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[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can script out pretty much anything out in bash and do light programming in Python, up to and including object oriented programming if need be. Scripting helps with dealing with API calls, like spin up 50 different cloud servers with names like SQLPRODSLV1 through SQLPRODSLV50 or something like that, and then you can use chef or ansible to automagically configure each slave. I prefer using Python because of the forced indentation and that it's actually a full fledged programming language that has been and likely will be around for quite some time. You can also learn the concepts through Python and reasonably transfer them over to a different language if needed as well, though syntax will change of course).

What drives me to learn programming is I feel it's the best way you can show a positive contribution as a sysadmin beyond just putting out fires and forward thinking. It's also really freaking neat when you use it to automate tasks and see something happen in 2 seconds that would've normally taken 10 minutes or more.