Experiences with working from home

[Ranjeet A.]

Hi All...pls refer:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/publicProfile.do?userId=BR627460&forumId=1

George Dodds- Forum profile

Since from uk.......???

[Bharat Katkar]

Certification: HP uncertified monkey

Nice uncertification, Hope you should not have spent any dollars for that. :)

BTW i have also seen certified Monkeys ...

For a good sysadmin, his experience talks a lot and reflects in his work.
Certification does help you to improvise your work and offcourse your knowledge but troubleshooting is different skill.

Just 2 cents on that.

[Tor-Arne Nostdal]

Hi George,
I've been working remotely several years.
Most of the time on the corporate wan, but also from home (as right now).
The aspect with "disturbances" is normally no problems. Actually i tend to spend more time working, when working from home than being in office.

When you're in the office there might also a lot of "disturbing factors" (like bosses :) which not necessarily gives you the ability to focus on specific tasks.

In fact in problem handling we often try to be at least two persons. One handling all the calls about "how's the progress", or issuing system messages, as well as being a speaking partner.
This is to give the problem handler a calmer environment.

It might often be easier to explain your wife/kids that there is problem that you need to focus on, than a lot of collegues.
(unless you're plan is to be at home and be single responsible for very young kids).
--------------------------------------------
We have a corporate wan with several computer rooms. We have administrators in several different countries.
We try to "team up" so there is more than 1 person pr.location.

Here is some of the aspects you should consider:
- Console access
Solved by: LAN Console, WEB Console, RIB-card, Terminal servers.
- "Local Runner"
There might be a need for a local runner who could handle backup tapes or other physical access in the computer room.
- Labling/Documentation
Make sure you have a clean and tidy computer room. You should also label all machines both in front and back with hostnames. It is normally a good idea to do the same with cables (both ends).
Then you should take som digital images of machines (especially back) and network patch panels. Also make an overview drawing of the computerrom (where is the door, and where is stuff placed).
This will help a lot when trying to explain a person what to do.
- Backups
The Local Runner get an exact description of which tapes should be removed/replaced in which libraries.
Make sure you have good written procedures for this, and again that labeling is done properly.
- Network Connection
Make sure you have several ways to connect to your corporate network.

We have several Internet access points in different countries, so I do not need to think about the corporate end, only my private Internet access points.

Don't plan working from home using a PC which you need to share with other family members! I'm using a portable PC with Internel NIC, Wireless NIC, Bluetooth, Infrared, Internal Modem, Serial ports.
I use:
NIC - at corporate locations (my office or other offices)
Wireless - from home, airports etc.
Infrared+"mobile phone" (GPRS)- where other connection is not possible.

When my ISP-connection is up, I'm using Cisco VPN client to connect to one of our corporate access points.

I have all necessary programs available on my PC, and thus I just work as normal.

If my PC crashes I can use any PC with Internet connection and go to a corporate gateway. Through this gateway I can establish a secure login to a Citrix server where I have installed primary programs (Terminal emulators, WEB-browser, Mail, Application programs, aso.)

I seldom use the Citrix solution, as I prefer using "my own PC" all the way.
(nb! make sure you also have backup of any local data. We synchronise data directories into corporate server).

NB! The flexibility in connections give freedom.
I have "in the old days" used modems with callback, ISDN aso.
I have been having 1 week/month 24x7 on call duty several years. The requirement have been 1h from call to system access and start of problem handling.
Nowadays I can travel almost everywhere as long as I have my PC and phone nearby.

Being administrators spread on different locations also require good communication and procedures between each other to avoid working "on top" of each other.
Example: editing /etc/hosts
we use script which create a lockfile when editing system files like /etc/hosts.

All administrators know all phone numbers to each other (including private), as we're having common goals(bonuses) and trust each other not to call unneccesary.
These are not known by leaders!

Daily Monitoring etc.
Several weekends where I have been working, it have turned out much more convenient doing this from home.
I can setup monitoring and have it running day'n night.

Your notification mails.
If you think about opening VPN connection only if a notification is recieved...
I propose mobile phone and SMS (mail to SMS).
We use this for critcal notifications.


--
NB! It have become almost to easy to work remote. You should therefore ensure that you get enough time together with collegues to establish good relationships

Hope this can help you (or others)
Best regards
Tor-Arne

[Alzhy]

With the right tools and the right security, bandwidth, etc - working from home as a systems manager is really no big deal.

These days, unless your tasks include being really physically near your infrastructure, working off-site is the norm..

Or Offshoring would not have been possible.. Hmm, did I hear it right that incresingly Data Centers are now starting to be managed remotely?

Ahem...

[Tor-Arne Nostdal]

You heard right Nelson...
But there are both PRO and CONS!

My company consist of several production sites spread around the world. These was fusioned, and then a central computer centre was built together with the head office.
Some of the "brain trust" was brought in from different sites, but most of the persons was expatriates. Some moved back to their home countries, some have quit. And in addition our IT-department have become a virtual organisation which do not link to country of origin. Now there's only a few persons situated at the computer centre.

Even though most of the personnel is located to a production site, the company do not want the computer centre to be located on one of these.
Reason: production sites might be sold or shut down

Even though I'm working remotely from one of the production sites I "visit" the computer room whenever needed, but then only for planned maintenance.

!!! For unplanned events - you need to have good redundancy and failover solutions ;-)

If you do not have this - you should definitely have the personnel close by :-))

One of the strenghts by having personnel spread around in the organisation is that these often have better organisational knowledge.

Despite of the decentralised structure we try as far as possible to not spread to much. It is also necessary to have some team-mates to share a cup of coffe with and do some small talks with. This often give opportunity for knowledge sharing as well.
We bring the entire team together a couple of times a year as well, to establish closer relationship.

Apart from this we use, phone/video conferencing and/or netmeeting/webmeeting, both on regulare basis as well as on short notice.

Most of us feel this way of working very nice. The travelling is kept moderate so it is actually quite ok.
I have even brought my wife/kids on some of the business trips, and extended the stay.
The company support this (as long as I pay the extra charges myself ;-) and help out on the arrangements.