Open Source Operations

1. Anything that is not automated has no future. It will die or kill you.
2. People can only do 3 things at once, really. Beyond that energy is spread too thin and everything starts to wind down.
3. Fire heroes. They have a perverse incentive to create problems.
4. There is a straight line correlation between the number of steps in the process and it’s error rate.
5. Anything without an owner will be blamed. If you’re the boss – you’ll be blamed.
6. Computers can only do what their told – if they’re not doing the right thing, its because of a person.
7. The last change broke it.
8. The answer is always in the log file (or the output of trace, strace, ktrace, etc.)
9. No one reads docs. It’s better to automate procedures and only hire people who are able to read code.
10. Success is not writing software, its running it.
11. Use the scientific method as your published troubleshooting method.
12. Pay on-call differentials.
13. Have a rigorous hiring procedure.
14. A Sr. Admin spends his day automating away work or training someone else how to do it. Anything else is mid-level at best.
15. Put all your admins on a development plan that has them automating work.

written by admin