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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."
PEBKAC
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
from bending them around and whatnot, they develop breaks that can get pushed back together. This is what causes the problem to be intermittent. The cable 'is' bad, not going bad. People need to be more careful in wrapping their cords up. There should be a little bit of slack in the loops or else the slightest bit of pressure will cause them to develop a break.
Rule 1. They lie. End users often tell you what they think you want to hear. When asking a question you should use terms like. What does it say? vs Does it say this?
Rule 2. They don't know they are lying.
Rule 3. Sometimes they are telling the truth. Yes sometimes what you think is impossible really is happening or looks like it is happening.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Never put the screws back in the case until you've tested your new hardware is working.
It's a Unix system - I know this.
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.
Doing some GUI consultant work and writing a few users manuals for some pretty complex software has taught me one thing: Most user error is the fault of crappy software. A good setup (hardware or software) should be easy to use given the users.
Now, obviously it is all about knowing the audience. If you are writing an application for use by other software engineers versus people living in an assisted living home, well, that makes a difference, and you certainly can't cater to all people (for example the guy who writes code for a living but can't setup his own email at home).
The bottom line is, as much as it displeases us, not everyone is a geek. Not everyone cares about the latest firmware for their router, the latest patch for Call of Duty 2, or how to make a projection TV from an old overhead projector and a laptop from eBay. Our job, as geeks, is not to show everyone why they SHOULD care, but rather to make it easy for those who don't care to still do what they need to do.
Just a few minutes ago I got an email forwarded to me from a "stupid" user who couldn't figure out how to perform what to me seems like a simple task in some software my team wrote. We emailed him the directions, even though they were very clearly stated in the manual that I wrote, but I took it one step further. I submitted a feature request in our bug-tracking database to put a message near where what he was trying to do to explain why that option is grayed out.
Anyone can write software or setup hardware that has tons of geek features that we all like, but it takes a lot more effort to make the setup actually usable to the target users.
Treat users with respect even if they are clearly in the wrong. Don't patronise somebody if they haven't got the first idea about computers: educate, don't insult. I'm not a buddhist but the old karma idea of "what goes around, comes around" seems to play out in the long term. Being patient with somebody who's royally screwed up their computer pays off in six months time when you need them to put your expenses claim through accounts at 5pm on a Friday evening/ notice you standing in the rain by your broken down car/..../
Even if you've been doing this for 20 years. If you are working with another technician, have the grace to treat them like an intelligent human being.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I have a friend living the GeekSquad life. I'd never hire him as he believes in their process to fix lockups:
1. It must be this unsupported software: remove Firefox or any F/OSS.
2. It is a virus, your AV is no good, purchase Norton CoverYourAss v9.6 for $49.95.
3. The AV doesn't perform a deep clean by itself, we can run one for $24.95.
4. You need a bigger hard drive, w recommend Norton Ghost to copy it. $199.95 + $49.95.
5. We should install the drive. $24.95 + $8.95 wrist strap.
6. We should run ghost for you, $19.95.
7. You need USB 2.0 ports for your mouse to run faster, $49.95 plus $24.95 installation.
8. Your hard drive cables are old belt style, you needbthe snappy round cables, $29.95 plus $9.95 installation.
9. Your video board is old, the ATI MegaWow XL is only $199.95.
10. You should probably buy one of our Compaq BusinessPro by HP combinations, you burned your TCP/IP converter with static.
I pop open the discarded PC, replace the processor fan and blow out the case. All is fine - $30.
"Rebooting Causes 90% of Unix problems."
Well that is usually a half truth. Usually when you reboot a Unix system you do it for the following reasons.
1. You screwed up and have no alternative Interface to get in.
2. Your system has been on so long that you want to reboot it to see what whent down without it telling you.
3. You need to had hardware and it isn't hot swapable.
4. The disadvantage of downtime out waighs the time it will take to fix it without rebooting.
5. You lost power for an extended period of time.
6. Management tells you so.
7. Upgrading the OS to a level all services need to be restated.
8. There are many unknown processes and you want to be sure you are not stopping an important job.
9. Other...
But normally because the drives have been spinning for years. Having it Stop and then start again. Put strain on them and causes them to die. Or if the system has enough memory the drive may have died years ago but all the data is paged.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I did not say this as a joke, I was surprised it got modded so high. I work at a small service and repair shop, and you'd be surprised how many computers come back within a week or two after leaving the shop because the client did not listen to my suggestions and recommendations. I always tell them, we'd be happier to fix an issue that is caused because you followed our instructions than fixing one because you didn't. Still, they go on, installing file sharing software I did not recommend, ignoring their windows updates, and clicking "yes" or "no" on those bogus system-error messages, as opposed to the red x. And beyond that, we extend the invitation to any client to call us, free of charge, if they're not sure what to do. We're not bastards in here like people at a lot of computer shops, and we're willing to help, for free, if it's not time consuming and we can do it over the phone... but they hardly ever call while they're unsure, but only after they've broken something. I understand that they're not as savvy as us geeks, however, there are a few simple steps that they should follow based on our recommendations. The mechanic tells me to get my oil changed every 2,000 to 3,000 miles, so I listen. The guy at the salt water aquarium store tells me putting an anemonae in a tank is a bad idea, because when it dies (which it will in your little tank) it's going to kill all of your fish, unless you're really lucky... so I avoid the anemonaes. I'm not an expert, so I listen to those who are more knowledgable. Anyway I've talked too much.
australian project gutenberg is better than the original.
God, yes.
"Nothing happens when I check my email."
"Do you get an error message when you try it?"
"There was some dialog on the screen, yeah."
"Grr. What did it say?"
"Oh, I didn't read it"
Aaaarrgggh.
On a 24x7x365 job, I learned the value of walking through the user's work area every weekday morning, first thing.
They started waiting for me to stroll in instead of paging me at night, just to be nice to me.
But the best part was, they thought of me as the guy who keeps the system running, because most of the time that I showed up, the system was running.
My colleagues who only showed up when their systems broke had the reputation "Here comes trouble!"
Taking credit for things going well is essential!
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
The OSI model works in almost all aspects of computing and not just strictly networking.
Application > Presentation > Session > Transport > Network > Data Link > Physical. This order is actually from layer 7 to 1.
If you had followed the OSI model, you would've found out that the *first* thing to do would be to check the physical connection (aka power cord) and found your problem right away.
...is the result of trying to implement 100% of user requests. Sometimes, telling the user "no, you simply can't have that" is the best way to ensure an application isn't horribly poisoned by thousands of totally irrational, non-intuitive crap "features" each piece of which makes sense only to the person who requested it. Worse, such design-by-committee applications are invariably written interface-first, back-end last with no regard to how to actually make the goddamned thing WORK, much less work efficiently.
I agree, good software should be intuitive, but far better to be proactively engineered to be more intuitive, rather than reactively veneered to feel less unintuitive.
-- I speak only for myself
"Rebooting Solves 90% of Windows problems"
Nope. Rebooting only clears 90% of symptoms, it doesn't necessarily make the problems go away. For example, if you have a webserver that's got a memory leak and that leak takes 72 hours to fill RAM to the point that the system becomes unusable, rebooting clears the symptom (unusable system) but doesn't resolve the problem (bug in the webserver). Too many people think that the reboot fixes the problem, so they don't ever bother finding out what the real problem is.
I can't stress enough how valuable one of these, or some other good LiveCD, can be. If the box is Windows, Linux, whatever, keep one handy. One of these things can be priceless if the thing refuses to boot properly, someone deleted NTLDR, X locks up on runlevel 5, your driver interrupts conflict, a recursive script uses all of the PIDs, or any number of problems. Keep a printout of the boot options for the disk, too, to boot the unbootable.