This issue is quibbling.   The students are educated as engineers by 
your definition, but are not actually making the design or configuration 
decisions.  We do discuss such things as a group, so that the students 
learn not only the theory but the "practical" considerations concerning 
a particular application or sub-environment.  We are not engaged in 
vocational training ("voc ed"), but in the education of scientists and 
engineers, with the intent that some will proceed through a relevant 
earned PhD (or non-USA equivalent).

Aside from this title/job description, does anyone have familiarity with 
the web advertised course?  If so, and if the respondent also has 
familiarity with Nemeth et al., how do these compare?

Yasha Karant

On 05/30/2013 10:16 AM, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
> 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).
>