System Administrator Professionals

What are the SysAdmin’s Roles and Responsibilities?

The SysAdmin is often referred to as a generalist in terms of roles and responsibilities, but they can be boiled down to five core responsibilities-

1. Configure and manage company infrastructure. This includes all the hardware, software, and operating systems needed to support your users and applications. It’s the SysAdmin’s duty to ensure that all servers are running smoothly at all times and to perform the necessary software installs and updates.
2. Manage user access and permissions to all systems and data. As SysAdmin, you’ll be managing all of the different user permissions and admins. You’ll be in charge of managing user logins, SSO (single sign-on) policies, and ensuring all company security requirements are being met.
3. Perform daily security backups and restores. The security of the company’s infrastructure and data is one of the biggest responsibilities of a SysAdmin. They need to perform daily security backups in case anything were to go wrong with a server or application, and it’s your job to get things back up and running to avoid any negative customer experiences or bottom-line losses.
4. Manage all monitoring and alerting throughout company applications and infrastructure. The SysAdmin will need to carefully monitor important network metrics (CPU, usage, DNS, latency, etc.) in order to quickly detect incidents as they occur.
5. Problem solving and troubleshooting. This is one of the main aspects of the SysAdmin’s role. A large chunk of the job will be to solve issues as they occur and come up with solutions that maintain security across the company. SysAdmins will find themselves doing a lot of on-the-job learning as they are faced with new problems.

Responsibilities:

• System Setup and Maintenance: Sysadmins install, configure, and maintain hardware and software systems. This involves keeping operating systems up-to-date, managing user accounts and permissions, and ensuring all systems are functioning optimally.
• Network Management: They oversee the organization's computer network, ensuring smooth data flow and communication between devices. This includes tasks like monitoring network performance, troubleshooting network issues, and implementing security measures.
• Security Management: Sysadmins play a vital role in safeguarding the organization's data and systems from cyberattacks. They implement security protocols, manage user access controls, and monitor for suspicious activity.
• User Support: While not always the primary focus, some system administrators also provide basic technical support to end-users. This might involve helping them with password resets, troubleshooting software issues, or answering general IT questions.
• Automation and Scripting: To streamline repetitive tasks, many sysadmins use scripting languages to automate processes. This improves efficiency and reduces the risk of human error.
• Staying Updated: The IT landscape is constantly evolving, so sysadmins need to stay updated on new technologies, security threats, and best practices. They often participate in training courses and certifications to maintain their skillset.

How Could You Become a SysAdmin?

A SysAdmin is a great starting point for getting into IT operations. Given the problem solving and troubleshooting nature of the role, it’s a great way to learn new skills and technologies. In a DevOps setting, SysAdmins work closely with development and often assist with different tasks outside of their core responsibilities.

When pursuing a SysAdmin role, there are several things to consider:

• You should know how to set up and maintain a web server. A big portion of your job as SysAdmin is configuring and maintaining different servers. Get very comfortable with server setup and management as it will be your responsibility to keep them secure and running smoothly.

• Familiarize yourself with DHCP. The DHCP (or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is where IP addresses are assigned to different devices on a given network. You will be in charge of DHCP configuration and maintenance as a SysAdmin, so you’ll need to understand different configurations and how networks communicate.

• Learn the major DevOps tools, such as Puppet, Jenkins, and Ansible. These tools will become your close friends as a SysAdmin and will help make your job much easier once you are comfortable using them.

• Perfect your problem-solving and troubleshooting skills. As a SysAdmin, you’ll often find yourself needing to fix different issues that arise within the company’s infrastructure. A lot of times, there may not be a specific solution or runbook for addressing these problems. Your job will be to find a solution and prevent it from becoming a recurring issue. You will learn a lot on the job as things break (and they will break), which is great for learning new skills.

System administration functions include user management, system monitoring, backup and recovery, and access control. System monitoring, backup, and recovery functions are typically integrated into an organization-wide application. User management functions include user creation and assigning roles to users.