Re: ISeries System Admin, what do they do? -- MIDRANGE-L

Comments thruout, in-line.

HI I am trying to focus on the most important tasks
that an admin does.


To paraphrase Bill Clinton on "is", what's "important"?

Is it more important what we know, that no one else knows, but any givenknow-how is randomly needed in a "help desk" context but we might go weeksbetween any given know-how needed.Or, is it more important what we do, that other people could do, on a dayto day basis?

Add to Paul's list: When stuff goes wrong, & there's lots of differentscenarios, the computer staff collectively need to know all possiblecontributing causes; know probabilities to check out first; know how bestto capture relevant clues; able to cope when multiple intermittent causes.

When someone (outside IT) asked me what I "do", I once said the computersystem is like a new fangled train carrying the company rapidly throughopportunities in commerce. I am the train engineer, constantly figuringout new ways to operate the train faster and more smoothly so Y"all can getmore work done. Unfortunately, there is an occasional derailment, when itis my job to get the train back on track with a minimum of disruption.

From this perspective, I spending a fair amount of time shoveling coalinto the boilers.

There is a gigantic difference between normal work activities and importantknow how that needs to be called upon,, typically to resolve unexpected crises.

Leaving aside an CL or RPG programming.

Also DDS SQL menu-creation, and spectrum of activities ... where doesprogramming leave off and security begin? I consider security to be asub-set of both programming and operations, because they all intertwined.

Add to John's perspective: If you separate out hardware, programming,operations, security to be handled by different people, then the admin mustenforce policies so security, performance, troubleshooting, not hamstrungor subverted by expecting people in one area to do their job with zerocomprehension of implications to the others. Examples:* programs can be written that mess up performance and circumvent security,not deliberately, but by failing to expect programmers to have a modicum ofcomprehension of these implications

* testing can fail to appreciate a spectrum of things that can go wrong

* lack of good naming conventions, consistently applied, can converttroubleshooting from a challenge to a nightmare

What do you or your admin, do in a
typical day/week?

It depends on total IT staff crew division of responsibilities across ITand across corporate. In my case programming projects are fill-in when notdoing what I call "operations" which includes: accounting tasks; reportdelivery; random data mining to answer questions; observing co-workers andsuggesting alternatives to help their productivity.


There is no such thing as a typical day/week.
There are typical duties.
There are many tasks with typical results.

If you were hiring an admin, what experience/knowledge
are you looking for foremost?

Consummate Diplomat, familiar with inner workings of our package & able tofix stuff without any screw-ups, when typically the symptoms described bythe direct witnesses (computer users) are skew to what is really going on.

Thank you very much!

You'll probably get a poor administrator if you looking for only a handfulof skills.

Do you need someone who can perform any task within IT?

Do you need a technical manager who understands what the other skills aredoing and can conduct peer review of testing, or do you merely need someonewho knows what to expect from competent individuals in any professional area?Do you need someone who understands enough of computing outside of theiSeries/400 to recognize what practices might undermine security or othervalues, and knows how to check whether such poor practices are in place?

Mike


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Al Macintyre  http://www.ryze.com/go/Al9Mac
BPCS/400 Computer Janitor ... see
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html