IST346: System Administration

1. IST346: System Administration Ch 1 & 2

2. Agenda Reading Discussion What does a system administrator do? SA Challenges The SA Profession

3. Reading discussion

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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.

7. What is a system administrator? Do we really need people to do this? • 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&feature=player_embedded

8. 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.

9. Which Phone is more complex? Easier to use? Why do they both exist? Phone A Phone B?

10. Why use “A” when “B” is easier to use? Product A Product B

11. As devices get easier, SA gets harder POTS -vs- 3G and 4G networks Wired networking –vs- Wireless / WIFI Laptops / Notebooks –vs- desktops / workstations

12. Sysadmins have many different job titles Pick a Domain… Pick a Role… And you’re well on your way to creating an SA job title!  • System • Network • IT • Operations • Windows/Linux/Unix • Security • Operator • Administrator • Engineer • Specialist • Architect

13. 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

14. Example: iSchool IT Services Helpdesk 1 TriageLauren 1 Jr Sa.Matt Jr. SaTom 2 WebMike C LMSPeggy Sr. SaMike LabsJames 3

15. 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

16. Example: SU “Orange Tracker” https://ot.syr.edu Build on JIRA. Customizable.

17. What does an SA do???

18. 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

19. 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!

20. 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

21. 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?

22. 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)

23. 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?

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. SA Challenges

27. 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)

28. 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

29. 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.

30. The SA Profession

31. 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

32. This brings us to our sponsor of the week….

33. Not to be confused with the lesser-knownLOPSA-OPSA

34. 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

35. 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, MCSEhttp://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

36. Server Quest II • http://www.microsoft.com/click/serverquest/ • 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”

37. Questions?