I am a long time UNIX system administrator and open source advocate. In recent years my primary focus as been on Linux & FreeBSD systems administration, networking, telecom, and SAN/storage management. I love building infrastructure, tying systems together, creating processes, and bringing people together in support of their technical efforts.
When I can, I try to contribute back to the open source projects either with patches, or by helping others in technical support forums.
Authored Comments
I agree as well ... In addition to LVM, adding in how to recognize newly added drives (with hot-swap, fibre channel, or virtual attach) can be crucial to keeping systems running without disruption when disk space runs low.
Along with basic tools (like screw driver), I'd suggest reviewing what kinds of serial cables and adapters you need to work on systems having no network and/or limited console access ... the right cables and adapters are crucial during crisis situations.
'vi' should be a crucial skill, especially when emacs may not be loaded to server systems by default.
There are a few great windows and linux thumb drive rescue images ... great idea to have a few current ones ready for use at any time, along with basic docs on what tools are most relevant to the environment you manage.
Great article, thanks!