Tech Community

System Administrator

2009-05-28T12:41:00.002+05:30

A system administrator, systems administrator, or sysadmin, is a person employed to maintain and operate a computer system and/or network. System administrators may be members of an information technology department.
..........The duties of a system administrator are wide-ranging, and vary widely from one organization to another. Sys-administrators are usually charged with installing, supporting, and maintaining servers or other computer systems, and planning for and responding to service outages and other problems. Other duties may include scripting or light programming, project management for systems-related projects, supervising or training computer operators, and being the consultant for computer problems beyond the knowledge of technical support staff. A System Administrator must demonstrate a blend of technical skills and responsibility.

Skills:
The subject matter of systems administration includes computer systems and the ways people use them in an organization. This entails knowledge of operating systems and applications, as well as hardware and software troubleshooting, but also knowledge of the purposes for which people in the organization use the computers.
..........However, perhaps the most important skill to a system administrator is problem solving -- frequently under various sorts of constraints and stress. The sysadmin is on call when a computer system goes down or malfunctions, and must be able to quickly and correctly diagnose what is wrong and how best to fix it.
..........System administrators are not software engineers or developers. It is not usually within their duties to design or write new applications software. However, sysadmins must understand the behavior of software in order to deploy it and to troubleshoot problems, and generally know several programming languages used for scripting or automation of routine tasks.
..........Particularly when dealing with Internet-facing or business-critical systems, a sysadmin must have a strong grasp of computer security. This includes not merely deploying software patches, but also preventing break-ins and other security problems with preventive measures. In some organizations, computer security administration is a separate role responsible for overall security and the upkeep of firewalls and intrusion detection systems, but all sysadmins are generally responsible for the security of the systems in their keep.

Related fields:
Many organizations staff other jobs related to systems administration. In a larger company, these may all be separate positions within a computer support or Information Services (IS) department. In a smaller group they may be shared by a few sysadmins, or even a single person.

A database administrator (DBA) maintains a database system, and is responsible for the integrity of the data and the efficiency and performance of the system.
A network administrator maintains network infrastructure such as switches and routers, and diagnoses problems with these or with the behavior of network-attached computers.
A security administrator is a specialist in computer and network security, including the administration of security devices such as firewalls, as well as consulting on general security measures.
A web administrator maintains web server services (such as Apache or IIS) that allow for internal or external access to web sites. Tasks include managing multiple sites, administering security, and configuring necessary components and software. Responsibilities may also include software change management.
Technical support staff: respond to individual users' difficulties with computer systems, provide instructions and sometimes training, and diagnose and solve common problems.
A computer operator performs routine maintenance and upkeep, such as changing backup tapes or replacing failed drives in a RAID. Such tasks usually require physical presence in the room with the computer; and while less skilled than sysadmin tasks require a similar level of trust, since the operator has access to possibly sensitive data.

In some organizations, a person may begin as a member of technical support staff or a computer operator, then gain experience on the job to be promoted to a sysadmin position.

Training:
Unlike many other professions, there is no single path to becoming a system administrator. Many system administrators have a degree in a related field: computer science, information technology, computer engineering, information system management, or even a trade school program. Other schools have offshoots of their Computer Science program specifically for systems administration.
..........One of the primary difficulties with teaching system administration as a formal university discipline, is that the industry and technology changes much faster than the typical textbook and coursework certification process. By the time a new textbook has spent years working through approvals and committees, the specific technology for which it is written may have changed significantly or is now obsolete.
..........In addition, because of the practical nature of systems administration and the easy availability of open-source server software, many systems administrators enter the field self-taught.
..........Generally, a prospective administrator will be required to have some experience with the computer system he or she is expected to manage. In some cases, candidates are expected to possess industry certifications such as the Microsoft MCSA, MCSE, Red Hat RHCE, Novell CNA, CNE, Cisco CCNA or CompTIA's A+ or Network+, Sun Certified SCNA, Linux Professional Institute among others.

Duties of a system administrator:
Support and service:
A system administrator offers service for full on site and on-line technical supports.
An administrator offers multi-service support of servers, desktops, printers and networks.

Provide master solutions:
Initiative towards new opportunities, development and growth Acquisitions & ExpansionsDiversification with contemporary solutions

Preventive Maintenance:
· To make sure your computer system is working at peak performance.
· Regularly scheduled maintenance performed by us.

Work in time:
The professional team, not only has the innovative and updated technical knowledge, but also has the analytical and management skills to adhere to stringent quality methods and committed time schedules.

Proactive in work:
An administrator should be proactive in offering total IT solutions to the user by continuously striving to exceed their expectations."

Understanding Requirements:

A system administrator is to understand the companies or users requirements, designing optimal solutions to meet those requirements.
How to select carefully the right hardware and software combination to meet our needs.
Our solutions should combine scalability and ease of use with individual requirements.

Network Security for sensitive Data:
Everyday security threats are refined as hackers designed new security threats. Computer Security in the data communication cannot be compromised. Hackers’ can exploit the sensitive and financial and corporate data. There can be many threats to a computer network and it’s the responsibility of a computer network administrator to keep the computer network secure from these threats.

Awareness about the risks:
The end user’s education on the security threats, preventions and precautionary measures are must. They should be trained about the possible and easy virus attacks from the internet if they browse the inappropriate sites.

IT Administrator should know about all the possible security attacks and also know their solutions.
IT Administrator should look for the viruses from the Internet, Malware, Adware, Trojan horses, E-mail attachments, CD or any infected computer that is attached to the network. Spyware and network intrusions are specifically designed to get the secret information from their target companies, which can do harm for the company. Everyday security threats are refined as hackers designed new security threats.
The main cause of a security threat in the small companies is the misuse of the internet without proper antivirus, anti spyware installed on the every PC of the company’s network. For example if a company’s employees browse an inappropriate website, sends or receives the infected data, leaks company’s secret information, then there are greater chances for a possible virus/malware attack.
Hard core security from old employees:
if the company’s employee leave the company for any reason, then its very important that all the computer and other company’s sensitive assets access should be revoked by him immediately. I have personally seen a situation, when a company’s network administrator was dismissed and he access the company’s server by VPN and send harmful viruses to the server and the entire computer network, and it was impossible for the IT manager to control all the security attacks in one time. It’s the responsibility to keep a closer eye on the new employee’s activities, their access to the sensitive data, and computers servers. IT managers should bring it in the knowledge of the employees that any change in their computer will be logged. So that nobody can even try to do anything that is not permitted.

A system administrator's basic responsibilities: (in short)

2009-05-28T12:17:00.002+05:30

Basic Responsibilities:

Analyzing system logs and identifying potential issues with computer systems.
Introducing and integrating new technologies into existing data center environments.
Performing routine audits of systems and software.
Performing backups.
Applying operating system updates, patches, and configuration changes.
Installing and configuring new hardware and software.
Adding, removing, or updating user account information, resetting passwords, etc.
Answering technical queries.
Responsibility for security.
Responsibility for documenting the configuration of the system.
Troubleshooting any reported problems.
System performance tuning.
Ensuring that the network infrastructure is up and running.

In larger organizations, some tasks listed above may be divided among different system administrators or members of different organizational groups. For example, a dedicated individual(s) may apply all system upgrades, a Quality Assurance (QA) team may perform testing and validation, and one or more technical writers may be responsible for all technical documentation written for a company.

In smaller organizations, the system administrator can also perform any number of duties elsewhere associated with other fields:

Technical support
Database administrator (DBA)
Network administrator/analyst/specialist
Application analyst
Security administrator
Programmer

System administrators, in larger organizations, tend not to be system architects, system engineers, or system designers. However, like many roles in this field, demarcations between systems administration and other technical roles often are not well defined in smaller organizations. Even in larger organizations, senior systems administrators often have skills in these other areas as a result of their working experience.

..........In smaller organizations, IT/computing specialties are less often discerned in detail, and the term system administrator is used in a rather generic way — they are the people who know how the computer systems work and can respond when something fails.

System Administrator Privileges

2009-05-28T12:11:00.002+05:30

The term system administrator may also be used to describe a privilege which a computer owner must obtain on his or her own computer to perform certain actions even if the computer is not part of a larger system.

System-/Network- Administrator Responsibilities and Privileges:
Administration of computing and networking resources within the College of Engineering is a collective activity undertaken by a group of local administrators. Local administrators at college, departmental, laboratory, research group and individual faculty levels retain local authority over their resources and are collectively referred to in this document as college network- and system- administrators. Those who administrate, work together to assure the reliability and availability of the services these resources provide to college users. To assure reliability and availability, attention to the security of these resources is essential. This policy gives the collective group of local system and network administrators within the College the authority to protect these resources and specifically requires local administrators to make every effort to assure that the privacy, academic freedom and intellectual property rights of users is preserved. Locally designated personnel serve as system/network administrators over the resources they control. No system/network administrator has the right to access computers outside their auspices without the approval of the local administrator.

System administrators are responsible for the security of information stored on these resources.
Administrators must take appropriate and reasonable steps to inhibit attempts to obtain unauthorized copies of computer software, computer data and/or software manuals.
Administrators must take appropriate and reasonable steps to make sure that the number of simultaneous users of software does not exceed the number of original copies purchased.
Administrators should take steps to insure that assigned passwords are non-trivial and users should be given guidelines for choosing strong passwords.
Administrators must take appropriate and reasonable steps to assure that access to the computer operations areas is restricted to those responsible for operation and maintenance.
Default passwords shipped with servers, operating systems software or applications must always be changed when the hardware or application is installed or implemented.
Special access to information or other special computing privileges are to be used only in performance of official duties.
Gaining unauthorized access to a system (or area of a system) using knowledge of access abilities gained during a previous position at the institution is prohibited.
System administrators should never give access to any user on a system they do not administer.
Computer installations will have defined procedures for maintaining data integrity during hardware repair, and will set up a schedule of preventive maintenance for the computer systems where appropriate.
System administrators should install fixes to known system problems as expeditiously as possible.Sessions with root or other privileged access must be logged off to a point that requires a new log-on whenever leaving your work area.

Proposed IT Administration Responsibilities

2009-05-28T11:35:00.002+05:30

POLICY

a. Copyrights and Licenses:
Systems administrators must respect copyrights and licenses to software and other online information. All software protected by copyright must not be copied except as specifically stipulated by the owner of the copyright or otherwise permitted by copyright law. Need to write or understand more about license handling.

b. Data backup services:
System administrators must perform regular and complete backup services for the systems they administer, or they must work with Office of Information Technology administrators to add their system to a larger university backup structure. System administrators will describe the data restore services, if any, offered to the users. A written document given to users or messages posted on the computer system itself shall be considered adequate notice.

c. System integrity:
Systems administrators are responsible for maintaining all aspects of system integrity, including obtaining releases and fixes that assure the currency of operating system upgrades, installation of patches, managing releases, installation of anti-virus software, updates of virus definitions, and the closure of services and ports that are not needed for the effective operation of the system. Prompt renewal of vendor hardware and software agreements is required. Absence of a vendor support contract does not mean that the Office of Information Technology is able to repair and restore systems without prior agreement or notice. Systems administrators must make every effort to remain familiar with the changing security technology that relates to their system and continually analyze technical vulnerabilities and their resulting security implications.

g. Account integrity:
Systems administrators will manage accounts on a timely basis, providing new accounts and removing old accounts in a prompt manner. Accounts will be disabled and deleted based on the access rules for the environment and in compliance with all licensing. Systems administrators will assure that good passwords are used and that passwords are changed frequently, within the limits of the system environment. System administrators will ensure that accounts can be traced to an individual person (or a group of people in the case of group accounts) and that the accounts have system access that match the authorization of the user. Stored authentication data (e.g., password files, encryption keys, certificates, personal identification numbers, access codes) must be appropriately protected with access controls, encryption, shadowing, etc. - e.g., password files must not be world-readable.

h. Network Consistency:
Systems administrations will implement systems in compliance with the overall company structure for Internet Protocol (IP) addressing, domain services, and directory services, as established by the Office of Information Technology.

i. Removal from the network:
For the purpose of assuring all company network and sub-network users a sound environment, and to meet the company expectations for network services, a system found to be in non-compliance may be removed from the companies network. When immediate disconnection is not necessary, system administrators will still be expected to take prompt action, to diagnose the problem, to stop any ongoing abuse, and to make whatever changes are needed to prevent reoccurrence. Generally this will involve adopting "best practices" for security. This process should preserve any evidence that might be needed to locate the source of the problem and take any legal or disciplinary action that might be appropriate. System administrators may be asked to demonstrate compliance to this document before network services are restored after a documented instance of non-compliance.

A system administrator is responsible for monitoring and executing the application after it is deployed. He is involved in security management, administration of enterprise's computing and networking infrastructure, and proper execution of deployed enterprise application at runtime. He is responsible for configuring the EJB server, so that it can be made available to other network services.

Responsibilities of the Network Administrator

2009-05-28T11:23:00.002+05:30

As a network administrator, your tasks generally fall into the following areas:

Designing and planning the network
Setting up the network
Maintaining the network
Expanding the network

Each task area corresponds to a phase in the continuing life cycle of a network. You might be responsible for all the phases, or you might ultimately specialize in a particular area, for example, network maintenance.

Designing the Network:
The first phase in the life cycle of a network involves creating its design, a task not usually performed by new network administrators. Designing a network involves making decisions about the type of network that best suits the needs of your organization. In larger sites this task is performed by a senior network architect: an experienced network administrator familiar with both network software and hardware.

.
Setting Up the Network:
After the new network is designed, the second phase of network administration begins, which involves setting up and configuring the network. This consists of installing the hardware that makes up the physical part of the network, and configuring the files or databases, hosts, routers, and network configuration servers.
..........The tasks involved in this phase are a major responsibility for network administrators. You should expect to perform these tasks unless your organization is very large, with an adequate network structure already in place.

Maintaining the Network:
The third phase of network administration consists of ongoing tasks that typically constitute the bulk of your responsibilities. They might include:

Adding new host machines to the network
Administering network security
Administering network services, such as NFSTM services, name services, and electronic mail
Troubleshooting network problems

Expanding the Network:
The longer a network is in place and functioning properly, the more your organization might want to expand its features and services. Initially, you can increase network population by adding new hosts and expanding network services by providing additional shared software. But eventually, a single network will expand to the point where it can no longer operate efficiently. That is when it must enter the fourth phase of the network administration cycle: expansion.

Professional Achievements as system/network administrator:

Grown up from a simple Hardware engineer with limited knowledge into the strong and skillful Network administrator.
Create better knowledge in Linux/windows based solutions.
Successful execution of new technology implementation.
Best performance for self-satisfaction.

2009-05-28T10:43:00.004+05:30

Periodically Classified System Administrator’s Task

Daily Task

Review Audit logs:

Check application log for warning and error messages for service startup errors, application or database errors and unauthorized application installs.
Check security log for warning and error messages for invalid logons, unauthorized user creating, opening or deleting files.
Check system log for warning and error messages for hardware and network failures.
Check web/database/application logs for warning and error messages.
Check directory services log on domain controllers.
Report suspicious activity to IAO
[Tools – Windows: Event Viewer]

Perform/verify daily backup:

Run and/or verify that a successful backup of system and data files has completed.
Run and/or verify that a successful backup of Active Directory files has completed on at least one Domain Controller.
[Tools: Windows Backup Tool, Other Backup Software]

Track/monitor system performance and activity:

Check for memory usage
Check for system paging
Check CPU usage
[Tools: Microsoft Management Console/ Performance Log and Alerts/ Task Manager/ System Monitor/ Microsoft Operations Manager]

Check free hard-drive space:

Check all drives for adequate free space.
Take appropriate action as specified by site's Standard Operating Procedures
[Tools: Disk Defragmenter/ Disk Management/ Disk Quotas]

Physical checks of system:

Visually check the equipment for amber lights, alarms, etc.
Take appropriate action as specified by site's Standard Operating Procedures.

Weekly

Archive Audit logs:

Archive audit logs to a media device with one year retention

Perform/verify weekly backup:

Run or verify that a successful backup of system and data files has been completed
[Tools: Windows Backup Tool/ Other Backup Software]

Update Anti-Virus signature file:

Download and install current Anti-Virus signature files

Run Anti-Virus scan on all hard-drives:

Scan all hard-drives using current Anti-Virus signature files

Check Vendor Websites for Patch Information:

Check vendor websites such as Microsoft, Sun, HP, Oracle, etc fornew vulnerability informations including patches and hotfixes

Run file system integrity diagnostics:

Run diagnostic tools to detect any system problems
[Tools: Disk Defragmenter/ Error-checking tool/ Device Manager]

Check for Password Files:

Perform file search on system checking for documents containing words such as 'password', 'passwd', 'pwd', etc

Perform Wireless Check:

Check system for wireless devices and access

Perform server clock/time synchronization:

Synchronize system clock with master server
[Tools: Windows Time Service]

Check for Unnecessary Services:

Check system services for any unnecessary services running

Monthly

Perform Self-Assessment Security Review:

Review technology checklist for any changes
Run current security review tool
Import results into Vulnerability Management System (VMS)
[Tools: For Windows: DISA FSO Gold Disk and Scripts/ eEye Retina Scanner/ Citadel Hercules Remediation Tool]

Perform Hardware/Software Inventory:

Review hardware and compare to inventory list
Review software and compare to inventory list
Update VMS, where applicable

Run Password-Cracking Tool (Domain Controller only)

Run (or verify IAO team has run) a password-cracking tool to detect weak passwords
Provide output to IAO team
[Tools – Windows: John-the-Ripper/L0phtCrack]

Perform/verify monthly backup:

Run or verify that a successful backup of system and data files has been completed.
[Tools: Windows Backup Tool/ Other Backup Software]

Verify User Account Configuration:

Run DumpSec tool to verify user account configuration
Verify and/or delete dormant accounts with IAO approval
Provide output to IAO team
[Tool available on DISA FSO Gold Disk (Windows)]

Quarterly Task

Test backup/restore procedures:

Restore backup files to a test system to verify procedures and files
[Tools: Windows Backup and Recovery Tool/ Other Backup Software ]

Annually Task

Change Service-Account passwords:
Work with appropriate application administrator to ensure password changes for service accounts such as database accounts, application accounts and other service accounts are implemented