SysAdmin MAGAZINE

I’m so Smart,
I Must Be a Sysadmin
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

SysAdmin

Magazine Contents

№
62 July ‘20
03 Systems administrator salary: How much can you earn?

09 10 network monitoring tools for sysadmins

SysAdmin Magazine is a free

source of knowledge for IT Pros
15 Top things that sysadmins really hate
who are eager to keep a tight
grip on network security and do 17 Top certifications to begin and advance your tech career
the job faster.

20 Free tool of the month: Netwrix Auditor Free Community Edition

The Sysadmin Magazine team

sysadmin.magazine@netwrix.com

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

living in different areas. You might learn that you need to switch from flip flops to winter boots to find a position in which you have more

System disposable income.

Administrator How much does a system administrator make?

Salary: How Much According to salary figures from Indeed.com for June 2020, the average system administrator salary in the U.S. is estimated to be
$84,363 per year. The range is quite broad, with figures starting around $43,000 and reaching as high as $145,000.

Can You Earn? Two main factors affect how much a sysadmin makes: years of experience and geographic location. Let’s dive into each of them.

Average salary of a system administrator by experience level

Ryan Brooks
Cybersecurity Expert, Netwrix Product Evangelist Here are the national average salaries for system administrators based on their years of experience, according to Glassdoor.com:

▪ 3 years of experience — $57,974 ▪ 10–14 years of experience — $79,400

Many system administrators are concerned that they are not ▪ 4–9 years of experience — $69,097 ▪ 15+ years of experience — $89,306
paid fairly, especially considering the high workload and long
hours. In fact, the recruiting website Indeed.com reports that
43% of system administrators think their salary is not enough
LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE Systems Administrator Salary Research 2020
for the cost of living in their area.

How does your location measure up? To save you from having
to browse tons of job openings and analyze current trends to
answer that question, we’ve done the research for you. Read UP TO 3 YEARS 4–9 YEARS 10–14 YEARS 15+ YEARS

this blog post to discover how much sysadmins earn in differ- � 57 974 � 69 097 about � 79 400 � 89 306
ent parts of the United States and how to factor in the cost of

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

Senior system administrator salary Junior system administrator salary

Senior system administrator salaries vary dramatically by location but according to Glassdoor.com, the national average earning is For a less experienced system administrator, a junior po-
$81,745. sition is the norm. Based on Glassdoor.com analysis, the
average annual salary for junior system administrators is
A senior system administrator job description typically includes:
$51,533.

▪ Hands-on experience with a range of operating systems, backup and recovery procedures, and system performance monitoring tools A bachelor’s degree is definitely worth having in terms of com-
petitive compensation and career promotion in any information
▪ A deep understanding of the principles and practices of effective management, since they often supervise junior admins even if technology field, and system administration is no exception.
all the sysadmins report to the same manager
A junior system administrator’s job duties typically include
updating hardware and software packages, revising docu-
▪ A requirement to sign a non-disclosure agreement, since they often work with sensitive personal information that is subject to
mentation, installing computer and network systems, moni-
data privacy requirements
toring computer systems using a range of tools, addressing
threats, and enabling disaster recovery. They can also pro-
Having industry certifications can also be valuable in landing a senior position.
vide IT support for local and remote employees and train
users on new software applications and other technology.

POSITION Systems Administrator Salary Research 2020

Average salary of a system

administrator by location
JUNIOR SENIOR
SYSADMIN SYSADMIN According to Indeed.com, sysadmin salary varies dramati-
cally by location — in fact, sysadmins in the state with the
� 51 533 � 81 745 highest salary (Maryland) make a whopping 41% more than
those in the state with the lowest average salary (Kentucky).

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

States with the highest average salaries Here are the 10 states with the highest annual salaries for
system administrators:
The states with higher salaries are generally those with higher economic activity — they are home to Fortune 500 companies or
provide a wide range of opportunities for businesses. Examples include Maryland, New York and California.
State Average annual salary

Maryland $102,330
New York $94,940
THE 10 STATES
� 60 540 California $93,810
WITH THE HIGHEST
New Jersey $92,670
AND THE LOWEST Connecticut $90,490
ANNUAL SYSADMIN Washington $89,430
SALARIES � 102 330 Virginia $89,350
Rhode Island $87,290
Massachusetts $86,770
Hawaii $86,530

This data is from careerexplorer.com.

HIGHEST ANNUAL SALARY

Note that Washington DC would make it into this list if it
LOWEST ANNUAL SALARY Systems Administrator Salary Research 2020
were a state, since it boasts an average annual salary of
$99,953.

It’s important to note that salary can vary dramatically within a given
state. California is a good example: the average salary ranges from
$109,998 in San Francisco, to $97,130 in Los Angeles, to $82,745
in San Diego. Similarly, in Texas, which ranked #11 overall, salaries

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

States with the lowest average salaries Where’s the best place for system administrators to work and live?
At the other end of the spectrum are many states in the Of course, one reason salaries are higher in certain locations is that the cost of living is higher. To get a better measure of how far
South, Midwest and the Rust Belt, where the average salary your salary will actually go, we looked into how rent varies by state (using Zillow.com). By dividing the average rent divided by the
for system administrator is much lower due to poor econom- average sysadmin salary for each state, a different picture emerges of the best places to live from an economic perspective.
ic growth, industry crises, and a dependence on agriculture
instead of manufacturing and business. The only exception
in the Midwest is Illinois; its average salary of $85,313 nearly
puts the state into the top 10. 15 %
THE 10 STATES
The 10 states with the lowest annual salaries for system
WITH THE HIGHEST
administrators are: AND THE LOWEST
RENT-TO-SYSADMIN
State Average annual salary INCOME RATIO

Kentucky $60,540
Arkansas $61,110
South Dakota $61,150
Montana $62,420
West Virginia $64,560 33%
Louisiana $64,570
Wyoming $64,630
North Dakota $66,470
HIGHEST RENT-TO-SYSADMIN INCOME RATIO
Alabama $66,700
LOWEST RENT-TO-SYSADMIN INCOME RATIO Systems Administrator Salary Research 2020
Idaho $66,930

This data is from careerexplorer.com

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

Here are the states with the highest ratios of rent to sysad- And here are the states with the lowest ratios: This analysis allows us to choose the best regions for sys-
min salary: tem administrators to work and live in. The following three
states boast both high salaries and a relatively low rent-to-
State Rent-to-sysadmin income ratio State Rent-to-sysadmin income ratio income ratio:

Hawaii 32% Missouri 15%

California 32% Oklahoma 16%
Massachusetts 30% West Virginia 17% THE BEST REGIONS FOR
Colorado 28% Kansas 17% SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS
New York 28% Iowa 17%
TO WORK AND LIVE IN
New Jersey 26% Ohio 17%
Florida 25% North Carolina 18%
Alaska 25% Alabama 18%
Illinois 25% Indiana 18%
Oregon 25% Pennsylvania 18%
Rhode
Virginia
Maryland Island

2020 2020

2020
As you can see, several of the states with high sysadmin salaries also have extremely high monthly rent-to-income ratios (e.g., Cali-
fornia, New York and New Jersey). Other places that are extremely expensive to live in cannot even boast of high sysadmin salaries
(e.g., Alaska, Illinois and Vermont). Florida, which is now perceived as one of the most attractive places for startups, also has a high
rent-to-income ratio (25%).

Systems Administrator Salary Research 2020

The states with the lowest rent-to-income ratios include states with relatively low sysadmin salaries (e.g., Alabama and West Virgin-
ia). However, we were surprised to find that some states with high sysadmin salaries (e.g., Maryland) are not even close to having
the priciest rents in the country.

7
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

43% of system
administrators think their
salary is not enough for the
GUIDE
cost of living in their area

Office 365
Administrator’s
A high salary is no guarantee that a job will enable you to have a comfortable life. In particular, states that offer high annual salaries,
a wide range of career opportunities and a good climate (e.g., California) are often very costly to live in. States that rank lower in
Guide
average annual salary can actually be more affordable.

Free Download
Of course, it’s up to you to decide what’s most important to you. You might be willing to work in a snowy area so you can afford a
comfortable house, or you might be willing to sacrifice space and pocket money in order to live in a trendy place with nice weather as
you build your career in a big city like New York or San Francisco. The only advice here is that looking at the hard numbers is always
a good start to find jobs. We hope this overview will help you to make wise career choices.

8
 Contents
10 Network
Monitoring Tools
for Sysadmins
Jeff Melnick
Director, Global Solutions Engineering
If you don’t know the state of your network every second of
the day, you're like a blind pilot inevitably headed for disas-
ter. Fortunately, the market now offers many good software
solutions, both commercial and open source, for network
monitoring.
With functionality such as discovering devices, monitoring
network equipment and servers, identifying network trends,
graphically presenting monitoring results, and even backing
up switch configurations and routers, these network moni-
toring software tools will surely surprise you. So here's a list
of the best network monitoring software:
9
1. Zabbixls
Zabbix is a full-scale tool for network and system monitoring
that combines several options in one web console. It can be
configured to monitor and collect data from a wide variety of
servers and network devices, and it provides service and per-
formance monitoring of each object. Zabbix enables you to
monitor servers and networks with a wide range of technolo-
gies, including virtualization hypervisors and web application
stacks. Zabbix supports VMware, Hyper-V and other virtual-
ization hypervisors, providing detailed information about the
performance and availability of the hypervisor and its activi-
ty. In particular, it can monitor Java application servers, web
services and databases. New monitoring hosts can be added
manually or through an automatic discovery process. A wide
range of templates are applied by default, such as those for
Linux, FreeBSD and Windows Server operating systems and
for SMTP, HTTP, ICMP and IPMI protocols.
Zabbix must be installed and configured manually, compo-
nent by component, on a Linux system or a virtual machine
on a hypervisor. The user interface is not very clear and uses
complicated terminology. There is no client program be-
cause it is accessed via HTTPS or SSH, but there is a mobile
application available. The network device discovery process
does not have the ability to browse the network and discov-
er existing devices during product installation; this can be
done later using certain protocols.
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
This solution can work without agents, using the SNMP pro-
tocol, but running an agent on each device makes using Zab-
bix a bit easier. However, it’s difficult and time-consuming to
install agents on hundreds or even thousands of devices,
and there are certain basic devices, like printers, where in-
stallation of agents is impossible.
Zabbix allows you to customize the dashboard and web in-
terface to focus on the most important components of the
network. Notifications can be based on custom actions that
apply to a host or host groups. You can configure actions that
will run remote commands if certain event criteria are met.
The program displays network bandwidth usage and CPU uti-
lization graphs. In addition, Zabbix supports custom maps,
screens and even slideshows that show the current status of
monitored devices. Zabbix can be difficult to implement at the
initial stage, but the use of automatic detection and various
templates can reduce the challenge. In addition to the installa-
tion package, Zabbix is available as a virtual device for several
popular hypervisors.
 Contents
2. PRTG
The Paessler PRTG network monitoring tool is an integrated
solution that is suitable both for small and enterprise envi-
ronments. The setup is dynamic, meaning that your moni-
toring capabilities can grow or shrink with the business size
requirements of your organization. It is a Windows program
that can be installed on a server with shared access. PRTG
is more than just a server monitoring solution, because it
can monitor any IT-related resource that connects to your
network, including firewalls, servers, printers, switches, rout-
ers, databases, websites and even UPS. PRTG can send out
email and SMS alerts based on your custom threshold lev-
els. This means that you can adjust the sensitivity of specif-
ic servers so you get more frequent warnings from critical
servers and almost no noise from non-critical ones.
The application can monitor everything that you need to
know about your server, such as CPU load, hard disk capac-
ity and performance, RAM utilization, and bandwidth moni-
toring. The user interface is simple and clear, with functional
elements conveniently located in intuitive places. Adminis-
trators can view the entire server environment at a glance
through customizable dashboards and reports, which means
that specific graphs and analytics can be generated for spe-
cific needs. There are predefined templates to help with the
configuration processes and speed the installation process.
Other key features include flexible alert methods, multiple
10
user interfaces to choose from, failover-tolerant monitoring,
distributed monitoring, and customizable maps and dash-
boards.
With PRTG, there is no need to install any agents on each
device; monitoring can be performed only using the program
kernel. Using remote probes allows monitoring of various
networks, either in the same place or in remote locations,
branches, etc. The remote computer collects location infor-
mation and combines it on the PRTG central server, provid-
ing access to all local and remote devices, sensors, alerts
and warnings via the internet, and also uses a protocol with
strong SSL encryption. The product is free only for 100 sen-
sors, so download it only if you have small system inventory
or you are willing to pay for it.
3. Whatsup Gold
This is a powerful, easy-to-use software tool for comprehen-
sive monitoring of applications, networks and systems. It
allows you to troubleshoot problems before they affect the
user experience. You can also get an accurate idea of the
performance of your IT environment.
WhatsUp Gold uses new methods of visualization and inter-
action with the entire IT environment. It has a unique inter-
active map that helps you quickly assess the performance
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
of the entire network, infrastructure and virtual environment.
It provides information about the connection status of net-
work devices and dynamic response to interactions, which
ensures minimum response time. Interactive maps can be
dynamically filtered to get an instant overview of the physi-
cal, virtual and wireless networks. You can zoom in to view
detailed information on individual sites or devices, or zoom
out to see the subject of study in the overall picture. A map
can be configured to display the environment by geography
(on a map or on a building map), by category (by connection,
application or traffic) or by any other layout.
The tool starts with an advanced discovery process that
identifies all devices connected to your network and auto-
matically applies standard or custom device roles; this sig-
nificantly speed up the monitoring setup. WhatsUp Gold has
active monitors that show device status in real time and pas-
sive monitors for SNMP traps, Syslog, and Windows event
logs. Performance monitors use SNMP, SSH or WMI to track
CPU, disk, memory and network usage. WhatsUp Gold has
an option to receive early warning when users are experienc-
ing poor response times, so you can fix them before users
experience full downtime. These warnings can be sent via
email, SMS and web.
 Contents
4. Cacti
Cacti is a great network monitoring software tool for graphical
representation of the network. Cacti is a free network moni-
toring solution and is included in the LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP) suite, which provides a standardized software
platform for building graphs based on any statistical data.
If a network device returns numeric data, then most likely
it can be integrated into Cacti. There are templates for net-
work monitoring platforms like Cisco routers and switches.
Basically any network device that communicates with SNMP
(Simple Network Management Protocol) can be monitored
by Cacti. In addition, scripts in Perl or PHP can also be used
for monitoring. Cacti performs availability and performance
monitoring of servers, services and network devices. It also
tracks the workload and availability of network channels.
The central link in this system is graphs — all controlled param-
eters and settings are somehow tied to the graphs. Graphs of
statistics are presented in the form of a tree in which graphs
are grouped by their criteria. All graphs can be quickly created
in Graph Management using supplied templates. Templates
are one of the big advantages of Cacti — the user just selects
a template and the graph is ready. Each graph is described by
two elements: settings that define the properties of the graph,
and elements that define the data that should be represented
on it. Information displayed on the chart can be refined on
the fly; for example, you can quickly view the data for the past
11
few years to see if the current behavior of the network equip-
ment or server is abnormal. And with the help of the Network
Weathermap, a PHP plug-in for Cacti, you can create real-time
maps of your network that show the load of communication
channels between network devices.
In short, Cacti is a toolkit with extensive capabilities for graph-
ical display and analysis of network performance trends that
can be used to monitor almost any monitored metric that can
be represented in a graph. However, this solution supports al-
most limitless tuning possibilities, which can make it too dif-
ficult for certain apps.
5. Nagios
Nagios is powerful network monitoring tool that has been in
active development for many years. It does almost anything
that system and network administrators might need from
a network monitoring utility. The web interface is fast and
intuitive, and the server part is extremely reliable. Nagios’s
rather complex configuration can be a problem for beginners
to learn, but it is also an advantage, since the tool can be
adapted to almost any monitoring task. As with Cacti, a very
active community supports Nagios core, so various plug-ins
exist for a huge variety of hardware and software. Nagios
enable you to continuously monitor the status of servers,
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
services, network channels and everything else that has IP
addresses. For example, you can monitor the use of disk
space on the server, RAM and CPU usage, FLEXlm license
usage (software license manager tool), server air tempera-
ture, WAN and internet connection latencies, netflow traffic,
and much more.
No monitoring system for servers and networks would be
complete without notifications. The Nagios software platform
offers a customizable mechanism for notifications via e-mail,
SMS and instant messaging via the most popular internet mes-
sengers, as well as an escalation scheme that can be used
to make reasonable decisions about who should be notified
when and in what circumstances. In addition, the display func-
tion shows all monitored devices in the logical representation
of their placement on the network, with color coding that high-
lights problems as they arise.
The main disadvantage of Nagios is its configuration pro-
cess — it is mostly done through the command line, which
greatly complicates installation if you’ve never worked with
it before. People familiar with standard Linux and Unix con-
figuration files, however, should not experience any par-
ticular problems. The possibilities of Nagios are huge, but
the effort required to use some of them may not always be
worth it. Nevertheless, the advantages of the early warning
system metrics provided by this tool for so many aspects of
the network are hard to overstate.
 Contents
6. LogicMonitor
LogicMonitor is a SaaS service for monitoring physical, vir-
tual and cloud-based networks. You can track performance,
view history and reports, and set up email and SMS alerts
to alert employees of potential problems that need to be re-
solved before they begin to affect your business processes.
LogicMonitor is a lightweight program that can be installed
on a Linux or Windows OS. LogicMonitor provides a single
web console that is ready to automatically discover most
switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, servers, appli-
cations, databases, VoIP systems and storages. LogicMon-
itor’s dashboard allows users to monitor live performance
indicators along with a list of system errors and statuses
because it automatically collects performance data from
connected servers, networks and workstations via over 20
standard protocols such as JMX, Perfmon, SNMP, WMI, and
various APIs. Network administrators can prioritize issues,
configure escalation rules for alerts and schedule downtime
according to their service standards.
Of course, LogicMonitor has reporting capabilities as well;
you can build reports on any time period for any device,
group, service or data source. Reports can be in HTML, PDF
or CSV, and can be executed on demand or scheduled to
be delivered by email at regular intervals. You have to know
what you're looking for before you configure a report. All in
all, LogicMonitor is a powerful infrastructure monitoring and
12
alerting service with a nicely customizable web portal that
displays in-depth metrics and system information.
7. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor quickly detects, di-
agnoses and assists in resolving network performance prob-
lems before downtime. In addition, with dynamic network
topology maps and automatic detection of components, ad-
ministrators can easily scale the network and align import-
ant processes as it grows. SolarWinds Network Performance
Monitor controls the response time, availability and uptime of
routers, switches and other SNMP-enabled devices. Network
Performance Monitor has automated network scanning pro-
cesses that identify new network devices and monitor the state
of all critical equipment. It supports heterogeneous networks
and devices from leading hardware manufacturers. The moni-
toring process looks for the availability and performance indi-
cators of network devices and interfaces, such as bandwidth
load, delays, responses, packet loss, CPU and memory for each
piece of equipment with SNMP and WMI support.
Network Performance Monitor allows you to quickly configure
alerts for events, conditions and conditions of network de-
vices. If necessary, you can block notifications based on de-
pendencies and topology so you receive alerts on important
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
network issues only. It also includes tools for generating no-
tifications, reports, manuals and help files in different file for-
mats. The user interface is simple to understand yet robust
enough to provide a comprehensive view of the network. It
is easy to see everything at a glance, and the statistical net-
work baselines provide additional information to optimize
network devices and respond to issues quickly. SolarWinds
Network Performance Monitor has a NetPath feature that
uses advanced probing to make troubleshooting network
performance problems easier. With this feature, sysadmins
can detect the network path from a source computer and
trace it all the way to the destination service. NetPath works
even when traceroute does not.
8. Spiceworks Network Monitor
Spiceworks Network Monitor is extremely flexible and scal-
able, allowing independent thresholds per system or device,
so it is a great solution for more granular monitoring of mem-
ory, disk activity and more. The software is quick and easy to
implement. It runs on a VM or a physical box. It’s pretty light
on resources, though it can eat up a bunch of disk space; if
it is co-located with another app, the drive can fill quickly if
you don't keep up with the logs or automate cleanup. The
software is agentless, so there is little to no impact on the
monitored devices. It can even monitor SNMP traps from
 Contents
switches, printers, copiers and other devices. It does a great
job of monitoring during off hours.
Spiceworks Network Monitor tracks infrastructure devices,
such as switches and routers, for input/output rate, pack-
ets per second and packet loss. It also tracks servers for
CPU utilization, disk utilization, network data rate and pack-
et loss, and memory utilization. You can drill down to display
those parameters graphically in expanded views. However,
Spiceworks Network Monitor does not monitor or manage
other devices, most notably, mobile ones.
You can choose to look at specific devices in significantly
more detail with the Critical Device Widget. You can click
a specific parameter in the Critical Device window, and the
graph for that parameter is expanded and additional details
show up on the screen, such as exact numbers for the total
switch bandwidth usage with the stats at each point where
the numbers changed.
There are a few disadvantages. Spiceworks Network Mon-
itor provides excellent basic monitoring, but it doesn’t sup-
port SNMP version 3. The software does not reconcile sys-
tems that are going down — sometimes when connection
links go down, they do not go back up in the software though
physically they are up again, so they must be deleted and
re-added. And the user interface is rather slow. However, the
software is no-cost so there is no risk in giving it a try.
13
9. Wireshark
Wireshark is a well-known network traffic monitoring tool.
It works with the overwhelming majority of known proto-
cols, and it has both a clear and logical graphical interface
based on GTK + and a powerful filter system. Moreover, it
is cross-platform, working under Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X and, of course, Windows. Ba-
sically, Wireshark is a packet sniffing tool that reveals the
smallest details of network traffic and network protocols.
You can analyze pcap files and TCP connection, see packet
contents, and search for specific packets in the netflow. If
you have the necessary knowledge, you can effectively trou-
bleshoot and diagnose a variety of problems that arise in the
network using Wireshark.
10. Netwrix Auditor for Network Devices
We’ve reviewed a lot of great network monitoring tools.
Nevertheless, if system administrators detect network device
performance issues, they need to inspect configuration changes
to determine the cause of the issue and quickly fix it. Therefore,
a network device change monitoring tool is invaluable. Netwrix
Auditor for Network Devices delivers reports and alerts detail-
ing what was changed on each network device and when it hap-
pened, with the before and after values. It supports Cisco and
Fortinet devices.
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
Product installation is straightforward, and the UI is user friendly
and fast. Reports are very clear and responsive, which makes this
solution a great addition to other network performance monitor-
ing tools. Reports can tell you about network device configuration
changes, details about logon attempts, port scanning informa-
tion, and details about hardware issues such as a power supply
failure or critical CPU temperature. It also tracks remote access
such as VPN.
Netwrix Auditor has built-in search of audit data, alerts on threat
patterns, and a behavior anomaly detection engine. It also has
a RESTFul API engine that enables you to connect the Netwrix
Auditor platform with other software solutions, such as Nuta-
nix, Amazon Web Services, ServiceNow, ArchSight, IBM Qradar,
Splunk, Alien Vault and LogRythm; you can receive data from or
send data to these solutions.
In short, Netwrix Auditor for Network Devices is not just a really
valuable monitoring tool; it’s an enterprise-level software platform
that gives you complete visibility into changes, configurations
and access across your network infrastructure. Netwrix Auditor
has free 20-day trial; during that period, you can not only evaluate
Netwrix Auditor for Network Devices but also all the other Netwrix
Auditor applications for systems such as Active Directory, Group
Policy, Azure AD, Exchange, Office 365, file servers, SharePoint,
Microsoft SQL Server and VMware.
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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

Top Things that TOP THINGS

THAT SYSADMINS REALLY HATE
2020

2015

Sysadmins Really ! BAC K UP FAILURES

12 %

Hate
6%

C ABLES, C ABLES
AND M O RE C ABLES* 8%

Ryan Brooks 7%
Cybersecurity Expert, Netwrix Product Evangelist C O M PLIANC E
3%

Being a sysadmin basically means being a superhero. Fight- DO C UM ENTATIO N 15 %

& REPO RTING
ing bad guys (aka hackers), helping ordinary people (aka us- 6%
ers), saving your home (aka IT environment) from various
disasters — it all sounds very heroic, but it’s just an average 53%
day in a sysadmin’s life. DUM B USERS
46%

But superheroes can feel pain as well. Five years ago, we

14 %
asked brave sysadmins to blow off some steam and complain
EM ERGENC Y C ALLS
about their suffering by letting us know what they really hate 15 %
about their work. The results were both predictable and sur-
prising. Last month, we did the survey again, this time adding H AC K ERS, SPAM M ERS
31%
AND PHISHERS*
three new pain points to the list to reflect today’s IT realities.

*The option was added to the poll in 2020

15
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

As you can see, dumb users still top the list! Bear in mind, though,
that many sysadmins from the SpiceWorks community say
31 % that the trick to moving a user along the path from dumb to-
HO RRIBLE B OS S ES
24 % ward wise is proper training. So before complaining about the
stupidity of your users, think about ways to educate them.

35 %
P RINT ERS Horrible IT management is still in the top 5, but unrealistic
4%
deadlines and printer issues have shot up ahead of that as
even bigger pains for sysadmins.
13 %
SYST EM U PD AT ES
5%
During the five years between the surveys, the threat land-
scape changed dramatically, and as a result, a new contender
— hackers, spammers and phishers — rounds out the top 5 tier.
T IG HT BUD GE TS* 18 %

The next level of pains includes the pressures of working 24/7

and on a tight budget, as well as system updates and backup
37 % failures. Our advice here is to remember that money can’t buy
U N REA LIST IC D EA D LIN ES
8% happiness, and there is no harm in taking a break, sitting back
and eating some junk food.

19 % Thank you all for participating, and we’ll check in with you
WO RKIN G 2 4 /7
7% again in five years! Maybe by that time we’ll need to add a few
new pain points to our list, like the risk of losing your job to a
robot or the stress of managing users’ chip implants.

* The option was added to the poll in 2020

If you want to comment on our research or share a sysadmin
The survey was conducted in August 2015 and June 2020. Respondents could select up to 3 options.
pain that we missed, please feel free to do so in the com-
ments section below.

16
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

The Value of Certifications

Top Certifications
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows
that IT occupations pay 90 percent more than the average
national wage in the U.S. By gaining new skills, IT pros can

to Begin and
Job experience holds the most sway in when it comes to
bump up their salaries even more. According to the Global
getting hired or moving up the ladder in IT, but it’s also great
Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report, nine percent of
to have certifications that prove your skills to current and

Advance Your
IT professionals credit their salary increases to adding new
future employers. Research firm IDC published a white pa-
skills to their toolbox, and those same IT pros earned nearly
per noting how valuable certified IT pros are to their employ-
$12,000 more than the previous year.

Tech Career
ers and how much faster certified IT pros move through the
ranks at their companies. In particular, they found that certi-
fied IT pros:

▪ Get promoted faster: “Certified IT professionals are pro- Example

Adam Turner
Chief Academic Officer for CompTIA Tech Career Academy and
Vice President of Training & Program Operations for CompTIA
Even as unemployment rates reach into the double digits, IT
▪ Perform better on the job: “Certified IT professionals
is still hiring. Indeed, because tech is a vital part of nearly ev-
ery successful business, IT remains one of the most stable
career paths. Nevertheless, now is the time to beef up your
skills in case your company starts to falter.
▪ Hold more influence at work: “Maximizing their value to
moted almost twice as often as noncertified IT profes-
sionals. IT professionals who are certified before their
first position are 50% more likely to get a promotion with-
in one year of first being hired than ‘never certified’ IT pro-
fessionals.”
consistently outperform noncertified IT professionals in
most security-related activities and network administra-
tion activities.”
the entire enterprise, certified IT professionals have up to
30 percent greater influence overall than noncertified IT
professionals with the same tenure.”
Jason Hernandez switched from a music career to IT in 2016,
getting training through the IT-Ready Technical Support pro-
gram in the CompTIA Tech Career Academy. Armed with his
first IT certification, CompTIA A+, he landed an IT job, work-
ing as a technical user support analyst at Medtronic.
Additional certifications enabled Hernandez to move up
from there. He says his CompTIA Network+ certification en-
abled him to work in a specialized support group helping
Medtronic’s mobile sales team in the field. “In that role, I was
exposed to more specialized systems and got my first taste
of working through security incidents,” he said, spurring his
interest in security.

17
 Contents
Since then, Hernandez has earned his CompTIA Security+,
CompTIA CySA+ and CompTIA Advanced Security Practi-
tioner (CASP) certifications and become a technology sys-
tems administrator for Eden Prairie Schools, where he earns
a competitive salary. He manages large tech projects that
serve 10,000+ students, staff and parents connecting daily.
His specific role involves cybersecurity policies, vulnerability
scanning and management, as well as MacOS/iOS adminis-
tration using JAMF, which he’s also certified in.
“Each step up in my career has required more and more
knowledge, skills and responsibility,” Hernandez said.
IT Career Paths
Help Desk
IT pros just breaking into the industry are smart to set their
sights on the help desk. It’s the easiest way to start in the
technology industry and make $50,000 a year on average. Ac-
cording to the BLS, there are more than 860,000 help desk po-
sitions throughout the United States. Every midsize and larger
organization — be it hospital, bank, utility or university — op-
erates a help desk, and the number of organizations offering
18
that service is expected to increase 10 percent within the next
year. Key certifications to help you land the job include Comp-
TIA A+, ITIL and Microsoft’s MTA.
IT pros moving on from the help desk typically go into net-
working or security, but the IT field is as open as you want it to
be if you continue to learn and prove your skills. For instance,
John Amakye started off at the help desk for the City of Min-
neapolis in 2015. Since he was moving into IT from banking,
he had only his CompTIA A+ certification at the time. But he
has earned more than 10 certifications since then, which have
enabled him to move up three times; he’s now an application
programmer. “Being in IT has made me financially indepen-
dent and allowed me to carve a pathway for myself that is
professionally rewarding,” said Amakye.
Network or Systems Administrator
If you opt for a career in network administration, you’ll earn
around $82,050 annually, according to BLS. Initial certifica-
tions you’ll need include CompTIA Network+, Cisco’s CCNA
and Microsoft’s MSCA. As you move up, add vendor-agnos-
tic certifications like CompTIA Linux+, Server+ and Cloud+,
as well as vendor-specific certifications from AWS, Google
Cloud, IBM, Red Hat and VMWare.
SysAdmin Magazine July 2020
After leaving the hotel industry, David Portner was unemployed for
a long time and didn’t have the necessary skill set to compete in
an advancing technological climate. He began studying in a tech
bootcamp and obtained his first certification, CompTIA Network+.
“Having that certification enabled me to advance my training,
and I subsequently earned the Red Hat Certified Systems Ad-
ministrator certification. Those two certs got my foot in the door
at a global cloud hosting company, where I have been the last
four years, with one promotion into my current role,” said Port-
ner, who is now a Linux systems administrator at Rackspace. “I
am currently studying for more certifications, in particular the
AWS certs, to keep current and competitive. Obtaining industry
recognized certifications is a surefire way to enter the field and
be recognized as an IT professional serious about their career.”
Information Security Analyst
While all network administrators have some elements of cy-
bersecurity in their jobs, information security analysts need
more specific skills. Start off by earning your CompTIA’s Secu-
rity+ certification; as you move up, focus on CompTIA CySA+,
Project+ and PenTest+, along with ISACA CISA, SANS/GIAC
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

and Cisco’s CCNA. When you hit the advanced levels, you’ll
need either CASP+ or ISC2 CISSP. The average salary for cy-
bersecurity specialists is $98,350, according to the BLS.
Data Specialist
Data specialists who oversee a company’s database and turn
raw data into usable information are looking at an average sal-
ary of $90,272, according to BLS. Look to beef up your skills GUIDE
through certifications from IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAS. GUIDE

Obtaining industry
CompTIA
Whichever direction you go in IT, start with an attitude of

recognized certifications continuous learning. Nothing in tech stands still, and nei-
ther should your knowledge. The more you learn, the more
is a surefire way to enter
Security +
valuable you’ll be. Then add certifications to help prove
the field and be recognized that you know your stuff, to either your current employer or

as an IT professional
a future employer.

serious about their caree Study Guide

Free Download
Software Developer
Software developers need experience with programming lan-
guages, of course, but also look for certifications from AWS,
Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat and VMWare that help you
see how your applications fit into the larger system. This ca-
reer path offers one of the highest IT salaries: $105,590, ac-
cording to BLS.

19
 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

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 Contents SysAdmin Magazine July 2020

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