Day-to-Day Administrative tasks.
Systems can not just be installed and forgotten about. Whether your computer system is cloud based that is outsourced on to the Internet, or running on a local server in a closet, the following other tasks that an administrator needs to take care of on a day-to-day basis.- 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 email messages on your servers.
- Setup new user server accounts.
- Setup email accounts or alias names.
- Re-Setting user's
passwords.
Additional System Administration Tasks
Below
is a list of the tasks that a system administrator may be
expected to perform less often than day-to-day. 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.
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