On Thu, 6 Jan 2011, Aaron McCaleb wrote: > This dove-tails into an idea that has been kicking around my cranium > for a while. Instead of trying to put together a large laundry list > of things that must be configured on Redhat Linux, SuSE Linux, > Windows, and $platform...I think it would be better to abstract this > out to "System Administration Design Patterns". For instance, "Single > Sign-On" could be one such pattern...or possibly a compound pattern. > Each required component for implementing SSO would be represented as a > unique "object class" within the pattern, and the basic, commonly > required configuration information would comprise the properties and > interface of each "object class".
I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a bit here. Design Patterns are a fine idea, but you MUST have underlying domain knowledge that allows you to intelligently consider the application of any pattern to your problem domain. IMNSHO, what distinguishes a senior system administrator (and for that matter, a senior in pretty much any profession) is the ability to take and apply their domain knowledge to particular problems, and come up with good-to-excellent solutions. Blindly presuming that filling in ticky-box-A, ticky-box-B and ticky-box-Q will get you what you want is ... disingenuous, at best, and the idea that you can "just plug something in, and it'll solve all of our problems" has been at the root of an astounding number of project failures. Cargo Cult computing is creating a problem, not a solution. cheers! ========================================================================== "A cat spends her life conflicted between a deep, passionate and profound desire for fish and an equally deep, passionate and profound desire to avoid getting wet. This is the defining metaphor of my life right now." _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
