July 7, System and Network Administration: Introduction Abdul Wahid

July 7, What is Systems Administration? System Administration, sis'tem ad-min'is-tra'shon, n. Activities which directly support the operations and integrity of computing systems and their use and which manage their intricacies. These activities minimally include system installation, configuration, integration, maintenance, performance management, data management, security management, failure analysis and recovery, and user support. In a inter-networked computing environment, the computer network is often included as part of the complex computing system. - Systems Administrators’ Guild

July 7, Being a SysAdmin Professional SA, if done well, should be equal parts: Technical skills People & communications skills Problem solving & Common sense Personal Commitment “SA involves a tension between authority and responsibility on one hand and service and co-operation on the other.”

July 7, System Administration: An introduction What is a system administrator (SA)? Anyone who managers a computer not solely for their own use. What are the goals of system administration? Ensure that computing systems run correctly and as efficiently as possible Ensure that all users can and do use the computing systems to carry out their required work in the easiest and most efficient manner. These are conflict goals.

July 7, System Administration: An introduction As a job, Systems Administration is fulfilling complex painful annoying highly interactive well paid employable thankless

July 7, Essential Tasks of SA The tasks of system management varies dramatically from sites to sites. Some possible tasks Adding and removing users Adding and removing hardware Performing backups Installing new software Monitoring the system Troubleshooting Maintaining local documentation Auditing security Help users

July 7, Essential Tasks of SA Daily operations emergencies regular tasks (automate) system monitoring Hardware and software programming evaluation purchase installation testing and maintenance upgrading phasing out

July 7, Essential Tasks of SA Administration and planning documentation time management policy self-education planning administrative tasks Interaction with people

July 7, Successful System Administration Need to find a balance between Authority and responsibility Service and cooperation A few Basic strategies Plan it before you go it Make it reversible Make changes incrementally Test, test, test before you unleash it on the world Know how things REALLY work.

July 7, Successful System Administration Example: editing system configuration files. Keep a copy before any change to the configuration file For original version, using suffix of.dist,.orig For further changes, using suffix of.old,.sav,.yymmdd, etc Keep the current modification date cp –p Plan how to back up if the change didn’t work – say system does not even boot Such as boot to single user mode and copy the old version back Test the change on a non-production environment first Eliminate the most obvious problems Make one major change at a time Make the test easier

July 7, Successful System Administration Successful system administration Careful planning Habit Change root password regularly Faithfully making backups ( no matter how tedious) Testing every change several times Sticking to policies you’ve set Handling crises Have the foresight Take time to anticipate and plan for the emergency Prevent crises by carrying out all careful procedures.

July 7, Successful System Administration My personal experience of how to be a good, productive administrator: Enjoy administration work! Build a solid computer science background Impossible to know everything Try to be a fast learner Be proactive and look ahead ready and have the desire to learn Accumulate and improve problem solving skills

July 7, Evolution of System Administration Early System Administration Highly educated specialist Hardware and software Low number of different HW platforms Predetermined tasks Formal process to follow Work ``behind close doors'' On a low number of systems Low number of operating systems Virtually no outside connectivity

July 7, Evolution of System Administration Current System Administration High number of HW platforms High number of SW platforms Mainly software administration Only some hardware System configuration issues per user Security issues Network issues Work much more ``open'' and ``on the desktop''

July 7, Ethics Systems Administration is a profession. It is a powerful profession. A Systems Administrator must be ethical Respect private information Do not abuse power

July 7, Fixing problems Problems are an accepted part of Systems Administration Being able to diagnose and solve problems is an essential part of Systems Administration Guidelines Remain calm Learn to appreciate self-reliance consult all available sources of information know the best places to look Refrain from asking spurious questions When asking for help be polite, terse and informative Contribute to the community

July 7, Finding resources Online resources Vendor online Technical library Search engines Mailing lists. Online forums. Printed resources Vendor support

July 7, Readings Read Chapter 1 Read Chapter 2