Working in IT 2.0: Fixes include more constructive criticism

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Working in IT 2.0: Fixes include more constructive criticism

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Stanos posted:

Really the only 'bad' interview questions I've been given are brain teasers or theory type ones. I had a guy ask me how many golf balls could fit in the room we were speaking in once. I understand WHY it was asked but it's still irritating pretending to give a poo poo.

The correct answer is n-1 golfballs where n is when no more golfballs can fit in the room. This gives you room for future golfball expansion.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2014 18:23

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 21:54

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

I mentioned this in the ticket thread but my question seems to best fit here. I just accepted a lead tech position which is also a sys admin position. Our network admin will be helping out getting AD setup because it does not exist at the location and he will be giving as much help as he is allowed. The job I'm taking is within the same organization I am currently in so he can
provide a lot of help.

As legends have foretold the IT department where I'm going was run by a stereotypical IT jerk that somehow managed to last many years in the position. He kept everything secret, constantly put people off with his attitude, and had no ticketing system. There is an IT assistant but IT is not their only job unfortunantly.

My plan of action going in is as follows, have I missed anything important? Should there be something I should not be doing? Once I actually start there I will have more to go on instead of hearsay and conjecture.

1. Install Spiceworks on something so we can make tickets until we decide if we want to stick with it or go with our in-house ticket system. The in-house one does not support queues so I would be adding a good 200 users to it and make every bodies email blow up.

2. If the assistant is not in or unable to work through the existing workload I will help him out before doing anything else. I want gather inventory during this time if the inventory controllers list does not match ours.

3. Find out which terrible imaging software they are using, laugh if it costs money and switch to MDT. Also implement a PXE server if one does not exist.

4. Find out from the network admin what the plans were for AD and VMware. Although I can find this out before I go over.

5. Post about all the terrible things I've found in the bitching thread.

Edit: Somewhere in there I will be documenting the poo poo out of our stuff. Also, I found somebody asking the same question on another forum from 4 years ago! http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/67737-your-first-day-system-administrator.html God drat I'm dumb, talking with other people and my boss should be on my list, so that's in there too.

Yaos fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Jul 8, 2014

# ¿ Jul 8, 2014 06:17

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Docjowles posted:

I'd strongly recommend reading Time Management for System Administrators. It's short, you can knock it out over a weekend but it's packed with some really good strategies for handling "I'm coming into a new environment, everything is hosed, and I have minimal help".

Perhaps also The Practice of System and Network Administration although it's getting a bit dated. It goes through some general best practice ideas, some of which you're clearly already aware of. Like the importance of setting up ticketing and system imaging systems rather than doing all that poo poo manually.

Both are more process/advice books than technical, and written by the same guy, Tom Limoncelli of EverythingSysadmin.com.

Thanks for the information, I'll be reading these books when they come in. My new job starts on Monday and it's going to be a hell of a ride.

Canemacar posted:

Any IT-specific resources out there than can help people break into the field? I'm in the Nashville area and looking for something entry-level like help desk.

Good news! The job I'm leaving is a help desk position for Williamson County Government in Franklin, TN. We're about 17 miles south of Nashville. My current boss is working on the job description as type. It will show up here: http://williamsoncounty-tn.gov/jobs.aspx . It will be an entry level position so your A+ will help you out. The work environment is great and we do not hire through agencies. If you would like to know more you can PM me or email me at yaosio@gmail.com.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2014 16:50

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Tomorrow will be my last day as just a computer janitor. I read the books suggested previously and I think they'll help.

Part of the job will be getting quotes from vendors when needed. The location does not have AD yet so I was looking into licensing for Server 2012 and CALs needed and my head exploded which is usually what happens when I look into MS licensing. From what I've read how device based CALs work, it seems like every device that glances at the server needs a CAL, user based CALs would be easier to manage and probably cheaper, is this usually the case?

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 00:30

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Tab8715 posted:

Has anyone ever got an answer to why so many companies have contractors and enormously high-standards for hiring direct?

Contractors are cheaper for the company and easier to get rid of. They only have to pay a salary, no benefits at all.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 01:28

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Just got done with my first day at my new job as an IT lead tech/manager and it was great. Got the first Linux server going, got Spiceworks going, getting everybody on the internal documentation wiki. I came into absolutely no documentation whatsoever; no idea what servers do what, no idea who has what software, don't know what any software keys are. My predecessor kept everything secret from the people he worked with. I'm going to get a lot of experience in the first month or two and I smell a trip to every computer in IT's future. I'd use Spiceworks, but most of the computers are apparently missing the accounts I know about, and others need to be setup to allow Spiceworks to grab WMI information. We'll be going to Active Directory at some point so live inventory will be fixed.

The imaging software they are using starts with an M (not MDT), it's some free software that is designed to take a single snapshot of a computer and reimage the same computer. MDT and a crash course in setting up a PXE server on Linux here I come. I suppose I could just boot off a USB stick if I had to though.

I hope to be one of those people that come back a month later saying how everything is fixed.

Yaos fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Jul 14, 2014

# ¿ Jul 14, 2014 23:14

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Misogynist posted:

Just be aware that every one of these things is something that makes your life easier and none of them is a deliverable for the business. You'll sound much better if you come to them in a month being able to talk about how much money you're saving them instead of how much money they need to spend on licensing compliance.

I'll keep that in mind. I've got a lot to learn in my position, and not a lot of time to do it. I'm actually lucky on Active Directory. We access CJIS data (we're a Sheriff Office) and the rules are changing pretty soon on how it can be accessed. We're implementing two factor authentication through finger print scanners that authenticate against AD. This was decided on about a year ago so it's like a present was dropped in my lap. I got to test out the scanners last year in my old job and they work great and were really easy to use and implement so that's always nice.

I'm also really lucky the network admin from where I was working also helped IT where I'm at now so I can bug him about any documentation he may have.

Biggest pain will be getting everything documented so I can get myself up to speed and know where we stand on everything.

Yaos fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Jul 15, 2014

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 02:05

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

dox posted:

You should be using MDT. I don't know how else to convince you... but you really should be using it to deploy Windows.

Take it from me, we used to use WinPE + imagex and MDT is so much better. Sysprep is automated and it is much easier to manage everything image related. Plus you get to have one image work across multiple platforms.

End of the first week as a sys admin/help desk and everything is going great. Next week I'm whipping inventory into shape so I can figure out how many licenses we need for Active Directory. And don't tell me it is on the honor system, I'm not a pirate

By whipping it into shape I mean having inventory.

Yaos fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Jul 18, 2014

# ¿ Jul 18, 2014 23:23

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

I'm coming up on the end of the 2nd week at my new job. Everything has been going really smooth, I've yet to break a server, and I get free lunch brought to my desk (it's jail food but the chicken is always good). So far everyone has been nice and even backups are working correctly. I'm still in the same organization and use the same ticket system and they had more tickets comes in this morning than we've had since I started my new job.

I just know I'm missing something important because it's been so easy going.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2014 23:33

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

CLAM DOWN posted:

Do jails have IT departments??

It's actually the Sheriff's Office which is connected to the jail, and the jail has tons of cameras and a bunch of DVRs they connect to which I get to fix when they break.

Edit: No, I'm not an inmate. Although, that would make a cool TV show! Everybody that touches state/federal data has to be CJIS certified and currently being an inmate would disqualify somebody from that.

Yaos fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jul 24, 2014

# ¿ Jul 24, 2014 00:35

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

What's a good rule for licensing? If there's no proof (proof of purchase or even a freaking key code) it was licensed assume it wasn't?

Edit: I'm excited about our upcoming project, everybody is getting on Active Directory. It will be fully licensed and everything!

Yaos fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jul 25, 2014

# ¿ Jul 25, 2014 03:27

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 21:54

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

Comradephate posted:

I suppose you can try contacting the company and asking if there are any licenses associated with $business_name.

I think it's time for me to go to bed, I forgot to mention it was Microsoft software. We buy through CDWG (this does not mean the software had to be bought through them though) and there's no mention of buying any software through them, but if you buy retail it won't show up. I'll have to ask our rep tomorrow if he is able to tell if we've bought any software through them since it's not showing up on the website, only hardware.

Thanks!

Yaos fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Jul 25, 2014

# ¿ Jul 25, 2014 04:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Working in IT 2.0: Fixes include more constructive criticism