Helping Sysadmin
The best way to help the GNOME sysadmin team is to join one of the following teams:
ModeratorTeam - making sure the moderator queues are kept in control and that vital information/patches are reaching the relevant lists in a timely fashion. Eventually, this teams responsibilities may be widened to handling all mailman-related requests (e.g. new list setups etc). Mostly involves using the mailman moderator interface for 10-15 mins a day. Hopefully, the more advanced members will invest a little more time developing the moderator interface, so that time can be brought down to more like 5 minutes a day.
AccountsTeam - handling requests for new accounts, changes of address/key/personal information, other stuff. Mostly involves having one browser window open on our request tracker system, and another open on our accounts management system, respond to any requests, and escalate those that need additional advice/support. This currently takes a couple of hours a day when only one person is available to do this. We are hoping to find more volunteers to share this workload, so that it only takes 10-15 minutes per person per day.
If the above is not for you, and ploughing through logfiles, analysing problems, dealing with security updates, service upgrades and a steady stream of support requests is more your cup of tea, read down to 'How To Apply' for details of how you can get started on the road towards being a core GNOME sysadmin.
Core sysadmin
Obviously, there are some fairly strict requirements that applicants need to meet before they are admitted to the core sysadmin team, and given potentially dangerous root access to the GNOME servers. The main two are:
- At least a few years of practical hands-on experience working in a Linux-based systems administration environment. A certain level of competence is required. We do not have any apprenticeship or training positions open at this time.
- A history of practical contributions to the GNOME project. This demonstrates that you are capable of sparing time to help, are genuinely enthusiastic about GNOME and have demonstrated a certain level of trustworthiness and responsibility.
Core sysadmin have root access on the main GNOME servers, and are on the private internal mailing list 'gnome-sysadmin@gnome.org', on which the more sensitive sysadmin issues are discusses, and to which any sensitive requests (and all the root/cron e-mail junk) is sent. They can fix any and all problems within the GNOME server universe, given enough time and resources. They are still mostly just spare-time volunteers with stressful daytime jobs etc, so should definitely not be hassled. If you think you could do better, read on...
How to apply
First, read the documentation carefully. Start at Infrastructure and work down until you understand the systems, processes and problems involved and are 'up-to-speed' on GNOME sysadmin-related systems.
Secondly, introduce yourself. See Owen's explanation for more information. We need to know who you are, what kind of experience you have, what you hope to achieve etc etc.
The best thing to do is to start hanging out on #sysadmin, so you can see what goes on from day-to-day and can join in and offer realtime advice with any problems being dealt with. This is fairly important, as we would not accept anyone into the sysadmin group until we are familiar with them and know that they are capable and trustworthy enough to start dealing with any issues themselves.
Also, make sure you're subscribed on GNOME Infrastructure mailing list. This is the main public forum for discussing systems-architectural stuff. Post anything sysadmin-related here, unless you believe it to be security sensitive, in which case you should send it to gnome-sysadmin@gnome.org first.
Read the infrastructure archives for the last few months to get an idea of current issues. It's pretty low traffic, so it shouldn't take long.
In particular, if you have an itch to scratch (e.g. "why hasn't the xyz service been fixed yet, can you give me a log on so I can do it myself?"), then the best thing to do is to post a plan to gnome-infrastructure@gnome.org on how you intend to tackle it. If you can convince us that you have thought about it carefully, it may be possible to provide you with shell access, group membership, encouragement and whatever else is required to get it sorted, or have an existing sysadmin execute the plan for you.
Eventually, if you can prove yourself in a given area, you may be eligible for core sysadmin membership. For security reasons, we try to avoid admitting too many people to this group at any given time. Eventually, we may invite our less active members to retire, so we can introduce more active members without the size of the team making it more difficult to manage.
