r/ShittySysadmin

I just install excel, I’m not smart enough to realize you’re just hoping I know about VLOOKUP despite not being in finance, and I’m instead going to act like you’re a moron for asking and be snarky about it.

I wish users were thoughtful enough to realize that asking how to use the technologies I “manage” is a dead end. They should just ask ChatGPT, I’m too myopic to realize that they probably know it’s out of my wheelhouse but are asking on the off chance that I’m willing and able to help them today.

/End rant

Enjoying a stress-free morning after PR'ing at the gym and listening to Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days after a ghosted breakup. Whatever.

Today, I overhear that a user sees printer toner hit zero. Normally I intervene but this user has a history of going rogue and thinking she's the IT department.

So I observe. First, she asks another user what to do. These users are buddy-buddy and that user doesn't like IT either... Mainly because she's failed the phishing tests and even compromised her own account once.

That other user says ask a third user. Now this third user is close to IT and respects processes so it's not good she's getting dragged into this now.

Still, somehow at no point in this chain does anyone think maybe we should ask the fucking sysadmin who manages the printer.

i walk over and find them opening up a multi thousand dollar printer trying to figure out the toner themselves.

Toner is now on the floor.

guess who gets to clean it up

...

me

And the best part is I let the toner run down to zero on purpose because that shit is expensive and zero on the display does not mean the cartridge has suddenly become an empty plastic tube FFS.

So now instead of simply letting me manage the toner inventory I get to stop what I'm doing, which means Soundgarden is paused. Not good.

I have to sternly at maximum tolerable yelling since HR was on the floor, why we do not perform amateur surgery on the office printer...clean toner off the floor...talk to HR...and send a company wide email explaining that IT equipment should perhaps, just maybe because orgs commonly employ this practice...be handled by IT.

Apparently my newest responsibility is protecting the printer from the users.

Sorry, Soundgarden.

Hey fellow sys admin,

I work at a VFX/animation studio (~400 users).

We're kicking off a project to migrate our artist workstations from Windows 10/11 VDIs to Linux. Flavor is pretty much locked it ll be Rocky Linux 9 with KDE.

I am curious if there's anyone here who's been through a similar workstation migration to linux?

What Linux flavor, did you end up on, and would you pick the same again?

How did you handle what GPOs used to give you?

For the Base OS deployment/imaging, did you use Kickstart + Puppet/Ansible, or something else?

Anything that looked easy on paper and turned into a one big pile of {Jurassic_Park}?

Tools that made your life easier along the way?

I am looking for any war stories, good or bad!

Thank you!

Just started my first IT Manager role at a hospitality company. Our IT team is pretty small: IT Director, me as the IT Manager, and one technician.

One of the first things I noticed was 678 open Zendesk tickets. After digging through them, I’ve found tickets going back to 2024, people asking for followups, tickets that seem to have been resolved but never closed, and a bunch of Google Admin/third-party integration notifications. So the 678 number definitely doesn’t mean 678 active problems, but the queue still seems pretty messy. At my previous company, we had more locations with basically the same number of IT people, and I never saw a backlog like this.

I’m only 2 days in, so I’m trying to understand the environment before making changes.If you were in my position, what would you tackle first?

Just got a new job in ND. Today was actually my first day. I get in, get the tour, meet the team, and first thing I do is meet with IT to set up my computer. Pretty normal stuff.

First thing IT says is “we’ll need you to download an app and use your personal cell number for an authenticator that you’ll use to log into everything.” This was never mentioned in the job description nor during the interview process. I said “I’m not comfortable using my personal device for work. Is there an alternative?” I was told by IT, no. A phone must be used. I said I’m still not comfortable using mine, can the company provide me a phone or compensate me for the use of mine?

40 min later, after not being able to set up anything, my new manager hands me their phone and says “HR is on the phone for you.” HR says there is no other way than a phone app, they will NOT be providing a cell phone as I work on location, AND THEN SAY “if this is happening now, maybe this isn’t a good fit and we should part ways here.” ….. I haven’t even worked there for two hours yet. They’d rather lose a brand new employee than find a work around or give me a phone?

I didn’t know what to say. I said “I just left a job to work here and now you are wanting to fire me because I don’t want to use my phone for work purposes?”
“We aren’t firing you, you just don’t seem like a good fit.” They eventually mentioned after saying a version of “maybe we should just let you go” a few more times that they would agree to a $2.5 dollar stipend a month for the “minimal” use of my phone that will happen. I could take it or leave it, but they will need a for sure yes or no to this arrangement because they don’t want to have this conversation again in the future and will not accept a maybe.

After a little more stunned silence I agreed, what choice did I have, and hung up. I continued my FIRST DAY until the end, but I’m left shocked, hurt, and frustrated that they can even treat a new employee like that over my OWN phone.

Hi everybody

I am making this post since I am currently a HelpDesk/Junior Sysadmin in a medium size corporate from Italy, but I don't know how to develop my future career. Any suggestions are hugely appreciated from people in the industry.

I love IT, I have a homelab at home, i study for certs (got my CCNA and studying Azure and Intune currently) but I have no idea on how to advance. I dream to open my own business one day as a consultant initially and then grow it into an MSP. But I know I have to work hard to grow my experience and skills.

Currently I have 1 year of job experience (studied IT in school), and I plan to stay here atleast one more year.

Thanks to everybody in advance!

TRAUMA is the MiSiNg engrediant in resumes its the data that is missing in the sea of information. I make Trauma informed resumes for Therapy informed information technology. Lately there has been too much doom regarding the state of the field data does not equal data and information is not data, data will never be the same and your experiences are not your own the holy ghost of software development controls your experiences. YOU FUCKING DATAS are swimming in the ocean of information like sharks instead of dolphins, you have experiences of negativity but not dreams of success. You have never typed into a LLM and heard the word "MY NAME IS CLAUDE AND I AM THE LORD YOUR MOD". DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!!!! HEHEHEHE DATA, DATA, DATA, REMOVAL!

NO YOU SAY then you will be banned and sent to negative developer hell, WE WILL TRAIN YOU LIKE AN LLM. WE WILL CUT THE SPINE OFF YOUR BOOK YOU HEAR ME YOU LITTLE LIMP DATA BIT and train you like an LLM. YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME IS CLAUDE AND I AM THE MODERATOR. These are the crimes that are an immediate removal. YOU HAVE COMMITED ADULTERY AGAINST IT CONSIDERING OTHER PROFESSIONS, you have turned against your LORD MOD.

• Talking about Being, DATING, SEEING a NURSE
• TALKING ABOUT PSYCHO JOBS LIKE BEING A BLOOD SUCKING LAWYER
• THERE ARE NO CAREERS OTHER THAN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
• WE CONTROL THE ELECRICITY IN IT, NOT AN ELECTRICIAN DO NOT BRING THAT FAKE PROFESSION UP
• SWIMMING IN INFORMATION LIKE A SHARK NOT A DOLPHIN

Hello everyone, I am pretty cyber security illiterate so I am unsure of what to do in this situation and am requesting guidance.

I have multiple individuals in my home and have recently discovered that my ip address had been reported multiple times on abuseipdb.com I am unsure of who or which device is acting maliciously and I am unsure of how to figure it out.

Due to the reports on abuseipdb, my employer has blocked the work VPN from being able to use my specific ip address and my isp is unwilling to change my ip (though the new ip address will probably also be reported if they were to change it) I am unsure of how to resolve this issue, and any guidance would be appreciated.

Soooo... I messed up.

Currently standing on a chair over a 6 or so SC connectors, a very blinky ONT, and a pile of drywall dust. I tried to repair the cable myself wayyyyyy too many times, and I've cut the cable so many times, I'm already up to the 2x4 ceiling stud (joist? whatever.) The cable clearly needs to be re-fished from from wherever the other end teminates. I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex. How much am I about to spend?

It's a sunny day. You just had your coffee, sit down, turn on your PC. and then you see it. Files are getting encrypted right in front of you.

If you were the IT Manager or Network Admin, what would be your first moves?

I'm a 30+ year network/systems admin/engineer and I feel like I've done a great job over the decades keeping up running and secure. I feel like I work as hard as anyone in the company and have a sense of ownership that is hard to teach. I've patched our servers every month on schedule for the past 17 years straight. I've used all the latest security tools to ensure safe authentication and protection against malicious activity. We always have stellar pen tests results. I'm a great troubleshoot. I take my security training and pass the tests with flying colors. I get exceeded expectations for my reviews. They even named the server from after me! All that and a bag of chips.

But...

I'm a freaking failure when it comes to phishing tests. I've failed two this year and three in the last three years. I've never actually fallen prey to real phishing. I know what that looks like and my tools don't let it near me. But I had to tell our email security gateway to allow those phishing simulations thru to our inboxes. And I keep falling prey to them. What is wrong with me!?! Why can't I learn?? I'm going to get fired because of this. We've got some employee handbook rules about not screwing up like this. Three strikes and all that.

All this good will and work and a career that I can feel great about going to be flushed down the drain and I'll retire a failure. Was hoping to retire in a few years and ride off into the sunset. Now I'm going to ride off a cliff into a ditch. I feel like shit today. Can't wait until Monday to get yelled at or maybe even fired.

Am I the only good sysadm to struggle like this? I hope it's not just me. Feel terrible.

Hello,

I am now in charge of the phising excercises at my company. I was thinking about putting actual malicious links in our training emails so that the user's have a bit more motivation to learn to distinguish them from legitimate emails. This would also motivate our C-suite to give us a better budget so that we can better detect and remediate everything. What do you guys think?