12.1 Why Use SAM?

   

---

SAM is designed to help system administrators perform routine tasks. With SAM, tasks that require a number of steps can be performed in a single step. It is the responsibility of SAM to execute actual commands for you. Briefly, the advantages of using SAM are as follows .

1. You get menus and icons. They are easy to use and less laborious than typing long commands manually.

2. SAM provides you with comprehensive details of your system. For example, you can see a list of installed printers and their properties. Similarly, by just clicking an icon, you are able to see all disks attached to your system. Another icon will show you network adapters and network configuration related to each adapter. It is very useful to know the existing system configuration before adding a new piece of hardware.

3. You don't need to remember complex commands used for routine tasks.

4. It provides a uniform interface on all HP-9000 series servers and workstations.

5. It gives you centralized control for your network, as you can run it remotely on any machine and view the result on your local GUI.

6. You can assign limited root access to users if you want to distribute system administration tasks. For example, if you want to assign printer management to one person and network management to another, SAM provides you with the facility to define restricted areas for users. A user can only go into that area of SAM assigned to him or her.

At the same time, it must be remembered that true system administration is a complex jobyou need to know what is going on behind the scenes. Although SAM can add new users for you, you need to know how to add a user manually. An essential part of system administration is troubleshooting. SAM is not designed for this purpose, as there are no hard and fast rules used for the purpose of troubleshooting. As a system administrator, it is your experience and depth of knowledge about HP-UX that will help you in the troubleshooting process.

---

   

Top