New Sr Sys Admin job...Where do I begin?

SrSysAdmin

So as some of you may have read earlier today, I've decided to take my first sr. sys admin position...I don't start until July 12, but in the meantime I'd like to prepare for the position.

For those of you that have walked into this role at some point in your career, what are the first objectives when starting?

The company's IT operations seem a bit unorganized so I know I will need to work to setup processes...but where should I start?

The end users for the company use a mixture of 4-5 different distros of Linux in addition to both Windows and Mac. This is a like to support so I think I will limit the users to a single distro of Linux, in addition to Windows which will have updates controlled by WSUS, and then the damn Macs will be on the same build.

I also think ensuring a good backup system is in place is an absolute necessity. I'm not sure how exactly they have the backups being performed now, but that will be a necessity to get taken care of.

After that though, I'm not sure what the most important objectives should be. What do you guys think?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Devilsbane

Congrats! Don't forget to put the new covers on your TPS reports.

Agent6376

Devilsbane wrote: »

Congrats! Don't forget to put the new covers on your TPS reports.

LOL.

I'd suggest before you start changing anything that you familiarize yourself with your team. How many end users do you support? Is this a brand new company for you, or have you been promoted? You should first audit your own network(s) and computers to find out what security concerns need to be addressed immediately. Make sure that whatever changes you plan on making are kosher with your boss. You might be subject to some pushback if you stroll in and start drastically changing the way people use their machines (such as changing a users operating system).

Backups should be the easiest thing for you to implement. That's a no brainer. Your first week on the job is your first impression, which means a lot. If you've ever read Network Warrior by Gary Donahue (you should if you haven't), remember that the three major things to being successful in your job are politics, money, and doing things the right way - in THAT order.

In order to things the right way, you need to have money allocated to you, and in order to have money allocated to you, you've got to be involved in office politics. That all goes back to your first impression: what your users think of you, and what your peers think of you.

I know this has been some of the most random advice anyone can give, but I hope it helps you in some way.

Congratulations!

cnfuzzd

obviously, the first thing to do is change your screen name. Duh.

Congrats!


John

Ashenwelt

Slow down!

There may actually be reasons for the different distros for example. But you need to know where everything is, if it is documented, before making changes. Justify and document.

And congrats on the new job (promotion?).

Mojo_666

My advice is to just go in, learn about what systems they have, how they are configured and make friends, do not go in with any assumptions about why they do stuff or with a list of things you want to change.

Even if the team lead or the managers says some things need changing you might very well be sat next to the guy who put those things in and if you go in and starting criticising and making changes you might find yourself being very lonely indeed. (there might very well be some tension and history between people already so you need to figure out the lay of the land.

Just take it slow and find your feet, when people start to respect you as a person and as an admin you will be in a position to start making more and more suggestions. When you do start making changes involve everyone, not just the managers, this makes people feel good and respected, even if they might have been wrong in the past. Ask the opinions of those who are there even if you don't really need them.

RobertKaucher

JrSysAdmin wrote: »

I also think ensuring a good backup system is in place is an absolute necessity. I'm not sure how exactly they have the backups being performed now, but that will be a necessity to get taken care of.

This needs to be your first priority. You need to find out everything you can about the business critical systems.

1. Where are they physically?
2. Who is responsible for them? I mean are they supported by a consultant or someone else.
3. What business department uses them and who is the boss of that department? Introduce yourself and talk about down time/lost data. Specifically how much is permissable.
4. Find out when the last restore from backup was done. Test the media. Make sure you are able to restore data to a new location and ensure it is not corrupt.

Document everything you do while you are doing this and it should be done within the first 30 days. 6 months from now once you are certain you know where all the crytical systems are you will get a call that some inportant but rarely used app is down. No body will have ever mentioned it before. Just do your best.

NightShade03

I agree with the other about the back ups. I've walked into a few different companies and asked about backups and they look at me like I have six heads. Not having a decent backup of critical data is just insanity!

I would also try to see if they current have any documentation that you can look through to get a better feel for the systems and network layout. If they don't you should start creating it (even if it's a notebook and pen) so that you can recall things and help out the next guy/girl that comes along too

Paul Boz

It just depends on the nature of the business. How big is the environment? do you have any subordinates?

skyline

1+ Backups... So important but almost always overlooked.

Keep your head low and have a pen/notebook to jot anything down you may come across. Also for any questions on why a set up is the way it is. Why do they have xyz in place? Then go ask and find out the answer. There may be a particular reason for it or they may have forgotten about it. However it will give you a better understanding of how the company works.

Passwords, Passwords, Passwords. Make sure to get those. Hard to troubleshoot a server issue if you can't log on to it...

SrSysAdmin

Can you guys sort of help me set forth my goals for the first week? first 30 days?


Right now I'm thinking that first and foremost I will need to be setting up a solid backup structure (once I figure out how they are currently setup). In addition to that, I suppose the next biggest priority is to document every last thing.

I currently work in an ISO 20000 environment so I think part of the reason I was brought on was for the documentation and process standards I've experienced so far...I will be sure to continue this in my current new position.



Any advice on how to politic properly in this role of greater responsibility?



There are around 200 end users at 4 different offices in the US that I will be responsible for (including the CEO in NJ). My boss (the IT Manager) is based out of Europe and he has a Sys Admin in Europe who I assume I will do some work with as well, supporting each other.

Devilsbane

The first week for sure is just to settle in. Get to know the network and also the people working on that network.

I completely agree with everyone else saying to lie low. I have had managers in the past who walk into a new job, and week 1 they are changing processes that have been in place for 5 years. Maybe it is something that needs to be changed, but to be so swift can really break the morale of the people who have been working with that process. You want to gain the respect of your peers.

Even the first 30 days I would be careful on what you change. The backups aren't a huge issue, since the end user likely won't notice a difference. That would be a good 30 day goal. I wouldn't even stick that in the first week. Yes, very important. But you should learn the enviornment first. Spend some time considering all of the backup options and carefully implement the one that you deem is best for your new enviornment.

blargoe

There's not anything more important than confirming/validating the backups. In general, your first weeks on the job should largely be spent in discovery mode. You should end up with a current, accurate list of servers with OS and software versions and their purpose on the network, a list of risks that you have found during your discovery, a list of improvements that you would like to propose, etc.

networker050184

First 30 days just observe and get a handle on the what and why they do things. There is nothing worse than some new guy coming in and trying to "optimize" everything with out a solid understanding.

Devilsbane

networker050184 wrote: »

First 30 days just observe and get a handle on the what and why of how they do things. There is nothing worse than some new guy coming in and trying to "optimize" everything with out a solid understanding.

Especially if you make a mistake. Then everyone who was calling you names behind your back gets to say I told you so.

aordal

After you get familiar make sure backups are working!

hex_omega

I'm not sure if someone said it yet, but...


Make sure you have a solid backup plan. And make sure your backups are working.

Piers

cnfuzzd wrote: »

obviously, the first thing to do is change your screen name. Duh.

John

BAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA

Paul Boz

What are your responsibilities? Are you in charge of creating policies?

tomahawkeer

I don't know how much experience you have with MACs, however, keep in mind that most newer MACs will NOT downgrade to older operating systems (PITA). So if you have a lot of them, and they are not currently on the same version, you may have issues with the software(s) that they run, as well as trying to upgrade them / downgrade them what ever the case may be to keep things compatable. You can normally upgrade the systems to the newer OSs, but what ever software they run, may not be compatable with that newer OS.

From everything else you said in your post(s), I think you will be fine. Like everyone else has said, make SURE your backups are running like they should be, and that they are recoverable.

I would also take a walk through with your users, and find out how thier end user softwares work, and get a good idea of how they interact with your network and servers. Knowledge is your friend in this case, you will never know enough about everybody elses job, what they do, and how they do it in regards to what you manage. Make it a priority to learn this.

SrSysAdmin

Paul Boz wrote: »

What are your responsibilities? Are you in charge of creating policies?

I will be the Sr Sys Admin overseeing IT operations in the US. I'm not sure how much control over the policies I will have at this point...my boss is based out of Europe and I am flying out there to meet with him when I start the job in a couple weeks. I will have a better idea of what my responsibilities will be at that point I guess.

Devilsbane

JrSysAdmin wrote: »

I will be the Sr Sys Admin overseeing IT operations in the US. I'm not sure how much control over the policies I will have at this point...my boss is based out of Europe and I am flying out there to meet with him when I start the job in a couple weeks. I will have a better idea of what my responsibilities will be at that point I guess.

Now get on with it and see if you can have your screenname changed to reflect the promotion.

Paul Boz

My best advice would be to:

1.) Conduct a survey of the environment, including an asset inventory, repository of configs, updated topology diagrams (logical and physical) and the most up to date policies and procedures currently in use.

2.) Conduct a risk assessment to decide where to focus your efforts. If you have a ton of systems missing patches, a bunch of anonymous or default services, or other egregious errors on the network you should know about them and fix them quickly.

3.) Review existing vendor contracts and services. This is important because you need to know the terms of your contracts.

4.) Remember that people have been working where you're going much longer than you've been there, so even if they have established bad practices they'll be a bit reluctant to make changes. I would go into the role prepared to patiently understand why things are done the way they are then make improvements.

5.) Push change management bigtime if they're weak in that area. Ensuring that proper documentation is tied to every add/move/change on the network is important from a risk management standpoint. If someone just randomly decides to push new firewall rules and an outage occurs you have bad change management to blame.

SrSysAdmin

Paul Boz wrote: »

My best advice would be to:

1.) Conduct a survey of the environment, including an asset inventory, repository of configs, updated topology diagrams (logical and physical) and the most up to date policies and procedures currently in use.

2.) Conduct a risk assessment to decide where to focus your efforts. If you have a ton of systems missing patches, a bunch of anonymous or default services, or other egregious errors on the network you should know about them and fix them quickly.

3.) Review existing vendor contracts and services. This is important because you need to know the terms of your contracts.

4.) Remember that people have been working where you're going much longer than you've been there, so even if they have established bad practices they'll be a bit reluctant to make changes. I would go into the role prepared to patiently understand why things are done the way they are then make improvements.

5.) Push change management bigtime if they're weak in that area. Ensuring that proper documentation is tied to every add/move/change on the network is important from a risk management standpoint. If someone just randomly decides to push new firewall rules and an outage occurs you have bad change management to blame.

Excellent advice, thanks. This gives me some issues that I can pursue from day 1 without being overly aggressive while still appearing as though I have an agenda. Much appreciated.


Lot of other great advice in this thread as well...thanks for your help guys! Hopefully all will go well.

darkerosxx

At the level you're at, my advice would be to take an ITIL fundamentals course from EMES!

SrSysAdmin

We have ISO 20000 certification at my current job and I will definitely push to obtain at my new job, but I will have to make a name for myself before pushing that.

Devilsbane

congrats on the namechange!

darkerosxx

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

We have ISO 20000 certification at my current job and I will definitely push to obtain at my new job, but I will have to make a name for myself before pushing that.

Then you know, just go in and talk to people. That would be my first six months, hearing how my role is expected to be played out, seeing how it actually plays out, hearing what people do, seeing what they actually do, etc.

I wouldn't plan on doing anything game-changing immediately, unless you're asked to. Get in, get your feet wet, prove you can do your job. Then, if you attempt something amazing and fail, you're okay. If you succeed, you're a jedi.