Back to the original question - what is a Sys Admin?

["Craig Wright" <cwright () bdosyd com au>]

Hello Mattias,
If you want to become a (Unix/Linux) Systems Administrator, you should understand what the role really is.

The basic responsibilities of a system administrator are:
        staff training and support
        software installation, maintenance, and upgrading
        hardware installation, maintenance, and upgrading
        research and troubleshooting
        routine network administration and maintenance
        network documentation
        database supervision

Daily tasks may consist of:
        performing backups of the server,
        adding and deleting new network users
        making sure that malware protection software is up-to-date, and cleaning any viruses that infect computers
        training and assisting staff in using hardware and software efficiently
        troubleshooting any routine problems that staff cannot fix on their own,

Some good reading on the topic.

``Essential System Administration'', 3rd Edition, by Æleen Frisch
ISBN: 0-596-00343-9, Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
(There is an Online Version)
 
``Unix System Administration Handbook'', 3rd Edition, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein.
ISBN: 0-13-020601-6, Publisher: Prentice Hall

Security comes into the role from the aspect of being able to lock a system down and to engineer the thing in the first 
place. Forget port scanning. Even if it was legal, doing a port scan does not demonstrate initiative, it demonstrates 
that you do not understand the role.

Learning to port scan a system does nothing to help you compile a secure kernel. It does nothing to load patches and 
check that they have valid signatures. It does not help in reviewing logs for either performance or to see if there has 
been yet another attempt to crack the system.

Port scanning will not tell you if the users have changed their passwords and if they have a process to change them. It 
is far easier to check and than lock down services

Port scanning will not tell you if you have a cgi-script vulnerability on the secure web server open to students and 
staff only.

For all that is posted about this on the list, learn to engineer a system well and you will go much further in the long 
term.

Regards,
Craig

Dr Craig S Wright DTh MNSA MMIT CISA CISM CISSP ISSMP ISSAP G7799 GCFA AFAIM
Manager - Computer Assurance Services
BDO Chartered Accountants & Advisers
Level 19, 2 Market Street,
Sydney, NSW 2001
Telephone: +61 2 9286 5555
Fax: +61 2 9993 9705
Direct: +61 2 9286 5497
<Mailto:CWright () bdosyd com au>

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