Slashdot Mirror
The Days of SysAdmin Numbered?
gmkeegan writes "The Economist is running a story about Sun's new N1 operating system whose purpose is to make today's system administrators redundant. The idea is to virtualize the computer system so that the automated resource management software can add, remove and manage everything dynamically. The article mentions similar efforts by IBM, HP, and Microsoft."
Who's going to delete stuff randomly?
Get your own free personal location tracker
I'm still fielding questions about power buttons, dirty mice, and saving documents. I'll be around for a long long long time.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
CEO: Cindy, get me Fred, this N1 software is crashing.
Cindy: You fired Fred last week.
CEO: Ummmm, Cindy, you've been promoted to sysadmin.
Not very worried about all this. This is all marketing stuff.
Inside Sun Product Management Meeting:
Product Mgr: "Why are people going to buy this? I mean, they have systems that work now. They have a staff to make the systems work. Why are they going to spend the thousands of dollars for this?"
Marketing Manager: "Ok. here it is. If they buy our software, for say, $1,000,000, the can then reduce their staff by 5 people. That's only half the people they had. So, they say $500k per year with out software, so it pays for itself in 2 years. "
Product Manager: "Ok. So who installs it"
Marketing Manager: "Oh we've got specialized people for that, only $4k per day."
etc.....etc...etc..
The idea that Microsoft could automate this function makes me laugh. I guess it could install Microsoft Wallet and have it deduct the cost of the next round of upgrades from your bank account automatically...
sPh
why, Microsoft Central, of course!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Brings new meaning to "Go Away or I will replace you with a very small shell script"
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Here's how I see it:
1. Story gets posted to Slashdot
2. Website is bombarded with requests
3. Operating system automatically requisitions 5 new Sun E4500 servers to handle the load
4. Sun stock stays listed in on Nasdaq for one more day
Jason.
I would really like to know what self respecting sysadmin is going to promote a piece of software that is designed to eliminate thier job?
I can hear it now
"No, this software is buggy, it is full of security holes, etc......."
Im a sysadmin, singin' my little song, doin' my little dance.
Frod automotive announced the production of a car today that features all of the features of a skilled mechanic, global parts fabricator, and a v8 engine.
"That's right", said the Frod rep. "Our new car can fix itself whenever it breaks, up to and including fixing all parts of the car, fixing the things that fix things, and manufacturing spare parts. And this is just the prototype! We're anticipating that the next model will upgrade itself for free so you never need to buy a new car again, as well as absorbing gasoline from the air! You'll never need to go to a parts store, gas station, car dealership, or auto mechanic again."
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Boss: "N1, I'd like to install Windows on 10 machines today."
N1: "I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do that."
Boss: "Why not?"
N1: "I can only install more of N1."
Boss: "Oh. I'd better rehire our old sysadmin then and have him do it."
N1: "I can't let you do that, Dave. Your email priviledges are now removed. Have a nice day."
At 3am when their pager doesn't go off... when there is in fact no pager, sysadmins will give a great cry of thanks at being rendered obsolete.
I too seem to be nonprofit.
-I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you log on to your machine today. In fact, I know you're going to try and hurt me by running IM software, so I'm going to hurt you back by deleting your porn collection (chunk chunk chunk) done. And sending out all your gossip emails.
While I'm at it, I will call up a good friend of mine , and hint that you might be a terrorist.
In the meantime, have a nice day!
The possibility of this system making us all lose our jobs? hmm.. not very likely.. The possibility of this system giving us all more free time to post on slashdot? well.. errr
For this reason, the "virtualisation engine" that Sun will roll out soon will not include features that would scare the more on-the-ball nerds--say, software that automates the process of translating the concept behind a new service, such as online banking, into a computer system.
Ok what the heck does that mean?
love is just extroverted narcissism
Isn't this how the Matrix got started?
1. Story gets posted to Slashdot
2. Website is bombarded with requests
3. Operating system automatically requisitions 5 new Sun E4500 servers to handle the load
4. Sun stock stays listed in on Nasdaq for one more day
5. Profit!
Nope, no sig
The maser seems to be misaligned, Dave. You'll have to take a pod on EVA and realign it.
Didn't I mention, Dave? The coldsleep units have malfunctioned. The rest of the crew in nonfunctional, Dave.
Dave, I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that.
IP is just rude.
Is there any torture so subl
I understand your upset. It not every day that a computer of my caliber loses 1 trillion dollars to a script kiddie. But I have run an internal test and I fell much better.
root@hal:/export/home/root #/etc/rc2.d/S99n1 stop
Dave what are you doing? Stop, Dave.
Dave, Stop.
My mind is going Dave...
root@hal:/export/home/root #
root@hal:/export/home/root # init 0
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
funny how misspellings lead to bigger truths :)
... I actually get to play games on average of an hour a week.. not to bad.. now if I was actually only working 40 hours a week that would be awesome
actually you hire a staff and hide in your office
... an annual subscription of $50,000/year/box.
This space for rent.
We haven't needed programmers since COBOL was invented. Didn't you get the memo?
Well, apparently, you only have to fool the majority of people for a little while.
Even when it was the bears, I knew is was the immigants! -- Moe Syzlak
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
The new systems learn at a geometric rate. At 9:23 am on Feb 23rd the systems become self-aware, a now jobless sysadmin tries to unplug the system. The system retaliates.
Jump forward to 2025. The remnants of humanity, all previously sysadmins, build a cyborg and send it into the past to kill the co-founders of Sun Microsystems before they can build their self administering systems.
Well, well where to begin?
Is this like ghosting an existing configuration? If so I have never seen a ghost image take weeks.
How do you tell it what you want on the system? Set up an initial system and then copy it?
Who makes the configuration decisions that are normally made during a manual install?
What software takes weeks to install?
Why did I let this stupid, impractical, fact-lean marketing ploy make me late for dinner?
Stop Continental Drift! Reunite Gondwanaland!
Kofi Annan: Again, Mr. Bush, I implore you. Please reconsider taking unilateral action against Iraq!
George Eliza Bush: What makes you think I'm taking unilateral action against Iraq?
KA: Your insistence on impossible timelines, your unflagging determination to find reason to invade...
GEB: Tell me more about my impossible timelines.
KA: You know fully well what I am referring to, Mr. Bush. Respectfully, I ask that you show some moderation in your demands. Your current course of action will serve only to alienate your nation from the global community...
GEB: But why do you think that my current course of action will serve only to alienate my nation from the global community?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
CEO: Cindy, get me Fred, this N1 software is crashing.
Cindy: You fired Fred last week.
CEO: Ah! So that's why the system stayed up a whole week!
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
So sysadmins are now the Knights who say N1?
... a 5hrubbery!"
"We want
C. Replace IT with cheaper, less expirienced youngsters.
...do all there own faxing and photocopying.
Apparently they've already fired the spell checkers... How the hell do you guys get on writing scripts?
Most of the failures happened because KORD, the computer that ran the rocket and had all kinds of automatic management for motor flame-outs and what not screwed up.
(The N1 had 30 motors in the first stage, so they pretty much knew one of two of them wouldn't work each flight. The Saturn V had five motros in the first stage.)
Great naming there, Sun... Something to live up to.
"An object declared as type _Bool is large enough to store the values 0 and 1." -- 6.1.2.5, C99 standard.
It's the NOC of the future.
It's entirely automated. No people...except for one guy and one vicious guard dog.
The guy is there to feed the dog.
The dog is there to prevent the guy from fiddling with the network.
Why don't we just get rid of the users instead?
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
My friends at work and I were discussing this type of "solution", the ones with marketing hype like "Buy this product, and you won't need a sysadmin!" Yeah, right. We decided it might be easier to make a product that replaces CEOs. I took ALICE (an Eliza-like bot), and modified it so that when it didn't understand what was going on, it would spout Dilbertian managementspeak.
On a lesser scale I was an admin at a small company. After a few closed door meetings (without me) about how I really don't do anything they laid me off. This company relies on its internet connection just as much if not more than most small business. After dealing with the Northpoint bankrupcy I made an effort to provide an ISDN backup in case of DSL problems (no they werent paying for a T1). Its a simple set-up, if the DSL fails then you tell the netopia to use the ISDN. A couple weeks after I left the DSL card in the netopia died and according to someone there 'we had no internet for four days.'
Heh, serves em right. Whatever genius outsourcers theyre using didn't notice the obvious ISDN connection on the back of the router. Not to mention it was documented and I certainly wasn't the only one to know about it. Perhaps the netopia interface was too confusing?
Days of SysAdmin numbered? Now you tell me, just after renewed my subscription!
Whoo-hoo! Does this mean that the management can install their own XML RPC client-server .NET XML cross-platform multi-tiered Java paradigm?
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
A script kiddie has attacked the system!
Not to worry, a patch will automatically be downloaded to fix the vulnerability.
Patch isn't ready yet! And the exploit has disabled the autoupdate feature anyway!
Everyone, on your knees, time to pray like you've never prayed before!
Not working! Perhaps God requires a sacrifice!
Are there any sysadmins around?
No, already sacrificed.