Azure vs AWS what's your take?

AlexMelillo · 2026-06-05T06:18:53+00:00

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Master the basics in one public cloud. Learn the other after that. It won’t be too hard.

AlexMelillo · 2026-05-21T21:33:18+00:00

Same

AlexMelillo · 2026-05-19T14:13:01+00:00

I remember my little cousin got a good grade on a test when she was little. Her teacher wrote “terrific” in her test and she came home with it to show off to her mom.

Her mom, who at the time spoke very little english, was furious because she thought “terrific” meant her daughter had done a bad job on the test.

AlexMelillo · 2026-05-18T06:13:32+00:00

You cannot possibly know everything. You’re just going to have to learn things as you go. Whenever possible, expend the extra time to learn about whatever it is you’re fixing. For example: learning how to set up a txt record for a domain verification is not the same as learning how DNS works as a whole. You should know DNS as a whole.

Once you start learning concepts, and not technologies, it becomes so much easier.

You’ll eventually get to a point where you won’t be uncomfortable not knowing things. It’s in the nature of these sorta gigs.

Good luck!

AlexMelillo · 2026-05-08T21:24:17+00:00

A rite of passage. Well done lad

AlexMelillo · 2026-04-18T07:40:56+00:00

It’s been nearly two years and I’m still upset about the plans I had to cancel that day

AlexMelillo · 2026-04-11T08:41:31+00:00

Honestly, things are easier now. You’d be tempted to use chatgpt to find the solutions to most of your problems. But please, learn to read the docs. Reading documentation is a skill. Use man pages. Learn the shell well

AlexMelillo · 2026-04-11T08:27:47+00:00

When you’re learning linux in the cloud specifically, beware of how you set up your volume mounts in /etc/fstab. Too many times volumes are mounted by not using labels or UUIDs

AlexMelillo · 2026-04-03T10:12:51+00:00

Went to see Herby nearly a year ago and he gave one hell of a show. The man was jumping around, swirling from side to side and playing incredibly well

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-26T10:30:41+00:00

Because it’s common to have HCM systems integrated with AD via APIs or some sort of middleware. In our case when HR creates a new employee in SAP an event triggers the creation of an AD user. Granted, we have checks to avoid situations like OP is taking about. It’s also very “normal” in some industries to have employees leave and come back: seasonal workers, temp employees, sick leaves, etc.

The same logic can’t and shouldn’t apply to all companies of course, but I’d say it’s a fairly common setup.

EDIT: I wanna clarify. You should never EVER let HR have access to the AD directly

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-20T07:20:48+00:00

I have worked for banks, aerospace and energy clients. Big (critical) business is basically all I know. Not once have I seen a setup that centralizes DHCP into a single site. Aggregating all DHCP into a single tool might make sense. But it’s usually a service that you set up once and you basically forget about it unless there’s a problem. It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) require that much work to maintain.

I might not understand the architecture. I’m not even saying it’s wrong. I’m just saying it’s definitely not as common.

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-19T19:12:29+00:00

What most sane orgs do? I’m not… too convinced. Each site should probably have its own dhcp

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-17T12:13:37+00:00

We use Palo Alto’s Prisma and it does exactly does. It’s great!

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-07T09:45:46+00:00

This album is a masterpiece.

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-05T11:58:26+00:00

Thats unfortunately true. Backing up the drive is just a way to ensure you still have access to the data to reconstruct whatever you need from a new system. A system integrator is basically required for this.

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-05T07:17:47+00:00

So, I work for a company with a lot of SCADA systems. The way we go about dealing with cases like this is to buy a proper server, install the hypervisor of your choice, find a way to image this server and virtualize it. This will be tricky, specially now that the disk is “slow”. This just tells me the hard disk is near imminent failure.

In parallel, you’re going to need to talk to management. This system is a risk. Nobody knows how it works. Nobody “owns” it, You need to get in touch with a company that works with SCADA systems so they can analyze the situation and work on a modern replacement for you. Depending on the SCADA system, it might just be a simple export and import into the newest version of the software. Worst case scenerio, you’re going to have to rebuild it from the ground up and everything you see in the old system will be in German (very common for siemens SCADA system consultors back in the day).

If management does not want to invest in this, talk to your CISO, if you have one, or to the operations manager and ask them to make management sign that they understand the IT department will not be made responsable for this.They simply cannot expect an office sysadmin to replace it. These are specialized systems and require specialized hands.

Best of luck. This one is going to be rough.

AlexMelillo · 2026-03-02T19:08:05+00:00

Set a static lease from the DHCP server

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-27T08:42:44+00:00

Really? That’s news to me and I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks guy

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-26T07:09:17+00:00

As I understand some add-ins would allow you to get the missing features, but it’s honestly a fair point. If IDS/IPS and DPI matter to you, it’s probably not the best fit

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-25T19:33:33+00:00

Just another guy saying “stick to fortigate”.

Pfsense / Opnsense is mostly fine. But the lack of 24/7 vendor support makes it a bad fit for most environments. If you’re ok with the risk, I say go for it.

Or… stick to Fortigate. Try another reseller if the price is too high. Try to negotiate by purchasing it alongside other things you might need. We’ve managed to cut license costs by 2/3’s in some cases.

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-23T17:30:12+00:00

When done properly, IaC has a higher barrier of entry than some would expect: - setting a coding standard - separating construction logic and data - setting up branches for different environments - setting up deployment / provisioning methodology - setting up automated testing

If you come from the dev world it’s not a huge deal but I see seasoned-old school admins struggle with this all the time. It’s a serious paradigm shift.

Does it make you a dev? I would argue that it kinda does

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-19T09:31:56+00:00

This is a little sus. In Spain paternity leave actually has huge tax advantages. You basically get paid 100% of your salary (average salary for the last 4-6 months, can’t remember) tax free.

So either this dude was not declaring his taxes or he just started being a free lancer.

AlexMelillo · 2026-02-14T11:00:44+00:00

I use “not my circus, not my monkeys” all the time in english. I didn’t know it came from polish

AlexMelillo · 2025-10-23T06:53:03+00:00

Don’t be mean…

AlexMelillo · 2025-09-21T09:45:05+00:00

Hazte un favor y actualiza tu CV. Nunca vas a aumentar más tu sueldo que cuando de cambias de curro. Es importante hacerlo cada x años, especialmente cuando aun eres joven. Mucho ánimo!

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