What is the role of the system administrator?

Duties of a system administrator
The duties of a system administrator are enormous and vary widely from one organization to another. System administrators are generally responsible for installing, supporting and maintaining servers or other IT systems, as well as planning and responding to service outages and other problems. Other activities may include scripting or light programming, project management related to systems related projects.

The system administrator is responsible for the following:
User administration (account setup and maintenance)
Maintenance system
Verify that the devices are working properly
Quickly repair hardware repair in case of hardware failure
Monitor system performance
Create file system
Install the software
Create a backup and restore policy
Monitor network communication
Update the system as soon as the new version of the operating system and application software is released
Implement policies for the use of the IT system and the network.
Configure security policies for users. A system administrator must have a solid understanding of computer security (e.g. firewalls and intrusion detection systems)
Documentation in the form of an internal wiki
Password and identity management
System administrator and cloud computing
Cloud computing is nothing more than a large number of computers connected via the Internet / Wan. Cloud computing is now part of the technology and system administrators must rely on:

Automation software such as puppets, cooks, etc.
Cloud infrastructure like AWS, Openstack, etc.
Network services in the cloud, such as content distribution networks (Akamai, CloudFront, etc.) and DNS servers.
Control source
Design of best practices for backups and the entire infrastructure.
What is special about the system administrator account?
The root account has full (unrestricted) access, so you can do anything with the system. For example, root can remove critical files from the system. Also, files cannot be restored in any other way than by using tape backups or disk-based backup systems.

Many system administration tasks can be automated using Perl / Python or shell scripts. For example:
Create new users
Reset user password
Lock / unlock user accounts
Monitor server security
Supervise special services, etc.
Most important skill for a system administrator
Troubleshooting, period. This can sometimes lead to all kinds of restrictions and stress. When the workstation or server is turned off, it is called to solve the problem. You should be able to diagnose the problem quickly and correctly. You have to understand what is wrong and how to solve it better in a short time.

System administrators are not ...
Cookie cutting software engineers.
Developers
In general, it is not the user's task to design new application software.
However, it is necessary to understand the behavior of the software to distribute it and solve problems, and in general it should be good in various programming languages ​​used for creating scripts or automating routine activities such as shell, awk, perl, python etc. .

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Tasks & Competences of the System Administrator

In information technology (IT), a system administrator (sysadmin) is a person who supports a multi-user IT environment and ensures continuous and optimal performance of IT services and support systems.
The job responsibilities of the system administrator vary widely among employers. In a large company, the value system administrator can be used to describe any administrator responsible for a specialized IT system such as the one that supports servers. Depending on the specialty, the system administrator may also be known as a data center administrator, network operations center administrator, virtualization administrator, server administrator, or database administrator.
Smaller IT departments generally offer the system administrator a broader range of responsibilities, and in some organizations, a system administrator may need anything from end-user desktops to the local area network (LAN). ) of the organization, wireless LAN (WLAN), voice over IP (VoIP) system and hybrid cloud in the cloud. Depending on the culture of the organization, the system administrator may also be called a system operator (SysOp) or an application support engineer (ASE). Check the system administrator daily duties below.

Tasks and competences of the system administrator:
Due to the wide range of job responsibilities for system administrators in various organizations, the requirements for professional skills of system administrators are often wide, as are wage ranges. In general, system administrators should feel comfortable working with applications and file servers, desktops, networks, databases, information security systems and archiving. Familiarity with multiple operating systems, as well as scripts and programming, is often required. More and more virtualization and cloud computing skills have become essential for the job.

Since tasks typically include provisioning, configuring and managing physical and virtual servers, as well as software running on the servers and the hardware that supports them, a system administrator should be comfortable with installation and IT resource troubleshooting, creating and managing user accounts, updating and patching software, and performing backup and restore tasks.

Non-technical skills are equally important for system administrators. Because the system administrator interacts with people in many areas of IT and business, social skills (social skills) are as necessary as physical skills. When IT services are slow or not working at all, a system administrator should be able to work under pressure, read a situation as it develops, and quickly decide on a response that will produce the best result for everyone involved.

IT system administrator certifications
System administrators should have at least one, but preferably more, certifications for the job. Depending on the technologies used within a company, common on-demand certifications include Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), CompTIA Server +, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA).

Key Factors of IT Help Desk

Customer satisfaction:

A good help desk improves customer satisfaction if it is active responsive, helps users constantly and does everything possible to provide technical assistance. This supports the company's goals and facilitates the growth of its business by increasing the number of returning customers.

Improving product quality:

Helpdesk acts as the first place for recording customer complaints, problems and problems. The help desk not only has to try to solve these problems, but is also responsible for keeping track of all complaints, the type and level of repetition; they also intensify the summary of product issues and deficiencies for the development team. Therefore, the helpdesk serves as the most important source of feedback for the development team who, by acting on these reports, can update and improve the product.

Productivity Improvement:

In addition to registering complaints, the help desk also handles complaint management and resolution. Using various procedures such as ticketing or the labeling system, they effectively handle complaints to the desired resolution centers. This provides clarity, prevents confusion at work and also reduces the time needed to solve the problem. All these factors increase operating times and efficiency and lead to higher productivity.

cost reduction:

It is worth implementing any process or procedure only if it translates into long term savings for the company. The performance of a help desk requires human resources, software and hardware with the extra costs involved. However, these explicit costs are offset by the higher implied return through better productivity, higher product quality, customer satisfaction, etc. In addition, it saves by providing real-time feedback on product or service issues and acts as a general resolution center. to conduct post-release surveys and waste skilled members in low-productivity activities.

Also read : it help desk solutions

What is a Service Desk?

The definition of the ITIL service table is as follows: "One aspect of the relationship between the service provider and the customer. This is a common game that deals with events and requests." and create connections with users. "

This definition may seem unrealistic and predictable, so it's a very simple way to put it: a service table is a great place to find customers (like employees). ) or other people involved) assistance from their service providers. Since ITIL calls a service provider, this support can provide the highest level of security or service guarantee, but regardless of the type of assistance provided. provided, the goal of a service desk is to provide high quality service to people in real time.

Stores often include many ITSM businesses. For example, the service table often includes ITSM functions including service planning, performance management, skills management, personal services and reporting. There are also strong links to change management problems and processes.

The IT services table helps customers manage applications or applications, which creates and manages the department, offers specialized services that want to solve complex problems quickly and provides solutions to the team and tool. Services may include more or less of this, but the idea is that they are powerful, service-oriented and how the customer provides IT support to the customer. 

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Advantages of an IT helpdesk

Savings and scalability

Cost savings and scalability are the two most common benefits sought by companies when implementing an IT support service. A service center with adequate and well-managed staff can handle much of the routine IT work. The service center offers organizations a relatively inexpensive option to transfer the simple work of expensive teams of engineers and subject matter experts, allowing them to focus on activities that add more value to the business. The service center can also provide the company with a means of providing ongoing support for global operations and distributed user communities.

A finger on the pulse of the user's Sentiment

The service desk is the starting point for many key IT processes and services and as such is often the main interface between users, business processes and IT departments that activate them. Monitoring this interaction provides valuable insight into user satisfaction, feelings about unfulfilled services and features, and unmet needs that could potentially be addressed by IT departments in the future.

Early warning of potential problems

Due to the volume of problems and requests managed by the service center, with the appropriate data and tools to evaluate models and trends, the organization can use the service center as a monitoring tool to identify and solve preventive service problems. The "rapid alert system" provided by the service center can allow proactive problem management, preventive maintenance and changes to the service to reduce the impact of outages and degradation of the service on users.

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Help desk vs Service desk

The page does not load, the application continues to close and access does not seem to work: in our fast-paced multimedia world, technical difficulties are inevitable. Although it is almost impossible to avoid possible problems with our tools and technology systems, you can design the appropriate IT support solution according to the needs of your organization. Help tables and service tables that work well play a role in solving these technical challenges. While there are many discussions about what makes each one different or separate, and when or how to distribute the correct one, it is increasingly clear that as technology continues to evolve and our challenges are even more complex, the most useful discussion could be how two intersect for a more optimal solution.

Help desk

The help desk is simply the department called when you need to solve unexpected problems within your IT infrastructure as soon as possible. If a problem occurs, staff members search, identify and resolve. To do this, the help desk stands out for its close connection with the end user, which depends on its accessibility and responsiveness. Therefore, the help desk facilitates daily functionality for staff and end users, often with short-term solutions, whose main feature is immediate efficiency.

Service Desk

The service desk focuses on the big picture with long-term solutions, new developments and provides a coordinated strategic approach to manage IT services. Although it can carry out all the activities that a technical assistance service can carry out, it works to provide a wide range of IT services, in the formalization of daily processes and new elements with service catalogs, in addition to functioning as a single contact point to communicate. outside and inside. The service desk operates throughout the organization, with the general objective of optimizing all IT and business processes, including the help desk.

IT Technical Support Technician

Help desk technicians provide technical support to IT end users. Help desk technicians are critical to the IT workforce, as they maintain the technologies that organizations rely on to make updated business and run smoothly.

IT help desk technicians provide technical support and troubleshooting services to end users who need assistance with their computer hardware or software. There are two main types of technical support technicians: internal and remote. Technicians at the remote help desk support technology customers over the phone, online and occasionally on site. Internal technicians only support internal employees.

Help desk technicians require in-depth knowledge of computer hardware and software. Strong communication skills are also needed, as help desk specialists must effectively communicate solutions to both technical and non-technical people. The professional trajectory of the IT help desk is ideal for methodical solvers with the ability to learn quickly and adapt new skills. Patience, ingenuity and the desire to help others are desirable virtues in technical support and in the roles of the help desk.

Many IT professionals begin their careers as help desk technicians due to poor experience and education requirements, so when they are exposed to new IT disciplines and technologies they discover their niche and expand into other IT careers, such as The network administrator. . , DBA. or cyber security specialist. Other technicians will remain at the help desk and can leverage their experience to become help desk managers.

Also known as Technical Support Technician Technical Support Specialist Computer Support Engineer Computer Support Specialist Field Service Technician Technical Support Analyst

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