The "Golden Rules" of Systems Administration

Adapted from the February 2002 issue of Sys Admin magazine from an article by Peter Baer Galvin.

When in doubt, reboot!

Communicate with your users

If you have a problem, first check the cables

All projects take twice the estimated time and money

It's not done until it's tested

Never (ever) change anything on a Friday

Use defaults whenever possible

Create a backup

Avoid poor decisions from above

If you haven't seen it work, then it probably doesn't

If you are constantly fighting fires, find the source

If you don't understand it, don't play with it on production systems

If it can accidentally be used, and can produce bad consequences, protect it

More times than enough, what appears to be a complex problem is, in fact, quite simple - look for the root cause

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