"Windows Server 2008, which was released earlier this month, was officially launched today. Windows Server 2008 brings many eagerly anticipated admin-pleasing features such as a stripped-down mode called "Server Core" that does away with many unnecessary features that are normally installed, and a new virtualization platform - 'Hyper-V' - that should increase Microsoft's foothold in this increasingly important market sector. Windows Server 2008 wasn't the only product to be launched today either; Visual Studio 2008 also saw its official launch, even though it has been finished and available since November, and some fanfare was made about SQL Server 2008, though that won't be finished until later in the year."
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Member since:2005-08-11
Most Admins work in shops with support agreements. Those support agreements become useless if you are hacking binaries and the like to work around around problems. I haven't known too many admins who go about their job hacking things like that. Hacking up scripts, sure. Hacking up executables, not so much
Member since:2006-02-24
Even if it invalidates support agreements, it doesn't mean admins don't do it. It's a trade-off, are you willing to endure the risk of a security vulnerability for 2 more days to comply with the terms of the support agreement, when the software vendor probably has no way of knowing what you did either way?
Member since:2006-02-05
There is something seriously wrong if an admin has to be looking at source code, let alone changing it.
You are right in that it is not completely irrelivent, it is just mostly irrelivent. The only way an admin would be looking at source code is if the software failed horribly, there was no alternatives, and all other support channels failed.
Member since:2006-02-24
Admins have to deal with operational issues on complex systems. Systems which sometimes end up in states which are not completely documented by engineers. This may be due to shoddy engineering, bad design, or poor implementation. It's not supposed to happen but it does.
So what do you do when your database replication system fails and your support vendor for the replication blames the database vendor and vice versa? Meanwhile the executives are complaining to the service manager that the reporting is fubared and the analysts doing data entry are sitting idle wasting time and money?
Do you wait 6 hours for your gold level support agreement to escalate through the hierarchy to 3rd line support and while you're doing it go outside to the common area to have a chat, or do you raise the support request, and the try to find out the issue with what you already know about the replications software because you've troubleshooted it before with the aid of the source code?
If you are the former, then you are nothing more than a computer operator. An admin has real responsibility and support contracts are only tools to help admins meet that. It all boils down to whether you blinding follow the procedure, or whether you use actual initiative in your work.
Member since:
2006-02-24
You must be kidding. There are admins which have to resort to hacking binaries in order to fix bugs which the vendor has promised to fix, but failed to deliver.
Having access to source code is one of the most potent weapon an admin has against hard to troubleshoot problems, or for performance optimization. Sometimes, changing the code doesn't even factor in the equation, as it is also used to understand how the implementation differs to the documentation when it produces unexpected behaviour.