Greetings. thanks to Aaron for asking me to be a guest blogger here at Technosailor. I hope you enjoy.

Foreward
I’ve been pondering the question of who the Systems Administrator works for. Sure, there’s the guy(or girl) who puts his name on your paycheck, but I think there are more complex issues at work in the grand scheme of systems work. The Systems Admin has to be technologist, architect, researcher, and politician, and sometimes it is difficult to marry those items into the homogenous blob we refer to as systems administration. However, I think you can synthesize these job roles into a service of three fundamental groups of customers.

1. Users
2. Machines
3. Yourself

Serving the user, or, Customer service

Obviously, you and your keep are there for the service of the user. they are the end-all be-all of the existence of the machines under your care. Oftentimes, however, you’ll find that systems folk become grizzled, hardened malcontents that you rue visiting or communicating with. This is generally due to a marketing department continually promising what is not only technologically impossible(and places an undue strain on the Systems people on staff), management who don’t understand the job and ask for impossible requests, or even coworkers who don’t care to do the work they’re being paid for and thus it gets piled on the most technically astute person in the group.

A systems admin can prevent being sandwiched into this position by using a three-pronged system, Communication, Documentation, and Perseverance.

Communication:
Absolutely everything you tell someone, no matter how technologically astute they are, or how friendly they seem to be should be followed up by a recap email of your conversation with a CC: to yours and his manager. This does two things. First, it shows respect to your manager, that he be included on all project emails regarding how you’re being tasked. It helps also when you go for a raise, or another employee to help you, that you have a written record of your workload. Second, it helps in the following point, documentation.

Another dynamic of communication for you can be found in just walking your “beat”. I’ve found great strides in just passing through areas where my users are seated. I talk to no one (unless stopped), and just pass through the various areas. the feeling of general well-being this fosters, that you are there and on the job does worlds of good. the users can feel satisfied that if they ever *do* have an issue, their admin is there to take care of them. Touchy-feely goes a loooong way in having happy users.

Documentation:
In the 13 or so years I’ve been doing UNIX (and the 17 I’ve been doing computer work), I’ve found that a saved conversation, task list, emails, project plans, etc. can prevent hard feelings and miscommunicated job reqs. every time. For instance, My email box at my previous position was over 400M. And that was PRUNED!! I save absolutely everything, and it is clear to me that has saved potential misunderstandings countless times. I also document everything I receive during a meeting, and reply to meeting attendees a summary of my notes, and ask if I’ve missed anything.

Perseverance:
Finally, I stay resolute. On preparation for, execution of, and post-mortem to projects, I persevere to see that task completed to the best of my ability. The users are the end-all of this part of your service.

The Machines

The machines are my customer?!?!

Certainly. While inanimate, the machines “count” on several things to happen. They count on a competent administrator to keep a watchful eye on them…to keep disk space allotments in check. they count on you to properly plan for the future, that you don’t begin to run out of resources, but properly add resources before they are needed by the system. they also count on you to keep a routine maintenance schedule, monitor their activity, adequately maintain security, and a whole host of other important details.

Many times, the need of the machine will outweigh the need of customer #1, the User.

You sometimes need to temper the needs of user #1 with the needs of user #2. Does that DBA really need all that extra space, when he can clean up 7 copies of the Oracle installation image strewn about his instances all over the network? Can you better facilitate releasing space by making a single, NFS-mountable image on a centrally-located share on high-performance drives, thus freeing currently wasted space?

On occasion, you’ll get new employees that are used to having elevated privileges on the systems at their former employer. Sometimes this is a good idea, and sometimes not. (I’ll cover the different types of users, and whether they deserve admin privileges at a later date) This is a matter in the best interest of the machine. Every Joe-user that comes along doesn’t need access at the highest levels of the machine’s security structure. And as protector and keeper of the machine, it is your responsibility to dole out those privileges responsibly.

In this, you’ll find the most resistance, the most yelling and shouting, and the most arrogance. “Who are you to decide I don’t need that access?” “How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do.” This type of user has had success beating an admin into submission before, and is trying it on you. NEVER give in to this user. Make sure you have your boss’s support on this, but this user (based on his attitude alone) should never be allowed to violate the 2nd user’s rights. After all, their mistake with admin level privileges, bringing down a production system in a hospital setting (for instance) can ultimately lead to a person’s death, given the appropriate extreme circumstance.

Yourself

Yes, you. you are indeed your own customer as well.

Many times, you will be called upon to supercede the needs of users #1 AND #2 for the sake of your own reputation. I have had situations where auditors have come into an organization, wanting complete and total root-level access to all machines (both regulated {HIPAA} and not). I patently refused to pass that information on.

Imagine the detriment to your organization if private patient information found it’s way to the Internet. If on your watch, and you’re the admin personally responsible for the security of the machines, your name becomes associated with this gaffe, no matter how far removed from it or forced into it you were. In situations of an extreme nature such as this, you’re your own customer. you have to decide what is best for your personal reputation.

Another example is when you’re on-call 24×7 over a period of months or years, and your health begins to suffer from lack of appropriate sleep and/or nourishment. There is a point where you have to say “Stop”. No job, salary, or political position is worth your health and welfare. Imagine your family having to move on without you because you’re dead from a heart-attack brought on by hypertension and fatigue. Granted, these examples are extreme, but they do exist.

Conclusion:

Obviously, the above can be a serious balancing act. Balancing your three customers’ needs against each other can be trying at times, and a pleasure at others. Just like any other position, though, you need to have a clearly defined set of values associated with your administration practices. Once clearly defined, unless management requires some tweaking of those values, you stick strictly by them, and do not waver. Even though heat will be brought to bear on you from time to time, you will gain the respect and admiration of your users, take the load off yourself, and have happy machines that serve you and your organization very well for many years.

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