System administrator

A system administrator, or sysadmin, is a person employed to maintain, and operate a computer system or network. System administrators may be members of an information technology department.

The duties of a system administrator are wide-ranging, and vary widely from one organization to another. Sysadmins are usually charged with installing, supporting, and maintaining servers or other computer systems, and planning for and responding to service outages and other problems. Other duties may include scripting or light programming, project managment for systems-related projects, supervising or training computer operators, and being the equivalent of a handyman for computer problems beyond the knowledge of project managment staff. A System Administrator is a blend of technical skills and responsibility.

Skills

The subject matter of systems administration includes computer systems and the ways people use them in an organization. This entails a knowledge of operating systems and application , as well as hardware and software troubleshooting , but also knowledge of the purposes for which people in the organization use the computers.

However, perhaps the most important skill to a system administrator is problem solving-- frequently under various sorts of constraints and stress. The sysadmin is on call when a computer system goes down or malfunctions, and must be able to quickly and correctly diagnose what is wrong and how best to fix it.

System administrators are not software engineers or developers. It is not usually within their duties to design or write new applications software. However, sysadmins must understand the behavior of software in order to deploy it and to troubleshoot problems, and generally know several programming languages used for scripting or automation of routine tasks.

Particularly when dealing with Internat-facing or business-critical systems, a sysadmin must have a strong grasp of computer security. This includes not merely deploying software patches, but also preventing break-ins and other security problems with preventative measures. In some organizations, computer security administration is a separate role responsible for overall security and the upkeep of firewalls and intrusion detection systems, but all sysadmins are generally responsible for the security of the systems in their keep.

Related fields

Many organizations staff other jobs related to systems administration. In a larger company, these may all be separate positions within a computer support or Information Services (IS) department. In a smaller group they may be shared by a few sysadmins, or even a single person.

1. A database administrator (DBA) maintains a database system, and is responsible for the integrity of the data and the efficiency and performance of the system.


2. A network administraor maintains network infrastructure such as swiches and router, and diagnoses problems with these or with the behavior of network-attached computers.


3. A security administrator is a specialist in computer and network security, including the administration of security devices such as firewalls, as well as consulting on general security measures.


4. Technical support staff respond to individual users' difficulties with computer systems, provide instructions and sometimes training, and diagnose and solve common problems.


5. A computer operator performs routine maintenance and upkeep, such as changing backup tapes or replacing failed drives in a RAID array. Such tasks usually require physical presence in the room with the computer; and while less skilled than sysadmin tasks require a similar level of trust, since the operator has access to possibly sensitive data.

In some organizations, a person may begin as a member of technical support staff or a computer operator, then gain experience on the job to be promoted to a sysadmin position.

Duties of a system administrator

A system administrator's responsibilities might include:

1. 
   Routine audits of systems and software.


2. 
   Performing backups.


3. 
   Applying operating system updates and configuration changes.


4. 
   Installing and configuring new hardware and software.


5. 
   Adding, removing, or updating user account information, resetting passwords, etc.


6. 
   Answering technical queries.


7. 
   Responsibility for security.


8. 
   Responsibility for documenting the configuration of the system.


9. 
   Troubleshooting any reported problems.


10. 
    System performance tuning.


11. 
    Keeping the network up and running.

In larger organizations, some tasks listed above may be divided among different system administrators or members of different organizational groups. For example, a dedicated individual may apply all system upgrades, a Quality Assurance (QA) team may perform testing and validation, and one or more technical writers may be responsible for all technical documentation written for a company.
In smaller organizations, the system administrator can also perform any number of duties elsewhere associated with other fields:

Technical support
Database administrator (DBA)
Network administrator/analyst/specialist
Application analyst
Security administrator
Programmer

System administrators, in larger organizations, also tend not to be system architects, system engineers, or system designers, however, like many roles in this field, demarcations between systems administration and these other roles are often not well defined in smaller organizations. However, even in larger organizations, senior systems administrators often have skills in these other areas as a result of their working experience.

In smaller organizations, IT/computing specialties are less often discerned in detail, and the term "system administrator" is used in a rather generic way — they are the people who know how the computer systems work and can respond when something fails.