The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition

Chapter 2. Climb Out of the Hole

System administration can feel pretty isolating. Many IT organizations are stuck in a hole, trying to climb out. We hope that this book can be your guide to making things better.

The Hole

A guy falls into a hole so deep that he could never possibly get out. He hears someone walking by and gets the person’s attention. The passerby listens to the man’s plight, thinks for a moment, and then jumps into the hole.

“Why did you do that? Now we’re both stuck down here!”

“Ah” says the passerby, “but now at least you aren’t alone.”

In IT prioritizing problems is important. If your systems are crashing every day, it is silly to spend time considering what color your data center walls should be. However, when you have ...