Re: [SAGE] staffing level survey

[Chuck Yerkes <chuck+sage@snew.com>]

It really depends on what the systems do and how much attention they
require.  This is a good thing to get down and understand as
a technically inclined manager.

I've had 4 people providing 14 hour coverage (6AM-8PM) for 250
Unix desktops and 5 unix servers.  Mostly because there was
1 desktop and 1 server, just many instances of them.  Dead desk?
Swap it, fix at leisure.

I've also been where 5 system admins managed 30 machines and
struggled.

Nail down what really needs 24x7 support (desktops, unlikely)
and how often you really HAVE 24x7 support.  Is it 10 hour
support with emergencies every couple months that pull people in
on "off hours"?  Cause I can't staff 24x7 with 4 people :)

Nailing down that "this service or system needs 1/4 of a person"
is both reviling to me and yet makes some sense as I age.  I know that,
on a trading floor, Windows requires 1/10th of an admin, while Unix
desktops required 1/25.  Every 10 Windows desktops justified another
Windows admin.

Figure out WHAT is eating up all the time?  What can be changed?

4 people is tight; I've certainly been delighted to rotate people
through non-firefighting roles.  Let one of the guys get net-snmp
working with NOCOL (for example) in a few days and you may save
TONS of time by having that monitor disk usage, service upness,
processes and so forth. 

But part of being able to do that is to be able to get someone's
head above the water.  With 4 people supporting an average of
20 production servers each and 15 desktops, then you're never going to
get that.

Justifying 30 hours/week of work gives 10 hours for those hard to nail
down tasks like script writing, learning tools, testing alternatives,
or just reading email.

Quoting Steve G. Hilliard (flowman@arches.uga.edu):
> Hi folks,
> 
> I'm afraid this is going to get lost in the current fray, but I would love
> any info you can provide concerning your unit's staffing levels.  To give
> you an idea of what I'm looking for, here at UGA I manage 4 people who
> provide 24x7 administration of over 80 production systems (and another
> 50-60 dev and desktop boxes).  We deal with 4 flavors of *NIX, have about
> 40k users, and run every service described in any sysadmin book, and a few
> specialized apps (WebCT, a courseware tool, is one of the biggest.)
> 
> I was a sysadmin who got bumped to manager, and I still help out as much
> as I can, but management eats up a lot of time.  I think we are
> dangerously understaffed.  Luckily my director has asked me to provide him
> with a justification for creating another position, and I'm going to shoot
> for the moon and ask for two.  It would greatly help to be able to present
> evidence to back up my claims.  How does this compare with your staffing
> and work loads?
> 
> Respond to me and I'll summarize to the list.  Thanks in advance to all 
> who can take the time to respond...I know I'll never hear from the 
> busiest! ;-)