1 / xxx The Path to Senior Sysadmin Adam Moskowitz Copyright 2011; Adam Moskowitz. All rights reserved.

2 / ??? BBLISA Only Talk geared to different (larger?) audience You probably have better attitudes than intended audience

3 / ??? BBLISA Only Hopefully there will still be some good ideas and suggestions

4 / xxx Purpose Some suggestions for professional and personal growth, and to help you advance your career

5 / ??? Bad News This section: 1 topic This section: 13 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

6 / ??? Agenda “Hard” technical skills “Squishy” technical skills “Soft” (non-technical) skills

7 / ??? Bad News I have some bad news …

8 / ??? Bad News You won’t like a lot of what I’m going to say tonight

9 / ??? Bad News You Want to Hear: “Expert with puppet” “Deep internals of Xen” “TCP 3-way Handshake”

10 / ??? 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

11 / ??? Bad News You will probably like “Squishy Skills”

12 / ??? Bad News But you’re really going to hate “soft skills” Unfortunately (for you), they’re the most important And the hardest to learn

13 / ??? Bad News Because becoming a senior sysadmin is only a little bit about this (picture of two sysadmins)

14 / ??? Bad News And a lot about this (picture of my AARP card)

15 / ??? Bad News Well, not so much age as maturity

16 / ??? Bad News Most common manifestations of a lack of maturity: Bad attitude Lack of respect for your co- workers

17 / ??? Let’s Start Over Let’s pretend to get off on the right foot

18 / ??? Agenda Hard technical skills “Squishy” technical skills “Soft” (non-technical) skills

19 / ??? Hard Skills This section: 1 topic This section: 8 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

20 / ??? 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

21 / ??? 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

22 / ??? 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

23 / ??? 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

24 / ??? Hard Skills Double Word Score Having experience on two or more different platforms is a great “hard” skill to have

25 / ??? Hard Skills Different == Linux + Solaris Not Debian + RedHat

26 / ??? Hard skills One last hard skill: Triple-bonus: the *nix kernel

27 / ??? Hard skills “Hard skills: Done” Should be obvious why you need to learn this stuff Now on to bigger & better things

28 / ??? Squishy Skills This section: 7 topics This section: 39 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

29 / ??? Agenda Hard technical skills “Squishy” technical skills “Soft” (non-technical) skills

30 / ??? “Squishy” Huh?

31 / ??? “Squishy” These are very clearly technical skills But not based on specific technologies (or commands or whatever)

32 / ??? “Squishy” Some “face out” Planning & analysis Others “face in” Career growth

33 / ??? (ADPE) This section: 6 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

34 / ??? “Squishy” “Out” Analysis Planning Design Evaluation

35 / ??? “Squishy” Ability to look at “big picture” for a project Figure out requirements Make a plan based on analysis

36 / ??? “Squishy” Evaluate results Includes things like roll-back, decision trees, scheduling

37 / ??? “Squishy” “Big Picture” Need to be able to figure out how all the pieces fit together

38 / ??? “Squishy” And how pieces affect each other Like: System throughput/response time Security

39 / ??? “Squishy” Must be able to apply this to new systems during design/planning And to existing projects for systemic trouble-shooting

40 / ??? (process) This section: 3 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

41 / ??? “Squishy” “Rules” and systems for how things get done Change management, disaster plans, security breaches, releases, etc.

42 / ??? “Squishy” Need to be able to figure out how much process is appropriate Manual or automatic? For what tasks?

43 / ??? “Squishy” Also need to be able to evaluate existing process, recommend changes/improvements And that brings us to …

44 / ??? (about business) This section: 6 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

45 / ??? “Squishy” Understanding (the) business Ahem … Unless your business is sysadmin consulting services …

46 / ??? “Squishy” Sysadmin is about supporting the business!

47 / ??? “Squishy” Everything sysadmin does must have a business reason behind it

48 / ??? “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.

49 / ??? “Squishy” The gear isn’t there for you to do “cool stuff” with

50 / ??? “Squishy” “Good enough” Meet the requirements and no more Because any extra time/money is wasted

51 / ??? (YAGNI) This section: 4 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

52 / xxx You Ain’t Gonna Need It

53 / ??? “Squishy” From Agile / Extreme Programming Or, don’t add a feature unless there’s a defined requirement Again, wasted time/money

54 / ??? “Squishy” Yes, some “economy of scale” and “planning for future growth” But that should be part of the business plan, too

55 / ??? “Squishy” Some people call this BDIM: “Business-Driven IT Management” I say there’s no other kind!

56 / ??? (bottom line) This section: 3 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

57 / ??? “Squishy” You also need to think about “the bottom line”

58 / ??? “Squishy” When asked, if you can’t provide the business case for a particular task (machine, whatever), management probably can’t provide it either

59 / ??? “Squishy” In which case, don’t do that task Spend that money Add that feature Etc.

60 / ??? (boss, learning) This section: 8 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

61 / ??? “Squishy” Skills that “face in” …

62 / ??? “Squishy” You are likely to know more about the technical side of IT than your manager This is OK! Learn to accept it!

63 / ??? “Squishy” Managers manage people Senior sysadmins manage technology

64 / ??? “Squishy” Managers may never have been sysadmins Because so many sysadmins have bad people skills and thus make lousy managers

65 / ??? “Squishy” Again, it’s not the manager’s job to be the technology expert

66 / ??? “Squishy” This means you can’t ask your manager for technical help You have to learn how to learn new things on your own

67 / ??? “Squishy” Quickly With limited resources From incomplete or incorrect documentation

68 / ??? “Squishy” The best way to do this is to develop a network of people you can ask for help (the usual suspects)

69 / ??? Soft Skills This section: 8 topics This section: 58 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

70 / ??? Agenda Hard technical skills “Squishy” technical skills “Soft” (non-technical) skills

71 / ??? Pay Attention

72 / ??? Pay Attention I want you to please pay attention to your reaction when I’m talking about soft skills

73 / ??? Pay Attention Most likely, the more you don’t like what I’m saying, the more you need to hear it

74 / ??? Pay Attention Some sysadmins place high value on these bad attitudes and lack of respect

75 / ??? Pay Attention They couldn’t be any more wrong And they need to hear this more than anyone else

76 / ??? “Soft” Skills Attitude A few “people skills” Attitude

77 / ??? “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!

78 / ??? “Soft” Skills Yes, people and business, not technology

79 / ??? “Soft” Skills I said this in “squishy”: Machines exist to perform business functions

80 / ??? “Soft” Skills Sysadmin is about keeping those machines running And about helping people use those machines

81 / ??? (helpful, friendly) This section: 6 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

82 / ??? “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

83 / ??? “Soft” Skills That is, your job of helping those people

84 / ??? “Soft” Skills This is worth repeating Your job is to help the business Keep machines running Help people use the machines

85 / ??? “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”

86 / ??? “Soft” Skills Part of this is giving the answer most helpful to the person asking In terms they will understand

87 / ??? “Soft” Skills Being pedantic doesn’t help Being snide doesn’t help Saying “don’t do that” doesn’t help

88 / ??? (respect) This section: 2 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

89 / ??? “Soft” Skills Attitude #2: Respect other people in the company They know less about computers than you do Probably a lot less

90 / ??? “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!

91 / ??? (not stupid) This section: 15 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

92 / ??? “Soft” Skills Attitude #3: More respect Your users are not stupid! Many of them are experts in their own fields

93 / ??? “Soft” Skills They can’t solve computer problems You can’t solve nuclear physics problems

94 / ??? “Soft” Skills This doesn’t make either of you stupid!

95 / ??? “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

96 / ??? “Soft” Skills While on vacation last year, she tried to use my X61...

97 / ??? “Soft” Skills First she asked me “how do I open it?”

98 / ??? “Soft” Skills Thirty seconds later, “how do I turn it on?”

99 / ??? “Soft” Skills Another 30 seconds and it was “which button clicks the mouse?”

100 / ??? “Soft” Skills “Boy, is she dumb!”

101 / ??? “Soft” Skills Um, no … She has an MS in biomedical engineering And at least one patent She’s also an MD

102 / ??? “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?

103 / ??? “Soft” Skills She has ~7,500 hours

104 / ??? “Soft” Skills I have ~120,000 hours!

105 / ??? “Soft” Skills That’s ~16x

106 / ??? “Soft” Skills Most sysadmins forget how big this experience gap is

107 / ??? (Windows) This section: 5 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

108 / ??? “Soft” Skills Stop whining about Windows! It’s pretty much the standard in the business world Get over it Better yet, accept it

109 / ??? “Soft” Skills Whining does nothing except annoy your boss And reinforce his/her belief that you have a bad attitude

110 / ??? “Soft” Skills Even if you don’t think you’re whining, that’s probably how it sounds to your boss

111 / ??? “Soft” Skills While you’re at it … Learn Windows (desktop) Learn common Office apps Learn Outlook or Lotus Notes

112 / ??? “Soft” Skills Learn to do basic config Again, because it’s the standard And you need to “play nice” with managers, executives, etc.

113 / ??? (PCI et al.) This section: 7 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

114 / ??? “Soft” Skills Stop whining about PCI HIPAA SOX FERPA etc.

115 / ??? “Soft” Skills These regulations often don’t make sense They may not increase security The point is neither effectiveness nor security

116 / ??? “Soft” Skills The point is about compliance as a legal requirement Or about compliance as part of a legal defense if something goes wrong

117 / ??? “Soft” Skills The meta-point is about staying in business!

118 / ??? “Soft” Skills You don’t have to like it As senior sysadmin you do have to help implement it

119 / ??? “Soft” Skills If possible, you have to improve things above and beyond the regulations And you have to do it all without whining

120 / ??? “Soft” Skills Remember: Your attitude counts almost as much as your actions

121 / ??? (developers) This section: 5 slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

122 / ??? “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

123 / ??? “Soft” Skills Go help them understand the problem

124 / ??? “Soft” Skills Developers are not dumb Usually they’re just not familiar with ops requirements

125 / ??? “Soft” Skills Or, more likely, ops stuff never made it into the design, so it’s not on the devs’ schedule

126 / ??? “Soft” Skills In which case, work with the designers Because this isn’t the devs’ fault

127 / ??? Summary Stop whining Attitude counts as much as technical performance

128 / ??? Wrapping Up This section: topics This section: slides Slides completed: # Slides remaining: # (%age)

129 / ??? Answers For soft skills, find a mentor A good manager Probably NOT a techie

130 / ??? Answers Might find someone through the LOPSA Mentorship program But someone you work with might be easier

131 / ??? Answers Again, your “soft mentor” doesn’t have to be technical

132 / ??? That’s All, Folks

133 / ??? Credits Thanks to: John Dalton Steven Ellis Andrew McMillan Shirt by KOG

134 / ??? After Today … Copies of my speaking notes: (on the web site) Questions: Thank you!