/r/sysadmin: I recently had to implement my disaster recovery plan | Hacker News Reader

/r/sysadmin: I recently had to implement my disaster recovery plan

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77 pointssunbum12 comments

Most of us probably have a job description with a list of duties or something along those lines. But I've come to realize that certain circumstances notwithstanding (unions, etc), it's just a farce. Most people's actual job is to keep their boss happy, which you can do by helping them with their job, which is to keep their boss happy.

OP's job duties were fulfilled correctly until they weren't. The boss was happy because he didn't have to pay for backups and when it became unfeasible to keep the boss happy (data loss), OP recognized his job had become impossible and he quit.

Replace "disaster recovery" with "incident response" and this is too familiar. The thing some of you may not know is with managment like that, even if the sysadmin found a free backup solution, management would double down on not needing backups especially since the data loss was not complete and they came back up so fast even after a major hurricane. If he tried to convince them to pay for a consultant to tell them the same thing, things might have been different.

> If he tried to convince them to pay for a consultant to tell them the same thing, things might have been different.

More people in the industry need to realize these kinds of hacks and start playing the game. Management will back you on almost anything so long as you make it look like a win for them.

You want security vulnerabilities addressed, ask for a pen-test and then tell the testers where to look.

And if you have a big security incident get a 3rd party team to "help" you.

When making DR recommendations I have straight up told my boss "Under current circumstances, if this happens, my plan is to quit". Then I tell him what I think needs to happen for me to feel good enough about it I wouldn't quit if that happened.

Yes, and here is how that would go down with most bosses:

Hey, we have a new member of the team that's going to help you, pleased to introduce to a new team, member Jerry on a Monday, and then that Friday you are walked out the door citing at-will employment.

Jerry performs subpar duties, but not enough to get noticed, doesn't say that, and everything is good right up until the incident, and then Jerry quits.

Who got paid more? Needless to say, at that point the incident can be filed right under, "not your problem."

This seems like a reasonable response to unreasonable circumstances. I am not sure there are other options that allow folks to maintain their professionalism and to prevent management's intentional lack of planning from becoming a personal emergency.

When you hire an expert on a subject, listen to them about the subject.

> When you hire an expert on a subject, listen to them about the subject.

When someone hires an expert, they hire scapegoat to take all the blame for their mismanagement. As expert best you can do is to fix as much as you can, before shit will hit the fan.

A wise man once told me:

An expert is someone from 500 miles away.

It's true... when I've been brought in as an expert, I've often known less than the team, but listen research... and lo and behold, recommend the team's recommendation with a few minor obvious twists, and poof.. pay incoming.

If anyone needs an "expert"... listen to your team first. :)

What a great twist.

se non è vero, è ben trovato

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