Network and System Administrator

English Network/Internet
1

Good day! And I have my very first job as a network and system administrator in University of Saint La Salle-Integrated School Library. I would like to have an advice from all of the experts here… What would be my first step? Because, I would like to change the system of the library having a Windows 2003 server. Thank you so much!..:wink:

2

A pretty bold first step !
Indeed it might even be considered a little impertinent to make such changes without first discussing this with your new employer.

3

Make an extensive list of what the system does.

4

On 07/16/2011 11:06 AM, diazem wrote:
>
> What would be my first step?

-=welcome=- new poster, and congratulation on your graduation, your
degree and your position…

you addressed the “experts here”…of which i am not one…i am neither
a network nor system administrator (except as required to keep my own
system and network humming along)…i say that so you don’t think i am
the expert around here as you read my opinion on what your first steps
should be:

  1. Become a trained, certified and experienced Linux System
    Administrator… (if you are not already–that is, some * computer engineering degrees are heavy on theory and pretty
    light on experience…and you probably know better than i, that many
    schools have strong backing by Microsoft and therefore most (to almost
    all) training is with MS systems…)

  2. Develop a comprehensive, phased, system change-over plan including
    backup, minimum disruption and fall-back strategies…

  3. Receive the Chief Librarian’s approval for your plan, prior to its
    execution…

NOTE: i would recommend you consider switching to SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server (SLES)…not openSUSE, these are the openSUSE fora, perhaps you
intended to post to http://tinyurl.com/422mrnu

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the BMW® of operating systems!

5

thank you so much!. I know that we (Computer Engineering) are taught only theories. but we have a choice on what major career are we going to take after we graduate. But me, I want to pursue a career as a System/Network Administrator.

My job is very simple that the setting is much like to the school computer laboratories. I was assigned in our High school library, with a 100 workstations that if students have their vacant hours, they can use the computers freely. Now, I was planning to have it my on way instead of maintaining the work of the previous administrator. High-school students in our University only has a population in about 500+ students.

Making a new design in the library’s system and network would be a great experience for me to implement all of the theories that have been taught to me… this first job would be my training ground for my career and to take certifications for the future… =)

Thanks a lot guys.

6

thank you so much!. I know that we (Computer Engineering) are taught only theories. but we have a choice on what major career are we going to take after we graduate. But me, I want to pursue a career as a System/Network Administrator.

My job is very simple that the setting is much like to the school computer laboratories. I was assigned in our High school library, with a 100 workstations that if students have their vacant hours, they can use the computers freely. Now, I was planning to have it my on way instead of maintaining the work of the previous administrator. High-school students in our University only has a population in about 500+ students.

Making a new design in the library’s system and network would be a great experience for me to implement all of the theories that have been taught to me… this first job would be my training ground for my career and to take certifications for the future… =)

Thanks a lot guys.

Well I just want to wish you much luck in your new job and to come here and ask any specific questions that you want have. Do be careful with any changes that you put into place. Most people do not like change in what they are used to. If your network users are unhappy, your bosses may be unhappy. Mock up and test any major changes in a small setting before taking any such changes live. Don’t let the first time you try something be done on everyone at the same time. Do not assume you understand a new setup you have never tried before. What can go wrong does go wrong and you must be prepared for the worst. And finally, backup, backup and backup again.

Thank You,

7

Hi DD,
can not agree with you more that microsoft certifications are more popular in schools and in fact linux courses, seminars etc are more difficult to find, here where I live any way.

I know the best way to learn is practice, so maybe would you recommend good books for system admin, or any good books managing linux?

thanks*

8

Honestly, this gives me goosebumps.

A server is not a learning-toy. If you feel any kind of responsibility, admit to yourself that your knowledge and experience is not enough to run a server. Servers are attacked every day, every minute even, and you should know how to secure and analyse such a system before running it. Switching libraries and the like should come much much later (if at all…).

9

The key thing to remember is that the systems are there to provide a service. The users will not care about the technical details of it. Your foremost goal should be to secure, maintain and improve the service. If you play around, substitute software and disrupt the service without a plan or approval you get criticised for it and also bring disrepute to FOSS. Take things in small steps, making sure not to make things worse along the way.

10

wow!. thank you for all of the advises. the first thing that I need to do is to clone the server’s hard drive before changing it. but i only have theories in mind that i wanted to implement.

My job is very simple. maintain the internet cafe of the library which is used by students if they are having free time. I am the administrator of the library and the head-librarian told me that if I can give her an automated log-ins for students instead of writing their name in the logbook before they use.

i only have in my mind that maybe I can have server that:

  1. DHCP server
  2. file server
  3. users log-in server (like active directory)
  4. proxy server for blocking an unauthorized website for students usage.
  5. (and many more for the future)

i don’t know what to do. I only know gateways, DNS server, and etc. by their name. I am researching all I can in the internet for tutorials. but here, I read most of server administration etiquette which is one of the important element of being an employee… :slight_smile:

thanks a lot!..:wink:

11

On 07/16/2011 06:36 PM, loand wrote:
>
> would you recommend good books for system admin, or any good books managing linux?

there are hundreds of them…

and kinda easy to spot as the good one are heavy, thick, many pages,
few pictures and not easy reading…they have names like Linux
Unleashed, Linux Bible, Administering Linux, Linux Security, Linux
Networking, Linux Administration…and, on and on and on…

there is a mountain of stuff online…some of it is GREAT, some is just
ok…when you know everything you can know for free THEN walk into a
book store and you will instantly know what you don’t know, and what you
need to pay for (and cut trees down to print it on)

i’ve written here on “good books” before, see for example (there are
others and they are probably all different):

http://tinyurl.com/3a5rong
(be advised: URLs change all the time, if the link is broken, too
bad…use Google)

and there are more than on that list, like here:
http://tinyurl.com/ycwhgnd

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the BMW® of operating systems!

12

thank you for the tutorials… I will now begin reading those articles… :slight_smile:

13

Hi Diazem,

I’ve been a linux admin for a Univ for about a year now.

If the Win2k3 server is running AD, does that mean other windows computers are connecting to it for central auth? In my experience, you can’t beat a windows server in a windows environment. AD and group policy are just too powerful to give up.

I don’t see why you couldn’t move the other network services off the win2k3 box to a (open)SUSE box, but as others have pointed out, you need to be comfortable and have a plan in place as well as knowing how to secure it. (One poster was saying that servers are attacked every day, I would start by proving to yourself that this is true.) Also, don’t forget your boss and coworkers in this move. How does the linux box benefit them? If you left tomorrow, who would know how to run it? who would want to run it? would they just go back to win2k3? Linux at a Univ is a niche market.

Good luck!

-PerfectSine

14

thanks DD for titles, there are tones of different linux books but I don’t want to read throw 800 pages just to find out that out there are better ones.

Following your dive I will start with bible and securing and optimazing linux…

Thanks and good luck

15

On 07/18/2011 11:36 PM, loand wrote:
>
> don’t want to read throw 800 pages just to find out that out there are
> better ones.

when beginning you will learn something from the “better ones” and
the “absolutely worst ones”…

tell me, how does one judge Linux documentation as the good, better, or
best?

if it is factual, correct, complete, clear and up to date it is good
enough for beginner and seasoned expert alike…

but, by the way, what the expert thinks is perfect the beginner
might think is worthless…and vice versa…

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

16

First I would like to say is Welcome to the world of Linux.
I’m a Sr Linux Systems/Storage administrator and a RHCE. What your describing is a tall task for someone
new to Linux/Unix. You can spend countless hours reading tons of documents and trying to do things all at
once will easily be overwhelming. It would be much better if you can start one step at a time.
For example, building a small server on the side as to not impact your customers, pissing off 500+ people isn’t fun.
This way you can learn one service at a time and slowly apply them to the network. Once one is mastered move
along to the next. You can read tons of materials that will only make sense when applied to the real world.
There is a huge difference between administrating a single system or home network then a large group of systems
with many users. Users can and will find anything that can break in ways you will never think of.
One thing I have noticed lately is a extreme lack of people coming out of school with any Unix knowledge especially
command line experience.
The world of Linux is very rewarding, always a lot of new things to learn and explore.

Thanks,
Dana

17

I just configured an openSuse 11.4 to a router box because our school I.T. center already gave us an one IP address to have an internet access for the whole library… I am learning step by step because of easy configuration by the use of Yast2.

Can you help me?.. I am planning to divide my network. 1 for the workstations for our librarian-staff (with domain server for future development), and 1 for the internet cafe for students. so does it mean that I will be needing another computer unit to be a server?
I just made 1 server(openSuse configured as a router box) for a good start… :slight_smile: and by the way I had an observation with me…, there are nearly 50 students who used the internet cafe everyday… its because we are only having 30 workstations in our internet cafe, and almost of them had their own laptops just connect in our wifi router… :slight_smile:

the workstations are windows Xp and I am usin Windows Steady State for student user restrictions. =)
thank you for all of your concerns! I learned a lot from all of you!..

18

So u are doing two subnets…
These tutorial might help:

openSUSE ICS: Internet Connection Sharing (Linux IP Masquerading) with Suse or Windows Servers

The dhcp setup for ur library users:
Chapter

Let us know how do you do with ur network
Good Luck!

19

My opensuse has been configured as a wired router which means, it is my gateway between the external and internal network and also a DHCP server… I was given an Internet IP address from our ITC office with static configuration:
IP: 192.168.3.253
SUbnet:255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.3.254
DNS1: 192.168.3.1
DNS2: 192.168.3.2

^this is the configuration of my NIC card #1 (external network)
and now for my internal network is:
OPENSUSE external network IP Address: 192.168.9.1
also configured as DHCP server ranging 192.168.9.100- 192.168.9.200.

finally, I configured it to be liken as a router box,
the outcome from one of my winXP client with an auto obtain IP address and DNS is this:
machine name station01

ip: 192.168.9.100
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.9.1
DNS 1: 192.168.3.1
DNS2: 192.168.3.2

I don’t have an internal DNS server because I dont know how to make one. and that includes how to set-up and put my 2 nic cards in the DNS server. But I know that the DNS server have to be 2 nic Cards and that is for data IN and OUT. hmm… my problem is if i type in winXP run \station01 in my station02 computer, it cannot detect but I have to type \192.168.9.100 so that I can access the shared file of station01. if do not gave the 192.168.3.1 and 192.168.3.2 as DNS for the clients, the clients will not having an internet… hmmm

what would be my problem here…

thanks in advance!