Scripting practices in complex systems management

Abstract

System administrators are end-users too. And as end-users, they develop tools, create web pages, write command-line scripts, use spreadsheets, and repurpose existing tools. In short, they engage in end-user programming activities in support of their systems management work. We examined system administrator practices in software tool development, operations, and maintenance based on ethnographic field studies at service delivery centers and data centers across the United States. Our findings suggest that software practices were mostly informal and collaborative and mixed within formal change processes; tool development and debugging were interleaved with tool use and maintenance as they interacted with live systems; and the complexity of large-scale systems and the risks involved in changing live and critical systems put increased demands on system administrators. We argue that system administrators might benefit from certain software engineering methodologies such as agile software development and software modeling.