You're starting out as a System Administrator. What challenges should you prepare to face?

As a System Administrator, you'll regularly invest time in learning. Attend training sessions, obtain certifications, and stay updated with industry trends by following tech news, blogs, and forums. Develop expertise in multiple platforms (e.g., Linux, Windows, cloud services). Practice setting up, maintaining, and troubleshooting these systems in a lab environment.

The IT realm is a forever changing environment, as such the skill sets needed to maintain that environment are also changing. Not just relating to the underlying technology a system administrator is supporting but also towards the compliance and regulatory frameworks that are merging to be part of the technology realm. Embracing the idea of being a constant learner is the essence of a system administrator.

As a System Administrator, you are the guardian of your organization's digital realm. Your expertise in navigating the ever-evolving landscape of technology is vital to ensure the smooth functioning of the IT infrastructure. Embrace the role of an eternal learner, constantly seeking knowledge and staying attuned to the latest software and hardware developments. By doing so, you become a master of adaptation, capable of swiftly addressing challenges and implementing innovative solutions. Your commitment to continuous education empowers you to protect your organization from inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities, paving the way for seamless operations and unparalleled success.

As a sysadmin your position is at the primary level to interject your skills to improve an environment. Understanding your role can help build a great support team to be a force for learning and skill development.

As a System Administrator, your focus should be on securing your organization's IT infrastructure. Implement strong access controls, like multi-factor authentication, and regularly review user privileges. Stay updated with patches and security updates for software and operating systems. Secure your network with firewalls and encryption, and monitor for suspicious activity. Regularly backup critical data and train employees on security best practices. Develop an incident response plan to handle security incidents effectively. Stay proactive and vigilant to protect your organization's assets and maintain stakeholder trust.

As a System Administrator, learn about the latest security practices, tools, and vulnerabilities. Engage in continuous learning about cybersecurity and consider obtaining certifications like CompTIA Security+ or CISSP.

The Sysadmin is the gate keeper for the environment, being sure that threats are identified and mitigated is a primary role, understanding the importance of patching is the first step of system security.

The sysadmins role has many layers, understanding the DR functionality of your environment and testing that process is ever important, the same with data protection, being sure what your backing can be restored successfully when needed, testing this is paramount.

As a System Administrator, backups are the backbone of any disaster recovery strategy, but you may initially need more hands-on experience with the various backup solutions and strategies. Familiarize yourself with the organization’s backup solutions. Practice performing backups and restoring data in a test environment. Understand different types of backups (full, incremental, differential) and how to verify their integrity.

"Backup, Backup, Backup", is the rallying cry of any system administrator. However, to be truly great at disaster recovery, the backup is merely the start of the journey. Testing of the backup, and reestablishing the critical systems that support the data is the next step in securing a well rounded, and effective, disaster recovery strategy.

It really depends on the size of the organization, or how narrowly or broadly defined your role is, but even as a system administrator, you still have to be prepared to be on support tickets. Obviously the help desk / desktop support team should take the first line of defense, but still be ready to be the final escalation point.

As a System Administrator, you will have some topics. Users will come to you with various technical problems, ranging from simple issues like password resets to complex system errors. Develop a broad understanding of the systems and software used in your organization. Familiarize yourself with common problems and troubleshooting steps for each. Building a knowledge base can help you resolve recurring issues more efficiently. Users may have high expectations for how quickly their issues should be resolved, sometimes expecting immediate fixes. Communicate clearly about expected response times and the complexity of the problem. Prioritize tasks based on urgency and impact and manage expectations by providing realistic timelines for resolution.

Remembering that a user is coming to you, often, in a time of frustration is a key point in maintaining a positive relationship. Reassurance that the issue will get resolved, and reliance on the collective knowledge of your team to remedy a user's issue should be conveyed. Fostering the rapport, that a client is being heard, while correcting an issue, is fine balancing act and can be achieved with practice.

A Sysadmins job is like an onion, it has many layers, user support is a vital role of the job, helping users with issues in access, storage and many other facets.

Look for "private" networks that got Internet access at some point. Using a mobile modem or similar. This is a constant source of security issues, as the network is likely lightly protected

A network sysadmins job encompasses many layers, security, access, reliability, communication. All of these things are part of thelis role.

As a System Administrator, automation requires proficiency with various tools and scripting languages like PowerShell, Bash, Python, or Puppet. Mastering these can be daunting for a beginner. Start by learning the basics of your environment's commonly used scripting languages and automation tools. Focus on one tool or language at a time, and practice by automating simple, repetitive tasks. Online courses, tutorials, and hands-on labs are excellent resources to build your skills. Analyze your daily tasks and workflows to identify repetitive, time-consuming tasks that follow a predictable pattern—these are ideal candidates for automation. Consider the potential impact of automation on system stability and user experience before proceeding.

In 2024, learn automation tools like Ansible and/or Terraform/OpenTofu. They allow you to configure your network with a script

Previous mentions of learning basic scripting languages as well as incorporating those with automation tools is essential. In addition, try to break down the automation tasks in smaller pieces. Too often many people try to automate everything all at once. Slow and steady, with bit size pieces, will result in a better understanding of the logic involved with any automation task sequence. Then build on the small victories and conduct an orchestra.