For those doing NT System Administration

[tim0thy]

Who's a system admin here? Also, how did you become one? I want to enter into there and I'm a little nervous. I'm in the field for 2 years doing desktop stuff (dealing with crazy users haha)... and recently written my MCSE+I. Any suggestions?

What kind of interview questions would you ask as well? I wonder if I know enough to handle the daily life of an NT system admin.

 

[Emulex]

Let's see. i was unix administrator, company downsized, i was promoted to sr unix administrator, the the noc manager left, and i am in charge of all nt/2k servers as well.

NT really isn't terribly hard to understand, in an ASP/ISP role. Its just the same pain in the ass as normal windows. The real bitch about the os is when it fails,crash, has to be migrated to a new version. ie nt-> win2k.

I guess since i have a strong background on networking, isp from the unix world, nt makes a lot of sense to me.

Except that it crashes far too often due to poorly behaving programs running under IIS.

the whole gui/registry/cryptic os part of windows makes the job more difficult of course. I can do just about anything in 1/10th of the time on unix as a nt box. But nt has its merits, namely a good PC version of oracle,sql and ASP isn't a bad scripting language as long as you dont cram too many peepz on a box.

good luck!

 

[tim0thy]

thanks. there was a job for Reuters/Instinet but i think i went chicken sh!t on it because i don't think i knew enough.

i think the position is like NT/LAN/SQL admin. Jeez. Talk about having your hands full!!!

anyhow, what kinda questions would you ask of an NT admin if you had to interview with them. i'm just looking for some sort of review of all that i've learned from books/test lab.

 

[DAM]

well, i manage a novell and win2k network, how did i get here, by accident, just applied for a computer tech job and ended up doing pretty much everything under the sun that you can imagine that can be done with a computer and a ethernet connection. i am still a junior in college planning on majoring in telecommunications.




dam()

 

[tim0thy]

damn, i think that was my mistake in college... should have done something more along the lines of this. instead i interned at a big financial firm doing desktops stuff. while it's good experience, it kept me there and i want to deal more with server work now.

 

[Emulex]

Really depends on the job at hand. Usually i fire off tasks that i have to do commonly and see what they recommend. Along with a few stupid questions like "how do you get the mac address of the second ethernet card",
what is the command to schedule jobs running on a periodic basis?
What is the difference between ODBC and ADO?
What is the correct amount of swap space to setup in relationship to available memory?
How do you add additional IP's to a server?
What is raid 0,1,0+1,5 and name the benefits of each?
-end of easy questions-

What order do you install the service packs to NT on a first install. What are the current service packs for XX applications.
Explain how the procedure to migrate a web server full of XX clients to a new server.
Explain the roles of the primary and backup domain controllers?
How would you replace a primary domain controller with a new computer?
What are the differences between SQL 6.5, and sql 7.0?
What is the best route to migrate a server from a single cpu to multi cpu?

Explain the procedure to backup a server with sql server databases running using veritas backup exec?

Which logs files should you check on a daily basis to determine the health of the system?

Explain the procedure to purchase, implement, renew secure server certificates?

Those pretty much give me a feel, if the person can answer all of those without fidgeting, that they have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of NT/2K in my environment.

 

[DaveJ]

Started out as a student tech while in college, then moved on to bigger and better things... spent a while managing our student workers, the Helpdesk, and now I'm close to the top of the food chain, managing our NT/2K boxes in addition to handling labs and client-side stuff. Basically I do a little bit of everything...

Dave

 

[tim0thy]

These answers coming from waht i know now. i'm not looking at anything.

1.MAC address, IPCONFIG /ALL
2.schedule, use AT
3.i know ODBC is the interface that links with Oracle DBs, not sure what ADO is.
4.swap space = physical + 12
5.add additional IPs, go to network, adapter, properties and well, do stuff there.
6.raid0, all drives = one set, no redundancy.
raid1, mirrors, good for reading.
raid10, implement 1 and 0 together. you basically have two mirroed sets. good for SQL.
raid5, good for reads. redundant since parity written is on all drives.
7. just install the most recent NT service pack.
8. migrate web server, (damn, lemme think). copy the web site over to new server, make sure dns, ip changes to reflect the new server it's on. i'm sure there are more steps, just don't remember off hand now.
9. PDC/BDC verifies users login and holds user login scripts.
10. replace PDC with new computer??? i would build BDC, take PDC offline, then promote BDC to PDC.
11. SQL6.5/7.0 question. i haven't studied this yet. but i know SQL 7 is faster and more stable for sure from the brief reading i've done.
12. multi CPU? i would take server down, update the ROM, put in second cpu.
13. veritas backup of sql? umm... i never did this!. my guess would be that the services have to be stopped for SQL for you to allow the DBs to backup. there are certain DBs that have to be backed too... forgot them now, but i read it once somewhere.
14. log files. damn, i don't know
15. server certificates???? *blank look*

 

[tim0thy]

ARGH. event logs from event viewer!, #14! DOHHhhHhHhhh
:|:Q:disgust::frown::frown::disgust::disgust::Q:Q:Q

 

[Emulex]

pretty decent. I might hire you for a JR nt admin based upon your answers.

It's really important to not only know what sql server does, but to actually know how to do some SA work, like checking the database size, expanding, migrating.

Backing up a server is mucho important, and knowing how to restore one from total devastation is equally important.

Veritas backup exec is the #1 backup software for NT/2k. Learn it..

It's not pretty thing to do , but eventually you'll need to know how to do it, with confidence. It's also important to know how to backup a live database, as we all know our stuff must run 24/7

Keep working on your knowledge, theres a few points that you didn't know, that you'll need in a commercial area.

pm me if you need any specific advice.

 

[tim0thy]

how about the answers to what i got wrong?

anyhow this spot for instinet is a NT/Lan admin with junior level sql experience. should i attempt it?

 

[Emulex]

not without at least knowing something about sql

 

[tim0thy]

then i'm glad i dodged that interview. i wasn't that confident about sql because i only started reading on the SQL 7 Admin test from MS. but then i got sidetracked with security and stuff.

 

[tim0thy]

is emulex the only system admin here that messes with NT? windogg?

 

[Emulex]

btw, i never used NT until about 1.5 years ago i've got about 7 years of unix administrator experience its really easy to pickup when its forced down your throat.

 

[tim0thy]

well, unix is somewhat of a different breed of OS. you actually need to learn how to program and use C/Perl, stuff like that... NT, for you to know that would be nice, but not a necessity, you can get by with visual basic or some crap.