

Happy Sysadmin Day - kia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysadmin_Day

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pseudonym
To all of the sysadmins that look at server access logs, see requests to
"news.ycombinator.com", and, instead of adding a block rule, just smile and
nod knowingly:

This one's for you.

~~~
cmurdock
If they blocked Hacker News or Reddit at work, I would be one unhappy
employee.

~~~
pavel_lishin
If they blocked Hacker News or Reddit at work, I would be an employee who sets
up an SSH tunnel.

~~~
cmurdock
SSH tunnels are a quick way to get fired here.

~~~
pseudonym
That's why I always had my SSH running on port 443.

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ez77
Hey sysadmins, how did you get there? Are there books, articles, blogs, etc.
that helped you significantly? (Frisch's classic comes to mind.) Or is the
skill 90% about getting your hands dirty? But then again, how did you go from
sandboxed sysadmin to your first real, critical job?

Today is your day. Please write away!

~~~
jrussbowman
Learn to hack on the OS of your choice. Make sure it's fun to you first.

Next, get a job as helpdesk. Go through the pain of being the first person
people talk to when stuff it broke. Try to fix it. Always try to fix it before
you escalate. Preferably you get this job a mid-size company where you can
have the opportunity to get to know the staff in general. Single office, walk
around it once a day just saying hi to everyone.

Eventually they'll start to wait for you to make your rounds to get help.
You're building relationships.

Get to know the maintenance and security guys in your building. These people
need to be your friend. Your systems don't run without power, and you need to
be able to get to consoles.

Watch for and take opportunities to get into a sysadmin position. Now, working
on the trade skill of being lazy. Every task you do, think about how you can
automate it. That's one of the real arts to being a sysadmin, if you have a
lot of work that keeps you busy, how are you going to have time to respond to
problems.

By taking this route though, you've built up one of the 4 skills I think you
need to be a good sysadmin. People skills. Remember, by the time someone has
to talk to you they've already had to deal with at least one other person who
could not fix their problem. The rest of the skills you get from experience as
a sysadmin. Scripting, documenting, creating DR scenarios and such... it's a
never ending learning opportunity. If you've learned all there is to learn
where you're at, then it's time to move on, unless you just really like it
there. As often as not the latter is the case and that's not a bad thing as
long as it pays the bills.

The one thing I always tell people who ask me to explain being a sysadmin to
them is this. It's a service oriented position. The employees are your
customers. The business is your customer. Your boss is your customer. You will
hit a point where you think there is a technical answer to everything and you
know better than them. You don't. It's not your job to make technology changes
to change everything and make it easier. It's your job to implement and
maintain what the business users feel they need to use to get their job done.
Their positions make money for the organization you work for, your department
is nothing but cost. Remember that and you can save yourself a lot of
frustration.

Oh... and go home and build yourself a nice home network. This is a job where
you take mental tasks home with you, having a place to play is helpful. Also
helpful for job interviews.

~~~
doron
Also take note: Vendors often lie.

~~~
skorgu
All vendors lie, some vendors lie compulsively. If certain vendors told me the
sky was blue I would go out and check.

~~~
jrussbowman
Ah, another tip. Learn the phrase "it is what it is". It's the answer to
everything from lieing vendors to incredibly poor implementations. If you can
learnt to accept bad software, implement it in a way it's not going to break
the bank to support and move on, you'll find yourself avoiding the path to the
"grumpy SA".

------
Zakuzaa
Raising a toast to the sleepless nights when I tried becoming a Sysadmin and
failed beautifully.

------
ez77
'Official' website: <http://www.sysadminday.com/>

It may have had something to do with the creation of Sysadmin Day, as it
predates the first (2000) edition. From whois:

    
    
      Creation Date: 09-may-2000

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zwieback
Sadly all of our sysadmins have been moved off site and across the country
(actually, most of them decided not to move to Texas and quit instead). I'm
thinking of them today but don't ever meet them or know what they look like.

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lightweb
Here's to working 4 days in a row, sleeping behind server racks, bathing in
bathroom sinks, and all those bags of potato chips and caffeinated soft
drinks!

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xradionut
I thanked the sysadmin crew at the office yesterday and took today off. :) Did
the full-bore admin for 10 years before I got burned out and shifted to
development. Still am part of the informal team that assist with various
scripting, monitoring, etc... Work wants another DBA, so I may have to buy
some more caffeine and lube to gain the bigger check.

------
doron
For the sense of duty that keeps all of it,ON. <http://xkcd.com/705/>

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__mark
Hey sysadmins, stay awesome.

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zemanel
Happy Sysadmin Day.

p.s.: stop reading our mail :)

