System administrator
A system administrator describes the role of a person whose job includes maintenance duties for the long-term support of a computer system.
Typical daily tasks for a system administrator include:
- resetting passwords
- troubleshooting the printer queue
- adding/modifying/deleting user IDs
- troubleshooting, and answering questions
- performing backups and restoring operations of files
These more infrequent tasks are also an important part of a System Administrator's job:
- operating system configuration changes
- software updates, for the OS or the application(s) it runs
- hardware changes
Typical responsibilities of a System Administrator:
- documenting the configuration of the system
- keep the system operating
- maintain the security of the system
- keep the application running
- participate in most changes to the system
- own the passwords to the administrative userids
To call yourself a System Administrator (SysAdmin) is to sharply define yourself as different from the following roles commonly found in the IT industry:
- DBA
- Application Analyst
- Programmer
- Network Specialist
- System Architect
See also: BOFH, PFY.
