A sys admin can set up a virtual network on EC2. He can blog about it, he can then ask to take his laptop to the interview (check beforehand if WiFi / ethernet is available, otherwise perhaps a 3g dongle) and they can demonstrate everything they can do.
Just imagine a sysadmin turning up with their laptop and demonstrating...
1. Provisioning of servers where they've created the *nix build, deployed a web app, mysql etc
2. They show off their system monitoring capability, take down a few services and then show off their e-mail alerts. Bonus points for twilio integration with SMS :)
3. They then show the backup process they have and how they verify their backups
4. The sysadmin then runs a series of security tests against a server and shows the results
Just imagine a sysadmin turning up with their laptop and demonstrating...
1. Provisioning of servers where they've created the *nix build, deployed a web app, mysql etc
2. They show off their system monitoring capability, take down a few services and then show off their e-mail alerts. Bonus points for twilio integration with SMS :)
3. They then show the backup process they have and how they verify their backups
4. The sysadmin then runs a series of security tests against a server and shows the results
I would hire that guy in an instant