It’s July 1, and at OpenDNS that means opening day for SysAdmin Appreciation Month. If you recall last year we made a big decision: SysAdmin Appreciation Day, which is July 25, is not enough. We need an entire month to show our SysAdmin love.

This year we’re doing the SysAdmin Awards a bit differently. There are four categories, in addition to the highest honor, SysAdmin of the Year 2008. The SysAdmin of the Year 2008 will be selected from the submissions to the four categories.

Nominate yourself, or nominate a peer. If you’re reading this, and you aren’t a SysAdmin, I can guarantee you benefit from a SysAdmin, so take a moment to recognize him or her. This is your chance to acknowledge the SysAdmin who keeps your Internets running.

Rules for nominations are simple. Send an e-mail to awards at opendns.com, indicate which category you’re nominating for in the subject line and tell us why your nominee deserves glory. Judging will be done by OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch (a former SysAdmin himself) and the all-star operations team of George Patterson, Bill Fumerola and Jesse Davidson. The deadline for submissions is midnight on July 22, the night before the OpenDNS SysAdmin Appreciation Party in San Francisco. The real prize is the sheer honor that comes with being selected, but winners will also receive a $50 American Express gift card and be announced right here on this blog. The 2008 SysAdmin of the Year will get $200, a winner’s package of OpenDNS clothing and schwag and a spotlight on our Web site. This is the real deal.

So without further ado, your 2008 OpenDNS SysAdmin Awards categories are:

Best Disaster Response Award

A hurricane, a fire, an earthquake. A datacenter meltdown. Something that would have caused business operations to shut down completely, if it weren’t for this SysAdmin. Like a knight in shining armor, this SysAdmin managed to keep the network up and running.

Unbelievable Uptime Award

SysAdmins take pride in total uptime and this SysAdmin’s router has been up for years. Heck, it’s been up so long he/she might not even remember where it is. Wow the judges with a number of straight days of uptime.

Shoestring Budget Award

This SysAdmin works wonders with a seriously tight budget. Tell us about the SysAdmin with the craziest buildout done on the cheap. We need details for this submission - tell the judges specs, total cost and what kind of awesomeness it powers.

Flying Solo Award

Even with a team of talented operators, SysAdmin’ing is not easy work. But when flying solo it can be downright heroic. Regale us with a (true) story of the heroic sysadmin who saved the world (or did something awesome).

That’s it SysAdmins. Good luck.

Wow! It’s only the 11th of the month and already 83 new schools have switched to OpenDNS!

In case you missed the initial announcement, October is Take OpenDNS to School month. That means we’re asking you to spread the word about OpenDNS to your kids’ school(s), your friends’ kids’ school(s) and any other school you’re affiliated with. Of course, I’m the first to say it’s not that hard of a sell… OpenDNS and schools are perfect together. Schools have restrictive budgets. OpenDNS is free. Schools have kids. OpenDNS has Web content filtering. See what I mean?

There are still 20 days left in the month, which is plenty of time to print this PDF and make sure it gets to everyone that can benefit.

OpenDNS customers are the best.

Hooray! It’s finally here!

We’ve been celebrating all month long, but today is the official SysAdmin Appreciation Day.

The last challenge of the month was to tell us about your proudest SysAdmin moment, a time when you were the hero. We had some great submissions, but our winning story tugs at the heartstrings and really speaks to what SysAdmin Day is all about.

Winner Patrick Farley is the SysAdmin for Florida Drug Screening Inc., “a national provider of drug testing and alcohol testing and specimen collection services; including DOT, FAA testing, Drug Free Workplace policy development, education, instant on site drug testing devices and At-Home drug testing.” He tells of a week when he was flying SysAdmin solo, and got slammed with a series of unavoidable issues. He overcame all, and in the end got the recognition he deserves.

Happy SysAdmin Day to Patrick and all other SysAdmins. Today is your day, so enjoy it.

-Team OpenDNS

PS. Some of you asked us to give your boss a gentle reminder about SysAdmin Appreciation Day, which we did gladly.

In Patrick’s own words:

First off, I’m here alone all week. I’m the only person in the Tech Department. So naturally it has been a busy week, but I didn’t mind that so much. It’s just hard to get a lot done when I have to stop constantly to help someone track a problem. Alright, no big deal, that’s what I’m here for. What bothers me is that Monday and Tuesday everyone took the time to come to me for something, but no one had the two seconds afterward to say thanks. That’s ok, anyone in IT has had that “not appreciated”. No big deal. I have my iPod and my servers. They love me.

(more…)

There are just over three days left until the big day here in California, and we’re really excited to announce the fourth and final challenge.

We know sysadmins work magic. You know sysadmins work magic. Now it’s time to tell the rest of the world.

This week’s challenge: tell us the story of a time when you were the hero. A time when you saved an invaluable file. A network. A company. A life. Send your story to sysadminday at opendns dot com. Just like the previous three weeks, the best story wins a $50 gift card from American Express.

With this challenge we’re looking to be inspired — examples of accomplishing what is thought to be impossible. And we want the whole story, including the situation leading up to the heroic act and the response you got afterward.

For those of you who are uncomfortable patting yourself on the back, don’t worry about it. We’ll do it for you.

Good luck sysadmins!

Update: Submissions are due Friday at 9 a.m. PST.

Our celebration of SysAdmin Appreciation Day continues. Only one week left until the big day, Friday, July 27th. I hope you’ve been planning your gifts for that special admin in your life.

Today, I’m happy to share the winner of SysAdmin Challenge No. 3, which was to share the best SysAdmin joke with us. The winner of this week’s $50 gift card from American Express is Steven A.

Here’s the winning entry.

Q. Where does a sysadmin go after work?
A. 127.0.0.1

Brief, witty, with a tip of the hat to network addressing… how could we not enjoy it?

Come back Monday, July 23rd to learn about the final weekly challenge.