System administrator

A system administrator describes the role of a person whose job includes maintenance duties for the long-term support of a computer system.

Typical daily tasks for a system administrator include:

• password reset
• printer queue troubleshooting
• userid add/modify/delete
• troubleshooting, and answering questions
• perform backup and restore operations of files

These more infrequent tasks are also an important part of a System Administrator's job:

• Operating System configuration changes
• software updates, for the OS or the application(s) it runs
• hardware changes

Typical responsibilities of a System Administrator:

• documenting the configuration of the system
• keep the system operating
• maintain the security of the system
• keep the application running
• participate in most changes to the system
• own the passwords to the administrative userids

To call yourself a System Administrator (SysAdmin), is to sharply define yourself as different from the following roles commonly found in the IT industry:

• DBA
• Application Analyst
• Programmer
• Network Specialist
• System Architect

See also: BOFH, PFY.