Here is the most important thing that all, new and old *nix/BSD admins should know about administering a machine remotely:

Always run any important administrative operations in a screen session.

Always run any important administrative operations in a screen session.

Always run any important administrative operations in a screen session.

You’re bound to lose internet at the most critical time.

Like when your BSD shell is sitting in vi waiting for you to manually merge in some changes.

Or when you’re arch package upgrades happen to make a destructive change that requires confirmation, but you weren’t paying attention.

Or you’re 4 hours into a huge build and the coffee shop is closing.

Get in the habit of doing screen -D -R any time you log in remotely and want to do administrative work. Put it on a sticky note next to your monitor. You will thank me later.

If you don’t know what screen is, just spend a few minutes learning it, even if you usually use tmux. It’s sort of like vi: the machine you’re working with probably has it by default, unlike tmux (maybe). The sixty seconds it takes to learn the basics are worth it.