Data Center Skills – System Administration

System Administrators – System Administration is one of the key tasks in data centers. System administrators do many activities like hardware maintenance, cabling, and other software tasks. They are essential for effective running of the data center. Some of the tasks of system administrators are user group maintenance, patching, rebooting, security scans, disk and storage usage scans, performance monitoring, File transfer, high-level administration, malware and firewall management etc. System administrators were earlier doing manual tasks and use to lift servers and equipments.

With advent of automation most of the tasks are being automated and tasks that a sys admin performs repeatedly are being automated. Automation through scripting, specialized software and system scheduling frees her time, saves you money and prevents human error-related mistakes. As hardware and virtualization technology becomes more reliable, the need for dedicated systems administrators for managing the operating system and physical servers decreases. Managing applications and how they work, building scalable web services, database farms, and searchable, indexed file servers are a few of the skills that the new sys admin is going to need.

Some of the prominent Certification Programs:

The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)

"Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer" - The MCSE program began with Windows NT 3.1 and is today one of the most widely known Microsoft certification programs. It is available for the Platforms viz., Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has, in effect, discontinued the MCSE certifications for future versions of Windows, replacing the single Platform MCSE award with a plethora of other more narrowly focused certifications.

The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) certification Program helps to validate an individual's ability to manage and troubleshoot network environments based on the Windows Server 2003 operating system. As an alternative to the electives on the MCSA, electives like table, certifications or certification combination may substitute as MCSA electives. For example, CompTIA A+ and Network+ together or CompTIA A+ and Server+ together can be credited and substituted as an elective through a Microsoft and CompTIA partnership agreement. An individual may also substitute Security+ alone, which counts for the elective and one of two exams for the "Security Specialization." Security+ counts for MCSA 2003 and MCSE 2003.

Links: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcsa.aspx

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)

RHCSA is an entry-level certification that focuses on actual competencies at system administration, including installation and configuration of a Red Hat Linux system and attaching it to a live network running network services. To achieve the RHCSA certification the student must pass EX200, a half-day hands-on lab exam. The minimum passing score for the exam is 210 out of 300 possible points (70%). There is no prerequisite for the exam, but Red Hat recommends preparing for the exam by taking courses in Red Hat System Administration (RH124 or RH135) if one does not have previous experience. RHCSA was launched in 2002 as Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT).As of July 2009 there were 30,000 RHCTs. In November 2010 it was renamed to RHCSA.

Links: http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/

VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 4 - Datacenter Administration

The VCAP4-DCA is directed toward System Administrators, Consultants and Technical Support Engineers who can demonstrate their skills in VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter technologies in relation to the datacenter, as well as their knowledge of application and physical-infrastructure services and their integration with the virtual infrastructure.

Links: http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=16657&ui=www_cert

Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris Operating System

The Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris (or SCSA), the oldest of Sun's certifications, concentrates on in depth knowledge of the Solaris OS including knowledge of basic UNIX and Solaris OS commands management of file systems, system boot and shutdown, software install, user creation and administration, security, network printers and system processes, and system backups and restores. The test covers topics of system administration for SPARC, x64, and x86 based systems. The certification requires passing score on two separate tests, Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 10 OS, Part I, (exam number 310-200), and Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 10 OS, Part II, (exam number 310-202). The certification is targeted at System Administrators working in technical positions in the OS.

Links: http://www.oracle.com/partners/en/knowledge-zone/server-storage/s10-soladmin-exam-190529.html