9 Systems administration
This chapter covers
- Using AI tools in systems administration
- Applying ChatGPT in change requests, Linux distributions, file renaming, and log analysis
- Auditing configuration files for compliance and optimization
- Exploring existing AI applications in systems engineering
- Simplifying complex systems administration tasks
Systems administration, in this context, is the management of servers on a network. A system administrator’s responsibilities often include backing up and securing data, troubleshooting application and service failures, and managing user accounts. They work with various operating systems, such as Linux and Windows, and use tools like System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to manage large-scale deployments.
Having managed systems ourselves, we know that the work can be tedious at times, with a lot of detailed troubleshooting, complicated configurations, and repetitive tasks. But we believe, based on experience, that AI will help make many of the tasks less burdensome.
In this chapter, we’ll show you how we used AI when creating change requests, understanding Linux, renaming files, performing log analysis, auditing systems for compliance, and creating workflow automation.
After reviewing our own history and the history of coworkers who are currently using ChatGPT, we compiled a list which allows you to easily see what kinds of tasks have been assisted by ChatGPT (looks a lot like our previous Google searches).