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Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

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Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#21

Post by vortex_panda »

fuzz4lyfe wrote: post #20

I was a sysadmin and moved to software development. A big part of the difference is mindset. When I used to work with sysadmins often solutions to problems are "google for a while and then call the vendor". You need to get out of that mindset and become more self reliant. That machine you are using was built by humans, that language was designed by humans and you are likely attempting to solve a problem that isn't dr…

"google for a while and then call the vendor"

This is unfortunately how most of our organization works. For certain types of things, we're actually required to do this due to regulations, bureaucracy, and what not.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#22

Post by wpasc »

vortex_panda wrote: post #18
cbanek wrote: post #3

Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important! You are the first line of defense, and many times, companies just need eyes on systems (all the time). It's your ability to analyze a problem that makes you useful. There are ALWAYS boring repetitive service tasks that aren't rewarded but someone needs to do (this is true for devs too). Most of this probably doesn't seem hard or new to you, but I just w…

"Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important!" This is the first time that I have heard or read anyone say this in years. Thanks

Sysadmins are important for sure! I do think that it is true though that certain functions are being more automated. Perhaps a DevOps or SRE role might be a better fit that a full on developer? DevOps and SRE roles are certainly not going anywhere anytime soon.

Best of luck with you endeavors, my sympathy for your struggles.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#23

Post by georgebarnett »

I want to echo the sentiment of other posters. I’m a senior architect on a team of several hundred people and I can without a doubt say that Sysadmin skills are hugely valuable and SAs normally have a very distinct and useful perspective on the end to end process of software delivery (of which coding is only one part).

My advice would be to explore more areas of self improvement. It’s not only code out there!

You could look at continuous integration, focus on deployments, learn networking, go deep in cloud config management.

There’s also the people side, like project managing technical implementations, managing vendors, or doing budgets and planning.

You might also consider database admin which is really interesting work.

I guess what I’m saying is don’t feel limited by coding not being you thing. If you can learn enough to get by, you’ll find many roles where it’s not the core skill.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#24

Post by wpasc »

_bxg1 wrote: post #9

"Whenever I attempt to dive into anything that I would consider "development", such as python programming, it's as if my brain completely ceases to function and all of the words and symbols on my screen turn into an incomprehensible alien language. It doesn't matter how long I stare at it or how much I reference the documentation, that alien language never reveals its true meaning to me." For what it's worth, I've be…

Agreed with this sentiment, I've got about 3 years of professional development with a BS and MS in computer science and from time to time ask myself "Do I really know anything?? damn i'm dumb, why don't i understand this better? does anyone else struggle the way I'm struggling?"

to which the answer is yes, ~95% of all developers endure struggles but fear that no one else does

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#25

Post by sl1ck731 »

vortex_panda wrote: post #12
quickthrower2 wrote: post #4

What about learning devops. Take your bash skills and apply them to cloud architecture, containers etc. that stuff will be in demand for a few years. Cloud Architect might be something to aim for.

I have been wanting to try out things like AWS and containers and such, but I haven't had the chance yet. I think part of it is that I haven't had the chance in a work setting to check those things out. We have thousands of physical machines and on-prem VMs. Sometimes I feel like we're kind of "old-world".

Physical infrastructure isn't going away anytime soon. I work in migrating people to public cloud and we are seeing a resurgence of people moving to "private clouds". Mostly vMware and OpenStack. Most people have begun realizing their CTOs cargo-culted AWS for their resumes and its costing more than owning DC or colocating does.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#26

Post by vortex_panda »

sl1ck731 wrote: post #25
vortex_panda wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been wanting to try out things like AWS and containers and such, but I haven't had the chance yet. I think part of it is that I haven't had the chance in a work setting to check those things out. We have thousands of physical machines and on-prem VMs. Sometimes I feel like we're kind of "old-world".

Physical infrastructure isn't going away anytime soon. I work in migrating people to public cloud and we are seeing a resurgence of people moving to "private clouds". Mostly vMware and OpenStack. Most people have begun realizing their CTOs cargo-culted AWS for their resumes and its costing more than owning DC or colocating does.

I was wondering about that. Every time I looked at AWS pricing, it seemed insanely expensive for the people that just forklifted their on-prem services into the cloud without re-architecting it to fit that type of environment.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#27

Post by ocdtrekkie »

vortex_panda wrote: post #18
cbanek wrote: post #3

Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important! You are the first line of defense, and many times, companies just need eyes on systems (all the time). It's your ability to analyze a problem that makes you useful. There are ALWAYS boring repetitive service tasks that aren't rewarded but someone needs to do (this is true for devs too). Most of this probably doesn't seem hard or new to you, but I just w…

"Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important!" This is the first time that I have heard or read anyone say this in years. Thanks

As a fellow sysadmin, I think you have to be careful not to take certain concepts from HN too seriously. A lot of the HN crowd does seem to act like there is no role for sysadmins in the future, that developers will manage the infrastructure for their own software.

...This is bull----, and it probably always will be. There is a vastly higher demand for implementation and support and security than there will ever be for people to create the stuff in the first place. While learning to code is a big plus (I am a hobbyist developer when my caffeine is flowing enough for me to process code), there will always be a huge need for people who understand the priorities and needs of the companies they work for who can recommend, assemble, and manage solutions for them. Even in a fully cloud-based setup, your average company will still need someone who understands the cloud and the applications operating on it to support them and ensure they aren't being taken advantage of.

Sure, plenty of IT jobs are getting shuffled off to blue collar outsourcing shops, but check out stories about Wipro this week to understand why that is going to backfire significantly in the long run. Our job is not just to make it work, but to anticipate problems and provide affordable, workable solutions that mitigate the risks of those we work for.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#28

Post by ocdtrekkie »

vortex_panda wrote: post #26
sl1ck731 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical infrastructure isn't going away anytime soon. I work in migrating people to public cloud and we are seeing a resurgence of people moving to "private clouds". Mostly vMware and OpenStack. Most people have begun realizing their CTOs cargo-culted AWS for their resumes and its costing more than owning DC or colocating does.

I was wondering about that. Every time I looked at AWS pricing, it seemed insanely expensive for the people that just forklifted their on-prem services into the cloud without re-architecting it to fit that type of environment.

Most cloud solutions costs 2-3 times more than the on-prem equivalents. The selling point that's usually trotted out is "but it just works and you can fire your IT staff".

...Most people who move to the cloud end up still needing IT staff to manage it, and are now, by proxy, paying for the cloud provider's IT staff too. (Hidden underneath all of those cloud providers are a silent army of IT people.)

A recent conversation I had was whether to replace a server (five figures) when a neighboring organization was on the cloud for the same technology (three figures per year per device). The latter sounded a lot cheaper until you multiplied the devices by that three figure amount, and multiplied it by the five years the server's contract covered. The cloud solution became more expensive that the physical service in a little over a year.

I have similar conversations about Office 365. It costs twice as much as buying on-prem Microsoft Office, even if you buy Office every version. There's really no reason not to skip every other release of Office, which makes it practically four times the cost of on-prem.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#29

Post by DutchSysOps »

vortex_panda wrote: post #18
cbanek wrote: post #3

Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important! You are the first line of defense, and many times, companies just need eyes on systems (all the time). It's your ability to analyze a problem that makes you useful. There are ALWAYS boring repetitive service tasks that aren't rewarded but someone needs to do (this is true for devs too). Most of this probably doesn't seem hard or new to you, but I just w…

"Okay, first off, being a sysadmin or an ops person is important!" This is the first time that I have heard or read anyone say this in years. Thanks

Thanks indeed, wish our managers knew this too. Instead of saying "What is he doing for work?!" every day.

Re: Ask HN: Why do I exist as a sysadmin?

#30

Post by aSockPuppeteer »

I suggest finding a language that you can learn online.

It does not have to be what you really want to learn, just one you can get stared with. Ruby has some decent lessons out there where they tell you what to type, you type it, and see the results.

First, like an essay, create an outline. Write what you want the output to look like, search stack overflow for examples, and it will get easier.

I learned Matlab, essentially deleted it from memory, and felt as you describe a few years later. I had to relearn it and just pushing myself with the pomodoro technique (20 min on, 5 min break) worked.

Good luck.

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