Trip Report

SysAdmin Days are a two-day training workshop for system administrators to focus on all aspects of their professional development, both technical and otherwise. Workshops are available for both specific platforms and technologies and general system administration practices, including Mac OS X Administration, PHP, and Perl. We'll also have sessions about topics important for any sysadmin, including Drafting Policy Documents, Communication Skills, and Time Management.

The first 1/2 day I will attend the Mac OS class.
This course will cover concepts needed to either create an entire network of Mac clients and servers, and how to integrate Mac OS X clients into existing networks. Also it will cover active directory support, plus automating software updates.

The second 1/2 of the first day I will attend the Windows system administration class.
This course will focus on how to use the new Windows script host and Windows Management instrumentation to make better software scripts.

The second day will consist of an all day system administrator time management class on topics like:
How not to get interrupted by users
What to do when users interrupt you anyway
How to manage hallway help
Better ways to automate software and when is automating a waste of time
Tricks in both Windows and Mac OS's

I really enjoyed administering the Macintosh and Windows 1/2 day classes.

Since I am a little thin on the Mac I learned about some shortcut tools for both server and client side OS. On the Mac they talked about a feature called Filevault. This application stores all the data on the hard disk in encryption mode, so if your laptop gets ripped off they have almost no way to get true data retreived. I also learned that if the Mac servers are running 10.4 that you can push security updates and software patches to managed client machines
. They also recommended a 3rd party software called AdminMac which simulaes and works really good with Windows active directory.

On the Windows side we went into Vista stuff. I learned there are going to be 5 different releases. Only 2 we would be interested in. Some of the cool things Vista will do is security encryption of complete hard disk. It has many new network features. One of them allows you to setup a little network via wireless in the same room with others even if they are from different forests. You can actually set a pocket for sharing data rather than share memory sticks. Beauty is it only takes a couple of minutes to setup. They also went into security on the new IE 7. Showed alot of stuff that can be turned or tuned on or off for popups and web pages.
The last day was for time management. It helped to quit letting people take advantage of me in the hall to help with quick problems. I have a better understanding of what a work reqest system will do for me as a admin. And May actually make me more productive. Also other tips like always carry a small note pad and write down notes on things you might not be able to get back to quick enough so you don't forget them. All in all the amount of money spent by NCAR was worth the knowledge gained.