updating records, billing people, etc.
* The latest backup (replication point) was on the server below it, with the bad CMOS battery.
* The 2nd latest backup was stored offsite, which would only have data from the previous day (since we can only backup nightly).
* If anything got unplugged right now, it would be an immediate interruption to the whole clinic, and if we needed to recover data it would be a minimum of 10 minutes of data loss. Our users will not tolerate this.

# We were sent onsite to handle it.

After a discussion with the Operations manager, it was agreed that myself and one of my beloved colleagues would head to the clinic ourselves after hours to “remediate the issue”.

This was also an opportunity to replace the UPS that was installed onsite, which for whatever reason didn’t have its battery connected.

Sidenote, our business loved to spend money replacing UPS’s for some reason, they were one of the few things we kept current.

We [grabbed a new UPS ](https://imgur.com/BurlthS)from nearby, as well as some cage nuts, a new rack shelf, screws, and anything else we might need.

It was getting dark by the time we reached the clinic, the carpark was empty, and it was just the clinic manager there waiting for us, so we started to unload our gear through the back door, and they headed home shortly after.

Inside the place felt a bit eerie, with the smell of disinfectant, the automatic front door randomly clicking to open from the wind and failing because it was locked, it was kind of surreal.

We were in the middle of this place, at like 7PM, on a Friday night, with nobody else around.

When we got to the server room, though, you could clearly see that someone opted to save renovation costs and kept the original wallpaper and flooring in there, the rest of the building looked much more modern.

My and my colleague were standing there, thinking about how to approach this, we had already shutdown the servers remotely on the road trip here.

We just kind of agreed, one of use would lift the top server while the other person screws in a new cantilever shelf.

So we eventually got the shelf in, and moved the modern server onto it, we had to place it vertically in the end because the rack was just too shallow.

We had to do a similar thing when removing the old UPS, since all the weight of the lower server was sitting on it.

We got the old UPS out, the new one installed, started to power everything on and things were looking good.

We, applied the new UPS config pretty quickly, updated the firmware, then tested a few clinic machines to make sure they could login to the practice software just fine, and print things.

That was about it, we just did some extra cable management to make sure that each server can be pulled out easily for maintenance, and we organized for **Outeractive** to come back.

# How did this happen in the first place?

That’s perhaps a better story for another time, but in short:

* We had basically 2 guys in the company that would build these clinic servers, 1 of which only ever worked from home, basically making it 1 guy for all the hardware installs.
* This individual, while rather talented, was what I can only describe as a bit mischievous, money-motivated, and funny (always in a dark way).

The story he told was that he went there to install the new server, and nothing else. There were issues with the rack, but not enough hardware nearby for him to properly fix them, and he just couldn’t be fazed.

In the end, this clinic location actually closed, after I left the company, so the servers were reused elsewhere.

Hope you enjoyed!

Sidenote, I'll be crossposting this in tales from tech support, but they don't allow images, which you kind of need here.

To mods: I've uploaded all images to imgur, instead of hosting them on my own webserver for this post.

Again, if people reckon this doesn't fit this sub, yell at me I guess and I'll find somewhere else to post, I just like seeing people share similar experiences here.

Edit: reddit keeps removing quoted

text

https://redd.it/1pkhny4
@r_systemadmin

Weekly 'I made a useful thing' Thread - December 12, 2025

There is a great deal of user-generated content out there, from noscripts and software to tutorials and videos, but we've generally tried to keep that off of the front page due to the volume and as a result of community feedback. There's also a great deal of content out there that violates our advertising/promotion rule, from noscripts and software to tutorials and videos.

We have received a number of requests for exemptions to the rule, and rather than allowing the front page to get consumed, we thought we'd try a weekly thread that allows for that kind of content. We don't have a catchy name for it yet, so please let us know if you have any ideas!

In this thread, feel free to show us your pet project, YouTube videos, blog posts, or whatever else you may have and share it with the community. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, or links that appear to be monetization-grabs will still be removed.

https://redd.it/1pko7cm
@r_systemadmin

What are some of your favorite sysadmin tools/programs?

Some of my favorite tools are

- memtest86
- disk genius
- wiztree
- tcpview
- wireshark




https://redd.it/1pkn54e
@r_systemadmin

created a print server but everone else can add the printer?

yesterday i created a print server, i linked the GPO to my dept group and started adding specific departments based off the printer location, however all of the other computers can still see and add it if they click add device. They dont get automatically installed like the members ive added do, but they still see it as a shared network name.

how do i turn this off or prevent them from seeing it, we dont want the whole plant seeing a sales copier when its no where near them.

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

Graybeards i summon thee - Windows XP Remote Backup at scale

Hi there,

i'd need some input for quite an ancient problem.

I'm working at MSP and i have a particular customer that has about 15 machines (the likes of robots and cnc machines and stuff).

Currently we have an approach that's working but ultimately leaves me with a bad stomach everytime it's done:

the machines all have full fledged windows xp pro installations (no embeds) being able to alternatively boot into freedos. Currently the approach is to boot them into freedos twice a year, use norton ghost to dump cold backups onto the hard drive and carry the backups away with an usb stick.

Since this coming up soon (we do this usually on the last day before they close down for christmas) i came to wonder if there might be a better solution for this.

With all of the machines running on ide drives you can imagine that quite a lot of the drives failed already, and i had to restore those machines from the ghost backups that we did. So i'm at least confident that the current approach is working as intended.


But even though it's working as of now i think there might be a more elegant solution that can automate at least the backup process.

Furthermore even though i try to train new staff each time this comes up, i'm not as confident in younger people's skills to actually pull of the recovery if one of the drives fails again and i can hardly blame them. Those skills are basically useless nowadays and hardly transferable to other things one might do in todays day and age


We do have Veeam B&R and a branded carbonite backup agent for doing cloud backups.


I must confess that i never tried to backup a physical Windows XP via Veeam before (XP was going pretty much EOL by the time Veeam came to my attention so there never was reason for me to try).


If i were to configure this in my usual way, i'd create local admin accounts on the xp machines, create some firewall rules, create a protection group in Veeam, add all machines to that protection group and add a backup job for that protection group.

This way i could get daily backups (with monitoring via veeam) and at the same time get isos that i can use for bare metal recovery when the next ide drive dies. This would make the handling of the recovery process a lot easier for new/younger people since that is part of our basic training and quite foolproof compared to the ghost approach....


so, anyone got some input into that?


additionally:

the ide drive situation is really, really bad. Costumer sniped quite a few on ebay over the years and still has working (they're tested when we do the cold backups) 2,5 and 3,5 drives as backups. But ultimately this is a lost battle. I have made some bad expiriences with ide sata adapters so i've held off from actually migrating everything to sata drives

can someone shed light on possible problems using sata ssds --> sata ide adapter to run on old hardware? (Aside from things like, disable defrag and not having trim on Windows XP)

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

Safely erase HDDs in compliance with ISO 27001?

Currently, we're using an old HP server where we plug in disks we'd like to erase with the help of O&O SafeErase. However, the reporting function of this tool leaves much to desire.

This circumstance was also criticized in the last ISO 27001 audit. So we are looking for alternatives that safely wipe disks and create usable reports.

Any pointers? What solutions have you implemented?

Edit: Thanks for taking the time to reply. Although it has been brought up with management multiple times, disks have to be wiped, before they get shredded. It be do like that sometimes.

I'm taking a look at all of your suggestions:

* Killdisk
* blancco
* https://partedmagic.com/nvme-secure-erase/
* shredos
* Destroyinator
* Hdparm
* [command line foo](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1pkmvqt/safely_erase_hdds_in_compliance_with_iso_27001/ntn8h0s/)

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

AI powered browser

What is everyone’s take on AI Browsers? I am deeply concerned about them and the risk they pose but I don’t see them mentioned on tech forums… or really anywhere?

https://redd.it/1pkp9x8
@r_systemadmin

Why do Dell Idracs die?

We have had over the years a high number of Dell severs where the iDracs just die over time. Does anyone know the cause of it. We have seen this in R410's, R10's, R620, R730 etc. So far the 40 series seem to be holding up (maybe we just don't have them long enough and they will eventually die?). Anyone know why they crap out after a number of years chugging away?



https://redd.it/1pkv8ao
@r_systemadmin

I never fully realized just how much the H1B is abused until I started working at a multi national corporation.

Sure I know it’s well known in technology a lot of the employees at large companies are working under H1B but I assumed they were mostly in the highly specialized and or very cutting edge roles.

Yeah it’s not like that at all. I started working at a financial company last year with offices all around the world and today I’m walking across the office and there are entire floors with all H1B workers that are doing basic systems administration and development work any young man or woman out of community college can do. This has really been grinding on my nerves lately after our group was denied two new FTEs but given one contractor brought over on H1B and they job is mostly clerical. They are in charge of reviewing and routing the ITSM tickets (work orders, changes etc). We need to severely restrict this program.

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

DNS question

Hi. Imagine you are an it infrastructure engineer. Your client (a devops engineer) came to you with a request. He has like 10 public ip addresses and he wants to create a single DNS name for all of them (some-app.domain.com). But he doesn’t want this domain to resolve to all the 10 addresses. So only 1 A-record at a time. And he also wants health checks for this ip addresses so if app behind an ip is dead dns won’t response with it.

How would you do that? Imagine that you also control BIND DNS servers serving a zone in which client want a domain to be.

P.S. sorry if its wrong subreddit for such questions

Upd: client can’t use a LB or VIP for this. Traffic needs to be routed directly to the machine.

https://redd.it/1pkvy1w
@r_systemadmin

Handling Burnout as a Sysadmin

Last week, I lost four hours of sleep over a weekend trying to recover a database for a client who acted as if the world depended on it. In that moment, I felt a deep exhaustion welling up inside me. As a sysadmin, we are well-known for our exceedingly high expectations and the intense stress we deal with on a daily basis. But that day, the burnout feeling was palpable.

Despite all this, there is a strange satisfaction in identifying a problem, dissecting it, and putting everything back together seamlessly. A sense of calm that follows the storm, you can say.

Nevertheless, this incident was a clear beacon, signaling that it's high time to take steps to mitigate burnout. So, to my fellow sysadmins, how are you tackling burnout? Any proven techniques that worked for you?

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

Joan alternatives ?

He⁤y everyone so we are trying to find a room display system that wor⁤ks like J⁤oan but without having to b⁤uy their tablets cause we already have screens in our meeting rooms and spending on more hardware feels pretty stupid and wasteful. We are trying to be more mindful of waste and unused stuff etc.

I don’t care if it’s wallmounted tablets or web dashboards or whatever as long as it doesn’t lock us into one brand of device. Bonus if it wor⁤ks with Google/Outlook and lets people easily see when a room’s fr⁤ee because we are bad at paying attention. Any ideas?

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

How can we block Google AI search results?

Hello, All,

Teachers have reported that students on Chromebooks are using the AI Search button on Google.com instead of performing standard searches, which is allowing them to bypass assignment requirements. Unfortunately, as far as we can find, it doesn’t appear possible to block this feature or redirect the results at the network or Google Admin/Workspace level.

Aside from classroom management and teacher oversight, does anyone have alternative solutions or strategies that have worked in your environment?

Thanks.

(I also asked this on r/k12sysadmin)


Edit: We aren't trying to block AI websites all together. We're trying to prevent AI search results as the default or at least block the AI search button.

https://redd.it/1pl1kaj
@r_systemadmin

I would be embarrassed to send this message to someone

I got this from the top voted #1 customer service company, Microsoft.


Hello -----,

 

Thank you for your patience. We are sorry for the delayed response regarding this support request.
 

Due to an unforeseen and significant increase in the volume of requests over the past few months, we were unable to provide timely assistance. As a result, we will close and archive this support request (CaseID:########).
 

If you still require assistance regarding the issue reported in this case, we encourage you to open a new support request. Alternatively, if you have already created a new support request for this issue within the last 20 days, please complete the table below and send it to us at  #### so we can prioritize it appropriately: 

https://redd.it/1pl3bmk
@r_systemadmin

Faxing in 2025?

Our old fax machine is on its way out, I've been asked to figure out what direction we should go regarding faxing. It is only used by a few people and not very often.


They want to compare the cost of using some sort of web fax on one of our copiers (Canon ImageRunner if it matters) and moving to something completely online. I'll probably look into the cost of adding a fax card to the copier and just plugging the phone line into that too...


I'm using SMTP2GO for scan to email on the copiers already, I'm not seeing a way to fax through that though.


What would you guys suggest going with?

https://redd.it/1pl4dvm
@r_systemadmin

Dear Microsoft

I ask before you put any more money in AI, New Outlook, Edge, could you please get a decent OS updating policy/system?

I have lost years of my life on WSUS, GPOs, batch noscripts, now I am working with powershell's pswindowsupdate. While it is responsive, it seems hit and miss again... ugh.

I would ask Copilot, but I am heading to the bar and ask the bartender instead.

I guess I should be happy with the new MS Office icons every 3 months.

https://redd.it/1pla8r7
@r_systemadmin

People in IT should be required to take a computer literacy course or something

I know we all like to complain about how silly end users are… but it’s even more frustrating when you have peers who barely know how to navigate a webpage. I have several coworkers (who are in their mid to late fifties and of course make more money than me) that struggle to even assign tickets to themselves sometimes. These are people who have little to no troubleshooting skills and can ONLY do exactly what they are taught to do, and have to typically be taught that thing over and over again. It’s extremely frustrating to have a coworker sharing their screen in teams and fumbling about on a webpage because they can’t figure out what they are doing “because I’ve never done this before” when they have done it multiple times already.

If your only skill in IT is that you can only do what someone has taught you and have no capacity to figure something out on your own, that’s a real problem. These people will often pass their work on to me because they just can’t figure it out. If I don’t inherently know what it is I’ll typically spend 5 minutes looking up a technical document and then I can fix the issue in less than 30 minutes.

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

Is it just me or has converting PDF to Word gotten way worse lately?

I swear this used to be simpler. I've been trying to convert a bunch of contracts and proposals from PDF to Word this week and every tool I try either destroys the formatting completely or wants me to sign up for some expensive subnoscription just to do basic stuff. My tables look like abstract art by the time they come out the other end. I work at a small consulting firm and we deal with client documents constantly. Half the time someone sends over a PDF that needs edits and I spend more time fixing the converted mess than it would take to just retype the whole thing. Adobe wants like $15/month just for this? Come on. I've tried a few free online converters but honestly I'm sketched out putting client contracts into random websites. What's everyone in here using these days for PDF to Word that doesn't make you want to throw your laptop out the window?

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

Does anyone else feel like Microsoft settings quietly change location when you are not looking?

I logged into the admin center today to adjust something simple.

Except the setting was not where it usually is.

I checked another area and it had moved again.

Or maybe I am losing my mind. Hard to tell at this point.



Some days I wonder if Microsoft actually changes things or if I am just dealing with a platform that reorganizes itself out of boredom.

https://redd.it/1plk5vw
@r_systemadmin

What's your experience with ITAD audits?

We’re about to go through our first full ITAD cycle and our auditors are asking for documentation on data sanitization. Is that standard? Do you guys request reports or certificates when disposing of gear?

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