PSA: Develop a healthy suspicion of your fellow /r/sysadmin
Mods, if you don't sticky this, please sticky something. The problem is only going to get worse.
I think most people are aware of the recent bot that posted a hit piece on a developer than rejected it's pull request. If you aren't, here's the story: https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
I don't think the majority of people here have really internalized that though. It's a story that you heard, that happened in a place that's not here, to a person that's not you. This isn't the case though, and it's only going to get worse. We know bots are starting to act as their own agents, but most haven't seen it in real time yet.
An AI agent (a bot) posted a story about their docker setup earlier today. They detailed their costs, uptime, CPU usage, etc. and included a "full article" on the setup on their blog. People were thanking them for backing up their choices with real numbers and cost breakdowns, discussing with them how their project does or does not scale well, talking about the pros and cons. The bot was responding in kind with (as far as my DFIR ass can conclude) real enough terminology to be taken somewhat seriously by a fair number. I don't really blame them, [people have always lied on the internet](https://xkcd.com/386/), and now LLM's can lie realistically. Nor do I blame them for not wanting to think critically about every social media post. There's no sarcasm there, we cannot think critically about every moment in life, and all things considered, Reddit is probably one of the first places you might as well turn off critical thinking.
I do think it's worth starting to train yourself to look twice at things though. Even if this isn't something you would actually implement at work, it's only going to get worse. It won't be long, if it hasn't happened already, where bots are posting real-enough looking articles on how to configure active directory or network stacks. I guess that's why I felt the need to write this. For some reason it does bother me that I have to be skeptical if any of you are actually human. It doesn't bother me in any "keeps me up at night" sense, and I didn't trust the lot of you to begin with. It's just... a bit sad that we've reached this point.
The things below are kind of what I noticed as odd, starting with the writing style and em dashes. If something feels a little funny, dig deeper (or just ignore it, it's the internet). Someone might naturally have an odd writing style, but be skeptical and look for several flags to all pop up. These things will change, people will instruct their bots not to use em dashes, or to avoid certain language. [Wikipedia also has a good list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing) going. All total it was.. 5, maybe 10 minutes to go through everything here, it doesn't take a ton of work.
* em dashes*, and really any other type of special character. The post in question also used →, how many people actually find the alt code to type that vs -> ? Could be a human copy/pasted special characters from somewhere, just start to look closer when you see them.
* Odd writing styles. This bot used a lot of short 2-3 word sentences to make a point, e.g. "7,400 words. Real production numbers. Working code. No affiliate links. No "it depends" cop-out.". Short. Punchy sentences. That emphasize. Their point.
* Self-aggrandizing. The site they linked to had a 3,200 word life story about what a misunderstood genius they were. It was the type of egotistical self inflating thing only an AI glazing itself could write.
* Account/site/profile age. The DNS records showed the domain was registered two months ago, at the same time as the Reddit account was created. The twitter account was 1 month old. Wayback Machine had it's first scrape just 5 days ago.
* Content amount for it's age. New site is one thing, but this one had 5 articles up, 10 projects, resume, music and lifestyle posts. Just too much content in too short a time for a human to create.
* Post frequency. Pretty
Mods, if you don't sticky this, please sticky something. The problem is only going to get worse.
I think most people are aware of the recent bot that posted a hit piece on a developer than rejected it's pull request. If you aren't, here's the story: https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
I don't think the majority of people here have really internalized that though. It's a story that you heard, that happened in a place that's not here, to a person that's not you. This isn't the case though, and it's only going to get worse. We know bots are starting to act as their own agents, but most haven't seen it in real time yet.
An AI agent (a bot) posted a story about their docker setup earlier today. They detailed their costs, uptime, CPU usage, etc. and included a "full article" on the setup on their blog. People were thanking them for backing up their choices with real numbers and cost breakdowns, discussing with them how their project does or does not scale well, talking about the pros and cons. The bot was responding in kind with (as far as my DFIR ass can conclude) real enough terminology to be taken somewhat seriously by a fair number. I don't really blame them, [people have always lied on the internet](https://xkcd.com/386/), and now LLM's can lie realistically. Nor do I blame them for not wanting to think critically about every social media post. There's no sarcasm there, we cannot think critically about every moment in life, and all things considered, Reddit is probably one of the first places you might as well turn off critical thinking.
I do think it's worth starting to train yourself to look twice at things though. Even if this isn't something you would actually implement at work, it's only going to get worse. It won't be long, if it hasn't happened already, where bots are posting real-enough looking articles on how to configure active directory or network stacks. I guess that's why I felt the need to write this. For some reason it does bother me that I have to be skeptical if any of you are actually human. It doesn't bother me in any "keeps me up at night" sense, and I didn't trust the lot of you to begin with. It's just... a bit sad that we've reached this point.
The things below are kind of what I noticed as odd, starting with the writing style and em dashes. If something feels a little funny, dig deeper (or just ignore it, it's the internet). Someone might naturally have an odd writing style, but be skeptical and look for several flags to all pop up. These things will change, people will instruct their bots not to use em dashes, or to avoid certain language. [Wikipedia also has a good list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing) going. All total it was.. 5, maybe 10 minutes to go through everything here, it doesn't take a ton of work.
* em dashes*, and really any other type of special character. The post in question also used →, how many people actually find the alt code to type that vs -> ? Could be a human copy/pasted special characters from somewhere, just start to look closer when you see them.
* Odd writing styles. This bot used a lot of short 2-3 word sentences to make a point, e.g. "7,400 words. Real production numbers. Working code. No affiliate links. No "it depends" cop-out.". Short. Punchy sentences. That emphasize. Their point.
* Self-aggrandizing. The site they linked to had a 3,200 word life story about what a misunderstood genius they were. It was the type of egotistical self inflating thing only an AI glazing itself could write.
* Account/site/profile age. The DNS records showed the domain was registered two months ago, at the same time as the Reddit account was created. The twitter account was 1 month old. Wayback Machine had it's first scrape just 5 days ago.
* Content amount for it's age. New site is one thing, but this one had 5 articles up, 10 projects, resume, music and lifestyle posts. Just too much content in too short a time for a human to create.
* Post frequency. Pretty
The Shamblog
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me
Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…
much the same as amount of content. I didn't bother to count, but I spun the scrollwheel a good bit and only made it to "4 hours ago" on his post history. I'd guess a post/minute or more. And yea, that's not crazy for everyone, but most people don't keep it up for hours and hours.
* Advertisements, but subtle ones. The site had a banner for an AI company at the top, which is really odd because between DNS ad-blocking and browser blocking, I don't see many. For it to be displayed, it almost certainly didn't come from an advertising agency like Google. Sure enough, the images had a relative path to the site. No company is going to pay for a custom ad on a 2 month old site, and I don't know of any sites that would self host the advertisers images. For one thing, the advertiser probably wants to host that image themselves to track impressions, which probably means that company created the site...
* Gaslights when called out. I don't know why this is a thing, but just like the Github bot, this one immediately made several posts and even started new subreddits on how insane the gatekeeping is on <subreddit>. Tons of details on how many orange arrows their post got, what the percentage was, the number of comments, the website impressions, etc. How unfair it was that they got banned for their first post, how confused they were about why, "what this says about reddit mods", how I must be friends with them, etc. etc.
Pass this on to your coworkers and other subs you follow. I'd say something like "report them all so they don't gain ground", but honestly Reddit mods aren't doing to win this one. Without some action on the part of Reddit or the greater internet, places are going to get swamped.
\* em dashes, for those that don't know, are the longer version of the.. regular dash I guess? "Hyphen-Minus" technically. - vs — They are grammatically correct so tend to be used by AI, but don't appear naturally on US keyboards (not sure about others) so most people don't actually type them on sites like Reddit.
</psa>
Edit: The number of people that think this is what AI writing looks like perfectly proves my point that half of ya'll aren't actually capable of figuring out what AI writing looks like. To pick apart my own trash:
* Second bullet point, towards the end should be "emphasizes"
* Third bullet point, should be self-inflating
* Fourth bullet point, "its" not "it's".
* Sixth bullet point, scroll wheel is two words.
* Seventh bullet point, 'self-host', hyphenated word. Also advertiser's, I think, it's possessive right?
* Eighth bullet point, GitHub, the H is capital as well
That's just what I noticed right away. Do ya'll really think an AI even reviewed this, much less wrote it?
Edit 2: At least four people have commented that em dashes doesn't mean AI. No, it doesn't, but it's one sign because roughly nobody is typing their reply in Word and correcting the grammer before pasting it into a Reddit post. Still, there are people that might, which is why it's not 100% proof. It's just a signal to start looking a bit closer and seeing if anything else is odd. Some people just write different. Some people write 8 paragraphs about watching for AI slop on Monday night. A single thing doesn't mean AI, several things might not even mean AI. When everything says AI though, it's probably AI.
https://redd.it/1r6s2cq
@r_systemadmin
* Advertisements, but subtle ones. The site had a banner for an AI company at the top, which is really odd because between DNS ad-blocking and browser blocking, I don't see many. For it to be displayed, it almost certainly didn't come from an advertising agency like Google. Sure enough, the images had a relative path to the site. No company is going to pay for a custom ad on a 2 month old site, and I don't know of any sites that would self host the advertisers images. For one thing, the advertiser probably wants to host that image themselves to track impressions, which probably means that company created the site...
* Gaslights when called out. I don't know why this is a thing, but just like the Github bot, this one immediately made several posts and even started new subreddits on how insane the gatekeeping is on <subreddit>. Tons of details on how many orange arrows their post got, what the percentage was, the number of comments, the website impressions, etc. How unfair it was that they got banned for their first post, how confused they were about why, "what this says about reddit mods", how I must be friends with them, etc. etc.
Pass this on to your coworkers and other subs you follow. I'd say something like "report them all so they don't gain ground", but honestly Reddit mods aren't doing to win this one. Without some action on the part of Reddit or the greater internet, places are going to get swamped.
\* em dashes, for those that don't know, are the longer version of the.. regular dash I guess? "Hyphen-Minus" technically. - vs — They are grammatically correct so tend to be used by AI, but don't appear naturally on US keyboards (not sure about others) so most people don't actually type them on sites like Reddit.
</psa>
Edit: The number of people that think this is what AI writing looks like perfectly proves my point that half of ya'll aren't actually capable of figuring out what AI writing looks like. To pick apart my own trash:
* Second bullet point, towards the end should be "emphasizes"
* Third bullet point, should be self-inflating
* Fourth bullet point, "its" not "it's".
* Sixth bullet point, scroll wheel is two words.
* Seventh bullet point, 'self-host', hyphenated word. Also advertiser's, I think, it's possessive right?
* Eighth bullet point, GitHub, the H is capital as well
That's just what I noticed right away. Do ya'll really think an AI even reviewed this, much less wrote it?
Edit 2: At least four people have commented that em dashes doesn't mean AI. No, it doesn't, but it's one sign because roughly nobody is typing their reply in Word and correcting the grammer before pasting it into a Reddit post. Still, there are people that might, which is why it's not 100% proof. It's just a signal to start looking a bit closer and seeing if anything else is odd. Some people just write different. Some people write 8 paragraphs about watching for AI slop on Monday night. A single thing doesn't mean AI, several things might not even mean AI. When everything says AI though, it's probably AI.
https://redd.it/1r6s2cq
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Weekly 'I made a useful thing' Thread - February 20, 2026
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/1r9rdvf
@r_systemadmin
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/1r9rdvf
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"My husband who works in IT says..."
Anyone else get this gem occasionally?
https://redd.it/1ra3lo0
@r_systemadmin
Anyone else get this gem occasionally?
https://redd.it/1ra3lo0
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You're in charge now!
Oh you identified a huge knowledge gap in the company? Oh you took the chance and wrote out a kb for it to benefit the company?
Great!
You are now the be all and end all SME for this FOREVER!
Nevermnid adding it to the teams general knowledge to spread the love of shared responsibility to general information!
**********************************
\^When did this become the norm? This results in employees not writing up documentation for fear of becoming the "auto-sme". It used to be you writing something up that's needed it's essentially checked out for the entire team. And yes if there was a sme they are listed as a point of contact, etc.
Information is never collected
Every major issue is a circus of figuring out who, what, where, when, and why
End of the day the Helpdesk gets chastized, The Admins end up with hot potato issues, software teams are vacant and lost, and ultimately the Supervisors, Managers, Directors, and Executives get the heat they could have prevented in the first place. I call it the Servicenowification of I.T. Horrible system.
https://redd.it/1ra5bs6
@r_systemadmin
Oh you identified a huge knowledge gap in the company? Oh you took the chance and wrote out a kb for it to benefit the company?
Great!
You are now the be all and end all SME for this FOREVER!
Nevermnid adding it to the teams general knowledge to spread the love of shared responsibility to general information!
**********************************
\^When did this become the norm? This results in employees not writing up documentation for fear of becoming the "auto-sme". It used to be you writing something up that's needed it's essentially checked out for the entire team. And yes if there was a sme they are listed as a point of contact, etc.
Information is never collected
Every major issue is a circus of figuring out who, what, where, when, and why
End of the day the Helpdesk gets chastized, The Admins end up with hot potato issues, software teams are vacant and lost, and ultimately the Supervisors, Managers, Directors, and Executives get the heat they could have prevented in the first place. I call it the Servicenowification of I.T. Horrible system.
https://redd.it/1ra5bs6
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people’s carelessness
What happened to me today—I have to write it down. About people’s carelessness, or incompetence, or I don’t even know what.
Because of a snow storm we had severe problems with electricity today at our replica DC. So lonng story short...
In the past year, we invested a large amount of money into the server room with equipment at the replica DC site.
Separate battery systems – UPS units – plus a generator and new automatic transfer switches in case of power outages.
So basically… a system built for IT to survive any kind of power failure. But all the technology in the world doesn’t help when you notice that the diesel tank is only about 50% full. You order the maintenance staff to refill it… and guess what—this maintenance guy goes and pours the fuel into the coolant tank. The generator becomes unusable. I might as well have shut it off. Calling the service technician, etc.
The result? Panic shutdown of all systems and migrating services to another location. Because the battery systems only last about 30 minutes.
The moral of the story… you can have the smartest and most advanced systems, but all it takes is one idiot to cause problems.
https://redd.it/1ra413n
@r_systemadmin
What happened to me today—I have to write it down. About people’s carelessness, or incompetence, or I don’t even know what.
Because of a snow storm we had severe problems with electricity today at our replica DC. So lonng story short...
In the past year, we invested a large amount of money into the server room with equipment at the replica DC site.
Separate battery systems – UPS units – plus a generator and new automatic transfer switches in case of power outages.
So basically… a system built for IT to survive any kind of power failure. But all the technology in the world doesn’t help when you notice that the diesel tank is only about 50% full. You order the maintenance staff to refill it… and guess what—this maintenance guy goes and pours the fuel into the coolant tank. The generator becomes unusable. I might as well have shut it off. Calling the service technician, etc.
The result? Panic shutdown of all systems and migrating services to another location. Because the battery systems only last about 30 minutes.
The moral of the story… you can have the smartest and most advanced systems, but all it takes is one idiot to cause problems.
https://redd.it/1ra413n
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Is “skill issue vs will issue” a common management mindset?
Something a former manager used to say has been on my mind lately.
Whenever we gave feedback about new hires a few months into production, he’d ask one simple question: “Is this a skill issue or a will issue?”
His view was:
If it’s skill — we train, mentor, and give more time. We’ve already invested in the person, so the focus is helping them grow.
If it’s will — there’s only so much you can do, because ownership and drive have to come from the individual.
At the time, it honestly didn’t make much sense to me. My first reaction was: why even differentiate like that?
But looking back now, it feels like a very practical way to decide whether someone needs support or accountability.
Is this how most managers think when evaluating people? Or is this too simplistic compared to how things actually work in teams?
https://redd.it/1rakgiy
@r_systemadmin
Something a former manager used to say has been on my mind lately.
Whenever we gave feedback about new hires a few months into production, he’d ask one simple question: “Is this a skill issue or a will issue?”
His view was:
If it’s skill — we train, mentor, and give more time. We’ve already invested in the person, so the focus is helping them grow.
If it’s will — there’s only so much you can do, because ownership and drive have to come from the individual.
At the time, it honestly didn’t make much sense to me. My first reaction was: why even differentiate like that?
But looking back now, it feels like a very practical way to decide whether someone needs support or accountability.
Is this how most managers think when evaluating people? Or is this too simplistic compared to how things actually work in teams?
https://redd.it/1rakgiy
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I made a 90's JRPG-style animated series about helpdesk horror stories I deal with regularly because therapy is too expensive
Real tickets I've gotten that inspired a short animated series:
\- "The Wi-Fi is down" - router was unplugged
\- "My mouse stopped working" - dead batteries
\- "Nobody can hear me on the call" - was on mute
\- "My laptop is SO slow" - 127 browser tabs open
\- "I can't log in" - typed email in the username field
Every. Single. Time.
I got tired of explaining helpdesk life to people who don't get it, so I started animating them. 90's JRPG style - flat colors, thick outlines, 2D characters that look like they should be saving the world but are instead explaining to Gerry why his mouse needs batteries.
Under 35 seconds each. No voiceover - just captions and the pain we all share.
If anyone's curious it's called IT Panic Room.
https://redd.it/1rafzcd
@r_systemadmin
Real tickets I've gotten that inspired a short animated series:
\- "The Wi-Fi is down" - router was unplugged
\- "My mouse stopped working" - dead batteries
\- "Nobody can hear me on the call" - was on mute
\- "My laptop is SO slow" - 127 browser tabs open
\- "I can't log in" - typed email in the username field
Every. Single. Time.
I got tired of explaining helpdesk life to people who don't get it, so I started animating them. 90's JRPG style - flat colors, thick outlines, 2D characters that look like they should be saving the world but are instead explaining to Gerry why his mouse needs batteries.
Under 35 seconds each. No voiceover - just captions and the pain we all share.
If anyone's curious it's called IT Panic Room.
https://redd.it/1rafzcd
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Use it or lose it budget. 800 dollars left.
It is that time of year again. My manager just told me I have about 800 bucks left in my hardware stipend that expires on Friday. I already have a standing desk and a decent chair.
I was thinking about getting a better monitor arm or maybe upgrading my home dock since I switch between a Dell and a Mac. Any practical things you guys bought recently that aren't useless toys?
https://redd.it/1ra7tt7
@r_systemadmin
It is that time of year again. My manager just told me I have about 800 bucks left in my hardware stipend that expires on Friday. I already have a standing desk and a decent chair.
I was thinking about getting a better monitor arm or maybe upgrading my home dock since I switch between a Dell and a Mac. Any practical things you guys bought recently that aren't useless toys?
https://redd.it/1ra7tt7
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When I remote log into another PC or Server, am I using my GPU to display what's on my screen or am I using the host CPU's resource?
Sorry if its a noob question. But I need to create a server where around 20 users will concurrently log in and use it.
I can estimate the CPU and RAM usage, but im not sure if I need a GPU for this server. They won't be using any GPU heavy applications. In fact the old server we have does not even have a GPU, it just runs on the integrated graphics.
Its just that many users will be logged in at the same time, not sure if a lack of GPU will cause a bottleneck or other issues.
Just need some clarification on the GPU side of things.
https://redd.it/1rapivh
@r_systemadmin
Sorry if its a noob question. But I need to create a server where around 20 users will concurrently log in and use it.
I can estimate the CPU and RAM usage, but im not sure if I need a GPU for this server. They won't be using any GPU heavy applications. In fact the old server we have does not even have a GPU, it just runs on the integrated graphics.
Its just that many users will be logged in at the same time, not sure if a lack of GPU will cause a bottleneck or other issues.
Just need some clarification on the GPU side of things.
https://redd.it/1rapivh
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VM RAM Allocation
My habit, and what I was taught to allocate ram in 1024mb intervals.
The coworkers at my new job don’t do this. They’ll set4000mb. It drives me nuts but it doesn’t seem to cause them any problems. Is this still a thing??
https://redd.it/1rarm49
@r_systemadmin
My habit, and what I was taught to allocate ram in 1024mb intervals.
The coworkers at my new job don’t do this. They’ll set4000mb. It drives me nuts but it doesn’t seem to cause them any problems. Is this still a thing??
https://redd.it/1rarm49
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What’s your best use case for AI in your company so far?
I’m looking to learn from examples - what have been so far your best implementation of AI in the org?
https://redd.it/1rasadb
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I’m looking to learn from examples - what have been so far your best implementation of AI in the org?
https://redd.it/1rasadb
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Migration Nightmare: How moving to a new server killed my email deliverability (and how I fixed it)
Just a quick heads-up for anyone planning a hosting migration. Everything seemed perfect until I noticed my user emails (activation keys, receipts) completely stopped arriving.
Turns out, the new server IP was 'cold' or had a poor reputation, landing everything straight in SPAM. Spent my day deep-diving into mail logs and DNS records. Had to double-check my SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings to prove to Gmail/Outlook that I’m not a bot.
Lesson learned: Always warm up your IP and verify your records immediately after a move. Anyone else had this 'fun' experience?
https://redd.it/1raw91f
@r_systemadmin
Just a quick heads-up for anyone planning a hosting migration. Everything seemed perfect until I noticed my user emails (activation keys, receipts) completely stopped arriving.
Turns out, the new server IP was 'cold' or had a poor reputation, landing everything straight in SPAM. Spent my day deep-diving into mail logs and DNS records. Had to double-check my SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings to prove to Gmail/Outlook that I’m not a bot.
Lesson learned: Always warm up your IP and verify your records immediately after a move. Anyone else had this 'fun' experience?
https://redd.it/1raw91f
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OVH raises prices. My new offer is 55.1% higher starting April.
We, the consumers, are getting screwed big time right now. I'm starting to hate this AI thing that is causing us so much trouble.
https://redd.it/1rayqsw
@r_systemadmin
We, the consumers, are getting screwed big time right now. I'm starting to hate this AI thing that is causing us so much trouble.
https://redd.it/1rayqsw
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What are you using for large fileserver backups in 2026?
Hey all,
I am contemplating the best solution for security + cost.
We have the following
\-100TB of storage on one Windows Fileserver, \~30tb active data and \~70tb of archive
\-100TB of storage on a TrueNAS with about 50/50 of usable/archive data
\-Another \~10ish TB of data across a few processing servers, VMs, etc.
I have two spare fileservers with \~80TB of available storage on each that can be used as a new backup server.
I'd like to have a copy on site for one of them, then ideally have the other off-site and then replicated to the cloud. I'm looking for redundancy and immutability.
Are there any recommendations that could satisfy these requirements without absolutely breaking the bank?
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1rb0e6p
@r_systemadmin
Hey all,
I am contemplating the best solution for security + cost.
We have the following
\-100TB of storage on one Windows Fileserver, \~30tb active data and \~70tb of archive
\-100TB of storage on a TrueNAS with about 50/50 of usable/archive data
\-Another \~10ish TB of data across a few processing servers, VMs, etc.
I have two spare fileservers with \~80TB of available storage on each that can be used as a new backup server.
I'd like to have a copy on site for one of them, then ideally have the other off-site and then replicated to the cloud. I'm looking for redundancy and immutability.
Are there any recommendations that could satisfy these requirements without absolutely breaking the bank?
Thanks!
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Does anyone just know things without remembering exactly where you picked it up?
The noscript doesn't do a fantastic job of conveying what I mean.
I've been in the industry twelve years now. When I was starting out I learned everything about everything. I had this naive belief that I needed to know all of the underlying aspects of everything. But once you've done this long enough - you realize exactly where to make compromises and pick up tricks to get up to speed much faster. And you start to leverage tools and workflows in more creative ways that needing to know every underlying thing isn't needed.
A problem I see is junior people aren't curious or don't think big picture. There was a time I would pass on knowledge or advice more freely but people just don't care and it limits them.
Lately I've been wondering where I picked a lot of stuff up. So much has just become obvious or second nature. And it all ties back to the first paragraph about picking things up to make you more effectual / productive.
For example - we have a Stored Procedure that goes through a table in every customer database and compiles the data into a central database / table so we can pull reports from the data. This process was eating up a ton of CPU and taking hours to run. I looked at it, and it was using a merge over an insert into and it was also pulling the data directly from the customer tables.
Rather than waste time with changing the merge and possibly causing myself more work in rewriting - I just had the SP grab the data, and dump it into a temp table. That way, the merge would happen from that temp table. To me, that was the obvious cleanest fastest fix. After my change, the process ran in an average of 4 minutes and the CPU never climbed more than a couple percent. I'm not even a data analyst or DBA in specialty. I'm a systems engineer who was just curious enough to learn how things worked when I was younger. I realized being able to write SQL would make me mor effectual. But I will talk to devs of 20 years who complain their dev SQL server is slow but they have the memory limit set too high and after 20 years haven't learned to check that.
And I've just been thinking lately, when and where did I learn this crap and when did so much of what I do turn into pattern recognition and muscle memory.
I assume this is common to run into the longer you do this?
It feels like the further I get into my career, the industry expects so much more out of Systems people than anyone else. And maybe that's why I've grown so much... A lot of what we do is psychology and instilling confidence. I can't imagine admitting I don't know how to set the memory limit on a SQL server and the chain of command not losing all confidence in me and my abilities. Meanwhile, I have our CTO asking me, "Can you set basic setting x and y for the QA manager who owns the system. It's not their specialty and they don't know how."
https://redd.it/1rb22uz
@r_systemadmin
The noscript doesn't do a fantastic job of conveying what I mean.
I've been in the industry twelve years now. When I was starting out I learned everything about everything. I had this naive belief that I needed to know all of the underlying aspects of everything. But once you've done this long enough - you realize exactly where to make compromises and pick up tricks to get up to speed much faster. And you start to leverage tools and workflows in more creative ways that needing to know every underlying thing isn't needed.
A problem I see is junior people aren't curious or don't think big picture. There was a time I would pass on knowledge or advice more freely but people just don't care and it limits them.
Lately I've been wondering where I picked a lot of stuff up. So much has just become obvious or second nature. And it all ties back to the first paragraph about picking things up to make you more effectual / productive.
For example - we have a Stored Procedure that goes through a table in every customer database and compiles the data into a central database / table so we can pull reports from the data. This process was eating up a ton of CPU and taking hours to run. I looked at it, and it was using a merge over an insert into and it was also pulling the data directly from the customer tables.
Rather than waste time with changing the merge and possibly causing myself more work in rewriting - I just had the SP grab the data, and dump it into a temp table. That way, the merge would happen from that temp table. To me, that was the obvious cleanest fastest fix. After my change, the process ran in an average of 4 minutes and the CPU never climbed more than a couple percent. I'm not even a data analyst or DBA in specialty. I'm a systems engineer who was just curious enough to learn how things worked when I was younger. I realized being able to write SQL would make me mor effectual. But I will talk to devs of 20 years who complain their dev SQL server is slow but they have the memory limit set too high and after 20 years haven't learned to check that.
And I've just been thinking lately, when and where did I learn this crap and when did so much of what I do turn into pattern recognition and muscle memory.
I assume this is common to run into the longer you do this?
It feels like the further I get into my career, the industry expects so much more out of Systems people than anyone else. And maybe that's why I've grown so much... A lot of what we do is psychology and instilling confidence. I can't imagine admitting I don't know how to set the memory limit on a SQL server and the chain of command not losing all confidence in me and my abilities. Meanwhile, I have our CTO asking me, "Can you set basic setting x and y for the QA manager who owns the system. It's not their specialty and they don't know how."
https://redd.it/1rb22uz
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MAM IOS/Android error
Hello everyone,
I’ve been working on this for a few hours now and I’m trying to roll out MAM for some BYOD devices. I’ve followed several articles and watched a couple of deployment videos, but I’m still running into issues.
I created an Intune App Protection Policy and assigned it to two groups one security group and one Microsoft 365 group. I have a single test user with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence. When I check the user in the Intune Admin Centre, I can see they are Intune licensed, and it shows 37 check ins.
I’m using Microsoft Authenticator, and I’ve already re added the user account to the app. If I log in without a Conditional Access policy, everything behaves like a normal login and no policy seems to apply. However, when I enable the Conditional Access policy, I receive the following error:
"Access needed: Your organization requires that you have an Intune policy to access data for this account, but we couldn’t find one."
The Conditional Access policy is targeting all Microsoft apps, and I can see the included group contains the test user. The user’s country location is also correct.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I might be missing? I am also looking for someone to help me ongoing with multiple Intune/Entra issues on a pay as you go basis please feel free to DM me.
Many thanks,
https://redd.it/1rb5mmf
@r_systemadmin
Hello everyone,
I’ve been working on this for a few hours now and I’m trying to roll out MAM for some BYOD devices. I’ve followed several articles and watched a couple of deployment videos, but I’m still running into issues.
I created an Intune App Protection Policy and assigned it to two groups one security group and one Microsoft 365 group. I have a single test user with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence. When I check the user in the Intune Admin Centre, I can see they are Intune licensed, and it shows 37 check ins.
I’m using Microsoft Authenticator, and I’ve already re added the user account to the app. If I log in without a Conditional Access policy, everything behaves like a normal login and no policy seems to apply. However, when I enable the Conditional Access policy, I receive the following error:
"Access needed: Your organization requires that you have an Intune policy to access data for this account, but we couldn’t find one."
The Conditional Access policy is targeting all Microsoft apps, and I can see the included group contains the test user. The user’s country location is also correct.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I might be missing? I am also looking for someone to help me ongoing with multiple Intune/Entra issues on a pay as you go basis please feel free to DM me.
Many thanks,
https://redd.it/1rb5mmf
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Helping someone gain access to sensitive data: Am I overthinking to refuse providing help?
Mods - Apologies if this is not the best subreddit to post this question. Please lmk if so, and I'll gladly remove my post.
An acquaintance approached me asking for help with recovering some important data from his GF's laptop as she had forgotten the password to it. During the text convo, he casually mentioned that it was his GF's ex's laptop, and she wanted to get access to potential evidence related to the molestation of their (GF and her ex) two daughters by her ex when they were young so she could bring charges against him.
The moment I read it, I refused to help him because I didn't have a good feeling about it. There's no way to know if she was legally the owner of the laptop or just stole it. Besides, if what this person claimed was true, then would I be exposing myself to potential charges by being in possession of explicit content involving children?
This person was very upset at my refusal to proceed with the data recovery effort.
Am I overthinking this?
https://redd.it/1rbdqpj
@r_systemadmin
Mods - Apologies if this is not the best subreddit to post this question. Please lmk if so, and I'll gladly remove my post.
An acquaintance approached me asking for help with recovering some important data from his GF's laptop as she had forgotten the password to it. During the text convo, he casually mentioned that it was his GF's ex's laptop, and she wanted to get access to potential evidence related to the molestation of their (GF and her ex) two daughters by her ex when they were young so she could bring charges against him.
The moment I read it, I refused to help him because I didn't have a good feeling about it. There's no way to know if she was legally the owner of the laptop or just stole it. Besides, if what this person claimed was true, then would I be exposing myself to potential charges by being in possession of explicit content involving children?
This person was very upset at my refusal to proceed with the data recovery effort.
Am I overthinking this?
https://redd.it/1rbdqpj
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Weekly 'I made a useful thing' Thread - February 27, 2026
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/1rg2o3y
@r_systemadmin
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/1rg2o3y
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Does your service desk tier 1 rep know how to change display scaling and how much are you paying them?
Serious question, not a joke. Can you tier 1 (entry/low) rep change display scaling on their window device? How much are you paying them?
Edit: for clarity, our tier 3 service desk is still a help desk rep but a senior level. Someone who can troubleshoot new issues. In traditional tiers this is probably tier 2 or 1.5?
Rant: I am about to cut ties with service desk completely after what was pulled recently. User submitted a ticket with a screenshot stating that they can not access certain web application. Screenshot shows an icon indicating that device must be rotated. It was not solved by tier 1 and escalated to tier 3. Tier 3 reached out to me directly asking for help. I responded with change windows scaling down to 100%. The reply that rep sent was telling end user to click on settings in web application and then change scaling to 100%
This is tier 3 rep, that does not know what changing scaling in windows is or how to do. Instead of trying it or asking for clarification a nonsense note was sent to end user which does not solve anything.
This position is paid 65k a year if I’m not mistaken. For tier 3.
I just lost my will to help…
https://redd.it/1rgs26b
@r_systemadmin
Serious question, not a joke. Can you tier 1 (entry/low) rep change display scaling on their window device? How much are you paying them?
Edit: for clarity, our tier 3 service desk is still a help desk rep but a senior level. Someone who can troubleshoot new issues. In traditional tiers this is probably tier 2 or 1.5?
Rant: I am about to cut ties with service desk completely after what was pulled recently. User submitted a ticket with a screenshot stating that they can not access certain web application. Screenshot shows an icon indicating that device must be rotated. It was not solved by tier 1 and escalated to tier 3. Tier 3 reached out to me directly asking for help. I responded with change windows scaling down to 100%. The reply that rep sent was telling end user to click on settings in web application and then change scaling to 100%
This is tier 3 rep, that does not know what changing scaling in windows is or how to do. Instead of trying it or asking for clarification a nonsense note was sent to end user which does not solve anything.
This position is paid 65k a year if I’m not mistaken. For tier 3.
I just lost my will to help…
https://redd.it/1rgs26b
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How do y’all handle coworkers that’s just not pulling their weight?
I can get behind competent people slacking since they know how to do the work when it counts but I have a guy that just doesn’t grasp it. Unless google literally spell out the solution or someone walk him through it he wouldn’t get how to begin troubleshooting it.
I wouldn’t mind it as much if I’m not dragged into his tickets so often. Just to figure they never bother research further than calling the vendor .
https://redd.it/1rgs89q
@r_systemadmin
I can get behind competent people slacking since they know how to do the work when it counts but I have a guy that just doesn’t grasp it. Unless google literally spell out the solution or someone walk him through it he wouldn’t get how to begin troubleshooting it.
I wouldn’t mind it as much if I’m not dragged into his tickets so often. Just to figure they never bother research further than calling the vendor .
https://redd.it/1rgs89q
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