10 servers to administer and I'm a history major [closed]

Solution 1:

Honestly, I would find another job, unless your current task is just to keep everything running until they hire a new SysAdmin. You are being setup for failure. You are doing the job of at least two people if this is all hosted locally and nothing is documented.

Don't worry about the scripting or programming anything just yet. Get a handle on keeping everything running.

Are you in charge of the corporate firewall too?

The quick and dirty daily tasks I see you needing to do are (in no particular order):

• check the nightly backups
• check the exchange queues to make sure they are processing
• check the SQL backups
• check the AV server for alerts if anything failed to scan or update

Solution 2:

First off, look at Zoredache's link to the Beginning Sysadmin question. It's a lot of info but will get you where you need to go. That being said, it's a lot of data dumping.

Second, seriously, look for a new job. If your employer regards everyone as interchangeable widgets you're better off not being there anyway. But it's a bad economy, and that might not be an option.

In your specific case, I would:

1. Find a local IT firm you can escalate labor to if something breaks and you're over your head.
2. Make sure your maintenance contracts with your software vendors are up to date. Chances are most of your software packages (including whatever's on the IIS server that's making you money) were purchased rather than written internally. Make sure you have support with them - if anything breaks, you'll be calling them first.
3. Make sure you have good backups - both data and system state. If one of your servers toasts, you'll need to be able to restore it quickly. This may actually be the most important priority.
4. Do a hardware audit and make sure your servers are under warranty. If they're out, point out to management that there will be significant downtime if they die, and you only make money when they're up.
5. Pray
6. Perform a software audit, hope you find a lot of out of compliance software, report it to the Business Software Alliance (if you're in the US), and use the money you make from the finders fee to tide you over until you find a new job.

...6 may be optional.

Solution 3:

Find a new job. Let that company fail. They clearly need a lesson.

Your stepping up to help will quickly become unappreciated and chances are, won't lead to anything else but more stress and abuse.

Solution 4:

Start drinking? :-)

Besides that, look at getting a spare box or two that can be used to set up non-production servers. That will give you the opportunity to learn how to deal with some of this software in a slightly less dangerous environment than "if I break it we all stop working and making money".

Even if you run them inside virtualization software like VirtualBox, it's something that gives you hands on with the software without jeopardizing the production work.

Finally, if you do have to touch the production servers before you're more comfortable with them, document every step you take. Make sure you always know how you got to the screen you're on and how to get back.