␡
- 1.1 Building a Site from Scratch
- 1.2 Growing a Small Site
- 1.3 Going Global
- 1.4 Replacing Services
- 1.5 Moving a Data Center
- 1.6 Moving to/Opening a New Building
- 1.7 Handling a High Rate of Office Moves
- 1.8 Assessing a Site (Due Diligence)
- 1.9 Dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions
- 1.10 Coping with Frequent Machine Crashes
- 1.11 Surviving a Major Outage or Work Stoppage
- 1.12 What Tools Should Every SA Team Member Have?
- 1.13 Ensuring the Return of Tools
- 1.14 Why Document Systems and Procedures?
- 1.15 Why Document Policies?
- 1.16 Identifying the Fundamental Problems in the Environment
- 1.17 Getting More Money for Projects
- 1.18 Getting Projects Done
- 1.19 Keeping Customers Happy
- 1.20 Keeping Management Happy
- 1.21 Keeping SAs Happy
- 1.22 Keeping Systems from Being Too Slow
- 1.23 Coping with a Big Influx of Computers
- 1.24 Coping with a Big Influx of New Users
- 1.25 Coping with a Big Influx of New SAs
- 1.26 Handling a High SA Team Attrition Rate
- 1.27 Handling a High User-Base Attrition Rate
- 1.28 Being New to a Group
- 1.29 Being the New Manager of a Group
- 1.30 Looking for a New Job
- 1.31 Hiring Many New SAs Quickly
- 1.32 Increasing Total System Reliability
- 1.33 Decreasing Costs
- 1.34 Adding Features
- 1.35 Stopping the Hurt When Doing This
- 1.36 Building Customer Confidence
- 1.37 Building the Teams Self-Confidence
- 1.38 Improving the Teams Follow-Through
- 1.39 Handling an Unethical or Worrisome Request
- 1.40 My Dishwasher Leaves Spots on My Glasses
- 1.41 Protecting Your Job
- 1.42 Getting More Training
- 1.43 Setting Your Priorities
- 1.44 Getting All the Work Done
- 1.45 Avoiding Stress
- 1.46 What Should SAs Expect from Their Managers?
- 1.47 What Should SA Managers Expect from Their SAs?
- 1.48 What Should SA Managers Provide to Their Boss?
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
1.12 What Tools Should Every SA Team Member Have?
- A laptop with network diagnostic tools, such as network sniffer, DHCP client in verbose mode, encrypted TELNET/SSH client, TFTP server, and so on, as well as both wired and wireless Ethernet.
- Terminal emulator software and a serial cable. The laptop can be an emergency serial console if the console server dies or the data center console breaks or a rogue server outside the data center needs console access.
- A spare PC or server for experimenting with new configurations—Section 19.2.1.
- A portable label printer—Section 6.1.12.
- A PDA or nonelectronic organizer—Section 32.1.2.
- A set of screwdrivers in all the sizes computers use.
- A cable tester.
- A pair of splicing scissors.
- Access to patch cables of various lengths. Include one or two 100-foot (30-meter) cables. These come in handy in the strangest emergencies.
- A small digital camera. (Sending a snapshot to technical support can be useful for deciphering strange console messages, identifying model numbers, and proving damage.)
- A portable (USB)/firewire hard drive.
- Radios or walkie-talkies for communicating inside the building—Chapter 6 and Section 20.1.7.3.
- A cabinet stocked with tools and spare parts—Section 6.1.12.
- High-speed connectivity to team members’ home and the necessary tools for telecommuting.
- A library of the standard reference books for the technologies the team members are involved in—Sections 33.1.1, 34.1.7, and bibliography.
- Membership to professional societies such as USENIX and LOPSA—Section 32.1.4.
- A variety of headache medicines. It’s really difficult to solve big problems when you have a headache.
- Printed, framed, copies of the SA Code of Ethics—Section 12.1.2.
- Shelf-stable emergency-only snacky bits.
- A copy of this book!