Below is a list of some of the more common tasks that a system
administrator may be expected to perform.
In real life, for any given position, a system administrator may
be required to do more or fewer tasks than those listed here.
- Planning - cost, capacity planning, logistics
(network design, server locations, where to install, wiring,
IP address assignments, ...), network service providers
(ISPs)
- 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
- 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 (
www.tldp.org,
docs.sun.com, www.redhat.com, ...)