Life as a System Admin...

Hi there,

I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?

Any ideas/comments is useful.

Cheers

Newaccttt wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?
>
> Any ideas/comments is useful.

Sysadmins are not allowed to have a life. ;-)

In comp.os.linux.networking James Knott <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: Newaccttt wrote:

:> Hi there,
:>
:> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
:> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
:> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?
:>
:> Any ideas/comments is useful.

: Sysadmins are not allowed to have a life. ;-)

we wouldn't know what to do with one anyway.... :^)

--
Barry Keeney
Chaos Consulting
email barryk<at>chaoscon.com

"Rap is Square Dancing gone terribly, terribly Wrong...."

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.admin.]
On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 01:19:15 +1100, Newaccttt
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?
>
> Any ideas/comments is useful.
>
> Cheers

Ater you've been one for a while, you'll want to join the scary devil
monastery.

--
"How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?" And that's the headline in
Britain, our closest ally. But here in America, as long as you-know-who
is president, we don't give a $%&# what the rest of the world thinks.

Newaccttt wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?
>
> Any ideas/comments is useful.
>
> Cheers
Sorry, don't have time to answer.... pager is going off and cell phone
is ringing.... so much for that vacation.

S.

--


--> GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 01:19:15 +1100, Newaccttt wrote:
> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?

I think it depends on the shop. I have managed a 7x24 operation
(computerized weather data feeds to media clients), and when we did the
calculations it turns out that you really need 5 FTE (full-time employees)
to cover staggered shifts, weekends, vacations, sick days, etc. OTOH, I
have heard of shops that have only one sysadmin with a pager "surgically
implanted" (just a joke... I hope?). If there are ANY (persistent)
problems, that poor fellow will soon become suicidal. It probably depends
on how active/chaotic the operation happens to be. Are they doing heavy
development and/or modifications? Growing and/or expanding?

For a small mom/pop business that runs a few machines (not 7x24 with
99.999% availability, or anything "silly") then you could probably get by
with one solid sysadmin, with a "deputy". Plan to spend some extra $ on HA
(cluster, RAID) and automation (tape libraries), and bonus(es?)! YMMV!

BTW, if you're in a large shop, and the lowest on the totem pole, you
might end up getting lots of night shifts or weekends to work. That can
isolate you from (some) humanity. You might have to hang out with shift
workers, or get used to solitary "quiet, personal time" (i.e. read, learn).

FWIW, if you're going to do the "isolation" thing, you might as well make
it worthwhile: find a job somewhere remote, so you get high (isolation)
pay. Sometimes there is danger associated (danger pay?). Choose priorities.

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

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While drooling on their shoelaces, Bill Marcum spouted:
> ["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.admin.]
> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 01:19:15 +1100, Newaccttt
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I want to know what its like being a Systems admin, from your experience
>> can you tell me if it is worth doing it? Does it disconnect you from the
>> society or anything like that? Is it enjoyable?
>>
>> Any ideas/comments is useful.
>>
>> Cheers
>
> Ater you've been one for a while, you'll want to join the scary devil
> monastery.
>

Aye - it can drive you over the edge if you're not careful. I've
only been doing it for about five years now, first as the sole admin
at a Linux-based ISP, now as a student admin (still the sole admin)
for Electronic Student Services here at ASU. I've had a great time
doing it and I'm hoping I can continue doing it after graduation,
even if it means keeping my student wage rate. I don't do it for the
money ($DEITY knows that most small time admins don't make anything,
much less admins for small departments in small universities), I
just enjoy it. The comp sci degree is probably worth more than what
I'll do with it, but if you're happy with what you're doing then no
worries, right?

Does it disconnect you from society....no, I don't think so. It's a
job, it's something you do eight or ten hours a day, give or take.
You still have a life outside of work, or at least I always have. A
lot of that has to do with who you work for, though.

- --
Kevin Wilcox
President, Appalachian Linux Users Group
alug.appstate.edu
Registered Linux User 229008
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yes, you can have your social life, but for many of your users you
will look like a sort of strange wizard, eventually evil and dark..

Users don't use to understand what are the basis of the system they
work with, so they will always and forever come to you asking such
incredible or totally silly things that you can't guess untill you
try!

sysadmin is a person who knows a terrible language, spoken by and with the shell..