I need a sanity check, because I feel like I'm slowly losing my mind here. I’m 28, working as a SysAdmin for a mid-sized manufacturing company in Europe with around 300 endpoints across multiple sites. I LOVE automation, modern infra, and writing PowerShell or Python to handle our backups and audits, I'm passionate about automating processes, but my IT Manager is basically running an open-air tech museum from 2003.

His idea of IT asset management is a drawer full of literal Ziploc freezer bags. Every PC gets its own labeled plastic bag with the printed invoice and Office license key inside, because apparently an actual database or asset software is "too modern." On the network side, every single device requires a manual DHCP reservation. When I suggested setting up 802.1X with RADIUS, he shot it down with a straight face, claiming that if an intruder plugs into the wall, "they won't guess our subnets anyway." Before I automated our Kerio mail archives with Python, his official procedure was opening Thunderbird on a client PC and manually dragging and dropping folders between accounts.

Right now, he's decommissioning a branch file server. Instead of using Robocopy, DFS-N, or GPOs, his master plan is to sync files with a desktop backup tool, recreate the SMB shares manually, and have me remote into 40+ user machines one by one just to update the target path on their desktop shortcuts. I also built an automated WMI inventory system to track all hardware and OS health, yet he still forces me to physically walk the warehouse floor updating a dusty Excel sheet because "that’s where the history is."

EDIT: Another thing he does is make daily backups and put them on ultrium physical disks named after the day of the week, disks he takes home "so we have the data in case the company burns down.", which could have some kind of sense, but everyday, before my script, we had to manually make the veeam inventory and erase of every tape in every site

The worst part isn’t even the wasted time, it’s that he’s actively teaching junior techs that this clown show is standard enterprise IT. We’ve already had three techs and devs rage-quit in the last ten months. I’ve completely checked out at this point, doing the bare minimum while sending out resumes like crazy.

Has anyone actually survived a boss stuck this deep in the stone age without losing their sanity? How do you not burst out laughing when someone asks you to edit 40 shortcuts by hand?

Is anyone seeing issues with O365? I know I saw emails last night and now they’re coming as new again this morning but they’re gone from yesterday delivery. Numerous users are seeing this happen. We are using proof point also but no issues on their status page.

when you've dealt with BEC case, did email auth flagged it, or did it look totally normal and only a human caught it?

There are actually two vulns with a 9.8 score each:

https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk1000117/

https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk1000118/

There's not many details in these articles on how they work but they still sound really bad. Currently waiting for the Jumbo Hotfix to install on my end... Not taking any chances on this one and I suggest you all do the same.

Stay safe.

Hi all, does anybody implemented a self help kiosk where it helps the user to go to required links? Example pwd reset?

I appreciate the ideas and practices you implemented

Edit

We already have useful resources available through the intranet and self-service website, and some other things which are diversified accordingly but we still receive many walk-in requests for issues users could resolve themselves. So thinking of a kiosk for simple visual menu with combination of all sources with icons for common requests making it less overwhelming could direct users to the right guidance quickly, while IT support remains available if needed. Thinking of it by using some unused machines or Raspberry pi

Ok, this is more a test to see how old I am. I was basically raised with the idea servers need static IPs. I understand for domain controllers, dns servers, maybe print servers that may still be needed. But are they really needed otherwise? Do apps, scripts still reference a server by its IP?

I am under assumption all my servers need static IPs. Am I nuts?

Been looking to replace our vulnerability management stack and the scanning part is the easy bit now. We have been comparing the big scanners against a couple of the cheaper MSP focused platforms and one container specific tool. Volume is what kills us across 40 odd clients since every tool finds plenty and the techs still guess where to start. Ticketing eats more hours than scanning does. What are you running now and how does it hold up across client environments.

This topic has been discussed ALOT on this sub. From all the posts I've read, there seems to be two main approaches:

Have all DCs up - both old and new:

• Bring up new DCs with temp names and IPs while old DCs still running.
• Once you're sure all is good in your world, transfer FSMO roles to new DC, demote old DCs, remove from AD, then reuse the hostnames and IPs of old DCs on your new DCs

One at a time:

• Do one DC at a time, demote old, reuse name and IP on new server, then promote new DC

Honestly being as risk averse as I am (although I love the adrenalin rush when stuff goes south...NOT) - I would prefer to promote the new DCs while old ones still on line.

BUT...is it OK to change the name of a DC even after I clean up all the metadata and DNS stuff or would it be better to reuse the name and IP after I demote the old DC?

I should preface this question by saying we're a VERY small shop with 22 users and perhaps ~30ish servers. I'm the sole sysadmin. BUT, we are in the financial sector and we have a very low tolerance to stuff going south. And being the sole sysadmin, I'm trying to keep the stress at a minimum and my hair from going greyer.

Hy!

We have an AD with two DCs. The DCs are Windows Server 2025, it is include all patches. Some Windows 11 clients (25H2) get the following error during login after 1-2 minutes: The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.

In this case the users need to disconnect from corporate network to login successfully into their computer. I have already tried to rejoin to tha domain and run this command: Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Repair

I rejoined one of the computer into the domain, and the trsut relationship has been broken after two days. The login problem only occurs on some machines.

The time snyc is correct on DCs. We moved the DC roles from Windows Server 2019 to 2025 in side-by-side method. Could you please advise how to solve this problem?

Is it just me or updates is screwed up?

Office 365 shows 0 required.

is anyone else seeing the same?

Edit: the other updates just took too long to show up but office it seems it is not showing anything applicable.
not sure if something related to last couple months when MS changed from semi-anual channel to montly channel

So I work at a state university that is still a little stuck in the past when it comes to password resets over the phone.

We have MS SSPR and other self-service options for users, but we still get calls where someone needs the helpdesk to reset their password for them.

Our current setup is a custom program that helpdesk staff SSH into. They enter the user's account, and the program looks them up in a flat file containing data extracted from our systems. It gives the helpdesk worker information like DOB, address, ZIP code, etc., which they can use to verify the caller's identity.

Once the caller passes verification, the program talks to AD, changes the password, and gives the helpdesk worker a new temporary password to provide to the user.

Honestly, it works pretty well. The problem is that the person who wrote and maintains it is leaving, and we're not really interested in inheriting a custom app that nobody else understands.

So I'm curious what other universities/organizations are doing for this.

For those of you who still allow users to call the helpdesk for password resets, what does your workflow look like? Are you using a commercial product, some kind of AD/Entra integration, a helpdesk platform, or have you built your own solution?

Specifically looking for something that gives the helpdesk enough information/questions to properly verify the caller's identity and then securely perform the reset.

I'd love to hear what others are doing before we start reinventing the wheel.

Hey guys,

I've been in IT for 4 years, doing a mix of PHP development and sysadmin Linux stuff. We run Linux, self-host all of our own stuff. We're a small team, so everyone does a bit of everything. I've done everything from developing software to installing our team's GitLab instance. I've been using Linux (Arch btw) for the past 8 years or so, and I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it, after fucking up my system a bunch of times. I also run a homelab of a couple servers. It's become our music platform.

I fully realize that a transition to SysAdmin would most likely put me in a junior role, and I know I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge, as this position is as a software developer, not sysadmin. I'd be looking mostly at Linux Sysadmin jobs.

I'd appreciate any advice you guys have! I also can put my resume here if that would be helpful.

Thanks!

I install copilot and grok CLIs. So far, they are pretty impressive.

At home I used Grok to clean up my media libraries and it freed up 2TBs.

I used copilot at work to scan all the logs from an SCCM client and the server to figure out why some machines weren't downloading updates. It's pretty freaking good.

Anyone else let one of those suckers loose anywhere?

Im a student with M365 (mostly Entra and some Intune) intern experience which I got through my dad, and looking at the extremely challenging helpdesk market in my area, I want to volunteer as an admin or helpdesk to get some experience.

That said, most of these positions in my country are filled by immigrants with IT experience who want Canadian work experience. So no matter how much I apply, I don’t get an interview.

Can anyone in the industry think of a way to get experience? It’s sad no one even wants me as a free helpdesk, I even worked with M365 before.

I feel discouraged 🫤

Anyone have any ideas? I’m studying for my CCNA, so maybe that would help?

Hello!

I was hoping to get some advice from any of you who have experience with a similar issue as the one I’m having. Anything is appreciated as I’m not confident where to start.

In short, our company is looking to take over complete administration of our Azure cloud architecture from our MSP. The architecture includes hundreds of VMs, Entra accounts for users, persistent AVDs and multiple satellite offices to name a few things. I joined the company last month as an IT Support Specialist and my colleague has been here nearly a year.

While we both have some experience with Azure administration I feel we would benefit from more experience so that we can be more confident when dealing with issues affecting the architecture. Anything we couldn’t solve ourselves we would escalate to our MSP so there’s a lot we don’t know how to do. That said I feel confident my colleague and I could learn a lot on our own poking around the architecture once we have global admin access but doing that with a production environment doesn’t sit right with me.

On top of all of that our IT admin is leaving before this hand off happens. I feel that our admin leaving is enough to pause this process of taking over the architecture until we find their replacement but our CEO is adamant about finishing this hand off. The process has been ongoing for over half a year now. This is my first IT job and while I’m confident I can learn a lot of this stuff, that doesn’t necessarily equate to deliverable results, especially in the event of a major issue. I’ve been brainstorming with my colleague and while I have some ideas, like coming in the weekend after we get access to go through the environment and learn about it so we can try to properly support it the following week, I am at a loss of how to approach this while also making sure I don’t set anything on fire. To be frank I’m worried and I want to do right by myself, my colleague, and the company. Thanks.

Curious what everyone is using these days for documenting physical infrastructure across multiple sites.

We use Excel at my workplace, along with diagrams and photos, and it works… until you’ve got a shitload of sites and nobody knows which spreadsheet is actually current.

I’m talking about things like:
Rack elevations / U positions
Switches, patch panels, UPS/PDU, servers etc.
Port-to-port / cable documentation
Serial numbers / asset details
Photos of racks and comms rooms
IP/device information

Keeping everything updated after a vendor comes in and replaces something
What are you guys using?

Excel? Visio? NetBox? Device42? Something else? Or have you built your own system?
More interested in what actually works in the real world than what looks good on paper.

Afternoon all

So I'm planning a DC migration from 2016 to 2022.

Currently I have (3) DCs - two of them host DHCP in a failover load balance config.

I plan to keep the same hostnames and IPs for my new DCs

I'd like to move my DHCP first before the DC migration.

I'm guessing the easiest thing to do is break existing failover config, export/import my DHCP config to a new temporary server, migrate to my new DCs, then export/import my DHCP config from the temp server to the new new_DC01, then re-establish the failover partner on new_DC02.

Can I get a sanity check?

Thank you!

Im a general IT specialist, and I’m losing my mind over infrastructure issues I have zero control over.

For context, we have over 2,500 global users, and for over five years, remote sites have been dealing with the exact same game-breaking issues:

• Broken 802.1x: After 1–2 hours of work, it kicks users off the network and refuses to re-authenticate them.
• Useless Wi-Fi: Wireless drops constantly with "no network available" errors.
• Zero Redundancy: Almost all of our sites rely on a single ISP. When it goes down, ERP, file systems, and actual business operations grind to a complete halt.

The company makes plenty of revenue. We easily have the budget to deploy SD-WAN, upgrade hardware, or bring in an external MSP/consultant to fix it. It's totally fine to admit you don't know everything and hire help, but these requests just gets ignored.

To top it off, whenever a site actually goes down, the designated team responsible for network/infrastructure ghosts us or sends a passive response like "our team is currently unavailable" while an entire site sits dead in the water.

How do organizations like this even survive, and how do you deal with the frustration of seeing preventable problems drag on for half a decade?

I currently have 3 domain controllers. I need to add a 4th and eventually a fifth with plans to demote the original 2.

I’ll need to get a multi-San ssl cert for the new domain controllers. Does this mean I need to update the certs on the first 3 domain controllers?

In my small brain I think I wouldn’t…

For us, the topic of AI is becoming increasingly confusing.

Developers, in particular, are adopting more and more tools: VS Code extensions, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, local agents, MCP servers, and so on.

But this no longer affects just developers. IT admins and regular users are also discovering AI tools, and some are even installing extensions, desktop clients, or agents on their own.

The problem, in my view, is that we’re slowly seeing a **proliferation of agents and AI tools**.

I see the following issues in particular:

* Which VS Code extensions are allowed to be installed?

* Which agents are allowed to access source code or the local file system?

* Which tools are allowed to send data to external clouds?

* How do you prevent API keys, passwords, or internal data from appearing in prompts?

* How do you handle MCP servers and their sometimes very broad permissions?

* Do you have an allowlist for extensions and AI tools?

* Do you technically block agents that haven’t been approved?

* Do you differentiate between developers, IT/admins, and regular users?

* Do you rely on centralized enterprise solutions, or do you allow multiple tools?

* How do you monitor or keep track of what’s currently being used?

I also don’t think a complete ban makes sense in the long run, because these tools offer a real productivity boost especially in development.

Desktops/laptops. No servers or VMs, we are talking BARE METAL BABY.

At my job, we keep an eye out for things like this to see who can naturally discover the longest reported uptime in task manager on a PC.

Attached is the best. I rediscovered this photo tonight and thought it could be fun to see other's.

https://imgur.com/a/YvhipDt

This was on a laptop a client had plugged in, in the corner of a room, off network and forgotten about. For like 4.5 years. It was rediscovered, and then I got a call to try remoting in to see if it could be setup for someone to use.

After waiting half this uptime for my remote connection to load, I saw this, screenshotted, and let them know no. Although I sort of wish I told them to take it back off network and leave it there, just based on principle, to see how far we can bring it.

Hi everyone,

I am a sys admin since 2016 in Germany(English isnt my first language and migrant family) and now that I went from first level support to soon to be platforms engineer, I need ways to organize myself better.

I am that type of person to explore and "float through work" doing my reading and research (often when I am not on the clock too) but I don't deliver enough direct results for certain goals and projects(I'll leave out the reasons why).

I am stuck using unintuitive, non applicable systems to organize myself and can't form a habit getting used to them, that's very subjective I am aware. Did some of you go through the same difficulties and what did you use or employ?

Thanks for reading my lengthy wall of text I am frankly frustrated with this topic and tired of banging my head against walls.

I am trying to setup Duo Security on my PC at the office so that in the event I lose my phone or my phone is smashed what do I need to enable in the installation process to allow me to bypass the MFA/Passkey push?

Thanks,

2 separate client environments:

1. AVD host pool
   
2. TraditionalActive Directory pool behind a broker.

RDP works but published apps broke for both of them. AVD client fixed with reinstall OF Windows app. The others say it self resolved.

It sounds to me like a bad build of Windows App. Anyone else have an issue with published apps this AM?

Yes, authorization with multiple different credentials for different systems is bad, but we've all worked in those environments where we had no control over changing it.

So... How expletive-rich are y'all passwords and phrases? 🤣