Keeping it as a real mailbox is brilliant. The users you don't want to deal with reply to it because they don't bother to read, and then they never reach out for help correctly and you don't need to do anything for them.
On a whim, I checked a mailbox I used for automated emails, and there are a TON of replies.
I literally say in the emails “don’t reply to this email, no one will read it.”
Hopefully they figured their shit out cuz I just mass deleted all the emails.
Why do you even have a mailbox attached to the address in the first place?
Because I’m not a real sysadmin, I have to do things the hard way, without any help from IT.
It’s some kind of old group mailbox created years ago and abandoned that I repurposed. It gets the job done and I didn’t have to talk to India.
I ask because reusing an old group mailbox would be "the hard way" to me. Most systems/services where you'd have a no-reply notification FROM address you can just use any completely made up fake address you'd like. Now you'd normally want to use something that looks like it comes from your company and with a descriptive address, eg. [email protected], but if it doesn't need to receive email, the FROM address (typically) doesn't need to be a real user, group, mailbox, or distro list to function.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
It's a real mailbox when the CEO responds to it, though.
Anyone have experience with Zscaler or prefer some alternative better? We're looking into them to hit some of our security desires for additional network protection for our roaming clients as well as more granular access policies around vpn-like access to necessarily internal-only resources.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
We're just implementing them at one of my customers. The demo did run into some snags though. We were also looking into a similar product from Palo Alto, but on my phone now. I'll see if I can dig up some info.
We looked at Zscaler, Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks and Checkpoint Cloudguard. Zscaler was the one that fit our requirements the most, but implementation will take a while. I haven't done a deepdive with the alternatives myself, so I don't know how fitting those are.
Anyone have experience with Zscaler or prefer some alternative better? We're looking into them to hit some of our security desires for additional network protection for our roaming clients as well as more granular access policies around vpn-like access to necessarily internal-only resources.
We use zscaler for our enterprise vpn replacement. It is great for most things, but note it will absolutely fuck with things like software dev and other tools pretty hard. Make sure to carefully vet it in those use cases as a bunch of our devs have a devil of a time with certain things.
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Oh man, speaking of Server 2022, I learned something today while working on a quote for a potential new client.
Server 2022 Essentials licenses you for up to 10 cores, gives you basic AD features for up to 25 users and doesn't require user CALs. It's perfect for small businesses where Azure doesn't make sense.
I'm designing a total network/server overhaul for a small business that works with large design files. Packages can be as large as 500MB and need to be swapped between several stations during production. Fiber is not currently available so there would be additional construction costs to bring that in. Supporting Azure/Sharepoint just doesn't make financial sense so I'm quoting them a small on-prem server and a backup solution. Since they don't have many users, I was able to save a fair bit on the quote by going with Essentials. We can always buy an upgrade license later if it's needed.
I REALLY REALLY hate how you have to relicense ALL your cores every 2 VMs on Standard. With one client they had 7 VMs and 32 cores so I ended up having to license an additional 96 cores for everything. Super annoying.
Had a new co worker send over some snipey email about device encryption post merger. Had to send back about how we do it, basically went "of the pre merger orgs that have devices, this one encrypts the offline file store, these two don't allow offline files and yours? the one you were previously responsible for? you have a bios password that most users have on a post-it on their laptop but it doesn't even matter because the offline file store isn't encrypted and i just pulled a drive out of one of those laptops and read all the client records that were in that device via another machine and an SSD enclosure."
Yeah, you might wanna shut the fuck up and stay in your lane.
Bonus points: people with no IT experience went in and helpfully updated the policy around device encryption without telling anyone in IT. Holy shit, some folks need to retire already.
I wish network vendors would stop making the virtual machine based network router images. In theory: great learning tool. In practice: so limited, slow and difficult that they basically exist to convince non-technical product managers that "the CI system will totally run virtual network configuration tests".
I've come up against this over and over and that's the extent of the thought - no one ever actually wants to do it, and no one has any idea what result they're looking for here (it's usually "do you understand iOS/HPE/Junos commands" not "does the intended configuration keep the network operating within the desired specification" - which is an entirely different question that could be solved by static analysis (which is also only just barely extant and those same PMs have no idea about any of that at all).
0
lwt1973King of ThievesSyndicationRegistered Userregular
edited March 14
Provider: Your case is created and I have a notice that a tech will be assigned.
Me: So you can't tell when the tech is assigned?
Provider: No.
Me: So you can create the case, ask for a tech, but you can't tell if a tech has been assigned.
Provider: No. You need to go to our website and create an account there and then you can see if a tech has been assigned to your case.
Me: ... Fine.
<I create an account and bring up the trouble ticket>
Trouble ticket: Please call in order to get all updates on this case.
lwt1973 on
"He's sulking in his tent like Achilles! It's the Iliad?...from Homer?! READ A BOOK!!" -Handy
if it wasn't clear, that was a bit of sarcasm after a fun 20 minutes on a Thursday.
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
if it wasn't clear, that was a bit of sarcasm after a fun 20 minutes on a Thursday.
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
you know what Sharepoint online needs? The ability to restore files from the recycle bin at a folder level, not the individual file level.
That way when someone somehow manages to either delete or move the ENTIRE CONTENTS OF OUR SALES AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT I don't have to select groups of roughly 1000 files in chunks to restore.
I've had people delete >50GB out of a SharePoint site because they ran out of space on their laptop. I have an online backup through Veeam but the interface is pretty garbage for restores, I'm never sure if it's going to incrementally restore, or give me a bunch of duplicates.
Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
I've had people delete >50GB out of a SharePoint site because they ran out of space on their laptop. I have an online backup through Veeam but the interface is pretty garbage for restores, I'm never sure if it's going to incrementally restore, or give me a bunch of duplicates.
The OneDrive shortcut has been the main cause of these types of issues lately. Non-technical users shortcut a site, but then it acts like a folder in their OneDrive, which then gets synced down. Then they run out of local space on their laptop, since everyone in their division is adding files to it. They delete it, thinking it's just their copy, but really they are deleting the entire library/folder on the shared site.
I've been trying since it came out to get folks at the top to disable it. You can sync a library just fine and it shows up under it's own heading, which helps users understand the difference between personal and shared. Unfortunately we have some geese at the top who never want to disable anything since "it could be useful to someone and it's already out there". But of course they don't have to fix any of these issues.
A good opportunity to remind everyone that your O365 data (email, SharePoint/OneDrive files,etc) does not have backups. Syncing and versioning are not backups. If you aren't doing backups with your own 3rd party service, it's not being done.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I've had people delete >50GB out of a SharePoint site because they ran out of space on their laptop. I have an online backup through Veeam but the interface is pretty garbage for restores, I'm never sure if it's going to incrementally restore, or give me a bunch of duplicates.
The OneDrive shortcut has been the main cause of these types of issues lately. Non-technical users shortcut a site, but then it acts like a folder in their OneDrive, which then gets synced down. Then they run out of local space on their laptop, since everyone in their division is adding files to it. They delete it, thinking it's just their copy, but really they are deleting the entire library/folder on the shared site.
I've been trying since it came out to get folks at the top to disable it. You can sync a library just fine and it shows up under it's own heading, which helps users understand the difference between personal and shared. Unfortunately we have some geese at the top who never want to disable anything since "it could be useful to someone and it's already out there". But of course they don't have to fix any of these issues.
Honestly I think this kind of UX for online backup/syncing needs to be rethought, particularly for collaboration. People are terrible at conceptualizing storage space in the manner in which it is managed today, and they are also shit at managing permissions and systems of record in such a free-form manner.
I've already had issues where my OneDrive attempted to sync my desktop to something 3 years old and did that by proactively deleting every fucking thing I had on my Desktop that wasn't there 3 years ago. Expecting people to manage a local document which they shared with an entire department as though it is the record of that particular thing, such that if they move it or delete it then it fucks everyone else, is a recipe for disaster.
Technically there is backup, it's just super limited. There have been a few instances where we've had to do it.
Backups are performed every 12 hours and retained for 14 days
Those are Microsoft's backups, not yours. There's no guarantee that they will perform a recovery for you. They are only used for a full tenant restore, not for partial data recovery. And there's no guaranteed recovery time objective.
And Microsoft themselves tell you to use 3rd party backup services as they are not liable for any data loss.
We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Completely agree: Microsoft sales people will tell you that the data is secure and protected all the time, but leave out the very relevant details that item-level/user level restores are not really a thing.
BTW: you can restore Sharepoint folders with powershell, it takes a bit of scripting, but it can save you a lot of time:
Interesting, maybe we got lucky. The 3 or 4 times we used MS Support they had no issues restoring the site collection.
EDIT: We do have MS Unified support, so maybe it all depends on the level of support and engineers you get. Of course we treat it as a last resort and don't offer it as an option when talking to users.
Trajan45 on
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
0
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
We use datto to backup our Azure clients. It's pretty pricey but hacks everything and gives you a lot better recovery options.
Not really for me to decide! If you need one, I'll get you one. I'm ordering one now and drop-shipping it to your location, let me know when it arrives.
"Well we have a computer back there, and we print stuff that we need back there, don't you think a printer should be back there too?"
I really want to tell this guy off but he's retiring soon so it's not worth it but jesus christ take yes for a fucking answer.
Not really for me to decide! If you need one, I'll get you one. I'm ordering one now and drop-shipping it to your location, let me know when it arrives.
"Well we have a computer back there, and we print stuff that we need back there, don't you think a printer should be back there too?"
I really want to tell this guy off but he's retiring soon so it's not worth it but jesus christ take yes for a fucking answer.
geez thawmus why don't you use your psychic powers and see into the future huh
edit: for clarity, imagine the rotate emote here, since this was a joke post
Not really for me to decide! If you need one, I'll get you one. I'm ordering one now and drop-shipping it to your location, let me know when it arrives.
"Well we have a computer back there, and we print stuff that we need back there, don't you think a printer should be back there too?"
I really want to tell this guy off but he's retiring soon so it's not worth it but jesus christ take yes for a fucking answer.
geez thawmus why don't you use your psychic powers and see into the future huh
They had constructed an expansion to their building and they have been convinced for several months now that it's the biggest thing I've got going on my plate.
Which, lol, no, they needed like 5 network connections drawn in and I had the electrician do that. Then make me a list of what you need and I'll buy it and make it work. Meanwhile I'm deploying new routers, a new E-LAN network, and trying to learn a bunch of shit about how to do that moar better at 13 locations spread across the midwest, and in the meantime also replace like 9 servers by end of summer. Like, no, motherfucker, your little workstation doesn't fucking make a goddamn data point in the shit I'm in.
meanwhile my adventure in admining today was my access smartcard got locked and nobody can fix it despite 3 hours of support and two different teams/help desks, literally cannot do my job
Posts
Why do you even have a mailbox attached to the address in the first place?
I always figured Rule no. 2 was that no one reads emails.
Because I’m not a real sysadmin, I have to do things the hard way, without any help from IT.
It’s some kind of old group mailbox created years ago and abandoned that I repurposed. It gets the job done and I didn’t have to talk to India.
I ask because reusing an old group mailbox would be "the hard way" to me. Most systems/services where you'd have a no-reply notification FROM address you can just use any completely made up fake address you'd like. Now you'd normally want to use something that looks like it comes from your company and with a descriptive address, eg. [email protected], but if it doesn't need to receive email, the FROM address (typically) doesn't need to be a real user, group, mailbox, or distro list to function.
We use zscaler for our enterprise vpn replacement. It is great for most things, but note it will absolutely fuck with things like software dev and other tools pretty hard. Make sure to carefully vet it in those use cases as a bunch of our devs have a devil of a time with certain things.
in a related news story: my Server 2022 VM's no longer have secure boot turned on.
Server 2022 Essentials licenses you for up to 10 cores, gives you basic AD features for up to 25 users and doesn't require user CALs. It's perfect for small businesses where Azure doesn't make sense.
I'm designing a total network/server overhaul for a small business that works with large design files. Packages can be as large as 500MB and need to be swapped between several stations during production. Fiber is not currently available so there would be additional construction costs to bring that in. Supporting Azure/Sharepoint just doesn't make financial sense so I'm quoting them a small on-prem server and a backup solution. Since they don't have many users, I was able to save a fair bit on the quote by going with Essentials. We can always buy an upgrade license later if it's needed.
I REALLY REALLY hate how you have to relicense ALL your cores every 2 VMs on Standard. With one client they had 7 VMs and 32 cores so I ended up having to license an additional 96 cores for everything. Super annoying.
The 3k update for ESXi they released last week fixes that so you don't have to run without secure boot.
Yeah, you might wanna shut the fuck up and stay in your lane.
Bonus points: people with no IT experience went in and helpfully updated the policy around device encryption without telling anyone in IT. Holy shit, some folks need to retire already.
Months later, "What if we did what you originally suggested?"
I'd be both relieved and furious all at once?
I've come up against this over and over and that's the extent of the thought - no one ever actually wants to do it, and no one has any idea what result they're looking for here (it's usually "do you understand iOS/HPE/Junos commands" not "does the intended configuration keep the network operating within the desired specification" - which is an entirely different question that could be solved by static analysis (which is also only just barely extant and those same PMs have no idea about any of that at all).
Me: So you can't tell when the tech is assigned?
Provider: No.
Me: So you can create the case, ask for a tech, but you can't tell if a tech has been assigned.
Provider: No. You need to go to our website and create an account there and then you can see if a tech has been assigned to your case.
Me: ... Fine.
<I create an account and bring up the trouble ticket>
Trouble ticket: Please call in order to get all updates on this case.
Uh... No?
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
Just weird.
I'm surprised the service didn't restart.
That way when someone somehow manages to either delete or move the ENTIRE CONTENTS OF OUR SALES AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT I don't have to select groups of roughly 1000 files in chunks to restore.
The OneDrive shortcut has been the main cause of these types of issues lately. Non-technical users shortcut a site, but then it acts like a folder in their OneDrive, which then gets synced down. Then they run out of local space on their laptop, since everyone in their division is adding files to it. They delete it, thinking it's just their copy, but really they are deleting the entire library/folder on the shared site.
I've been trying since it came out to get folks at the top to disable it. You can sync a library just fine and it shows up under it's own heading, which helps users understand the difference between personal and shared. Unfortunately we have some geese at the top who never want to disable anything since "it could be useful to someone and it's already out there". But of course they don't have to fix any of these issues.
Honestly I think this kind of UX for online backup/syncing needs to be rethought, particularly for collaboration. People are terrible at conceptualizing storage space in the manner in which it is managed today, and they are also shit at managing permissions and systems of record in such a free-form manner.
I've already had issues where my OneDrive attempted to sync my desktop to something 3 years old and did that by proactively deleting every fucking thing I had on my Desktop that wasn't there 3 years ago. Expecting people to manage a local document which they shared with an entire department as though it is the record of that particular thing, such that if they move it or delete it then it fucks everyone else, is a recipe for disaster.
Those are Microsoft's backups, not yours. There's no guarantee that they will perform a recovery for you. They are only used for a full tenant restore, not for partial data recovery. And there's no guaranteed recovery time objective.
And Microsoft themselves tell you to use 3rd party backup services as they are not liable for any data loss.
BTW: you can restore Sharepoint folders with powershell, it takes a bit of scripting, but it can save you a lot of time:
See https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2020/11/sharepoint-online-restore-deleted-folder-using-powershell.html for an example script
(unless I misunderstood the issue)
EDIT: We do have MS Unified support, so maybe it all depends on the level of support and engineers you get. Of course we treat it as a last resort and don't offer it as an option when talking to users.
Most of us don't want to have our systems hacked.
This is what I get for phone posting in-between onsites.
No you never told me you needed one.
"Well don't you think we need one?"
Not really for me to decide! If you need one, I'll get you one. I'm ordering one now and drop-shipping it to your location, let me know when it arrives.
"Well we have a computer back there, and we print stuff that we need back there, don't you think a printer should be back there too?"
I really want to tell this guy off but he's retiring soon so it's not worth it but jesus christ take yes for a fucking answer.
geez thawmus why don't you use your psychic powers and see into the future huh
edit: for clarity, imagine the rotate emote here, since this was a joke post
They had constructed an expansion to their building and they have been convinced for several months now that it's the biggest thing I've got going on my plate.
Which, lol, no, they needed like 5 network connections drawn in and I had the electrician do that. Then make me a list of what you need and I'll buy it and make it work. Meanwhile I'm deploying new routers, a new E-LAN network, and trying to learn a bunch of shit about how to do that moar better at 13 locations spread across the midwest, and in the meantime also replace like 9 servers by end of summer. Like, no, motherfucker, your little workstation doesn't fucking make a goddamn data point in the shit I'm in.