SAM Overview

SAM is a program you can use to automate and perform various system administration tasks. SAM has been refined over many releases of HP-UX and is now a highly functional and reliable tool for performing routine system administration tasks . As you'll see in the upcoming sections, SAM has many functional areas in which you can perform system administration tasks. Since there is a lot of "coverage" with SAM, meaning that most system administration tasks can be performed with SAM, combined with its reliability in performing these tasks, I have found more and more system administrators using SAM for performing system administration tasks.

Four features of SAM that make it particularly useful are:

1. It provides a central point from which system administration tasks can be performed. This includes both the built-in tasks that come with SAM as well as those you can add into the SAM menu hierarchy. You can run SAM on a remote system and display it locally so that you truly have a central point of control.

2. It provides an easy way to perform tasks that are difficult, in that you would have to perform many steps. SAM performs these steps for you.

3. It provides a summary of what your system currently looks like for any of the categories of administration tasks you wish to perform. If you want to do something with the disks on your system, SAM first lists the disks you currently have connected. If you want to play with a printer, SAM first lists all your printers and plotters for you. This capability cuts down on mistakes by putting your current configuration right in front of you.

4. You can assign non-root users to perform some of the system administration functions in SAM. If, for instance, you feel comfortable assigning one of your associates to manage users, you can give them permission to perform user - related tasks and give another user permission to perform backups , and so on.

There are some tasks SAM can't perform for you. SAM does most routine tasks for you, but troubleshooting a problem is not considered routine. Troubleshooting a problem gives you a chance to show off and hone your system administration skills.

When SAM is performing routine tasks for you, it isn't doing anything you couldn't do yourself by issuing a series of HP-UX commands. SAM provides a simple user interface that allows you to perform tasks by selecting menu items and entering pertinent information essential to performing the task.