systemctl enable sysadmin: Welcome to Enable Sysadmin

Welcome to this new and exciting community publication for sysadmins. The goal of Enable Sysadmin is to publish guides, how-tos, tutorials, explainers, tips and tricks, and more to help system administrators, operators, network administrators, database admins, and many other roles do their job more effectively and efficiently—and maybe discover something new. 

Readers can expect us to cover existing and emerging technology concepts, software and applications, common pain points, solutions, scripting, programming languages frequently used by system administrators, and much more. And of course, we want this site to become a thriving community of sysadmins sharing their work.

Contributors can expect professional editorial services, final review of their articles before publication, and a community of people reading and sharing. If you have a topic you would like us to cover or want to contribute an article, send your idea or your proposal—with a working title and brief abstract—to enable-sysadmin@redhat.com.

MVP snapshot

As you visit the site and explore over the next few weeks, you’ll notice it’s pretty bare bones. This site is our Minimum Viable Prototype (MVP), or in sysadmin terms, our alpha release. Our goal was to get this out into the wild and gather feedback early and often, like any good open source citizen. We’ll make improvements over time while we deliver great content from sysadmins.

About the name

In a proposal slide deck that shall remain nameless, we tried to define this community's identity. The pitch our branding colleagues came up with was to the tune of, "You mean sort of like a Sysadmin’s Corner?" Yeah, sort of, but not quite. "You mean sort of like the cool basement office where they hang out and talk smack?" Again, close, but sysadmins don’t belong in the corner or the basement. They, you, belong on a pedestal. The people who do the thankless, unseen, poorly-understood work behind the scenes ensuring that everyone's code runs in the cloud and pesky deployment problems get solved need to be brought out into the sun.

Sysadmin Corner was this project's code name until we decided on Enable Sysadmin, a play on the systemd command structure—which all of us may not like using, but we’ve had to learn.  We like this name for this site because we want the content published here to enable and enhance what you do. To that end, we remind you that this site is in its alpha phase, and we’re accepting feedback on all fronts.

What’s next

For me, an extended weekend to recharge my batteries. But for you, here are a few things to consider:

• Share your favorite site content using the hashtag #EnableSysadmin
• Sign up for the Enable Sysadmin newsletter
• Send us feedback about the site
• Submit an article proposal with a working title and a brief abstract