System management tools for unix systems?

[rodgers at clausius.mmwb.ucsf.edu]

In <simon.660236994 at odin> simon at 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 at maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu
San Francisco CA 94118 USA     BITNET: rodgers at ucsfcca