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

MinIO is no longer open source - who is replacing it?

Since MinIO is no longer open source, i needed to find an alternative because i am relying on S3-Storage.
I have found multiple alternatives: Alarik. io, rustfs. com, and Garage. One thing i dont understand is how so many people trust RustFS? Like their entire website is full of trashy faked reviews....
I am currently trying Alarik since i trust the company behind it but Garage looks good aswell. Which are you guys migrating to and why? I still find it hard to believe that there are so little competitors to MinIO like its such an important fundamental service..
Did anybody fork MinIO?
Sorry for my english guys i am from hungary and i dont want to use ai ;) cheers

https://redd.it/1plj630
@r_systemadmin

Do you really know what your company does?

I've been at this company for 20 years in IT. I support the main office and some employees in the field. When it comes to our plants, I know nothing about what we do. I am 'boots on the ground' when a production computer goes down, I can get it communicating to the plant, but I know nothing of the plant itself. Automation is a whole other group. I feel like an imposter when I'm in the plant and the guys are rambling on about how the plant is running, I just nod and smile. The other thing is we are regulated by the federal gov for safety, so it's not like they want us hanging around the plants if we're not needed.

Anyone else not know their business outside the computers?

https://redd.it/1plovd5
@r_systemadmin

Looking for resource to teach users how to avoid browser notification popup spam

Anyone has a good resource on teaching users on how to avoid browser notification popup spam? On both chrome and edge, once it is turned on, it is very very deep in settings to turn it off. And there's no indication from the popup it is coming from the browser. So I am looking for teaching resource/video/etc. that teaches people to avoid it in the first place.


Thanks!

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

The Unpredictable Nature of Sysadmin Challenges

Just when you think you've got the network humming along, chaos ensues. Suddenly, those security alerts that seemed like background noise demand immediate attention. Last week as an IT sysadmin, this was precisely my reality. At 2 am, I’m in the office wrestling with a stubborn malware issue. After a pot of coffee and numerous false leads, the problem was traced back to an unmonitored third-party app. Unexpected? Absolutely. Frustrating? Without a doubt.

Working as a sysadmin, navigating these chaotic scenarios becomes a daily sport. Often times, it feels like we're building sand castles right at the high tide line. The job transforms us into the unsung heroes of the IT department, operating behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly - from the company mails to the internet connection.

But here's the thing I've found. Amidst all the unpredictability, there's also a great deal of satisfaction. There's something about debugging a problem or optimizing a system that makes all the long nights and coffee worth it. Essential yet invisible, we're the beating heart keeping the technological body alive and kicking.

Yeah, we've had our woes, but isn't the reward of solving complex problems the real rush? What has been your most challenging sysadmin experience and how did you find triumph amidst chaos?

https://redd.it/1plq0d8
@r_systemadmin

tired of patching the wrong things because alerts lack business context

our vulnerability scanner flags hundreds of issues monthly but there's zero context about what actually matters. is this asset customer facing? who owns it? what data does it touch? is it even in production?

we waste so much time investigating just to figure out priority, and half the time we're patching things that turn out to be dev environments while actual production risks sit in the backlog because they looked less scary in the cvss score.

how do you actually get business context into your security workflows without manually researching every single finding?

https://redd.it/1plw4f6
@r_systemadmin

Are incomplete tickets the #1 cause of wasted time in IT support?

Across IT support teams, it feels like a disproportionate amount of time is lost to tickets that arrive with bad context, vague denoscriptions, no error details, and no indication of what the user has already tried.
This has often led to unnecessary clarification cycles and repeating the same fixes that worked before.
Some teams enforce strict ticket forms. Others reject tickets outright. Some rely on documentation or accept that this is “just how it is.”
I’m interested in how experienced sysadmins actually approach this.

What has genuinely reduced wasted time?

Where did process or tooling backfire?

At what point does structure create more friction than value?

Not looking for product recommendations, more interested in what works (or doesn’t) in real environments.

https://redd.it/1ply103
@r_systemadmin

Understanding Firewall as a service

Can someone help my caveman brain understand how this works?



I build and maintain firewalls on the regular (MSP) but I’ve been tasked to look into getting rid of our office space. that means dropping our internet and firewall in a rack at a data center or FWaaS (open to other options). I need to keep my static IP because its programmed into all our customer firewalls as an exception so we can jump into them.

So with FWaaS, where do I plug in my network cable?

Is there a device like a router you use to communicate to the cloud?


Just having a hard time grasping the implementation part and don’t want to be clueless before I do vendor demos next week.

https://redd.it/1pm1e7k
@r_systemadmin

With AI we are coming full circle to Bonzai Buddy.

Remember how hard it was to get rid of that and ads?

https://redd.it/1pm2wkx
@r_systemadmin

Underpaid for Okta/Jamf Engineering stack? $103k

I am looking for a sanity check on my compensation ahead of an upcoming performance review.

Role: Systems Engineer
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Comp: $103k base (band: $100k–$120k)
Tenure: ~2 years at this company

Current stack & responsibilities:
• Okta (advanced / architecture-level work)
• Jamf Pro (sole admin, ~1,000 devices)
• Google Workspace administration
• Secondary support for Cisco Meraki networking

Key work over the past 2 years:
• Implemented Okta Device Trust and centralized 50+ applications using SSO/SCIM
• Single point of ownership for the entire Jamf environment (MDM engineering, fleet lifecycle, security posture)
• Supported Meraki network build-outs for new office locations
• Contributed to the Zoom → Google Workspace migration
• Currently implementing Okta Workflows integrated with Jamf

I’ve only received around a $3k total raise over two years (3 reviews), despite the scope and responsibility of my role increasing.

Given the systems I own and the fact that my compensation sits near the bottom of the band, I’m planning to ask for the top of the band ($120k).

My questions:
• Is this a reasonable ask given the scope and risk of the role?
• Should I expect pushback?
• Would you consider this underpaid, fairly paid, or market-aligned for Melbourne?

Appreciate any perspective or advice

https://redd.it/1pm2auz
@r_systemadmin

Consumer grade vs Enterprise grade ssd

Our research group uses a workstation machine to run LLM models. We currently have 1 enterprise level SSD (micron 5210) which is nearing its service life. It had \~4.3 years on (5 year warranty) and smartctl says it has 31% life expectancy. I just inherited the position and realized the machine is not used heavily. It was piled with years of unused data and no one realised. It had a total write of \~10 TB in the 4+ years. The models we use right now total around 500GB space. I was wondering if we could get away with a consumer grade ssd (with maybe a raid 1) instead of dropping 600$ for 3.8 TB.

Edit:
We have a UPS. Should be good for at least 10 mins with max load. Not sure if anyone bothered to set up a auto warning to users.

what is the risk if (when!) it fails?
Downtime usually. Potentially people may lose (easy to regenerate(1-2 days)) research data.

criticality of the system?
Most work halts.

required uptime?
24/7. Although occasional outages are fine.

is it 'your money' or the organisations?
Our money in the org. We can do other stuff with the money we save.

https://redd.it/1pm158k
@r_systemadmin

What’s the best way to learn the theory of HPC computing whilst administering one?


I’ve been in the game now about a year as a very junior systems admin and whilst I’ve managed to accumulate a lot of systems, platforms and dev experience on the HPC at work, I often find myself having big gaps in my theoretical knowledge of thinks like how MPI works or how the nodes themselves function and everything else in between. I feel like I have good working knowledge but it’s not deep enough

I guess my question is does anyone have any recommendations on resources I can use to brus up my understanding? Thanks

https://redd.it/1pm9tke
@r_systemadmin

How many of you moved away from VMware ?

I met a lot of engineer who either said they need to migrate ASAP and some who already did. But i know to change vendors is not that ez. I worked with VMware for the last 15 years and it was my go to virtualization but now its not affordable anymore. So i am shifting to Hyper-V to those infrastructure that already have Windows and Microsoft licensing and proxmox its a nice cheap/free alternative but not sure if its still "ripe" for productive stuff ( have not worked with it a lot)
Can you guys give me your experience with switching from VMware ?

https://redd.it/1pmcgu6
@r_systemadmin