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Chapter 1. The Philosophy of System Administration

The important thing to note is that it is highly valuable to take a complete inventory of those resources

that are available to you, and to keep it current   a lack of "situational awareness" when it comes to

available resources can often be worse than no awareness at all.

1.5. Know Your Users

Although some people bristle at the term "users" (perhaps due to some system administrators' use of

the term in a derogatory manner), it is used here with no such connotation implied. Users are those

people that use the systems and resources for which you are responsible   no more, and no less. As

such, they are central to your ability to successfully administer your systems; without understanding

your users, how can you understand the system resources they will require?

For example, consider a bank teller. A bank teller will use a strictly defined set of applications, and

requires little in the way of system resources. A software engineer, on the other hand, may use many

different applications, and will always welcome more system resources (for faster build times). Two

entirely different users with two entirely different needs.

Make sure you learn as much about your users as you can.

1.6. Know Your Business

Whether you work for a large, multinational corporation or a small community college, you must still

understand the nature of the business environment in which you work. This can be boiled down to one

question:

What is the purpose of the systems you administer?

The key point here is to understand your systems' purpose in a more global sense:

Applications that must be run within certain time frames, such as at the end of a month, quarter, or

year

The times during which system maintenance may be done

New technologies that could be used to resolve long standing business problems

By taking into account your organization's business, you will find that your day to day decisions will

be better for your users. And for you.

1.7. Security Cannot be an Afterthought

No matter what you might think about the environment in which your systems are running, you cannot

take security for granted. Even standalone systems not connected to the Internet may be at risk (al 

though obviously the risks will be different from a system that has connections to the outside world).

Therefore, it is extremely important to consider the security implications of everything that you do.

The following lists illustrates the different kinds of issues that you should consider:

The nature of possible threats to each of the systems under your care

The location, type, and value of the data on those systems

The type and frequency of authorized access to the systems

While you are thinking about security, do not make the mistake of assuming that possible intruders

will only attack your systems from outside of your company. Many times the perpetrator is someone

within the company. So the next time you walk around the office, look at the people around you and

ask yourself this question: