The Practice of System and Network Administration

1052 Pages·2007·5.89 MB·English

by  Thomas A. Limoncelli

The Practice of System and
Network Administration
Second Edition
This page intentionally left blank
The Practice of System
and Network
Administration
Second Edition
Thomas A. Limoncelli
Christina J. Hogan
Strata R. Chalup
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Limoncelli,Tom.
The practice of system and network administration / Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christina J.
Hogan,StrataR.Chalup.—2nded.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-321-49266-1(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Computernetworks—Management.2. Computersystems.
I.Hogan,Christine.II.Chalup,StrataR.III.Title.
TK5105.5.L532007
004.6068–dc22
2007014507
Copyright(cid:1)c 2007ChristineHogan,ThomasA.Limoncelli,Virtual.NETInc.,andLumeta
Corporation.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected
by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means,
electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orlikewise.Forinformationregardingper-
missions,writeto:
PearsonEducation,Inc.
RightsandContractsDepartment
75ArlingtonStreet,Suite300
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Fax:[phone]
ISBN13:978-0-321-49266-1
ISBN10: 0-321-49266-8
TextprintedintheUnitedStatesonrecycledpaperatRRDonnelleyinCrawfordsville,Indiana.
Firstprinting,June2007
Contents at a Glance
Part I Getting Started 1
Chapter 1 What to Do When ... 3
Chapter 2 Climb Out of the Hole 27
Part II Foundation Elements 39
Chapter 3 Workstations 41
Chapter 4 Servers 69
Chapter 5 Services 95
Chapter 6 Data Centers 129
Chapter 7 Networks 187
Chapter 8 Namespaces 223
Chapter 9 Documentation 241
Chapter 10 Disaster Recovery and Data Integrity 261
Chapter 11 Security Policy 271
Chapter 12 Ethics 323
Chapter 13 Helpdesks 343
Chapter 14 Customer Care 363
Part III Change Processes 389
Chapter 15 Debugging 391
Chapter 16 Fixing Things Once 405
Chapter 17 Change Management 415
Chapter 18 Server Upgrades 435
Chapter 19 Service Conversions 457
Chapter 20 Maintenance Windows 473
Chapter 21 Centralization and Decentralization 501
v
vi ContentsataGlance
Part IV Providing Services 521
Chapter 22 Service Monitoring 523
Chapter 23 Email Service 543
Chapter 24 Print Service 565
Chapter 25 Data Storage 583
Chapter 26 Backup and Restore 619
Chapter 27 Remote Access Service 653
Chapter 28 Software Depot Service 667
Chapter 29 Web Services 689
Part V Management Practices 725
Chapter 30 Organizational Structures 727
Chapter 31 Perception and Visibility 751
Chapter 32 Being Happy 777
Chapter 33 A Guide for Technical Managers 819
Chapter 34 A Guide for Nontechnical Managers 853
Chapter 35 Hiring System Administrators 871
Chapter 36 Firing System Administrators 899
Epilogue 909
Appendixes 911
Appendix A The Many Roles of a System Administrator 913
Appendix B Acronyms 939
Bibliography 945
Index 955
Contents
Preface xxv
Acknowledgments xxxv
AbouttheAuthors xxxvii
Part I Getting Started 1
1 What to Do When ... 3
1.1 BuildingaSitefromScratch 3
1.2 GrowingaSmallSite 4
1.3 GoingGlobal 4
1.4 ReplacingServices 4
1.5 MovingaDataCenter 5
1.6 Movingto/OpeningaNewBuilding 5
1.7 HandlingaHighRateofOfficeMoves 6
1.8 AssessingaSite(DueDiligence) 7
1.9 DealingwithMergersandAcquisitions 8
1.10 CopingwithMachineCrashes 9
1.11 SurvivingaMajorOutageorWorkStoppage 10
1.12 WhatToolsShouldEveryTeamMemberHave? 11
1.13 EnsuringtheReturnofTools 12
1.14 WhyDocumentSystemsandProcedures? 12
1.15 WhyDocumentPolicies? 13
1.16 IdentifyingtheFundamentalProblemsin
theEnvironment 13
1.17 GettingMoreMoneyforProjects 14
1.18 GettingProjectsDone 14
1.19 KeepingCustomersHappy 15
vii
viii Contents
1.20 KeepingManagementHappy 15
1.21 KeepingSAsHappy 16
1.22 KeepingSystemsfromBeingTooSlow 16
1.23 CopingwithaBigInfluxofComputers 16
1.24 CopingwithaBigInfluxofNewUsers 17
1.25 CopingwithaBigInfluxofNewSAs 17
1.26 HandlingaHighSATeamAttritionRate 18
1.27 HandlingaHighUser-BaseAttritionRate 18
1.28 BeingNewtoaGroup 18
1.29 BeingtheNewManagerofaGroup 19
1.30 LookingforaNewJob 19
1.31 HiringManyNewSAsQuickly 20
1.32 IncreasingTotalSystemReliability 20
1.33 DecreasingCosts 21
1.34 AddingFeatures 21
1.35 StoppingtheHurtWhenDoing“This” 22
1.36 BuildingCustomerConfidence 22
1.37 BuildingtheTeam’sSelf-Confidence 22
1.38 ImprovingtheTeam’sFollow-Through 22
1.39 HandlingEthicsIssues 23
1.40 MyDishwasherLeavesSpotsonMyGlasses 23
1.41 ProtectingYourJob 23
1.42 GettingMoreTraining 24
1.43 SettingYourPriorities 24
1.44 GettingAlltheWorkDone 25
1.45 AvoidingStress 25
1.46 WhatShouldSAsExpectfromTheirManagers? 26
1.47 WhatShouldSAManagersExpectfromTheirSAs? 26
1.48 WhatShouldSAManagersProvidetoTheirBoss? 26
2 Climb Out of the Hole 27
2.1 TipsforImprovingSystemAdministration 28
2.1.1 UseaTrouble-TicketSystem 28
2.1.2 ManageQuickRequestsRight 29
2.1.3 AdoptThreeTime-SavingPolicies 30
2.1.4 StartEveryNewHostinaKnownState 32
2.1.5 FollowOurOtherTips 33
2.2 Conclusion 36
Contents ix
Part II Foundation Elements 39
3 Workstations 41
3.1 TheBasics 44
3.1.1 LoadingtheOS 46
3.1.2 UpdatingtheSystemSoftwareandApplications 54
3.1.3 NetworkConfiguration 57
3.1.4 AvoidUsingDynamicDNSwithDHCP 61
3.2 TheIcing 65
3.2.1 HighConfidenceinCompletion 65
3.2.2 InvolveCustomersintheStandardizationProcess 66
3.2.3 AVarietyofStandardConfigurations 66
3.3 Conclusion 67
4 Servers 69
4.1 TheBasics 69
4.1.1 BuyServerHardwareforServers 69
4.1.2 ChooseVendorsKnownforReliableProducts 72
4.1.3 UnderstandtheCostofServerHardware 72
4.1.4 ConsiderMaintenanceContractsandSpareParts 74
4.1.5 MaintainingDataIntegrity 78
4.1.6 PutServersintheDataCenter 78
4.1.7 ClientServerOSConfiguration 79
4.1.8 ProvideRemoteConsoleAccess 80
4.1.9 MirrorBootDisks 83
4.2 TheIcing 84
4.2.1 EnhancingReliabilityandServiceAbility 84
4.2.2 AnAlternative:ManyInexpensiveServers 89
4.3 Conclusion 92
5 Services 95
5.1 TheBasics 96
5.1.1 CustomerRequirements 98
5.1.2 OperationalRequirements 100
5.1.3 OpenArchitecture 104
5.1.4 Simplicity 107
5.1.5 VendorRelations 108