New Sys Admin Job - Day 1

I have been in contact with my soon to be manager over the course of the last week, with some small chat thrown in. Things seem pretty good between us, def a personality click. Which is always good.

So in addition to this being a new job I start in exactly 1 week, it is my first System Administrator job. This is really a culmination of all of my hard work the last 4 years. I mean.. 4 years ago I was doing shipping/receiving in a warehouse for minimum wage lol. Went to night school, hit the books hard, and here I am. I spent the last 2 years doing T1 work, with the last 1 year throwing in T2 work. Now I am going to be doing T1/2/3 work.

I guess I don't want to come in like a deer in the headlights! I was wondering what are some questions I should ask, any utilities I should look at adding to my arsenal, etc. I will go ahead and lay out the info I do know, and if you have anything I should ask/know/want to know.. that would be awesome!

Small Biz Inc

~40 2003/2008r2 servers
Mixture of physical and virtual servers (VMWare and Citrix I believe)
Spread across 5 soon to be 6 locations
Exchange 2010
Mixture of BES(ugh) and ActiveSync for phone support.
1 location is HQ office/distribution center, 1 location is manufacturing plant (soon to be 2), 3 locations are distribution hubs/warehouses.
Remote access to all sites, however onsite travel to manufacturing site once every 2 weeks, and quarterly visits to distrib hubs throughout south east US.
Senior Tech is soon going to be promoted to Dir of IT. The next few months he is going to be taking me under his wing and showing me everything there is to know about the setup. Eventually, he will be taking a role in more planning/strategic development... and I will be doing all of the implementation and day-to-day ops. "Eventually" they want to hire one or two T1 guys beneath me.

Thats pretty much the dynamic of my job that I know of. I guess since this is my first sys admin job not doing just t1 help desk, I am kind of wondering what questions I should have and some of the things I should day on Day 1.

I know some things are things I will just need to look at my first few days via security policies, GPO, instructions, etc etc etc. I just want to make sure I cover all of my bases! What are some questions you have asked in the past or wish you had asked Day 1 in your sys admin job?

And bonus question, any specific software in your arsenal besides typical sysinternals apps?

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Comments

N2IT

RouteThisWay wrote: »

I have been in contact over the course of the last week, with some small chat thrown in. Things seem pretty good between us, def a personality click. Which is always good.

So in addition to this being a new job I start in exactly 1 week, it is my first System Administrator job. This is really a culmination of all of my hard work the last 4 years. I mean.. 4 years ago I was doing shipping/receiving in a warehouse for minimum wage lol. Went to night school, hit the books hard, and here I am. I spent the last 2 years doing T1 work, with the last 1 year throwing in T2 work. Now I am going to be doing T1/2/3 work.

I guess I don't want to come in like a deer in the headlights! I was wondering what are some questions I should ask, any utilities I should look at adding to my arsenal, etc. I will go ahead and lay out the info I do know, and if you have anything I should ask/know/want to know.. that would be awesome!

Small Biz Inc
~40 2003/2008r2 servers

Mixture of physical and virtual servers (VMWare and Citrix I believe)

Spread across 5 soon to be 6 locations

Exchange 2010

Mixture of BES(ugh) and ActiveSync for phone support.

1 location is HQ office/distribution center, 1 location is manufacturing plant (soon to be 2), 3 locations are distribution hubs/warehouses.

Remote access to all sites, however onsite travel to manufacturing site once every 2 weeks, and quarterly visits to distrib hubs throughout south east US.

Senior Tech is soon going to be promoted to Dir of IT. The next few months he is going to be taking me under his wing and showing me everything there is to know about the setup. Eventually, he will be taking a role in more planning/strategic development... and I will be doing all of the implementation and day-to-day ops. "Eventually" they want to hire one or two T1 guys beneath me.

Thats pretty much the dynamic of my job that I know of. I guess since this is my first sys admin job not doing just t1 help desk, I am kind of wondering what questions I should have and some of the things I should day on Day 1.

I know some things are things I will just need to look at my first few days via security policies, GPO, instructions, etc etc etc. I just want to make sure I cover all of my bases! What are some questions you have asked in the past or wish you had asked Day 1 in your sys admin job?

And bonus question, any specific software in your arsenal besides typical sysinternals apps?

Sounds awesome!

You are going to learn some really cool technologies!

RouteThisWay

Thanks!

After rereading my post, I don't want it to come off as a "do my work for me" post. Seen a lot of those.

I have some questions in mind such VPN solution for managing remote sites oris it just RDP, backup process/intervals, critical servers besides the obvious DCs/Email, which subnets they use for server network, desktop network, etc.. firewall appliance, etc.

I guess I am looking for more of a "Things I wish I would have asked when I started my Sys Admin job" information thread

Sorry if this came across as a "do my work for me" post, didn't intend for it to be.

Forsaken_GA

The only thing I'd warn against is posting operational details on a publicly accessible message board.

RouteThisWay

I tried keeping it vague. Is it too detailed? I intentionally left out specifics... I just want to go in prepared, that is all

More than likely I am just over reacting, I am pretty sure of that lol. Better safe than sorry though eh?

SteveO86

RouteThisWay wrote: »

[*]Mixture of BES(ugh)

Hey now what's wrong with BES!!?

If the company any support subscriptions with VMWare, RIM, MS, or whoever in the environment, I would whisper in their ear to get added to the allowed callers list. In case you have to ever call support.. It's a minor detail no one ever realizes till it happens.

Also getting acquainted to when backups and any scheduled tasks kick off.

Getting maintenance and update schedules.. Some companies schedule certain days/times for windows updates and maintenance windows.

Maybe an inventory sheet with documentation of the network (Maybe IOS versions as well if any Cisco equipment is there) and servers so you know what hardware your dealing with.

lochmoigh

New here, been registered for a while. Routethisway, I am in Knoxville as well and am working on my CCNA and am trying to find people locally to network with (no pun intended). Shoot me an email at lochmoigh at gmail dot com

Turgon

RouteThisWay wrote: »

I have been in contact with my soon to be manager over the course of the last week, with some small chat thrown in. Things seem pretty good between us, def a personality click. Which is always good.

So in addition to this being a new job I start in exactly 1 week, it is my first System Administrator job. This is really a culmination of all of my hard work the last 4 years. I mean.. 4 years ago I was doing shipping/receiving in a warehouse for minimum wage lol. Went to night school, hit the books hard, and here I am. I spent the last 2 years doing T1 work, with the last 1 year throwing in T2 work. Now I am going to be doing T1/2/3 work.

I guess I don't want to come in like a deer in the headlights! I was wondering what are some questions I should ask, any utilities I should look at adding to my arsenal, etc. I will go ahead and lay out the info I do know, and if you have anything I should ask/know/want to know.. that would be awesome!

Small Biz Inc
~40 2003/2008r2 servers

Mixture of physical and virtual servers (VMWare and Citrix I believe)

Spread across 5 soon to be 6 locations

Exchange 2010

Mixture of BES(ugh) and ActiveSync for phone support.

1 location is HQ office/distribution center, 1 location is manufacturing plant (soon to be 2), 3 locations are distribution hubs/warehouses.

Remote access to all sites, however onsite travel to manufacturing site once every 2 weeks, and quarterly visits to distrib hubs throughout south east US.

Senior Tech is soon going to be promoted to Dir of IT. The next few months he is going to be taking me under his wing and showing me everything there is to know about the setup. Eventually, he will be taking a role in more planning/strategic development... and I will be doing all of the implementation and day-to-day ops. "Eventually" they want to hire one or two T1 guys beneath me.

Thats pretty much the dynamic of my job that I know of. I guess since this is my first sys admin job not doing just t1 help desk, I am kind of wondering what questions I should have and some of the things I should day on Day 1.

I know some things are things I will just need to look at my first few days via security policies, GPO, instructions, etc etc etc. I just want to make sure I cover all of my bases! What are some questions you have asked in the past or wish you had asked Day 1 in your sys admin job?

And bonus question, any specific software in your arsenal besides typical sysinternals apps?

Stick to the basics during your first month. You need to settle down and settle in. A good sysadmin is like a good referee, hardly noticed and not interfering with play. You will have many more questions than people will have time to answer. I suggest you collate all your questions in notepad. Then ask yourself the question 'Do I really need to know this now?'. If so ask, if not have a regular meeting with the boss where you can go through the list. You want to be accepting your first few pieces of work and getting them done without too much fuss. There will be talk around you about getting quite major pieces of work done. Attend the meetings but dont overcommit. Often these are things that have bounced around for months and it's way too soon for you to be taking the place apart. On that note pay close attention to how people use technology there and the nature of queries that are coming your way. Be sure to qualify the priorities regularly with your boss, attend to those and report progress regularly. Put a positive spin on even the difficulties. Try not to get too anxious or take too much on early doors as you are vulnerable in a new shop and the stress will rise. If there is anyone taking care of various IT duties let them do so for a while and make a note of how things get done. Continue in the same manner for a spell. Be careful not to change things too quickly in the beginning. Know your servers, your network access methods, your shares and printers. Know how to get a device provisioned on the network, with email and other applications. Do backups. Watch antivirus. Arrange calls or face to face with anyone that offers support for your devices either hardware or software. Same for your internet provider, leased line provider. Make calls, bring them in for a meeting. Find out the support telephone numbers. Call them so you learn what information you need to hand to make a support call. Create a network drawing, find and update the H/W, S/W inventory. Locate the installation media. You will need it. Locate spares. You will need those. Have tools. Take useful books to work. If there is no helpdesk ticket system create your own.

Be nice to people and dont overreact. You will if you take too much on, that's natural. Keep a diary and fill it in with thoughts in the evening. Plan your next day when at home. Seek feedback from the boss so you are aware if he thinks you are doing your job properly. You can be busy all day in this line of work and do a lot of useful stuff for people and the boss still thinks you are not doing your job.

All these hazards and more happened to me in my first job but Im more experienced these days

Good luck.

tomahawkeer

Lots of good advice for you in this thread. I have to agree with the "Referee" quote though. That is so very true!

One thing that I would look at, fairly soon after you start, is making sure you are aware of all mission critical servers, and thier functions, and get on top of those ASAP, and this obviously including backups and how they are being done etc. I have one server here, that if it goes down completely, we cannot get our product out. Obviously that doesn't happen. Ever! Thats my little 2 cents