System administrator, it systems administrator – a very popular job. The place to find a system administrator in any organization that has computers, and is now everywhere. Let’s try to talk about the principles of a good sysadmin. The ode of praise to sing won’t, everything will be brief and without water.
Principle 1: do no harm
Like doctors, the basic principle of the sysadmin work needs to do no harm. We must not forget that the network and individual computer – it is not a platform for endless experimentation. It is a working tool, with which other users (managers, accountants, programmers, etc.) make money – both his own and the company money. Therefore, any changes in the configuration of the existing system should not bring her harm.
It is unlikely that the sysadmin will create problems on purpose, most likely, through ignorance or negligence. Especially if it’s a young and inexperienced specialist, you want to experiment, a lot of enthusiasm, I want to do what’s best, but not always, the result meets expectations. So you need not use a brush, and be able to quickly get everything back the way it was, and even better — to make changes to a running system without apparent need.
Principle 2: no need to save the company money
Remember: if the company is not ready anything to buy, so that’s not her. Imagine you went to work as a regular driver. You won’t do the X5 from Fields? You drive on what you provided – in the Field. So no need to use pirated versions of programs or operating systems. If the software needs of the company, it will surely buy it or will cost somehow without him.
Principle 3: the system administrator – not the teacher
The duties of the system administrator are not part of the train users on the computer. Processing to work, any employee delivers the summary, which usually means that he knows how to work a computer, use office applications (same Word, Excel), able to print documents, etc. The system administrator should not engage in training. To do this, or have special training or HR Department – we need to hire people that are relevant to your post, not to take everyone.
Principle 4: be prepared for anything
Can break anything – even the most reliable and expensive equipment comes with the system. It can simply be burned in the fire, to be filled with water during a flood, or simply being stolen.
There is no absolutely reliable hardware and software. However, the admin should be ready to eliminate the consequences of failure in the shortest possible time.
Principle 5: the backup does not happen much
Backup not only allows you to recover information in the event of a failure but also to access previous versions of that information. The depth, quantity, and reliability of the backup storage must be agreed upon with the management company.
Also, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket – in addition to local backups, you need to create a backup in the cloud – in case of failure/theft local backup. Confused with the fact that you took last night, 1C database backup to the local NAS if the night it was stolen along with the server 1C?
Principle 6: Trust, but verify
Regularly check the backups created. Little to backup, it is important to make sure that it works and can actually recover the system. Therefore, it is necessary to arrange regularly verify your backups. It may be that the copy produced is simply unreadable. Errors creep in the software to create backups.
Principle 7: the user needs to be disenfranchised
The smaller the standard user rights, the more reliable the system will work. Limit user access to resources, applications, and information to a level that is required only to perform their duties.
Principle 8: plan, plan and plan again
Remember that you need to measure 7 times and only cut once. Similarly with the build system: better a little slower, but to do it qualitatively, providing the further growth of the system. When you have one server and a few dozens (or even just one) of users, you can do whatever you want and how everything will work. But when the number of servers will be in the tens, and the number of users – hundreds or thousands, the mess will begin. Or will not start, if you care about scalability even at the design stage (planning) of the system. You can choose between a quiet life or a mess.
Principle 9: always bring it started to end
A good sysadmin is one that brings all launched tasks to finish. You need to be able to concentrate on one task and not switch from one task to another and as a result, will not be ready for either one of them.
Principle 10: in any unclear situation go to drink tea or coffee
The time spent drinking a Cup of drink always pays off. During this time, you can think about solutions to problems, rather than trying to solve them in the heat of passion – in this condition you can cause more harm than good.