Hi everyone,

My client asked me for a job description of a system administration because I might be assigned this position along with the other guy I'm working with. To be honest, I do not know much about a System Administrator's job but I'm willing to learn.

Questions:
1. What are the security requirements of a server? *
2. What are the key responsibilities in a system admin's job description?
3. What are some of the day to day tasks of a system admin?
4. What is the average monthly salary of a system admin (in Lebanon of course)?
Note: I will be working inside a Windows environment. But your replies do not necessarily need to be constricted to a Windows environment.

* Other software I know will be required are:
- Windows Server 2008
- IIS 7.0
- MS SQL Server
- .NET 4.0 Runtime

Let me know if there are other things I should be aware of as well. Thanks!
As a sysadmin, you're basically paid to keep the website up. If the server is down, it's your fault and you have to react fast and put it back up. Your main worry should be uptime. Come the end of the month, your client's gonna ask how often the website was down, and what's the uptime (in percentage). Very few sysadmins can brag about 99% uptime, and those are the best in the industry.

So what do you do when the website is down? Obviously you need to know how the website is running (not the code, but the main components). For example, let's say you're running a PHP website on Apache.
1- Is my machine up and running?
2- Can I ping it?
3- Is Apache running?
4- Is PHP running?
5- How's the load on my machine? (number of connections)
6- Is the Database running? Do I have any deadlocks?

Your ability to read system logs and use system monitors is crucial (needless to say this is a domain where the Command Line tool is simply brilliant, but unfortunately, it's not the Windows approach).

You are also responsible of backups. You're not gonna do them manually, but rather write scripts that do it. Scripts can be in various script language like VB, python, perl (a very popular choice), even PHP or Ruby. I personally work a lot with Python and Ksh (but ksh too won't work on Windows). The point is, your app is going to crash and you do not want to lose data. Have your backups ready and available at all time.

Finally you should think of ways to improve your cluster. Do we have enough machines? How much memory/CPU do I need? Can't we do a load balancing script? Isn't there a way to configure Apache better? (apache is super complex to configure, if you go past the default options).
What about the DB? Do I need a cluster?
What about backup machines? Do I have the budget to keep a backup machine?
What if my server is failing and I need to move all my apps to a new machine?

You get the general idea ...
Hello. I'm only amateur-ish server administrator, never had serious experience with big production servers, but anyway I feel like answering, and if I was asked these questions I'd answer..

1. What are the security requirements of a server?
First there's physical security, only authorized personnel should have access to the server (which should be duly protected from fire, theft, etc...). Then permissions must be properly set, and the admin must be known and responsible and have a good password that he often changes. The OS and software must be kept up-to-date to plug the latest security holes. On windows there usually must be a solid antivirus solution. This is all software security, and there are a bunch of other solutions which can help secure your server. And of course then there must be backup.

2. What are the key responsibilities in a system admin's job description?
Keep the system updated, running smoothly, and basically it should not deteriorate from one month to the other but stay in the same state. He should implement backups and other necessary procedures if they're not already implemented. If they already exist, then he should oversee they are followed. He should of course monitor and troubleshoot problems, fix them, and document them. An SA must document everything in an clear, orderly and searchable fashion - basically usable documentation. SAs are sometimes required to be available on call and be able to login remotely to fix problems.
He might also be required to take part in planning of an upgrade or migration, and of course execution too.
In times of big problems, he must rebuild the system from backups or other recovery options.

3. What are some of the day to day tasks of a system admin?
Basically checks that all is going fine and nothing is out of the ordinary, improves things if needed, otherwise he can be also laying plans for future upgrades, or executing these plans.

4. What is the average monthly salary of a system admin (in Lebanon of course)?
I think a junior SA can start at as low as $900.

Further inspiration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_administrator#Duties_of_a_system_administrator
your question is too general to answer. I am an IT and Network Administrator with experience in Windows and Mac servers. If you have a question about a specific problem, I am ready to answer.

By the way, 99% uptime is considered low. The proper uptime is 99.5% and above. Yes 0.5% is alot of difference.
0.5% is around 2-3 hours downtime per month
Depends what we are talking about. If it is mission critical server - it must be
a)redundant with hot-swap server
b)online backup system
Hospitals is special case, as aerospace and other "special" industry.
Mission critical equipment should not have downtime at all, and on my IMHO there is no place for Windows.
So i guess it is Windows for less critical stuff. If it is keeping some DB that used by doctors at work - it is usually running at worktime, and at night there is no load or much less load, so you can schedule backups. Pretty comfortable thing...
For administrator it can be a hell, if applications running with this DB is not developed with redundancy and backups in mind.

If it is just server to access internet for low priority things (searching info, emails and etc), i guess even 95-98% is OK for it.
hehe. Well I have seen the 2 floor server room of Rafiq il Hariri Hospital. They have 6 servers for exchange alone. 3 for loading balancing and another 3 for redundancy.
IMO, one very important requirement is having good communication and PR skills.

unfortunately you might find yourself working with/under people not so knowledgeable in IT. So no matter how well your uptime is sometimes, people will just "blame it on IT". "you're the IT guy, why doesn't it work? fix it" things like that. so its very important to manage expectations and calm people down during downtimes.

It's also very important to be firm and make people understand that IT is not inferior to finance or sales because the tendency for these departments is to speak down at the tech support guys when things go wrong.

that's one aspect
@dp0001: You made me think of this joke:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and
spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me,
can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I
don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering
approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees
north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be in IT" said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman,
"How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically
correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact
is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything,
you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management." "I am," replied
the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're
going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.

You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people
beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same
position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
Obviously this is much more complicated than I thought. I'm more of a programmer than an IT support guy. I'll have to read more and get into some details before I make a final decision of whether I should take this risk or not.