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'rockstar sysadmin' - Seems like a bit of a contradiction to me. A sysadmin is supposed to be the cool head in a crisis who set things up so that even in extrem

by olefoo 17y ago

'rockstar sysadmin' - Seems like a bit of a contradiction to me. A sysadmin is supposed to be the cool head in a crisis who set things up so that even in extreme circumstances the systems are still functional. And yet able to improvise effectively when the circumstances require it. If you're looking for cultural icons, sysadmins are more like Scotty or McGyver than they are like Mick jagger or Gwen Stefani.

silentbicycle 17y ago
Yeah. Nobody wants a Shane MacGowan sysadmin.
nailer 17y ago
As well as 'the cool head', they're also the guy that automates the shit out of everything - OS installs, software deploys, reporting, monitoring, etc. Ideally, most sysadmin work should be automation rather than fixing shit, because you've automated some kind of pre-emptive check and redundancy. Anything that saves a bucketload of time for other people deserves rockstar-like adoration, in my humble opinion.
- olefoo 17y ago
  That's exactly right. Automation raises the value of a system administrator, it's a multiplier whereby one man can do the work of dozens. Optimization and performance tuning is another multiplier, if you can tweak a set of application servers to serve twice as many sessions you've just doubled the number of visitors you can serve before you need to buy more machinery, or cut your hosting costs in half if you're running on third-party equipment.
ax0n 17y ago
I don't mean it like that. I think you're probably being silly and/or missing the point. I should have probably said "the best sysadmins." I'm talking about the ones who make magic happen on a regular basis. The go-to guys of the department. There are certain levels of sysadmins whom you can find who may not know your company's particular flavor of Linux that will still pick it up quickly because they grok the entirety of the "unix" mindset. It's difficult to grok the entirety of that mindset, however, with experience in only a handful of Linux distributions. I've worked with a few folks like this, and they aren't hamfisted, show-off rebels like a rock star. They are elegant, precise and quick. Like a rock star.

by olefoo 17y ago

silentbicycle 17y ago

Yeah. Nobody wants a Shane MacGowan sysadmin.

nailer 17y ago

As well as 'the cool head', they're also the guy that automates the shit out of everything - OS installs, software deploys, reporting, monitoring, etc. Ideally, most sysadmin work should be automation rather than fixing shit, because you've automated some kind of pre-emptive check and redundancy. Anything that saves a bucketload of time for other people deserves rockstar-like adoration, in my humble opinion.

olefoo 17y ago
That's exactly right. Automation raises the value of a system administrator, it's a multiplier whereby one man can do the work of dozens. Optimization and performance tuning is another multiplier, if you can tweak a set of application servers to serve twice as many sessions you've just doubled the number of visitors you can serve before you need to buy more machinery, or cut your hosting costs in half if you're running on third-party equipment.

ax0n 17y ago

I don't mean it like that. I think you're probably being silly and/or missing the point. I should have probably said "the best sysadmins." I'm talking about the ones who make magic happen on a regular basis. The go-to guys of the department. There are certain levels of sysadmins whom you can find who may not know your company's particular flavor of Linux that will still pick it up quickly because they grok the entirety of the "unix" mindset. It's difficult to grok the entirety of that mindset, however, with experience in only a handful of Linux distributions. I've worked with a few folks like this, and they aren't hamfisted, show-off rebels like a rock star. They are elegant, precise and quick. Like a rock star.