A Day in the Life of a

1
Oklahoma Information Technology Mentorship Program
A Day in the Life of a Systems Administrator
So you want to be a sysadmin? Presented by
Austin Grice and Gayathri Swaminathan
2
whois austin
3
whois gayathri

• Programmer Analyst
• Junior systems administrator
• Remote applications engineer
• Systems Engineer
• worked in Unix/Linux since 2002
• performed large scale deployments since 2004
• implemented ERPs since 2008

4
What is a sysadmin?
System users
Applications
DBA
Storage
Operations
Systems Engineer
Network
Security
Analysts
Developers
Image credithttp//personalpages.manchester.ac.uk
/staff/m.dodge/
5
whereis problem
Image creditPrologue Films VFX for Marvel Studios
6
grep clues

• Large infrastructure tied to service(s)
• Constant refresh projects
• Inconsistent or specific configurations
• Tough to measure and metric
• Tough to scale
• No hope for automation
• How do you document mammoth architectures of
  different types?
• Instant large learning curve for new hires

7
find solutions
Adjust the perspectives!
Credithttp//www.hubblesite.org/
8
diff solution1 solution2 solution3...

• - Monitor monitor monitor
• - System profiling
• - Isolated test environment
• Figure initial requirements
• Record behaviors
• Analyze metrics and identify the useful ones
• Develop architecture
• Narrow design constraints
• Benchmark
• Load and regression tests
• - A great place to get your teams to
  collaborate!

9
which solution
10
Model system
10
Standard host profiles
Hypervisor OS
Standard storage profile
Standard network profile
Standard system profile
Standard metrics and monitors
Credit http//www.flickr.com/photos/jonfisher/465
778825/sizes/z/in/photostream/
11
vi behavior
12
Iterative life cycle
Gather requirements
Profile system
Dependencies
Define metrics
Discuss placement of Security controls
Collect system behaviors
Expect non-predictable behaviors
Start communications on integrations
Initiate conversations on external interfaces
13
Tool chest
14
Now we have been introduced...
A few questions to you!
- How many of you can play a musical instrument?
- Do you keep a log of number of lines of code
you have written?
- Who uses your code?
- Who could use your code?
- Raise your hand if you ever thought, I could
write software for that!
- How many of you use Linux?
- How many of you use Unix/Linux?
- How many of you have been in white board
sessions with your professor or classmates?
15
The Unix Philosophy

• Small is beautiful.
• Make each program do one thing well.
• Build a prototype as soon as possible.
• Choose portability over efficiency.
• Store numerical data in flat ASCII files.
• Use software leverage to your advantage.
• Use shell scripts to increase leverage and
  portability.
• Avoid captive user interfaces.
• Make every program a filter.
• Credit Mike Gancarz
• Also refer Notes of programming in C - Rob Pike
  
• - http//www.lysator.liu.se/c/pikestyle.html