1. Introduction to System Administration
CSCI N321 – System and Network Administration
Copyright © 2000, 2012 by Scott Orr and the Trustees of Indiana University

2. Section Overview What is a System Administrator? Personal Perspectives
Ethics
Documentation

3. References
CQU COIT13146 Study Guide
Chapters 1-3

4. What is a System Administrator?
Someone who takes care of the systems others are using.
System Running
Smoothly and Efficiently
Users able to work in
Easy and Efficient Manner

5. Sysadmin .sig file
“My job is like an airplane pilot's -- When I'm doing it well, you might not even notice me, but my mistakes are often quite spectacular.”
Source: Unknown

6. System Administration Tasks
User Management
Hardware Management
Software Management
System Monitoring & Troubleshooting
Documentation & Help Desk
Backups
Automation, Planning, Policies, and Auditing
Firefighting!!!

7. The Good… Lots of variety Challenging Fulfilling Pays well
Very employable

8. The Bad… Annoying at times Long hours May not be your only job Users
Management
Vendor Tech Support
Long hours
May not be your only job

9. And the Ugly… Most people don’t understand the job
When things go well…
Go unnoticed
“They don’t do anything”
Game players
Web Surfers, Facebook, etc.
Important to document everything

10. And the Ugly (Con’t.)… When there is a problem…
Everyone is looking for you
Highly stressful
Some blame you for the problem
May graduate to “Miracle Worker” status once problem is fixed 

11. Sage Advice…
Kirk: “Scotty, Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?”
Scotty: “How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?” ~Star Trek IV
“Starship captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. The secret is to give them what they need, not what they want.” ~ST:TNG - Relics

12. SAGE/LOPSA Code of Ethics
Professionalism
Personal Integrity
Privacy
Laws and Policies
Communication
System Integrity
Education
Responsibility to Computing Community
Social Responsibility
Ethical Responsibility
“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse”
~Edmund Burke

13. Documentation Enables you to recreate system Contents include Wikis
Configuration information
Policies and procedures
Useful commands and resources
Daily log of modifications
Wikis
Request/Ticket Systems

14. Documentation Wiki

15. Ticket Systems

16. Conference!!!