When Broken Processes and Shifted Responsibility Made Leaving the Only Rational Choice
Hi everyone. I’ve been working in IT for several years, mostly in technical support and adjacent roles.
Below is a story about the last months of my work at a private company in Eastern Europe.
This is not a story about one bad incident. It’s about how processes slowly broke down, responsibility shifted, and a once normal working environment gradually turned into a constant source of pressure.
I’m sharing this anonymously and without naming names — not to accuse anyone, but to document the experience and hopefully be useful to people who might find themselves in a similar situation.
---
How it started
About a year ago, I joined this company. At the beginning, everything looked fine: a reasonable team, calm atmosphere, clear tasks. We worked efficiently overall. Sure, mistakes happened — but that’s true for any real IT environment.
For the first six months, our SLA stayed around 95–98% and never dropped below 90%. The team handled the workload, clients were mostly satisfied, and the processes worked.
---
The turning point
The turning point came when management decided to “optimize” operations and introduced a new role — a queue manager.
The idea sounded reasonable on paper: someone to distribute tasks and calls, answer questions, and reduce management overhead so the team could work more effectively.
In practice, this was the moment everything started to fall apart.
The role was given to an employee who had joined the company only three months before me, on the same position. Almost immediately after passing probation, he was moved to second-line support, made responsible for equipment, and then put in charge of the queue. For context, similar progression used to take people one to two years.
Outside of work, he was a normal person. Inside the work process, he was rigid and confrontational.
As an example, it took me three months — three spreadsheets, two presentations, and a separate analytical video — just to prove that the thermal paste being purchased was low quality. Something that should take a day took a quarter.
---
Gatekeeping and pressure
Very quickly, a clear gatekeeper mentality appeared.
The general team chat, which was supposed to be a place for coordination and help, turned into a source of pressure. Anyone asking a question was met not with answers, but with aggression and personal attacks:
- You’re stupid?
- How do you even work here?
- You should be fired.
This didn’t help productivity — it created a toxic environment where people simply stopped asking questions.
At the same time, the actual duties of queue management were barely performed. Task distribution boiled down to messages like “just take tickets”, and when the backlog grew — threats to dump everything on a single person. There was no real workload management.
---
Decline
The outcome was predictable.
SLA started dropping fast — first to 70%, then to around 60%. The team was unhappy, clients were unhappy. When these issues were raised in meetings, they were either ignored or answered with vague, non-actionable responses.
Then the pressure intensified. Work stopped feeling like work — tasks became punishment. No matter the result, the executor was always at fault:
- did well — why didn’t you bend over backwards even more for the client?
- made a mistake — you’re an idiot
- failed because of someone else’s error — why did you trust them?
- failed due to management decisions — you should have figured out a workaround yourself
At the same time, we were told to delegate and not hold everything yourself, yet any attempt to do so resulted in new complaints.
People started leaving. As soon as someone found another job, they resigned. Over four months, 9 out of 31 team members left. The gaps were filled with people without real IT backgrounds, which only accelerated the collapse of processes.
---
Examples of dysfunction
Field work incident
In one case, I was sent to another city to install network equipment. Upon arrival, it
Hi everyone. I’ve been working in IT for several years, mostly in technical support and adjacent roles.
Below is a story about the last months of my work at a private company in Eastern Europe.
This is not a story about one bad incident. It’s about how processes slowly broke down, responsibility shifted, and a once normal working environment gradually turned into a constant source of pressure.
I’m sharing this anonymously and without naming names — not to accuse anyone, but to document the experience and hopefully be useful to people who might find themselves in a similar situation.
---
How it started
About a year ago, I joined this company. At the beginning, everything looked fine: a reasonable team, calm atmosphere, clear tasks. We worked efficiently overall. Sure, mistakes happened — but that’s true for any real IT environment.
For the first six months, our SLA stayed around 95–98% and never dropped below 90%. The team handled the workload, clients were mostly satisfied, and the processes worked.
---
The turning point
The turning point came when management decided to “optimize” operations and introduced a new role — a queue manager.
The idea sounded reasonable on paper: someone to distribute tasks and calls, answer questions, and reduce management overhead so the team could work more effectively.
In practice, this was the moment everything started to fall apart.
The role was given to an employee who had joined the company only three months before me, on the same position. Almost immediately after passing probation, he was moved to second-line support, made responsible for equipment, and then put in charge of the queue. For context, similar progression used to take people one to two years.
Outside of work, he was a normal person. Inside the work process, he was rigid and confrontational.
As an example, it took me three months — three spreadsheets, two presentations, and a separate analytical video — just to prove that the thermal paste being purchased was low quality. Something that should take a day took a quarter.
---
Gatekeeping and pressure
Very quickly, a clear gatekeeper mentality appeared.
The general team chat, which was supposed to be a place for coordination and help, turned into a source of pressure. Anyone asking a question was met not with answers, but with aggression and personal attacks:
- You’re stupid?
- How do you even work here?
- You should be fired.
This didn’t help productivity — it created a toxic environment where people simply stopped asking questions.
At the same time, the actual duties of queue management were barely performed. Task distribution boiled down to messages like “just take tickets”, and when the backlog grew — threats to dump everything on a single person. There was no real workload management.
---
Decline
The outcome was predictable.
SLA started dropping fast — first to 70%, then to around 60%. The team was unhappy, clients were unhappy. When these issues were raised in meetings, they were either ignored or answered with vague, non-actionable responses.
Then the pressure intensified. Work stopped feeling like work — tasks became punishment. No matter the result, the executor was always at fault:
- did well — why didn’t you bend over backwards even more for the client?
- made a mistake — you’re an idiot
- failed because of someone else’s error — why did you trust them?
- failed due to management decisions — you should have figured out a workaround yourself
At the same time, we were told to delegate and not hold everything yourself, yet any attempt to do so resulted in new complaints.
People started leaving. As soon as someone found another job, they resigned. Over four months, 9 out of 31 team members left. The gaps were filled with people without real IT backgrounds, which only accelerated the collapse of processes.
---
Examples of dysfunction
Field work incident
In one case, I was sent to another city to install network equipment. Upon arrival, it
turned out the switch was not the type described and required a PoE injector. Delivering it took four hours instead of the promised one.
Then the person responsible for configuration disappeared for two hours. When they returned, it turned out the task that was supposed to take five minutes would actually take around two hours.
In reality, everything took nearly three hours. I made it home before curfew only because my father came to pick me up.
I worked five extra hours and was never paid for them — there was no formal refusal, my requests were simply ignored until I gave up.
Bureaucracy example
Another case involved moving a laptop from one office to another — literally two meters. This required 32 approvals involving five different departments and took over a month.
In the end, it turned out the network socket wasn’t even connected to the patch panel. That triggered another month of approvals to run a cable.
To be clear, this was not a government organization. This was a private company. Before the new management role was introduced, situations like this simply didn’t happen. In reality, these were one- or two-day tasks.
---
Resignation
The final straw came during my resignation. Through an electronic system, multiple asset acceptance documents were assigned to me for equipment I had never physically received. There was pressure to sign them. I refused.
Formally, the documents eventually expired and were never completed, but the fact that this happened destroyed what little trust remained.
On my last working day, after I once again asked what was going on, I was told:
> You did a good job today, so we’ve closed the issue.
At that point, it became clear that staying was unsafe. I left and moved to another company, where processes are transparent, responsibility is clearly defined, and people treat each other with basic respect.
---
Final thoughts
When a system starts breaking people, it’s very easy to start breaking along with it — quietly, gradually, without noticing it yourself.
In this story, there were moments when work-related stress led to genuinely dangerous conditions for some colleagues. I won’t go into details, but these situations were close to irreversible.
No job, no SLA, and no management experiment is worth your health or your life.
If you feel that a system is pressuring you, shifting responsibility onto you, ignoring boundaries, and forcing you to constantly defend yourself instead of simply doing your job — leaving is not weakness. Sometimes it’s the only sane choice.
I sincerely hope no one reading this has to go through something like this. But if you’re already in a similar situation — you’re not obligated to endure it for abstract metrics or someone else’s mistakes.
https://redd.it/1pxcgyd
@r_systemadmin
Then the person responsible for configuration disappeared for two hours. When they returned, it turned out the task that was supposed to take five minutes would actually take around two hours.
In reality, everything took nearly three hours. I made it home before curfew only because my father came to pick me up.
I worked five extra hours and was never paid for them — there was no formal refusal, my requests were simply ignored until I gave up.
Bureaucracy example
Another case involved moving a laptop from one office to another — literally two meters. This required 32 approvals involving five different departments and took over a month.
In the end, it turned out the network socket wasn’t even connected to the patch panel. That triggered another month of approvals to run a cable.
To be clear, this was not a government organization. This was a private company. Before the new management role was introduced, situations like this simply didn’t happen. In reality, these were one- or two-day tasks.
---
Resignation
The final straw came during my resignation. Through an electronic system, multiple asset acceptance documents were assigned to me for equipment I had never physically received. There was pressure to sign them. I refused.
Formally, the documents eventually expired and were never completed, but the fact that this happened destroyed what little trust remained.
On my last working day, after I once again asked what was going on, I was told:
> You did a good job today, so we’ve closed the issue.
At that point, it became clear that staying was unsafe. I left and moved to another company, where processes are transparent, responsibility is clearly defined, and people treat each other with basic respect.
---
Final thoughts
When a system starts breaking people, it’s very easy to start breaking along with it — quietly, gradually, without noticing it yourself.
In this story, there were moments when work-related stress led to genuinely dangerous conditions for some colleagues. I won’t go into details, but these situations were close to irreversible.
No job, no SLA, and no management experiment is worth your health or your life.
If you feel that a system is pressuring you, shifting responsibility onto you, ignoring boundaries, and forcing you to constantly defend yourself instead of simply doing your job — leaving is not weakness. Sometimes it’s the only sane choice.
I sincerely hope no one reading this has to go through something like this. But if you’re already in a similar situation — you’re not obligated to endure it for abstract metrics or someone else’s mistakes.
https://redd.it/1pxcgyd
@r_systemadmin
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Provider suggestions for economically deploying multiple cellular routers?
Any suggestions on what the least expensive option would be for getting multiple sites cellular service?
I have a couple cradlepoints that use FI and Mint, but I'm wondering if there's a good provider where I could have 10 different sites on a single account without being charged a ton. These sites are very low usage, monitoring building systems, generating alarms and such, nothing that uses more than 1gig a month by a long shot.
https://redd.it/1pxfpwf
@r_systemadmin
Any suggestions on what the least expensive option would be for getting multiple sites cellular service?
I have a couple cradlepoints that use FI and Mint, but I'm wondering if there's a good provider where I could have 10 different sites on a single account without being charged a ton. These sites are very low usage, monitoring building systems, generating alarms and such, nothing that uses more than 1gig a month by a long shot.
https://redd.it/1pxfpwf
@r_systemadmin
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Anyone else notice users only reboot when IT tells them not to?
Device’s been crawling for weeks after the update.
Check and Intune shows uptime is 47 days.
I ask them to reboot and suddenly it’s, Oh, I actually restarted this morning. No, you bloody didn’t.
Does uptime only reset when I tell the user not to reboot?
https://redd.it/1pxjgl0
@r_systemadmin
Device’s been crawling for weeks after the update.
Check and Intune shows uptime is 47 days.
I ask them to reboot and suddenly it’s, Oh, I actually restarted this morning. No, you bloody didn’t.
Does uptime only reset when I tell the user not to reboot?
https://redd.it/1pxjgl0
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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Fraud Alert MassiveGRID
I have purchased a vps from MassiveGRID ,they are professional cheaters ,they told me I have 14 days trial with 100% money back , I used the vps(paid for yearly ) for 6 days and the service quality was horrible ,I cancelled the service and asked them to refund ,they told me you are not eligible for refund as you have used the vps for more than one month ,I told them I bought it six day back only but they stopped responding and deleted my vps as well.Beaware of such crooks in the industry ,I learned my lesson the hard way.
https://redd.it/1pxm9wa
@r_systemadmin
I have purchased a vps from MassiveGRID ,they are professional cheaters ,they told me I have 14 days trial with 100% money back , I used the vps(paid for yearly ) for 6 days and the service quality was horrible ,I cancelled the service and asked them to refund ,they told me you are not eligible for refund as you have used the vps for more than one month ,I told them I bought it six day back only but they stopped responding and deleted my vps as well.Beaware of such crooks in the industry ,I learned my lesson the hard way.
https://redd.it/1pxm9wa
@r_systemadmin
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Looking for a Tool to bulk rename and sort files.
Hi everyone,
hope y'all had a great Christmas.
I have 10 folders with 50 .jpg files each. I need to put all the files in chronological order into one single PDF. But in every folder it's:
01.jpg
02.jpg
...
So folder 2 also starts with file 01-50..
But I want it to be chronological so:
Folder 1: 01., 02, ... 50.jpg
Folder 2: 51... 100. jpg
Folder 3 ...
So I'm looking for an easy to use and fast bulk renaming tool.
Is there any FREE FOR EVER - software that can do that?
Thank on advance.
https://redd.it/1pxme5e
@r_systemadmin
Hi everyone,
hope y'all had a great Christmas.
I have 10 folders with 50 .jpg files each. I need to put all the files in chronological order into one single PDF. But in every folder it's:
01.jpg
02.jpg
...
So folder 2 also starts with file 01-50..
But I want it to be chronological so:
Folder 1: 01., 02, ... 50.jpg
Folder 2: 51... 100. jpg
Folder 3 ...
So I'm looking for an easy to use and fast bulk renaming tool.
Is there any FREE FOR EVER - software that can do that?
Thank on advance.
https://redd.it/1pxme5e
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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AI-Driven Autonomous Generation of Suricata Rules for CVEs
Hello!
I have created Suricata rules in bulk for CVEs using AI: https://github.com/ARPSyndicate/suricata-vedas
While such AI enables rapid, large-scale creation of detection rules from vulnerability and exploit intelligence, reliable security detection requires transparency, human review, and real-world testing.
By making these AI-generated rules openly available, we hope to enable the security community to review, validate, and improve detection logic through issues and pull requests.
The goal is to bridge AI-driven automation with open-source collaboration to improve reliability and accelerate intelligence-driven detection engineering for all.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1pxo5lj
@r_systemadmin
Hello!
I have created Suricata rules in bulk for CVEs using AI: https://github.com/ARPSyndicate/suricata-vedas
While such AI enables rapid, large-scale creation of detection rules from vulnerability and exploit intelligence, reliable security detection requires transparency, human review, and real-world testing.
By making these AI-generated rules openly available, we hope to enable the security community to review, validate, and improve detection logic through issues and pull requests.
The goal is to bridge AI-driven automation with open-source collaboration to improve reliability and accelerate intelligence-driven detection engineering for all.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1pxo5lj
@r_systemadmin
GitHub
GitHub - ARPSyndicate/suricata-vedas: VEDAS-Driven Autonomous Generation of Suricata Rules for CVEs
VEDAS-Driven Autonomous Generation of Suricata Rules for CVEs - ARPSyndicate/suricata-vedas
A+ Quiz App Feedback
Hello everyone!
I’ve been working on a small side-project to help me study for IT certification exams a bit faster and more fun. It also has a global leaderboard so you can compete for bragging rights. I was just sharing it with a couple coworkers and thought I'd share it here. I've been working on adding more content and updates.
You can try it here:
https://cert-prep-sooty.vercel.app/
I built this for me when studying things like CompTIA, Microsoft, etc., and I’d really love honest feedback — bugs, UX issues, features you’d want, things that sucked, anything
Thanks in advance — happy to answer questions about how I built it too.
https://redd.it/1pxo5ao
@r_systemadmin
Hello everyone!
I’ve been working on a small side-project to help me study for IT certification exams a bit faster and more fun. It also has a global leaderboard so you can compete for bragging rights. I was just sharing it with a couple coworkers and thought I'd share it here. I've been working on adding more content and updates.
You can try it here:
https://cert-prep-sooty.vercel.app/
I built this for me when studying things like CompTIA, Microsoft, etc., and I’d really love honest feedback — bugs, UX issues, features you’d want, things that sucked, anything
Thanks in advance — happy to answer questions about how I built it too.
https://redd.it/1pxo5ao
@r_systemadmin
cert-prep-sooty.vercel.app
React App
Web site created using create-react-app
Anyone able to recommend any FIDO2 Level 2 Authenticator CARDS?
While a standard yubikey is probably the cheapest, there have been concerns raised that due to how small they are, our staff would lose them. Plus, we want to consolidate everything into one physical item.
These cards would be used for badge access into secure areas, used for our Badge Release for printers, identity purposes/name badge style and for actually logging into a workstation.
I'm happy even if the user has to select "Security Key" instead of Smartcard even though the actual item will be a physical card.
I found this but unfortunately they don't ship to the UK:
ID-One PIV smart cards | IDEMIA
https://redd.it/1pxs9nj
@r_systemadmin
While a standard yubikey is probably the cheapest, there have been concerns raised that due to how small they are, our staff would lose them. Plus, we want to consolidate everything into one physical item.
These cards would be used for badge access into secure areas, used for our Badge Release for printers, identity purposes/name badge style and for actually logging into a workstation.
I'm happy even if the user has to select "Security Key" instead of Smartcard even though the actual item will be a physical card.
I found this but unfortunately they don't ship to the UK:
ID-One PIV smart cards | IDEMIA
https://redd.it/1pxs9nj
@r_systemadmin
IDEMIA
ID-One PIV smart cards | IDEMIA
PIV smart cards are an essential part of U.S. Federal Government security to control access to to facilities and information systems.
Event Forwarding Windows Server 2025
Hi guys,
wondering if anyone lately got the event forwarding (source initiated) running on Server 2025?
No matter what, in the end i keep getting error 2150859027 on the client machine.
Microsoft describes the error and solution, but doesn't help for WS2025: Event collector doesn't forward events - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn
https://redd.it/1pxshat
@r_systemadmin
Hi guys,
wondering if anyone lately got the event forwarding (source initiated) running on Server 2025?
No matter what, in the end i keep getting error 2150859027 on the client machine.
Microsoft describes the error and solution, but doesn't help for WS2025: Event collector doesn't forward events - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn
https://redd.it/1pxshat
@r_systemadmin
Docs
Event collector doesn't forward events - Windows Server
Describes an issue that occurs when you use source-initiated event forwarding to send events to a Windows Server event collector.
How is good tech support supposed to run?
Hi all, not a Syd admin and not even sure this is the right place to post, but I figured all the relevant experts lurk here, so here goes.
I’m in sales (don’t down vote me please) I also do basic tech support for the products we sell and customer onboarding. A lot of my time is spent doing really basic support for supposed specialists who are trying to make something work in the field. Currently the company has no other tier 1 support system in my country (will be built in the near future maybe) and usually gets the distributors to do this. They don’t or can’t. Higher ups tell me to utilise our existing TS at HQ.
The problem is the HQ TS requires a very detailed form to be filled out but no matter how detailed I or any of my customers fill out said form, TS always comes back asking for unrelated information or asks for things already stated in the form or the issue denoscription. It can go anywhere from: what version windows are you running(for a project which has no client pc required: edge devices only); have you checked that the internet is working(proof of network connection given); to please provide documentation on the project. And these questions come one email at a time over the span of one or two weeks. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating here, but the above are verbatim what I get asked. BTW I make sure all the basic stuff like the above is checked before I escalate but everything gets asked again one question at a time. There’s also no clarity to what’s requested. Eg. please provide project documentation. << these jobs never had nor required anything like this. It doesn’t exist. I’ve checked.
I tried contacting one of the TS members on teams the other day to clarify exactly what documentation they were referring to and we both got reamed out by the TS 2IC for conversing outside the ticket.
Ive tried to be Johnny on the spot for my customers and they love it, but this isn’t sustainable…
I spoke to someone recently who used to work at Microsoft and they said their KPIs were based on how quickly you could close a ticket or send off a response not how quickly you could fix the issue. Now I’m wondering if this is TS SOP and this worries me a lot..
So my question is this: what is the proper workflow for a good tech support system that is sustainable for the company and timely enough for the customer?
TLDR: our TS is dogshit. What is a good way to do it?
https://redd.it/1pxud9r
@r_systemadmin
Hi all, not a Syd admin and not even sure this is the right place to post, but I figured all the relevant experts lurk here, so here goes.
I’m in sales (don’t down vote me please) I also do basic tech support for the products we sell and customer onboarding. A lot of my time is spent doing really basic support for supposed specialists who are trying to make something work in the field. Currently the company has no other tier 1 support system in my country (will be built in the near future maybe) and usually gets the distributors to do this. They don’t or can’t. Higher ups tell me to utilise our existing TS at HQ.
The problem is the HQ TS requires a very detailed form to be filled out but no matter how detailed I or any of my customers fill out said form, TS always comes back asking for unrelated information or asks for things already stated in the form or the issue denoscription. It can go anywhere from: what version windows are you running(for a project which has no client pc required: edge devices only); have you checked that the internet is working(proof of network connection given); to please provide documentation on the project. And these questions come one email at a time over the span of one or two weeks. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating here, but the above are verbatim what I get asked. BTW I make sure all the basic stuff like the above is checked before I escalate but everything gets asked again one question at a time. There’s also no clarity to what’s requested. Eg. please provide project documentation. << these jobs never had nor required anything like this. It doesn’t exist. I’ve checked.
I tried contacting one of the TS members on teams the other day to clarify exactly what documentation they were referring to and we both got reamed out by the TS 2IC for conversing outside the ticket.
Ive tried to be Johnny on the spot for my customers and they love it, but this isn’t sustainable…
I spoke to someone recently who used to work at Microsoft and they said their KPIs were based on how quickly you could close a ticket or send off a response not how quickly you could fix the issue. Now I’m wondering if this is TS SOP and this worries me a lot..
So my question is this: what is the proper workflow for a good tech support system that is sustainable for the company and timely enough for the customer?
TLDR: our TS is dogshit. What is a good way to do it?
https://redd.it/1pxud9r
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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PSA: All that old RAM you have sitting around, now is the time to sell!
With the current RAM shortage I dedicated to see what some of the stick I have sitting around on my desk etc. Just in the last 2 days I've made several hundred dollars selling some old sticks.
Today I've started making listing for a bunch more and some have already sold.
https://redd.it/1pxxvkn
@r_systemadmin
With the current RAM shortage I dedicated to see what some of the stick I have sitting around on my desk etc. Just in the last 2 days I've made several hundred dollars selling some old sticks.
Today I've started making listing for a bunch more and some have already sold.
https://redd.it/1pxxvkn
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Sailpoint oh my
Had anyone successfully setup this tool?
Identity and access management is so radical on paper. I almost feel our Hr dev team needs to be In reoccurring meetings with IT but managements keeping them siloed. It’s like I’m trying to pick a lock in the dark,
Sure I can just be the man and reach out but I do not really know yet what the issues are going to be,
We have a dev database and I can “fix” accounts and just notify them of the issue then?
Or do we modify the sailpoint side to shit trying to accommodate their messy data?
What would Jesus do?
EDIT: is collaboration with HR always required or should we be able to handle any messy data we see with transforms?
https://redd.it/1pxy1wi
@r_systemadmin
Had anyone successfully setup this tool?
Identity and access management is so radical on paper. I almost feel our Hr dev team needs to be In reoccurring meetings with IT but managements keeping them siloed. It’s like I’m trying to pick a lock in the dark,
Sure I can just be the man and reach out but I do not really know yet what the issues are going to be,
We have a dev database and I can “fix” accounts and just notify them of the issue then?
Or do we modify the sailpoint side to shit trying to accommodate their messy data?
What would Jesus do?
EDIT: is collaboration with HR always required or should we be able to handle any messy data we see with transforms?
https://redd.it/1pxy1wi
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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our data center project is on hold because the power grid cant handle it and were hemorrhaging money
been lurking here for years but finally need to vent. we're a mid size company building out a new data center in virginia (not gonna say exactly where for obvious reasons). got all the approvals, signed contracts, broke ground.
then the power company drops a bomb on us - they cant provide the capacity we need until 2028. maybe 2029. the grid is totally maxed out from all the ai data centers going up. they suggested we install our own turbines and generators as a "temporary" solution which would cost us millions extra.
we're now 6 months into a project we cant finish and burning through cash on a half built facility. our cfo is freaking out. we tried negotiating with other power companies but theyre all saying the same thing - 3 to 7 year wait times for new capacity.
the insane part is this wasnt even on our radar during planning. everyone said virginia was the place to be for data centers. nobody mentioned the power situation was this bad. apparently half the projects in the area are facing the same issues.
has anyone else dealt with this? what did you do? we're considering just writing this off as a loss and trying a different state but that would be catastrophic for us.
https://redd.it/1pxyj1e
@r_systemadmin
been lurking here for years but finally need to vent. we're a mid size company building out a new data center in virginia (not gonna say exactly where for obvious reasons). got all the approvals, signed contracts, broke ground.
then the power company drops a bomb on us - they cant provide the capacity we need until 2028. maybe 2029. the grid is totally maxed out from all the ai data centers going up. they suggested we install our own turbines and generators as a "temporary" solution which would cost us millions extra.
we're now 6 months into a project we cant finish and burning through cash on a half built facility. our cfo is freaking out. we tried negotiating with other power companies but theyre all saying the same thing - 3 to 7 year wait times for new capacity.
the insane part is this wasnt even on our radar during planning. everyone said virginia was the place to be for data centers. nobody mentioned the power situation was this bad. apparently half the projects in the area are facing the same issues.
has anyone else dealt with this? what did you do? we're considering just writing this off as a loss and trying a different state but that would be catastrophic for us.
https://redd.it/1pxyj1e
@r_systemadmin
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Keep Proofpoint or replace it?
Hello everyone, We have received another price increase from Proofpoint for our mail gateway and are now considering switching. The spam detection sometimes works poorly (but I suspect this won't be any better with the others), and the many (old-fashioned) consoles are a bit annoying.
Unfortunately, we cannot use an API-based solution because we still have to run our Exchange Server on-premises.
We are considering NoSpamProxy (highly specialized for the German market, but we are a little concerned about spam and malware detection) and Hornetsecurity Mail Gateway (which was acquired by Proofpoint and will probably benefit from this, but unfortunately it is impossible to say for sure whether the company will simply be integrated at some point, which would mean we would be back to Proofpoint prices).
Which solution do you currently favor/use?
Thank you and have a nice day!
https://redd.it/1pxzq0n
@r_systemadmin
Hello everyone, We have received another price increase from Proofpoint for our mail gateway and are now considering switching. The spam detection sometimes works poorly (but I suspect this won't be any better with the others), and the many (old-fashioned) consoles are a bit annoying.
Unfortunately, we cannot use an API-based solution because we still have to run our Exchange Server on-premises.
We are considering NoSpamProxy (highly specialized for the German market, but we are a little concerned about spam and malware detection) and Hornetsecurity Mail Gateway (which was acquired by Proofpoint and will probably benefit from this, but unfortunately it is impossible to say for sure whether the company will simply be integrated at some point, which would mean we would be back to Proofpoint prices).
Which solution do you currently favor/use?
Thank you and have a nice day!
https://redd.it/1pxzq0n
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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How is your org preparing for Secure Boot certificates expiring June 2026?
Microsoft says Secure Boot certificates start expiring in June 2026. If systems don’t get the new certs, future boot components may be blocked.
According to the post:
The original Secure Boot certificates (circa 2011) will start expiring in June 2026.
Systems that don’t have updated certificates may stop receiving boot security updates and may even reject new signed components.
Microsoft and OEMs are rolling updates, and the blog suggests letting Windows Update manage Secure Boot certificate deployment or evaluating options now.
How are you proactively handling this in your environment?
Curious to see how others are planning for or already solving this - especially at scale.
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1pxm8nf
@r_systemadmin
Microsoft says Secure Boot certificates start expiring in June 2026. If systems don’t get the new certs, future boot components may be blocked.
According to the post:
The original Secure Boot certificates (circa 2011) will start expiring in June 2026.
Systems that don’t have updated certificates may stop receiving boot security updates and may even reject new signed components.
Microsoft and OEMs are rolling updates, and the blog suggests letting Windows Update manage Secure Boot certificate deployment or evaluating options now.
How are you proactively handling this in your environment?
Curious to see how others are planning for or already solving this - especially at scale.
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1pxm8nf
@r_systemadmin
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Trying to figure it out.
Pic for reference: https://i.ibb.co/m5GK7SjQ/tailscale.png
Somehow, I have come up with a total brain freeze the last week. Trying to figure out how to get "domain PCs" to operate off of "DC02" while NOT installing tailscale on the PCs. No ports are currently open on the pfSense firewall, and they are not wanting to open for IPSec or OpenVPN.
Mirroring AD and SQL to DC02 is self-explanatory using tailscale. Getting the domain PCs to see it has me at a brain freeze. Possibly put Hyper-V on DC02 and install Debian/GNU with tailscale router?
https://redd.it/1py5bfs
@r_systemadmin
Pic for reference: https://i.ibb.co/m5GK7SjQ/tailscale.png
Somehow, I have come up with a total brain freeze the last week. Trying to figure out how to get "domain PCs" to operate off of "DC02" while NOT installing tailscale on the PCs. No ports are currently open on the pfSense firewall, and they are not wanting to open for IPSec or OpenVPN.
Mirroring AD and SQL to DC02 is self-explanatory using tailscale. Getting the domain PCs to see it has me at a brain freeze. Possibly put Hyper-V on DC02 and install Debian/GNU with tailscale router?
https://redd.it/1py5bfs
@r_systemadmin
How do you manage remote employee asset management?
What's up?! First post here because I'm pretty new in my career and hitting a bit of a roadblock.
My boss has tasked me with figuring out asset retrieving. I went down the path of attempting to figure it all out in-house but I can see that spiraling into an actual logistics nightmare. In my searching online, I've seen some companies exist that do it all for you. I've checked allwhere, Unduit, and workwize so far. Leaning towards allwhere because my boss will like the no contract lock in part. But I'm open to possibly doing it all in-house.
So my question is: How do you manage this for your company? If it's done in-house, any price hacks I should know about?
https://redd.it/1pxx56x
@r_systemadmin
What's up?! First post here because I'm pretty new in my career and hitting a bit of a roadblock.
My boss has tasked me with figuring out asset retrieving. I went down the path of attempting to figure it all out in-house but I can see that spiraling into an actual logistics nightmare. In my searching online, I've seen some companies exist that do it all for you. I've checked allwhere, Unduit, and workwize so far. Leaning towards allwhere because my boss will like the no contract lock in part. But I'm open to possibly doing it all in-house.
So my question is: How do you manage this for your company? If it's done in-house, any price hacks I should know about?
https://redd.it/1pxx56x
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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Remote IT Job (Help desk, sysadmin, etc.)
Hello everyone, I just recently quit my car sales job because I want to peruse my career in IT. I currently have an Associates in Cybersecurity where I worked with Objective Oriented Programming, Programming Fundamentals, CCNA labs, networking, etc. all that good stuff. I just recently got my A+, plan to get my Net+ January 6th, Sec+ around February, and CCNT sometime after since I got a free voucher from my CCNA classes. Sometime after getting the “CompTIA Trifecta” I plan on getting CISSP & CCNA. The issue is how do I secure my first remote IT job? I live in a relatively small town in Arkansas (15k population) and there’s not many local jobs around the area. I have very high troubleshooting skills with desktop computers as that’s what I’ve worked with my whole life. I’m trying to get pretty good at networking, VLANS, segmentation, etc. lots of stuff to learn but I really need to buckle down on something soon so I’m not out of a job for a while and create a large unemployment gap. I actively apply on indeed every day, I have a family friend helping me on LinkedIn forwarding me jobs that have requirements out of this world, but besides that I’ve heard nothing besides the good ole “we appreciate your application but decided to move forward with other applicants, if you’re interested in any more jobs check out our job board”. What kind of advice to You guys recommend? I’m currently in the process of making an “Enterprise Level Virtual Lab” with my gaming pc that has 64gb of DDR5 Ram, i9-12900K, Radeon 7900XT, that will have 2 DNS Domain controllers: 1 main, 1 backup for redundancy, 2 Windows 11 workstation computers, and 2 servers, 1 for a File Server and 2 for an Ubuntu ticketing system. This will all work in conjunction with Kali Linux that I will run sandbox testing as well. This is all so I can log this on my Resume as home lab experience. Thoughts?
https://redd.it/1py9n1i
@r_systemadmin
Hello everyone, I just recently quit my car sales job because I want to peruse my career in IT. I currently have an Associates in Cybersecurity where I worked with Objective Oriented Programming, Programming Fundamentals, CCNA labs, networking, etc. all that good stuff. I just recently got my A+, plan to get my Net+ January 6th, Sec+ around February, and CCNT sometime after since I got a free voucher from my CCNA classes. Sometime after getting the “CompTIA Trifecta” I plan on getting CISSP & CCNA. The issue is how do I secure my first remote IT job? I live in a relatively small town in Arkansas (15k population) and there’s not many local jobs around the area. I have very high troubleshooting skills with desktop computers as that’s what I’ve worked with my whole life. I’m trying to get pretty good at networking, VLANS, segmentation, etc. lots of stuff to learn but I really need to buckle down on something soon so I’m not out of a job for a while and create a large unemployment gap. I actively apply on indeed every day, I have a family friend helping me on LinkedIn forwarding me jobs that have requirements out of this world, but besides that I’ve heard nothing besides the good ole “we appreciate your application but decided to move forward with other applicants, if you’re interested in any more jobs check out our job board”. What kind of advice to You guys recommend? I’m currently in the process of making an “Enterprise Level Virtual Lab” with my gaming pc that has 64gb of DDR5 Ram, i9-12900K, Radeon 7900XT, that will have 2 DNS Domain controllers: 1 main, 1 backup for redundancy, 2 Windows 11 workstation computers, and 2 servers, 1 for a File Server and 2 for an Ubuntu ticketing system. This will all work in conjunction with Kali Linux that I will run sandbox testing as well. This is all so I can log this on my Resume as home lab experience. Thoughts?
https://redd.it/1py9n1i
@r_systemadmin
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Windows 11 upgrade via WSUS only installed 21H2 and doesn't offer newer versions
I have been upgrading computers to Windows 11 (from Windows 10) via WSUS in a non-internet connected network segment. The upgrades worked well but I noticed that the version of Windows 11 installed is 21H2 and not the latest 25H2. I can't figure out why it is only installing the old version.
I have both the "Upgrade to Windows 11 (business editions) en-us x64" and "Windows 11, version 25H2 x64 2025-12" updates approved for the group. When I check for updates on the clients none are available.
Computers report in WSUS shows that the "Upgrade to Windows 11 (business editions) en-us x64" update is "Installed" but that the "Windows 11, version 25H2 x64 2025-12" update is "Not Applicable".
How can I get these newly upgraded Windows 11 machines from 21H2 and 25H2 and better yet why can't I upgrade straight from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 25H2 which is the desired upgrade path?
https://redd.it/1pybxmi
@r_systemadmin
I have been upgrading computers to Windows 11 (from Windows 10) via WSUS in a non-internet connected network segment. The upgrades worked well but I noticed that the version of Windows 11 installed is 21H2 and not the latest 25H2. I can't figure out why it is only installing the old version.
I have both the "Upgrade to Windows 11 (business editions) en-us x64" and "Windows 11, version 25H2 x64 2025-12" updates approved for the group. When I check for updates on the clients none are available.
Computers report in WSUS shows that the "Upgrade to Windows 11 (business editions) en-us x64" update is "Installed" but that the "Windows 11, version 25H2 x64 2025-12" update is "Not Applicable".
How can I get these newly upgraded Windows 11 machines from 21H2 and 25H2 and better yet why can't I upgrade straight from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 25H2 which is the desired upgrade path?
https://redd.it/1pybxmi
@r_systemadmin
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MSP off boarding - advice?
Recently landed an internal head of IT for a company who is bringing the IT Function in-house from being solely MSP supported.
We aren’t due to off board from the MSP until Feb and was using Azure PIM for global admin elevation for our MS365 tenant.
In the week I have been at the company, haven’t yet created a break glass global admin account, as didn’t want to go ahead and upset the MSP.
For some reason (maybe NCE dates - I don’t know) they have revoked our Azure P2 licenses from the tenant and now have no PIM roles and can’t get GA into the O365 tenant.
Called MS Support for an admin takeover but because the MSP is still listed in our tenant as a partner they won’t let me go ahead with the admin takeover incase there is unpaid invoices to the MSP! They have forcefully closed the support case and said they won’t get involved in disputes.
I asked the MSP if they could help but they’re saying their GDAP access has been revoked.
Has anyone got any advice?
https://redd.it/1pyfbw0
@r_systemadmin
Recently landed an internal head of IT for a company who is bringing the IT Function in-house from being solely MSP supported.
We aren’t due to off board from the MSP until Feb and was using Azure PIM for global admin elevation for our MS365 tenant.
In the week I have been at the company, haven’t yet created a break glass global admin account, as didn’t want to go ahead and upset the MSP.
For some reason (maybe NCE dates - I don’t know) they have revoked our Azure P2 licenses from the tenant and now have no PIM roles and can’t get GA into the O365 tenant.
Called MS Support for an admin takeover but because the MSP is still listed in our tenant as a partner they won’t let me go ahead with the admin takeover incase there is unpaid invoices to the MSP! They have forcefully closed the support case and said they won’t get involved in disputes.
I asked the MSP if they could help but they’re saying their GDAP access has been revoked.
Has anyone got any advice?
https://redd.it/1pyfbw0
@r_systemadmin
Reddit
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