On the improvement skills of data center operation and maintenance

The stable operation of a data center is inseparable from the operation and maintenance personnel of the data center. The operation and maintenance of a data center involves all aspects. It is different from other operations and maintenance, and the problems it handles are relatively professional. In many companies, servers and equipment are hosted in a dedicated data center room for professional maintenance. Only some large companies with strong technical strength have their own data centers. Today's information technology is updated very quickly. New technologies such as big data, cloud computing, virtualization, and green data centers are emerging in an endless stream. The CPU, memory, and forwarding chips of various devices are also constantly developing. From single-core CPU to multi-core, quad-core, eight-core, sixteen-core, and thirty-two-core, the network single-port bandwidth has increased from 10M, 100M, 1G, 10G, and 100G. These technological advances have brought high-speed information processing capabilities to data centers, but they have also made the system of this data center extremely complex. Traditional data center operation and maintenance skills have been difficult to adapt to the needs of high-speed information development. We need to continue to learn and improve ourselves in order to carry out the operation and maintenance work well in the future data center. The following will combine some actual work experience to describe some methods to improve operation and maintenance skills.

The data center is a complex information processing system, including systems, networks, storage, protocols, requirements, development, testing, security, air conditioning, power supply, monitoring and other links. The work of operation and maintenance is to include all these aspects. It can be seen that the work of operation and maintenance is a position that integrates multiple IT skills. However, each part mentioned here requires the support of multiple technical disciplines. For example, the system may be Linux or Windows, and the applications may be LVS, HA, WebServer, DB, and middleware. The network is even more complicated, with various second and third layer protocols, virtualization, loop protocols, routing protocols, etc. It is impossible for everyone to be proficient in so many technologies. It is undeniable that there may be such people who are proficient in all aspects, but human energy is limited after all, and there must be gains and losses. The first is communication skills and teamwork. The work of operation and maintenance involves many cross-departmental and cross-job types. In this way, the operation and maintenance personnel need to be good at communication and have strong team agreement skills, so that when dealing with problems, they can fully call on various resources and technical forces to solve problems quickly. For the data center, time is profit and traffic is money. The data center must be kept running stably 365 days a year, with no or few failures. When the business department reports a fault, we should quickly locate the fault point according to the fault phenomenon reported, and then concentrate resources to solve it. This requires a lot of communication. Effective communication will save a lot of time for troubleshooting. Secondly, the operation and maintenance work should be bold and careful. Only with boldness can we innovate and take an unconventional path. Even if the data center is small, it has its own characteristics. Only by making full use of its advantages can the data center perform at its best. The data center is originally a field with rapid technological updates. Being willing to accept new things and boldly introducing advanced operation and maintenance technologies will greatly improve the work efficiency of the data center. Thirdly, we should do a good job in daily monitoring. A strong body cannot be separated from daily observation. We need to observe our data center at all times to see the small problems that occur in the data center. Every day, we should conduct a comprehensive inspection and record of all aspects of the operating parameters of the data center. Gradually, we will have a grasp of the operating status of the data center and take timely countermeasures when certain parameters change. For example, the CPU usage rate of the equipment operation. Usually, the CPU usage rate of all equipment is monitored at around 30%. Suddenly, one day, the CPU usage rate of several equipment rose to 60% for no reason. This requires further inspection of the cause of the increase until it is eliminated. Without these daily statistical records, such parameter changes will not attract people's attention, and failures will come sooner or later. Fourth, do a good job of statistics. A general data center has thousands of server devices and many other electronic devices, so statistics should be done well. For example, how many servers are there, where they are located, how they are interconnected with network devices, the configuration of each device, the characteristics of the application, etc. These statistical work cannot be sloppy, and they are related to the physical safety of hundreds of thousands of devices. The operation and maintenance personnel we come into contact with on weekdays make us feel that different people have very different understandings of their own data centers. Some people can blurt out what application a certain network segment IP is used for, while others have no idea which rack the server is placed on. When encountering problems or making changes to the data center, the latter's performance is obviously problematic. The best is to be proficient in at least one technology. The data center needs operation and maintenance personnel to be generalists, that is, they must understand a little bit of everything, but knowing a little bit is equivalent to not understanding anything, so they cannot gain a foothold in the data center. You also need to have your own areas of expertise, at least one field that you are proficient in and cannot be replaced by others. For example, you need to be proficient in the Linux operating system, network technology, security technology, etc., so that you can gain a foothold in the data center, and then expand into other fields, and eventually become an operation and maintenance talent with more comprehensive skills.

The work of data center operation and maintenance is not like other jobs, such as test engineers and R&D engineers, which have very clear responsibilities and career planning, and have a sense of professional identity and achievement. Operation and maintenance work may give people the feeling that they know a little about everything, but they are not as proficient as professional engineers in any aspect, and they will lose their direction slowly when working. In fact, operation and maintenance work also has its own characteristics, that is, there are opportunities to learn and contact technologies in all fields, and the depth of mastery mainly depends on the efforts of operation and maintenance personnel, and they can be proficient in multiple technical fields. The new generation of data centers has brought more challenges to operation and maintenance work, and has also made operation and maintenance a comprehensive technology integrating multiple disciplines, providing a good development space for personal ability and technical breadth, and the relevant experience of operation and maintenance work has become increasingly important. Precisely because of the wide range of operation and maintenance work, it is easy for operation and maintenance personnel to transfer to other positions without much limitation, and only operation and maintenance engineers have the opportunity to become system architects or operation and maintenance supervisors of data centers, and such career development prospects are also relatively good. Today's data centers have begun to pay attention to the improvement of operation and maintenance skills, and have attracted a large number of high-tech talents. The skill level of data center operation and maintenance personnel is constantly improving, and more and more high-tech talents will join the data center operation and maintenance team.

The stable operation of a data center is inseparable from the operation and maintenance personnel of the data center. The operation and maintenance of a data center involves all aspects. It is different from other operations and maintenance, and the problems it handles are relatively professional. In many companies, servers and equipment are hosted in a dedicated data center room for professional maintenance. Only some large companies with strong technical strength have their own data centers. Today's information technology is updated very quickly. New technologies such as big data, cloud computing, virtualization, and green data centers are emerging in an endless stream. The CPU, memory, and forwarding chips of various devices are also constantly developing. From single-core CPU to multi-core, quad-core, eight-core, sixteen-core, and thirty-two-core, the network single-port bandwidth has increased from 10M, 100M, 1G, 10G, and 100G. These technological advances have brought high-speed information processing capabilities to data centers, but they have also made the system of this data center extremely complex. Traditional data center operation and maintenance skills have been difficult to adapt to the needs of high-speed information development. We need to continue to learn and improve ourselves in order to carry out the operation and maintenance work well in the future data center. The following will combine some actual work experience to describe some methods to improve operation and maintenance skills.

The data center is a complex information processing system, including systems, networks, storage, protocols, requirements, development, testing, security, air conditioning, power supply, monitoring and other links. The work of operation and maintenance is to include all these aspects. It can be seen that the work of operation and maintenance is a position that integrates multiple IT skills. However, each part mentioned here requires the support of multiple technical disciplines. For example, the system may be Linux or Windows, and the applications may be LVS, HA, WebServer, DB, and middleware. The network is even more complicated, with various second and third layer protocols, virtualization, loop protocols, routing protocols, etc. It is impossible for everyone to be proficient in so many technologies. It is undeniable that there may be such people who are proficient in all aspects, but human energy is limited after all, and there must be gains and losses. The first is communication skills and teamwork. The work of operation and maintenance involves many cross-departmental and cross-job types. In this way, the operation and maintenance personnel need to be good at communication and have strong team agreement skills, so that when dealing with problems, they can fully call on various resources and technical forces to solve problems quickly. For the data center, time is profit and traffic is money. The data center must be kept running stably 365 days a year, with no or few failures. When the business department reports a fault, we should quickly locate the fault point according to the fault phenomenon reported, and then concentrate resources to solve it. This requires a lot of communication. Effective communication will save a lot of time for troubleshooting. Secondly, the operation and maintenance work should be bold and careful. Only with boldness can we innovate and take an unconventional path. Even if the data center is small, it has its own characteristics. Only by making full use of its advantages can the data center perform at its best. The data center is originally a field with rapid technological updates. Being willing to accept new things and boldly introducing advanced operation and maintenance technologies will greatly improve the work efficiency of the data center. Thirdly, we should do a good job in daily monitoring. A strong body cannot be separated from daily observation. We need to observe our data center at all times to see the small problems that occur in the data center. Every day, we should conduct a comprehensive inspection and record of all aspects of the operating parameters of the data center. Gradually, we will have a grasp of the operating status of the data center and take timely countermeasures when certain parameters change. For example, the CPU usage rate of the equipment operation. Usually, the CPU usage rate of all equipment is monitored at around 30%. Suddenly, one day, the CPU usage rate of several equipment rose to 60% for no reason. This requires further inspection of the cause of the increase until it is eliminated. Without these daily statistical records, such parameter changes will not attract people's attention, and failures will come sooner or later. Fourth, do a good job of statistics. A general data center has thousands of server devices and many other electronic devices, so statistics should be done well. For example, how many servers are there, where they are located, how they are interconnected with network devices, the configuration of each device, the characteristics of the application, etc. These statistical work cannot be sloppy, and they are related to the physical safety of hundreds of thousands of devices. The operation and maintenance personnel we come into contact with on weekdays make us feel that different people have very different understandings of their own data centers. Some people can blurt out what application a certain network segment IP is used for, while others have no idea which rack the server is placed on. When encountering problems or making changes to the data center, the latter's performance is obviously problematic. The best is to be proficient in at least one technology. The data center needs operation and maintenance personnel to be generalists, that is, they must understand a little bit of everything, but knowing a little bit is equivalent to not understanding anything, so they cannot gain a foothold in the data center. You also need to have your own areas of expertise, at least one field that you are proficient in and cannot be replaced by others. For example, you need to be proficient in the Linux operating system, network technology, security technology, etc., so that you can gain a foothold in the data center, and then expand into other fields, and eventually become an operation and maintenance talent with more comprehensive skills.

The work of data center operation and maintenance is not like other jobs, such as test engineers and R&D engineers, which have very clear responsibilities and career planning, and have a sense of professional identity and achievement. Operation and maintenance work may give people the feeling that they know a little about everything, but they are not as proficient as professional engineers in any aspect, and they will lose their direction slowly when working. In fact, operation and maintenance work also has its own characteristics, that is, there are opportunities to learn and contact technologies in all fields, and the depth of mastery mainly depends on the efforts of operation and maintenance personnel, and they can be proficient in multiple technical fields. The new generation of data centers has brought more challenges to operation and maintenance work, and has also made operation and maintenance a comprehensive technology integrating multiple disciplines, providing a good development space for personal ability and technical breadth, and the relevant experience of operation and maintenance work has become increasingly important. Precisely because of the wide range of operation and maintenance work, it is easy for operation and maintenance personnel to transfer to other positions without much limitation, and only operation and maintenance engineers have the opportunity to become system architects or operation and maintenance supervisors of data centers, and such career development prospects are also relatively good. Today's data centers have begun to pay attention to the improvement of operation and maintenance skills, and have attracted a large number of high-tech talents. The skill level of data center operation and maintenance personnel is constantly improving, and more and more high-tech talents will join the data center operation and maintenance team.