The Practice of System and Network Administration: Volume 1 (3rd Edition)

<About>

Features
Shows students how to maximize their effectiveness as an administrator by promoting simplicity, clarity, generality, automation, and communication, and prioritizing the basics first
Addresses modern administration issues including BYOD and the latest security paradigms
By a team of world-renowned IT administrators, including the legendary SAGE Outstanding Achievement Award winners Christina Hogan and Thomas Limoncelli
Teaches how to make decisions that help students excel
First of 2 volumes: recent companion volume covers DevOps and cloud administration

<Description>

With 28 new chapters, the third edition of The Practice of System and Network Administration innovates yet again! Revised with thousands of updates and clarifications based on reader feedback, this new edition also incorporates DevOps strategies even for non-DevOps environments.

Whether you use Linux, Unix, or Windows, this new edition describes the essential practices previously handed down only from mentor to protégé. This wonderfully lucid, often funny cornucopia of information introduces beginners to advanced frameworks valuable for their entire career, yet is structured to help even experts through difficult projects.

Other books tell you what commands to type. This book teaches you the cross-platform strategies that are timeless!

DevOps techniques: Apply DevOps principles to enterprise IT infrastructure, even in environments without developers
Game-changing strategies: New ways to deliver results faster with less stress
Fleet management: A comprehensive guide to managing your fleet of desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices
Service management: How to design, launch, upgrade and migrate services
Measurable improvement: Assess your operational effectiveness; a forty-page, pain-free assessment system you can start using today to raise the quality of all services
Design guides: Best practices for networks, data centers, email, storage, monitoring, backups and more
Management skills: Organization design, communication, negotiation, ethics, hiring and firing, and more

Have you ever had any of these problems?

Have you been surprised to discover your backup tapes are blank?
Ever spent a year launching a new service only to be told the users hate it?
Do you have more incoming support requests than you can handle?
Do you spend more time fixing problems than building the next awesome thing?
Have you suffered from a botched migration of thousands of users to a new service?
Does your company rely on a computer that, if it died, can’t be rebuilt?
Is your network a fragile mess that breaks any time you try to improve it?
Is there a periodic “hell month” that happens twice a year? Twelve times a year?
Do you find out about problems when your users call you to complain?
Does your corporate “Change Review Board” terrify you?
Does each division of your company have their own broken way of doing things?
Do you fear that automation will replace you, or break more than it fixes?
Are you underpaid and overworked?

No vague “management speak” or empty platitudes. This comprehensive guide provides real solutions that prevent these problems and more!

<Sample Content>

Table of Contents

Preface xxxix

Acknowledgments xlvii

About the Authors li

Part I: Game-Changing Strategies 1

Chapter 1: Climbing Out of the Hole 3

1.1 Organizing WIP 5

1.2 Eliminating Time Sinkholes 12

1.3 DevOps 16

1.4 DevOps Without Devs 16

1.5 Bottlenecks 18

1.6 Getting Started 20

1.7 Summary 21

Exercises 22

Chapter 2: The Small Batches Principle 23

2.1 The Carpenter Analogy 23

2.2 Fixing Hell Month 24

2.3 Improving Emergency Failovers 26

2.4 Launching Early and Often 29

2.5 Summary 34

Exercises 34

Chapter 3: Pets and Cattle 37

3.1 The Pets and Cattle Analogy 37

3.2 Scaling 39

3.3 Desktops as Cattle 40

3.4 Server Hardware as Cattle 41

3.5 Pets Store State 43

3.6 Isolating State 44

3.7 Generic Processes 47

3.8 Moving Variations to the End 51

3.9 Automation 53

3.10 Summary 53

Exercises 54

Chapter 4: Infrastructure as Code 55

4.1 Programmable Infrastructure 56

4.2 Tracking Changes 57

4.3 Benefits of Infrastructure as Code 59

4.4 Principles of Infrastructure as Code 62

4.5 Configuration Management Tools 63

4.6 Example Infrastructure as Code Systems 67

4.7 Bringing Infrastructure as Code to Your Organization 71

4.8 Infrastructure as Code for Enhanced Collaboration 72

4.9 Downsides to Infrastructure as Code 73

4.10 Automation Myths 74

4.11 Summary 75

Exercises 76

Part II: Workstation Fleet Management 77

Chapter 5: Workstation Architecture 79

5.1 Fungibility 80

5.2 Hardware 82

5.3 Operating System 82

5.4 Network Configuration 84

5.5 Accounts and Authorization 86

5.6 Data Storage 89

5.7 OS Updates 93

5.8 Security 94

5.9 Logging 97

5.10 Summary 98

Exercises 99

Chapter 6: Workstation Hardware Strategies 101

6.1 Physical Workstations 101

6.2 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 105

6.3 Bring Your Own Device 110

6.4 Summary 113

Exercises 114

Chapter 7: Workstation Software Life Cycle 117

7.1 Life of a Machine 117

7.2 OS Installation 120

7.3 OS Configuration 120

7.4 Updating the System Software and Applications 123

7.5 Rolling Out Changes . . . Carefully 128

7.6 Disposal 130

7.7 Summary 134

Exercises 135

Chapter 8: OS Installation Strategies 137

8.1 Consistency Is More Important Than Perfection 138

8.2 Installation Strategies 142

8.3 Test-Driven Configuration Development 147

8.4 Automating in Steps 148

8.5 When Not to Automate 152

8.6 Vendor Support of OS Installation 152

8.7 Should You Trust the Vendor’s Installation? 154

8.8 Summary 154

Exercises 155

Chapter 9: Workstation Service Definition 157

9.1 Basic Service Definition 157

9.2 Refresh Cycles 161

9.3 Tiered Support Levels 165

9.4 Workstations as a Managed Service 168

9.5 Summary 170

Exercises 171

Chapter 10: Workstation Fleet Logistics 173

10.1 What Employees See 173

10.2 What Employees Don’t See 174

10.3 Configuration Management Database 183

10.4 Small-Scale Fleet Logistics 186

10.5 Summary 188

Exercises 188

Chapter 11: Workstation Standardization 191

11.1 Involving Customers Early 192

11.2 Releasing Early and Iterating 193

11.3 Having a Transition Interval (Overlap) 193

11.4 Ratcheting 194

11.5 Setting a Cut-Off Date 195

11.6 Adapting for Your Corporate Culture 195

11.7 Leveraging the Path of Least Resistance 196

11.8 Summary 198

Exercises 199

Chapter 12: Onboarding 201

12.1 Making a Good First Impression 201

12.2 IT Responsibilities 203

12.3 Five Keys to Successful Onboarding 203

12.4 Cadence Changes 212

12.5 Case Studies 212

12.6 Summary 216

Exercises 217

Part III: Servers 219

Chapter 13: Server Hardware Strategies 221

13.1 All Eggs in One Basket 222

13.2 Beautiful Snowflakes 224

13.3 Buy in Bulk, Allocate Fractions 228

13.4 Grid Computing 235

13.5 Blade Servers 237

13.6 Cloud-Based Compute Services 238

13.7 Server Appliances 241

13.8 Hybrid Strategies 242

13.9 Summary 243

Exercises 244

Chapter 14: Server Hardware Features 245

14.1 Workstations Versus Servers 246

14.2 Server Reliability 249

14.3 Remotely Managing Servers 254

14.4 Separate Administrative Networks 257

14.5 Maintenance Contracts and Spare Parts 258

14.6 Selecting Vendors with Server Experience 261

14.7 Summary 263

Exercises 263

Chapter 15: Server Hardware Specifications 265

15.1 Models and Product Lines 266

15.2 Server Hardware Details 266

15.3 Things to Leave Out 278

15.4 Summary 278

Exercises 279

Part IV: Services 281

Chapter 16: Service Requirements 283

16.1 Services Make the Environment 284

16.2 Starting with a Kick-Off Meeting 285

16.3 Gathering Written Requirements 286

16.4 Customer Requirements 288

16.5 Scope, Schedule, and Resources 291

16.6 Operational Requirements 292

16.7 Open Architecture 298

16.8 Summary 302

Exercises 303

Chapter 17: Service Planning and Engineering 305

17.1 General Engineering Basics 306

17.2 Simplicity 307

17.3 Vendor-Certified Designs 308

17.4 Dependency Engineering 309

17.5 Decoupling Hostname from Service Name 313

17.6 Support 315

17.7 Summary 319

Exercises 319

Chapter 18: Service Resiliency and Performance Patterns 321

18.1 Redundancy Design Patterns 322

18.2 Performance and Scaling 326

18.3 Summary 333

Exercises 334

Chapter 19: Service Launch: Fundamentals 335

19.1 Planning for Problems 335

19.2 The Six-Step Launch Process 336

19.3 Launch Readiness Review 345

19.4 Launch Calendar 348

19.5 Common Launch Problems 349

19.6 Summary 351

Exercises 351

Chapter 20: Service Launch: DevOps 353

20.1 Continuous Integration and Deployment 354

20.2 Minimum Viable Product 357

20.3 Rapid Release with Packaged Software 359

20.4 Cloning the Production Environment 362

20.5 Example: DNS/DHCP Infrastructure Software 363

20.6 Launch with Data Migration 366

20.7 Controlling Self-Updating Software 369

20.8 Summary 370

Exercises 371

Chapter 21: Service Conversions 373

21.1 Minimizing Intrusiveness 374

21.2 Layers Versus Pillars 376

21.3 Vendor Support 377

21.4 Communication 378

21.5 Training 379

21.6 Gradual Roll-Outs 379

21.7 Flash-Cuts: Doing It All at Once 380

21.8 Backout Plan 383

21.9 Summary 385

Exercises 385

Chapter 22: Disaster Recovery and Data Integrity 387

22.1 Risk Analysis 388

22.2 Legal Obligations 389

22.3 Damage Limitation 390

22.4 Preparation 391

22.5 Data Integrity 392

22.6 Redundant Sites 393

22.7 Security Disasters 394

22.8 Media Relations 394

22.9 Summary 395

Exercises 395

Part V: Infrastructure 397

Chapter 23: Network Architecture 399

23.1 Physical Versus Logical 399

23.2 The OSI Model 400

23.3 Wired Office Networks 402

23.4 Wireless Office Networks 406

23.5 Datacenter Networks 408

23.6 WAN Strategies 413

23.7 Routing 419

23.8 Internet Access 420

23.9 Corporate Standards 422

23.10 Software-Defined Networks 425

23.11 IPv6 426

23.12 Summary 428

Exercises 429

Chapter 24: Network Operations 431

24.1 Monitoring 431

24.2 Management 432

24.3 Documentation 437

24.4 Support 440

24.5 Summary 446

Exercises 447

Chapter 25: Datacenters Overview 449

25.1 Build, Rent, or Outsource 450

25.2 Requirements 452

25.3 Summary 456

Exercises 457

Chapter 26: Running a Datacenter 459

26.1 Capacity Management 459

26.2 Life-Cycle Management 465

26.3 Patch Cables 468

26.4 Labeling 471

26.5 Console Access 475

26.6 Workbench 476

26.7 Tools and Supplies 477

26.8 Summary 480

Exercises 481

Part VI: Helpdesks and Support 483

Chapter 27: Customer Support 485

27.1 Having a Helpdesk 485

27.2 Offering a Friendly Face 488

27.3 Reflecting Corporate Culture 488

27.4 Having Enough Staff 488

27.5 Defining Scope of Support 490

27.6 Specifying How to Get Help 493

27.7 Defining Processes for Staff 493

27.8 Establishing an Escalation Process 494

27.9 Defining “Emergency” in Writing 495

27.10 Supplying Request-Tracking Software 496

27.11 Statistical Improvements 498

27.12 After-Hours and 24/7 Coverage 499

27.13 Better Advertising for the Helpdesk 500

27.14 Different Helpdesks for Different Needs 501

27.15 Summary 502

Exercises 503

Chapter 28: Handling an Incident Report 505

28.1 Process Overview 506

28.2 Phase A—Step 1: The Greeting 508

28.3 Phase B: Problem Identification 509

28.4 Phase C: Planning and Execution 515

28.5 Phase D: Verification 518

28.6 Perils of Skipping a Step 519

28.7 Optimizing Customer Care 521

28.8 Summary 525

Exercises 527

Chapter 29: Debugging 529

29.1 Understanding the Customer’s Problem 529

29.2 Fixing the Cause, Not the Symptom 531

29.3 Being Systematic 532

29.4 Having the Right Tools 533

29.5 End-to-End Understanding of the System 538

29.6 Summary 540

Exercises 540

Chapter 30: Fixing Things Once 541

30.1 Story: The Misconfigured Servers 541

30.2 Avoiding Temporary Fixes 543

30.3 Learn from Carpenters 545

30.4 Automation 547

30.5 Summary 549

Exercises 550

Chapter 31: Documentation 551

31.1 What to Document 552

31.2 A Simple Template for Getting Started 553

31.3 Easy Sources for Documentation 554

31.4 The Power of Checklists 556

31.5 Wiki Systems 557

31.6 Findability 559

31.7 Roll-Out Issues 559

31.8 A Content-Management System 560

31.9 A Culture of Respect 561

31.10 Taxonomy and Structure 561

31.11 Additional Documentation Uses 562

31.12 Off-Site Links 562

31.13 Summary 563

Exercises 564

Part VII: Change Processes 565

Chapter 32: Change Management 567

32.1 Change Review Boards 568

32.2 Process Overview 570

32.3 Change Proposals 570

32.4 Change Classifications 571

32.5 Risk Discovery and Quantification 572

32.6 Technical Planning 573

32.7 Scheduling 574

32.8 Communication 576

32.9 Tiered Change Review Boards 578

32.10 Change Freezes 579

32.11 Team Change Management 581

32.12 Starting with Git 583

32.13 Summary 585

Exercises 585

Chapter 33: Server Upgrades 587

33.1 The Upgrade Process 587

33.2 Step 1: Develop a Service Checklist 588

33.3 Step 2: Verify Software Compatibility 591

33.4 Step 3: Develop Verification Tests 592

33.5 Step 4: Choose an Upgrade Strategy 595

33.6 Step 5: Write a Detailed Implementation Plan 598

33.7 Step 6: Write a Backout Plan 600

33.8 Step 7: Select a Maintenance Window 600

33.9 Step 8: Announce the Upgrade 602

33.10 Step 9: Execute the Tests 603

33.11 Step 10: Lock Out Customers 604

33.12 Step 11: Do the Upgrade with Someone 605

33.13 Step 12: Test Your Work 605

33.14 Step 13: If All Else Fails, Back Out 605

33.15 Step 14: Restore Access to Customers 606

33.16 Step 15: Communicate Completion/Backout 606

33.17 Summary 608

Exercises 610

Chapter 34: Maintenance Windows 611

34.1 Process Overview 612

34.2 Getting Management Buy-In 613

34.3 Scheduling Maintenance Windows 614

34.4 Planning Maintenance Tasks 615

34.5 Selecting a Flight Director 616

34.6 Managing Change Proposals 617

34.7 Developing the Master Plan 620

34.8 Disabling Access 621

34.9 Ensuring Mechanics and Coordination 622

34.10 Change Completion Deadlines 628

34.11 Comprehensive System Testing 628

34.12 Post-maintenance Communication 630

34.13 Reenabling Remote Access 631

34.14 Be Visible the Next Morning 631

34.15 Postmortem 631

34.16 Mentoring a New Flight Director 632

34.17 Trending of Historical Data 632

34.18 Providing Limited Availability 633

34.19 High-Availability Sites 634

34.20 Summary 636

Exercises 637

Chapter 35: Centralization Overview 639

35.1 Rationale for Reorganizing 640

35.2 Approaches and Hybrids 642

35.3 Summary 643

Exercises 644

Chapter 36: Centralization Recommendations 645

36.1 Architecture 645

36.2 Security 645

36.3 Infrastructure 648

36.4 Support 654

36.5 Purchasing 655

36.6 Lab Environments 656

36.7 Summary 656

Exercises 657

Chapter 37: Centralizing a Service 659

37.1 Understand the Current Solution 660

37.2 Make a Detailed Plan 661

37.3 Get Management Support 662

37.4 Fix the Problems 662

37.5 Provide an Excellent Service 663

37.6 Start Slowly 663

37.7 Look for Low-Hanging Fruit 664

37.8 When to Decentralize 665

37.9 Managing Decentralized Services 666

37.10 Summary 667

Exercises 668

Part VIII: Service Recommendations 669

Chapter 38: Service Monitoring 671

38.1 Types of Monitoring 672

38.2 Building a Monitoring System 673

38.3 Historical Monitoring 674

38.4 Real-Time Monitoring 676

38.5 Scaling 684

38.6 Centralization and Accessibility 685

38.7 Pervasive Monitoring 686

38.8 End-to-End Tests 687

38.9 Application Response Time Monitoring 688

38.10 Compliance Monitoring 689

38.11 Meta-monitoring 690

38.12 Summary 690

Exercises 691

Chapter 39: Namespaces 693

39.1 What Is a Namespace? 693

39.2 Basic Rules of Namespaces 694

39.3 Defining Names 694

39.4 Merging Namespaces 698

39.5 Life-Cycle Management 699

39.6 Reuse 700

39.7 Usage 701

39.8 Federated Identity 708

39.9 Summary 709

Exercises 710

Chapter 40: Nameservices 711

40.1 Nameservice Data 711

40.2 Reliability 714

40.3 Access Policy 721

40.4 Change Policies 723

40.5 Change Procedures 724

40.6 Centralized Management 726

40.7 Summary 728

Exercises 728

Chapter 41: Email Service 729

41.1 Privacy Policy 730

41.2 Namespaces 730

41.3 Reliability 731

41.4 Simplicity 733

41.5 Spam and Virus Blocking 735

41.6 Generality 736

41.7 Automation 737

41.8 Monitoring 738

41.9 Redundancy 738

41.10 Scaling 739

41.11 Security Issues 742

41.12 Encryption 743

41.13 Email Retention Policy 743

41.14 Communication 744

41.15 High-Volume List Processing 745

41.16 Summary 746

Exercises 747

Chapter 42: Print Service 749

42.1 Level of Centralization 750

42.2 Print Architecture Policy 751

42.3 Documentation 754

42.4 Monitoring 755

42.5 Environmental Issues 756

42.6 Shredding 757

42.7 Summary 758

Exercises 758

Chapter 43: Data Storage 759

43.1 Terminology 760

43.2 Managing Storage 765

43.3 Storage as a Service 772

43.4 Performance 780

43.5 Evaluating New Storage Solutions 784

43.6 Common Data Storage Problems 787

43.7 Summary 789

Exercises 790

Chapter 44: Backup and Restore 793

44.1 Getting Started 794

44.2 Reasons for Restores 795

44.3 Corporate Guidelines 799

44.4 A Data-Recovery SLA and Policy 800

44.5 The Backup Schedule 801

44.6 Time and Capacity Planning 807

44.7 Consumables Planning 809

44.8 Restore-Process Issues 815

44.9 Backup Automation 816

44.10 Centralization 819

44.11 Technology Changes 820

44.12 Summary 821

Exercises 822

Chapter 45: Software Repositories 825

45.1 Types of Repositories 826

45.2 Benefits of Repositories 827

45.3 Package Management Systems 829

45.4 Anatomy of a Package 829

45.5 Anatomy of a Repository 833

45.6 Managing a Repository 837

45.7 Repository Client 841

45.8 Build Environment 843

45.9 Repository Examples 845

45.10 Summary 848

Exercises 849

Chapter 46: Web Services 851

46.1 Simple Web Servers 852

46.2 Multiple Web Servers on One Host 853

46.3 Service Level Agreements 854

46.4 Monitoring 855

46.5 Scaling for Web Services 855

46.6 Web Service Security 859

46.7 Content Management 866

46.8 Summary 868

Exercises 869

Part IX: Management Practices 871

Chapter 47: Ethics 873

47.1 Informed Consent 873

47.2 Code of Ethics 875

47.3 Customer Usage Guidelines 875

47.4 Privileged-Access Code of Conduct 877

47.5 Copyright Adherence 878

47.6 Working with Law Enforcement 881

47.7 Setting Expectations on Privacy and Monitoring 885

47.8 Being Told to Do Something Illegal/Unethical 887

47.9 Observing Illegal Activity 888

47.10 Summary 889

Exercises 889

Chapter 48: Organizational Structures 891

48.1 Sizing 892

48.2 Funding Models 894

48.3 Management Chain’s Influence 897

48.4 Skill Selection 898

48.5 Infrastructure Teams 900

48.6 Customer Support 902

48.7 Helpdesk 904

48.8 Outsourcing 904

48.9 Consultants and Contractors 906

48.10 Sample Organizational Structures 907

48.11 Summary 911

Exercises 911

Chapter 49: Perception and Visibility 913

49.1 Perception 913

49.2 Visibility 925

49.3 Summary 933

Exercises 934

Chapter 50: Time Management 935

50.1 Interruptions 935

50.2 Follow-Through 937

50.3 Basic To-Do List Management 938

50.4 Setting Goals 939

50.5 Handling Email Once 940

50.6 Precompiling Decisions 942

50.7 Finding Free Time 943

50.8 Dealing with Ineffective People 944

50.9 Dealing with Slow Bureaucrats 944

50.10 Summary 946

Exercises 946

Chapter 51: Communication and Negotiation 949

51.1 Communication 949

51.2 I Statements 950

51.3 Active Listening 950

51.4 Negotiation 954

51.5 Additional Negotiation Tips 958

51.6 Further Reading 960

51.7 Summary 961

Exercises 961

Chapter 52: Being a Happy SA 963

52.1 Happiness 963

52.2 Accepting Criticism 965

52.3 Your Support Structure 965

52.4 Balancing Work and Personal Life 966

52.5 Professional Development 967

52.6 Staying Technical 968

52.7 Loving Your Job 969

52.8 Motivation 970

52.9 Managing Your Manager 972

52.10 Self-Help Books 976

52.11 Summary 976

Exercises 977

Chapter 53: Hiring System Administrators 979

53.1 Job Description 980

53.2 Skill Level 982

53.3 Recruiting 983

53.4 Timing 985

53.5 Team Considerations 987

53.6 The Interview Team 990

53.7 Interview Process 991

53.8 Technical Interviewing 994

53.9 Nontechnical Interviewing 998

53.10 Selling the Position 1000

53.11 Employee Retention 1000

53.12 Getting Noticed 1001

53.13 Summary 1002

Exercises 1003

Chapter 54: Firing System Administrators 1005

54.1 Cooperate with Corporate HR 1006

54.2 The Exit Checklist 1007

54.3 Removing Access 1007

54.4 Logistics 1011

54.5 Examples 1011

54.6 Supporting Infrastructure 1014

54.7 Summary 1015

Exercises 1016

Part X: Being More Awesome 1017

Chapter 55: Operational Excellence 1019

55.1 What Does Operational Excellence Look Like? 1019

55.2 How to Measure Greatness 1020

55.3 Assessment Methodology 1021

55.4 Service Assessments 1025

55.5 Organizational Assessments 1029

55.6 Levels of Improvement 1030

55.7 Getting Started 1031

55.8 Summary 1032

Exercises 1033

Chapter 56: Operational Assessments 1035

56.1 Regular Tasks (RT) 1036

56.2 Emergency Response (ER) 1039

56.3 Monitoring and Metrics (MM) 1041

56.4 Capacity Planning (CP) 1043

56.5 Change Management (CM) 1045

56.6 New Product Introduction and Removal (NPI/NPR) 1047

56.7 Service Deployment and Decommissioning (SDD) 1049

56.8 Performance and Efficiency (PE) 1051

56.9 Service Delivery: The Build Phase 1054

56.10 Service Delivery: The Deployment Phase 1056

56.11 Toil Reduction 1058

56.12 Disaster Preparedness 1060

Epilogue 1063

Part XI: Appendices 1065

Appendix A: What to Do When . . . 1067

Appendix B: The Many Roles of a System Administrator 1089

B.1 Common Positive Roles 1090

B.2 Negative Roles 1107

B.3 Team Roles 1109

B.4 Summary 1112

Exercises 1112

Bibliography 1115

Index 1121