System Administration Abstract

System administration is a job that entails alot of responsibility and time. Many people don't realize how important the job is and what it consists of. The 1998-99 System Administration team at ECSU found out what some of those jobs were during their research. Four Silicon Graphics Indigo systems were donated in February 1999. The research team had the goals of formatting the systems, installing new operating systems, installing software, setting up user accounts and setting up a network. Even with time constraints, the team was able to accomplish most of the tasks at hand.

The researchers were able to format the hard drive using UNIX commands, install a new operating system from the cd-rom and set up user accounts manually on one of the Indigo systems. This amount of work showed the researchers how time consuming and how much research can go into this job. With the help of "UNIX Made Easy" by John Muster & Associates and the Silicon Graphics On-line Manuals, the researchers were able to locate alot of the information needed for their tasks.

The students also had the chance to see that there is more involved than just typing in UNIX commands. The students were able to get hands on experience by trying to mount hard drives onto others and using the cd-rom to install the operating system. These operations involved removing the hard drive from the Indigo and mounting it onto one of the Indy machines in Room 115 and connecting the cd-rom to the Indigo system. Since the Indigos didn't come with monitors, they had to connect the monitors from the Indy machines in Room 115 to be able to use the Indigo CPUs. All of this work is preparing the next group of researchers for their work involving these four systems.