1.3 - Automating System Administration: Landscape, Approaches and Costs

Abstract

This chapter addresses the automation of system administration, a problem that is addressed as a set of three interrelated questions: what to automate, how to automate, and when to automate. The cost of systems administration in Information Technology (IT) systems often exceeds the cost of hardware and software and automating system administration can reduce these costs and increase the business value provided by IT. The traditional perspective has been that automation is always advantageous. However, it is important to look at the full costs imposed by automation. For example, automating software distribution requires that the distribution infrastructure be installed and maintained, software packages be prepared in the format required by the distribution infrastructure, and additional tools be provided to handle problems with packages that are deployed because of the large scale of the impact of these problems. While automation often provides a net benefit despite these costs, there have been cases in which these costs exceed the benefits. Three approaches have been explored for automation technologies—rule-based systems, control theoretic approaches, and automated workflow construction. All three have been used in practice. Rules provide great flexibility in building automation, but the complexity of this approach becomes problematic as the scope of automation increases. Control theory provides a strong theoretical foundation for certain classes of automation, but it is not a universal solution. Workflow has appeal because its procedural structure is a natural way for humans to translate their activities into automation. As the scale of systems administration increases and new technologies for automation are developed, systems administrators will have even greater challenges in automating their activities.