The job of a systems administrator is very vague.  Some sysadmins are responsible for a single set of systems — a large farm of e-mail servers, for example.  Others are responsible for everything up to and including telephone lines.  Most of us lie somewhere in between, but even most sysadmins would have a hard time narrowing down what it is that we do.  Perhaps the best way to describe my job is to give a list of what I’ve worked on this week.

• Fix the weather data web server so that the maps get updated
• Set up a new network printer
• Put together a price quote for a high-end Linux workstation
• Diagnose a problem with compiled code
• Add a new user to our main file server
• Put together a price quote for another high-end Linux workstation
• Setup two new MacBooks
• Diagnose a problem with a network printer (the cable had come unpluged)
• Make Ethernet cables
• Replace toner in a printer
• Install a library package so code could be compiled
• Various updates and fixes to the department’s website
• Tell a user how to restore the desktop switcher to Gnome

And that’s only the tickets I got.  That doesn’t even cover any self-driven tasks.  Of course, next week, I’m sure the list will be completely different.