"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."
Chinese Proverb
IT Degree = ~Like being given a fishing rod that only works in a few ponds
CS Degree = ~Like learning to fish, make fishing tools, find new lakes with fish, make lakes with fish, etc....
Im on hiatus right now, but this is my stylie...
0. coffee/breakfast/bicycle ride
1. Check monitoring systems/logs (yes I'm 24/7, but hey.. im paranoid too!)
2. Scan Emails/Bugtraq/Slashdot
3. Tackle difficult tasks with fresh mind
4. Lunch/Slashdot/Livejournal
5. Deal with routines - backups, etc..
6. Continue working..............
[ Life happens here ]
Aiee... i dont miss sysadminning much at all.
I'm completely NOT surprised. Growing up as a teenage coder geek (which was fun), I went on to get a CS degree (which was fun), and learned linux/perl/bash/etc.. on my own (fun). So I was digging tech, and then started taking jobs doing "unix systems administration". After 6+ yrs of working IT , I'm now out of the field, and I've learned many things since then...
Lets look at some factors for lack of IT workers -
- Most Universities dont teach IT skills. - IT positions are often catch-all positions for technical expertise - IT positions often require 24/7 work AND long hours - IT can be high stress, and job performance can mean the bottom line of a company - IT pay ususally doesnt match expectations AT ALL.
My suggestions to organizations that want to build a good IT infrastructure? HIRE MORE THAN ONE ADMIN. And I'm not just talking a "windows guy" and a "unix guy" here. Think about the roles that an IT admin could likely be required to fill -
- Architect the product/service - research/design/develop/deploy/enhance/support - Integrating and Support legacy systems - dealing with crashes, bad processes, etc.. - Purchasing/Recommending Hardware & Software - evaluate/compare, shop around, justify, deal with vendors - General Technologists - read journals, mailing lists, manuals - create new tasks based on these - Security - firewalls/viruses/vulns, set security policies, (reading/patching/upgrading etc..) - LAN/Internet/Server Room/COLO management - switches, firewalls, cabling, power, air cond., building & vendor management, etc.. - Storage and On/Offsite Backups - Tapes, vendors, capacity, business planning - End User Support - working with customers/project managers when things arent right - Desktop Support - Teaching basic computer skills, dirty mouse balls, listening to complaints, etc.. - Email - lists, spam, viruses, blackberries, failover SMTP relays, etc.. - Printing - repeatedly showing people how to fix paper jams, replacing toner, paper, etc. - Executive Laptops - Lost laptops, kids install games, break IT policies - Phone systems - VOIP, POTS, vendor management - Monitoring/Alerting - maintain reporting systems, responding to alerts - Work with Engineers - Understand/Explain/Refute/Fix system Platform/Performance problems - Corp Website - hosting, updating changes to customer facing websites - 5+ yrs experience with XXX, YYY, ZZZ specialized skill sets (applications/databases/languages) - Ability to Self Motivate & Manage, Prioritize, Communicate, etc..
So yeah. I've done these. Concurrently. I've burned myself out at several companies after 1-2 yrs at each, and needed many months to recover. I thought I'd do better by doing consulting, instead I found myself doing all the same things, for multiple companies at a time! Maybe its the curse of being capably minded, but I've said FUCK THIS "lifestyle". I got tired of never getting a full nights sleep, commuting to the Valley, COLO's, etc. Its always VERY hard for me to leave any position. It always takes months of planning/hiring/training replacements, etc..
I thought I wanted money. I thought I might get rich. Now, I know I was missing out on living. I've got an hourly job paying the bills, and I can actually take sick days, and vacation! Thats almost unheard of in sysadmin worlds.
Computers and technology were my passion. Still are. But I wont be working in IT for a LONG time.
Personally, I'm a linux guy. But when I've got to image windows, I use their sysprep tools from the resource kit cd's, and then use ntfsclone from the ntfsprogs package to do the actual backup and restore.
Conceptually, the whole thing is easy. Sysprep removes the windows registry identification, device map, and just redetects them upon first boot. However, theres a few steps you'll need to do after restoring from sysprep, but you can automate them. Things like having a random hostname generated for you. OK, not the best - so I make cygwin part of the image, and hack up some bash script to do a reverse DNS lookup on the localhost IP (from static MAC based DHCP lease), and have it rename itself using the netdom tools. Agh... oh yeah, so you pretty much need cygwin to automate your imaging process if you're going to use sysprep. Given enough time you can make it smo~oth, but you gotta sit down and hack it.
Slashdot Mirror
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." Chinese Proverb IT Degree = ~Like being given a fishing rod that only works in a few ponds CS Degree = ~Like learning to fish, make fishing tools, find new lakes with fish, make lakes with fish, etc....
Im on hiatus right now, but this is my stylie... 0. coffee/breakfast/bicycle ride 1. Check monitoring systems/logs (yes I'm 24/7, but hey.. im paranoid too!) 2. Scan Emails/Bugtraq/Slashdot 3. Tackle difficult tasks with fresh mind 4. Lunch/Slashdot/Livejournal 5. Deal with routines - backups, etc.. 6. Continue working.............. [ Life happens here ] Aiee... i dont miss sysadminning much at all.
I'm completely NOT surprised. Growing up as a teenage coder geek (which was fun), I went on to get a CS degree (which was fun), and learned linux/perl/bash/etc.. on my own (fun). So I was digging tech, and then started taking jobs doing "unix systems administration". After 6+ yrs of working IT , I'm now out of the field, and I've learned many things since then...
Lets look at some factors for lack of IT workers -
- Most Universities dont teach IT skills.
- IT positions are often catch-all positions for technical expertise
- IT positions often require 24/7 work AND long hours
- IT can be high stress, and job performance can mean the bottom line of a company
- IT pay ususally doesnt match expectations AT ALL.
My suggestions to organizations that want to build a good IT infrastructure? HIRE MORE THAN ONE ADMIN. And I'm not just talking a "windows guy" and a "unix guy" here. Think about the roles that an IT admin could likely be required to fill -
- Architect the product/service - research/design/develop/deploy/enhance/support
- Integrating and Support legacy systems - dealing with crashes, bad processes, etc..
- Purchasing/Recommending Hardware & Software - evaluate/compare, shop around, justify, deal with vendors
- General Technologists - read journals, mailing lists, manuals - create new tasks based on these
- Security - firewalls/viruses/vulns, set security policies, (reading/patching/upgrading etc..)
- LAN/Internet/Server Room/COLO management - switches, firewalls, cabling, power, air cond., building & vendor management, etc..
- Storage and On/Offsite Backups - Tapes, vendors, capacity, business planning
- End User Support - working with customers/project managers when things arent right
- Desktop Support - Teaching basic computer skills, dirty mouse balls, listening to complaints, etc..
- Email - lists, spam, viruses, blackberries, failover SMTP relays, etc..
- Printing - repeatedly showing people how to fix paper jams, replacing toner, paper, etc.
- Executive Laptops - Lost laptops, kids install games, break IT policies
- Phone systems - VOIP, POTS, vendor management
- Monitoring/Alerting - maintain reporting systems, responding to alerts
- Work with Engineers - Understand/Explain/Refute/Fix system Platform/Performance problems
- Corp Website - hosting, updating changes to customer facing websites
- 5+ yrs experience with XXX, YYY, ZZZ specialized skill sets (applications/databases/languages)
- Ability to Self Motivate & Manage, Prioritize, Communicate, etc..
So yeah. I've done these. Concurrently. I've burned myself out at several companies after 1-2 yrs at each, and needed many months to recover. I thought I'd do better by doing consulting, instead I found myself doing all the same things, for multiple companies at a time! Maybe its the curse of being capably minded, but I've said FUCK THIS "lifestyle". I got tired of never getting a full nights sleep, commuting to the Valley, COLO's, etc. Its always VERY hard for me to leave any position. It always takes months of planning/hiring/training replacements, etc..
I thought I wanted money. I thought I might get rich. Now, I know I was missing out on living. I've got an hourly job paying the bills, and I can actually take sick days, and vacation! Thats almost unheard of in sysadmin worlds.
Computers and technology were my passion. Still are. But I wont be working in IT for a LONG time.
Personally, I'm a linux guy. But when I've got to image windows, I use their sysprep tools from the resource kit cd's, and then use ntfsclone from the ntfsprogs package to do the actual backup and restore.
Conceptually, the whole thing is easy. Sysprep removes the windows registry identification, device map, and just redetects them upon first boot. However, theres a few steps you'll need to do after restoring from sysprep, but you can automate them. Things like having a random hostname generated for you. OK, not the best - so I make cygwin part of the image, and hack up some bash script to do a reverse DNS lookup on the localhost IP (from static MAC based DHCP lease), and have it rename itself using the netdom tools. Agh... oh yeah, so you pretty much need cygwin to automate your imaging process if you're going to use sysprep. Given enough time you can make it smo~oth, but you gotta sit down and hack it.
And if this was linux, I'd say use SIS.
--
RTFM, cause bitches love dat shit.