HOUR 23
A Day in the Life of a Network Administrator

What You’ll Learn in This Hour:

• Management of your time as a network administrator

• Use of calendars

• Hints on working with the user community

The person who serves as the caretaker of the network is the network administrator. The administrator controls the network servers and other machines, such as routers and bridges. It is this person’s job to exploit the tools provided by the servers’ Network Operating Systems (NOSs) and the routers’ operating systems (OSs) to keep the network secure and efficient.

In this hour, we look at the tasks required of the network administrator for supporting the user’s needs. In so doing, we gain an insight into an administrator’s typical day, a day in which we once again assume you are this person.

Your Job as an Administrator

Although on good days, a network administrator’s morning doesn’t deviate that much from a typical employee getting ready to show up at work, bad days can mean a quick roll out of bed because of a noisy pager or cell phone alerting that there’s a problem on the network. The fix might require breaking out a laptop and dialing in to the network to see whether the problem can be fixed remotely. In other cases, it might mean throwing on some clothes and speeding off to work.

Whatever the case, because the network often is required for employees to do their jobs and execute the core business of the company, you are responsible for resolving the problem as soon as possible.

In some cases, the problem might be easy to handle; for example, you cruise into the user’s office and discover that the correct printer wasn’t selected on the client computer, and that’s why the print job never showed up as a hard copy at the printer. In other cases, you might find that the print server had gone down, and you have to quickly replace a hard drive on the server and rebuild the server from backup media.

After you resolve the problem and get back to your desk, the chances are good that you have a message or messages waiting for you on your phone. You listen to your messages and create a to-do list of users who need assistance right out of the gate, triaging them by order of seriousness, and then you head out on your rounds. You’re a computer doctor who makes office calls.

One user is complaining that his copy of the corporate database is locked up. You get to his desk and discover that he’s caught in a transitional screen; there’s a menu onscreen that he has to deal with before he can get control of the database again. You instruct him how to get through the screen and back into his application; he’s happy but complains about the complexity. Oh, well. At least he’s working again.

Another user is complaining that his OS keeps locking up, and you find that he has downloaded a software program from the Web that is wreaking havoc with the OS. So you uninstall the offending application and make sure that any file associations are back to their default settings. You also have to let the user know that downloading unauthorized software from the Web and changing major OS settings is not something that network users should be doing. You need to impart this information in a professional, yet firm, manner so that the situation doesn’t happen again.

Starting to get the picture? Your day, which can start at the crack of dawn, often begins with troubleshooting problems that have popped up with your user base. After you take care of user issues, you can start your daily tasks. First, you head into the computer room (which is actually the server room; everyone has a computer on his desk, so computer room is sort of a misnomer) and change the media that you use for your server backups. You make the change according to the backup scheme that you’re employing; more about backups is covered in Hour 21, “Managing a Network.”

You also need to take the time to check your various server logs. (Logging is also discussed in Hour 21.) For example, you might find that someone was trying to get through the firewall last evening, using an executive’s user ID but the wrong password; you call the executive whose ID was being used and ask whether he was trying to get in. No, he answers, but his kid was on the computer all night; maybe he was trying to get in. You respectfully request that the executive ask his kid to quit trying to crack the firewall; having asked that, you move on to the next task. You might find that a log alert that you set for a file server has been tripped and the file server drive array needs more capacity, so you send an email to all users that the file server will be going down at 5 p.m., and you adjust your personal calendar so that you can stay late and add a drive or swap out the array.

Your day will certainly be busy and varied; other tasks that you might have to tackle are these:

• Get a senior executive’s personal digital assistant (PDA) synchronized with his desktop computer

• Install a router to segment a network

• Call several vendors regarding products you’re considering for your network

• Write a programming script to allow users to connect to a database over the corporate intranet (or coordinating this activity with the programming staff)

• Figure out which laptops offer the best value, and submit a report to the CFO

Clearly, you need to prioritize these different tasks. Making the best use of your time and keeping your users (particularly your boss!) up and running require some clever juggling of tasks.

Probably halfway through the task list, you’ll take the time to look at your watch and find that the morning hours have passed; it’s noon, and you’re hungry. Often, you’ll eat lunch on the run. Even before digestion sets in, chances are good that more trouble reports will come in from users that force you to change the priorities on your task list and add additional tasks.

On a good day, you might make it through most of the list and even have a little time to look at trade journals; on a bad day, you will still be troubleshooting problems well after most of the other employees have called it a day. Obviously, you can’t really end your day until you deal with “major” network problems and take care of daily tasks related to the network, such as checking security logs and making sure that the backup media is ready to go when the daily backup automatically kicks in on the network.

I don’t want to paint a picture that a network administrator’s day is completely hectic and stressful, but it’s a field that requires patience and high energy. If you work with a group of administrators, the team approach to problem solving provides a way to keep any one administrator’s task list manageable. If you’re the only computer guru at a small company, you’ll have to learn to deploy hardware and software that helps cut down on major snafus; good planning and implementation can save a lot of headaches in terms of the same problems cropping up day after day. Let’s look at some of the common daily tasks that are necessary to keep a network up and running.

Daily Tasks

As you can see from the previous section, it’s essential that you stay organized and keep your task list up-to-date. This also means integrating important daily tasks into the chaos of the moment as users report problems and you detect issues on the network. As you make your list and complete tasks, keep old records of what you’ve done by date. The benefits of doing so are twofold: First, you have a record of what you did and when you did it (invaluable when you’re trying to remember how to fix something you worked on six months before). Second, keeping dated records provides a list you can use during yearly evaluations. It also creates a linear timeline that can help identify patterns and avoid burnout.

Different calendar and scheduling programs allow you to keep track of appointments, tasks, and project timelines. For example, groupware products, such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook, can give you all the tools you need to stay organized. Figure 23.1 shows just the beginnings of a network administrator’s typical daily task list in Microsoft Outlook. You can arrange tasks by due date, and you can assign tasks to other members of your network team.

FIGURE 23.1 You can use groupware applications such as Outlook to stay organized.

Because you typically deploy these types of applications on the network, it makes sense for you to use them. I’ve seen cases in which the information technology staff had no problem deploying a particular groupware product but couldn’t answer even basic end user questions related to using the software. You have to be both expert and generalist. You need to know networking inside and out, and you need to know how to tell an end user how to create a new task or send an email attachment in Outlook.

Because you aren’t always at your computer, it’s important to make the case that the company provide you with a PDA, which you can synch with the groupware calendar you’re using. The PDA attached to your belt is assurance that you always have your schedule and task list readily available.

One of the most important things you can do, however, is to make time for yourself inasmuch as that is possible. Your effectiveness as a network or system administrator is directly related to how much you know, so even if your company doesn’t pay for education, educate yourself. Read everything you can on networking, and take note of things you think apply to you. If you have access to a more experienced networking professional, be shameless about learning as much as you can from her. Network professionals are usually quite willing to answer questions and assist in problem solving.

If you can, take a half hour every day and dedicate it to learning a tiny bit of programming. Even if you don’t intend to program, understanding the process of coding and being familiar with the data structures that full-time programmers use is a major advantage when you’re talking to tech support. In addition, being able to put together a 10–15 line program to hotfix something in an emergency is a useful skill—and one that your employer will certainly appreciate.

Of course, if you’re an administrator of a large network, you won’t have time to write code. Nor should you get down to this level of detail. Let’s assume you’re an employee in a Fortune 500 company. It’s likely that the network staff will number in the hundreds. In this case, your job will take on a different dimension, and you won’t have to undertake many of the tasks described so far. The most effective managers of larger networks are those who hire the best people they can find, pay them well, support them with the user community, and stay out of their way!

You have to keep your skills up-to-date, while juggling your duties. In the industry, it’s a known fact that network administrators raise their salaries and their opportunities by moving from company to company. Many companies don’t promote from within, so it’s important that your skill set be up-to-date in case you find that ideal position on an Internet job site.

The various resources available for keeping your skills up-to-date and exploring new knowledge related to information technology are abundant. In terms of reference and hands-on books alone, there’s a great deal of information related to networking and computer technology published every year.

You should try to make room in your network budget for the purchase of resource books. Or, as a last resort, you need to spend some of your own hard-earned cash and take some time to read. The fact that you’ve become the greatest Novell NetWare guru on the planet will do you little good if your company decides to migrate to the Microsoft networking platform.

Strategies for Supporting Users

Without network users, there would be no need for network administrators. So your job is to keep your users happy—a job that most network administrators accept with alacrity.

Users, however, are not always reasonable. After all, they’re a snapshot of the human race and, as we know, not all humans are reasonable. As an administrator, you have certain charges laid on you, such as required network standards and behaviors. If a user calls on you to violate those basic charges, you have to be able to say no, escalate the user’s request to someone who can grant an exception to the rules, or (in rare cases) escalate the issue because you see potential security breaches or behavior that exposes the organization to liability or other dangers.

The bottom line is that your users are your customers. If you have a dissatisfied user community, your life as a network administrator will be quite unpleasant. On the other hand, if your users are happy with your work, that work will be much more pleasant. The following list provides some tips on how to work with and relate to your network users:

• Never get angry with a user, even if he is senselessly venting on you. The user’s anger can come from a variety of sources, ranging from frustration at not getting his work done to a wholly unrelated argument with someone else.

• Stop and listen to the user when he complains. It’s way too easy to interrupt a user in midsentence and announce that you’ve got a solution to the problem. If you take the time to listen to a user’s complaint, you might discover that the problem extends beyond the computer per se; he might be upset that the software won’t automate certain functions.

• After you’ve listened to the user, take a second and think about what the most appropriate response should be. It’s all well and good for you to know that the user’s IP configuration is incorrect and that changing the subnet mask will resolve the problem, but do you have to explain it? For most users, the answer is no; all they want is a functioning network, and they don’t care what’s behind it. So your response to the user should be based on a now or later fix: If it’s a 5–10 minute fix, suggest that you can do it now; on the other hand, a long fix means that you have to defer the repair if the user needs the machine and can limp it along until you fix it properly.

Above all, take time to get to know your users and their needs. Don’t make haste with this part of your job. Take your time, and remember the old saw, “Hasty climbers have sudden falls.”

When users experience problems on a network, the root cause of those problems almost always boils down to three possibilities: user errors, software problems, and physical connectivity problems. Although network administrators have received a bad rap of always blaming the user for the problem, establishing policies that provide a set of rules for behavior on the network can alleviate a lot of problems. Let’s look at some issues related to establishing policies for network use.

Establishing Network Policies

Providing end user training and written policies related to network use can negate a lot of potential problems on the network. Build some sort of educational opportunity for your users into your overall plan for your network implementation and management.

Documentation that the users can read and refer to as they use the network can cut down on their errors. A brief and concise manual that explains basic network logon and resource access can be a real help to your users.

The manual also gives you an opportunity to establish written policies for network use; for example, you might establish rules that prohibit downloading software from the Internet or playing CDs from home. Both of these rules can reduce the risk of virus infection, and prohibiting downloads means that local hard drives remain clean. (A user can fill up her own hard drive with junk pretty fast if she has a high-speed Internet connection and some free time on her hands.)

Establishing user policies for your company’s network not only provides a set of rules for the network users but allows you to assume (although users aren’t always going to follow all the rules) that network client machines will only be running software that’s appropriately licensed and correctly configured and that important user files are stored in the appropriate place so they can be periodically backed up.

Although everyone is aware of the often-overused anecdote that accompanies the word “assume” when an assumption proves to be wrong, at least assuming that computers have been configured in a particular “standard” way allows you to concentrate on other issues when attempting to troubleshoot network problems.

Summary

In this hour, we viewed a typical day of a network administrator. We looked at some ideas for staying organized and managing that elusive commodity called time.

Q&A

Q. What’s the one thing you can count on as you tackle a network administrator’s typical day?

A. You have to work with your end users. Handling their requests and problems in a polite and efficient manager makes your job easier. Also be advised that you have to constantly rework your daily task list to accommodate “network crises” and lesser network problems. Stay flexible!

Q. What are two important aspects of succeeding as a network administrator?

A. Staying organized and keeping your skill set up-to-date are important aspects of succeeding as a network administrator. Use a system, such as a calendar program, to keep your schedule manageable. Also, take every opportunity you can to learn new things and upgrade your personal knowledgebase.

Q. What’s a good approach to cutting down on user error on the network?

A. Provide your network users with a list of rules related to using the network. Also, find different avenues of providing user training or end user tips to your user base. That helps cut down the one-on-one training you have to provide to a user who doesn’t understand how to use a particular network application.