My present admin person is...well, I am beginning to think I should learn to administer my own server but I really do not have time since I am the owner of the businesses and have other things to look after. How long would it take to become reasonably competent as a server admin? I guess the first thing I should do is learn how to change the password through SSH (Putty?). Any help would be useful.
passwd is the command, I believe. It will take a while to learn this...! I'd get a managed dedicated server from a reputable ISP that can help you out. I've had luck with hostrocket but many swear by others.
What would you say to a sysadmin who'd ask a similar question - how long would it take me to learn how to run a business? Either hire someone on a part-time/contract basis or switch to managed servers. J.D.
Thanks for the hint but I would never go back to using a server managed by a "reputable" ISP. I have used many over the years but none was worth the trouble they caused. I don't really want to go into that but I am happy with the way it is, however, I need a trustworthy server admin who will respond to my queries and keep the server running smoothly. How does one go about finding a person like that?
I would say it would take about a year - give or take ten years. I agree with you that I need to find a good server admin person. That was my pint in posting but I wanted to see what it would take to learn and whether this would be an option for me. I gather you think it is not an option.
It all depends on how much time you want to invest and how good of an admin you want to become, plus how many servers you have, plus the nature of your business (e.g. there may be more day-to-day routine work with hosting than with an online store), plus some luck (e.g. whether somebody will or will not try to hack into your server on a particular day). If you are prepared to run a business by day and be a sysadmin by night, then anything is possible. In reality, however, if you don't want to use managed servers, your best option would be to have someone properly set up your systems and to use this person's skills once in a while for serious things like firewall configuration, etc, while doing simple things like automatic updates on your own. J.D.
Boballoo, is it really worth it? There are so many things you need to learn, so many problems that can happen with a server... I don't think it is worth it. I'd rather have a guy ready to solve any problem and do regular maintenance on my server so I can focus on working on my sites and bringing in the $$$. I pay a guy 50 bucks a month and he keeps my server running smoothly and with up-to-date software. If you need a good server admin just go post a job opening at webhostingtalk.com, you will find the real pros over there.
These guys are right - Is that what you want to be..? A Systems Admin..? Probably not. I say stick with running your business and surround yourself with qualified people. The most successful businessmen are those who delegate well. Its like web design, or programming, or being a mechanic. Yeah - there is some stuff you can learn and do easily yourself, but why sit and rebuild your brake cylindars for a few hours when you can take it to a qualified professional and save yourself the hassle. You'll probably make more money focusing on your business than you'll save trying to do everything yourself. I'm just starting to learn this concept myself. I try to do EVERYTHING myself - I just made some friends that do programming and hosting admin stuff - I can't believe how quickly some of my long time projects are coming togather now. I say network - find someone you can delegate this responsibility to that you can trust. You..Build your business.
I have been doing just what you were doing. Trying to do everything myself but I found a good programmer and it made me realize that delegating is the key to giving me the time to do the things I want to do such as promotion and marketing, client interaction and going to the bank.