Sysadmin Manage your server

Definitely the skills of google-fu, reading and practise. If i don't understand something, the order i go about learning is

• read official manual documentation
• google-fu + read dozens and dozen how to guides for the same topic/task to get a feel for the big picture overview of the topic/task
• reading webhosting, system admin related forums/mailing lists where folks post their problems and get a solution
• then refer back to official manual documentation on topics and terminology mentioned in those how to guides or forums/mailing lists
• then practice over and over
• then only after all above, if i still have questions or issues will i seek out help in asking on forums, mailing lists etc

You learn more from making the mistakes and then figuring out the correct way to do it Which means always have a test server to test and practise on. I use local virtualbox to setup test servers and heavily use snapshot feature CentOS 7.x - CentOS 7.0 Install on VirtualBOX Guest Server | Centmin Mod Community

 

Ah my above advice still very relevant 6yrs later