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"Sysadmin of the Year" Winners Announced
lisah writes "Ten winners of this year's 'Sysadmin of the Year' contest have been announced and, while Robin 'Roblimo' Miller says it's not quite like winning the Miss America contest, being selected from approximately 2,500 entrants is nothing to sneeze at. This year's first place winner battled an office fire to save a RAID backup server, while another IT manager won an honorable mention for his dedicated work at a yarn store. From the article, '[The nominating entry said:] Any man who would take on a position at a yarn store, much less a technological position while surrounded by a dozen women, ages 55+ deserves some kind of reward...'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.
... battled an office fire to save a RAID backup server ...
Of course, the sysadmin did have a complete backup set of tapes stored offsite? I would think that company could afford to let the hardware go up in smoke instead of facing a possible lawsuit if the sysadmin died on the job.
It's a thin line between winner and (ultimate) loser:
Scenario 1:
Man risks life to save RAID server, and lives.
Reward: System admin of year, free t-shirt, maybe a free watch from company at holiday party.
Scenario 2:
Man risks life to save RAID server, dies in process.
Reward: Gets mentioned in every system admin journal of something you should not do.
Scenario 3:
Man backs up RAID server to remote location and evacuates building before it collapses.
Reward: Lives fruitful life with wife and kids.
I know that Hindsight is 20/20, but it had to be said.
How many of the companies these men work for would backstab them in a second if it meant higher profits?
The only reason I can think of for risking one's life to save a RAID array is if you hadn't taken proper backups and stored them offsite. If that is the case, then the guy hardly deserves a "Sysadmin of the Year" award. Basically, he'd be getting an award for doing a brave yet foolish thing in order to cover for his lack of planning.
I'm disgusted that such opinions are casually treated as acceptable in this day and age.
Well since it was written by 55+ year old women I'd give them some slack as they grew up in a different age and time.
Well, it could also be that the backups are done monthly, they put a significant amount of data on the server between cycles, and thus they would not be able to restore this latest data with the backup. But IMHO, except defending your country, there is no job really worth dying for.
---- Liquid was a patriot ----
Uh, everybody has parts of their job that they don't like. That doesn't make you a hero. It makes you an employee. Get over yourself.
...is people going into rooms with fires to rescue equipment or backups. People just don't realize how poisonous/noxious the fumes are from burning electronics; they think they can hold their breath, except they get a small whiff of the fumes up their nose, or need to take another breath because of exertion (that box of tapes wasn't as easy to find as they thought)- cough, suck in a nice big breath of poisonous smoke, and collapse a few seconds later. Poisonous fumes stick around even after a fire is out. Wait for the fire department to come and declare the room and building SAFE. If you need something specific, ask the dude with the SCBA pack to go and get it for you; if there's no serious danger to them, they'll probably oblige.
The infamous Blue Book warns clearly and repeatedly that backups should NEVER be stored in the same room because of these dangers. Employees/managers feel too tempted to do shit exactly like what "Sean Thomas" did.
If there is a fire, GET THE FUCK OUT. Period. Companies have insurance and should have off-site backups for this kind of stuff, and it's not your fault if they don't. It's also much better to be alive and living off unemployment or looking for a new job, than in the ER with no job...or dead.
Side note: is it just me, or was this "competition" just a stupid submitting of resumes with "nominations", and "be a good little worker bee" crap? "Michael Beck is a young go getter. The word "no" and phrase "I can't" are not in his vocabulary." Gimme a break...
Please help metamoderate.
Some companies aren't fortunate enough to have large hardware budgets. In fact, smaller companies operating on a shoestring are lucky to even afford the minimal hardware for day-to-day operations, much less setup a RAID server. As mentioned in the SAOTY submission, everyone else walked out of the burning building with their desktops - the sacrifice is that Sean took out the backup server to safety and let his own personal computer burn up in the fire. Yes, by personal I do mean that the company did not even provide a computer for the job. So, it was either take the RAID out or face telling 20 people that that was their last day of employment. The personal computer was where all our digital music (all legal I might add) was actually kept. ;-)
And just to give a scope of how devastating this fire actually was, noone in that building was allowed back in to salvage anything due to structural instability. Everything whether it might have been salvageable or not was bulldozed over. Without that backup machine, there would have been no hope picking the company up out of the ashes.
Some sysadmins have to work with what they are given. When you are given very little - in terms of hardware, budgets, and even a competitive salary - you have to make the best of things and just make it work.
Why is everyone still picking on this guy? I don't know who he worked for but.. if it was his father's home-office or the ONLY office in which the computer contained ALL client files, information, suppliers, and on-going contracts, that backup may have been worth thousands to them.
Also, why does everyone assume that this guy has thousands of dollars to build his/their own off-site backup solution? What if the person running this office was your father, and you were his "IT guy". The backup may have been in the next room over just for mirroring purposes and they would have never predicted a fire or other natural disasters, I would probably do the same thing, run in and save whatever you can.
Also, by "fire" they might mean the drapes caught on fire, or maybe the coffee machine, it doesn't mean the entire building was falling apart and the roof started to cave in.
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