Industry Bench Marking

[Wentao Shu]

Hi,

What is the average or suggested number of systems a system adminstrator should manage?

Or please share with me the goal that your company has for your organization if you can.

Thanks.

[Patrick Wallek]

The company I am currently with there are 2 of us and we have 39 systems total.

The previous job I was at I was the only HP-UX admin and I had 7 systems.

[Brian M Rawlings · Accepted solution]

As I reflect on companies I've worked at or with, it seems like there is about one sysadmin for every 10-20 machines, as a gross average.

This is really hard to quantify, though, because many places the sysadmin is also the printer guy and the network guy, and does double-duty as the app support guy in his "spare" time.

But when I think about large shops with 40-50 servers and lots of disk arrays and other stuff, there are generally 2-3 people who split the admin functions between them somehow. More, if you count the many "working managers" who pull admin duty (they used to be one) when needed.

Then there are the "operator-admins", moving up in responsibility but still stuck doing their old job too. I doubt you'll find this well defined, the only real job title in this business is "Other Duties, As Required..."

Regards, --bmr

[John Poff]

Hi,

We have three of us and about 30 systems, which fits in with Brian's observation of about one system administrator per 10 systems. This seems to be a good ratio as the workload usually goes in cycles with the projects that come and go, and in the busiest times we have just the right amount of coverage. Part of the issue depends on the level of service needed. If the systems just need to be up 5 days a week during business hours, you might need fewer people than if you have systems that must be up 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Also, such things as MC/ServiceGuard clusters and large disk arrays could add to the load.

JP

[Wentao Shu]

Hi,

Thank you very much for the information. May I get some ideas of what a system adm's role in your organization?

Thanks.

[Patrick Wallek]

Hmm...Not asking much are you? :) A sys admins role:

1) ensure systems are performing well - if not, try to determine how to make it better

2) software install

3) patch installation

4) disaster recovery planning including testing dr plan

5) backups - make sure backups are working and are good

6) assist developers with moving programs into production

7) work with DBAs to understand how the DB is performing and help determine whas they need to keep the DB performing

8) projects - whatever may come up - currently studying ways to consolidate warehouse servers

9) keep up with the technology and the OS

10) typical user admin - creating, modifying, password changes, etc.

11) maintenance - replacing disks, diagnosing hardware / software problems

12) server inventory - make sure everything in / attached to the machine is on the maintenance contract

13) other stuff I'm sure I'll think of later

[Wentao Shu]

Hi Patrick:

Thank you very much. The information provided a good baseline for me.

Wentao

[Patrick Wallek]

Just thought of something else:

Learn the application(s) and / or databases that run on the machine(s) you support. You don't necessarily have to be an expert at them, but it will help you tremendously when dealing with developers / DBAs / users if you know something of the application / database system / whatever that they are talking about.