On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 08:27:11AM -0700, Yasha Karant wrote:
>
> Our group often has to familiarize research students to also be
> systems software technicians (sysadmin). ...
>

This description sounds wrong. Sysadmin is an Engineer-level position,
not technician-level.

Here is the difference:
a technician knows how to install MySQL,
an Engineer knows whether to install MySQL, PgSQL or CouchDB.

These days, anybody who knows how to google and cut-and-paste-from-firefox-to-xterm
can install MySQL in 5 minutes. This skill set does not make a sysadmin. (Well,
maybe in Elbonia. Not in any place I worked, anyway).

-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada