Working in IT 3.0: xp_cmdshell

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

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

Chickenwalker posted:

Can anybody think why a company who makes media storage servers -which they say can't be routed more than one hop away from clients- would suddenly shift from UDP to TCP halfway through the lifecycle of the product with no documentation of that fact? I mean I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that latency sensitive applications had to be UDP.

I won't name names but a manufacturer we use did this and not only does it not make any sense it seems to have broken several interactions between their shared storage and their software.

What protocol are you actually talking about? I presume NFS, but it's not actually stated anywhere in the post.

# ? Jul 10, 2016 05:57

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# ? May 20, 2024 01:54

Chickenwalker: Apr 21, 2011; by FactsAreUseless

fart

Chickenwalker fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Sep 23, 2018

# ? Jul 10, 2016 06:04

YOLOsubmarine: Oct 19, 2004; When asked which Pokemon he evolved into, Kamara pauses.

"Motherfucking, what's that big dragon shit? That orange motherfucker. Charizard."

Lots of storage protocols use TCP. Guaranteed delivery is pretty important for storage, you know?

# ? Jul 10, 2016 07:38

Chickenwalker: Apr 21, 2011; by FactsAreUseless

fart

Chickenwalker fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Sep 23, 2018

# ? Jul 10, 2016 10:20

MrMoo: Sep 14, 2000

Chickenwalker posted:

I mean I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that latency sensitive applications had to be UDP.

In 1990, these days it is only a reasonable choice in certain niche areas. TCP is accelerated, UDP is not, TCP has congested control, UDP has not unless you are going funky like QUIC, or maybe if you don't care and go one-way only delivery (no back channel).

An example, NFS on TCP is a lot faster than NFS on UDP. For long haul links UDT is best, bulk one-way UDP delivery. QUIC attempts to fix TCP's issues on long haul links and the RTTs for SSL.

Generally UDP for stateless comms to many clients, and UDP for multicast (peer discovery and wide distribution), TCP for everything else.

MrMoo fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jul 10, 2016

# ? Jul 10, 2016 17:36

Cthulhuite: Mar 22, 2007; Shwmae!

I've got an interview tomorrow for a senior IT admin job, it's been about 4 years since I last interviewed and my first actual interview for a senior position - I've usually just migrated into senior work.

Should I expect anything different? Will I probably need to answer stupid questions about FSMO roles and NetApp configuration or will it probably be more high level stuff? What kind of questions have you been asked on senior level interviews?

I'm feeling like I don't know anything right now, heavy case of IT imposter syndrome :ohdear:

# ? Jul 11, 2016 04:31

adorai: Nov 2, 2002; 10/27/04 Never forget; Grimey Drawer

I interviewed for a senior level position once, and am now in a position to interview for such positions.

On the side where I was interviewing, there were a number of questions they asked me that were clearly the kind of question that you would only know the answer to if A) you studied for an exam or B) recently solved the problem. I told them specifically what I would google for on those questions. On the side where I interview for, I am looking for problem solving ability and google-fu, not memorized knowledge. I want you to tell me about similar experiences you have had where you didn't know the answer and had to come up with it.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 04:42

Chickenwalker: Apr 21, 2011; by FactsAreUseless

fart

Chickenwalker fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Sep 23, 2018

# ? Jul 11, 2016 05:53

Dr. Arbitrary: Mar 15, 2006; Bleak Gremlin

If anyone in this discussion has made an insightful comment on UDP and not gotten any responses back, you should know why.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 05:56

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

adorai posted:

I want you to tell me about similar experiences you have had where you didn't know the answer and had to come up with it.

Exactly. I'm not an expert at SQL, so when they asked me how to compare when to implement HA vs clusters, I said I didn't really know from experience, but here's what I do know, and how I'd go about making a decision if it really was entirely up to me. The interviewers said it was a great answer, even though I didn't really answer the question

# ? Jul 11, 2016 05:57

Chickenwalker: Apr 21, 2011; by FactsAreUseless

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

If anyone in this discussion has made an insightful comment on UDP and not gotten any responses back, you should know why.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 06:26

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Chickenwalker posted:

# ? Jul 11, 2016 07:56

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

Cthulhuite posted:

I'm feeling like I don't know anything right now, heavy case of IT imposter syndrome

I feel that way sometimes as the casual guy in the NOC compared to the full-timers. It's kinda relieving to know they actually generally know about as much as I do sometimes. And I know what I'm doing, just that I assume they surely know more or something I've surely not been present for.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 08:48

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Chckenwalkr posted:

:golfclp

# ? Jul 11, 2016 09:02

Chuck Finley: Oct 27, 2010

So, long time lurker here and never really had any reason to post until now. Got a summer "internship" (not really, but basically the same thing) with a non-profit and I'm helping run their IT department with one other guy. Will most likely end up doing IT full time, sometime, somewhere.

Anyway, I'm having an issue with Group Policy. Basically, all the machines on the domain are preimaged with Firefox installed and, ocassionally, some people get a UAC prompt when the Mozilla Maintenance Service triggers an update. Which, as I understand it, shouldn't happen. But, anyway, it is according to my boss. This causes people to just ignore the updates completely until you end up with a four year old version of the browser. So, I thought, well this is easy, I'll just whitelist the update service/grant NTFS permissions/run some convoluted script, but nothing really works. My boss does not want to maintain some script I wrote after I'm gone so he told me to "hose that" and think of something else. Actually, no, he told me to write a Microsoft Word document instructing people how to update Firefox. :thumbsup:

I think I'm just looking at this too hard now and can't seem to see a simple solution anymore, maybe I'm an idiot. Part of the problem, as well, is I can't replicate the issue to test solutions. Anyone have any ideas?

# ? Jul 11, 2016 13:54

Sepist: Dec 26, 2005; FUCK BITCHES, ROUTE PACKETS; Gravy Boat 2k

Cthulhuite posted:

I've got an interview tomorrow for a senior IT admin job, it's been about 4 years since I last interviewed and my first actual interview for a senior position - I've usually just migrated into senior work.

Should I expect anything different? Will I probably need to answer stupid questions about FSMO roles and NetApp configuration or will it probably be more high level stuff? What kind of questions have you been asked on senior level interviews?

I'm feeling like I don't know anything right now, heavy case of IT imposter syndrome

I've done a few Senior interviews on the networking side, they range from "just making sure you're a personality fit for the company and not asking a single loving technical question" to "asking every god drat technical question that a sit down exam would". Some places expect Senior engineers to act as a mentor so they may ask you if you have done any team leading or teachings in any form. And if it's a sales centric role (VAR) then they will expect you to be an SME in something most likely, or at least be able to talk with authority on a few things (and when I say talk with authority I mean if someone asks you a question about ENC vs NetApp you can easily say NetApp is way better for X, Y, Z reasons).

I have spent a good portion of my career feeling like an imposter so don't let it get to you, we all have it. It's not even a bad thing really, as usually the cocky guys who think they know it all end up sucking or let their ego get in the way of their job.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 14:03

BaseballPCHiker: Jan 16, 2006

MrMojok posted:

"Hello, this is Lenny"

Thank you so much! I've been looking for this for a while.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 14:43

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

I have a AD DNS best practices question:

I prefer to have every domain controller's DNS forwarder configured to point to an external resource (in this case we pay for OpenDNS) so that if a site connection or resource goes down, that remote office is not stuck without a forwarder. However, the dumpster fire I inherited, all of the secondary domains (completely segregated) all point to a single DC in the group, which when pointed to another site's DC for an external forwarder. My colleague argues that if no forwarder can be reached, ie the vpn tunnel is broken, root hints should suffice.

However, we had just such a failure when one of our remote offices got to be 110 degrees over the holiday weekend, and the ESXi hosts shut themselves down, and then all of a sudden nothing requiring public DNS resolution worked in the datacenters because all of the forwarders were pointed to that remote office's DCs.

From what my colleague argues, root hints should have covered those requests, but clearly did not because we had a SEV 1 outage at 3am.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Current Config approximation

# ? Jul 11, 2016 16:57

pixaal: Jan 8, 2004; All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.

mayodreams posted:

Current Config approximation

I always have an outside resource as a lookup unless the remote site is getting virus definitions from primary site, has under 5% the total users and accounts for 95% of viruses because they are horrible at computers. It's a really weird exception, and I'm sure there's a few more. But unless you want that site to go down if the primary site is down you want to use other DNS servers someplace in there.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 17:19

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

mayodreams posted:

I have a AD DNS best practices question:

I prefer to have every domain controller's DNS forwarder configured to point to an external resource (in this case we pay for OpenDNS) so that if a site connection or resource goes down, that remote office is not stuck without a forwarder. However, the dumpster fire I inherited, all of the secondary domains (completely segregated) all point to a single DC in the group, which when pointed to another site's DC for an external forwarder. My colleague argues that if no forwarder can be reached, ie the vpn tunnel is broken, root hints should suffice.

However, we had just such a failure when one of our remote offices got to be 110 degrees over the holiday weekend, and the ESXi hosts shut themselves down, and then all of a sudden nothing requiring public DNS resolution worked in the datacenters because all of the forwarders were pointed to that remote office's DCs.

From what my colleague argues, root hints should have covered those requests, but clearly did not because we had a SEV 1 outage at 3am.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Current Config approximation

As far as I know, best practice is to put external forwarders on each of your domain controllers, and you can run dnsbench/namebench to figure out which is faster. But you have some weird primary/secondary domain thing, and if the secondaries are completely segregated, maybe there's no communication with other domain controllers at all, and that's going to be a point of failure regardless of DNS. If you can't add external DNS servers to your secondaries' forwarders, maybe you can add other internal DNS servers.

# ? Jul 11, 2016 17:33

GnarlyCharlie4u: Sep 23, 2007; I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

Holy poo poo guys... the employee survey results are in.
Guess what? People really hate IT.
I'll post some of the gems:

quote:

computer equipment lacking, slow computers, etc...

this was said at least a dozen times.

quote:

Lack of communication among departments, particularly ITS. Lots of talk, not many real answers and when answers are given, full of IT jargon so average person doesn't understand what was said.

quote:

some departments don't seems to value customer service much (IT)

quote:

The lack of communication between departments, especially getting information and support from IT.

quote:

Better IT equipment, but better utilization of the staff that is there. Several IT members always seem to attend meetings rather than just one attending to relay information--waste of precious resources and poor planning.

quote:

IT is all about "NO" -- we have to fit our jobs into what they allow. What other department is allowed to close their doors, demand that NO ONE call or knock, and say NO NO NO NO NO?! And how many meetings do they have every day?! They are not serving their audience. Oh,
right, I know --they're too busy. Busy busy busy. Oh, and down a person. Guess what -- We all deal. We're working SO HARD to do more with less, and IT just sits there and says NO NO NO NO NO and takes, takes, takes. IT makes it miserable to work here.

quote:

My life would be much better (much more productive too) if the technology I worked with was better, newer, faster, etc. The IT department makes it virtually impossible to get the easiest of ticket requests completed.

quote:

IT make working here harder than it has to be

quote:

Let's talk about IT. The most despised department. Staff would get their work done (and be more productive) if the technology was better, newer, faster, etc. The IT department makes it virtually impossible to get the easiest of ticket requests completed. Computer not working so
well...they basically shrug their shoulders at it. To be honest we need someone (outside vendor) to come in and assess their work, efficiency, structure, command style, etc. [Redacted.]

quote:

IT is really bringing down staff. IT has some great employees that are being led by a man who doesn't know how to lead. Without proper technology how can any of us do our jobs to the best of our ability. And complaining� [Redacted] �seems fruitless � We need a solution. Not an IT ""meet and greet"". Not the notorious ticket system� [Redacted].

quote:

I.T. needs a better understanding as to who their customers are. Instead of finding solutions, they create roadblocks. Example: their 9 page project request!

To be fair, it is 8 pages, and it's not even our form. The only reason we get dragged into it is if they need our department to implement or support something.

quote:

[Redacted]. Hire a consultant to rebuild the IT department and restructure IT so that it is useful.

quote:

I'm just so tired of IT being what they are, and then departments like planning acting like they're the most important thing. We're ALL important, okay?

# ? Jul 11, 2016 23:19

Trash Trick: Apr 17, 2014

Why are you guys making their lives so miserable?! Jesus!!

# ? Jul 11, 2016 23:26

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

Why can't IT just let me do whatever I want?

What do you mean IT runs on a budget?

# ? Jul 11, 2016 23:34

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

I love the idea of co-workers who are such terrible people that they suggest out-sourcing their co-workers.

These people must be miserable at home, too

# ? Jul 11, 2016 23:46

22 Eargesplitten: Oct 10, 2010

alg posted:

I love the idea of co-workers who are such terrible people that they suggest out-sourcing their co-workers.

These people must be miserable at home, too

I was at a company that had an IT survey, there were a bunch of people who wanted 24 hour support, even though that would have required hiring 2 more people at minimum who would have an average of 1.5 tickets between them per day. People don't care about the reality behind their request, they just want all of their problems to be solved immediately.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 00:04

Sheep: Jul 24, 2003

At our last annual survey more than a few people requested we get quadruple the IT staff without the requisite budget to make that happen. Not sure why, either, since things are fine and our helpdesk is under-loaded if anything.

Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Jul 12, 2016

# ? Jul 12, 2016 00:40

Cthulhuite: Mar 22, 2007; Shwmae!

Thanks for the advice, everyone! Interview went really well, it was more about fit and ability rather than super technical knowledge, but I got more confident as things went on and realised that I'm not an impostor and can easily talk about iSCSI and NetApps - handled that part pretty well :v:

Hopefully hear back in a few days, then I can :toot:

on out of my current job.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 01:54

Inspector_666: Oct 7, 2003; _{benny with the good hair}

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Holy poo poo guys... the employee survey results are in.
Guess what? People really hate IT.
I'll post some of the gems:
this was said at least a dozen times.

This kind of happened to me during a company meeting once. They took a survey and a bunch of the issues people had fell under IT's remit, like the wifi was crappy (fixed by the time the meeting happened) and "Computers were slow" and then "Chairs are broken" (yes that is our area of responsibility because of reasons.)

I couldn't really bring myself to give too much of a gently caress since I have less than no say in procurement.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 04:42

DeaconBlues: Nov 9, 2011

We've got a situation at work where one of our overseas servers has had files shifted into lots of randomly named directories that look like UUID's. It's Windows server 2012 (I think, it may be 2008), so the boss suspects maybe an NTFS corruption error or an employee mistake. It's about 400GB worth.

We want to shift all the files from these randomly named root folders into one new folder but preserve newer files at the expense of the older ones, and also preserve directory structure, so that we can then start sorting everything back into its correct location.

Is there a Windows server/file copying/backup utility that can automate this without it being a manual pain in the arse?

The explanation I've given might be a bit simplistic because it's only my second week working here and I don't understand the servers as well as the senior admin. I'm just looking for ideas.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 06:35

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

alg posted:

I love the idea of co-workers who are such terrible people that they suggest out-sourcing their co-workers.

These people must be miserable at home, too

Would like to outsource my wife from time to time though

Re: dns forwarders, just point all DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 and call it a day.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 06:48

Methanar: Sep 26, 2013; by the sex ghost

DeaconBlues posted:

We've got a situation at work where one of our overseas servers has had files shifted into lots of randomly named directories that look like UUID's. It's Windows server 2012 (I think, it may be 2008), so the boss suspects maybe an NTFS corruption error or an employee mistake. It's about 400GB worth.

We want to shift all the files from these randomly named root folders into one new folder but preserve newer files at the expense of the older ones, and also preserve directory structure, so that we can then start sorting everything back into its correct location.

Is there a Windows server/file copying/backup utility that can automate this without it being a manual pain in the arse?

The explanation I've given might be a bit simplistic because it's only my second week working here and I don't understand the servers as well as the senior admin. I'm just looking for ideas.

code:

$source = "\\foreignserver\d$\" 
$destination = "\\goodserver\d$\" 
#regex for UUID I googled
$UUIDregex = [regex] "[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}"

$copying = Get-ChildItem -Path $source | Where-Object {$_.Name -match $UUIDregex} 
foreach ($item in $copying) {Copy-Item -Path $item.FullName -Destination $destination}

What about something like this? I'm not sure what you mean by preserving directory structure, you wanted everything into a single new folder?

Methanar fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jul 12, 2016

# ? Jul 12, 2016 06:48

DeaconBlues: Nov 9, 2011

Thanks for that. I shall pass it on to the boss for his perusal.

I just meant that, within these randomly created directories that look like UUID's there are normally named directories, like 'Accounts', 'Exhibition', 'Sales' etc. and we'd like to preserve to normally named directories and get rid of the UUID directories.

Anyway, gotta dash now. Will read the thread on my mobile later. Cheers.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 07:05

Methanar: Sep 26, 2013; by the sex ghost

DeaconBlues posted:

Thanks for that. I shall pass it on to the boss for his perusal.

I just meant that, within these randomly created directories that look like UUID's there are normally named directories, like 'Accounts', 'Exhibition', 'Sales' etc. and we'd like to preserve to normally named directories and get rid of the UUID directories.

Anyway, gotta dash now. Will read the thread on my mobile later. Cheers.

I'm not sure if there's a native way in powershell to copy folder structures. It's probably possible to hack something together to do it but it's likely easier to just write a script that for each UUID folder to call robocopy and have it copy the folder structure recursively somewhere.

As a bonus it's really easy to overwrite old versions of a file with a newer one with robocopy.

code:

 
$source = "\\foreignserver\d$\" 
$destination = "\\goodserver\d$\" 
#regex for UUID I googled - now includes capital letter potential
$UUIDregex = [regex] "[a-fA-F0-9]{8}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{12}"

$robocopying = Get-ChildItem -Path $source | Where-Object {$_.Name -match $UUIDregex} 
foreach ($item in $robocopying) {
robocopy.exe $source $destination /mir /sec /b /r:0 /log:robocopy.log
}

Really I'm exhausted and should be sleeping right now but powershell is giving me an excuse to keep listening to music. Use sleepy scripts with caution

Methanar fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Jul 12, 2016

# ? Jul 12, 2016 07:14

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Holy poo poo guys... the employee survey results are in.
Guess what? People really hate IT.

What's the reason people feel like this then? You're understaffed? Underfunded? If so this is a great thing to take to your higher ups and say "Look, this is what people think of us because we don't have enough people/resources."

Are the responses anonymous, or can you track the "IT just says NO" people to see if they've made unreasonable requests in the past and are bitter about being told no?

# ? Jul 12, 2016 08:46

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007; nesaM killed Masen

Sounds like they need some serious work on their customer service/people skills too.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 10:14

pixaal: Jan 8, 2004; All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.

DeaconBlues posted:

Thanks for that. I shall pass it on to the boss for his perusal.

I just meant that, within these randomly created directories that look like UUID's there are normally named directories, like 'Accounts', 'Exhibition', 'Sales' etc. and we'd like to preserve to normally named directories and get rid of the UUID directories.

Anyway, gotta dash now. Will read the thread on my mobile later. Cheers.

File names are normal? Find a file in each folder and match them up, use the newest copy of the file. So pick the first file in a renamed folder to every folder if multiple folders match continue until you get a positive. If you get through every file have the script log it for manual intervention.

I'd look into why this happened. The files might be encrypted or something why isn't a restore from backup an option? I bet your admin knows what caused this since he has some action plan that isn't restore from nightly.

You do have backups right?

# ? Jul 12, 2016 12:41

GnarlyCharlie4u: Sep 23, 2007; I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

Collateral Damage posted:

What's the reason people feel like this then? You're understaffed? Underfunded? If so this is a great thing to take to your higher ups and say "Look, this is what people think of us because we don't have enough people/resources."

Are the responses anonymous, or can you track the "IT just says NO" people to see if they've made unreasonable requests in the past and are bitter about being told no?

Responses are anonymous. We've told a few people 'NO!' on some of their requests for security reasons, and a number of other people because their requests were entirely ridiculous.
I have no idea what people are comparing our customer service to. We used to be an outsourced department just a couple of years ago, and I have literally no idea how the hell anyone got anything done.
We crank out something like 20 tickets a day in a 200ish person environment. I'd say we're doing pretty good.
We have a stupid amount of projects to implement on top of still trying to un-gently caress everything that was handed to us from the previous 'employees.'

I think most of this animosity stems from everyone hating our CTO, and the complaints come from "I've seen someone else with a nicer thing. I want a nicer thing. I literally cannot get to Facebook fast enough."
I'm far from dismissive of people complaints though. Even if their feelings are unfounded, their perception of our department is still very real, and very important when it comes to making my life not suck.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 13:02

Super Slash: Feb 20, 2006; You rang ?

Snowflake posted:

I'm just so tired of IT being what they are, and then departments like planning acting like they're the most important thing. We're ALL important, okay?

How precious :allears:

(Actually today I've got a manager who works from home who requires "Administrator" access, and is getting it signed off from the MD, I'm awaiting the official message so I can deliver a slam dunk of how bad of an idea this is for a nice scapegoat/CYA in case anything happens.)

Super Slash fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Jul 12, 2016

# ? Jul 12, 2016 14:25

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

#allworkmatters

# ? Jul 12, 2016 14:36

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 01:54

Sheep: Jul 24, 2003

Just in case there weren't enough cringe worthy things about this job, Meraki's next webinar is apparently going to be in the format of a musical.

quote:

Cisco Meraki, the makers of cloud managed IT, are proud to present Webinar the Musical. Come one, come all, to experience the sounds and sights of Meraki in an epic, one-hour extravaganza!

We�ve spent the last few months adapting lyrics to 4 popular songs to highlight the advantages of Meraki cloud managed wireless, switching, security, and mobility management. Supported by the vocal and instrumental talents of our in-house employees, we think this is a show-stopping webinar you�ll really enjoy.

Debuting on July 19th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time, this will be an Introduction to Cloud Managed IT webinar with musical tributes to each product family (along with our standard demo of the Meraki dashboard)

If there's one thing I need in my life it is nerds singing about cloud managed network hardware :rolleyes:

# ? Jul 12, 2016 15:48

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

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