|
Hell, a lot of times I still feel like a big part of my job is 'Professional Google Aggregator'. It's as true from my time in HelpDesk as it's been since I promoted to Jr Sysadmin. Granted there's a lot more to it than that, and it helps to have some disaster procedures and order of operations set with regards to some things, like the ^^^ switching issue. Punching into network devices and verifying config should be like at least #3 or 4 on any major network outage like that. A big part of us trying to help our midtier helpdesk + people is to train their research muscles and think about where they would go to check on XYZ and how to tell when something looks off. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Oct 13, 2022 |
#
¿
Oct 13, 2022 20:12
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 4, 2024 19:04 |
|
|
GreenNight posted:Is this your bed? When you absolutely have to show off the dust bunnies and cat hair collecting under your bed.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2022 16:38
|
|
|
So I just started a new job, I'm a week and a half in and I feel like I got out of a bad situation at my old job for cultural issues, and jumped feet first into one that is bad for operational reasons (and maybe also cultural reasons). In theory, I am a network Admin in a department of three people (supporting about 120 endpoints) with a director above me and a helpdesk guy under me. However apparently a week before I started they fired the helpdesk guy so I'm covering that function for the next however long it's going to be. There is no process documentation or even notes on tickets so we have to go through and try and figure out everything the old guy was working on. This helpdesk guy was apparently also given carte blanche in systems he obviously had no right being in, because every other admin login I get I look and find things fundamentally misconfigured in extremely obvious "it doesn't work like that" ways. To boot, all the while I'm trying to wrestle with my boss on requests for even things like basic tools to be able to do my job. Like he's questioning me on why I would want to use RDP management tools like mRemoteNG or Keepass as a password manager. He has an atrophied idea of what operational security looks like in the year of our lord 2024 and flatly hard bans all password managers no matter what and instead opts to write all impractical passwords on paper in his desk. It's maddening and makes me want to pull my hair out. I'm kicking myself in the rear end too because almost didn't take the job, having a bad gut check that I blew off as new job jitters. I feel stuck now because I no longer have my PTO time I was using at the old job to interview with, and I don't really have a safe fallback while I job hunt anymore. I guess I'll see how the next couple of weeks go. In the meantime, I think I need to just put my nose to the grindstone and get / re-up my certifications. Refresh my CCNP Networking / Phones, and get on CBTNuggets and get myself going on SSCP and maybe see about getting CISSP associate. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Apr 8, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2024 21:05
|
|
|
So have people started solidifying around a new open source VM solution since ESXi is getting Broadcom-ed and hyper-v 2019 and earlier got Microsoft-ed? It seems like ProxMox is filling in the that space but I don't have a home lab to spin it up in our anything.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2024 21:26
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:Cisco Do you have BPDUguard turned on on the Cisco switches? I've seen knuckleheads shut out sections of a wired network because some goober plugged in a little Netgear switch from home so they could plug in another device and it causes the main Cisco switch to freak the gently caress out. If you pull up the interface statuses and it's showing err-disabled it could be getting got from that direction.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2024 21:43
|
|
|
Internet Explorer posted:Anyone asking you to regurgitates random commands at them sucks, but you should probably have at least some comfort there if you are applying to an AD SME job. I'm not applying to an AD SME job any time soon, so I probably couldn't give you specific examples, but I'd probably want you to talk about common problems at scale or best practices that only come up at scale. Stuff like UPN rollback, how to handle time sync, how the KCC works, how sites and site links should be configured at scale, how to handle syncing to Azure AD at scale, etc. etc. I'm probably not going to ask you random commands because that will probably offend/frustrate someone applying to a role at that level and frankly it doesn't really tell me much. I want to ask you the stuff that you can't just memorize, experiences you had, problems you've solved, etc. It also depends a lot on the title as well. Jr vs Sr, admin vs engineer. For a Mid level admin role I'd expect that even if you can't bark correct powershell syntax on command that you generally have an understanding of the shape of what's needed, even if you need a reference doc to complete it. If you're looking at IT on the scale of a F500, expect that if they are asking for SMEs that they are pretty serious and you are probably going to get a handful of "name that command" questions. In a big enough company generally all those roles get pretty siloed off and specialized to do the handful of systems under their purview. It's a different kind of fresh hell compared to my current life as a 2-man IT department where we have to know a little bit of everything by necessity, but it also has its advantages in the career field. Sometimes being a generalist is a specialty all on its own.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2024 23:29
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:I asked my boss and she said she didn't know how to access the remote management so she just pulls the plug if they stop working. To be fair to your manager, Cisco equipment is obnoxiously and needlessly complicated because it means they get to sell you the training on it. If you have certain Cisco network equipment that's command line only (and they don't have like Observium or LibreNMS set up to get a visual pane) and they didn't do CCNA/CCNP even doing basic tasks is a chore of reading through obnoxiously wordy tech documentation to figure out what you need to do. If you want to see fresh hell, take a look at the overview of the Cisco Phone stack. You've got 3-4 major portals (Unity, CUCM, Maybe UCCX, Maybe Intelligence) and about a dozen subportals for each and they were made by different teams that never once exchanged notes on UI Design queues, or even in some cases shared language. Edit: vvvv depending on the model, they still don't. Also you reminded me that ASA Command line is extremely similar to Switch/router but just different enough to send me into a rage. I will wake up tonight in a screaming rage about ACLs. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Apr 12, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2024 04:49
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:buddy i have a poker face three foot deep, trust me I'm not taking it out on users or other IT people, I vent here because I can't tell my boss she's incompetent at tech, incompetent at I mean, rebooting it probably resets the ports, but the overall issue that's causing it is still there. There's probably a loop in the wiring, a misconfigured trunk line, or the office jester has plugged in a netgear switch or soho router that is trying to become the king of the internet.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2024 05:05
|
|
|
GreenNight posted:A lot of times cheaper than having it on a support contract. That was literally what we did at my old job, skip the support contract, get two for nearly the same price. If something failed at a remote site, we'd just pull the config for the old device off Oxidized, drop it on the new device, and overnight it out. They failed so rarely that we rarely needed to replace the same model more than once, at least for the switches and routers. Now the ASAs on the other hand we had nothing but problems with. We had a whole generation of them get hit with the clock failure that permeated some of the older models and we had like 5 fail one after the other over the course of two weeks.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 00:21
|
|
|
GreenNight posted:Yuuuuuup. Oxidized was always my go to. It was primarily a web interface, but it integrated into Observium / LibreNMS so you could pull configs in your main observation pane and have it all in one place.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 18:19
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:This is the place where I'm not supposed to have installed an ad blocker, my boss isn't going to approve anything In my new job I'm fighting my boss to be able to have permission to install Keepass XC. His argument begins and ends with "password managers bad" and completely glosses over the objectively worse reality of everything just being written in sticky notes in folders in his desk. He also blocks my request for mRemoteNG because he doesn't understand why I'd want a management pane for RDP when I've consistently been bouncing between servers all working day. This may very well be the job that fully drives me insane. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Apr 15, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 18:39
|
|
|
Thanks Ants posted:But you see the reason productivity is down because you young'uns don't want to come into the office Unironically kind of this. My bosses fundamental theory of IT operations and security seems to have calcified around the year 2005 and he has not thought to update or even examine why things probably ought to change. Edit: he blocked my request for RSAT tools and powertoys, even though it's literally Microsoft first party based on the justification of "well I never heard about it". Then hard denys it again when power toys lead to Microsoft's github repro because "nothing good comes from github". DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Apr 15, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 18:48
|
|
|
LochNessMonster posted:I have a coworker who loves the office. Goes there every day from 8 to 6. Doesn’t mind a 2h single trip commute. See, I'm one of those office mutants because I need the work / life separation. If I have to set up to work from home there is no getting away from the stress. It probably doesn't help that I love in a one bedroom and home office means "set up on dining table". If I had a 2br where I could lock the accursed work gear away when it's not in use it wouldn't be as bad probably. I feel like my home apartment is filled with way more distractions in part because of the cat being the cat.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 22:33
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:Well I may or may not have hosed up and bricked a laptop, I'm still waiting to see if it comes online or if the user gets back to me, as I ran a system restore without establishing a way to talk to the user outside of the laptop and it's been a while. Welcome to working in IT. Collect your "remote bricking 1" merit badge. Ask me about remote bricking an AD controller once. I was able to restore it from the hypervisor, but it was still like 30 minutes of dull raw panic.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2024 23:32
|
|
|
tokin opposition posted:Gonna need to give that badge back, laptop came back after 2+ hours, within five minutes of me calling the user. I had to ask their boss for a number to get in touch. You'll run into that a lot in the IT world. Even in the rote helpdesk stuff you'll wind up getting the perfect storm of hardware / software issue and PEBKAC issue that means you're about to have like a password reset call that takes 90 minutes as the person immediately forgets, then can't figure their phone out, then "oh by the way" - s you right as you were about to cut him loose, then calls you back anyway because he forgot a second time.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2024 06:36
|
|
|
CitizenKain posted:We are acquiring some new branches from a company and had our first chance to have our network and voice team people show up and see what we are getting into. So far, its real grim. One location has a majority of cables home run directly to a switch, no patch panel. Not that it would matter too much in the cabinet, as a lot of isn't racked and is instead in a pile. Other sites are better, but not by much. Having been in this situation, you just do what you can. When I was doing acquisitions at my old job we had 4 priorities that were roughly in order: 1) Get crowdstrike and RMM installed on all endpoints 2) Get the new Cisco router plugged in and configured to VPN back to the core 3) support HR and management through all their little issues as they get the new employees naturalized. 4) get inventory of computers, printers, find the billings for everything, get it centralized because you will be fighting old vendors in about two months time as they try and obligate you into whatever stupid contract the old owners signed to. Everything else (like active domain joining or doing computer assessments once RMM and AV is running) can be done either remotely from the helpdesk / support team, and the contractor can come out to recable and do the physical stuff whenever. If the callbling was hosed, it was hosed before you walked in, just so what you can to support what's there. If (as was often the case for me) one of the admins came to you and surprise you with requests for new laptops, phones, and printers the day of the acquisition - well that was a "three weeks ago" problem. Put it in the list and they get it when they get it. Edit: if the company isn't comping two days worth hotels and per diem for the poor fucker with the 14 hours round trip he's 100% justified in quitting. gently caress that. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Apr 19, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2024 15:21
|
|
|
Has anyone used ITFlow in production for Documentation / ticketing? I'm pushing for having some sort of document control standard in my new job due to all the issues they were having before my arrival. I used ITGlue in my previous job but since we're in a nonprofit space we don't have ITGlue money, so ITFlow seems to ring a lot of the same bells while being open source. My boss seems to have a paranoid streak about it though and installed myphpadmin on the linux box so he can go through the database structure line by line. My boss seems to have a paranoid streak about any software he's not already intimately familiar with though, and has flatly said all software requests go through him. The problem is that he basically rejects almost everything outright, even Microsoft First Party stuff like RSAT. My most recent ask yesterday was for VIsual Studio code and his immediate reaction was "Why do you need to code? Can't you just use Dreamweaver?" No Keepass, no Notable, no mRemoteNG, no dBeaver. I swear I'm going to catch him saying The Old Ways Are Best like he's a Warhammer Dwarf.  If he makes me do all documentation and passwords on literal paper like he does I will absolutely lose my poo poo. They claim to be security minded and yet they have so many fundamental flaws in their theory of IT Security.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2024 08:41
|
|
|
Vargatron posted:This, but mirroring and inverting the screen before you take the screenshot, then flipping it back around as the background so the mouse movement was completely reversed. One of the most subtle ones I did was flip mouse 1 and 2. Mostly if just set the background or Screensaver to Sean Connery from Zardoz. Nothing says IT like a man in a red diaper with a revolver.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2024 16:56
|
|
|
So the new job is going miserably to the point that I'm literally considering moving to a different city / bigger metro. For the people coming in late, last month I left a stable but stagnant Jr sysadmin (and previously help desk lead of three years with the same company) to move to the non-profit space. I wanted to do some unalloyed good in the world and for my sins they let me. It was in-theory suppose to be a 3 man department with the director, me as network Admin, and a helpdesk person, but I found out in my first day they fired the helpdesk person and I'm covering the function while they work on hiring a new person. It's been a month and we've not even reviewed resumes, let alone started seeing about interviews. My boss is stuck in 2005 and utterly terrified of anything new or different than how he does things, and quite frankly how he does things sucks. He has a hard rule that all software requests, even free / open source ones, have to go through him for approval and he's stonewalled literally everything I've asked for. Up to and including first party Microsoft software. My request for Visual Studio Code was met with the literal response "Why would you need to code? Can't you just use Dreamweaver?". He claims to be coming from a place of security, yet when I bring up actual security concerns (like all the passwords that live on sticky notes) he blows me off as something they can't do anything about, when I've been proposing solutions (Keepass xc to at least get it in a closed, encrypted store? See also software stonewalling) I brow beat him into letting me spin up a box with ITFlow as a open source, on-prem ITGlue replacement, and all he's done since I got it up and running was complain about having to support a Linux box and make me install PHPMyAdmin on it so he could have direct database access (which again, I butted heads against him with, why spin up another web service on the box when you could just use a DB client like DBeaver or Beekeeper?) and then means to security test the poo poo out of it so he can deny it and go back to his paper records. It's not even a company culture thing. We have a sister company in the same building with separate IT staff, and the manager of that will make digs about the paper record keeping and general anachronism my boss has. When he talks about what they use on the other side of the building it almost immediately overlaps with software and processes that are in my wheelhouse and I've been actively asking for. I've been back to looking in indeed for positions, but there's not gently caress around for jobs in Wichita. It may be time to start looking at moving, and I've been trying to figure out where I want to be. The quick and easy options would be either Kansas City or Omaha, but even as far out as Denver or Chicago wouldn't necessarily be awful. I've got some questions for people who've relocated, but it's probably better for the job finding thread. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Apr 24, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 16:42
|
|
|
George H.W. oval office posted:Get out of Kansas whatever you do. I suggest Houston because Houston is cool and good. I extremely do not want to go to a state higher on the CHUD-O-METER than Kansas if I can help it. I get that the Texas metros trend to be pretty reasonable but it's already bad enough as is without going to a state that is off the federal power grid so the power company can jack up your power rates the moment frost shows up. I'd also rather avoid the super huge metros like NY or LA because I don't think I could deal with the density or the cost long term. The easy options are KC or Omaha, the medium options are Denver or Colorado Springs, hard options are like Phoenix and Chicago and Atlanta. Chaos option is like Cleveland or Pittsburg. The nice thing is that I'm a traveling swing dancer and I've been to big national events and have a built in social group wherever I go at least. Edit: xzzy posted:
Shockingly enough, I know the swing dance scene there is really, really strong and I know a couple of the scene leaders there, so there's actually more there for me than you'd think. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 24, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 17:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 4, 2024 19:04 |
|
|
BaseballPCHiker posted:It feels like once you've been in IT long enough you know enough to figure anything out given enough time. The biggest single skill I learned in my decade + of a working IT is search engine aggregation. I always joke if someone is describing me a problem on the phone and I say 'hmm interesting' that's code that I'm buying time as I punch it into Google / duckduckgo. If it's a task I do once every other year (hi, Cisco phone certs), I have to look it up every time because I will forget. It's a reason why when I'm involved in hiring and interviewing I ask almost 0 "name that powershell command" questions and stick to personality and critical thinking questions. You can train someone how to do technical things easily. You cannot easily train someone out of being an rear end in a top hat.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2024 15:54
|
|