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I was reading the submissions for LOPSA's SysAdminDay contest earlier this morning, and it got me to thinking. Each of the entries has a slightly different viewpoint on what being a systems administrator is. This might, in a nutshell, be a microcosm of LOPSA's biggest problem — I'm not sure we really know what a sysadmin is or we as an organization want to be when we grow up.
Being a systems administrator can mean many different things depending on your position and your experience. You might be working with hardware, managing applications or even writing code. The operating system you use and whether you work with systems, storage or networking isn't what makes you a sysadmin; those are just the tools of the trade. It's the way you approach the work that makes you a sysadmin. At its heart being a sysadmin comes down to creating an environment where the people you work with and the company you work for can all do their work without needing to know you exist.
Anyone who knows me has heard me say some variation of the following: I believe that the best sysadmins are people who are both curious and lazy. The person who logs into a system and runs the same script every days isn't a syadmin. A sysadmin would be curious enough(and lazy enough) to find a way to automate that task so they never had to do it a second time. When we need to change the root password on 200 servers we aren't going to log into each one, we are going to find a solution that does it for us.
The thing that most amazes me about the system administrator community is the variety our skills and backgrounds. We have approached the field from many different background and career paths, but we all have the same goal — to make things work and to keep them working.
As this is my last column as LOPSA's President I want to leave you with some parting thoughts on what I believe LOPSA could become.
With enough effort, LOPSA could (and should) be the organization that answers the question implied above — "What is a systems administrator?" It should be the "go to" place to not only find the answer to that question, but also to find resources to learn how to become one and if you already are one to become a better one.
I would love to see some of the following available from LOPSA's web site::
- recommendations on best practices in the industry
- peer-reviews of sysadmin-related tools and solutions
- educational resources for learning about systems administration and advancing systems administration skills
- a place to foster communication and community among sysadmins
LOPSA needs to take the lead to fulfil its mission to "advance the practice of system administration." It cannot survive without becoming the leader in defining the profession and providing valuable resources to its members.