On Thu, 4 Jul 2013, Joseph Kern wrote:
I guess we could start by asking something like this: "What is a System
Administrator not responsible for?" and working backwards.
I have long defined a system administration as:
"Precisely those activities necessary for the correct functioning of a
computer system that the system cannot do for itself".
There are several implications to this definition:
* The activities that constitute system administration change over time,
which has certainly been my experience
* Taken broadly this definition can encompass areas like architecture and
design, since these tasks are necessary for the correct functioning of
a computer system (the design doesn't need to be formal though)
Anyway, I'm firmly in the camp that the profession missed an opportunity
to lead the way in an expanding industry. The definiton of sysadmin has
narrowed - the position of senior sysadmin once covered areas like
architecture but no more.
We, as experienced sysadmins and operational specialists can still take
the lead and teach good practices. Every day I see people try to do
operational work (including system design, etc) badly because they haven't
engaged with the community and thus miss out on benefitting from the
decades of experience and knowledge that the community collectively
possesses. Sites that will tell you how to fix technical problems are
common, but must less is said about how to maintain and operate systems
and networks.
I've had a wiki for a few years where I've been recording technical and
operational information. Some pages are nothing more than notes while
others are fairly complete. I recently rebranded it from
practicalsysadmin.com to http://pracops.com to reflect my belief that the
term sysadmin doesn't mean what it once did.
Anyway, I'm hoping that pracops.com could be turned in to a central
repository of operational knowledge and experience. I was going to post
out to various sysadmin lists in the near future but now is as good a time
as any to mention it. Shortly I'll be upgrading the underlying OS and
mediawiki version and allowing account creation.
Cheers,
Rob
--
Email: [email protected] Linux counter ID #16440
IRC: Solver (OFTC & Freenode)
Web: http://www.pracops.com
Director, Software in the Public Interest (http://spi-inc.org/)
Information is a gas
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