Thinking outside the rack (literally)

(Reference, yesterday’s blog about moving servers from one row of racks to another): OK, so I had several servers to move to a new rack in another row. As of this morning, they were ALL done, except one. The person who we wrote the application for on that server (the “owner”), had not responded to…

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4 sections, 16 feet wide, hundreds of pounts, and 167 parts

I don’t know about how it works in YOUR organization, but where I work, as the Unix Systems Admin (job title, “IS Project Manager”, go figure) – I do everything to manage the server from birth to death. Ordering, receiving, unpacking, installation, management, performance, uptime, retirement. And all the bits in-between. Today I was moving…

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Irrecoverable data lost

OK, a few minutes ago, I had written a really lengthy blog entry about LISA. It was awesome. And then– I got interrupted by someone needing help, and well, an incorrect click basically wiped out my posting- before I had submitted it. (Did I mention my personal hard drive at home blew up last week?…

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The complexity of diagnosis

As our technology grows, along with pieces-parts from multiple vendors, so does our job as the technical equivalent of Dr. House. In many ways, what we do as sysadmins is very very similar to that popular TV show (which, by the way, is one of my favorites – his crankiness is something I intend to…

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Firmware update (or: “old lessons”).

OK, so today I totally ignored my own methods of doing stuff. Specifically, as a sysadmin, I not only have to update systems all the time (that is, software, packages, updates, patches, etc) – but I also have to keep on top of firmware updates. I suspect many or most of you do the same….

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FDS is your friend

Some of you have been doing LDAP for a long time. And, some of you (like me) may be relatively new to the game. (Can I help it if I like NIS? – it’s simple, and it WORKS). But- various regulatory issues and security flaws require that we all move to something better, which is…

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