{"id":653,"date":"2026-11-13T13:27:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T13:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d-mashina.net\/?p=653"},"modified":"2026-11-13T13:27:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T13:27:01","slug":"from-netware-to-kubernetes-my-journey-through-three-decades-of-systems-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d-mashina.net\/index.php\/en\/2026\/11\/13\/from-netware-to-kubernetes-my-journey-through-three-decades-of-systems-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"From NetWare to Kubernetes: My Journey Through Three Decades of Systems Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on Novell, Linux, the people who shaped my career, and why I am concerned about the future of systems administration.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking back at my professional journey, I realize how fortunate I have been to witness some remarkable periods in the evolution of information technology.<\/p>\n

From the days when Novell NetWare was synonymous with enterprise networking, through the rise of Linux and virtualization, to today’s world of containers, Kubernetes, and automation.<\/p>\n

Almost everything has changed over the years. Operating systems, architectures, tools, working methods, and user expectations.<\/p>\n

But one thing remains the same.<\/p>\n

To be a good systems administrator, you must understand how the system actually works.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that is something I increasingly find missing in our profession today.<\/p>\n

When Novell Ruled Enterprise Networks<\/h2>\n

My journey with Novell began with NetWare 4.<\/p>\n

Those were the days when systems administrators needed a solid understanding of networking protocols, file systems, directory services, user permissions, and server internals.<\/p>\n

Graphical administration tools were far less common. Documentation mattered, and understanding the underlying technology was essential.<\/p>\n

NetWare was an extraordinary operating system for its time.<\/p>\n

With the introduction of Novell Directory Services (NDS), later renamed eDirectory, Novell established a powerful foundation for centralized identity management, user administration, and network resources.<\/p>\n

Even today, I consider eDirectory one of the most underestimated enterprise technologies of its era.<\/p>\n

Its distributed architecture, directory replication, granular access control, and integration capabilities were remarkably advanced.<\/p>\n

Of course, modern identity platforms operate in a very different technological environment, but Novell was undoubtedly ahead of its time in many areas.<\/p>\n

Novell, SUSE, and an Era I Will Never Forget<\/h2>\n

The most exciting period of my involvement with Novell began around 2005.<\/p>\n

I worked for Astec, a Slovenian IT company that was a Novell Platinum Partner.<\/p>\n

That partnership gave us exceptional access to technologies, technical information, training opportunities, and people within Novell.<\/p>\n

I visited Novell’s headquarters in Provo, Utah, several times.<\/p>\n

I still remember how impressed I was by the organization of the company. Everything seemed to work like a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n

Engineering, technical support, training, partnerships, and community involvement were organized at a level that genuinely impressed me.<\/p>\n

As a Platinum Partner, we had access to new products and technologies, sometimes long before they were publicly announced.<\/p>\n

For someone passionate about technology, this was an incredible experience.<\/p>\n

At one point, I even considered working directly for Novell.<\/p>\n

The opportunity was certainly tempting. However, I preferred to keep my life in Slovenia while continuing to work closely with Novell internationally.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Novell regularly invited me to speak at conferences and technical events.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I believe I had the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

BrainShare: Something You Had to Experience<\/h2>\n

If there is one event that truly defined my years with Novell, it was BrainShare in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

BrainShare was much more than a technology conference.<\/p>\n

It was a gathering of systems administrators, engineers, developers, partners, and technology enthusiasts from around the world.<\/p>\n

I had the opportunity to speak at BrainShare several times, as well as at GWAVACon in Los Angeles, openSUSE conferences in Orlando and Dubrovnik, and LinuxCon events across Europe.<\/p>\n

My presentations focused on technologies and real-world enterprise implementations.<\/p>\n

Topics included Novell Vibe, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, PlateSpin, and Novell Cloud Manager.<\/p>\n

For example, at BrainShare 2011, I presented our implementation of Novell Vibe at Astec.<\/p>\n

Our infrastructure included Novell Open Enterprise Server 2, VMware vSphere, MySQL, SAN storage, and integration with eDirectory.<\/p>\n

We were also supporting more than 5,500 workstations managed through Novell ZENworks Configuration Management.<\/p>\n

These were not theoretical demonstrations or laboratory exercises.<\/p>\n

They were real production environments supporting actual businesses.<\/p>\n

But the most valuable part of those conferences was not the technology.<\/p>\n

It was the people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I met countless talented engineers and wonderful individuals from different countries.<\/p>\n

I am still in contact with many of them today.<\/p>\n

Those friendships and professional relationships are worth far more than any certification.<\/p>\n

GroupWise, ZENworks, and Technologies Ahead of Their Time<\/h2>\n

Novell was never just NetWare and eDirectory.<\/p>\n

Its technology portfolio was remarkably innovative.<\/p>\n

GroupWise was a sophisticated messaging and collaboration platform.<\/p>\n

ZENworks provided centralized management of workstations, applications, configuration policies, and software deployment.<\/p>\n

iFolder offered file synchronization long before today’s cloud storage services became commonplace.<\/p>\n

I also worked extensively with products from GWAVA and integrations connecting enterprise messaging platforms with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.<\/p>\n

One particularly memorable experience involved GroupWise.<\/p>\n

Through discussions with Novell’s CTO at the time, I helped reach an agreement to make a Slovenian localization of GroupWise possible.<\/p>\n

We participated in preparing the Slovenian translation.<\/p>\n

For a relatively small market like Slovenia, this was significant.<\/p>\n

It was a time when experienced partners and engineers could have a direct influence on the development and localization of enterprise software.<\/p>\n

Novell also invested heavily in education and knowledge sharing.<\/p>\n

There were initiatives involving universities, technical communities, professional training programs, and even an online radio station.<\/p>\n

Novell understood something important:<\/p>\n

Technology is ultimately about people.<\/p>\n

When Professional Certifications Meant Something Different<\/h2>\n

Over the years, I earned numerous professional certifications.<\/p>\n

I became a Novell Certified Engineer (CNE), Certified Novell Instructor (CNI), SUSE Certified Linux Engineer, and SUSE instructor.<\/p>\n

I also obtained certifications involving Red Hat, VMware, HP-UX, Oracle Linux, Oracle Virtualization, the Linux Foundation, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

One of my earliest major certifications was Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), which I earned in March 2003 on Red Hat Linux 7.3.<\/p>\n

The examination was entirely practical and lasted almost six hours.<\/p>\n

You were given a real system and a series of technical tasks to complete.<\/p>\n

Knowing theoretical answers was not enough.<\/p>\n

You had to demonstrate that you could actually administer, troubleshoot, and configure Linux.<\/p>\n

That was the kind of certification I always respected.<\/p>\n

I also remember earning my Novell Certified Engineer \u2013 Enterprise Services certification in 2010, achieving a perfect score of 800 out of 800 points.<\/p>\n

In the same year, I completed three demanding HP-UX examinations on three consecutive days, covering system administration, advanced system administration, and high availability using Serviceguard.<\/p>\n

My results were 98%, 93%, and 90%, respectively.<\/p>\n

In 2017, I also earned the Linux Foundation Certified Engineer (LFCE) certification.<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, professional certification stopped being a challenge for me.<\/p>\n

Almost every technology vendor began introducing its own certification programs.<\/p>\n

Some remained technically demanding and valuable. Others became increasingly connected to marketing, sales, and partner requirements.<\/p>\n

Certifications certainly still have their place.<\/p>\n

But to me, what matters most is whether someone can solve a real technical problem when faced with a production system that is not behaving as expected.<\/p>\n

Why Did Novell Lose Its Position?<\/h2>\n

I have thought about this question many times over the years.<\/p>\n

Personally, I do not believe the main problem was technology.<\/p>\n

Novell had excellent engineers, remarkable products, a well-organized company, and a strong international community of customers and partners.<\/p>\n

I believe the problems were largely related to business decisions.<\/p>\n

As the industry changed, Novell struggled to maintain a consistent strategic direction.<\/p>\n

Microsoft successfully built an integrated ecosystem around Windows, Office, Exchange, and Active Directory.<\/p>\n

Novell, despite having technological advantages in several areas, failed to maintain its former market position.<\/p>\n

Acquisitions and organizational changes eventually brought an end to the Novell era as many of us remembered it.<\/p>\n

For me, the story remains a reminder that the technically strongest product does not necessarily win the market.<\/p>\n

From UNIX and Linux to Virtualization and Kubernetes<\/h2>\n

My professional journey certainly did not end with Novell.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have worked with numerous UNIX and Linux platforms, from Solaris and HP-UX to Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, and Oracle Linux.<\/p>\n

I have been involved in infrastructure migrations, high-availability environments, data center architecture, virtualization, disaster recovery, and enterprise security.<\/p>\n

Today, much of my work involves Proxmox, VMware, Docker, Kubernetes, automation, networking, and Linux server security.<\/p>\n

When I compare today’s technologies with those from fifteen or twenty years ago, the progress is enormous.<\/p>\n

Yet many of the fundamental engineering challenges remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

How do we ensure service availability?<\/p>\n

How do we protect business-critical data?<\/p>\n

How do we prevent a single component failure from taking down an entire system?<\/p>\n

How do we recover quickly after an outage?<\/p>\n

And how do we identify the actual root cause when something goes wrong?<\/p>\n

Years ago, we used Novell Cluster Services, HP Serviceguard, and PlateSpin.<\/p>\n

Today, we use modern hypervisors, replication technologies, orchestration platforms, and automation frameworks.<\/p>\n

The tools change. The engineering challenges remain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Point-and-Click Generation: Are We Losing Fundamental Skills?<\/h2>\n

This brings me to something that genuinely concerns me about modern systems administration.<\/p>\n

I increasingly notice a lack of fundamental knowledge of Linux, networking, and independent troubleshooting.<\/p>\n

Today, an administrator can deploy a virtual machine, install an application, create a Kubernetes cluster, or restart a container with just a few clicks.<\/p>\n

That is progress.<\/p>\n

Graphical interfaces, automation, and modern management tools have made infrastructure more accessible and efficient.<\/p>\n

The problem begins when the person using those tools does not understand what is happening underneath.<\/p>\n

Someone might know how to restart a Docker container but have little understanding of Linux namespaces, cgroups, or networking.<\/p>\n

Someone might know how to manage virtual machines through a web interface without understanding memory management, storage systems, or the Linux kernel.<\/p>\n

Someone might configure firewall rules without being able to analyze TCP connections or routing behavior.<\/p>\n

As long as everything works, this approach may appear perfectly adequate.<\/p>\n

But sooner or later, production systems fail.<\/p>\n

And when they do, the Restart button is not always the answer.<\/p>\n

You need to understand the system, examine logs, analyze processes, understand protocols, and, most importantly, think critically.<\/p>\n

I am certainly not suggesting that all younger systems administrators lack technical skills.<\/p>\n

I know many excellent young engineers, and modern generations have expertise in areas that barely existed when I started my career.<\/p>\n

However, I believe that in our enthusiasm for new tools, we have begun neglecting the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

In the past, you had to understand a system to manage it. Today, you can manage a system without truly understanding it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is a significant difference.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Systems Administration<\/h2>\n

And now we have artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

AI can help us analyze configurations, write scripts, troubleshoot problems, and automate repetitive tasks.<\/p>\n

I see it as a valuable tool, and I use it myself.<\/p>\n

But AI does not eliminate the need for technical knowledge.<\/p>\n

Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

Without understanding the underlying system, how can you confidently determine whether an AI-generated recommendation is correct, secure, or potentially dangerous?<\/p>\n

In production environments, an incorrect command can cost far more than the time we hoped to save.<\/p>\n

I believe the future belongs not simply to those who know how to use the greatest number of tools, but to those who truly understand technology and know how to apply those tools responsibly.<\/p>\n

What Has Stayed With Me After All These Years?<\/h2>\n

When I think about Novell, BrainShare, Provo, professional certifications, presentations, and the people I met along the way, I naturally feel a certain nostalgia.<\/p>\n

But it is not simply the old technologies that I miss.<\/p>\n

I miss an era when deep technical knowledge was something we actively pursued, shared, and continuously improved.<\/p>\n

When speaking at a technical conference meant exchanging real engineering experiences.<\/p>\n

When engineers could spend hours discussing file systems, networking protocols, or directory replication.<\/p>\n

When a new operating system release was exciting because we wanted to understand what had changed under the hood.<\/p>\n

I have been fortunate to work with remarkable technologies, visit fascinating places, and, most importantly, meet extraordinary people.<\/p>\n

Some of those friendships have lasted more than twenty years.<\/p>\n

And although the systems I manage today are very different from those I worked with in the early days of my career, my approach to engineering has not fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n

I still want to understand how things work.<\/p>\n

I still believe in thoughtful design, simplicity, security, reliability, and a thorough understanding of infrastructure.<\/p>\n

And I still believe that no amount of automation can replace an engineer who knows how to think.<\/p>\n

Technology changes. Knowledge remains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Davor Guttierrez<\/em><\/p>\n

Linux and UNIX Systems Engineer, IT Infrastructure Architect, former Novell Certified Engineer and Certified Novell Instructor, and speaker at international technology conferences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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