1. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
People
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

2. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Topics
Organizations
Perception and Visibility
Time Management
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

3. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Sizing
Questions
How many people do you need?
Which people do you need?
Categories
Customer/desktop support
Customer server support
Infrastructure support
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

4. Scaling the Organization
Small Company
1-2 SAs, no formal helpdesk
Need helpdesk software at around 20 employees
Medium Company
Need formal helpdesk by 1000 employees.
SAs specialize by OS or task (network, security)
Large Company
Well-staffed helpdesk with 2nd tier support team.
Highly specialized SAs.
Formal communication paths.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

5. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Cost Centers
IT is viewed as a cost center, not a profit ctr.
De-centralized Model
Each business group has its own IT staff.
SAs provide better service, have more visibility.
Centralized Model
One central IT group supports everything.
Groups have incentive to maximize usage.
Unless groups are billed for their resource usage.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

6. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Infrastructure Teams
Infrastructure must be consistent and interoperable across different sites.
Routing
Authentication
Infrastructure teams may be centralized or distributed across sites.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

7. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Customer Service
Centralized Support
Good automation improves support.
Better communication w/ SAs than customers.
De-centralized Support
Better communication with customer base.
Handling requests may dominate infrastructure needs.
Centralize help desk contact.
Have single phone number to call.
Have single address / request tracking.
Each large site needs its own physical help desk.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

8. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Outsourcing
When should you outsource?
Small organization.
Basic computing needs.
When should you not outsource?
Large organization.
Need for high availability systems.
Need for high levels of security.
Internet site generates revenue.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

9. Consultants and Contractors
Bring in outside expertise your SAs don’t have.
Useful for introducing new technologies.
Must work with in-house SAs to ensure maintainability of new services.
Contractors
Perform same tasks as current in-house SAs.
Use contractors to allow SAs to work on new development projects.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

10. Perception and Visibility
Perception: A qualitative measure of how people see you.
Visibility: A quantitative measure of much people see you.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

11. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Perception is Reality
If customers don’t know you exist, you don’t exist.
If customers can’t see evidence of your activities, they’ll assume you’re doing nothing.
If it takes a long time to resolve customer requests, customers will assume you’re lazy or incompetent.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

12. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
First Impressions
Ensure customer is set up for first day.
PC is installed and configured.
Account is created.
Customer knows where to get support.
Meeting customers
Be on time.
Be polite, friendly.
Listen.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

13. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Attitude
Who do you support?
lusers
users
customers
Align your priorities with their expectations
Satisfy “small” requests quickly.
Prioritize larger requests.
Customers aren’t always right
Some requests have unexpected impacts.
Others are too expensive, time-consuming.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

14. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Be an Advocate
“System clerk”
Do requests when received.
Do infrastructure work when asked by mngr.
Advocate
Automate simple tasks.
Advocate customer needs to manager.
Involved in planning new projects.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

15. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Visibility Paradox
SAs aren’t noticed when everything works.
100% uptime takes tremendous effort.
SAs are noticed when something breaks.
SA becomes a hero by fixing down server, &c.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

16. Managing your Visibility
System Status Web Page
Make it your customers home page.
Include useful content so they keep using it.
Announce down services so customers know you’re on top of the situation.
Management meetings
Meet with customer managers to inform them of the status of projects relevant to their groups.
Learn their needs and priorities.
Newsletters
Regular updates, FAQs, etc.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

17. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Time Management
Why is it hard?
SA is interrupt-driven work.
Convert interrupts into requests.
Follow through
Resolve all requests in a timely fashion.
Make it to all meetings on time.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

18. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Principles
One “database” for time management information (use one organizer).
Conserve your brain power for what's important (conserve RAM).
Develop routines and stick with them (reuse code libraries; don't reinvent the wheel).
Develop habits and mantras (replace runtime calculations with precomputed decisions).
Maintain focus during “project time.”
Manage your social life with the same tools you use for your work life.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

19. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
One Database
Use one organizer
Digital (PDA)
Analog (notebook)
Take it with you everywhere.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

20. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Conserve Brain Power
Write it down
Use request tracking system for requests.
Use organizer for other to-do items.
Use wiki or notes file for instructions.
Memory is fallible.
You will forget.
You will waste time worrying about what you forgot.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

21. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Develop Routines
Do your daily planning every morning.
Do backups on a regular schedule.
Re-use code from previous scripts.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

22. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Habits
Trust your processes.
Don’t skip planning on busy days.
Don’t put off essential tasks on hectic days.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

23. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Maintain Focus
Ensure you’re not interrupted when working on projects.
Deal with interrupts appropriately
Resolve critical issues as needed.
File requests for other issues.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

24. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
One System
Manage your social life in your organizer too.
Avoids conflicts between work/social events.
Ensures that you do something other than work.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

25. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Daily Planning
Start the day by planning
Review to-do list.
Prioritize tasks.
Schedule tasks.
Should only take about 5 minutes.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

26. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
Touch All Paper Once
Process each mail message completely.
Throw it away.
Resolve the problem, then throw it away.
Respond to it, then throw it away.
File it.
Don’t put it in a pile to read later.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration

27. CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration
References
Mark Burgess, Principles of System and Network Administration, Wiley, 2000.
Aeleen Frisch, Essential System Administration, 3rd edition, O’Reilly, 2002.
Thomas A. Limoncelli and Christine Hogan, The Practice of System and Network Administration, Addison-Wesley, 2002.
Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators, O’Reilly, 2005.
Evi Nemeth et al, UNIX System Administration Handbook, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2001.
CIT 470: Advanced Network and System Administration