Laws of System Administration

[ralphmelton]

I found this page useful for me for thinking about the nature of system administration. There's a certain flavor of Murphy's Laws to them, but there's also some real guidance on how to do things better.

I particularly hope that Willie will comment on the validity of these.

Comments

[beegle.livejournal.com]

I like it.

re: the laws of customization. I once heard this expressed as "Customization is like junk food. You want it, but it's usually not good for you."

The user who says ``I didn't change anything'' isn't always lying. Sometimes they're just ignorant or forgetful.

It's more important for users to do their job than to answer the needs of admins. Unless of course their job is to answer that need.

These are two of the most important things for admins to remember. Admins (and QA and programmers with a good feedback loop) often start to assume that everyone's a liar. Why? Because things happen that could only have happened if the user took active steps to make it happen (and that's usually later shown to be the case), but the user says (and sometimes insists forcefully) "I didn't do anything."

The second: Frederick Brooks said it well. Computers are tools. They don't improve anyone's life directly. They're tools that allow the user to make things that improve people's lives. It's important to remember that before you ask a user to jump through hoops to perform a (to them) simple task.


This book (http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=65KADI6TCF&mscssid=ULAR5PQ8JLG48NR7NUJ7UAKJP3MNBGM2&isbn=0201702711) is a longer treatise on the same subject. I've been pushing it to everyone I know who does admin-y things.