what does a system administrator do?

[David Thornton]

One point of view:

www.sage.org

david

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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>  
>

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