What sysadmin things should every programmer know?

I’d start with:

  1. Always have a backup system of some kind. Even better if it has a history.
  2. Consider single points of failure and how to deal with them should they fail.
  3. Depending on the amount of computers involved, looking into some way to make and create a standard image across computers will make everyone’s life easier – no “it works on mine” because they have such and such a program not normally installed.
  4. Document everything, if only because you will forget how you set something up.
  5. Keep abreast of security updates.

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