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The Path toSenior Sysadmin

Adam Moskowitz<adamm@menlo.com>

Copyright 2011; Adam Moskowitz.All rights reserved.

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BBLISA Only

• Talk geared to different (larger?) audience

• You probably have better attitudes than intended audience

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BBLISA Only

• Hopefully there will still be some good ideas and suggestions

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Purpose

Some suggestions for professional and personal growth, and to help you

advance your career

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Bad News

• This section: 1 topic

• This section: 13 slides

• Slides completed: #

• Slides remaining: #•(%age)

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Agenda

• “Hard” technical skills

• “Squishy” technical skills

• “Soft” (non-technical) skills

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Bad News

• I have some bad news …

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Bad News

• You won’t like a lot of what I’m going to say tonight

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Bad News

• You Want to Hear:•“Expert with puppet”

•“Deep internals of Xen”

•“TCP 3-way Handshake”

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Bad News

• I’ll Say All That, But …

• You could figure it out for yourself

• Only 5 – 10 minutes

• Least important part of this talk

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Bad News

• You will probably like “Squishy Skills”

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Bad News

• But you’re really going to hate “soft skills”

• Unfortunately (for you), they’re the most important

• And the hardest to learn

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Bad News

• Because becoming a senior sysadmin is only a little bit about this

• (picture of two sysadmins)

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Bad News

• And a lot about this

• (picture of my AARP card)

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Bad News

• Well, not so much age as maturity

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Bad News

• Most common manifestations of a lack of maturity:

• Bad attitude

• Lack of respect for your co-workers

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Let’s Start Over

• Let’s pretend to get off on the right foot

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Agenda

• Hard technical skills

• “Squishy” technical skills

• “Soft” (non-technical) skills

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Hard Skills

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• This section: 8 slides

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Hard Skills• User commands (1)• Admin commands (7)• Boot process

• /etc/init.d• SMF, launchd, etc.

• Back-ups• RAID• NIS / LDAP / AD

• sh / awk / sed• Perl

• Ruby?• Some C• Bonus: Assembler

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Hard Skills

• For (1) and (7), spend an hour a day trying commands on a test machine

• Start at beginning, move on after you understand each command

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Hard Skills• Basic S/W Eng:• Version control

• RCS, svn• git? Hg? p4?

ClearCase?• Variables, params in

scripts

• SysConfig Tools • The Big Four:

• bcfg2• chef• cfengine• puppet

• Also:• lcfg, pan, quattor,

radmind

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Hard Skills• Networking• Common protocols:

• IP, TCP, UDP• Set-up, tear-down,

ARP, basic routing• “App” protocols:

• DHCP, DNS, HTTP, IMAP, LDAP, NIS, SSH, SMTP

• Routers, firewalls, load balancers, caches, (WAN) accelerators

• Protocol analyzer• wireshark, NetScout

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Hard Skills

• Double Word Score

• Having experience on two or more different platforms is a great “hard” skill to have

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Hard Skills

• Different == Linux + Solaris•Not Debian + RedHat

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Hard skills

• One last hard skill:

• Triple-bonus: the *nix kernel

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Hard skills

• “Hard skills: Done”

• Should be obvious why you need to learn this stuff

• Now on to bigger & better things

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Squishy Skills

• This section: 7 topics

• This section: 39 slides

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Agenda

• Hard technical skills

• “Squishy” technical skills

• “Soft” (non-technical) skills

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“Squishy”

• Huh?

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“Squishy”

• These are very clearly technical skills•But not based on specific

technologies (or commands or whatever)

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“Squishy”

• Some “face out”•Planning & analysis

• Others “face in”•Career growth

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(ADPE)

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“Squishy”

• “Out”

• Analysis

• Planning

• Design

• Evaluation

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“Squishy”

• Ability to look at “big picture” for a project

• Figure out requirements

• Make a plan based on analysis

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“Squishy”

• Evaluate results

• Includes things like roll-back, decision trees, scheduling

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“Squishy”

• “Big Picture”

• Need to be able to figure out how all the pieces fit together

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“Squishy”

• And how pieces affect each other

• Like:•System throughput/response time

•Security

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“Squishy”

• Must be able to apply this to new systems during design/planning

• And to existing projects for systemic trouble-shooting

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(process)

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“Squishy”

• “Rules” and systems for how things get done

• Change management, disaster plans, security breaches, releases, etc.

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“Squishy”

• Need to be able to figure out how much process is appropriate

• Manual or automatic?

• For what tasks?

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“Squishy”

• Also need to be able to evaluate existing process, recommend changes/improvements

• And that brings us to …

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(about business)

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“Squishy”

• Understanding (the) business

• Ahem …

• Unless your business is sysadmin consulting services …

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“Squishy”

• Sysadmin is about supporting the business!

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“Squishy”

• Everything sysadmin does must have a business reason behind it

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“Squishy”

• Meet an SLA, meet a defined risk level, conform to a regulation, build a product, enable an employee to perform his/her job, etc.

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“Squishy”

• The gear isn’t there for you to do “cool stuff” with

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“Squishy”

• “Good enough”

• Meet the requirements and no more

• Because any extra time/money is wasted

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(YAGNI)

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YouAin’tGonnaNeed It

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“Squishy”

• From Agile / Extreme Programming

• Or, don’t add a feature unless there’s a defined requirement

• Again, wasted time/money

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“Squishy”

• Yes, some “economy of scale” and “planning for future growth”

• But that should be part of the business plan, too

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“Squishy”

• Some people call this BDIM: “Business-Driven IT Management”

• I say there’s no other kind!

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(bottom line)

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“Squishy”

• You also need to think about “the bottom line”

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“Squishy”

• When asked, if you can’t provide the business case for a particular task (machine, whatever), management probably can’t provide it either

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“Squishy”

• In which case, don’t do that task•Spend that money

•Add that feature

•Etc.

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(boss, learning)

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“Squishy”

• Skills that “face in” …

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“Squishy”

• You are likely to know more about the technical side of IT than your manager

• This is OK!

• Learn to accept it!

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“Squishy”

• Managers manage people

• Senior sysadmins manage technology

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“Squishy”

• Managers may never have been sysadmins

• Because so many sysadmins have bad people skills and thus make lousy managers

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“Squishy”

• Again, it’s not the manager’s job to be the technology expert

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“Squishy”

• This means you can’t ask your manager for technical help

• You have to learn how to learn new things on your own

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“Squishy”

• Quickly

• With limited resources

• From incomplete or incorrect documentation

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“Squishy”

• The best way to do this is to develop a network of people you can ask for help

• (the usual suspects)

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Soft Skills

• This section: 8 topics

• This section: 58 slides

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Agenda

• Hard technical skills

• “Squishy” technical skills

• “Soft” (non-technical) skills

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Pay Attention

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Pay Attention

• I want you to please pay attention to your reaction when I’m talking about soft skills

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Pay Attention

• Most likely, the more you don’t like what I’m saying, the more you need to hear it

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Pay Attention

• Some sysadmins place high value on these bad attitudes and lack of respect

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Pay Attention

• They couldn’t be any more wrong

• And they need to hear this more than anyone else

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“Soft” Skills

• Attitude

• Attitude

• Attitude

• A few “people skills”

• Attitude

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“Soft” Skills

• This is the stuff that’s probably going to be the hardest for you to learn

• Because sysadmin is about people (and business) not technology!

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“Soft” Skills

• Yes, people and business, not technology

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“Soft” Skills

• I said this in “squishy”: Machines exist to perform business functions

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“Soft” Skills

• Sysadmin is about keeping those machines running

• And about helping people use those machines

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(helpful, friendly)

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“Soft” Skills

• If people don’t ask for help because sysadmins make them uncomfortable, those people won’t be effective when there are problems, then you have failed to perform your job

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“Soft” Skills

• That is, your job of helping those people

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“Soft” Skills

• This is worth repeating

• Your job is to help the business•Keep machines running

•Help people use the machines

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“Soft” Skills

• Yes, you have to stay within security policy, PCI, etc.

• But the goal is to “get to yes” and not “just say no”

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“Soft” Skills

• Part of this is giving the answer most helpful to the person asking

• In terms they will understand

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“Soft” Skills

• Being pedantic doesn’t help

• Being snide doesn’t help

• Saying “don’t do that” doesn’t help

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(respect)

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“Soft” Skills

• Attitude #2: Respect other people in the company

• They know less about computers than you do

• Probably a lot less

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“Soft” Skills

• It’s not their job to know a lot about computers

• If it was their job, the company wouldn’t need to hire you!

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(not stupid)

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“Soft” Skills

• Attitude #3: More respect

• Your users are not stupid!

• Many of them are experts in their own fields

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“Soft” Skills

• They can’t solve computer problems

• You can’t solve nuclear physics problems

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“Soft” Skills

• This doesn’t make either of you stupid!

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“Soft” Skills

• For example …

• I use an IBM ThinkPad X-61

• My wife uses a Mac iBook

• They’re different in ways most of us don’t even realize

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“Soft” Skills

• While on vacation last year, she tried to use my X61 . . .

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“Soft” Skills

• First she asked me “how do I open it?”

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“Soft” Skills

• Thirty seconds later, “how do I turn it on?”

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“Soft” Skills

• Another 30 seconds and it was “which button clicks the mouse?”

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“Soft” Skills

• “Boy, is she dumb!”

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“Soft” Skills

• Um, no …

• She has an MS in biomedical engineering•And at least one patent

• She’s also an MD

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“Soft” Skills

• In some ways, she’s smarter than I am

• I just happen to know more about computers than she does

• How much more?

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“Soft” Skills

• She has ~7,500 hours

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“Soft” Skills

• I have ~120,000 hours!

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“Soft” Skills

• That’s ~16x

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“Soft” Skills

• Most sysadmins forget how big this experience gap is

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(Windows)

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“Soft” Skills

• Stop whining about Windows!

• It’s pretty much the standard in the business world

• Get over it

• Better yet, accept it

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“Soft” Skills

• Whining does nothing except annoy your boss

• And reinforce his/her belief that you have a bad attitude

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“Soft” Skills

• Even if you don’t think you’re whining, that’s probably how it sounds to your boss

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“Soft” Skills

• While you’re at it …

• Learn Windows (desktop)

• Learn common Office apps

• Learn Outlook or Lotus Notes

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“Soft” Skills

• Learn to do basic config

• Again, because it’s the standard

• And you need to “play nice” with managers, executives, etc.

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(PCI et al.)

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“Soft” Skills

• Stop whining about•PCI

•HIPAA

•SOX

•FERPA

•etc.

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“Soft” Skills

• These regulations often don’t make sense

• They may not increase security

• The point is neither effectiveness nor security

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“Soft” Skills

• The point is about compliance as a legal requirement

• Or about compliance as part of a legal defense if something goes wrong

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“Soft” Skills

• The meta-point is about staying in business!

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“Soft” Skills

• You don’t have to like it

• As senior sysadmin you do have to help implement it

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“Soft” Skills

• If possible, you have to improve things above and beyond the regulations

• And you have to do it all without whining

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“Soft” Skills

• Remember: Your attitude counts almost as much as your actions

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(developers)

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“Soft” Skills

• When the developers you work with give you bad software, rather than bash them, go work with them to help them fix the problem

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“Soft” Skills

• Go help them understand the problem

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“Soft” Skills

• Developers are not dumb

• Usually they’re just not familiar with ops requirements

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“Soft” Skills

• Or, more likely, ops stuff never made it into the design, so it’s not on the devs’ schedule

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“Soft” Skills

• In which case, work with the designers

• Because this isn’t the devs’ fault

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Summary

• Stop whining • Attitude counts as much as

technical performance

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Wrapping Up

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Answers

• For soft skills, find a mentor

• A good manager

• Probably NOT a techie

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Answers

• Might find someone through the LOPSA Mentorship program

• But someone you work with might be easier

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Answers

• Again, your “soft mentor” doesn’t have to be technical

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That’s All, Folks

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Credits

• Thanks to:•John Dalton

•Steven Ellis

•Andrew McMillan

• Shirt by KOG

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After Today …

• Copies of my speaking notes:•(on the web site)

• Questions:•<adamm@menlo.com>

• Thank you!