Re: [SAGE] Strategies for taking ownership of existing infrastructure?

[Robert Brockway <rbrockway@opentrend.net>]

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, Jesús Couto wrote:

> It means I have to support process & applications I dont know about &
> didnt install, and are not documented... basically, things "work", by
> virtue of being more or less evolved and hammered till they do, but I
> dont have a clear picture of ... well anything, and the way thing
> works is very brittle. One machine uses one mail server, another uses
> other that is not listed anywhere, DNS is not coherent either, with
> each machine configured to use either a differen server or its own
> /etc/hosts files... same for proxies, same for... everything. List of
> things "wrong" here is enourmous, mainly in the "this thing doesnt
> scale and sure it is not easy to transfer admin to anybody that was
> not here where the working hacks where put in place".

Ouch.  This sounds bad.  I've been involved in cleaning up quite a few 
poor environments.  It's never fun.

You're getting a lot of useful comments on "how" to do clean up in this 
thread which is great.  I wanted to add something a bit different.

Make sure management know how bad the situation is.  Don't pull your 
punches.  The key is to be honest.  If you believe that this is an 
accident waiting to happen, say so.  Put it in writing, listing key 
concerns.  Management generally aren't techs so they need to rely on you 
to tell them the bad news.  You'll need the backing of management for the 
pain to come.

This may come across as criticism of the old sysadmin and it is important 
to avoid this if possible. During the explanations to management I'd focus 
on how you can fix the problems and how much better everything will be 
afterwards rather than how the systems got to be that bad in the first 
place.

You may wish to even arrange for a general meeting with staff to explain 
to them that a major clean up is needed and that it is coming.  Such a 
major clean up will not go unnoticed by workers so having their 
understanding will go along way.

Good luck with the clean up.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.		Phone:	+1-416-669-3073
Senior Technical Consultant	Email:	support@opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.	Web:	www.opentrend.net
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