what does a system administrator do?

[Marcus Brubaker]

Franco,

There are, from my view, a few things in no particular order that you 
should be doing but didn't mention.

1. Backups!  Maybe they're happening but if they're not, do it.  And 
make sure to test them from time to time to make sure the backups are 
working as expected.  Students (and teachers) will be very grumpy if 
they loose work/email/whatever because a HD died and you didn't have backup.

2. Software updates.  Get on the mailing list of RHEL updates and be 
sure that you know when security critical package updates are released 
and that you a) know if it applies to your machines and b) update as 
soon as possible if it does.

3. System monitoring.  Occasional checks on server system logs for 
unusual behaviour, error messages and other things.  Utilities like 
logwatch are helpful here.

These things are, however, largely passive and won't consistently 
require 10-15 hours per week.  Most of your time will likely be spent 
doing exactly what you have been, helping users.  And, every now and 
then, something will blow up and you'll spend 40 hours one week fixing 
things.

Regards,
Marcus

Franco Saliola wrote:

>Hello there everyone.
>
>In September I took over a part-time system administrator position for
>small university computer lab. It has about 20 computers. They're all
>linux machines, running RedHat Enterprise Linux. The position is
>supposed to be the equivalent of a teaching-assistantship (10-15 hours
>per week) at the university (I'm a graduate student and avoiding
>freshman by administering). I basically got the job because no one
>else wanted it (and because I have some linux experience).
>
>Besides a near hard drive failure on the mail/http server, there have
>not been many problems. In fact, this job has required very little of
>me, most of my time is spent helping users with specific problems (How
>do I listen to CBC radio online? How do I set environment variables?
>How do I print single-sided?) So I'm wondering if I'm doing something
>wrong. So here is the question.
>
>What should a system administrator be doing? Or what is expected of a
>system administrator?
>
>Do you have any suggestions for resources for a good administrator
>book (with an emphasize on security preferably)?
>
>Thanks for your time,
>Franco
>
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