Tasks of the System Administrator

A system administrator has many varied responsibilities. Some of the most common responsibilities addressed in this Guide are:

• Operations--seeing that the machine stays up and running, scheduling preventive maintenance downtime, adding new users, installing new software, and updating the /etc/motd and /etc/issue files. See Chapter 4, "Configuring The IRIX Operating System." Also see Chapter 5, "Configuring User Accounts and Managing User Issues."

• Failure Analysis--troubleshooting by reading system logs and drawing on past experience. See "Maintaining a System Log Book".

• Capacity Planning--knowing the general level of system use and planning for additional resources when necessary. See Chapter 6, "Configuring Disk and Swap Space," and Chapter 11, "System Performance Tuning."

• System Tuning--tuning the kernel and user process priorities for optimum performance. See Chapter 11, "System Performance Tuning."

• Resource Management--planning process and disk accounting and other resource sharing. See the IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting guide.

• Networking-- interconnecting machines, modems, and printers. See the IRIX Admin: Networking and Mail guide.

• Security--maintaining sufficient security against break-ins as well as maintaining internal privacy and system integrity. See the IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting guide.

• User Migration--helping users work on all workstations at a site. See the IRIX Admin: Networking and Mail guide.

• User Education--helping users develop good habits and instructing them in the use of the system. See Chapter 5, "Configuring User Accounts and Managing User Issues."

• Backups--creating and maintaining system backups. See the IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting guide.