New Blog

After thinking about it over the weekend, I'm going to switch over to a brand new blog, since I'll be posting about topics other than just SysAdmin stuff. So if you want to keep reading, head on over to http://roddheaton.blogspot.com/. I will keep this one, though, because I have a feeling I won't be away from being a SysAdmin for too long.

Shift in Focus

Well, wouldn't you know it, just as I got started writing a blog, I shift job roles! On New Year's Eve, I got an unexpected job offer from an HR person. Just like that. Not even an interview; just an offer. As it turned out, I had previously managed a NetWare network (I miss NetWare, by the way) as one part of my job. The primary users of that network have some somewhat unique requirements, and I helped them with those until I left that job. Eventually, they created a new position to address those needs, and it happened to match well with what I did for them before. Once they had the position approved and on the street, they asked their recruiter to go find me. And yes, it is nice to be wanted, thanks for asking. I considered the offer very carefully, because I was quite happy as a SysAdmin, and it represented a shift away from the core of what I'd always done. Ultimately, though, I took the job because my skill set matched so well with what they needed. So that's my excuse for not updating this blog.

And so, following my previous post about my realization that I should write about problem solving, and the fact that I've shifted away from a troubleshooting-focused job to one that encompases solving both technical and non-technical problems, I believe that I'm going to change the name of this blog to something more appropriate. Now, I only have to come up with a name. Any suggestions?

It's Problem Solving, You Idiot!

While discussing my generalist tendencies, my wife insightfully pointed out that my core talent is problem solving. That I'm good at problem solving is not really news to me; I know I'm good at it. However, it never really occurred to me that it's at the center of my professional successes. Looking at the highlights of my career, I see that they centered around problem solving. For example, as mentioned in my previous post, I was asked to take over the IT Security group to solve some outstanding issues. More recently, I was called by a previous coworker to come work for his company, because they had some problems that needed solving.

So I write this as a bit of personal realization, as opposed to sharing insights about lessons learned in the world of a SysAdmin. This leaves me wondering if there's a sexier name for "problem solving". I'm sure there is, and I'm equally sure I'd know what it was if I were less of a generalist. So now that I've proclaimed myself as a problem solver, it occurs to me that I have a somewhat recursive new problem to solve. Wish me luck!

The Areas of My Expertise

I'm "borrowing" the title of John Hodgeman's book, because that's what popped into my head when trying to come up with a title for this post, which is just to sort of set the initial direction for this blog. I started out my IT career right after graduating with my undergrad business degree. Like a lot of kids starting school, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. I sort of defaulted to the generalist degree of Business Administration, and I've been a bit of a generalist ever since. The downside to that is that I'm not an expert in any one field, but the upside is that I have varying degrees of expertise in lots of areas. And these days, a Google search can help me solve problems I couldn't otherwise address.

I kind of naturally gravitated toward Systems Administration, and it kind of stuck. I've been SysAdmin for lots of different types of systems. I started out with NetWare 3.11 and DOS/Windows. I was able to stay on the the NetWare/Windows train through version 6.5 and Windows 2003. At that point, I was a US Defense contractor, and our government oversight folks didn't like the fact that the DoD didn't produce security guides for NetWare. So I migrated the file/print aspects of our network services to SuSE Linux, since Novell had just ported all of their stuff (eDirectory, NSS, etc.) over to Linux. I had used Linux previously for personal projects like MythTV, OSSIM, file services, etc., but hadn't had much opportunity to use it in a production environment. The migration of production services from NetWare to Linux was a fun challenge, and I've maintained a focus on Linux since. The place I just came from still had one NetWare-based network, but it had long since stabilized to the point that I very rarely had to do anything to it.

In the midst of all of this SysAdmin stuff, I was asked by our IT Director to become the manager of the IT Security team to address some open issues. I did that for two years, and if I had to summarize what I took away from there, I would say the discipline of IT Security (or Information Assurance, or whatever you want to call it) should revolve around the risk management. A quick Google search on the CISSP Domain of Information Security Governance and Risk Management will give you the background on this, as well has how to calculate the financial risks to the business. And that's how the decisions should really come down -- are the security measures we're contemplating really worth it? That can be difficult to quantify, but that's where the expertise comes in.

After those two years, I became the manager of the infrastructure team, which basically covered everything in the data center, including servers and associated OSes, databases and core network infrastructure. So I was back to being an IT generalist, only in a management capacity. That was interesting, but really stressful, especially where I was. After almost 10 years at one place, I decided I needed a change, and I wanted to take a break from management.

So here I am, and have been for the last year, a SysAdmin. I primarily support Linux and HP-UX, but I also help out with our Windows, VMware, AIX and Solaris systems, and various networking components, including switches, routers and firewalls. I'm having a great time, and I'm hoping to share stuff with you as I go.

You know, I should start a blog.

I've been fascinated with technology for most of my life. I showed an interest at a fairly young age, and my parents recognized this and bought me a Commodore 64 back in the early 80's. From there, I'd considered it a hobby until my undergrad years some twenty years ago, when I decided to make it a career. Since then, the world of technology has undergone some seismic shifts, although in some ways it's remained remarkably the same. I've thought about writing a blog from time to time, but couldn't really think of anything unique I could contribute; one contributing factor was working for the DoD on sensitive or classified systems in the area of cyber security. I did't want to put myself out there, because I thought it would create a unnecessary risks for myself and those I worked for. I've been away from that world for a year now, so that's not a good reason anymore (if it ever was), and I think I should just start writing this stuff down for my own sake. So there you have it -- I've started a blog.

So what does that have to do with SysAdmin lessons learned? Well, I plan to post about things I've learned over the years, dealing both with technology and technical people. We'll see how it goes from here.