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Top 10 System Administrator Truths
Vo0k writes "What are your top ten system administrator truths? We all know them already, but it's still fun re-telling them. Stuff like "90% of all hardware-related problems come from loose connectors", even though you already know it's true, may save you from replacing the "faulty" motherboard if you recall it at the right time."
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Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
The solution to the problem is almost always simpler than you think. You can often cause more problems trying to fix a problem then the original problem itself. When you try one thing and it doesn't work, reverse the changes before trying the next thing and document each change.
Bradley Holt
http://www.misterorange.com.nyud.net:8090/2005/12/ top-10-system-administrator-truths.html
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Seriously, the "90% of all hardware-related problems come from loose connectors" bit is found nowhere in the article or on google for that matter...
I frequently use wildcards for deletion, even large constructs like "rm vm[1-4]/*.bak" - the trick I use is to make sure that I always run "ls vm[1-4]/*.bak" first, to make sure I know exactly what is and isn't going to get matched.
Its a fairly simple thing to remember, and it does prevent me being suprised by unexpected glob matches.
Dell techs seem to be very good at wiping out arrays. You're the third guy I've heard mention that (and it has happened to me, personally).
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
You want to spot the real pro in the machine room he (or she) has a vacuum cleaner in one hand and a Brother p-touch in the other. I honestly beleive there is a direct linear relationship between the efficiency and uptime of a shop and how anal they are about labelling stuff. I want to open a front door of a rack and see every server's hostname and every removable media device clearly labelled. I know YOU know that that CD-ROM drive is drive D: on the frodo server but I ain't got time to try to figure that out. Even more importantly I similarly want EVERY cable in the back of the rack to have some kind of useful label on both ends (unless it is less than a foot long then just one end is OK).
Symantec fixes hardware now, too? Man, and I thought their software was bloated when it just protected against viruses...
How do you think they make money?
On a $20 house call?
I worked in a retail shop as a tech after a period of unemployment and jobs were tough.
I KNEW I was gone at the very next job when the boss described the pc repair operations should be run "like the car repair shops". You know, while I got the 'hood' off it looks like you could use some more memory or another hard drive, etc, etc. Talking to customers about their pcs and upgrades is one thing, pestering them endlessly about stuff the don't need is another. But thats how one makes money (and it is pretty easy to do).
They Live, We Sleep
It may not be GeekSquad's operation, but this guy worked that way. I'm watching closely to see if he gets fired or if they keep him on after the busy Christmas season.
I do know of one really decent guy who works at GeekSquad in my town, and I've been thinking of stealing him once our business gets through the Jan/Feb dip. I make sure I meet most of the GeekSquad employees as often as possible to weed up the real entrepreneurs from the future ITT-commercial actors.
Of course, YMMV. One of my customers that left us has been VERY happy with GeekSquad, although I know (from talking with the employees down the chain) that they'll be coming back in a few months. Money saved doesn't always equate to profits made.
Don't hang the hub by the cables, no matter how thick the ethernet and tiny and tiny the hub. Don't let 2m of cable hang from the switch on the high shelf down to the hole by the floor. It will work the first month or two, then will start to mysteriously fail. The most basic reason behind all these ports failing is that the cable puts stress on a port. Just attach all the cables half a meter away from the hub with ducttape or nails or staples or whatever, don't let them hang though, keep them loose, always leave at least minimal slack.
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>>I know this was said as a joke, but I see this a lot amongst the geek community, the attitude that users just don't know what they are doing, and that is why they can't make anything work.
The reason you see it so often is because it is so true. User is a broad term, and I use it as anyone who is touching the system aside from the administrators (bosses, subordinates, that monkey down the hall). I work as a sys admin in a lab at the university I am currently attending and the worse things happen because a user thinks they know what they are doing when they don't. Here are a few of my favorite examples.
In the defense of the user, those who "know" what they are doing often makes mistakes as well. My favorite example of this is when the IT office calls and tells me that I have a virus on my webserver and it opened a port that is getting a large amount of traffic. I was told to fix the problem immediately or my port would be shut off. Naturally I asked which port... the answer? Port 80. After a short technical explaination they agreed to leave my port alone if I would at least do a scan. I scanned with a few antivirus and spyware programs as well as looked at a hijackthis log. Surprise surprise, the system was clean
Alternative: Leave the password printed in big letters around. Let only the user know how to read it.
See topic of this post.
R:UTP,wm,bm!
Great password, isn't it?
Just look around the user's seat for texts. They are there. Posters, manuals, regulations, brand names, directions, manuals. Something the user always has around them. Pick first letters of the words, retain capitalization, include all the semigraphics, optionally include 1337sp33ch pieces if it seems too weak. Instruct the user how to use. "Here, this book cover. It spells out your password." They won't forget.
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Dell, Dell, Dell. The customer at one site decided to buy into Dell's 'home-grown' mid-tier SAN offering in that brief period of time around 2001 after Dell and EMC had parted ways and before Dell came back to its senses and re-partnered with EMC. The re-badged EMC Clariion controllers + arrays on a Brocade fabric had not given us a single issue in the year they'd been in use, but this new demonic half-breed SAN shows up as part of the "new Win2K SAN" (yes, this customer ended up with 4, I kid you not, 4 different and non-connected SANs in the same physical server room).
:), and their entry-level to midrange server offerings aren't significantly worse than anyone else's, but may I be damned to the foulest depths of Hell if I ever recommend their storage systems and professional enterprise services to anyone. Ever.
Dell techs came, and Dell techs went. We had a former field-circus clown who was "certified" on this new storage system sitting in our server room, leafing through the product manual and scratching his head while customers were ranting and raving about not being able to get to their files. The cluster software didn't work. Various bits of the hardware routinely committed seppuku rather than operate with that demon of a storage system. The Dell-trained installers ran the cables backwards between the disk trays and the controller (gee, I wonder where all these fiber-channel errors are coming from). Files mysteriously disappeared. Various VPs within Dell called and made weekly pledges of earnestness in an effort to not get their product thrown out of the server room.
A few months after all this, Dell quietly discontinued their 'home-grown' SAN products and went back to EMC.
I'm happy to use their laptops and desktops as long as someone else pays for it
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - Major Mike Shearer, UK