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How Are You Celebrating National Sysadmin Day?

Posted by Unknown on from the bofh-demands-tribute dept.

jfruh writes "July 26 is Sysadmin Day, the system administrator's version of Secretary's Day. Are you giving your hardworking sysadmin the recognition they deserve? Blogger (and, yes, sysadmin) Sandra Henry-Stocker argues that a holiday like this is needed because due to the nature of their job, in everyday life sysadmins 'get noticed least when they do the best work' So if your systems run so smoothly that you sometimes forget you even have a sysadmin on staff, be sure to recognize them for their excellent work today."

29 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

    First I'm going to delete your inbox.

    Then I'm going to switch your phone extension with Larry in facilities management.

    And I think this afternoon I will take the Production environment down for a little while.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Hmmm ... by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      That's OK, I'm doing my best to beat the worst "luser" story that my current sysadmin has ever heard.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Hmmm ... by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      That's OK, I'm doing my best to beat the worst "luser" story that my current sysadmin has ever heard.

      Challenge accepted ... oh, and did I mention my assistant will be testing the sprinklers in your office today??

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Hmmm ... by DickBreath · · Score: 2

      Developers who treat their sysadmin this way are banished to an outer abode of darkness where they must forever try to create a flawless perfect and exhaustively complete software ecosystem using only COBOL and punched cards.

      If their sysadmin worked at Google, then the offending developer may only type on the keypunch machine using their toes.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    4. Re:Hmmm ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If he can get in. Windows update broke the security system, and now the door won't open from the outside.

      Unrelated to developers and admins ... a bunch of years ago we had a major power outage in our building (OK, it was a good chunk of North America, got some news coverage, you might have heard of it).

      Some idiot had decided that in the case of a power outage you wouldn't want to have the security doors open. So when the power dropped, the doors on some of the exits essentially locked down and simply could not be opened -- inside or out.

      So here's a whole bunch of people streaming down the stairwell, only to find themselves at a door which wouldn't open from the inside -- if it had been a real emergency with fire, people would have died.

      Some failure conditions in doors can be catastrophic.

      It took me several weeks to get it through HR and the building owners that emergency doors which lock you inside in the event of a power loss are safety hazards. Eventually the light-bulb went off and they suddenly grasped that I was telling them something they needed to act on.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Hmmm ... by davester666 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why did you waste the effort? Drive to the local fire stationhouse, and tell them the doors won't open from the inside. They will be able to make it clear to the people MUCH faster.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    6. Re:Hmmm ... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      This. The doors in my office require power to stay closed, AND are tied into the fire alarm. If the fire alarm goes off or the backup battery runs out, all the doors swing free. Unless a system meets these conditions it's illegal as all hell in any half-decently-developed country.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    7. Re:Hmmm ... by cusco · · Score: 2

      Your company's security contractors are idiots. There are two kind of door strikes, Fail Safe and Fail Secure. When power drops a Fail Safe door unlocks, this is required of all emergency exits by law in (AFAIK) all 50 states and probably the Canadian provinces. In most states the strike power supplies for emergency exit doors are also required to be tied into the fire system, so that if the fire system goes off they drop power to all doors. If your Facilities Manager didn't know this they need to be fired.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  2. In my country... by mfarah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This day is known only by the sysadmin themselves (and former sysadmins, as well), so we pat each other on the back, post a message on twitter and/or facebook and that's it.

    --
    "Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
    - Sledge Hammer
    1. Re:In my country... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      A good sys admin is like a Navy SEAL if you do a good job no one really knows what you do. : )

    2. Re:In my country... by Sporkinum · · Score: 2

      Most of the sysadmins that I work with don't use twitter and/or facebook.

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    3. Re:In my country... by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      Perhaps you should question your employers hiring practice and maybe look into filing a complaint with the DOL.

      There are lots of American sysadmins that can curse at you all day in American English just waiting to fill those jobs.

    4. Re:In my country... by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!

    5. Re:In my country... by Muros · · Score: 2, Funny

      Are you saying system administrators are gods?

      No, we're more in the Lord of the Files territory.

  3. Same as every year by Scutter · · Score: 4, Funny

    As usual, the only people who know (or care) about SysAdmin Day are sysadmins. Therefore, nothing is being done to celebrate it. Not even a free donut.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  4. How Are You Celebrating National Sysadmin Day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "How Are You Celebrating National Sysadmin Day?"

    The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!

  5. Same as I do every day by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dealing with incompetence and stupidity.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    1. Re:Same as I do every day by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dealing with incompetence and stupidity.

      It can be challenging, but don't let anyone else tell you what your limitations are.

      Oh, did you mean the users? ;-)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Same as I do every day by cusco · · Score: 2

      I'll be looking for tips in the BOFH Archives.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  6. Same as every day by Sparticus789 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Telling the developers, for the 76732198435 time, that their application is not important enough to warrant it's own server, they do not need root access, and I cannot fix their personal laptop.

    --
    sudo make me a sandwich
    1. Re:Same as every day by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      If they get too uppity give them a chroot that looks like the production environment. They won't figure out why nothing they do works for at least a week or two.

    2. Re:Same as every day by Sparticus789 · · Score: 2

      Everything you have described is a systems administrator task, and one worth his/her weight in salt would be able to do those in their sleep. Syslog will tell you the address of the DCHP server. Password management is in GUI form now. Bash is just a series of terminal commands.

      Sounds like you need to hire some new systems administrators.

      --
      sudo make me a sandwich
  7. Why didnt anyone tell me sooner by drummerboybac · · Score: 4, Funny

    Quick, I need A black T-Shirt(preferably with an antisocial saying in white block letters), some Mountain Dew(or preferably Jolt Cola), a Carpal Tunnel wrist brace, a desk piled with manuals and CD-R spindles, and a LOT of terminal windows open.

    Hmm, looks like I already have the terminal windows part covered........and the black T-Shirt...and the CDR Spindles

    Crap.

  8. Sysadmin Day Events and Discounts by WHiTe+VaMPiRe · · Score: 2

    We're celebrating in Columbus, OH this evening at the Three Legged Mare...

    http://eevent.com/lopsa-columbus/2013sysadminday

    Events all over the place, more listed here...

    https://lopsa.org/content/sysadmin-day-events

    LOPSA has a significant discount for renewing members and new members until Sunday...

    https://lopsa.org/content/sys%C2%A0admin-day-discount-until-728

    Happy System Administrator's Day!

  9. Custom app not important enough for own server? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're blowing cash on a dev team (let's say 5 folks at $120K/year each with benefits), you're going to try to save $1-2K a year so you don't have to host the final product (perhaps a publicly-facing final product) on its own server?

    And it's "its" dammit. Happy SysAdmin Day.

    1. Re:Custom app not important enough for own server? by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      $1-2k per year? What POS are you hosting that on? How are you paying for backups or redundancy?
      How are you handling maintenance?
      I don't want to be a dick here, but you sound like a typical developer. They generally have no idea what goes on to keep their crap working.

      This is why virtualization exists. For 99% of software it does not need its own hardware and virtualization makes redundancy cheaper, backups easier and life simpler for everyone.

  10. Re:How about we have "Kick a Sysadmin" day instead by TWiTfan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aim for the neckbeard, it's his weakest point.

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  11. For our sysadmins ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... we bought them all 512Gb flash drives. And vacations in Hong Kong.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. OP vs Admin by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

    I managed to get my old BBS functioning on an x86 beige box. So, I'm celebrating sysop day by hooking it up to my land line. I've only had a few legit visitors -- friends who recognized the sweet sound of a system ready to serve and managed to dial in.

    It's possible to set the GNU/Linux terminal font to CP437, and browse the board via raw console in all its ANSI art splendor.

    Having my BBS hold all my calls for a day is nicer than getting a few reminders thanks to the lamer who clogged the mail server failing to CC all, and instead sending hundreds of individual messages, Yay sysadmin day!... grr.