July 2016 LOPSAgram: Happy Sysadmin Day!

1. President's Corner: Vendor Relations

As system admins one of our joys is dealing with vendors. I am sure each of you have war stories about untrained support people, products that do not perform as advertised, and don't get me started on documentation. While it can be cathartic to share war stories over a few pints, we also need vendors as they enable us to provide services to our customers.  This column is about how we can improve our interactions with vendors.

First, you when you talk with a vendor, let them know the what you like and dislike about their product/service.  The better vendors will take this feedback and improve their products/services to better meet your needs.  Take the time to find out how to submit enhancement requests and include in the request the business impact of the changes you request.  For problems with their product/service, let know what is the time and dollar cost of the problem to you and your business.  I find it very useful to mention how my users perceive the company and their product/service in order to increase their interest in fixing a problem.

Second, take time to interact with vendors at conferences, via professional associations like LOPSA, and even attend a marketing presentation now and then to let them know what you need and do not need. I know some folks do not like to do this, but if we cannot tell the vendors what is working and what is not, how will we ever get the products that we need?  The vendors are subsidizing your tickets to the conferences and your membership at the professional associations so take a few minutes and stop by the booth or click the link to see what they have to offer.  Then take a few more minutes to let them know what you think about their product or service.  If you do not do this, then the price of conference attendance and professional association membership will increase.  

Finally, take time to foster a professional relationship with the vendors and their VARs as this will encourage them to go the extra mile for you when you really need it. They are much more likely to fix a problem quicker and in your favor if you have that relationship.  So take time to talk with them when they call, at a marketing event, or at a conference.  The time you invest in the vendor will most likely pay off later on down the road when you need help.

2. Happy Sysadmin Day - LOPSA Contest & Meetups

Friday, July 29, 2016, is the 17th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. If you're a sysadmin, your boss might need a reminder that there is a special day to celebrate your often quiet accomplishments. Get this day on your boss's calendar and ensure that you and all future sysadmin hires get properly acknowledged each year. And if you manage system administrators, now is a time to show them your appreciation.

Help us celebrate #sysadminday on the last Friday in July, July 29th 2016. Show us your top 10 pictures that showcase your day as a sysadmin, tweet to @lopsa with #SAtop10.  Contest closes at midnight July 27 (EDT).  Winners to be determined by retweets and favorites.

Don't feel like posting pictures? Big brother won't let you? Tweet us your favorite Sysadmin tool or Online resource with #SAfaveTool.  Winners of the Favorite tool will be decided by a vote of the board.  Same deadline.  Good luck to all.

Let us know if you are having a #sysadminday celebration and how you are celebrating. If you set up a meetup and 6 or more people sign up, send an email to communications@lopsa.org with the meetup link and LOPSA will send you 6 t-shirts to help celebrate SysAdmin day.

LOPSA will maintain a list of System Administrator Appreciation Day meetups:

https://lopsa.org/event-2275321

3. Welcome New Sponsor DataDog

See metrics from all your apps, tools, and services in one place. Begin your trial today, install the agent, and Datadog will send you a free t-shirt!

4. Leadership Committee Update & Election Results

5. Member Tech Blog Highlight - Standalone Sysadmin

http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/sysadmin-calendar/

6. Locals

SASAG: Seattle Area System Administrators Guild

• https://SASAG.org
• https://www.meetup.com/Seattle-Area-Systems-Administrators-Guild-SASAG/
  

Dinner will be sponsored by Silicon Mechanics.

LOPSA-LA / UUASC: Los Angeles

The next LOPSA LA meetup will feature Brian Bennett of Joyent presenting "Running Containers in Production, no really" Thursday, August 4, 2016 at Q.  

LOPSA Columbus

LOPSA Columbus met on June 21 and Bill Sempf presented about Why the Web is Broken. LOPSA Columbus is partnering with DevOpsDays Ohio for a Sysadmin Day celebration on July 29.

RSVP here: https://sysadminday2016.eventbrite.com

7. Thank You To Our Sponsors

We'd like to thank our sponsors. We're deeply grateful for their continuing support of LOPSA. More information on how to become a sponsor.

Thanks to our individual sponsors:

Platinum: Jennine Townsend, Dan Rich 
Gold: Ski Kacoroski
Silver: Matt Disney, Lee Damon, Scott Murphy, Ian Viemeister
Bronze: Gary Studwell

Gold Sponsor Paessler AG

Bronze Sponsor Edgestream Partners is a small group of scientists and engineers with a unique approach to trading in the financial markets. Our company designs, builds and runs a global trading software platform. We take pride in our software craftsmanship and use Python, Cython and C on Linux to run our global trading operations. We also use open-source tools as much as possible - Python, PostgreSQL, numpy, git, Cobbler, Puppet and Ansible are all crucial to our business.

Bronze Sponsor O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. Check them out.

Some of LOPSA's web content is hosted by ServerBeach.

8. Comments or suggestions?

As we close out this month's LOPSAgram, we want to make sure we're giving you the information you want or need. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send them to communications@lopsa.org