Akornn - System Administration

System Administration

This is the day-to-day stuff. Periodic update of business software, or security software. Reading the server's event logs, to see if there are any new problems coming up. Checking the available disk space for documents and e-mail messages on your servers. Setup new user server accounts, Setup e-mail accounts or alias names. and last the big one. Re-Set user's passwords.

Basic System Administration Tasks

Below is a list of some of the more common tasks that a system administrator may be expected to perform. For any given server operating system a system administrator may be required to do more or fewer tasks than those listed here.

Preparing - temperature, humidity, electrical, fire, security, EIA/TIA wiring closet and cabling standards, UPS; Change management (preparing for any service changes).
Installing hardware - computers, terminals, disk drives, CD-ROMs, RAM, printers, NICs, cabling.
Maintaining - regular preventative maintenance (daily, weekly, ...), boot and shutdown systems when needed, printers, backup media, tune systems for performance.
Monitoring - printers, disk space, network, servers and workstations, performance, and security, and all log files regularly.
Installing/upgrading/removing software - OS (kernel patches, new device drivers, ...), applications (new versions, DLLs, new configurations), documentation.
Planning - IP address assignments, network service provider coordination .
Backups and archives.
Configuring - kernel, networking software such as Samba, X Window, accounting, quotas, security, mail, news, time, web and other servers, crontab, ...
Trouble-shooting - network connections, services that don't start, faulty security, ...
Maintaining local documentation - new user's guide, policy and procedure documents (security plan, disaster recovery plan, administrative procedures, service request/bug report forms, ...), man pages for add-on software.
Help and educate users - This includes working with your management (who sometimes needs the most help and education even if they don't think so), helping new users, experienced users, and yourself.
Baselining - Generate system reports and correlate growth, changes over time. (Use data to order supplies, spares, hardware and software upgrades in a timely manner, and to generate reports to management).
Problem solving - System administration is about solving problems, not memorizing how-to directions. Often something won't work as it should. What will you do then?
Know where to look for help - books, netnews, man pages, on-line.