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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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