Life in the Trenches: a Sysadmin Speaks 219
Anonymous Coward writes "A senior systems administrator at a big ISP in Australia offers
a no-nonsense view about his line of work, the pros and the cons, ths ups and the downs."
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Life in the Trenches: a Sysadmin Speaks
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Re:Crap... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having said that, logging in from a cyber cafe? Speaking as a former sysadmin of one of those self-same cafes, this made me shudder. Even if he's using something secure, I've often found keystroke loggers on machines (amongst other stuff), and he's risking some serious compromising.
"strong experienced based opinions" is crap
That's your strong, experience-based opinion, is it?
Aptitude!? (Score:2, Interesting)
In rough order of importance:
Aptitude.
...
Is it just me, or is that a somewhat circular choice for first on the list? What IS aptitude, but the qualities essential for the purpose?
Sysadmins are different all over (Score:4, Interesting)
I also fully agree that when you're on vacation, if your underlings can't keep the ship together, you're not doing a very good job.
What he doesn't hit on very well in his preachy missive is the importance of diplomacy. I work in a big enough operation that I don't even deal with the end-customers, we have an application support team for that. This means that (a) the problems are reduced, since I only have to worry about a handful of real "users" who can damage the systems and (b) the problems are greater, because those guys are vastly better at really kicking the legs out from under my boxes! So it's mightily important to always touch base with the application support teams, and keep a continuous stream of communication up. It's easy to lose that, especially in a giant operation, especially when your specialty is copping an attitude.
And finally: Why do so many sysadmins dedicate their lives to looking like freaks? Find a shower, a razor, a comb, and use them, people!
Dream Sysadmin Job? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't have much to complain about
HUH!? I'm gonna go out on a limb here using my expereince and the people I know and say this is the exception and not the norm... Is this guy for real? Every sysadmin professional I know complains about the users, the hours, the pay and their job security. And what's this Telecommuniting BS? 70% of the time he was able to stay at home? Am I missing something here? This does NOT sound like the average Sysadmin Job I've come to know. Most employers are too damn anal for that to occure, even if you could effectively...
Jeez... I must be missing something here... Talk about a raw deal...
Re:I'd only disagree to the extent that. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
> between the machines and the people.
In larger installations users usually don't contact sysadmins directly. Instead, they call a "helpdesk" person who uses uses tools (mostly written by the sysadmins) to fix routine issues. Unresolvable issues are escalated upto the sysadmin.
It's usually like this with ISPs (where the sysadmin mentioned in this article works). Users (i.e. subscribers) calling about technical issues usually speak to a tech-support/helpdesk person; and not a system administator.
Re:problem solving skills? (Score:3, Interesting)
These people tend to make good admins creating accounts, setting permissions, things that involve following the rules. The SA's good at problem sovling tend to get boring with rote work like this and make simple mistakes. But the paper-cert people are good at learning and following procedures.
The trouble is the good SysAdmin usually like their work and not interested in becoming managers. The paper-cert people its their only way to make more money so you get these idiots trying to manage creative people. Not good.
I agree with the article (Score:2, Interesting)
First, the cons.
The biggest con is working with management such as micromanaging your job such as dictating the directory name. An example is a software package is installed called Test Expert. Mgt decrees the path name is "/opt/testexpert" and I want to use the path name "/opt/texp" which makes it easier for the users to type
Having to deal with paperwork related to inventory, ordering software, budgets which that should be dealt with by managment.
Having to do Configuration Mgt which means a lot of reports which is not technical but in the language understood by accountants and marketing
Now, the pro's
Instant gratification. When you make a change, you know immediately if it works or not.
Working independently
As long as the machines work and there is no outstanding work, there is time to surf the 'Net :)
Possibility to telecommute but the company I work for, telecommuting has been taken away due to the downturn of the economy
Experimenting with different setups which eventually gets used by the company
Neat Side-Affect of the /. Effect (Score:3, Interesting)
At last, a beneficial use of the