I'm in the position of jack-of-all-trades as well. I barely get a chance to visit the restroom on some days, nevermind breaks or lunch. Here's some advise I can impart:
1) Learn to say no and/or wait to the powers that be at your company. You can't do everything at once. Make certain that this is a realization which upper management has. Going hand in hand with this, be certain that you take some time for proactive monitoring during the week. Check logs for your devices and servers. Don't wait for a system to go down before you realize the logs had been throwing errors for days beforehand. 2) Train the employees to take off some of the burden. I taught all of my users about the mysterious help file. :) I also created walkthroughs of recurring chores that a standard user could perform themselves and put them into a FAQ on our intranet site. 3) Google is your biggest friend. You will have a very hard time finding a professionals forum where you will get an exact answer to a specific question every time first try. The expectation is that you do some research on an issue before even asking in a forum. On a simple problem somebody asks, the most frequent reply is a google search link. 4) Some good resources are experts-exchange and myitforum. I would also highly recommend the NTSysAdmin group hosted by Sunbelt-Software. It definitely doesn't hurt to pick up a book or two on various subjects which may apply. 5) The biggest and best time saver I can think of is to learn scripting. This is one where it's do as I say not as I do. I really want to learn and have made some inroads, but there is never enough time. My ability now is at the level of taking scripts others have generously posted and modifying them to my purposes. Tons of great sites for scripts including the Technet scripting center, scriptinganswers.com, and http://cwashington.netreach.net. 6) Stick with it here as well, if only as a lurker. Learn and absorb as much as you can. It will make you a better admin in the long run. 7) In doing all of these things, I pared down my workweek here from 80+ hours when I began 1.5 years ago to a normal 40 hour work week. I've even gotten back to doing external consulting work on the weekends again. Hope some of this helps. Scott Klassen -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Garyphold Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 11:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed Larry, I know I'm not the only one in this position. But membership in that club doesn't dissolve any of the stress. Are there other online forums that deal with the people who have to do it all in the smaller operations? Time-saving tips, direct answers and help on specific issues? Etc? Frankly, I'm lost on a lot of the stuff discussed in this forum - haven't been able to reach that level of knowledge yet. But it's still an invaluable source. Are there any more out there like it, at a lower tier of knowledge with slightly different focus, for the tied-to-the-whipping-post average "network-admin/PC-schlepp/IT-Systems-Mgr/purchasing-guy/telephone-system-guy /database-admin/software-specialist/new-technology-wizard/programmer-analyst /security-specialist/software-upgrade-maintainer/forget-about-cleaning-up-th at-messy-office/no-raises-this-year" multifaceted IT meatball surgeon? I'm getting further behind every day. It would be great to see how others are handling it. Gary -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Larry Wahlers Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 11:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed Gary wrote: > I'm in a position > where I'm making > the big decisions, doing the big work and also doing all the > little details > (I'm it) including daily problems. Zero training/learning time, zero > anything except get to the next fire. Boy, does that sound familiar... -- Larry List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
