Taking Over System administrator role

Hi,

I am taking over another company system administration of 10 servers in about a month time.

I am given a chance to ask the outgoing system administration any questions relating to the handover.

I would like to ask what are the question that I should pose regarding taking over his system administrating duties (like server setup etc).

Thanks for your help in advance.

Why don't you have him type up all the information that "He" feels you will need to know?

The first thing you should find out, is the software that each server is running.
The next thing would be how is the network setup, firewalls, vpn's, dhcp or static, etc. etc.

Probably the most important thing to ask though, is the usernames and passwords that you will need to administer this network. I mean, if I were to type everything that you should ask him, I'd be here for a week.

Basically, ask him what he feels you need to know

Thanks for the prompt reply.
I was thinking of a basic checklist, it is my feel that there are some hidden things that will not be reveal. I do not want to probe too deep into detail but yet I want it to be professional (in case I offend him/her).
I have manage to draft out some based on the reply.
If you have more information, please let me know. Thanks.

make sure to find out if there's any back doors so you can lock them out or change them. You don't want a disgruntled ex-admin raising havock with your network. To be honest, I would seriously think about changing alot of the settings to your liking, which will make it more secure as well. I guess it all depends on the terms you are inheriting this network. If it's on bad terms, then I would change a lot of things.... for instance, if the gateway is 192.168.1.1, you might change the network over to 10.10.1.1 for the gateway, and change the statics/dynamics to suit. You would also want to change usernames and passwords..... I guess the first question is, what kind of network are you taking over? Domain server? Workgroup? Is it even Windows? It would be difficult to point you in the right direction without knowing what you're working with.