Difference between revisions of "Sysadmin Todo List"

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== General Info ==
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This is the new Sysadmin Todo List as of 05/27/2010. The previous list was moved to [[Old Sysadmin Todo List]]. This list list is incomplete, and needs updating.
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This is an unordered set of tasks.  Detailed information on any of the tasks typically goes in related topics' pages, although usually not until the task has been filed under [[Sysadmin Todo List#Completed|Completed]].
 
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== Important ==
 
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* Schedule a date for password change for karpiusp.
 
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* Resize partitions on symanzik (and other machines as necessary) so that root has at least a gig of unused space.
 
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* Figure out exactly what our backups are doing, and see if we can implement some sort of NFS user access. [[NPG_backup_on_Lentil]].
 
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* Find out why Steve isn't getting paid what he's supposed to be getting paid. '''May be getting fixed'''
 
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* Printer queue for Copier: Konica Minolta Bizhub 750. IP=pita.unh.edu  '''Seems like we need info from the Konica guy to get it set up on Red Hat and OS X.  The installation documentation for the driver doesn't mention things like the passcode, because those are machine-specific.  Katie says that if he doesn't come on Monday, she'll make an inquiry.''' <font color="green">Mac OS X now working,  IT guy should be here week of June 26th</font> '''Did he ever come?'''
 
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* Need to get onto the "backups" shared folder, as well as be added as members to the lists.  '''"backups" wasn't even a mailing list, according to the Mailman interface.'''  Added Steve and Matt to the CC list for <i>/etc/cron.daily/rsync_backup</i>'s <code>mail</code> command.  If the message gets sent to us, then we'll know something's wrong with the list.  If we don't get it, then the problem is probably in the script.
 
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* Figure out what network devices on tomato are doing what
 
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* Learn how to use [[cacti]] on okra. Seems like a nice tool, mostly set up for us already.
 
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* Find out why lentil and okra (and tomato?) aren't being read by [[cacti]]. Could be related to the warnings that repeat in ''okra:/var/www/cacti/log/cacti.log''
 
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* Learn how to set up [[evolution]] fully so we can support users. Need LDAP address book.
 
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* Matt's learning a bit of Perl so we can figure out exactly how the backup works, as well as create more programs in the future, specifically thinking of monitoring. '''Look into the CPAN modules under ''Net::'', etc.'''
 
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* Nobody is currently reading the mail that is send to "root". Einstein had 3000+ unread messages. I deleted almost all. There are some useful messages that are send to root with diagnostics in them, we should find a solution for this. '''Temporarily, both Matt and Steve have email clients set up to access root's account.  The largest chunk of the e-mails concern updating ClamAV.  Maybe we should just do that?'''
 
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* I set up "splunk" on einstein (production 2.2.3 version) and taro (beta 3 v2). I like the beta's functionality better, but it has a memory leak. Look for update to beta that fixes this and install update. (See: [http://www.splunk.com/base/forum:SplunkGeneral www.splunk.com/base/forum:SplunkGeneral] '''While this sounds like it could only be indirectly related to our issue, it does sound close enough and is the only official word on splunk's memory usage that I could find:'''[http://www.splunk.com/doc/latest/releasenotes/KnownIssues] <pre>When forwarding cooked data you may see the memory usage spike and kill the splunkd process. This should be fixed for beta 3.</pre>'''So, waiting for the next beta or later sounds like the best bet. I'm wary of running beta software on einstein, anyhow.'''
 
  
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== Ongoing ==
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== Projects ==
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* '''<font color="red" size="+1">Maintain the Documentation of all systems!</font>'''
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*Convert physical and VMs to CentOS 6 for compute servers ([[taro]],[[endeavour]]) and all others to either 6 or 7. 
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** Main function
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**VMs: Einstein
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** Hardware
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**Physical: [[endeavour]], [[taro]], and [[gourd]]
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** OS
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*Mailman: Clean up mailman and make sure all the groups and users are in order.
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** Network
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*CUPS: Look into getting CUPS authenticating users through LDAP instead of using Samba.
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* Clean up 202
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*Printer: Get printtracker.py working and see if you can get a driver to properly recognize page number count instead of just giving the value as a number of 1 which corresponds to a job submission not the number of pages.
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** Figure out what's worth keeping
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*Check /etc/apcupsd/shutdown2 script on Gourd to make sure all the keys are correctly implemented so the machines go down properly during a power outage.
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** Figure out what doesn't belong here
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*Do a check on Lentil to see if there is any unneccessary data being backed up.
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* Take a look at spamassassin - Improve Performance of this if possible. '''See if our setup jives with [http://evillair.netdojo.com/howto/spamassassin.html this].  On the surface, it doesn't seem to'''
 
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* Updated SpamAssassin and ran <code>sa-update</code> to get new rules.  '''Are ''spammassassin'' or ''spamd''/''spamc'' even being used?  <code>ps -ef | grep spam</code> doesn't show any of them.  The SA documentation seems to indicate that having ''procmail'' send mail to one of them is the typical scenario.  However, ''procmail'' isn't mentioned in the appropriate Postfix configuration file[http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/UsedViaProcmail].  ''procmail'' and ''postfix'' are installed, though. Do we have a special mail setup?'''
 
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* Test unknown equipment:
 
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** UPS
 
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* Printer in 323 is '''not''' hooked up to a dead network port. Actually managed to ping it. One person reportedly got it to print, nobody else has, and that user has been unable ever since. Is this printer dead? We need to find out.
 
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* Eventually one day come up with a plan to deal with pauli2's kernel issue
 
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* Look into making a centralized interface to monitor/maintain all the machines at once. '''Along the same lines: Continue homogenizing the configurations of the machines.'''
 
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* Figure out why jalapeno doesn't have 3dm sofware running.  If we find that there's no good reason, maybe we should install it?
 
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* Certain settings are the similar or identical for all machines.  It would be beneficial to write a program to do remote configuration.  This would also simplify the process of adding/upgrading machines.
 
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* Update Tomato to RHEL5 and check all services einstein currently provides. Then switch einstein <-> tomato, and then upgrade what was originally einstein. Look into making an einstein, tomato failsafe setup.  '''A good preliminary step would be to find all of the custom scripts on einstein.  If they don't have "npg" in their filenames already, it should be added if possible, so that they can all be easily <code>locate</code>d.''' Maybe something other than just "npg", because there seems to be a lot of cruft with that label.
 
  
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== Completed ==
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==Daily Tasks==
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* Checked if the backups are actually happening and working - they are.
 
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* Renewed XML books for Amrita. They're due at the end of the month.
 
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* Fixed the amandabackup.sh script for consolidating amanda-style backups.
 
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* Investigate the change in ennui's host key '''Almost certainly caused by one of the updates. Just remembered that I was using ennui for a few minutes and I saw the "updates ready!" icon in the corner and habitually clicked it. Darn ubuntu habits. Doesn't explain WHY it changed, only how.''' It probably wasn't an individual update, but almost certainly was the transition from Fedora 5 to 7.  ennui isn't a very popular machine to SSH into, so the change probably just went unnoticed for the two-or-so weeks since the upgrade.  I had early thought that it couldn't have been the OS change, since it had been awhile since the change, but upon further thought, it makes perfect sense.
 
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* Look into getting computers to pull scheduled updates from rhn when they check in. '''See [[RHN|updates through RHN]]'''
 
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* Look into monitoring RAID, disk usage, etc. '''[[SMARTD]], etc.'''
 
  
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== Previous Months Completed ==
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These are things that should be done every day when you come into work.
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[[Completed in June 2007|June 2007]]
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 +
#Do a physical walk-through/visual inspection of the server room
 +
#Verify that all systems are running and all necessary services are functioning properly
 +
#*For a quick look at which systems are up you can use /usr/local/bin/[[serversup.py]]
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#*[[Gourd]]: Make sure that home folders are accessible, all virtual machines are running
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#*[[Einstein]]: Make sure that [[LDAP]] and all [[e-mail]] services (dovecot, spamassassain, postfix, mailman) are running
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#*[[Roentgen]]: Make sure website/MySQL are available
 +
#*[[Jalapeno]]: Named and Cups
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#*[[Lentil]]: Verify that backups ran successfully overnight. Check space on backup drives, and add new drives as needed.
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#Check [[Splunk]]: [https://pumpkin.farm.physics.unh.edu:8000 click here if you're in the server room], or open localhost:8000 (use https) from [[Pumpkin]]
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#*Check logs for errors, keep an eye out for other irregularities.
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#Check [[Cacti]]: [http://roentgen.unh.edu/cacti http://roentgen.unh.edu/cacti]
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#*Verify that temperatures are acceptable.
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#*Monitor other graphs/indicators for any unusual activity.
 +
 
 +
==Weekly Tasks==
 +
 
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These are things that should be done once every 7 days or so.
 +
 
 +
#Check physical interface connections
 +
#*Verify that all devices are connected appropriately, that cables are labeled properly, and that all devices (including RAID and IPMI cards) are accessible on the network.
 +
#Check Areca RAID interfaces
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#*The RAID interfaces on each machine are configured to send e-mail to the administrators if an error occurs. It may still be a good idea to login and check them manually on occasion as well, just for the sake of caution.
 +
#Clean up the server room, sweep the floors.
 +
 
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==Monthly Tasks==
 +
 
 +
#Perform [[Enviromental_Control_Info#Scheduled_Maintenance|scheduled maintenance]] on the server room air conditioning units.
 +
#Check S.M.A.R.T. information on all server hard drives
 +
#*Make a record of any drives which are reporting errors or nearing failure.
 +
 
 +
==Annual Tasks==
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These are tasks that are necessary but not critical, or that might require some amount of downtime. These should be done during semester breaks (probably mostly in the summer) when we're likely to have more time, and when downtime won't have as detrimental of an impact on users.
 +
 
 +
#Server software upgrades
 +
#*Kernel updates, or updates for any software related to critical services, should only be performed during breaks to minimize the inconvenience caused by reboots, or unexpected problems and downtime.
 +
#Run fsck on data volumes
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#Clean/Dust out systems
 +
#Rotate old disks out of RAID arrays
 +
#Take an inventory of our server room / computing equipment
 +
 
 +
<!--{| cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"
 +
! Time of Year !! Things to Do !! Misc.
 +
|-
 +
| Summer Break || ||
 +
|-
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|  || Major Kernel Upgrades ||
 +
|-
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|  || Run FDisk ||
 +
|-
 +
|  || Clean (Dust-off/Filters) while Systems are Shut down ||
 +
|-
 +
| Thanksgiving Break || ||
 +
|-
 +
| Winter Break || ||
 +
|-
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|  || Upgrade RAID disks || Upgrade only disks connected to a RAID card
 +
|--
 +
| Spring Break || ||
 +
|-
 +
|} -->

Latest revision as of 16:42, 15 February 2015

This is the new Sysadmin Todo List as of 05/27/2010. The previous list was moved to Old Sysadmin Todo List. This list list is incomplete, and needs updating.

Projects

  • Convert physical and VMs to CentOS 6 for compute servers (taro,endeavour) and all others to either 6 or 7.
  • Mailman: Clean up mailman and make sure all the groups and users are in order.
  • CUPS: Look into getting CUPS authenticating users through LDAP instead of using Samba.
  • Printer: Get printtracker.py working and see if you can get a driver to properly recognize page number count instead of just giving the value as a number of 1 which corresponds to a job submission not the number of pages.
  • Check /etc/apcupsd/shutdown2 script on Gourd to make sure all the keys are correctly implemented so the machines go down properly during a power outage.
  • Do a check on Lentil to see if there is any unneccessary data being backed up.

Daily Tasks

These are things that should be done every day when you come into work.

  1. Do a physical walk-through/visual inspection of the server room
  2. Verify that all systems are running and all necessary services are functioning properly
    • For a quick look at which systems are up you can use /usr/local/bin/serversup.py
    • Gourd: Make sure that home folders are accessible, all virtual machines are running
    • Einstein: Make sure that LDAP and all e-mail services (dovecot, spamassassain, postfix, mailman) are running
    • Roentgen: Make sure website/MySQL are available
    • Jalapeno: Named and Cups
    • Lentil: Verify that backups ran successfully overnight. Check space on backup drives, and add new drives as needed.
  3. Check Splunk: click here if you're in the server room, or open localhost:8000 (use https) from Pumpkin
    • Check logs for errors, keep an eye out for other irregularities.
  4. Check Cacti: http://roentgen.unh.edu/cacti
    • Verify that temperatures are acceptable.
    • Monitor other graphs/indicators for any unusual activity.

Weekly Tasks

These are things that should be done once every 7 days or so.

  1. Check physical interface connections
    • Verify that all devices are connected appropriately, that cables are labeled properly, and that all devices (including RAID and IPMI cards) are accessible on the network.
  2. Check Areca RAID interfaces
    • The RAID interfaces on each machine are configured to send e-mail to the administrators if an error occurs. It may still be a good idea to login and check them manually on occasion as well, just for the sake of caution.
  3. Clean up the server room, sweep the floors.

Monthly Tasks

  1. Perform scheduled maintenance on the server room air conditioning units.
  2. Check S.M.A.R.T. information on all server hard drives
    • Make a record of any drives which are reporting errors or nearing failure.

Annual Tasks

These are tasks that are necessary but not critical, or that might require some amount of downtime. These should be done during semester breaks (probably mostly in the summer) when we're likely to have more time, and when downtime won't have as detrimental of an impact on users.

  1. Server software upgrades
    • Kernel updates, or updates for any software related to critical services, should only be performed during breaks to minimize the inconvenience caused by reboots, or unexpected problems and downtime.
  2. Run fsck on data volumes
  3. Clean/Dust out systems
  4. Rotate old disks out of RAID arrays
  5. Take an inventory of our server room / computing equipment


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