[AusNOG] Time for AusSOG I think (was Re: Happy Sysadminday)

[Andrew Fort]

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Narelle <narellec at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Mark Smith
> <nanog at 85d5b20a518b8f6864949bd940457dc124746ddc.nosense.org> wrote:
>>
>> What are sysadmins doing on a _network operator_ mailing list?
>
> Alright, I'll bite.

;)

> Over recent times I have seen a distinct divergence in the skill sets
> of competent network operators/engineers/admins that is IMHO less than
> helpful. People on the networking side have had somewhat of a fixation
> on routers, ethernet switches and some related gear (eg voice or
> transmission kit) to the detriment of the rest of the stuff that make
> networks work: DNS, NTP, crucial databases, radius, OSS, web and mail
> servers. These things are essential and most of the new network
> elements that gradually make their way as mainstream gear start their
> life as unix based systems, especially protocol gateways.

Completely.  I've often fought with managers in previous lives who
want their network admins to be solely focused on the network and have
no other training.  These people (always men) have always been wrong
and they've always wondered why they don't get the results they want
from their staff.

> Surely people still run DNS and GateD??

The one network architect left that has a clue does that, doesn't she?
 </sarcasm>

> Time was the good network administrator was also a respectable
> sysadmin. I've met more than one netadmin in recent times that can't
> even find their way around a *nix file system.

Unfortunately I've seen this far too often in recent years also.  This
may be the reason I'm weary of those with networking certificates but
little or no systems experience.  If people aren't excited about
building systems (incorporating all of these things), they're going to
suck, frankly.

> I think this again runs to the important skills needed on the ground
> to run a network, as well as the nature of Best Practice in IP
> networking. SO please don't get me started on how this leads to a lack
> of understanding of protocols...

Totally. Networking involves just as much of the requirements of basic
logic as programming does. I think logic and basic programming classes
should be compulsory at all universities for all students, but I
digress.

Networking protocols are distributed, and have been for years before
RPC protocols were 'cool', from the days that distributed computing
was still a research oddity.  We cannot expect people to debug BGP if
they don't have an idea about how the network makes decisions
individually that affect the network as a whole.

In short, I'd only hire someone who understands the ideas of, or
tinkers with unix, as a network administrator.

-- 
Andreux Fort (afort at choqolat.org)