Server Administrators...
The Server Administrators is responsible for setting up and maintaining the server farm. Server administrators may be members of an information technology department.
The duties of a server administrator are wide-ranging and vary widely from one organization to another. Server admins 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, and project management for systems-related projects.
The system administrator is responsible for following things:
- User administration (setup and maintaining account)
- Maintaining system
- Verify that peripherals are working properly
- Quickly arrange repair for hardware in occasion of hardware failure
- Monitor system performance
- Create file systems
- Install software
- Create a backup and recover policy
- Monitor network communication
- Update system as soon as new version of OS and application software comes out
- Implement the policies for the use of the computer system and network
- Setup security policies for users. A server admin must have a strong grasp of computer security
(e.g. firewalls and intrusion detection systems).
The root account has full (unrestricted) access, so he/she can do anything with servers. For example, the root account can remove critical system files. They can also change any of the server's settings, or reconfigure anything the server was set up for.
Many tasks for system administration can be automated using Perl or shell scripts. For example:
- Create new users
- Resetting user passwords
- Lock/unlock user accounts
- Monitor server security
- Monitor special services, etc.
The most important skill to a system administrator? Problem-solving, period. This can sometimes lead to all sorts of constraints and stress. When a workstation or server goes down, you are called to solve the problem. You should be able to quickly and correctly diagnose the problem. You must figure out what is wrong and how best it can be fixed in a small amount of time.