Chapter 9. Tactical Management

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T HE SYSTEM MANAGER'S PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY is not solely to provide an IT service, but also to maintain it in an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective manner. The precise level of service provision and user expectations is normally the subject of a service level agreement (SLA) between the IT department and the user requesting the service. Discussed in Chapter 3, "Delivering the Goods," SLAs clearly define the operating parameters and any mutually acceptable tolerances.

This chapter discusses the tactical aspect of managing a Solaris environment, the necessary tasks and procedures that will ensure the achievement of any SLA targets. It is not solely about the provision of the service; it's also about maintaining that service in an efficient and reliable manner. The tactical management aspect involves the daily supervision of the Solaris environment, including routine operational management, monitoring and analysis of system log information, and monitoring of the performance of the systems, taking remedial action where necessary. The first section in this chapter investigates the daily procedures that need to be carried out to provide a fully administered environment. The system manager is not a system administrator, but he is responsible for these procedures and must ensure that the necessary actions are being taken to guarantee (as far as is reasonably possible) the continuity of service at or above the required level.

Management of outages is also an important aspect. Scheduled outages need to be coordinated efficiently , and unscheduled outages require a mechanism for keeping the customer informed ”that's not so easy when there's no system!

If configured correctly, the system logging process provides essential information for monitoring the systems effectively. This chapter also identifies the level of logging delivered by default when the Solaris operating environment is installed. A surprising number of installations just use the default values without investigating what else could be done. A brief description of the user account maintenance procedure is included, as is information on how making use of user groups can help the system manager to make multiple configuration changes very easily.

The subject of performance monitoring is considered here because the system manager is responsible for the continued provision of an acceptable service. This chapter discusses some of the symptoms to look for when analyzing performance and the tools that can be used.

The final section in this chapter investigates some useful commands that can help the system manager, particularly combinations of frequently used commands to obtain specific information. Some other commands relevant to the manipulation of text files and data are discussed as well. These commands are frequently forgotten, but they can save a lot of time with large amounts of data, something the system manager is likely to have to use when compiling periodic reports .

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