Chapter 1. General Hints for System Administrators

Table of Contents

Introduction
Reading list for administrators
Installation and Configuration Checklist
Administrators file summary
Keeping a record of your system
System Log
Hardware Configuration and Compatibility
Software Checklist
Backup Log
A review of some of basic commands

Introduction

To define the responsibilities of an administrator 100% at this time would be impossible for us to do, the scope of this job would have to depend on the size of the system or network that you are working with, the numbers of users involved, the amount of resources available to you and the type of applications that the users would be using.

However one thing is for sure and that is that doing the work of a system administrator is fairly time consuming - look at the shell scripting course and get a good idea of how to automate some of the processes.

If we were to itemize the type of jobs that you may have to do the first would have to be to analyze the system(s) that you are working with and the users needs.

The second could very well be to install the operating system or to install some of the desktops and the third and maybe most important to automate would be to maintain the system that you have established.

In order to ensure that your foundation installation is solid check the following guidelines and fill in the missing information where required.

Remember that "Knowledge is power" and when installing a system the more knowledge you have the better the installation will be.