Home > Data Center Tips > > What are the top skills for systems administrators?
Data Center Tips:
EMAIL THIS
 TIPS & NEWSLETTERS TOPICS 


What are the top skills for systems administrators?


David Douhitt, Contributor
03.13.2008
Rating: -4.40- (out of 5)


IT infrastructure news
Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google


Do you know what it takes to compete in today's systems administrator job market?

A system administrator requires many skills, not just technical ones. And these days, technical skills are not necessarily the driving factor in choosing which person to hire. So just what does it take to get the kind of position you really want?

Customer service skills. A system administrator (or system admin) constantly interacts with people, responding to their problems (and resolving them), and attempting to keep the customer happy. Make no mistake -- these are your customers, even if they are in the same company.

Ability to work under pressure. A system administrator's job can be a pressure cooker at times. When the system goes down, it may be that 3,000 people have their work affected and the president of the company starts looking over your shoulder, asking when it will be up. The company may also lose drastic amounts of revenue as long as the system is down. It may be that the company is asking for everything even as they are unwilling to pay for it. Can you handle the pressure?

Writing skills. Being able to write clearly translates into writing documentation that can be used and understood easily. This can directly affect the bottom line when the pressure is on and the documentation needs to be understood quickly.

Disaster planning. Murphy's Law states that "Anything that can go wrong, will." And Murphy's Corollary states that "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the least convenient time, and in the most inconvenient way." An admin has to have thought out all of these possibilities -- and what might happen -- and be prepared for it. This requires the ability to think through all possibilities and to plan for them.

Person-to-person networking. This means the skill of being able to make and keep contacts everywhere. As a system admin, the possibility exists that one may be laid off or let go, and a network of contacts will assist in getting a new position. A network can be a set of people who can help troubleshoot problems.

Troubleshooting skills. Given a problem, how do you come to the resolution? Some problems are tenacious and can challenge your skills. The normal problems will call upon your abilities to troubleshoot and to fix the problem in a speedy manner, so your abilities best be top notch.

Learning skills. Are you able to learn new things rapidly and without guidance? This career requires both. You will sometimes be called upon to do something that you haven't yet learned, whether it's installing a new product or troubleshooting a new product.

Technical skills. Are your skills up to date, current, and in demand? These skills are called upon in the act of doing your daily job, and should be current.

When choosing a career in system administration, there is also the area of specialty and whether the skills are in demand. Windows system administrators are in demand, but they are also everywhere, so competition among new hires will be fierce. Certified Netware Engineers (CNEs), who were in great demand 20 years ago, are nowhere to be found today, and Netware is being phased out. Unix administrators (and positions) are fewer and harder to find than Windows administrators. Of course, pay scales reflect all of this as well.

Tips for system administrators
1. Learn a popular operating system that companies use. Windows Server is in this category, but so are Sun Solaris and Red Hat Linux.

2. Learn a system that a few (but not an insignificant number of) companies use. OpenVMS falls into this category, as perhaps does SUSE Linux and MacOS X Server.

3. Learn the system in-depth. Don't just learn how to install the Linux kernel; learn how to write your own modules. Don't just learn how to use OpenVMS's DCL; learn how to write programs in it and use all of its features.

4. Read the manual cover to cover. This ties in with the previous item -- reading the manual will help to teach you all the tips and tricks.

5. Learn the shell inside and out, frontward and backward. This is true for Windows (with the Windows shell), but also for UNIX as well.

6. Learn from the experts. Experts can be coworkers, classmates or posters on Usenet.

Examine your skills and the emerging market before deciding on a system administrator career, and you will be better able to compete for those positions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Douthitt (RHCE, LPIC1, SCSA, Linux+, CNA) is a UNIX Systems Administrator for a major healthcare software company. His blog is Unix Administratosphere, where he continues to write on UNIX, Linux and OpenVMS. He has also written two books on system administration. He still has his copy of Red Hat 2.0 and 4.4BSD.

Rate this Tip
To rate tips, you must be a member of SearchDataCenter.com.
Register now to start rating these tips. Log in if you are already a member.




Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google


RELATED CONTENT
Data center jobs and training
Computer Measurement Group teaches IT forecasting, modeling
Sys admin recommended reading: Improve your skill set
Gartner Data Center Conference 2007
IT process guru offers data center job tips
Missouri State, IBM launch IT service management training program
Mainframe job boards compared
Mainframe training programs rebounding
Data Center Decisions Session Downloads
High-tech job increases marred by skills shortage
Workload consolidation attracts new blood to mainframe

AIX, IBM pSeries server administration
How to use GNU screen: Sys admin tutorial
Comparing Unix operating system vulnerabilities
IBM AIX 6, Power6 blade due out this month
Platform choices: Is Unix a legacy platform?
IBM hikes licensing price on faster Power6 processors
IBM AIX 6 virtualization catches up to Sun Solaris, HP-UX
PG&E working with IBM on green computing initiatives
Unix operating system and server updates Q1 2007
IBM virtualizes Linux x86 apps on System p box
IBM Unix tops customer satisfaction survey

HP Integrity server, Itanium servers and HP-UX
HP-UX gets yet another update with HP-UX 11i v3
How to use GNU screen: Sys admin tutorial
IBM virtualizes Linux on new System p Power6 servers
Comparing Unix operating system vulnerabilities
HP-UX nPars gets more flexible, but is it enough?
Mainframe shops held hostage, Itanium Solutions Alliance says
Platform choices: Is Unix a legacy platform?
HP UNIX performance monitoring fundamentals
Intel Itanium around for the long haul
HP fine-tunes VSE virtualization for Integrity servers

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

DISCLAIMER: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.

HomeNewsTopicsITKnowledge ExchangeTipsBlogsWebcastsWhite PapersEvents
About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides enterprise IT professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective IT purchase decisions and managing their organizations' IT projects - with its network of technology-specific Web sites, events and magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Reprints  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2005 - 2008, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts