the network engineer experience, having other area experience/hands is also good to solve many other issues in a real environment, to prove that it was not a network and security issue. That said I started my life in IT as Unix admin (Solaris) before moving across to networking and I have found it a very useful skill to have eg. All my scripts etc. run on a CentOS VM and it certainly helps to be comfortable on the command line in Linux when you do this. I’m about to start applications for network engineering positions. One of the biggest advantages of using Debian for network engineering is that it has an incredible package-rich repository with over 59,000 different software packages.
Top 5 Linux Utilities for Network Engineers
I would actually suggest starting with Ubuntu and use their online handbook so you aren’t out any cash. Then you can figure out where you need to go next and if a book is required. If you are really committed then you could buy a subscription to safaribooksonline.com where you can get access to up-to-date technical books on almost every subject you can think of. Given everything I’ve mentioned I do have another question as I decide to dive in and spend hundreds of hours in the next few months learning this stuff. Will Linux and Python be relevant in network engineering in 10 years from now? If so it only makes sense for me to devoe pretty much all my free time to Cisco networking and Linux/Python until I become productive.
I hope this blog post provided some useful Linux tricks that will make your life easier. If you have other Linux command line utilities in your toolbox, please feel free to share them in the comment section below. As result, the router was discarding these oversized packets and sending back ICMP packets with the “Can’t Fragment Error” code. This is something I discovered while listening to the wire with tcpdump. Tcpdump is a great utility to troubleshoot network and application issues. For example, at remote sites connected with IPsec tunnels back to the main site, I was often able to figure out why some applications would make it through the tunnel and some wouldn’t.
Learn to administer critical network resources for Linux systems. Monitor Linux network usage and tailor parameters for optimum throughput. Implement security protocols to ensure the integrity of the network and data.