I'm a
SysAdmin by
trade. Also know as:
the boss,
network administrator, head
hacker, the
computer guy (my personal favorite),
systems administrator, primary contact, or
Dad, to name a few titles.
My
job has a few functions: 1) Fix whatever
computer or
network system in our
corporation that is broken ASAP. 2) If
everything is working, go out and find other people's
broken computers or
network systems and fix those. 3) If everybody's
computers and
networks are working, then build all new things for people to play with and break.
So needless to say, I spend a lot of time at
odd hours of the night, dealing with
computers and
networks and the
users who run them.
Being a
SysAdmin is a lot of work. Often 6 and 7 days a week, 8-14 hours a day. There is a lot to take care of, more than meets the eye when you jump in. There are emotional humps to get over (like dealing with your
panic and other people's
stress.) Many books and online articles.
Realtime bug tracking via email. People who think you are a hero, and people who think you are a villian. Late nights. Early mornings. Real early mornings.... Seminars on everything you can put electricity or light through.
The
Internet seems to be an especially emotional topic for people. If the
network becomes unavailable through any number of unknown forces (weather,
hackers, telco problems, power outages, user errors, incorrect configurations, corrupted files,
Microsoft software, viruses,
trojans, unpaid bills, dead modems,
Packard Bells.... I could go on and on and on), many users will immediately call and gripe out the
sysadmin because their
Microsoft is broke. This syndrome is often a source of frustration with
sysadmins whose job it is to keep all the network systems running in smooth harmony in the too short 24 hrs a day we are given to keep it going. We want it up more that anybody else, and the not so gentle reminders by users that they would like it up too is not always fun.
Fear not though, for most good
sysadmins get thick skinned about such things and are able to achieve the state of
sysadmin cool, where users comments are duly noted, but the emotions tied to the statements are washed away. We are able to put aside the
panic of people in a
network crisis or
hard drive failure, and get down to the business of solving the problem at hand. This is MANDATORY to being a good sysadmin. A
computer,
network device, or any other kind of machine for that matter is just that: a
machine. It must be treated like one. A machine does not respond to yelling, pleading, ranting, raving, or crying. You must be above all that and use logic to find the problem and solve it. In the end, this makes the users happy with you too, even if they don't understand
I think to be a good
sysadmin, you've gotta love what you are doing. I love fixing things for people. They are very happy to be able to get on with their electronic lives usually. I am awed by the unbridled and still infantile power of the Internet. I am awed by the power that has been bestowed upon me over the Internet and our company's computers and networks. I am amazed by the number of servers, hard drives,
PDAs, network cables, fiber optics, that are online 24/7, creating a world much larger than the beige boxes that contain them. I plug people in everyday. Some might say I am enslaving them to a chair in front of a monitor, but I feel like I am freeing people's minds. I glory in the power we have to shape our electronic future. I firmly believe we have not yet even conceived the full immensity of what we are creating today.
Everything2 is a good example. This
database defies definition even. It's difficult to describe how we, as people, are interacting here inside this thing that has been built to take our thoughts and database them.
Being a
SysAdmin is a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Seems to be full of big rewards and major crisis. I'm not
bored. I drink a lot of
coffee. I love my job except when I hate it.