As a good System Administrator, you want to get the job done right, but as a lazy System Administrator, you don't want to work too hard to get it done. In this article, I'm going to share a few simple things you can do to make your job easier.
Over the years, I've developed the mantra, “If I have to do it more than once, I write a script to do it.” For example, if I need to check the health of my servers each morning, I'd write a bash script to gather the information, format if for me, and mail the report to me. If I had to make a configuration change on 12 different machines, I'd write a script to do it. Now at first blush, you might think that it's just as easy to do the work manually as it would be to write and debug a script to do the work. But there are some hidden advantages to my approach to... um... work. Once the script is working, the task is repeatable and can either be delegated to lower-level technicians, or automated. Basically, you don't have to do it all; it just all has to get done. We'll talk about scripting a bit more in a minute.
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