What's in a Name?

by Barbara Dijker
<barb@usenix.org>

Barbara Dijker is currently SAGE president. She's been sysadminning for about 12 years and runs a couple of ISPs.

Recently SAGE has been trying to get more exposure for the organization and system administration. In doing so, I've been talking to many folk who don't run in our crowd. I've run into something I didn't expect.

It would seem that to those coming from the Microsoft side of the universe, the term "systems administration" is used only to refer to UNIX systems administration. Those whom we would call system administrators of Microsoft systems actually call themselves network administrators.

I find this confusing. In our view of the world, network administrators have nothing to do with Microsoft. They're the folks who work exclusively on our LAN or WAN, being responsible for managing IP address space, router configuration, setting up VLANs, etc. Sometimes we as system administrators do this too, so we might say "system and network administration." We do that to be inclusive of network-specific tasks, not inclusive of Microsoft. Many folks I would call network administrators call themselves network engineers (probably when they get their CCIE), and they insist it would be inappropriate for us to call ourselves system engineers.

At first I thought maybe this was just a one-off, the perspective of a lone confused person. But I've heard it over and over again. A Microsoft admin came to one of our SAGE local group meetings. The terminology was a source of confusion as a result, because the topic was system administrator salary survey results and included NT administrators. I also pinged some folks about it while at the SANE conference in the Netherlands. The same discrepancy is apparent outside the U.S. as well. The most recent jobs survey from the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) doesn't identify system administration as a job category, because they use network administration. Supposedly this is a "standard" they got from the North-west Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET).

I'm also at a loss as to where this terminology came from. Is it a remnant from the Novell days? Is it Microsoft spin? Is it because the term "system" has been used more with mainframes than with desktop workstations and workgroup servers? Is it Microsoft's emphasis on network services, e.g., you log into the network, not the server?

Should we care? If we really think that "systems administration" as a profession is independent of architecture, then we should care. In the entire history of SAGE, I recall no intention of being exclusive to UNIX. In fact, every year SAGE discusses how better to reach out to our Microsoft brethren. The terminology makes a tangible difference in little things like trying to reach the right audience for events such as the LISA-NT conference. The name alone tells those from the Microsoft universe that it is a conference for UNIX system administrators who are forced to deal with NT. That's of course not the intention of the conference at all.

I'm not quite sure what to do about this. Continuing what we have been doing can't hurt: raising awareness of SAGE and systems administration as we see it, with no barriers. Until we can figure out a good way to resolve this discrepancy, SAGE will be referred to as SNAG. ;-)

Miscellaneous News

Progress on the SAGE Certification Project is continuing. An expanded SAGE Certification Policy Committee will be meeting August 1, 2000, in Seattle, Washington, USA, to make some decisions about the program that are necessary preliminaries to the development of the exams.

A successful 2nd International System Administration & Neworking Conference sponsored by NLUUG, USENIX and NLnet, was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in May. It was attended by over 600 system administrators from almost 30 countries. Conference summaries will be published in a future issue of ;login:.

The Computing Research Association (CRA) Conference at Snowbird 2000 is being held July 9—11, 2000. This is a conference of chairs of university computer science and computer engineering departments. At this conference, David Parter of the SAGE Executive Committee will be chairing a session on systems administration courses and the CS curriculum. The session will cover background on the field; existing systems administration courses; curriculum issues, including integration into the existing CS curriculum; and other issues likely to be encountered in creating and sustaining a systems administration course. Speakers include David Parter (University of Wisconsin and SAGE), Jerry Neece (Sun Microsystems), and Evi Nemeth (University of Colorado). For more information about the event, see <http://www.cra.org/Activities/Snowbird00.html>.

SAGE is expanding its outreach by increasing its presence at non—SAGE-sponsored events. You can help by coordinating a SAGE BoF or talk at a non-USENIX conference or workshop in your area. For support information and literature, contact <gale@usenix.org>.

SAGE is initiating a new project geared toward students interested in systems administration. This program, the Student SysAdmin Internship Program, links administrators of university computing environments with students who want on-the-job experience. For more information, contact Peg Schafer <peg@usenix.org>.

USENIX has established a new international research exchange program, ReX (Research Exchange). System administrators should apply. Contact <rex@usenix.org> for more information.

The SAGE Executive Committee will meet next during the LISA-NT conference in Seattle, Washington, USA, on July 31, 2000. We hope to see you there.

Growing SysAdmin as a Profession: Local Groups

by Bruce Alan Wynn
<wynn@sage.org>

Bruce Alan Wynn is a member of the SAGE STG Executive Committee.

One of the foundations of the SAGE charter is the desire to advance the status of computer systems administration as a profession. One of the efforts to accomplish this is the sharing of information about our profession among our members. This is accomplished in the "hallway track" at conferences, on the "sage-members" mailing list, and by sharing information locally within a given geographical area.

Not everyone can attend conferences to participate in the "hallway track," and not everyone can benefit from a mailing list with thousands of members. Most people, however, can participate on a smaller scale and contribute to the larger effort.

A Local Group is simply a group of system administrators in a given geographical area who meet periodically to exchange information about technology, tools, events, job openings, and anything else related to our chosen career.

Why form a local group?

In any area, there are probably a number of system administrators who could benefit from the sharing of information. It is not always clear, however, who those people are. A local group provides a common meeting ground that is not tied to a specific employer or vendor, where technical professionals can meet at a predefined time and location.

Further, if you're reading this you're likely already a SAGE member. But do you know who the other SAGE members are in your area? Do you exchange information with them? Do you promote SAGE when you talk to other sysadmins? A local group can do all of these things for you!

What is a SAGE local group?

Any sysadmin group can be affiliated with SAGE. The benefits of this affiliation include limited rights to use the SAGE name and logo, listing of the local group on the SAGE Web site, and SAGE mailing list support. The group must maintain a purpose consistent with that of SAGE — generally speaking, to advance the systems administration profession.

Who can participate in a SAGE local group?

SAGE local groups must maintain an open membership, allowing membership to any system administrator in the defined geographical area. This means that meeting locations must be open to the general public, not within a secured facility.

Who can form a SAGE local group?

The founding of a SAGE local group requires a minimum of two SAGE members. If you need assistance in finding additional SAGE members in your area, either for the founding of the group or to notify local members of the group's formation, you can get assistance by sending email to <office@usenix.org>.

Other details of SAGE local group requirements are available on the SAGE Web site and include:

• Represent a defined geographical area;
• Meet at least four times per year;
• Not organized for profit;
• At all times have at least two members who are members of SAGE (designated sponsors).

How can I form a SAGE local group?

Forming a SAGE local group is very easy. Proposals requesting recognition as a local group should reflect the criteria described above and should be sent by email to Gale Berkowitz <gale@usenix.org>.

For more information about SAGE local groups, please see <http://www.usenix.org/sage/locals/sage-localgroups.html>.