Working in IT 3.0: xp_cmdshell

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Working in IT 3.0: xp_cmdshell

KillHour: Oct 28, 2007

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

You gotta be careful with raises because you could get pushed up into the next tax bracket and end up making less money overall.

The amount of people that actually believe this is astounding.

Including my mother, who has a college degree and makes 6 figures. :doh:

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:35

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# ? May 8, 2024 14:29

H110Hawk: Dec 28, 2006

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

You gotta be careful with raises because you could get pushed up into the next tax bracket and end up making less money overall.

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

That's average rate. Marginal rate would be the tax rate on your last dollar of income.

But yeah, this often gets people. Someone will see the marginal rate is 25%/28% (those two brackets probably cover most of the thread), and go off about federal income taxes without realizing their average rate is probably below 20%, and significantly below that if they own a house or have children.

CLAM DOWN posted:

http://canadianfinanceblog.com/marginal-tax-rate-explained/

Ok, this makes way more sense. So I take the Federal AGI line in the USA and lookup the tax rate on that. Thanks.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:42

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

KillHour posted:

The amount of people that actually believe this is astounding.

Including my mother, who has a college degree and makes 6 figures.

This is true for marginal taxes, but not for deductions based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income. Notably, you lose Affordable Care Act tax credits when you move above 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. Further down the income ladder, you have the Medicaid Gap between 48% and 100% of FPL.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:46

Dr. Arbitrary: Mar 15, 2006; Bleak Gremlin

Vulture Culture posted:

This is true for marginal taxes, but not for deductions based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income. Notably, you lose Affordable Care Act tax credits when you move above 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. Further down the income ladder, you have the Medicaid Gap between 48% and 100% of FPL.

Absolutely true.

The 400% cutoff isn't normally a huge issue unless you're over the age of 50 because the premiums can be extremely high. Most people will have already seen their tax credit trickle to zero before they've reached that point.

Really dumb, easy to fix, but it's not going to get fixed.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:51

LochNessMonster: Feb 3, 2005; I need about three fitty

DigitalMocking posted:

Not sure what country you live in, but you can always decline an offer before starting, or you can just quit on day 0. :p Its not in the best taste, but I do see it done from time to time.

You're right. I looked it up and depending on the contract I can quit without reason or consequences in the first 1-2 months. An employer can terminate a contract during the same period.

I agree it's in poor taste and don't plan on doing that.

The CEO already called me to follow up on my 2nd meeting though. Told him I have another interview lined up and will get back to him in 2 weeks. He sounded like he wanted me to come back tomorrow and sign.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:51

LochNessMonster: Feb 3, 2005; I need about three fitty

KillHour posted:

The amount of people that actually believe this is astounding.

Including my mother, who has a college degree and makes 6 figures.

This is indeed retarded and there are so many people who believe this.

It can only happen if the higher tax bracket means paying more than 100% tax on the money taxed by that bracket (i.e. never ever) or if a higher tax bracket means you lose specific welfare benefits that are higher than what you gain (only applicable in disgusting socialist states like the european union).

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:56

high six: Feb 6, 2010

Judge Schnoopy posted:

I'm looking towards the Charlotte area, care to expand on which part of North Carolina is "bumfuck" to make sure I avoid it? From what I've gathered there's Charlotte, the city in the west, and Raleigh, the city in the east, and everywhere else is desolate garbageland or expensive coastal resorts.

I'm about an hour-ish north of Charlotte. And you are pretty much right about the state. The mountains are really nice and have some fun places (Asheville, etc.), but the job market there is awful just like it is everywhere outside of Charlotte/Raleigh. Only people in these areas are old people and people too poor to get out.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 19:58

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

Japanese Dating Sim posted:

Yeah Americans have never got that whole "get what you pay for" concept when it comes to taxes.

We don't get what we pay for. A not insignificant portion of our local, state, and federal taxes go to pay for poo poo like corn subsidies, private prisons, Alaska, the Iraq war, and sports stadiums.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:11

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

psydude posted:

We don't get what we pay for. A not insignificant portion of our local, state, and federal taxes go to pay for poo poo like corn subsidies, private prisons, Alaska, the Iraq war, and sports stadiums.

By all means then, elect The Right Honourable Donald Trump as your next leader :v:

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:13

Sickening: Jul 16, 2007; Black summer was the best summer.

CLAM DOWN posted:

By all means then, elect The Right Honourable Donald Trump as your next leader

It shocks me how many people WANT to vote for a buffoon. He basically took the tactic referred to as "shock jock" and applied it to winning an election.

Lets see if it gets him all the way.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:23

rafikki: Mar 8, 2008; I see what you did there. (It's pretty easy, since ducks have a field of vision spanning 340 degrees.)

~SMcD

high six posted:

How long do you think you'll be looking for folks for this sort of thing? Denver is one of the areas I'd like to consider moving (I live in bumfuck North Carolina right now). I've got a CCNA and basic Linux skills so this sounds right up my alley. I'm probably going to start job hunting again in May once I've been at this current position for a year. I just need to get out of this area before I go insane.

We have a large number of the positions, so there's generally some turnover pretty often. Shoot me a PM if you have them when you're interested and I'll take a look.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:29

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

psydude posted:

We don't get what we pay for. A not insignificant portion of our local, state, and federal taxes go to pay for poo poo like corn subsidies, private prisons, Alaska, the Iraq war, and sports stadiums.

Don't forget the F-35, which was basically designed to be a Keystone XL money pipeline straight from Fort Knox to Northrop Grumman's secret mountain vault.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:34

high six: Feb 6, 2010

rafikki posted:

We have a large number of the positions, so there's generally some turnover pretty often. Shoot me a PM if you have them when you're interested and I'll take a look.

Merci!

# ? Feb 10, 2016 20:35

Japanese Dating Sim: Nov 12, 2003; hehe; Lipstick Apathy

psydude posted:

We don't get what we pay for. A not insignificant portion of our local, state, and federal taxes go to pay for poo poo like corn subsidies, private prisons, Alaska, the Iraq war, and sports stadiums.

Right, and while I was being ~~pithy~~flippant, I realize the situation's a bit more complex than that. Then it comes down to the question of electing better politicians to use taxes better (which then opens up discussion for how terrible First Past the Post / winner take all is, and then we should probably be in D&D).

But I definitely know people who can talk about why their "high" municipal taxes should be lowered while complaining about potholes in city streets, etc.

Japanese Dating Sim fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Feb 10, 2016

# ? Feb 10, 2016 21:06

mayodreams: Jul 4, 2003; Hello darkness,
my old friend

I definitely agree that taxes, when used appropriately, are perfectly fine. However, I live in a region that is rampant with corruption, gun violence, high taxes, and lovely services.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 21:58

Dr. Arbitrary: Mar 15, 2006; Bleak Gremlin

We can take it to D&D, but it's possible to get involved in local government. You might not want to run for office but there are definitely some smart people out there who ought to be in office and they would really love help from someone who can make a website for them.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 22:12

Tigren: Oct 3, 2003

mayodreams posted:

I definitely agree that taxes, when used appropriately, are perfectly fine. However, I live in a region that is rampant with corruption, gun violence, high taxes, and lovely services.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 22:19

Judge Schnoopy: Nov 2, 2005; dont even TRY it, pal

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

We can take it to D&D, but it's possible to get involved in local government. You might not want to run for office but there are definitely some smart people out there who ought to be in office and they would really love help from someone who can make a website for them.

Yeah this derail doesn't have all that much to do with IT, but in Chicago / Illinois, the barrier to entry for even local government is absurd. For somebody who wants to keep their job / can't dedicate 100% of their time and money and effort to it, there are no positions of power that are winnable. "Career Politician" is one of the most lucrative jobs in this state and is a huge reason why things are as bad as they are.

I'll leave my comments as that and refrain from posting about my lovely state that I'm trying to escape from here on.

I spent all day working on a powershell script to uninstall 4 applications from a swath of computers, only to find out I'll eventually need PSSession enabled to get this to work. Afternoon -eq wasted.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 23:11

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Judge Schnoopy posted:

I spent all day working on a powershell script to uninstall 4 applications from a swath of computers, only to find out I'll eventually need PSSession enabled to get this to work. Afternoon -eq wasted.

Are you sure you need PSSession? There's Invoke-Command, which only requires WMI & admin rights. You could also tweak the script to run as a scheduled task, and distribute the task through GPOs.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 23:30

MF_James: May 8, 2008; I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

Judge Schnoopy posted:

Chicago/illinois is a giant Dumpster Fire

Yes our state and the city we (at least some of us) live in sucks... A LOT. I've gotten to the age and financial security that I was thinking about dumping some of my savings into a nice 2-flat, but they are talking about raising property taxes again from what I've gathered. I can't wait to get the gently caress out of this state. My brother's and I have a Wyatt Earp pact that when one of us leaves, all of us do (which will likely mean our parents are in toe). My older brother has been clamoring for it, and I think it's time for me to push it as well, our oldest brother has 3 kids though so it might be tough, but seriously hoping we can get everyone to move the gently caress away.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 23:47

Judge Schnoopy: Nov 2, 2005; dont even TRY it, pal

Wizard of the Deep posted:

Are you sure you need PSSession? There's Invoke-Command, which only requires WMI & admin rights. You could also tweak the script to run as a scheduled task, and distribute the task through GPOs.

Running powershell scripts is disabled on all machines by default and I can't get broad approval to enable it, so running the scripts on the target computer is out. WSMan is not configured on any machine, so Invoke-Command fails from my computer, and again there's no chance I'll get approval on setting that up company-wide.

There is a lot I can do remotely with powershell but getting registry values and running commands simply won't work.

# ? Feb 10, 2016 23:52

Iron_Chef: Sep 19, 2003; Chef of Iron

Make Use of PSExec (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/psexec.aspx) to execute a batch file on a remote computer. The batch file can change the execution policy and then copy over the Powershell script(s) to execute from a temp directory. Any necessary logging or output can be written to a file share and as you are executing PSExec as a known user (you), you can limit access to the share to just your account.

Batch file

code:

REM Echo "Batch Begins" > \\blah\Batch_%computername%.txt

powershell.exe -Command Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -force
powershell.exe -Command Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted 
copy \\blah.ps1 c:\windows\temp\blah.ps1
powershell.exe c:\windows\temp\blah.ps1     

REM Echo "Batch Ends" >> \\blah\Batch_%computername%.txt

Your Powershell script does everything on a per host basis, including any output as needed to the file share. If needed you Powershell script could turn off the execution policy again one finished.

And finally a third control batch file that kicks it all off

code:

psexec @servers.txt -d -h -u domain\user "cmd.exe" " /c \\blah\startitall.bat"

servers.txt is a text file with the computer FQDNs
Note I'm fairly certain the user password is sent in clear text

Hope that helps somebody or even remotely makes sense

# ? Feb 11, 2016 00:13

AreWeDrunkYet: Jul 8, 2006

On the other hand, psexec is lovely at passing credentials and you should avoid using it if at all possible - preferably block it altogether with AppLocker.

Can the script be packaged and deployed via SCCM? Running in system context should let you override any execution policy stuff. Longer-term, you're going to want to get PS remoting fixed in your environment. It's one of the more secure ways of handling remote administration.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 00:40

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

psexec is insanely dangerous and should be blocked enterprise-wide.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 00:40

Judge Schnoopy: Nov 2, 2005; dont even TRY it, pal

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

Longer-term, you're going to want to get PS remoting fixed in your environment. It's one of the more secure ways of handling remote administration.

Absolutely, and I'll be pushing for PS remoting to be enabled via group policy. There's a lot of c-level scare right now because a vendor fell for a phishing attack, resulting in our users being targeted, as well as an ongoing spoof attack against one of the c-level addresses, so I have no idea what they'll think of the new guy wanting to enable remote powershell execution access across the organization.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 01:19

Sickening: Jul 16, 2007; Black summer was the best summer.

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

On the other hand, psexec is lovely at passing credentials and you should avoid using it if at all possible - preferably block it altogether with AppLocker.

Can the script be packaged and deployed via SCCM? Running in system context should let you override any execution policy stuff. Longer-term, you're going to want to get PS remoting fixed in your environment. It's one of the more secure ways of handling remote administration.

This. The best powershell advice I can give is to totally avoid using 3rd party agents at all costs. If it can be done by using psexec, it can be done with powershell by itself.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 01:20

anthonypants: May 6, 2007; by Nyc_Tattoo; Dinosaur Gum

Sickening posted:

This. The best powershell advice I can give is to totally avoid using 3rd party agents at all costs. If it can be done by using psexec, it can be done with powershell by itself.

I hope that doesn't include third-party modules, I just made a script using PowerCLI for some of our vms this morning

# ? Feb 11, 2016 01:48

Sickening: Jul 16, 2007; Black summer was the best summer.

anthonypants posted:

I hope that doesn't include third-party modules, I just made a script using PowerCLI for some of our vms this morning

Modules are kind of required to do certain things and my impression was always what powershell was intended to be expanded with.

When I saw agents, I am referencing 3rd party software on client machines.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 02:18

Iron_Chef: Sep 19, 2003; Chef of Iron

Sickening posted:

This. The best powershell advice I can give is to totally avoid using 3rd party agents at all costs. If it can be done by using psexec, it can be done with powershell by itself.

I can't disagree in general; Powershell remoting would be the best way to achieve remote administration except it can't be done in their environment.

Psexec is at best user beware but as long as you understand the issues as an administrator it has it's uses. Remote usage requires access to the administrative share which can be controlled by local firewalls and administrative credentials. Checking it looks like all of the communication in current versions is now encrypted. Is there some other glaring flaw I'm missing?

# ? Feb 11, 2016 02:23

hihifellow: Jun 17, 2005; seriously where the fuck did this genre come from

PSRemoting can be enabled through GPO.
So can the execution policy.

I like psexec but it is dangerous as all hell.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 03:15

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

I need some quotes on pallets of things. Does anyone have any good recommended reps at SHI, CDW, etc., preferably on the West Coast?

# ? Feb 11, 2016 04:18

Alfajor: Jun 10, 2005; The delicious snack cake.

Vulture Culture posted:

I need some quotes on pallets of things. Does anyone have any good recommended reps at SHI, CDW, etc., preferably on the West Coast?

I can get you in touch with our ex-rep at Zones.com. We switched to SHI for this year, and I'm already regretting it. Our guy at Zones was on top of most things, and our new guy is reactive at best when it comes to updates.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 04:32

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

Alfajor posted:

I can get you in touch with our ex-rep at Zones.com. We switched to SHI for this year, and I'm already regretting it. Our guy at Zones was on top of most things, and our new guy is reactive at best when it comes to updates.

Please do, you can reach me by PM

# ? Feb 11, 2016 05:09

H110Hawk: Dec 28, 2006

Vulture Culture posted:

I need some quotes on pallets of things. Does anyone have any good recommended reps at SHI, CDW, etc., preferably on the West Coast?

Pallets of...?

# ? Feb 11, 2016 05:57

MF_James: May 8, 2008; I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

Hit over 12 hours roughly 15 minutes ago and I do NOT hate my life.

It would have been nice to leave 4 hours ago, but I've got some major changes I'm putting through and it's fun to see it working out... even though I somewhat hosed up on the first of 3 vm hosts I was modifying and caused to clusters to freak out, but that was easily fixed, plus the fact that these 3 we aren't really using yet, and since I can't actually test the changes I'm making, I'm testing in production technically. At least the few bugs will be ironed out (a script had misspellings that I didn't catch when running on my VM at home and the aforementioned clusters freaking out because of a bad order of changes) before I go to make the changes on the 3 hosts that we have 900 or so retail locations talking in to.

All in all feelin pretty :c00lbutt:

about how smoothly this went considering I couldn't properly QA stuffs.

Also getting to use a few PS scripts in PD finally is nice. I wrote a somewhat kickass one previously that I couldn't use in PD, because our QA environment had 2012 DCs whereas our PD only had 2003 so we didn't have some fun AD modules, and I didn't find out until I went to move 5000 objects in PD with it and it wouldn't even run... doing that by hand sucked

ramble ramble ramble need to sleep...

# ? Feb 11, 2016 06:52

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

MF_James posted:

ramble ramble ramble need to sleep...

I hope you are being paid overtime or get comp time for this!

# ? Feb 11, 2016 15:37

MF_James: May 8, 2008; I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

ratbert90 posted:

I hope you are being paid overtime or get comp time for this!

this is a sore subject, I was just moved to salary (with a 10k raise). And "policy" aka un-official not documented anywhere policy is that you work 8 hours every day regardless of whether you worked 20 the day before because gently caress you. The only reaosn I worked as long as I did was because I was learning a good bit by making all those changes. The kind of poo poo that will definitely further my career, otherwise i would have clocked my 8 and walked right out the loving door.

Also, at some point I'm going to have a chat with my manager an inform him of how dumb the policy is, and that if we (the sys admins) actulaly just put 8 hours a day in the loving sky would fall because we're understaffed and overworked and his awful management style is kiling morale. Obviously put nicely and possibly without insulting his management ability, but yeah ramble ramble the helpdesk called me 3 hours after I went to bed because of :dumbissues: now I'm awake and I hate the world.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 16:40

DigitalMocking: Jun 8, 2010; Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
Benjamin Franklin

MF_James posted:

this is a sore subject, I was just moved to salary (with a 10k raise). And "policy" aka un-official not documented anywhere policy is that you work 8 hours every day regardless of whether you worked 20 the day before because gently caress you. The only reaosn I worked as long as I did was because I was learning a good bit by making all those changes. The kind of poo poo that will definitely further my career, otherwise i would have clocked my 8 and walked right out the loving door.

Also, at some point I'm going to have a chat with my manager an inform him of how dumb the policy is, and that if we (the sys admins) actulaly just put 8 hours a day in the loving sky would fall because we're understaffed and overworked and his awful management style is kiling morale. Obviously put nicely and possibly without insulting his management ability, but yeah ramble ramble the helpdesk called me 3 hours after I went to bed because of :dumbissues: now I'm awake and I hate the world.

Any job that doesn't reasonably allow you to flex work hours when you're on call should be left immediately. don't kid yourself about how good it is for you. There's other jobs just as good or better, but with humane working conditions. My apprentice was here at midnight last night dealing with the phone company, I don't expect him in until noon because I'm not a monster.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 17:45

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

MF_James posted:

this is a sore subject, I was just moved to salary (with a 10k raise). And "policy" aka un-official not documented anywhere policy is that you work 8 hours every day regardless of whether you worked 20 the day before because gently caress you. The only reaosn I worked as long as I did was because I was learning a good bit by making all those changes. The kind of poo poo that will definitely further my career, otherwise i would have clocked my 8 and walked right out the loving door.

You're rationalizing, and you're making it worse for everyone who works in your department because your boss can hold you up as an example. Managerial pressure to overwork yourself to death is bad enough without adding peer pressure.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 17:54

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# ? May 8, 2024 14:29

Sickening: Jul 16, 2007; Black summer was the best summer.

Old HP server halted on a memory error. The server was running esxi and everything vmotioned the way it was suppose to. Nothing critical was down, everything is great.

I let my boss know of the event and let him know I am running an full diagnostic. 10 minutes later, diag failed because the server is offline. Hmm, thats loving weird. I take a trip to our server room and I find my boss with the server taken out of the rack and he is personally taking it apart.

:colbert:

I did tell you I was running a hardware diag on that right?
:downs:

I wanted to check the memory first
:colbert:

Checking it how? Are you physically inspecting it?
:downs:

Yes

What are you looking for exactly if you don't mind me asking?
:downs:

Something that looks out of place
:colbert:

Okay, the memory looks like memory. I am pretty sure that if something was fried the hardware diag would have told me before we started unracking and taking a server apart.
:downs:

Sometimes hardware diagnostics are wrong.
:colbert:

They aren't perfect, you are right, but I feel like its a better step then what we just did. Doesn't this seem kind of drastic?
:downs:

This is the way I like to do it.
:colbert:

Okay, let me know when you are done looking and I will start up the diag again.

He puts it all back and comes to my office. He wants memory replaced where the alert said the halt came from. I let him know I can order the memory but that it might not even be the main issue. I let him know that if something is broken that its under warranty and that the diag will give me a better idea what is wrong. Nope, just order the memory.

Korean culture is just weird sometimes. He use to work with servers 15 years ago and because he is my elder, his way is the best way. Whatever, it isn't my money.

# ? Feb 11, 2016 18:42

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