Let me jump on the Admin wagon. Perl does it all!

I have used Perl to create report scripts, configuration scripts, monitoring scripts and yes have used it for CGI. I think that the best thing about Perl is it's power and ease of use. I have been able to create file replication monitoring services to test the publishing and replication of files and alert on failures, or even the backup replication service that I created. (I didn't administer the replication servers and will leave it at that.)

How about the database driven asset management, documentation and publishing system that I developed? Perl scripts that collect data from servers, cgi web interface, Perl/TK gui interface that worked on all of the workstations regardless of OS, and don't forget the server that the GUI connected to which handled the logging and actual publishing to the production servers from CVS.

If you are administering ANYTHING, you shouldn't do without it.