No, I don't take it as directed at me. I think it's important to to say what I have time to do. If it isn't enough, fine, no worries. I can commit to 10 minutes every few days. What I can't promise is that if there's a problem, I'll always have time to investigate and/or fix it. Often I would be checking just before leaving for work.<div>
<br></div><div>Thanks for the summary of responsibilities. A lot of it sounds like a job for a script run via cron (or whatever), with saved reports and/or email to this list.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Steve<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 4:02 PM, Ken Causey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ken@kencausey.com">ken@kencausey.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Please don't take this as directed at you Steve, because it definitely<br>
is not, but I'm going to take the opportunity of your mention of 'on the<br>
weekend' to explain something that I think is obvious, and probably<br>
really is, but maybe is not at the top of everyone's awareness.<br>
<br>
For good or bad the box-admins team work is 24/7. In practice it<br>
doesn't often add up to that much time but first of all you never know<br>
when disaster in its various forms will strike. Furthermore I think it<br>
is essential that every single day the server status is checked.<br>
<br>
Here is a quick summary of what I do every single day, yes 7 days a week<br>
every week (OK, every once in a while I miss a day):<br>
<br>
login to the server via ssh as root<br>
<br>
uptime<br>
Look at the days of uptime, is the number surprisingly small like 1<br>
day or less?<br>
Look at the number of logged in users. If it's not 1 (yourself) then<br>
see who it is and have some confidence they aren't doing anything<br>
nefarious.<br>
Look at the load average, is it in the normal range?<br>
<br>
df<br>
Any significant changes in disk usage?<br>
Is it time to do some cleanup and make space?<br>
<br>
free<br>
Any significant changes in RAM usage?<br>
<br>
ps auwx<br>
Quickly glance through the process list looking for anything unusual.<br>
This task can lead to other inquiries when there are a lot of qmail<br>
processes running or anything else seems unusual. Only experience will<br>
help judging what is unusual.<br>
<br>
top (then hit the $c key to see the full command line which is essential<br>
in identifying squeak processes)<br>
This is another way to look at the process list in particular<br>
monitoring the memory and cpu levels and as with the rest of this<br>
checking if things are more or less normal.<br>
<br>
Further every day I visit <a href="http://source.squeak.org" target="_blank">source.squeak.org</a><br>
If the front page comes up I'm satisfied all is probably normal.<br>
<br>
And <a href="http://bugs.squeak.org" target="_blank">bugs.squeak.org</a><br>
I check the manage page where I can quickly see any recent signups.<br>
We have someone who seems to test their anti-captcha technology and<br>
signup with semi-random but consistent account names and user names but<br>
they never actually do anything with the accounts. I delete them<br>
whenever I see them. After that I check the bug list page with no<br>
filtering and no project set so I can always see all changes in case<br>
anyone is fooling around.<br>
<br>
And that's usually it. It probably doesn't take even 10 minutes most<br>
days. But doing it every day is essential in catching problems before<br>
they become more serious and simply to have the knowledge to judge that<br>
a change has occurred.<br>
<br>
This is nothing new to anyone I suspect, basic Linux admin 101, but I<br>
thought I should say it aloud to make sure.<br>
<br>
Ken<br>
<br>
> -------- Original Message --------<br>
> Subject: Re: Welcome Steve and Casey<br>
> From: Steven Elkins <<a href="mailto:sgelkins@gmail.com">sgelkins@gmail.com</a>><br>
> Date: Sat, February 05, 2011 2:31 pm<br>
> To: Ken Causey <<a href="mailto:ken@kencausey.com">ken@kencausey.com</a>><br>
> Cc: <a href="mailto:box-admins@lists.squeakfoundation.org">box-admins@lists.squeakfoundation.org</a>, <a href="mailto:casey.obrien.r@gmail.com">casey.obrien.r@gmail.com</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> I've been moderating squeak-dev for some time. If there's something that I<br>
> can do (1) on the weekend and (2) not too time-consuming, I might be able to<br>
> help.<br>
><br>
> Cheers,<br>
> Steve<br>
><br>
> On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 2:30 PM, Ken Causey <<a href="mailto:ken@kencausey.com">ken@kencausey.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> > Welcome to the box-admins mailing list. Feel free to introduce<br>
> > yourselves (again perhaps) if you like; if you have any particular<br>
> > interest or thoughts related to managing the community services please<br>
> > contribute.<br>
> ><br>
> > Thanks,<br>
> ><br>
> > Ken<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment<br>
> before starting to improve the world. -- Anne Frank<br>
> Paradise is exactly where you are<br>
> right now...only much, much better. -- Laurie Anderson<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment<br>before starting to improve the world. -- Anne Frank<br>Paradise is exactly where you are<br>right now...only much, much better. -- Laurie Anderson<br>
<br>
</div>