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Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

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Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#431

Post by kilroy123 »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #394
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

Same here. There is, at least for me, one big serious downside: what happens when I die. My wife is quite concerned about her being left with a web of home automation, hosted emails etc. I understand her and I am trying to find a way out. My current idea is to document how to de-automatize the home and how to deal with emails and fiber access (the main things to worry about). Any ideas are very much welcome

Wow that's something I never really considered before. I think the documentation would be a good first start.

Maybe some kind of script(s) that could be run that just do all the de-automation?

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#432

Post by ozim »

ihateolives wrote: post #345
mark242 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is cloud administration less time consuming than system administration? Infinitely, and if you look at it from a startup lens it only makes sense. One needs to point only at the recent log4j incident. This is obviously a gigantic black swan event, but even just ongoing security patching at the OS level can be a full-time gig. There is absolutely no substitution for being able to ship code to a platform that just ru…

> but even just ongoing security patching at the OS level can be a full-time gig Oh boy, if that's what your server admin guys told you before you went full cloud then I'm sorry, I've got some bad news for you.

Take a look at January security patches from Microsoft and how domain controllers had bunch of issues and people had to uninstall patch.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#433

Post by 400thecat »

harryruhr wrote: post #396

I have a clear statement in my profile at linkedin: I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin, not a "DevOps" or a "Cloud/AWS/Azure engineer". I am only doing traditional Unix/Linux sysadmin stuff. There is not a day going by where a recruiter doesn't tell me "we are urgently looking for an experienced Linux sysadmin. Are you interested?"

> I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin, not a "DevOps" or a "Cloud/AWS/Azure engineer". I am only doing traditional Unix/Linux sysadmin stuff.

I will steal this.

As for the term "DevOps", I am never sure what people mean when they use it. You seem to be using in contrast to traditional linux sysadmin. What exactly does DevOps mean in your definition?

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#434

Post by dorfsmay »

lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

> when it comes to me and my family I

Who will keep maintaining your infra when you die, say you get hit by the infamous bus later today?

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#435

Post by yourapostasy »

reaperducer wrote: post #298
senko wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's what the bare metal server didn't come with: [bunch of stuff I don't need] Exactly. Imagine paying for all that when all you need is bare metal. Now imagine paying for all that just because you've read on the Internet that it's best practice and that's what the big guys do. Way back the best practice was what Microsoft, Oracle or Cisco wanted you to buy. Now it's what Amazon wants you to buy. Buy what you ne…

best practice Ugh. I hate that phrase. The translation into plain English is almost always "What I read in some blog" or "Because I want to" or "It's what our sales rep told us." Even from C-levels who should know better.

I generally use it as shorthand for, “when and not if we call the vendors with this configuration, they cannot pass the buck and say it isn’t a configuration they support”. “Best practice” as an endorsed configuration blessed by the vendor support engineering organization is my go-to sign-off to get quick cooperation from the vendors.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#436

Post by crisper78 »

lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

Awesome! Kudos for owning your own data and infra!

I don't think systems administration is a lost art, people just wanted to do things easier for less money and staff, and no one can blame them or the industry as a whole. The art is still right there, linux hasn't changed that much in 20+ years, I still have my first discs. It also takes some experience to "feel" your way through systems administration problems, working from the bottom up of course, feeling like its a network problem still has a high rate of success when troubleshooting for me!

I try everyday to teach some of these skills to people I work with, I just call it devops, or SRE, or some cyber cloud support position someone makes up, they are all systems admins/engineers to me still. I enjoy watching people learn and apply that knowledge to future problems, getting to the root cause or close to it, and the satisfaction that comes from fixing the issue from start to finish on your own, looking things up is not cheating in systems administration!

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#437

Post by marcosdumay »

ozim wrote: post #432
ihateolives wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but even just ongoing security patching at the OS level can be a full-time gig Oh boy, if that's what your server admin guys told you before you went full cloud then I'm sorry, I've got some bad news for you.

Take a look at January security patches from Microsoft and how domain controllers had bunch of issues and people had to uninstall patch.

Yeah, all those people saying that server management takes little time (me included) are explicitly not talking about Windows.

If you want to offshore all of your Windows servers, all I can say is "go for it!"

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#438

Post by harryruhr »

400thecat wrote: post #433
harryruhr wrote: post #396

I have a clear statement in my profile at linkedin: I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin, not a "DevOps" or a "Cloud/AWS/Azure engineer". I am only doing traditional Unix/Linux sysadmin stuff. There is not a day going by where a recruiter doesn't tell me "we are urgently looking for an experienced Linux sysadmin. Are you interested?"

> I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin, not a "DevOps" or a "Cloud/AWS/Azure engineer". I am only doing traditional Unix/Linux sysadmin stuff. I will steal this. As for the term "DevOps", I am never sure what people mean when they use it. You seem to be using in contrast to traditional linux sysadmin. What exactly does DevOps mean in your definition?

DevOps originally means a method. It is not a position or a job. But that doesn't stop companies to say, there are looking for an "DevOps engineer" or similar. The definition is vague at best.

Some seem to think a "DevOps" is a developer who knows how to administrate servers (or vice versa), as a modern term for a general IT person who can do anything, from programming, to firewall administration and repairing the printer.

Another definition is more specific, DevOps means in this case: working with CI/CD tools, programming "infrastructure as code" (Terraform, Ansible, etc) and doing all things "agile". This job is mostly cloud focussed.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#439

Post by vaylian »

dorfsmay wrote: post #434
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

> when it comes to me and my family I Who will keep maintaining your infra when you die, say you get hit by the infamous bus later today?

I can't answer for OP. But I don't think that the situation would be any better if the services are hosted in the cloud. Stuff needs to be maintained either way.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#440

Post by willjp »

cerved wrote: post #378
willjp wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very slick. Apparently, I need to make some techie friends. Tarsnap is pretty affordable for off-site backups though!

the friend doesn't need to be techy just have a house

Well, a house and some kind of NAS or at least a computer that is always on. But I take your point. This idea is brilliant though!!
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