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IST346: System Administration. Ch 1 & 2. Agenda. Reading Discussion What does a system administrator do? SA Challenges The SA Profession. Reading discussion. Reading Discussion. Climbing out of the Hole? Three time-saving policies for success? What is a: SA? (Two definitions) - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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IST346: System Administration
Ch 1 & 2
Agenda Reading Discussion What does a system administrator do? SA Challenges The SA Profession
Reading discussion
Reading Discussion Climbing out of the Hole? Three time-saving policies for success? What is a:
SA? (Two definitions) Helpdesk? Trouble-ticket / request management system?
Climbing Out of the Hole? Don’t spend all your time addressing
the symptoms of a problem, fix the underlying cause.
As the text said, “spend time to fix the leaky pipe vs. spending all your time mopping up the water”
Generally money and time to do it right the first time
Three immediate time-saving policies Define and formalize how people get help.
Do you know how to get computer help on campus?
Like a business… advertise your hours of operation and rules of engagement during off-hours
Define your scope of work What is supported …at what levels …at what time of day
Define Emergency Everything can’t be an emergency Only mission critical should constitute emergency.
What is a system administrator? Key responsibility:
To look after computers, networks, and the people who use them.
We’d all like to believe these things could take care of themselves, but … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfiQYRn7fBg&f
eature=player_embedded Do we really need people to do this?
Did Norman have it figured out? Prof @ MIT Subtitle:
“Why good products can fail, the personal computer is so complex, and information appliances are the solution”
Penned in 1998: More than a decade
ago.
Which Phone is more complex? Easier to use? Why do they both exist?
Phone A Phone B?
Why use “A” when “B” is easier to use?
Product A Product B
As devices get easier, SA gets harder
POTS -vs- 3G and 4G networks Wired networking –vs- Wireless / WIFI Laptops / Notebooks –vs- desktops /
workstations
Easier for User
Greater Complexi
ty
Harder to Administ
er
Sysadmins have many different job titles
Pick a Domain… Pick a Role… System Network IT Operations Windows/Linux/Unix Security
Operator Administrator Engineer Specialist Architect
And you’re well on your way to creating an SA job title!
Helpdesks The “public face” of your organization; the most
important element. Helpdesk should be a friendly, pleasant experience. Define hours of operations and have instructions for
what your customers can do and expect off-hours. Designate a shield – a person or persons
responsible for triage and level “1” type requests. Helps senior level SA’s focus on projects.
As a manager you should: Test your helpdesk (take it for a test drive) Measure and track its use and effectiveness
1
Example: iSchool IT Services Helpdesk
TriageLaure
n
Jr Sa.
MattJr. SaTom
WebMike
CLMS
PeggySr. SaMike
LabsJames
1
2
3
Request Tracking / Trouble Tickets Track ALL calls / requests even the 5 minute fixes. Shows management how busy your team really is. If you
approach management asking for a new hire(s), have some data to defend your request.
Compare your data against industry metrics, such as how many desktops your staff is supporting vs. what common benchmarks are. You may find you need to work smarter, not that you need more people.
Many good packages available RT (used at SU) Service Desk (used at SU) Track-IT (used at SU)
Try to get the entire IT staff to use a common tool. Saves time on duplicate data entry from system A to system B
Example: SU “Orange Tracker” https://ot.syr.edu Build on JIRA. Customizable.
What does an SA do???
Typical job duties of SA’s User management Hardware Management System backups and Restores Deploy new systems and services Monitoring (Systems / Services / Network) Troubleshooting Helping users
Job Duty: User Management Creating user accounts (NetID here at SU) Integrating user identities into existing services
Nobody wants to keep track of 10 different usernames/PW’s! Giving user accounts access to basic resources
Home and profile directories Email
Ensuring users have access to the appropriate resources based on their role(s): Printers Websites
Provide self-service mechanisms http://its.syr.edu/netid/
Automate as much as possible!
Job Duty: Hardware Management Add/Remove hardware
Configuration / device driver deployment / inventory
User Notification: Downtime / New Service Availability
Evaluation, testing, and purchase of Hardware Capacity Planning
How much disk space? Bandwidth? Don’t over commit other resources: Network /
printers. Data Center Management
Environmental controls in server rooms Power consumptions
Job Duty: Data Backups Define a clear strategy and policy for your backups
How often? Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Where? On-site off-site? What? User Data vs. operating systems vs. configurations. Volume / Capacity: How much?
Devising backup plans, installing backup software Test the restore process!
What good is backing up if you don’t know whether the restore will work!
Monitoring backups Automate as much as possible. If you’re not watching, how do you know its getting
backed up?
Job Duty: Deploy new Systems / Services Evaluate, Test and Purchase Software and
Services Gravitate towards solutions that:
Use open standards Promote reuse / can help with other problems
Automate as much of the process as possible Test deployments!
Be mindful of your customers: Schedule downtimes Notify users of what’s to come Advertise new offerings Document (User and Technical)
Job Duty: Monitoring If you’re not watching it, you’re not administering it! What is usually monitored?
Performance / capacity issues (CPU, Memory, Disk, Network) Error events Security: Failed logons, successful logons, Attempts to access
unauthorized resources Logging
Helps determine when new hardware or services are needed. Rotate logs / Back them up if required
Send alerts to common problems (TXT / Pager) Take appropriate actions, as required. Automate as much as possible! Define “Emergency” Do you want to work 24x7?
Job Duty: Troubleshooting Troubleshooting is
Problem identification, Diagnosis and Resolution
Get things back up ASAP, as a temporary fix only.
Then Fix things once / do a root cause analysis Get to the “heart” of the problem Quite difficult, time consuming, but worth it.
Have a notification mechanism for unexpected downtime.
Job Duty: Helping Users Use a request tracking system
Helps IT staff keep track of problems. Can serve help with time tracking / accounting
Provide documentation and training Policies (Acceptable Use / Terms of Service) How-To’s / Maps / Inventories
IT Organization Extras: Define “Emergency” (can’t state this enough) Have clear-cut definitions for your defined
priorities Successful organizations are “High visibility”- and
don’t keep their customers in the dark.
SA Challenges
Qualities of a successful SA Customer-focused
Solid communication skills Ability to “sell” to customers You’re providing a service! Gracefully handle interruptions
Technical knowledge Hardware, network and software knowledge Good debugging and troubleshooting skills Need to be able to “dig with your own shovel”
Time Management Ability to prioritize tasks and handle multiple simultaneous
requests. Self discipline to perform key duties on a routine basis. (eg.
monitoring)
The challenges of being an SA You need:
A wide range of knowledge and skills One day it’s databases, the next it’s printers!
To work well and efficiently under pressure. To learn the fine art of saying no To be flexible, tolerant, and patient. To accept you might have to work on Sunday at
3AM. Be able to balance conflicting requirements in
your job: Short-term vs. long-term User’s needs vs. organizational requirements and
constraints Policing vs. providing a service
Tried and true SA principles Simplicity – the simplest solution that solves the
entire problem is the best solution Clarity – choose a solution that is easy to
change, maintain and support by your peers. Generality – always choose solutions that
support open standards and promote reuse. Automation – use software to replace human
effort whenever possible. Communication – talk to your customers;
document what you do; keep people in the loop. Basics First – solve the simple infrastructure
problems before attacking the advanced ones.
The SA Profession
According to bls.gov 2008-2018 outlook Network, System, and Database
Administration are high growth fields. Estimated creation of 286,600 new jobs during
this period. A 30% job growth Median wages in private sector $70k, in
education $56k Looks to be a high-demand employable skill
for the next decade
This brings us to our sponsor of the week….
Not to be confused with the lesser-knownLOPSA-OPSA
Professional Organizations for SA’a ACM (IT professional Organization)
http://www.acm.org/ USENIX / SAGE (Special interest group for
SA’s) http://www.sage.org/
NPA (Network professional association) http://www.npanet.org/
LOPSA (League of prof. SA’s) http://www.lopsa.org
Professional Certifications for SA’s Cisco:
CCNA, CCNP, CCIEhttp://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/learning_career_certifications_and_learning_paths_home.html
Microsoft: MCP, MCSA, MCSE
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/view-by-name.aspx
Unix/Linux: CompTia: Linux+ (Vendor Neutral)
http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/linux.aspx RedHat: RHCE,
http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/ Sun Solaris: SCSAS, SCSA, SCNA
http://www.sun.com/training/certification/solaris/index.xml General: (ICCP – part of ACM)
http://www.iccp.org/iccpnew/index.html
Server Quest II http://www.microsoft.com/click/server
quest/
A game that gives you an idea of what being an IT admin is all about.
In the classic “King’s Quest” style Your go through a working day as an IT admin.
“A Day in a Geek’s Life”
Questions?