[LINK] Roles and Responsibilities of System Administrators

Darrell Burkey president at case.org.au
Thu Sep 13 14:04:18 AEST 2012


----- Original Message -----

> I have been a Sysadmin for <some_uni> since about 1995.   I have
> noticed that the job has changed a lot, at least for me.  The most noticable
> things about the change for me can be lumped into 3 or 4 categories.

Thanks for taking the time to write this very useful post. I have just left the ANU, where I was hired as a Unix Sys Admin, for the very reasons you have outlined. There appears to be little to no understanding of what Sys Admin provides and how much money it can save an organisation. 

Instead they buy it from outside and hire cheaper Windows techos to click icons. I thought that a Uni would be the last place that such a thing would happen but once Microsoft fooled everyone in to thinking you had to have Active Directory they started putting in multiples of Windows servers to replace what one Unix box was doing much better. And you get to pay for that. 

In the case of the ANU, it's especially difficult to watch given it's the birthplace of SAMBA. Not to mention SAMBA 4 can do what AD does better than AD does. But if it's not Windows, they don't care. Ignorance is bliss I guess. 

Don't forget to look at the great Sys Admin books by Tom Limoncelli 
http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-Edition/dp/0321492668. 


Cheers.




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