Ten Commandments for System Administrators
  1. Security and convenience are inversely proportional.
  2. Do not test on the production network.
  3. Never make a change and then leave without testing and/or allowing for trouble reports. Always use the RC scripts to start and stop services.
  4. Never log in as root or administrator -- not because of trust, but liability. Don't circumvent the logging procedures. It's easier to fix problems when the log file has details about how things broke.
  5. Have a central, limited access, log server to collect system and network logs from all production equipment.
  6. Customers who never think about us are getting good service.
  7. If you don't know, ask! Try http://www.google.com then bug the senior administrator.
  8. Keep backup copies of system configuration files when making changes. If the network/system is down, you cannot leave.
  9. Think before you type (or click).
  10. Under-promise and over-deliver.