No more hiding in the server room

SysAdmin vs. Network Admin

Here's something that's always kind of been a curiosity of mine in the industry when it comes to people's opinions on titles and roles within the IT industry.

First off, I am a Network Administrator. I've never referred to myself as a Systems Administrator because, to me, that entails a more advanced skill set than I currently possess.

In my mind, if we had to use a tier structure, Network Administrator would be Tier 3 and Systems Administrator would be Tier 4. As such, I consider it pretty high, but undeserved, flattery when one of the people online call me a SysAdmin.

While I can maintain an existing (Microsoft, let me be specific since that's important) infrastructure pretty well and can set up all the necessary physical hardware for one, I'd be struggling if I ever had to set up one 'from scratch'.

The other day I was told by a SysAdmin online that "a Network Administrator is a wanna-be SysAdmin." This same individual couldn't configure a switch or even replace a motherboard to save his life so his opinion honestly means jack squat to me but it got me wondering.

What is the take on admin titles of other administrators out there?

In my mind, whether it's true or not is unknown, I view a Network Administrator as about 60% Hardware Setup/Support, 30% Advanced End-User Troubleshooting, and 10% OS/Software level infrastructure support.

For a Systems Administrator I'd say 80% OS/Software level infrastructure support, 15% Hardware Setup/Support, 5% direct End-User Support.

I have also noticed that the biggest majority of people I talk to online who have Systems Administrator as their official title are also almost exclusively Linux administrators. That, however, is probably an entirely different discussion concerning roles/titles.

These are rough percentages and pretty much personal opinion so feel free to correct me or give me your thoughts on it.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Angliss on January 17, 2011 at 9:09pm

This is a very interesting post. I've long had the title Sr. Network Administrator, even though I probably spend 90% of my time working on servers, desktops, storage, monitoring, customers, and software. That's not to say I don't do network work, I manage several firewalls, routers, switches, and load balancers. But they mostly take care of themselves, unless there is something drastically wrong.

In the past, I've been pointed to SAGE's definition of a system administrator (along with various levels), which is here. The problem is, according to SAGE, I work on a complex site, and I should be a level III, but I cannot be because I don't fit one of the required skills, UNIX clustering. Not that I don't know about clustering, I manage about 30 windows SQL clusters, and about 10 VMWare clusters.

Even LOPSA, another professional group for System Administrators, has troubles defining a system administrator's roles, which actually came up recently here.

As Cole said, 90% of the time, the title doesn't match the job. My title is network admin, but role seems to be system admin. Even wikipedia agrees.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Rigsby on January 17, 2011 at 9:25pm

Nice. By those descriptions I'd fall somewhere between a Junior SysAdmin and an Intermediate level one.

However, I couldn't script to save my life and I've never even so much as touched a *nix box before so those are pretty key gaps. I also have a pretty solid level of knowledge, but not much for hands on experience in Systems Administration. All my actual experience and certifications are around Network Admin and related hardware.

I also still can't help but see that the overwhelming majority of individuals who do hold the SysAdmin title, are working in a *nix environment. 'Windows SysAdmin' just seem to be few and far between.

Nevertheless, nice to see that I can hold my own with at least some of the relevant skills in the links you mentioned.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Bacon on January 18, 2011 at 2:39pm

It's an interesting take on what a job title does to a role. I regard myself as a sysadmin but I've forgotten most of my Linux skills (currently just running one ubuntu workstation for nagios). The rest of the kit I support is Wintel based......until you include VMWare. Where does that fall in the definitions table? Does having a working knowledge of Cisco IOS define me as something else?

For me these days the job title normally defines where someone is within the hierarchy of the company but their job doesn't necessarily reflect their job title. I think this is especially true in the SME sector where small IT departments end up being dependent on support staff who, if there good, know enough about everything to deliver the required support.

I know for a fact my job title doesn't define my role (or even come close to it) but it does define my place within the company.