Fundamental System Administration Tools • Establishing a discipline of carrying out daily,
weekly, and monthly tasks is necessary in
Fundamental Sysadmin Tasks
maintaining systems, identifying slowly
• The daily tasks performed by a system growing problems, and preparing for
administrator require specialized as well as unexpected problems.
common tools.
• Avoid using root or administrator as much as
– System administration requires a way possible. Use a less privileged account, for
of working that is: which mistakes will be less drastic.
• craftsman-like, • Avoid using wildcard characters, such as the
asterisk (*), when running as root or
• strives for a working practice administrator.
aimed at producing robust,
secure, and reliable systems. • Make it a habit to create backup copies of files
before you edit.
– This chapter examines tools and
practices common to many system • Allow plenty of time to complete the tasks you
administrations tasks. need to perform.
• System administrators are knowledgeable Moving Around the File Tree
users of the systems they manage.
• The most basic tasks of system administration
– They need to know how to: involve the manipulation of file storage.
• navigate the file system, – Understanding file system navigation
tools, and being able to use them, are
• use basic user-level tools, basic to managing a system.
• use the ubiquitous vi editor, • Both UNIX and Windows organize disk storage
• combine commands using into a tree structure.
pipes, – UNIX unifies all file storage space,
• employ a variety of graphical disks, remote file systems, and entries
tools. for devices and communications end
points into a single tree.
– It is assumed for the purposes to have
a basic knowledge of the Windows and – Windows takes the approach of
UNIX user environments. creating a forest of trees, one for each
disk or remote file system or share,
Good Practices with separate named entities (e.g., c:,
• Good working practices are the threads that tie lpt0)
together the tasks performed by the Sysadmin. – Files within the file trees can be
• Good practices make tasks easier to referred to by their full path names,
reproduce, preserve system traversing the tree from the root to the
security/robustness, and maintain system leaf and listing each directory as it is
functionality. passed.
• System administrator involves managing – Although providing the full path
details. completely specifies the location of a
file, it is more common to use a
– Knowing how a system is configured, relative path; one that starts in your
what patches have been applied, what current location.
services the system needs or provides,
and any number of other items is a • Commands for traversal of the file tree:
tremendous aid in solving problems. – cd / chdir Change Directory
• Another part of the job is continual learning.
weekly, and monthly tasks is necessary in
Fundamental Sysadmin Tasks
maintaining systems, identifying slowly
• The daily tasks performed by a system growing problems, and preparing for
administrator require specialized as well as unexpected problems.
common tools.
• Avoid using root or administrator as much as
– System administration requires a way possible. Use a less privileged account, for
of working that is: which mistakes will be less drastic.
• craftsman-like, • Avoid using wildcard characters, such as the
asterisk (*), when running as root or
• strives for a working practice administrator.
aimed at producing robust,
secure, and reliable systems. • Make it a habit to create backup copies of files
before you edit.
– This chapter examines tools and
practices common to many system • Allow plenty of time to complete the tasks you
administrations tasks. need to perform.
• System administrators are knowledgeable Moving Around the File Tree
users of the systems they manage.
• The most basic tasks of system administration
– They need to know how to: involve the manipulation of file storage.
• navigate the file system, – Understanding file system navigation
tools, and being able to use them, are
• use basic user-level tools, basic to managing a system.
• use the ubiquitous vi editor, • Both UNIX and Windows organize disk storage
• combine commands using into a tree structure.
pipes, – UNIX unifies all file storage space,
• employ a variety of graphical disks, remote file systems, and entries
tools. for devices and communications end
points into a single tree.
– It is assumed for the purposes to have
a basic knowledge of the Windows and – Windows takes the approach of
UNIX user environments. creating a forest of trees, one for each
disk or remote file system or share,
Good Practices with separate named entities (e.g., c:,
• Good working practices are the threads that tie lpt0)
together the tasks performed by the Sysadmin. – Files within the file trees can be
• Good practices make tasks easier to referred to by their full path names,
reproduce, preserve system traversing the tree from the root to the
security/robustness, and maintain system leaf and listing each directory as it is
functionality. passed.
• System administrator involves managing – Although providing the full path
details. completely specifies the location of a
file, it is more common to use a
– Knowing how a system is configured, relative path; one that starts in your
what patches have been applied, what current location.
services the system needs or provides,
and any number of other items is a • Commands for traversal of the file tree:
tremendous aid in solving problems. – cd / chdir Change Directory
• Another part of the job is continual learning.
