Basic Understanding of SQL Servers?

Fellow sysadmins, how much do you know about SQL? In my role I don't directly work with SQL servers often, but they always seem to come up and occasionally i will have to make changes in a sql db (minor stuff).

What is the best way to get a basic understanding or become the "SQL guy" in a group of folks who don't usually deal with SQL.

TIA

https://redd.it/1ohht45
@r_systemadmin

Another on call rant.

Ive been doing IT at major corporation for about 4 years. Aside from the constant brow beating, meetings that could be emails and shitty infastructure, i find the on call the worst part of my job. About 4 weeks a year, your on call for 7 straight days. Someone locked out of windows at 4 am? Get put of bed, solve it and you better be on time in the morning. Someone cant print? Fix it. 2 am . If you dont anwser thr phone within 15 minutes, your fired. By day 7, you are exhausted, overwhelmed and stressed out. You cant go anywhere, or do anytging after work or in your " free time' . We were doing this with no extra pay until someone went to HR and now we make about 100 bucks extra for the week. I realize this is normal for IT, but my issue is im the lowest paid team, pc operations tech, and i asked for a raise. I was told im capped out at about 70k a year, 40k after taxes. Im starting to feel underpaid for the workload. Is this a normal salary? Should i move companies? Im feeling very trapped in my job and i think the stress is killing me.

https://redd.it/1ohim8x
@r_systemadmin

It's time to rally around the AWS folks...

To the AWS folks,

It's another Monday, we're seeing AWS-dependent services go non-responsive or significant delays, and we're not the only ones: https://downdetector.com/status/aws-amazon-web-services/

I doubt you're watching Reddit at a time like this but know that we're all here for you if you need us.

https://redd.it/1ohkk0v
@r_systemadmin

AWS Outage? - Again?

We're starting to lose access to various cloud hosted things. Down detector is showing AWS Spiking again.


Anyone else seeing it?

https://redd.it/1ohk8p2
@r_systemadmin

Call from CISA?

Hello everyone. I just received a call from a CISA Cybersecurity Advisor, saying that one my user's account was compromised for January until July this year, with a list of recommendations. He also sent me an email with the recommendations. The email sender seems to be a legit from mail.cisa.dhs.gov . I am veery suspicious of this call, but at the same time it looks legit. Has any of you received a similar call in the past? How can I verify if this person is legit?


UPDATE: I reached out to CISA and they confirm the email is legit. I called the cybersecurity advisor and he was very helpful! I am surprised how fast CISA responded to my email and that they contact companies and try to help.

https://redd.it/1ohkurc
@r_systemadmin

User expectations

Hello all. Maybe a silly question, but how do you all handle user expectations?

For example, we rolled out a pre approved signature this morning, and the amount of complaining is wild.

I knew there were going to be users who didn’t like it, but I find that sometimes it’s hard to not take their criticism personally.

How do you all handle it?

https://redd.it/1ohpc3j
@r_systemadmin

Someone ran an augur through the fiber to one of our offices and slurped up about 1800 feet of it like spaghetti at about 3pm today.

How was your Monday?

https://redd.it/1ohvtbp
@r_systemadmin

m365.cloud.microsoft reported as unsafe website in Microsoft Edge

https://i.imgur.com/tOlKgtH.png

Great, especially when setup as a new tab page for users...

https://redd.it/1ohz2au
@r_systemadmin

For mid-sized enterprises, whats been the most effective layer of defense lately?

If you have upgraded your stack recently, what made you biggest impact?

https://redd.it/1oi2xb5
@r_systemadmin

.NET Framework being removed by Windows 11

Hi, I am upgrading the last of my Windows 10 devices to W11 and users are getting .NET framework 2.5/3.5 missing.

I reinstalled it for the low number of users, however today the same error is back there today - W11 appears to be removing this overnight.

Is this a thing, and is there an easy fix, besides not using the software that requires the old .NET?!

https://redd.it/1oi56mp
@r_systemadmin

Best practices for letting contractors access internal SaaS securely from personal laptops?

We got few short term contractors who need to access Jira, confluence and slack. They refuse to install company agents or use VDI. Any secure access methods that dont require full device management?

https://redd.it/1oi2f5a
@r_systemadmin

Trusted Tech team reviews for an overthinker?

Wh⁤at are yalls thoughts on Tr⁤ustedT⁤ech? Does anyone currently work with them or have in the past? Are the discounts real? Is it worth it?
Are they the real deal??

Renewal seasons coming up and we're trying to review our spend across the board...

https://redd.it/1oi9zeg
@r_systemadmin

Upgrading users from Windows 11 Home to Pro

Hi all!

I was hired into a company with no existing IT infrastructure, and I'm working on getting one implemented, starting with endpoint management via M365 Business Premium and Intune.

Unfortunately, many of the machines folks are using here have Windows 11 Home on them from the OEM, and I need to get them upgraded to Pro in order to be able to switch them to being logged in via Azure AD and manage them.

I know I can upgrade the machines individually for $99 through the Microsoft store, but this gives me bad vibes since it's a digital license seemingly assigned to a random-ish Microsoft account. Ideally I'd purchase a key to upgrade each one, but I can't find a reliable place to do that and was hoping someone could speak to this experience.

What's the best way to go about doing this? I have around 20 or so machines I need to upgrade at our 40 person firm. I just want to do things the "right" way and ensure that the upgrades aren't tied to Microsoft accounts that will eventually be deleted or unused.

Sorry if I'm overthinking this. Thank you for your help!

https://redd.it/1oi9v28
@r_systemadmin

aaannnnd the Amazon layoffs are now incoming

Buddy of mine works at Twitch and is in a pretty senior, non engineering role. I was surprised to see it hit there. Would have thought it would be leaned heavily towards engineering types but after telling him for at least 2 years that he should be looking into other roles it finally hit him. Remote Worker, he worked in a financial role.

Starting to hear the rumblings.

https://redd.it/1oid2ky
@r_systemadmin

Any reason to not block m365copilotupdates@microsoft.com entirely from my domain.

They spam emailed every email we have today with bullshit about chatgpt5. Our zendesk folks were hitting the spam button. 1600 fucking emails man.

https://redd.it/1oic2xh
@r_systemadmin

Cjwdev upgraded NTFS Permissions reporter WHAT?!

So I opened up NTFS Permissions Reporter just now to create a report and got a notification of an upgrade. This is the first notification I have ever received for this app since purchasing in 2022...

https://www.cjwdev.com/Software/NtfsReports/Info.html

So the paranoid in me wonders if he got hacked and the bad guys (who are always lurking) did something to his software...

EDIT1:I just noticed the Build date on my current version 2.1.4.0 is 09NOV15

EDIT2: Blog also not updated for NTFS but did get an AD Info entry in June 2025

https://redd.it/1oifbe4
@r_systemadmin

Defender stating that Teams needs to update (Classic Client already removed)

We already removed all the versions of Classic Teams as far as I'm aware. However, Defender is static that about a third of our devices need to update Teams.

Normally, how I check it is that I go to the actual device page, go to Inventories, and find the Software and it's normally red under "Threats". However, none are red. Instead, all the ones that need "Updating" have multiple copies listed under "Inventories".

https://ibb.co/KxvwKGZ2

https://ibb.co/BVnzJRts

https://ibb.co/CdbBJ8J

As can be seen by "Evidence", there are two versions and the names differ slightly. Not all exposed devices have only two versions. Some have more. Some have only "msteams" as the folders with different numbers, others have only "microsoftteams" as the folders with different numbers. I've checked on the actual devices and the folders themselves do actually exist.

Any idea what the correct remediation would be? I can't even seem to delete it with admin rights as only the System user can delete it.

https://redd.it/1oih42u
@r_systemadmin

YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs

Videos from several creators have been taken down on topics including how to install Windows 11 without logging into a Microsoft account and how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

CyberCPU Tech reports:

https://youtu.be/l6p6g0-JUNA
https://youtu.be/jgU6Web4PPM

https://redd.it/1oimktp
@r_systemadmin

PSA: ChatGPT now has a $25/user/mo Business Plan with SSO, without the 150-seat minimum requirement with Enterprise

One of my users brought this to our attention today. A big hurdle in the past for us was the unavailability of SSO unless you go with the Enterprise plan, which had a 150-seat minimum requirement.

I learned that they renamed the "Team" plan to "Business" and added SSO. This must have happened at some point in the last 2 months because I looked at this back in August and Team did not allow SSO then.

The Business Plan follows their Enterprise Privacy controls, as well: Enterprise privacy at OpenAI | OpenAI

Edit: Yes, thanks for the downvotes. ChatGPT = bad. I get it. This is a step in the right direction and is enough to make the risk worth it for many organizations.

https://redd.it/1oij4yq
@r_systemadmin

My review is tomorrow

One man IT Army. 100+ employees. 2 locations. On-prem environment.

They had a consultant for 10 years before me and never had a full time IT man in house. No documentation, no diagram, no asset list. This dude was so hostile to me when I got hired. never gave me access let alone responded to me. I had to figure out everything on my own. He also caused us to go through 2 ransomwares events due to his poor attention to upcoming renewal cyber security renewals.

I’m the helpdesk,SQL, cyber security, installs, upgrades, backups, documentation. Basically 24/7 and I’ve had to work Saturday’s Sundays and fridays late. 5 days in office no remote.

For all the one men IT Armies out there, you know how the the pressure is. It’s always on

I’m getting paid 80k which is I think is good but I’d like a decent increase cause I’ve had a really good year. How much is reasonable for me to ask for? I’m thinking the range of 86-88k and to go Friday remote. And also have them cover my phone bill because it basically is a work phone at this point because people don’t submit tickets at all.

Only 10 vacation days per year. I accrue 6.67 hours of PTO per month.

I keep the lights on 24/7

Thoughts?

What do I say if if the raise they offer is really disappointing? Display that I don’t agree or just stay quiet and look for another job?

https://redd.it/1oiox1b
@r_systemadmin

Onboarding new employees

Hi all,

Was wondering how does everyone onboard their new employees? Our current proces is to hand over login details to employees the day they start working and recieve the laptop and mobile device. MFA is forced to be configured from a trustee location.

HR wants to automate this proces and make it easier for new employees. They want is to send login details to their personal e-mail adres.

Was wondering if this is normal for anyone else? And if so, how do you deal with MFA setup?

https://redd.it/1oiknlr
@r_systemadmin