Linux System Administration Recipes A Problem-Solution Approach

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CHAPTER 12 ■ MANAGING TIME AND PEOPLEnot requiring regular attention. This will help give you more time for the user problems that willinevitably come up and for the larger projects when they do arise.The larger projects are also where some of the fun of sysadmin work comes in—the opportunity tolook at new software and find new ways of running things more effectively. So, even after you’ve madeyour operations as smooth as possible, it’s important to find ways of protecting a certain amount of yourtime from unimportant interruptions. Some options for this are discussed in recipe 12-1. An ideal optionis to set up and protect a certain amount of time every day or every week during which you avoidinterruptions unless something genuinely dramatic has happened.Another good option is to break things down. Any large project has a series of small steps (startingwith some research, moving on through installing the software, configuring it, configuring clients,working out a backup solution, and so on). Keep a list of them, and tackle one at a time when you havean hour or so free. If you cover one of those steps every day or so, you’ll get through the whole project inthe end.Finally, remember to keep comprehensive notes! It’s just as important when you’re researching newthings or working on a prospective big change as it is at any time. It still saves you time every time youreturn to the problem, and it’ll help you when you come to make changes at a later stage or when youneed to repeat the project (perhaps for a backup of the new type of server system you’ve just set up).12-7. Dealing with Your ColleaguesA lot of sysadmin work, in particular in small companies, is about working with other people as well aswith computers. The problems that arise are often about users interacting with computers (whetherthat’s in the sense of them discovering a bug in a program or of them actually managing to breaksomething). It’s worth your while to consider the best ways to make your life easier when dealing withthose other people, as well as how to make your life easier when fixing machines.Make sure that you don’t lose track of people’s problems (see recipes 12-2 and 12-3). If yourcolleagues regularly have to remind you about their issues, then they’re likely to lose a certain amount offaith in you, which can have negative repercussions in the long run (especially if your manager is one ofthe colleagues who is losing faith!). This also makes it easier to minimize the daily interruptions. Peoplewill need to tell you about their problems only once and then can trust that you’ll resolve them.Don’t let minor issues slide. Make sure that you get on top of them ASAP. This, again, will tend toreassure your colleagues about your preparedness to fix things for you and will generate more goodwillwhen you do have to delay a fix or when there’s something particularly recalcitrant going on, becausethey know that you will be doing your best to get it sorted!Make it easy to contact you in various ways. Email, phone, and/or a ticketing system like RT (seerecipes 12-3 to 12-5) are the basics, but you may want to include others such as IM.One of the most important things to remember is to keep people updated with what’s happeningwith their issue. Let them know how long a problem is likely to take to solve, and inform them if thatchanges (for example, if what looks like a straightforward issue turns out to in fact resemble a manytentacledmonster from the deeps...). Be honest. If you don’t know what’s going on, say so, and if you’renot sure whether something is fixable (such as whether a particular file from a particular date will still beavailable on backup), say so. Don’t make promises you aren’t sure you can keep! In general, it’s better tobe cautious about what you promise. It’s much better to have someone made happy when it turns outthat you can after all fix something than have them disappointed when it turns out that you can’t!Own up when you screw up. If (when...) you manage to catastrophically break something, do yourbest to fix it, but if you can’t (or if the screw-up has already been noticed), own up to your responsibility.And then move on immediately to inform your manager what you’re doing to ameliorate the problem!It’s a good idea to have policies agreed with your colleagues and your line manager (and further upthe management chain). These policies should cover your security arrangements, what you do and don’t244Download at WoweBook.Com
CHAPTER 12 ■ MANAGING TIME AND PEOPLEsupport (for example, is there some user software that you support only on a “best-efforts” basis andother software that is more important?), which servers and services are the most important andtherefore should be prioritized if there are problems, what the expected service standards are for variousthings, and anything else you can think of to agree on ahead of time. The more explicit your supportagreements are, the easier it is to prioritize your own work, and it also becomes easier to deal withaggravated users because you can point to your policy.Finally, keep an ongoing note of everything you achieve (either as you do it or by reviewing yournotes every week or month). This is useful for a couple of reasons. First, you may want to send out ageneral weekly or monthly e-mail letting your colleagues know what has changed. This also enables youto remind them to get in contact with you if there’s anything they are having problems with. Second,when it comes to the end of the year and you want to discuss your performance and compensation withyour manager, it’s useful to have this list so you can dazzle them with just how good you are. This isespecially handy for sysadmins because a fair chunk of the work is inevitably small bug fixes, whichmeans it’s easier to lose track of larger achievements.245Download at WoweBook.Com
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Contents■About the Author .......
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■ CONTENTS3-7. Writing a Nagios P
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■ CONTENTS■Chapter 8: Using the
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■ CONTENTSAbout the Author■Juli
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■ CONTENTSAcknowledgmentsMany tha
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■ CONTENTSIntroductionThis book i
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■ INTRODUCTIONDownloading the Cod
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C H A P T E R 1■ ■ ■Saving Yo
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CHAPTER 1 ■ SAVING YOURSELF EFFOR
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C H A P T E R 2■ ■ ■Centraliz
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CHAPTER 2 ■ CENTRALIZING YOUR NET
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C H A P T E R 3■ ■ ■Monitorin
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C H A P T E R 4■ ■ ■Taking Ba
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CHAPTER 4 ■ TAKING BACKUPS AND MA
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C H A P T E R 5■ ■ ■Working w
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CHAPTER 5 ■ WORKING WITH FILESYST
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C H A P T E R 6■ ■ ■Securing
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CHAPTER 6 ■ SECURING YOUR SYSTEMS
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CHAPTER 7 ■ WORKING WITH APACHEOn
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CHAPTER 7 ■ WORKING WITH APACHE
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C H A P T E R 8■ ■ ■Making Be
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CHAPTER 8 ■ USING THE COMMAND LIN
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CHAPTER 9 ■ WORKING WITH TEXT IN
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Page 233 and 234: C H A P T E R 11■ ■ ■Tracking
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Page 251 and 252: C H A P T E R 12■ ■ ■Managing
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Page 267 and 268: APPENDIX■ ■ ■Perl TipsSee rec
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Page 275 and 276: ■ INDEXenscript option (printing)
Page 277 and 278: ■ INDEX■NNagiosadding hosts to,
Page 279 and 280: ■ INDEXsyslogcentralized logging
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