In this section I tried to give answers to the following questions:
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System Administration is the set of all tasks to do until a network of
computers is customized so that every user of that computer network can
do the work s/he is supposed or willing to.
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According to that definition, System Administration is an impossible task.
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Normally, a System Administrator (short: SysAdmin) has to perform the
following tasks:
- install the operating system and its utilities
- install standard software
- help the users to work efficiently with that software
- fix software defects
- assist the users with the usage of printers, scanners, etc.
- configure a network, all computers therein and the network equipment
- fix hardware defects
- analyze the performance of the computer system and to contribute
to that with proposing possible inprovements
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The first five of the items above are "proper" system administration tasks and
will be covered here.
Networking is a course on its own, as is the hardware issue. The last item
is most often referred to as "System Analysis".
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Normally, everyone that operates a computer has to have some of the
SysAdmin's knowledge. So why cannot everyone configure his computer
on his own?
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The first reason is that it is an enormous waste of time and efforts if every user
must get into systems administration; under these circumstances a user tends to
spend more time on configuring his/her system than on his very work.
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The second reason is that there are many tasks that can be done efficiently
only if one employee is responsible for all the computer equipment;
things like development of a general backup strategy or decision over what
operating system to use are normally out of the sight of the middle-of-the-road
user.
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