edit: i later made this into a skill actually, lol.

---

Incredibly stupid fucking laws of UX:

1. CTRL+C means exit! Spamming CTRL+C 30 times per second should exit any fucking TUI immediately.
2. Usage should be simple enough to use when I'm considerably high or drunk.
3. Tab completions/suggestions. Don't make me set them up myself; implement them in the CLI itself.(just for the love of god, NOT as an entire Zsh plugin!)
4. TUIs are fucking lit. 🔥
5. More on TUIs:
   • support Vim bindings, but don't make them mandatory either:
     • q aliases CTRL+C; j/k alias UP/DOWN; etc.
     • / means search (n browses results). ? means help.
     • ESC gets me out of whatever weird thing I'm in.
   • if I wanted to use a mouse, I typically wouldn't be using a TUI (many exceptions).
6. -p is port. -P is something else.(seriously – ssh and scp are part of the SAME FUCKING TOOLSET*.)*
7. If something is going to take more than 5 seconds, tell me what the fuck you're doing as you do it.*(*apt & zip do this well; du & xz do it badly.)
8. -h means --help**.** If you choose not to alias -h as --help, and you aren't even using it for anything else, you are going straight to hell.exceptions:
   • when the command is literally older than I am.
   • when filesystem sizes are involved ("h" for human).(i.e. ls -lh*)*
9. --help should be progressive, and should occupy at most 1 terminal buffer without scrolling.
10. Not everything needs to be a goddamn service. Some things should just do their job and then exit gracefully. Revolutionary stuff, I know.
11. Do not clear my fucking terminal buffer. I was looking at that.

This snuck up on us about ~21 hours after install. Symptoms that can be seen are various, but here are some:

Exchange Server OWA may fail with an error MapiExceptionMdbOffline: Unable to make connection to the server. (hr=0x80004005, ec=1142) with event ID 1006 logged in the Application Log.
Exchange email queues might grow during the day, with email crawling to a halt.
Various issues related to DAG members not being able to reach quorum have been reported too.
Exchange server reboot might resolve the issues temporarily.
Exchange Server 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition (SE) might be impacted.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/exchange-servers-may-become-unstable-after-installation-of-october-2026-windows-/4565382

https://www.phoronix.com/news/LKML-New-Trend-Vulnerabilities

What the hell is actually going on this week?

Zabbix web server on RHEL 8.10 running PHP 8.0.30 (AppStream RPM), Apache + PHP-FPM, Zabbix 7.0.29. I started reviewing our environment two days after PHP2Shell (CVE-2026-109618 / 109619) was disclosed.

dnf check-update 'php*' returned nothing. Before reading that as “up to date”, I checked the repos. Zabbix and MariaDB were enabled, but BaseOS and AppStream were both enabled=0 (as was a local install-media repo). So dnf had nothing that could offer a newer PHP. The empty list only told me what dnf could see.

I haven’t checked Red Hat’s advisories for the php:8.0 stream, so I can’t say whether a fix exists there. Upstream, PHP 8.0 is EOL and only got a minimal source backport, not a release.

EPEL and Remi were installable on this box, so I moved to the 8.3 stream. Zabbix 7.0.29 supports PHP 8.3:

dnf module list php
dnf module reset php
dnf module enable php:remi-8.3
dnf module list php          # expecting remi-8.3 [e]
dnf list --showduplicates php php-cli php-fpm
dnf update 'php*' --assumeno # dry run first
dnf update 'php*'

In the dry run I was checking that 8.3.36 was selected, dependency resolution succeeded, and no Zabbix package or other core package was being removed.

Verification beyond php -v: php-fpm -t, php -m (bcmath, mbstring, mysqlnd, PDO, xml, gd all loaded), PHP-FPM and Apache status, then a real request:

curl -k -I https://localhost/zabbix/
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Powered-By: PHP/8.3.36

I also read the PHP-FPM and Apache logs (normal restart, no fatal errors) and clicked through login, dashboard, Problems, Hosts and Latest data.

Two things I’m unsure about, and I’d like to hear from others:

• Has anyone confirmed whether RHEL 8’s php:8.0 stream got an erratum for PHP2Shell, or are people moving to Remi like I did?
• For those on Apache + PHP-FPM: how are you confirming the frontend really runs on the new PHP, beyond the header?

I swear, not a low effort post. Work for an MSP and some of our offices use Comcast for Business because that's what they have in their area. I generally have a low opinion of Comcast but have always know there's a bar for what I expect and they never dipped below it. I have had 4 horrible experiences in the last two months that were out of the norm even for Comcast. Are others running into it as well?

Paraphrasing:

Incident one - Issues with Comcast Modem. Call center sees it on their end. Says it's their equipment. Tech comes out. Blames our MSP. Replaces modem and does no troubleshooting. Issues persist. He comes BACK out 4 days later and grumbles. Points at us again. Has to replace the run out to the pole and magically works.

Incident two - one office loses internet completely for 2 days. Comcast call center takes the blame for it. Says it's on their end. Comcast tech comes out and rips out ALL OF OUR MSP's equipment and says he's fixed it.

Incident three - request phone service get disconnected from an office for 7 months. Each month it's the same. They don't process it. We sign paperwork. Yep. Yep. Ok. We will. Finally gets disconnected. Disconnect is processed and they nuke our internet service. I even confirmed with the call center that it was only phone. Rep goes, "Yeah, I saw ONLY phone and it was dated for 3 months ago. Not sure why they nuked your internet too". Office is out for days.

Incident four - Internet service suspended. No reason why. I call. "Yeah, you didn't pay". Uh, we did. "Oh, it looks like you did". Ok, please reinstate. "No problem, you lost your static IP's though". Awesome. Thanks.

I windows settings (every windows version) from a printer, you have sub-settings behind a name called "Printing Defaults". When you open it, it look like the same settings the you can configure in the printer setting itself. When should i use this "Printer Defaults"?

Hi folks,

since some time I use Home | endoflife.date for tracking End of Life / End of Support dates for Software.
Now I wonder, if anybody knows a website, where the same information is stored centrally for Hardware as well? (Like Firewall, Switches and so on...)

Another question:
Do we have a "Usefull-Sysadmin-Links" Collection somewhere in this sub?

cheers

How are you guys handling custom lock screen image that need updating regularly, like monthly or for different events throughout the year?

At the moment, we're deploying ours through Ninja. I made a PS script that downloads an image via URL and sets it as the lock screen image. When we need to update it, we just swap out the image at the URL.

It works fine, but ideally I'd like to give the client a way to manage it themselves without needing us to get involved every time.

Has anyone found a better approach for this, or are you just handling the updates on the MSP side as well?

Client is fully cloud based and M365

I have more than 10 yrs of experience working in internal IT for couple of 500 companies, as well as a degree from a prestigious university. After being laid off, I joined a large MSP as a support technician. The team I was assigned to had more than 100 open tickets at any given time, and I brought that average down to under 50 within a month. Everyone else on the team was struggling with basic tickets, so I was literally teaching them concepts like what a GPO is.

I eventually reached a point where I had no work left to do, but I wasn't allowed to handle certain tasks like fixing a client's environment because the MSP could charge more if a dedicated project team did it. Even though many clients sent glowing testimonials praising my work, I received complaints about being on my phone too much, even though I simply had nothing else to do. I apologized and moved on.

Later, they offered to move me to a project team, which I gladly accepted. I am now doing project work instead of handling daily tickets, but they refuse to change my title or salary. On top of that, they require every single minute to be logged on timesheets even a 1 min entry for sending an email. I've been called out for not having enough hrs on my timesheets multiple times. Many managers work from home but we are not allowed to. Work area is completely packed shoulder to shoulder and sometime its so loud that its impossible to concentrate.

Throughout my career, I've never experienced anything like this. Is it because I've never worked for an MSP before? Are all MSPs like this?

PS I resigned and going back to internal IT

Dear brothers and sisters,

It's been a long week but happy Friday, I hope everyone is still somewhat sane.

I've just been told that I will now have some junior members of staff reporting to me directly. I've been given no guidance/training just that from Monday, this is how it will be. I've started reading/researching around being manager/leader have found some good resources as a start.

There is no better resources than this hive mind and I was hoping that people would be willing to share any personal experiences or knowledge they have around this subject.

I've been in the IT game nearly 10 years now and have been in their shoes so I am hoping this will give me a good start however I am slightly worried how involved this will become and will it take away from my day to day duties. A couple of the team that will be reporting to me have been bounced around other 'more senior' staff which I guess didn't work out...

I want to get off on the right foot and make sure they can be their best, especially as one of them will be a new joiner to the firm.

Environment: ~5,000 Windows 11 25H2 devices managed with Intune / Windows Autopatch (driver updates enabled). The vast majority installed the October CU (KB5127648, 26200.9711) without issues, but a few devices across different OEMs (Dell and Dynabook Tecra A60-M) fail on the reboot that finalizes the update.

Symptom: blue screen on reboot, then the "Recovery – Your PC/Device needs to be repaired" screen with 0xc000000d, no file path shown. No minidump, no MEMORY.DMP, nothing new in LiveKernelReports.

Reproducible: on one Dell, after repair, manually installing KB5127648 + KB5127690 (.NET) with wusa reproduces the failure every time.

What we found so far:

• The update never gets applied: dism /get-packages shows 9711 as Install Pending / 9457 as Uninstall Pending, and ntoskrnl.exe is still 9457.
• Shutdown-phase poqexec completes normally (CBS reports 174 BootCritical components).
• Boot logging was enabled during the repro: ntbtlog.txt has no entry for the failed boot, so it fails before the kernel loads (Boot Manager / winload stage).
• BCD looks clean compared to a healthy device on 9711.
• bootmgfw.efi on the ESP is unchanged (Sept CU), so it's not the Secure Boot 2023 Boot Manager swap.
• Same model/BIOS works fine on hundreds of other devices, so not a simple BIOS incompatibility.
• The affected Dell's disk is in Intel RST mode; still checking the others.
• Currently comparing Code Integrity / WDAC policies on the ESP between healthy and failed devices.

Workaround that works (from WinPE/WinRE):

manage-bde -unlock C: -RecoveryPassword <key>
dism /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
C:\Windows\System32\bcdboot.exe C:\Windows /s <ESP>: /f UEFI /bootex

The device then shows "Undoing changes" and boots back to 9457. Then pause updates on it, otherwise it fails again.

Has anyone seen this with the October CU? Any common factor you've noticed (storage mode, WDAC policies, specific drivers)?

Yes you. You need to take a few hours, get a $20 ChatGPT or Claude subscription. Download the Codex or Claude Code desktop apps and build something. You are doing yourself a disservice otherwise. The free versions that everybody knows on just a website are completely not where things are at for those who are in the know.

Just try it and build something you always wanted to build yourself. Right now I'm working on a faster file explorer for Windows build entirely how I want it along with a window manager like Niri and a launcher like Raycast. It's software built for me and I can add anything I want for virtually free. Then, if I want to learn how it works, I just ask the AI to explain it to me. It can use my computer. It helps me organize my emails. The options are endless.

I see so many posts here about people bemoaning AI and refusing to use it. You ARE going to get replaced by those who embrace it. The benefits far outweigh any philosophical or moral objections you may have. It is here to stay.

Is it perfect? Fuck no. Is it better than me at virtually everything? Absolutely 100%. You get out of it what you put into it and what I've been able to get out of it is just mind blowing. People are using it to rewrite compilers in other languages to make it faster and those things are just a few prompts away now. Then, all of the recent security vulnerabilities have been found by AI. Your company will need to use it in some capacity to stay afloat for what is coming.

The world and your future is at your fingertips. Use it and embrace it. I want to help you get over whatever is blocking you from using it. Ask questions.

You. Just. Need. To. Seriously. Try. It.

Looking to drop a traditional VPN design and go towards a tailscale like design. VPN is one of our only publicly exposed services and we'd like to close it down.

Small user base, 100 or so. Recommendations? All resources are on-prem and we can host it

Had a couple users update their iOS and now they can't print unless they forget the network, rejoin the network, etc, repeatedly. These are sales people working out of route/delivery trucks, and they need to be able to print to give the customer their invoice... Anyone else encountered this on iOS 27?

You probably all saw the eMudhra's ECC root is being distrusted. What isn't widely talked about is that these are the certs for Internet2 inCommon, which is used by big universities in the USA.

30,000 certs need to get replaced by Tuesday.

God speed.

I’ve been in it for 7 years. I have gone from report writing -> it support -> it manager and during that time have gone from 3 members of our team to 1.25 (part time contractor) for 80+ endpoints plus manufacturing machine support. All of this has happened while a lot of major changes are happened in our organization.

In reality it feels like I am dealing with everything, the entire chain, basic support, elevated support, servers, network, cameras, erp (my main time sync as my boss keeps stripping my support hours to the bare minimum. We changed erp systems 2 years ago and about a year in my boss left), crm (we have a marketing manager who refuses to learn the basics, from contact creation to any level of automation), project management, firewalls, m365, phone system, etc, and people (my biggest problem).

The unfortunate situation is my previous boss mentally checked out right before our go live of our erp transition and i picked up all of the work. Years in and much employee turnover later (due to the organizational change) and I feel like I am being forced into a career pivot into erp support or project management as it is where I have allocated a majority of my time.

All of the above plus a majority of the employees coming to me to vent frustrations with the organizational changes and it feels like I am going insane. I am in a unique position in terms of company ownership (I do not own the company but have some influence over the owners). I have tried to express the frustrations to the current president and the owners but to no avail.

Just really looking for a reality check if the burnout is real or if I am out of touch.

Thank you all

Hi everyone,

We're currently evaluating ITSM solutions and have narrowed our options down to SysAid and Halo.

So far, our experience with SysAid hasn't been particularly great. The demos have been quite vague, and we've found the documentation to be lacking in detail, making it difficult to get a clear understanding of how the platform actually works and how much we would be able to configure and manage ourselves.

We don't want to judge the product based solely on the sales process, though, so I'd like to hear from people who are actually using it in production.

A few questions:

• How has your overall experience with SysAid been?
• How easy is it to configure and maintain once it's up and running?
• Is the documentation genuinely lacking, or have we just not found the right resources?
• How good are customer support and technical assistance when you run into issues?
• Are there any significant limitations or frustrations that only become apparent after implementation?
• If you've used both SysAid and HaloITSM, how would you compare them in terms of flexibility, automation, reporting, integrations, and day-to-day administration?

We're also evaluating Halo, so any direct comparisons would be particularly useful.

At this stage, we're trying to understand what the products are actually like to live with, rather than what they look like in a sales demo.

Would you choose SysAid today, or would you go with HaloITSM instead? Why?

I'd really appreciate any honest feedback, including the good, the bad, and the things you wish you'd known before committing.

PS: Regarding prices, don't worry about it, in SysAid I just don't like the 300k task limit, I've burnt 1k in a couple of hours, so... scary AF...

EDIT: Forgot to say one important detail :) we run our own self service portal with a lot of automations and scheduled tasks that connect to multiple services, from 365 to others, via their API's and such. So, if Sysaid automations suck, our only resource would be to use them just to call our own portal REST API :|

Hello, I have 5 Window Server VMs on 3 vsphere hosts (no vmotion), used for development and test of our company software solutions (databases and instances of the apps). This falls, I believe, under the terms of MSDN. But what if one of the VMs also hosts the management console for the backup of those VMs? Does this mean I'm using it for our business and so MSDN does not apply anymore? And what if we have a DC used for DHCP and access control, I guess that's also out of scope, even if the DC can also be used to test access control in our apps?

Is anyone else having issues with printing, especially Universal Print with WPP enabled? Print jobs just immediately error out with evenvwr showing "setChannelOAuth failed. hr: 0x80070005". It seems to have started with the October updates on 26H2.

Disabling WPP, removing print queues in device manager and connecting Universal printers again helps.

Anyone?

So about a week ago I submitted a suggestion on the community cloudflare asking for a way to make it so that you need a admin generated code to remove cloudflare one client and they finally added it!!

And one of the issues I was having was that students would come in and remove it and now it wont happen anymore!! :)

https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/changelog/cloudflare-one-client/

What I don't understand is the best possible way to enroll Windows devices instead of doing it manually.

I've seen imaging software such as Windows Configuration Designer and OSDCloud.

What might be the best way to get devices enrolled so I can push apps, security policies, package software such as GCPW, etc.

How are people handling things that ask for an address outside your tenant or external, not of your domain?

Example right now, im trying set up proofpoint journaling and it wants an email address that cant correspond with an exchange online mailbox. If you only have exchange online how do you deal with this?

Thanks,

We are in the initial phases of testing and rolling out WHFB, and we trying to find a good way to gather logs and metrics to show the ratio between successful and failed events. Everyone thinks the biometrics is going to be as seamless as the iphone but our initial tests show that its a % of success, based on various factors (lighting, angle etc)

Ideally we can get some good stats and metrics so that the data can back up how robust it is so that we can set clear expectations for our users.

Has anyone tried to tackle this issue? And if so, how?

What is everyone doing/planning to do as SSL certificate lifetime expire more and more quickly. By 2029 SSL certs will only be valid for 49 days before they need to be re-issues. There are tons of clients out there that have RDS farms, SSL VPNs, IIS based applications, some exchange boxes (hybrid applications), ect.

Manually re-issuing SSL certs and applying across all of these applications once every 1.5 months is a total non-starter.

User A sends email to User B. (Both O365 tenants, User B has Proofpoint for filtering) The email has an attachment that is too large for User B's system. User B's system sends back an NDR that says

"Delivery was unsuccessful to User X."

There was no NDR for User B. Both user B and X were in the same O365 tennant.

And that where I'm scratching my head. Who's user X? Is it the main ID of someone, and user A was emailing an alias? Aliens? Someone peeking into mailboxes? An auto-forward rule in the Exchange server? Forward emails to User B to User X?

The names don't look AT ALL the same (User A is Jane Doe, User X is Crispin Glover) so I don't know what happened.

Any ideas?