The System Administrator's toolkit: indispensible gadgets

0000-00-00 00:00:00

Toolkits. It seems like a lot of professions come with one. Carpenters, mechanics, engineers, make-up artists and tailors. They all have some form of chest will the tools of their trade at their disposal. So why don't system administrators usually have one?

All images are clickable for larger versions.

During my time at ING I felt the need to put together a sysadmin's toolkit grow by the month. Our team had a decrepit plastic box, filled with all kinds of miscelaneous crap at its disposal but we were usually looking around to find what we were looking for. In the end we got things sorted out pretty much, but it still wasn't perfect.

So, the plan was hatched to put together my personal tool chest, which could not be screwed up by anybody else since it's mine... ALL MINE!!

So anyway, today I finally got 'round to putting it together. I went to the local DIY to pick up a cheap toolbox and some other bits and pieces. Most of the stuff that went into the kit I had already lying around the house (mostly gathered during my time at ING). Here's a list of things that are in there already:

• A LED flash light. Server racks can get quite dark, especially if there's a power failure.
• A level. You know, the carpenters tool with the bubble in yellow water to show whether something's perfectly horizontal or not. Handy for levelling a server rack.
• A lighter and a hobby knife. Stripping cables has never been easier! Besides, who knows what you'll need to cut on your next trip in the server room!
• A pen and a marker, for obvious reasons.
• You'll notice that I left a lot of small compartments empty. They're über-handy for holding screws and little bits and pieces when assembling of disassembling a server or rackmount kit.

• Velcro and tiewraps are indispensible when making quick adjustments to cabling.
• A keychain with ALL the keys to your server room. You'll need keys to both your servers (in the case of Sun hardware) and to your racks. Be sure to have a copy of every key you'll run into!
• Various tools for rack adjustment. Indispensible when installing a new rack in your server room.
• Various other tools, like scissors, a big screwdriver, a multi-tool and an ESD wrist strap.

Sysadmin voodoo, also known as waving a dead chicken. It may seem ridiculous, but the chicken actually has a two-fold purpose:

1. To do the aforementioned ritual of dead-chicken-waving

2. To distract a customer while flipping the switch he had so obviously missed and which is the cause of his so-called "Great Big Disaster". It's jolly good fun and really amazes them!

So... There's already a lot in there, but there are still a number of items missing that I'll be sure to include in the near future.

• A Keyspan serial-USB adapter which will allow me to connect my iBook to the serial port of our Sun server, Cisco switches and so on.
• The required serial cable to make said connection, including any and all dongles I may be required to have. As far as I can tell it's best to get one of those light-blue Cisco serial cables, since that allows you to make a direct connection to the Sun RJ-45 serial ports.

That's it for now. If you can think of anything else that would fit nicely into the sysadmin's toolkit, please e-mail me and tell me what you think is missing!

kilala.nl tags: sysadmin, geeky, fun,

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