Rules

My rules for systems administration:

  1. Openness succeeds.
  2. Backups are sacred.
  3. Use a versioning tool with all documentation, code, scripts, configuration, packages, everything.
  4. Hard drives fail.  Always use RAID 1 or better.
  5. Automate everything.
  6. Testing is a religious ritual.
  7. Some things are best kept on paper.  Never be without a pen.
  8. Multiply your time estimates by 4.
  9. There is nothing more valuable than your own network of IT folks.
  10. Use the last day of the week for documentation, coding or anything other than making changes to anything that’s remotely production.