Tips for being a good BSD system administrator

covacat said:
this is by far the best text about system administators/administration
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Some maniac examples reminded me of a prank:
Code: 
$ ls -al
total 37
drwx------  2 4321 foo      9 Oct 13 22:35 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root wheel    4 Oct 13 22:35 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo    950 Oct 13 22:35 .cshrc
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo    311 Oct 13 22:35 .login
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo     79 Oct 13 22:35 .login_conf
-rw-------  1 4321 foo    289 Oct 13 22:35 .mail_aliases
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo    255 Oct 13 22:35 .mailrc
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo    966 Oct 13 22:35 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 4321 foo   1042 Oct 13 22:35 .shrc
$
$ id
uid=1234(4321) gid=1002(foo) groups=1002(foo)
$
 
Be into problem-solving :D
hedwards said:
The biggest thing is having some sort of centralized place to store documentation about what you're doing and how you're doing it.
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I used DokuWiki for about 10 years. I have OS set-up pages like this for 16.0; earlier I tried figuring out why a game wouldn't start, went to my notes and figured out some tweaks to disable, and eventually found an env (didn't expect no-error to break Wine EGL -> GLX); noted and disabled :cool:
 
Espionage724 said:
Be into problem-solving :D

I used DokuWiki for about 10 years. I have OS set-up pages like this for 16.0; earlier I tried figuring out why a game wouldn't start, went to my notes and figured out some tweaks to disable, and eventually found an env (didn't expect no-error to break Wine EGL -> GLX); noted and disabled :cool:
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I think the key thing is that whatever system is used that there be text involved. Markdown compatible systems are great. I personally like that I can embed portions of pages from elsewhere into other pages, so for things like keeping track of IPs, I can have the list in one place and I can reference it in the page for setting up my reverse proxy.
 
Really? Maybe perl's not getting used so much now then... :'‑(
I dunno, still widely used where I am, but maybe in the outside world not so much. Python, I suppose? Bah... crap language...
 
well sometimes you need something more powerful than awk which is in base
but you can choose between perl, python, tcl, php, lua whatever to do your thing
 
Essential tools:-
- multimeter, something robust like a fluke
- a separate mains power tester can be useful
- pliars, screwdrivers, cable cutters, wire stripers, hammer/mallet, stanley knife, scissors...
- maglite torch, so when you're up on a stepladder peering at the cabling going into the fibre switch at the top of the rack, you can see what you're doing amongst the forest of cables hidden deep inside
- wheelie stand-on stool thing, aluminum step-ladder
- phone, to take photos of screens showing kernel oops, which error LED's on the server are flashing, or whether it's got numeric error codes displayed on the front, and similar stuff
- ear defenders, earplugs
- floor tile lifter
- trolley for carrying heavy kit around
- tape, cable ties, dymo labeller
- beer, coffee, chocolate, video nasty dvd's, etc, to bribe the lab technicians with
etc...

I've never dropped a 2U server or other heavy gear on my foot, but it would be quite easy to do when you're building or dismantling a stand. I never wore safety shoes with steel toecaps either. Maybe I've been lucky.
 
fernandel said:
It is difficult to say because Joyce was an artist and I do not see him as system administrator or computer user..
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Actually I've known several artists and musicians who became system admins. One of the guys I knew played in an orchestra. Another was a film-maker. They were both good sysadmins, their sysadmin jobs were how they survived financially.
 
blackbird9 said:
Really? Maybe perl's not getting used so much now then... :'‑(
I dunno, still widely used where I am, but maybe in the outside world not so much. Python, I suppose? Bah... crap language...
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There are other options, but IMHO, Perl is just hard to beat for being able to sit down and quickly bang out some code to solve a problem. Although, there's also Raku. Personally, I think Perl has a low enough barrier to entry and enough libraries out there that it probably should be the default language to use for system administration tasks if you need more than what Bourne can do.
 
Raku aka Perl 6 is over-complicated, it's too big, regardless of how 'perfect' it is. Perl 5 is the weapon of choice, imho, we use it all the time here, along with shell of course. A lot of people try to use python but it doesn't really cut it, it always seems to end up with an even worse mess than perl. Ruby seems to have more or less vanished, I don't know anyone using it. Of course that might just be around here, it's a big world out there.
 
Another talented painter I knew got a job working on the railways. It's pretty tough making a living as an artist, unless you get some advertising executive to bankroll you. 😬
 
blackbird9 said:
- phone, to take photos of screens showing kernel oops, and similar stuff
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That's certainly one mandatory tool for IBM service engineers, plus their personal WiFi hotspot. With just these tools they can send photos and converse with a product specialist some place in the world where an IBM support centre is open for business. Plus the phone has a good flash light...

Also, a cell phone camera is a fantastic general tool for documenting physical things before you make any changes.
blackbird9 said:
I've never dropped a 2U server or other heavy gear on my foot, but it would be quite easy to do when you're building or dismantling a stand. I never wore safety shoes with steel toecaps either.
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Ditto, but I have bent some rack slides, so came awfully close to dropping the server! If you do that sort of work, a server lift (a fork lift for rack mounting servers) is mandatory.
 
Yes I forgot about the lift, a small trolley with a hydraulic lifting jack built in, we've got one of those. I just had a look on the web, there are much better ones available now with electric lift motors. My place has a very old one of these manual ones, painted blue.

1792062029959.png

Yes, phone is also very useful for checking cabling; take a quick photo round the back of the rack, then escape from the hurricane noise, run back upstairs where it's quiet, and study the photo at leisure in the peace and quiet, then you can check all the cables are in the right sockets, provided you labelled your cables. Much more pleasant than trying to check everything with the racket of the fans going on around you.

One other really good thing you can do in a server room, is when you get into work in the morning and it's freezing cold and you've got numb hands and feet because you just push-biked in through the frost and snow, disappear down to the server room for ten minutes and go stand around the back, behind some big racks, in the warm air stream coming out of the servers. Lovely and toasty, one of the best ways I've found to warm up fast! 😂 Now I know how the cat feels when she stretches out on the car bonnet after a drive.
 
This is my favourite server room torch.
1792064265574.png


Also got one of these, they are excellent. You can light up the whole of the back of a rack with bright light with one of these, it makes such a difference being able to see everything really clearly. It's got a rechargable battery on the back so you can carry it around without needing to plug it in. And the steel frame is strong and robust so it will stand some knocking around.
1792064412995.png
 
6502 said:
Seems like being a sysadmin today is what being a taxi driver was like back in the day.
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It's one of those jobs where the systems mostly just need to run properly, but you still want somebody on hand in case something goes wrong. If you've got your productivity system in place and have the things automated that should be automated, there shouldn't be a lot of actual work going on at any given time.

Time Management for System Administrators by Limoncelli and Automating System Administration with Perl by Blank-Edleman are probably ones worth having, but probably more after the basics of system administration are learned.

EDIT: It does kind of remind me of how the best sysadmins are often times the laziest ones that never seem to do any actual work because it's all automated and running smoothly.
 
Once upon atime ( 1998 ) Linda Mccharty wrote this book about the SYSDMIN's nightmares.

Stories from the trenches - Intranet security
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K91UY82

It was then republished Five years later as IT security - Risking the Corporation.

IT Security: Risking the Corporation: McCarthy, Linda: 9780131011120: Networking: Amazon Canada

Up to 90% off Textbooks at Amazon Canada. Plus, free two-day shipping for six months when you sign up for Amazon Prime for Students.
www.amazon.ca

Its out of print now but an eyeopener if you can find it for an acceptable price.
 
joelp said:
I have a production server in my work and a personal server in my home, but I also detected some regressions on PF, the one related to securelevel, it was fixed on stable/15 but it hasn't been applied to release/15.1, so I'm waiting for 15.2-RELEASE with that fix, but I don't know about that issue related to NAT rules. Have you reported it to Bugzilla already?
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Yep, it's been reported here and the patch has already been committed. It might be in stable/15 by now.
 
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