| location: |
| Central New Jersey |
| site: |
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
The Department of Environmental Sciences
The Center for Environmental Prediction
|
| servers: |
20 Unix/Linux servers, 4 Windows servers
Also, three linux computational clusters, with 8+ nodes each.
|
| workstations: |
| ~100 systems, running windows and linux. |
| sysadmins on staff: |
| 2 |
| site overview: |
|
The Center for Environmental Prediction and Department of
Environmental Sciences focuses on atmospheric, climate and weather
research. We use several Linux clusters for atmospheric and climate
modelling. We also provide weather data to sites around the world
through the Rutgers Weather Center.
|
| job title: |
| Systems Administrator |
| time at this job: |
| 4 Months |
| | |
| years as a sysadmin: |
| 7 years |
| first computer: |
| Texas Instrument's 99/4a with the speech module
|
| first OS: |
|
The TI 99 built in operating system, with TI Basic.
|
| favorite OS: |
|
It's a toss-up between Linux and Apple's MacOS X.
|
| first computer with root/administrator access: |
|
A DECsystem 3100 running a CMU-modified version of OSF 3.2 unix.
|
| first programming language: |
|
I started programming Hypertalk in Hypercard on our first Mac, then
started taking computer programming classes, and learned Pascal.
|
| favorite programming language: |
| By far, my favorite language is Perl. |
| most often used programming language: |
| Perl |
| first sysadmin job, computer and os: |
|
I was first hired as a midnight operator at Carnegie Mellon
University, and when they found out I actually knew how to use the
unix systems, I was promoted to a system administrator, and given a
day job.
|
| ideal sysadmin job: |
|
My ideal sysadmin job would be working on a Unix or Linux-only network
in an educational site. I really like working with researchers, and
playing with cutting-edge technology. Also, in most educational
departments, a sysadmin gets a lot of control over the infrastructure,
so I'd be able to do things the *right* way. Also, the ideal job
would involve a lot of automation, letting me spend more time with my
girlfriend.
|
| favorite sysadmin tool: |
|
Right now, it's cfengine that's making my life easier.
|
| most interesting sysadmin tool: |
|
OpenSSH is the glue that binds the world together. It's amazing the
things you can do with it.
|
| sysadmin tool I couldn't work without: |
|
'nmap'. So far, it's helped me discover breakins, audit my network,
and find systems where older sendmails were running when they
shouldn't have been.
|
| education: |
| BA in Biology from the College of Wooster.
|
| when I was growing up, I wanted to be: |
|
I wanted to be a naturalist, a park ranger or something like that. I
was a real nature geek, and still am.
|
| If I wasn't a sysadmin, I'd be: |
| Science Fiction author.
|
| when friends and family ask me to
“fix” the computer or
“fix the internet”, I say: |
| “Have you tried turning it off and on
again?”
(from The IT Crowd) |
| when I first meet someone,
and they ask what I do, I say: |
|
“Computer Geek.” I used to say
“I work with computers...” but I
needed something shorter because I was always cut off by them asking
me to fix their computer problems.
|
| system administration is ...: |
|
Equal parts Wizard, Janitor and Secret Agent. Mix, add Caffeine to
taste.
|
| advice to a junior admin: |
|
Read the manuals. Both the text ones and the man pages. You'd be
surprised by what neat tricks are stuck on page 387 of a boring
technical manual. Also, sometimes you really have to dig in and read
the source if you are having a problem.
|
| advice to a senior admin: |
|
Just because you've been doing it that way for 20 years, doesn't mean
it's right.
|
| | |
| favorite food/cuisine: |
| Indian food. |
| pizza topping: |
| pepperoni and onions |
| work music: |
|
Classical music, simple things like Bach's cello suites or his piano pieces
|
| crisis music: |
|
electronic or modern rock. I'm usually too busy to notice.
|
| ___ gets me through the work day: |
|
Knowing that I'm going home to my girlfriend after work gets me through
the day.
|
| hobby/other job: |
| Bird watching and nature hikes. |
| | |
| my office is: |
|
Far too messy. Too many half-built computers and equipment.
|
| co-workers say my desk is: |
|
nearly impossible to see, under open manuals, loose papers and cables.
|
| learned the most from: |
| My former coworkers at Carnegie Mellon university. |
| wish list: |
- More time to learn other programming languages
- More time to attend conferences
- More time with my girlfriend
|
| daily web sites: |
|
For work:
For leisure:
|
| backups to tape or disk? |
|
Both! Disk-to-disk backups are faster, and speed up restores. The
slower tape backups of the disk cache are decoupled from host backups,
and can run continuously.
|
| editor: |
| Emacs |
| mail user agent: |
| mutt |
| web browser: |
| firefox |
| gui or cli: |
| cli |
| computers at home: |
|
I just moved, so I sold/gave away a bunch of computers, so now I only
have 3 workstations and 3 laptops.
|
| (primary) home computer and OS: |
| Apple 15" Powerbook running MacOS X Tiger. |
| oldest hardware in your garage or basement: |
|
Six months ago it would have been a Sparc IPC running SparcLinux (I
think it was Redhat 4.2), however it's gone now. The oldest thing I
have now is my Dell Inpsiron 4000, running Ubuntu Linux Dapper, and I
still use it.
|
| anything else? |
|
Least Favorite Sysadmin Task: Cleaning out backed up mail queues due
to spam and maybe a couple virus outbreaks.
|
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