How Can I Be A Sys-Admin On The Road? 56
Peter Cooper asks: "I'm a server administrator who also has to visit clients, meaning I'm often out of the office. As a 'one man outfit', this means my servers are at risk during this time. I was planning to get a cellphone that can receive e-mail, and a PDA which can connect through the cellphone, so that I can SSH from anywhere in the country, but the amount of phones, PDAs, and connectivity options, are very confusing. Do other admins have recommendations for phones, PDAs, or other systems so I can be an admin on the road? I'm in the UK, but suggestions for elsewhere are also welcomed, as others may find them useful."
TWO WORDS - SHARP ZAURUS (Score:3, Informative)
I have a modem card, Wifi card, ethernet card, and a James Bond infrared folding keyboard (the pocketop, really cool and folds up small).
IrDA is built-in, that works fine for me, but bluetooth is also an option.
you will not be disappointed in the Z. buy one today.
Re:TWO WORDS - SHARP ZAURUS (Score:2)
Re:TWO WORDS - SHARP ZAURUS (Score:1)
A decent combination (Score:4, Informative)
I am to lazy to google for the links, but its a pretty spiffy package.
Failing that, you could always get yourself a tungsten c, it has a keyboard, making ssh sessions easier, however you have to connect via wifi or ir....wifi isnt always available and ir needs LOS to a phone to work, can be cumbersome.
but the p900, gprs, ssh works a charm.
Re:A decent combination (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah,
He's one of us, allright!
Re:A decent combination (Score:2)
Nokia 9210 (Score:3, Informative)
UNIX or OS X laptop (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:UNIX or OS X laptop (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll second this option - it's gotten possible to get a decent laptop rather inexpensively. I'll throw in a blatant plug for the Averatec 3150H that I just picked up for similar reasons. $900 new, and every single component appears to have viable working linux drivers as well (including even the software modem, which Smartlink makes and offers the driver source - though it's not GPL). My only complaint is that the obnoxious "restore disk" is the only copy you get of the software that it comes with, and th
Re:UNIX or OS X laptop (Score:2)
Re:Gah! (Score:1)
I'd recommend a Sony Clie UX50 or next generation (Score:3, Informative)
At risk?!?! (Score:1, Redundant)
You really should tell your employees to wrap their rascal sometime.
You can go to far... (Score:5, Funny)
You can go a long way with this sort of thing...some might say too far.
When I was out to dinner with a group of friends a few years back one of them (who was a sysadmin for a medium sized company) interrrupted herself in mid sentence, pulled out her pager, looked at it, laughed, pulled out her PDA, made a few cryptic graffitesque gestures, said "Ha!", and pulled out her cell phone.
The conversation went something like this:
Then she hung up and continued with what she'd been saying.-- MarkusQ
Re:You can go to far... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You can go to far... (Score:3, Funny)
--D00d, your friend is teh ROOT! Is she single??
Last I heard she was "complex". It may be possible to cast her to single and then use the normal single operators on her, but everyone I've seen try this has seg faulted with a nasty access/privlege level violation message within a few seconds. Trying sleep() or u_sleep() is especially not recomended.
-- MarkusQ
Re:You can go to far... (Score:1)
*Lunch never means anything. Totally safe. Dinner, on the other hand, has "connotations."
Re:You can go to far... (Score:2)
*laugh*
I'll send her a link to this thread then, and let her decide.
-- MarkusQ
Re:You can go to far... (Score:2)
9210 (Score:2, Interesting)
You've got a excellent colour screen, full keyboard, pop/imap mail client, calendar, etc.
When I last looked, admitedly a long time ago, the only ssh client I could find was the commercial one from ssh.com. There is an ass load of software available via Nokia too.
The only major draw back is the lack of GPRS, but HSCSD is good enough for ssh.
OK, so it's a big phone, but when it's in it's holder and on my belt I don't notice it. There is no weight to it at all.
That SSH not available anymore (Score:1)
Hiptop (Score:2)
Danger's Hiptop [danger.com] is great for this. Its GPRS, so it should work across the ocean there. T-Mobile's the provider here in the states, I'm not sure who would be doing it over there, but that's the place I would start.
The Hiptop has built in IM clients, web browser, and email client capabilities in addition to being a cell phone. The latest software update allows you dowload a ssh client as well. You can also register and download the development kit from Danger to be able to put any sort of software on it.
I
Re:Hiptop (Score:2)
I love this unit's user-interface... the wheel design is great for using it one-handed, but I'd really love to hear someone's experiences with the Nokia 9290 Communicator. The Nokia has a huge array of apps you can download and install yourself. The
Re:Hiptop (Score:1)
Team up with a backup admin (Score:2)
Re:Team up with a backup admin (Score:1)
andy
Treo 600 (Score:2)
Good cell phone, good PDA.
I run SSH on it as well as Windows Terminal Server client. Works great.
high end pda (Score:2)
*You can go wi-fi, or buy an expansion card nic/modem for on the road... consider getting a cheapo dialup account so you can use a modem and find the local number...
*you could also setup a web interface... something like webmin, with some security. ssl, password protected, have apache use htaccess and what not for keep bad guys out.
*setup cron jobs. make basic management done automaticly whenever possible.
easily done (Score:1)
I have a PowerBook G4 these days that works very well and connects via a multitude of ways, so options are:
1. Use the modem!
2. Use the wireless card to connect in airports, libraries, war drive, etc.
3. Use Ethernet to dock in to someone's ADSL line, an office, an Internet cafe.
4. Go to an Internet cafe and use a web browser to use something
Re:easily done (Score:1)
Re:easily done (Score:1)
It depends on how careful you want to be.
I am prefectly happy to use any old wifi or ethernet or modem to ssh into my server--but only if I am typing my passwords on my own keyboard. I don't trust internet cafes. Two or three times in the last few months there has been news of passwords being sniffed (one at Kinkos and another at a college I think it was and I think the third was some airport kiosk chain).
I say bring a lapto
Re:For cell phones.. (Score:1)
Here's my solution... (Score:3, Interesting)
I also use Kuuaki [palmgear.com] which is a program for the Tungsten W that lets you monitor your servers CPU, processes (web cgi dns etc) get a short TOP display, etc.
Works quite well as a solution and the PALM also lets me telnet in. The keyboard is useable and the W is very durable and web browsing works pretty well.
Re:Here's my solution... (Score:2)
But truely, if your interested in working in Hawaii and your scientific... here on the Big Island - the astronomy domes on Mauna Kea are expanding and always bringing in people.
notebook? (Score:1)
What are you, some kind of masochist? (Score:2)
Okay, okay, maybe you can be available for that. But since being available means you'll alsoget the inevitable calls about all kinds of trivial problems that are beneath your station (users forgetting to turn on their monitors, etc.), you'v
6310i + Pocket PC (Score:3, Interesting)
MochaSoft Telnet [mochasoft.dk] is a decent SSH client for Pocket PC.
you can get a VNC Viewer for Pocket PC here [utah.edu]
and a Terminal Services client for PocketPC can be downloaded here [microsoft.com]
I guess it depends on what you are after. Many of the suggestions here mention laptops and that's OK if you are just generally working remotely. But (even the skinniest one's) are bulky to carry around and require an additional bag to be lugging around. If you just need to ensure that you are able to to remote support in disaster situations whilst on the move, then the Pocket PC w/ bluetooth to a Nokia 6310i is a solution which I have used successfully. (I'm UK based if that makes any difference)
Re:6310i + Pocket PC (Score:1)
Shoping list (Score:2)
GPRS Card (Score:1, Interesting)
This will get you GPRS service on the laptop
T-Mobile USA has service at $30/mo unlimited.
My Suggestion (Score:1)
In my opinion, an all in one solution does not exist right now.
No one has mentioned a Blackberry yet. Ye Gods!
I use a Blackberry 7200 series cell phone that allows to me to e-mail people anywhere. There are also ssh clients available for it, but they are pricey (I believe www.xb.com) If you want to spend some money, I would purchase MS Exchange (or Lotus Notes) and the Blackberry Enterprise software. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know...Exch
Depends what you're admining (Score:1)
It's also got all the software on which our company uses, so I can talk people through doing anything they have to do on their machines.
Plus you can fill the rest of the disk space with MP3s. Who needs an ipod anyway???
WAP is not dead (Score:2)
Chances are your current mobile phone can handle WAP and, for the work, a lightweight laptop handy (1-1.5 kg) is much better, IMHO, than any PDA/Phone.
Also, if it's a small problem, the WAP interface will let you discover it in a few clicks.
Years of experience says (Score:1)
A good laptop and cell phone is all you need. Keep all of your tools, documents, etc. on the laptop. Also ensure that you can use your cell phone as a modem in worst case scenerio. A PDA gets in the way when you need to do a any amount of typing. Set it up so that the laptop is all you need, at the office or on the road.