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Managing Young Sys Admins At Oregon State Open Source Lab

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the can't-beat-real-world-experience dept.

mstansberry writes "Lance Albertson, architect and systems administrator at the Oregon State University Open Source Lab, uses a sys admin staff of 18-21-year-old undergrads to manage servers for some high-profile, open-source projects (Linux Master Kernel, Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, and Drupal to name a few). In this Q&A, Albertson talks about the challenges of using young sys admins and the lab's plans to move from Cfengine to Puppet for systems management."

4 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Especially if they are training developers by xzvf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most universities don't teach good system management. The CS departments are training developers and programmers. Since good SA's like stability and good developers like chaos the two normally don't mix. Does OSU have a SA degree program?

  2. Lesson 1 by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The main thing that people that age need to learn (both professionally and personally) is that Their Actions Have Consequences.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  3. Sysadmins have good growth opportunity by omgwtfroflbbqwasd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While entry-level programmers may make a slightly higher salary than a similar systems administrator, over time there's a lot more upward opportunity for the sysadmin. Systems Engineering and Systems Architecture - being the guy that ties the network, the server, and the apps together, is a very in-demand skill and is something programmers will never have the opportunity to become. Programmers only make the big bucks when they have other specialized knowledge that's specific to the apps they are developing, i.e. finance, GIS, physics, etc..

    I'm personally glad I made the decision 12 years ago to move into systems after earning my Comp. Sci. degree. I went from web app development for an ISP to Linux/Solaris/HPUX sysadmin, to Systems Architecure, to Info Security.

  4. Re:Heh, they aren't admins by gchaix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I beg to differ. I've been a sysadmin for 15 years. The professionalism and quality of the work done by the students here at the OSL is quite often indistinguishable from many of the people I've worked with over the years. Many of the people working on our hosted projects can't tell whether they're working with our professional staff or student workers.

    We teach them to be sysadmins. They may not be sysadmins when they come to us, but they sure as hell are professional sysadmins when they leave.