Top 7 Things System Administrators Forget To Do
The O’Reilly Sysadmin Blog has a nice piece on things sysadmins forget to do. Most of them relate to common tasks that fall by the wayside. I think programmers and sysadmins alike have a tendency to prefer interesting, more intellectually challenging activities over things like managing users or root access. The good thing about this is that these kinds of menial tasks can often be automated by programs like cfengine or puppet.
Even for those tasks that cannot be fully automated, such as keeping documentation, there are plenty of applications out there to assist in the process. For example, we’ve found that keeping documentation, notes and fixes in a wiki is a great way to keep information organized.
Personally, one of the tasks I often forget is to keep packages managed and up-to-date. Luckily, this is a lot easier than it used to be with programs like apt-get and yum.
Finally, I think we can all appreciate the reminder to always keep a friendly attitude: “If you want support from management, consider remembering that the user you offend today could wind up on the board of directors. Regardless of that possibility, system administrators should always remember that their clients are internal and if you want to keep your job, be good to your clients.”
