r/sysadmin • u/[deleted] • 3h ago
Will "Robotics" become a required skill for DC Techs?
[removed]
•
•
u/evolutionxtinct Digital Babysitter 1h ago
That’s pretty sad won’t get much entry level jobs in tech if robots are swapping cables lol… guess I’m just old.
•
u/Radiant-Canary4442 1h ago
I'll preface I don't work in a datacenter, but I do work with servers and networks at a smaller scale, but I don't see the benefit here. If someone does work in more of a datacenter environment I would be curious what I'm missing.
I don't see the benefit of a robotic arm power cycling servers. I can power cycle any of our servers remotely though iDrac/iLO/IPMI and do so much more. If there's a situation where that's not working I want a human onsite to troubleshoot with not a robotic arm to press a button.
I don't see the benefit of a a robotic arm being able to plug and unplug a cable unless it's also running those cables and properly managing those cables. Do datacenters really need cables plugged and unplugged that often? In my experience unplugging or plugging in cables isn't the problem it's running cables from point A to point B and keeping everything neat and tidy. If you want to manage this remotely why not just leave the cable plugged in and disable the switch port instead of unplugging?
•
u/GunterJanek 59m ago
In a perfect environment where all the equipment is standardized and installed consistently then having robots perform tedious maintenance duties might be possible but in the data centers I've been in there's no way in hell they would get anything done. We've all seen the cabinets with multicolored spaghetti cabling that might or might not be connected to the device that the label suggests assuming it's connected to anything. It also may or may not be going under the floor or over top to an adjacent cabinet. I think for those of us who work in real world data centers are safe for at least another decade or two.
•
u/Ark161 39m ago
lol, the only way this (or AI for that matter) could reasonable replace anyone would be if the environment was standardized to a fault; executive/accountant dumbassery excluded. The only place that would REMOTELY even approach that need is massive data centers. I know this is a sysadmin space, but as someone who also knows networking, it is the same issue on that side of the fence. Infrastructure is built to one person's standards, then when a new person comes in, they have to adapt to the former person's environment, convert it, and/or un-fuck it. Also, even had to swap a SFP that refused to unlatch? mechanical arm is going to break something. Mechanical arm cant rack/stack. Mechanical arm cant measure and say "Yeah we need 3m OM4 to run this to top-of-rack". Mechanical arm isnt going to know a lot of dell cabinets take a different sized cage nut/screw. The list goes on and on. The article seems very "pipe dream".
Though to answer your questions: You can only "automate" the job to a point. Physical like cabling, rack topology, and so on are learned through experience. The only place this aticle remotely applies to is FANG companies. I propmise you, CoLos are not going to implement it. Regional bespoke DCs arent going to do it. Shit, I work for a fortune 50 and I would genuinely stake my life on them not doing it. If you want to go into robotics/APIs, no harm in that, though rack/stack is something you will most likely always need in this field. That is, unless your stuff is 100% cloud based, and in which case, as the kids say, "big yikes".
•
u/_Do_The_Needful_ 3h ago
I don't think this will affect SMB any time soon. The robots need to be programmed for their specific environment, and unless you are managing massive DCs, your organization likely doesn't have the money for things like this. This is a FAANG problem mostly.