ITT 420 Chapter 1 System Administrator & Management Practices Notes

The Roles of a System Administrator

  • System administrators (SAs) have varied roles, influenced by company size.
  • Small companies: SAs handle multiple responsibilities.
  • Large companies: SAs specialize in specific areas.
  • Mega-corporations: extreme specialization may occur.

Positive Roles of a System Administrator

  • The Installer: Trained for specific situations, with backup resources for unexpected issues.
  • The Repair Person: Restores systems and keeps the company operational by resolving technical problems.
  • The Maintainer: Ensures stability in the IT environment.
  • The Problem Preventer: Plans and performs preventive maintenance to avoid problems.
  • The Hero: Addresses critical failures and saves the day.
  • The Infrastructure Builder: Sets up and manages essential infrastructure (DNS, directories, databases, scripts, switches).
  • The Policy Writer: Develops IT policies to guide actions, timelines, and justifications based on corporate objectives.

Negative Roles of a System Administrator

  • The Bleeding Edger: Implements new technologies prematurely, causing disruptions.
  • The Technology Staller: Delays adoption of new technologies, often citing concerns about backout plans or untested nature.
  • The SA Who Cried Wolf: Raises unnecessary alarms about unlikely risks.
  • The Cowboy: Fixes systems or implements services without proper planning or consideration of consequences.
  • The Slave, Scapegoat, or Janitor: Performs tasks without questioning, even when there are better alternatives.

Team Roles of a System Administrator

  • Diversity in roles promotes team balance.
  • The End-to-end Expert: Solves complex problems that involve multiple failures or interactions across different areas.
  • The Outsider: Offers a fresh perspective.
  • The Level Focused Person: Has an understanding of all the levels including management, and can judge where best to solve a problem.
  • The Martyr: Feels overburdened with work compared to others.
  • Doers of Repetitive Tasks: Manages repetitive tasks, providing training opportunities for higher-level responsibilities.

Ethics

  • Ethics are principles guiding conduct, distinct from morals.
  • Ethics policies apply to all users and specifically to privileged users (SAs, database administrators).
  • Legislation (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) ) mandates corporate responsibility for ethical IT controls.

Informed Consent

  • Originates from medical ethics.
  • Users should understand and consent to the rules governing their activities.
  • Example: Awareness and acceptance of Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

The System Administrators' Code of Ethics

  • Commitment to high standards of ethical and professional conduct.
  • Professionalism: Maintaining professional behavior.
  • Personal Integrity: Honesty, transparency about competence, and seeking help when needed.
  • Privacy: Accessing private information only when necessary and protecting confidentiality.
  • Laws and Policies: Understanding and adhering to relevant laws and policies.
  • Communication: Communicating with stakeholders and understanding their needs.
  • System Integrity: Ensuring system reliability and availability.
  • Education: Continuous learning and knowledge sharing.
  • Responsibility to Computing Community: Cooperating to maintain network integrity.
  • Social Responsibility: Promoting relevant policies and laws.
  • Ethical Responsibility: Maintaining a safe workplace and prioritizing community well-being.

Customer Usage Guidelines

  • Organizations require guidelines for acceptable computer use.
  • Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or User Code of Conduct (UCC) defines acceptable behavior.
  • Monitoring is part of network operation, as outlined in AUP or privacy policy.
  • AUP/UCC should define and prohibit threatening or harassing communications, and explain the procedure to report them.

Privileged-Access Code of Conduct

  • Privileged access requires responsible use.
  • Elevated privileges must be used solely for necessary work-related tasks.
  • Mistakes are acknowledged, with procedures to minimize damage.
  • Policy violations may result in penalties, including termination.

Copyright Adherence

  • Organizations must abide by copyright laws.
  • Clear policies are essential, with some companies restricting software installation without approval.

Working with Law Enforcement

  • Organizations need policies for interacting with law enforcement agencies.
  • Comply with legal responsibilities while minimizing information disclosed to protect privacy.
  • Verify the identity of law enforcement personnel to avoid social engineering.

Setting Expectations on Privacy and Monitoring

  • Establishing privacy policies is ethically crucial.
  • Employees should acknowledge privacy guidelines upon hiring.
  • Lack of awareness can pose business risks (e.g., SEC violations in finance).

Being Told to Do Something Illegal/Unethical

  • Maintain a record of events.
  • Verify the request and confirm its illegality or violation of company policy.
  • Reject the request politely and explicitly.

Observing Illegal Activity

  • SAs must report illegal behavior observed within the organization (whistleblowing).

Organizational Structures

  • Structure of SA team impacts success.
  • Goal: Provide optimal service at minimal cost.

Sizing

  • Determining the correct SA team size is challenging.
  • Insufficient staffing leads to unreliable infrastructure and poor service.
  • Excessive staffing results in unnecessary costs and communication issues.
  • Use real data and SLAs to determine appropriate staffing levels.

Funding Models

  • SA is often understaffed due to being seen as a cost center rather than a profit center.
  • Decentralized Model: Individual departments receive customized service with stronger SA relationships.
  • Centralized Model: Controls costs by central tracking, eliminating redundancy, and leveraging economies of scale.

Management Chain’s Influence

  • Reporting through CTO or engineering typically ensures better funding.
  • Reporting through COO or CFO may result in limited funding.

Infrastructure Teams

  • Manage centralized services: authentication, printing, email, name service, calendar service, networking, remote access, directory services, and security.
  • Well-designed network architecture is crucial for SA efficiency and customer satisfaction.
  • Teams must be cohesive, even across multiple locations.

Customer Support

  • Ensuring effective customer operations.
  • Distributed model works best.
  • Customers value relationships with local SAs.

Outsourcing

  • Suitable if system administration isn't core business.
  • E-commerce sites require in-house IT and system administration.
  • Outsourcing can be expensive for companies needing high availability.
  • Security is a critical consideration.
  • Colocation centers are often used to host Internet service machines.

Sample Organizational Structures

  • Small Company: One or two SAs handle all responsibilities.
  • Medium-Size Company: SAs specialize, helpdesk is established, architects also implement.
  • Large Company: High specialization, well-staffed helpdesk, dedicated architects and implementers.
  • E-commerce Site: Separate SA teams for Internet presence and corporate systems.
  • Universities and Nonprofit Organizations: Centralization, teamwork, and strong leadership are crucial due to limited budgets.

Perception and Visibility

  • Perception: how people see you (quality).
  • Visibility: how much people see of you (quantity).
  • Technical competence alone is insufficient for good perception and visibility.

Perception

  • Efficiency is judged by request completion time, not effort.
Key Elements for Positive Perception
  • Good first impression.
  • Positive attitude.
  • Alignment of priorities with customer expectations.
  • System advocacy.
A Good First Impression
  • Punctuality, politeness, and willingness to listen.
  • Appropriate attire.
  • Maintaining calm demeanor.
  • Ensuring new hires have functional computers and accounts, with in-person orientation.
Attitude, Perception, and Customers
  • Disrespect toward customers is a major issue.
  • Avoid the attitude that "the customer is always right."
  • Create opportunities for positive interactions without problem-solving.
The System Advocate
  • Someone proactive about customer's technical needs, advocates those needs to management, automates the clerical tasks

Visibility

  • SAs are often noticed only when problems occur.
Ways to Boost Visibility
  • Management Meetings: Manager stays informed and helps prioritize projects.
  • Educate managers about infrastructure changes being made.
  • Physical Visibility: Accessible office space.
  • Town Hall Meetings.
  • Newsletters: Simple, useful content.
  • Mailing to all customers.

Time Management

  • Use time wisely to increase productivity.

Interruptions

  • External events disrupt work on high-priority goals.
  • Prevent interruptions: set clear expectations, use ticketing systems.

Stay Focused

  • Minimize distractions, including messy desks and excessive email.

Splitting Your Day

  • Allocate specific times for project work and customer support.

Follow-Through

  • Complete commitments using organizers or apps to track regular events.

Precompiling Decisions

  • Make decisions once to avoid repetition. Examples:
    • "It’s always a good time to save your work."
    • "Always make backups."
    • "Record requests."
    • "Change tapes Monday–Wednesday–Friday"
    • "Sooner is better than later"

Finding Free Time

  • Eliminate rather than automate.
  • Reduce time on social media and mailing lists.
  • Filter email.
  • Invest in training.
  • Set priorities with key customers.

Dealing with Ineffective People

  • Coach, work with management, and escalate as needed.

Dealing with Slow Bureaucrats

  • Befriend them or escalate to managers who have authority to streamline processes

Communication and Negotiation

  • Technical issues often stem from communication problems.
  • SAs require negotiation skills for vendors, customers, and superiors.

Communication Problems

  • Four categories:
    • My problems: Ensure you are being heard.
    • Your problems: Listen effectively.
    • Our problems: Agree on definitions and action plans.
    • Other people’s problems: Avoid involvement.

Negotiation SA Skill

  • Recognize when you are in a negotiation.
Format of a Negotiation Meeting
  • Define terms, agree on common ground, then address difficult issues.
  • Work towards a win-win outcome.
Planning Your Negotiations
  • Plan with your team, know your goals, understand the competition, do your homework, and remember the win-win goal.

The Motivation as SA

  • Money is a short-term motivator.
  • Helping others, receiving compliments, maintaining self-esteem, and loving your job are crucial.
  • Accept compliments.
  • Create an "accomplishment wall" to display positive feedback.