Lecture #8 Administrative Responsibilities

Learner Outcomes

• List and describe the typical responsibilities of a system administrator.
• Itemize resources you have for research and problem solving
• Compare system configuration practices at the text file, system command, and graphical user interface.

Activities

• Admit new students
  1. Add slips
  2. Forum Accounts
  3. Opus Accounts
• PowerPoint Slides
• Viewing three levels of configuration in UNIX/Linux
• Review questions and quiz 1
• Start log books with survey of Gandalf
  1. How many file systems?
  2. Where are they mounted and how full are they?
  3. How many processes are running? How many services?
  4. How many users? How many packages?
  5. anaconda-ks.cfg and install.log
• Change the hostname of the Gandalf Virtual Machine, and take a snapshot of it.

Assignment

• Read Chapter 6 - Adding new Users
• Prepare for Quiz 2 by:
  1. Naming the seven pieces of information that define a UNIX/Linux account
  2. Naming the four files that hold the above information.
  3. Naming two commands that, in combination, allow you to fully create an active user account.

Administrator Responsibilities

1. Setting Up New Systems
   • Checklist for New Systems
     • Become familiar with the hardware
     • Inventory
     • Network Infrastructure
     • Anticipate and plan for backup
     • Forecast future needs
     • Write policies and procedures
     • Liberal budget estimates
     • Accommodate special needs
     • Server configuration
     • Test hardware
     • Test Software
     • Murphy's Law
2. Inheriting Systems
   • Checklist for Inherited Systems
     • Inventory
     • Familiar with current systems
     • Obtain others' notes
     • Order issues by importance and functionality, not user preference
     • Resolve issues quickly
     • Liberal budgets and time estimates
     • Do not assume every system will perform as expected
3. Policies and Procedures
   • Why do we form policies?
   • Fitting the policies to the environment
   • Basic policy requirements
     • Plainly visible
     • Clearly worded
     • Responsibility for implementing and maintaining
     • Flexible

Principles of Maintaining a UNIX/Linux System

1. Files, Devices and Processes
   • Programs
   • Daemons
   • Utilities
   • Scripts
   • Configuration Files
2. The man pages
   Manual pages are organized into sections:
   1. Section 1: System commands available to regular users
   2. Section 2: System calls for programmers
   3. Section 3: C-Library functions for programmers
   4. Section 4: Special files - usually device files
   5. Section 5: File formats
   6. Section 6: Games
   7. Section 7: Conventions and miscellaneous
   8. Section 8: Administrative and privileged commands
3. The Info pages
   Meant to replace man pages but havn't quite done so. Where Info pages have not been written, the system defaults to the corresponding man page.