what does a system administrator do?

[Sy]

On 4/21/05, Franco Saliola <saliola-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 
> What should a system administrator be doing? Or what is expected of a
> system administrator?
> 

All I can say on this is that I have had some sysadmin friends (I
wouldn't qualify as one, but I've sat in that chair..).  A few things
come to mind:

1)
Keep the setup fresh in your mind and seize opportunities to improve
it.  Tinker with new ideas and technologies.  Hopefully it's part of
your hobby so it'll be fun, but it's important to be "in touch" so
your abilities on the job continually improve.

2)
Ensure the general safety and health of the system now, so that later
on your "emergencies" will be things you planned for.  Go over
backups, logs and such.  Try to link this chore with the exploration
in #1 to keep it fun.

3)
Always have something on your plate so you can "seem busy".  Even if
you're just hacking around with a backup script you've been interested
in.  Be willing to drop what you're doing to help someone else.  Be
willing to walk around and be enthusiastic about "face-time".


Now.. I'm not a sysadmin, but I've known a few.  Because I'm generally
interested, I've paid attention to their mistakes.  It's one of the
ways I try to learn.

In particular, I got the job I have because the "sysadmin-type" guy
failed at his, and because I exploited an understanding of the way my
work environment works.  Anyone who came to the last meeting may have
noted that my comments suggested awareness of this. (part of the
junior guy vs senior guy discussion -- juniors working hard because
they're thown into the fire.. they're paid less, etc)

While the senior in question may have been legitimately exploring and
playing around, it wasn't close enough to home.. it wasn't quite
"topical".  So his non-topic exploration wasn't something that he
could be proudly tinkering with when the boss drops by to ask what
he's up to.

Now to you and I, even something peripherally interesting is still
valuable effort for our techniness.  Heck, even reading a forum may be
way more valuable to us than the boss could understand.

The boss wanted to see effort without having to learn the entire role
to understand the underlying value.  He didn't really care why and
how.. he just wanted to know that his money wasn't being spent on
someone sitting around "doing nothing".

For #1 he wasn't on-topic with his hobbyest-style meandering.
For #2 he wasn't aggressively seeking improvements to the existing system.
For #3 he didn't understand the value of dropping everything to handle
someone else's "emergency".

I've learned that I can be perceived as something of a guru simply
because I'm generally interested.. and while I always have *something*
to do (.. even reading email intently counts, although I have other
tasks to swap around to if I need to maintain another appearance)..
while I always have something to do I'm willing to dump it to help
another.

--

Ok, so that's a nice story.  I'll try to make it relevant now.  What I
believe an admin ought to be doing is generally fiddling in their
spare time.  I define spare time as the time "between people".  This
is the time when you play with logs, deal with backups.. break apart
computers and such.  Keep busy even with little things.. have more
than one task to switch between so you're never bored or out of things
to do.  This helps you when critical things happen, because you've
probably already idly played with all kinds of things related to the
problem.

That spirit of fiddling helps you be perceived as hard-working and
effortful.  When someone looks at you, you're always working on
something.. something beyond their understanding probably, and so a
respectful air will surround you.

When a person drops in, pause for a moment to dump all non-critical
tasks (i.e. your spare time stuff) and be willing to help them.  There
is a socialness to this, where you are seen as enthusiastic to be
helpful.  This is important for your perception.  Try not to receive
people interrupting you with too grumpy an outlook.. I've been bit by
that one, people get very scared to "bother" you, and boss-types will
not look kindly at your being difficult at what they see as your
primary role.

Of course it's not a real problem to drop things to help someone.. but
in their eyes you're doing them a favour because they noticed that you
had things to do.  This is an interesting thing I've noticed.. where
there is a balance between eagerness and busyness.  You'll inevitably
have to take a moment to pause what you were doing, collect your
thoughts or write a quick note.. and this will further develop the
(true!) notion that you were doing something important.

Helping others perceive that you are doing legitimate work is
important.. because when you really are doing something critical, and
sometimes that's a hush-hush critical thing (i.e. from a flub that you
are hastily fixing) then you really do need to be able to take some
time to finish things off before you rush to their "emergency".

So this is a bit of the philosophy and psychology of what I've
learned.  I've found that there's a kind of work ethic and mystique
which work well together.


The work ethic means that your spare time is always productive and
rewarding.  You get to research and tinker as well as legitimately
improve random nearby things.

The social element means that you get to broaden your circle of
contacts and have rewarding face time with all kinds of people who
will end up really liking you for what they perceive as value in your
effort.


---

Pardon the rant.. but that stuff's been on my mind for a couple of
years now.  Again, I'm not an admin.. I just play one at work.  It's
small business full of hopelessly non-tech types.  There are even some
"techs" but.. uh.. we stuck them in sales and marketing, and it turns
out that I'm several orders more tech than they, and they like it that
way.  Everyone wants to perceive me as being better than them in order
to offload the burden of worrying about tech crap.

Of course, things are getting wierd because we now have two other tech
types who I like a lot.. and we're now drawing our various borders so
we can have specialties between us.  It's working out surprisingly
well, thanks to a fairly functional company culture.

Honestly, I'm a tech in denial.
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