Whether you just began your career in bioinformatics, or you’re an experienced analyst, having a well administered system is a key factor for success in this field. But, what do you really need to know in terms of systems administration? It is no secret that most of bioinformatics analyses are carried out in Unix-based systems, specifically Linux. In the following series of posts I will cover few essential Linux SysAdmin concepts and tools to help you manage your system, regardless of your role in the lab.
Are you the system administrator?
The first step for successful system administration is to identify your role. This is especially important for bioinformaticians because in academia roles might not be as well-defined as in the private sector. This means that you might be the de facto system administrator of your lab’s workstation!
How do you know if you are the system administrator? To find out, you need to ask yourself and any other users of that system these three questions:
- Who manages user profiles and memory in this system?
- Who performs regular OS updates and makes sure the system is secure?
- Who is in charge of installing and updating software for everyone to use?
If you are partly or completely responsible for those items, then you are also probably the administrator of that particular system. If nobody is currently doing those tasks, then it is time to learn a bit more about systems administration and assume that role. Remember, a poorly managed system is a risk to your data and research! Besides, system administration is not as hard as it seems. It can actually be quite fun!
So what does being a system administrator actually mean in terms of your responsibilities? There are several possible answers to that question, depending on the size and complexity of the system. But in general, all system administrators have 6 key responsibilities and we will discuss each one in a separate post:
- Security
- Backups
- Troubleshooting
- Software Installation
- User Management, and
- System Updates
