database](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/location-services-opt-out), which I'm not sure is even legal if you don't own all the nearby hardware. Microsoft may completely ignore your request ["if it seems problematic"](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/location-services-opt-out#:~:text=If%20a%20request%20seems%20problematic%2C), and apparently, [this also isn't a permanent fix.](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1jjif2b/comment/mjo2dxm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
* If you have patience, you could wait for the issue to resolve itself. No, seriously, [the database gets updated by Windows devices all the time as they scan the area](https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/windows-location-service-and-privacy-3a8eee0a-5b0b-dc07-eede-2a5ca1c49088?utm_source=chatgpt.com#:~:text=If%20location%20services,of%20the%20provider.), so eventually it might just be fixed. Logically, if you have a Windows device with cellular and/or GPS in the area, the location accuracy should also improve, and faster.
* If your users *only* travel between different company offices, you could [configure Timezones via DHCP and force Windows to use them](https://oofhours.com/2019/12/20/configuring-time-zones-part-2/), but this would only work on *your* Networks and would need manual intervention from users/IT anywhere else.
* If users workflow allows, you could disable Wi-Fi entirely, to force Windows to rely purely on IP based location, if you use a proxy/internet security service like ZScaler though you'll need to make sure the egress IP is in the desired Timezone.
* You can always build your own geolocation database, perhaps make a policy/noscript that has a list of known IP addresses, SSID's, whatever you like and force timezones from that, however this is only possible if you know every location that a user might need to work from.
* The last option is to just deal with the issue, if it's not that impactful to your environment then you can choose to ignore it.

# And that's it.

As of writing this, our problem is ongoing, we've passed the issue on to Microsoft and once we hear back I'll update this post. Our customer isn't particularly interested in any of the available workarounds, so that leaves us standing around, for now.

Hope this helped!

Cheers,

https://redd.it/1pcv5ot
@r_systemadmin

Every time I open Azure I swear something has moved

I logged into Azure this morning and found a setting in a place I’m pretty sure it didn’t exist last week.



Some days whole menus shift.

Some days a toggle appears out of nowhere.

Some days something I use daily is suddenly three clicks deeper.



I don’t know if Microsoft keeps quietly rearranging things or if Azure is just slowly reorganizing itself like a haunted house.



Does everyone else run into this or is it just my brain melting..

https://redd.it/1pcz542
@r_systemadmin

Requests

How do you guys mentally manage all the requests you get?

I’m saying, even if you have a ticketing system, there are so many requests from these users and a lot of times I think about them outside of work when I don’t want to.

I need to start telling myself a lot of people at the company make a lot more money than I do, so work should stay at work. It is tomorrow’s problem.

https://redd.it/1pd2ful
@r_systemadmin

Hey SHI could you NOT send renewal notices that look like Knowb4 tests?

Like seriously, how hard is it to send a link to a web page that has all the renewals listed. An Excel file with a list sent as an attachment is not gonna cut it in this day an age.

https://redd.it/1pd3nep
@r_systemadmin

We work in an industry with more buzzwords than people. Hyper Zero Trust, UltraSASE, AI-XDR, AI sec Posture, AI AI AI AI …& more AI ..it’s getting insane.

Every vendor is trying to invent the next big term just to sound revolutionary.
Half the time it’s the same product with a longer name, a new acronym, and a marketing team that got too much budget.

What’s the most ridiculous buzzword you’ve seen lately?

https://redd.it/1pd5cbs
@r_systemadmin

Just got dumped with the job of getting our environment documentation under control and wow, it’s way worse than I thought.

We’ve got on prem, cloud, random mystery VMs no one will admit to owning, and basically zero up to date diagrams or any clue about what talks to what. I need a tool that can actually auto discover servers, apps, and dependencies, spit out something that looks like a real living map or CMDB, and stay current without me spending the rest of my life in Visio. Agentless or low effort is a huge plus because I’m not looking to babysit another tool.

Right now I’m looking at ServiceNow Discovery and Service Mapping, Faddom, and Dynatrace, but I’d love to hear what’s actually worked for people or any horror stories from trying to clean up this kind of documentation disaster.

https://redd.it/1pd3wx4
@r_systemadmin

Users asking for admin access

“Would you please give me admin access?”

For what reason?

“Because I want to have control over my PC. There’s no reason for me to use an admin username and password just to complete my tasks”

she can perform all her tasks without needing admin rights and she has all the tools she needs

Why do users think they can get admin rights or credentials? How do I even begin to convince someone like this the dangers of what they are asking. And I’m sure she will escalate this to the CEO.

Sigh.


https://redd.it/1pd9jrj
@r_systemadmin

Didn't Think It Would Happen

Didn't think this would happen to me, but I was fired yesterday due to 'Lack of Performance'


My boss was terminated 2 weeks ago by a "Shadow IT" person that I helped train and then she turned around and terminated me. Every reasoning they provided I was able to counter, but it didn't matter. It was already done.


Haven't ever been in this position before, but is it normal to feel so calm about it? I would have imagined I would be a sobbing mess, but maybe I feel a sense of relief.

https://redd.it/1pdb0us
@r_systemadmin

AT&T Mobile Hotspot (bait and switch?) Rant

I work for a public library and we recently demo'd mobile hotspots from AT&T. The demo unit worked fantastic. I drove around the county that our library services and tested it in various locations. Got a good signal and was streaming 4k video from youtube to my phone with no issues everywhere.

Gave my boss the go ahead to order a batch. We loan these to the public. Got them all configured in a week, during which time I had no issues with connectivity. Sent them to our cataloguing department and they did their thing, which took about 2 weeks due to their backlog of books to catalog.

But now, on their first loan periods to patrons, ALL of them are being throttled. And not just for people taking them out in the boonies. Nope, they are getting throttled in town too, where there is supposed to be a great signal. They're clearly being downgraded to 4G LTE signal and it is not loading images or videos. I can browse reddit or look at emails, but no images or videos will load. I also checked usage - 2GB or less of 50GB limit on all devices, so it's not like anyone is hitting the data limit.

I spoke to our rep and he's clueless. Playing dumb. Clearly something changed, but he claims there are no issues on their end.

All these wasted hours going back and forth with the Sales rep, configuring the devices for public use, cataloging them... and they may as well be paperweights now.

I can't help but feel like they put us on one network for the first few weeks to give us great service, then silently downgraded us after a few weeks. We're going to have to cancel. Hopefully we're month to month. What a waste of time and money.

https://redd.it/1pd7n9q
@r_systemadmin

So long Crucial... thanks for the fishes

https://investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/micron-announces-exit-crucial-consumer-business

via

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1pd9o76/crucial\_is\_gone/

https://redd.it/1pde08y
@r_systemadmin

your funniest mistakes

So I recently found that messed up my servers firewall rules slightly. I put the rate limit on new connection inadvertently also on outgoing connections.

Yep, I rate limited my outbound traffic and then was flummoxed by spurious DNS and HTTP requests failing.

Misery loves company so what's your latest "put head in paper bag" error?

https://redd.it/1pd74zt
@r_systemadmin

Are all large corporations a mess like where I work, Mastercard?

So about five years ago the company I was working at was as acquired by Mastercard. Then right when they started migrating last year I was offered a new position at the corporate office that after much discussion with my wife I accepted(discussed as in we had to move across the state).

Let me tell you, this has been an eye opener. We have so much management and so many levels of management it’s nearly impossible to get teams to agree to anything so every team is off doing their own thing that’s often either duplicate work or incompatible other systems (without hacking together a bunch of noscripts). There’s absolutely no ownership, it’s like everyone wants someone else to own the systems and they just want to be told what to do. And software development, it’s like our plan is write code then figure out how to manage it or actually sell it to customers. And the H1B hires, there are entire floors of H1B people, and many of them have so much attitude or trying to argue or avoiding responsibility.

I’ve read articles of large multinational corporations and the dumb shit they do but figured people spiced up the story for attention. Now I’m feeling is it really this bad at all of them.

https://redd.it/1pdlv9w
@r_systemadmin

HUMOR -- I play games to relax.. but this...

Somebody had to do it....

An IT/network infra game ......

I play games to relax... Not to bring work home!!

https://github.com/pshenok/server-survival


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

Automating Windows post-installs with a simple winget-based noscript

I’ve been standardizing my own Windows setups for a while, and ended up turning that process into a small open-source tool.
It uses winget + a config file to automate app installs, basic settings, and the usual “first 30 minutes” after imaging a machine.

Nothing fancy - just predictable, reproducible, and easy to adapt for personal or team use.
If anyone has ideas on making it more robust (or cleaner), I'm all ears.

Repo: https://github.com/kaic/win-post-install

Site: https://kaic.me/win-post-install/

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

CVE-2025-55182 - React exploit - brown alert time?

Just reading up on this.... and starting to sweat about the vast quantity of react and react-based frameworks that are impacted from what appears to potentially be an *extremely* simple to achieve RCE... (sent request with some code in it, code runs, the end)


Anyone else sweating? I'm just trying to reverse engineer which customer products/tools/web servers might be impacted and the fastest way to find out/mitigate... Been playing with the React developer tools now but struggling with version profiling the servers.


More info here - CVE Record: CVE-2025-55182


Happy Thursday!



https://redd.it/1pdr09b
@r_systemadmin

Help needed: How do you debug super minimal containers?

We just shifted our apps to min container images, NO bash, NO extra, locked down tight to cut vuln. It’s definitely a big win for security, but devs and ops are lost when something BREAKS.

Zero shell or debug tools inside the container means every fix needs spinning up temp debug pods… really slowing us down!!

Is there any better approach to debug, or should we go back to normal container images since we prioritize speed?

https://redd.it/1pdt1sd
@r_systemadmin

In place upgrade domain controller oh my

Does anyone have anything good to say about going from server 2016 to server 2022 but a domain controller.

Ever boss I had says it’s going to tombstone our whole ad if we do….



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

Thickheaded Thursday - December 04, 2025

Howdy, /r/sysadmin!

It's that time of the week, Thickheaded Thursday! This is a safe (mostly) judgement-free environment for all of your questions and stories, no matter how silly you think they are. Anybody can answer questions! My name is AutoModerator and I've taken over responsibility for posting these weekly threads so you don't have to worry about anything except your comments!

https://redd.it/1pdw6w2
@r_systemadmin

Have we hit rock bottom for tech support yet?

I don't know if this is just me getting old. But I feel like the standard for tech support is at an all time low at the moment.

Over the past year I've had to raise cases with vendors & manufacturers & it just gets more & more painful. It seems that we've gone from

support being generally good > support being generally bad > lucky if support even know about the product > lucky if support will even attempt to address the issue insead of asking you to re-raise with another team.

Naming & shaming a few:

Microsoft (obviously): Like most IT operations worldwide, we use more than 1 MS product. Sometimes we use (wait for it....) more than 1 MS product at a time. But good luck raising a case with MS. As soon as they find out your using another MS product, or even the same product but a different version. Case closed, please do the needful & re-raise.

& yes that's with the top tier MS support.

Broadcom: It used to be the case that VMWare support was helpful. Now, the general level of knowledge on the support teams is shocking. Getting answers to basic questions can take weeks in some cases.

Cisco: I have an account issue with Cisco. 2 transfers later I'm still not with the 'right' team that can help me.

MSI: Personal one this time. Bought a new monitor last year & it's already broken with a failed LED. Product is under warranty but MSI won't repair because I don't have the origional box the monitor came in...

I know we're in an 'expensive IT' era where tech firms are slashing costs to compete on AI. Or maybe it's just because so many of these firms are quasi-monopolies.

But surely it can't get any worse?

Right....

https://redd.it/1pdxp69
@r_systemadmin

Cold calls are one thing. Unsolicited meeting invites are a whole new level of unacceptable.

I'm having to clear multiple pending appointments from my calendar every week because these shitbirds think it's acceptable to just send unsolicited meeting invitations.

Christ, I hate salespeople...

Rant over.

https://redd.it/1pdz65u
@r_systemadmin

Just got my cease & desist letter from Broadcom

Title. Small manufacturing company with an on prem setup & 6 vms. We are about done swapping over to hyper v, the Broadcom quote for a 1 year renewal for us was 25k, three years ago we renewed for 5k, absolutely crazy. Luckily I knew ahead of time the quote was going to be outrageous thanks to other posts in this sub, now to finish the upgrade before the 10 day deadline. Happy Thursday!

https://redd.it/1pe06o8
@r_systemadmin