Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!clausius.mmwb.ucsf.edu!rodgers From: rodgers@clausius.mmwb.ucsf.edu Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin Subject: Re: System management tools for unix systems? Keywords: unix management Message-ID: Date: 3 Dec 90 22:07:22 GMT References: Sender: daemon@cgl.ucsf.edu Lines: 39 In simon@odin.pttrnl.nl (Simon van Veen) writes: >I am currently investigating the tasks of unix system managers. >The goal of this investigation is: can ``Artificial Intelligence'' >be of any help in system management. >With system management I mean: management of system information, >management of datacommunication, management of disks, files, tapes, >printers, processes, users, security etc, etc. I shall assume that by "Artificial Intelligence" you mean an expert system. The task of system administration relies on numerous specific details which, even in the world of UNIX, end up being host and site specific. It would be a daunting though not impossible challenge to create a system which was of general utility, which probably explains why it has not yet been done. We thought about this problem in the course of developing the System Manager's Toolkit, which attempts to automate much of routine system administration for Suns and other BSD-like systems, and opted for a system which tries to boil down administrative information and present it in the framework of a single interactive front-end. To the extent that SMT contains specific information about what to look for and creates various messages which make specific recommendations, it is a simple expert system in its own right. One could layer a formal expert system on top of something like this, to try to make more sophisticated inferences about what actions should be taken. When we had finished SMT, the need for an AI layer didn't seem very important, as the information the system presented, together with a good book such as UNIX System Administration Handbook by Nemeth et al., was such that administrative tasks seemed pretty straightforward. Nevertheless, as networks become larger and more complex and the architecture of individual machines more complicated, it seems likely that formal AI tools will appear in the administrator's armamentarium. Cheerio, Rick Rodgers R. P. C. Rodgers, M.D. (415)476-8910 (work) 664-0560 (home) UCSF Laurel Heights Campus UUCP: ...ucbvax.berkeley.edu!cca.ucsf.edu!rodgers 3333 California St., Suite 102 ARPA: rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu San Francisco CA 94118 USA BITNET: rodgers@ucsfcca