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We're rocking MSSC here and it's pretty cool, but awfully overwhelming. Haven't had a chance to really learn it yet, so it's sitting there doing essentially nothing right now. But hey, we pushed out Endpoint Protection with it! I found out this morning my boss (IT Director) is retiring in December. This sucks, he is a great boss and a wealth of knowledge. There are three others in the department close to retirement age and this could prompt their exit as well, so it's going to be an interesting 6 months ahead.
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Sep 10, 2015 15:16
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Internet Explorer posted:WDS or MDT is more than enough for 40 to 90 people, especially of half are Macs. I wouldn't worry about SCCM unless you are planning to grow a ton very quickly and you have lots of free time now. I'm probably going to end up being the dedicated IT guy here, so while it would be easy to just do everything local, I would prefer to start developing skills I can take elsewhere if needed. The main issue here is that we have almost nothing recorded in terms of policy or procedure, which was ok when the company was 3 dudes in a garage but is completely unsustainable moving forward. We hired a new kid last week and he still doesn't have a work computer, let alone know how to set up our absurdly complicated Eclipse configuration.
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Sep 10, 2015 15:25
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WDS/MDT is the way to go with that many workstations. You can throw the image together in an afternoon; gathering up all the necessary drivers will be the part that takes a little while depending on your machine spread. Each of the System Center components is a beast unto itself, especially SCCM and SCOM. Don't try and do things all at once, like others have mentioned. In the Small Shop thread someone mentioned PDQ Deploy and Inventory to me, so if you only have 40 to 96 machines I'd go that route rather than System Center. They're quite good.
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Sep 10, 2015 15:58
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Well, I went ahead and applied for a few spots that indeed suggested, and one of them immediately called me and wants to bring me in for an interview ASAP. He made it a point to say that they are looking for someone with an active CCNA to bump their partner level which was kind of weird, seems like an odd thing to base a hire off of. I guess it doesn't hurt to go ahead and see what's up in an interview though, right?
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Sep 10, 2015 16:03
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Necronomicon posted:So I'm in a weird situation here, and hoping some of you could provide some advice. Like everyone's said, MDT/WDS for Windows. I inherited the exact same situation as you, plus about 300 more computers. But still, somehow they were operating off a terrible deployment process that was basically utilizing a full-disk backup as their imaging system. It was awful. Anyway - this is all much easier if you have some sort of VMWare setup that you can work with. I spun up a Server 2012 machine, installed MDT 2013 on it, and went from there. I don't have a full, step-by-step walkthrough for you but I got everything I needed from DeploymentResearch.com (definitely use "Solution 3" for your drivers) and DeploymentBunny. Depending on how you want to do it, you can either set up PXE (network) boot, or just use a USB stick, which is what I did. I never did get WDS going (that might change soon), but we're never deploying more than 2 or 3 machines at a time so it isn't an issue. In case you didn't know, WDS allows you to deploy with multicast, whereas MDT only just pulls an image down from your DeploymentShare via unicast. Also, as far as your image goes, I've found it's easiest to source your image from a virtual machine; let's you go the "hybrid" image route. Get it patched, install all the necessary applications, patch them, etc., and then snapshot it. Run sysprep, and reboot it - instead booting it off of a WinPE stick, and capture the image to a network share using ImageX (or DISM, I think is what WinPE 5 uses now). That way you've got a complete image with no drivers. Once you need to update your image, you can revert that VM back to the snapshot you took and go from there. Oh, and assuming you're deploying enterprise-class equipment, you can typically find .zip or .cab files on the major manufacturer's (Dell, Lenovo, HP) sites. Just load them up like deploymentresearch.com's steps explain, keeping your folders structured correctly. For OSX, DeployStudio is nice. I'm much more of a Windows guy, but I found DeployStudio much easier to set up. There's a lot of walkthroughs on Youtube. I got it going with a dedicated OSX machine running OSX Server; that way my Macs can use Netboot (OSXs name for PXE, I guess?) and pull the image via the server, no USB required. You can also do it on a self-contained external drive but I don't know about that route.
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Sep 10, 2015 16:47
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crunk dork posted:Well, I went ahead and applied for a few spots that indeed suggested, and one of them immediately called me and wants to bring me in for an interview ASAP. Certs for partner level stuff is actually a pretty serious thing. Even more so when you lose status when people leave or certs expire.
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Sep 10, 2015 17:35
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Sickening posted:Certs for partner level stuff is actually a pretty serious thing. Even more so when you lose status when people leave or certs expire. The more I learn the less I know... I just became certified not even a month ago. Current employer didn't really seem to care so I figured it didn't do much. I'm the only person in our managed services division with an active Cisco cert too as far as I know.
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Sep 10, 2015 17:44
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crunk dork posted:The more I learn the less I know... I'm sure when I get my CCNA no one in my current job will care (as they don't realize why I'd want my CCNA...). Some orgs care about their partner status, some don't. Are you talking to an MSP? They're usually the ones most likely to value them. I'm not sure if internal IT ever really cares...?
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Sep 10, 2015 17:47
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:I'm sure when I get my CCNA no one in my current job will care (as they don't realize why I'd want my CCNA...). Some orgs care about their partner status, some don't. Are you talking to an MSP? They're usually the ones most likely to value them. I'm not sure if internal IT ever really cares...? Well, I work for a company currently that provides managed services as part of being an office technology supplier. The clientele is way too small to warrant a good flow of Cisco gear, and the phones division uses Shoretel exclusively so they aren't benefitting from it either. They were adamant I do this dumb barracuda sales partner training though, so I get what you're saying. What they care about will depend on what vendor's equipment they sell or have a demand for. And the one I'm talking to as of yesterday is an MSP that handles government contracts from what I can piece together after one conversation and some googling.
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Sep 10, 2015 17:54
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I worked at an msp that set a goal for me to get my CCNA, specifically for a better Cisco partner level. I got it, the business benefited, but they didn't offer a raise to compensate for my added value. I left a month later for a job willing to pay for my credentials.
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Sep 10, 2015 18:20
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Judge Schnoopy posted:I worked at an msp that set a goal for me to get my CCNA, specifically for a better Cisco partner level. I got it, the business benefited, but they didn't offer a raise to compensate for my added value. That seems pretty reasonable to me. The place I'm talking to would pay at least 50% more than what I make now, and have an opportunity for clearance of some sort, but I feel kind of silly for interviewing without a real reason after 3 months at a place.
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Sep 10, 2015 18:26
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Well, they fired my boss, the CFO, today. I've only been here since March and I've already had 3 bosses.
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Sep 10, 2015 18:41
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Wait, are you not at the ski resort anymore?
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Sep 10, 2015 19:40
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This is at the resort.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:43
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Oh, okay. I thought you were there longer than that. My mistake.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:44
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Well, sometimes it feels like that. There was no documentation or anything before, and I have fixed so many things it's practically like I've been here years.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:46
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Necronomicon posted:So I'm in a weird situation here, and hoping some of you could provide some advice. I'm just curious what the real need is for a managed OS? I know you said 'to skip the trial and error process', but do you really need that? I'm curious because I'm in a very similar situation - company was small startup who is further along that same transition (we currently have around 90 people, just made our first acquisition bringing in 11+ new devs), and when we give our people laptops we just give it to them (whatever type they want to do their work, no corporate standard / golden imaged machine on lockdown) and let them do what they need with it. Our teams each have our own way of handling the setup. My team has a basic welcome.md with links to all the apps we use in our teams git repo which works just fine. I would say that this is a lot less frustrating for the employees and also the one to provision the hardware. Of course I don't know the full details of your organization so this is purely anecdotal / informative, not necessarily a suggestion.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:56
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Holy poo poo I think I may be able to hop on the  train for the first time in my life!20% higher base pay and no more external customers!
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Sep 10, 2015 20:08
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:I'm just curious what the real need is for a managed OS? I know you said 'to skip the trial and error process', but do you really need that? So, what about the people that aren't developers? I'm mostly talking out of my rear end here, but it seems like that could be a big pain point when transitionting to startup in garage to actual business. If you outsource all that or something then great no problems. But as soon as you start having secretaries and HR and finance people and marketing and sales and etc etc, are you going to trust them the same way you trust a developer? Hell, I wouldn't even trust a developer hired to an established business the way I would trust a developer hired to a startup. But at least initially, you may or may not have that problem. So make sure whatever you're doing is to meet the needs of the staff rather than some blanket demand for "proper IT" or whatever (which may come from you being accidentally over eager or maybe some manager that doesn't know what they're doing). So figure out what problems staff is having with the way things are right now and see if a standardized deployment setup would help them with that.
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Sep 10, 2015 20:20
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FISHMANPET posted:So, what about the people that aren't developers? I'm mostly talking out of my rear end here, but it seems like that could be a big pain point when transitionting to startup in garage to actual business. If you outsource all that or something then great no problems. But as soon as you start having secretaries and HR and finance people and marketing and sales and etc etc, are you going to trust them the same way you trust a developer? Hell, I wouldn't even trust a developer hired to an established business the way I would trust a developer hired to a startup. Honestly they all get the same setup (whatever laptop they want and the necessary licenses for their applications - Office365, etc) and we have 1 IT guy who handles all provisioning and has all tickets routed to him. They're working on hiring a second guy (and maybe another since that one guy is applying for a job in Operations). I'm sure that won't last forever.
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Sep 10, 2015 21:36
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A friend of mine got a job at a company that was starting the startup>real company transition and they were at the point where they basically needed to forklift a systems backend because up to that point they'd just been giving developers laptops but it snowballed to the point where it just wasn't working for the "regular" staff they were bringing in and I think it ended up being a bit of a rushed scramble to transition (or maybe they never did, he left and they're going down in flames).
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Sep 10, 2015 21:50
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FISHMANPET posted:they basically needed to forklift a systems backend Could you tell a little more about this? (Genuinely curious)
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Sep 10, 2015 21:53
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I can't sadly, he mentioned it in passing that they might want to hire a Windows admin because they were having trouble getting going with that kind of stuff. But also that company was terrible and he left in under a year so who knows how much of their systems troubles were because they were a terrible company and how much were growing pains. But I never really got any details on it.
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Sep 10, 2015 22:05
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I just asked my boss for a 20% raise. He's been my boss for about 3 months, before that IT was in the business office - now we're working for the technology & engineering dept. He was super cool, I basically said "Look, in the 2 years since me and <coworker> started here and replaced the existing team we've cut over 60k/yr of unnecessary poo poo, eliminated relying on consultants and documented everything that was a mess before. I make 65k, someone with my certs and experience averages around 80. We live in <expensiveplace> and I need 80k, or else soon enough it is not going to make sense to stay here" He said "Thanks for telling me. A lot of people are woefully underpaid, and it shouldn't be that way. It's smart to do this now rather than making demands later. You guys do a great job and everyone loves you. I'll go to fight for your raise this year but it may be over the course of two years." That's about as awesome of a conversation as I could have wanted. I saw it going a lot of ways but I'm really glad he was cool and reasonable.
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Sep 10, 2015 22:27
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Spudalicious posted:"I'll go to fight for your raise this year but it may be over the course of two years." I don't want to burst your bubble but there are a lot of managers out there that will say things like this, or anything else for that matter, to get you to stick around just a little bit longer than you otherwise would have in hopes of getting an actual raise, all the while knowing that there is no raise coming. I'm not saying this guy is doing that. What I'm saying is that vague assurances are worth nothing. At least get regular updates from this guy, he should be able to get you some hard numbers ("we're going to bump you 10% at the end of this year and another 10 the next year" or "you're getting +5% starting in November but beyond that no promises" or something like that) in a reasonable period of time. Like, weeks, not months. I mean, verbal promises are pretty worthless too, but at least if they renege you can know exactly when it happens. I know I sound all  CORPORATIONS. My attitude comes from being burned by situations just like this, and I sincerely hope the guy is dealing with you straight.
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Sep 10, 2015 23:32
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Che Delilas posted:I don't want to burst your bubble but there are a lot of managers out there that will say things like this, or anything else for that matter, to get you to stick around just a little bit longer than you otherwise would have in hopes of getting an actual raise, all the while knowing that there is no raise coming. Plus, in two years you'll have two more years of experience under your belt, and would be worth more than $80k anyway. The way he puts it makes it sound like, best case, once you get your raise...you're underpaid again.
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Sep 10, 2015 23:39
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:I'm not sure if internal IT ever really cares...?
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Sep 11, 2015 00:45
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For those of you who get to play with databases, how'd you get your start or your experience in them? I'm been trying to get my foot into learning the basics of databases and so I can write simple queries/reports but I keep getting shut down at my job. No one in my department has database access, or knows how to write reports or queries. Instead, we have to depend on unreliable contracted employees. I've been asking for read-only access to a training environment but I can't even get that. Frustrating to say the least, as I feel that my professional development is starting to stagnate.
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Sep 11, 2015 01:14
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MySQL is free, spin up your own database and start from scratch. You'll learn how to make tables, how to write data (make a python script or whatever to record the day's weather at an hourly interval or something it doesn't really matter what's in it), how to access the data, run queries, run reports, all sorts of fun stuff to get started. There are online ides that can do this or I recommend a raspberry pi for cheap dedicated hardware to mess with.
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Sep 11, 2015 01:21
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You will also learn that working with databases is horrible  (but necessary and valuable!)
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Sep 11, 2015 01:39
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I took an intro to database course at my community college in 2002. That was enough for me to understand the basics at my job around 2007, where I wound up writing tons of stored procedures for report generation. I've been out of that game for 5 years or so, but last I was there, Crystal Reports was king. Teach yourself how to do poo poo in that, and you're an extra special loving magic wizard.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:20
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Che Delilas posted:I don't want to burst your bubble but there are a lot of managers out there that will say things like this, or anything else for that matter, to get you to stick around just a little bit longer than you otherwise would have in hopes of getting an actual raise, all the while knowing that there is no raise coming. Depending on the size of the company, he might be saying this with all the good will in the world and still never be able to commit. When I was managing an SA team in a Fortune 500 setting, I had one guy that I knew perfectly well was underpaid, and he knew it too. He got lowballed with his initial hiring salary, worked hard, learned fast, but never got properly rewarded for it because it was 2002 and the company was in a perpetual hiring and promotion freeze. Every review I'd say, "you're a smart guy, I love your work ethic, I want you to be making at least $70k, but if all I can do is keeping giving you the maximum allowable raise, it's going to take us a long time to get you there." At least once a year I asked my boss if we could promote him, and every year I got told no.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:42
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Judge Schnoopy posted:MySQL is free, spin up your own database and start from scratch. You'll learn how to make tables, how to write data (make a python script or whatever to record the day's weather at an hourly interval or something it doesn't really matter what's in it), how to access the data, run queries, run reports, all sorts of fun stuff to get started. Or use a VM. A Pi is going to be appallingly slow with any kind of real dataset. Speaking of which, I'd start with a dataset. Sakila, Dell DVD Store, RITA, openstreetmap, or whatever. Collecting your own data is great and all, but peeking at (and learning to use, and learning how to design by playing with it) a normalized "real" dataset instead of "dump everything into this table" teaches a lot as a beginner. Pick your poison (postgres, mysql, mssql [express ok for learning]) and learn the tools, built in functions, how to write procs and triggers, etc. This all translates once you're experienced. But T-SQL vs PL can be confusing at first. Learn external tooling if you want, but be aware that sqlalchemy, entity framework & linq, and other "programmer friendly" tools abstract the SQL away a bit, because devs are awful and write terrible queries or use cursors or unsanitized inputs if you let them. As an admin, you'll also want to know SQL. Learn something for your language of choice, but also learn how to write queries in management studio or pgadmin or the console or whatever.
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Sep 11, 2015 04:51
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Doesn't MySQL still offer the world.sql database?
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Sep 11, 2015 05:07
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evol262 posted:Or use a VM. A Pi is going to be appallingly slow with any kind of real dataset.
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Sep 11, 2015 05:12
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jaegerx posted:Doesn't MySQL still offer the world.sql database? Sakila is designed to replace world, I think. Vulture Culture posted:The Raspberry Pi 2 has a full GB of RAM, which helps the situation tremendously. But yeah, a VM is a much more solid option unless you're already a Pi tinkerer. I meant the awful I/O more than memory, but yeah, the extra memory will help for sure if you wanna use a pi
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Sep 11, 2015 06:17
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Does anyone have the link to the free windows 10 download? I recall it posted in one of these threads.
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Sep 11, 2015 07:15
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jaegerx posted:Does anyone have the link to the free windows 10 download? I recall it posted in one of these threads. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
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Sep 11, 2015 11:36
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So I'm interviewing at a large software company and they just got back to me telling me it's myself or one other person for the job - but they want my current salary first. They already have my number for what I want ($75K). Is it normal to not only get my current comp but also make a decision based of it? This is the first and only red flag I've seen so far, seems like a great company to work for and I really want the offer  Currently at $61K with great benefits
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Sep 11, 2015 14:14
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Don't give them your current salary.
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