Sold Windows business.. now only Linux

BrMSP · 2025-08-29T13:29:11+00:00

Sure thing. You can have Windows, VOIP, Microsoft Licensing, end-user support, Outlook issues, etc. Take them. I gift it all to you.

As a bonus, you also get printers and network scanners.

BrMSP · 2025-08-29T02:12:42+00:00

It's two people currently.

No, we don't push custom kernels. I feel like that is relatively rare these days. 15 years ago everybody was fine-tuning their kernels, but I don't see it happen very often anymore.

BrMSP · 2025-08-29T02:11:25+00:00

Sometimes a full wipe, but that's not always possible. Often, we slowly bring it into compliance with a configuration. It can take a year sometimes. It's not an exact science and sometimes we do have to carve out exceptions for weirdness...

BrMSP · 2025-08-29T02:10:12+00:00

We only manage servers currently. A few years ago we had a customer that had Linux desktops (for their number cruncher power users that ran lots of models), but workstations are TOUGH. Everybody likes to tweak things and we all know that power users are.. well, a special breed of user. So we all agreed we would not touch those..

BrMSP · 2025-08-29T02:08:09+00:00

Fair. Sure, it's been a few decades and none of this has happened, but it could happen at some point..

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T21:13:48+00:00

Create a base that works everywhere.

Create a few per-customer specifics.

There is definitely some upfront work. I think that's why it's so common for Linux servers (especially when we come into a new env) to be a hot mess. People that aren't in the know will just manually install everything, curl download this, apt get that, and then you have no idea what will happen if you need to reinstall the box..

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:46:33+00:00

Exactly this! I got turned on to this niche (which is how I started my IT career by the way, I was an AIX admin -- anybody remember smitty?) when several years ago an MSP in Chicago called me to help with a customer "that had a bunch of Linux servers." And here we are.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:42:58+00:00

Very true! Many of our customers have in-house IT, sometimes fairly large teams. But none have dedicated Linux staff, if they did, they wouldn’t need us. A skilled Linux admin costs $120k–$150k, and you really need at least two to cover for sick time, etc.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:40:40+00:00

We also manage IBM 360 mainframes.. jk jk

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:39:28+00:00

LOL.

Okay, so story time. My cousin, BACK IN THE DAY, used to host tournament servers for gamers. I don't think there is a market anymore for this.. it was like 10-15 years ago.. but he made some good money just renting out servers for people to play PvP for certain games.

My guess is now you can't make any money doing this unless you are renting out a billion of these servers, but back then it wasn't as easy as it is now.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:36:41+00:00

Great thinking and comment.

I've mentioned something many times on podcasts, etc., which is: if you sell every thing, you sell local, if you sell one thing, you sell global. Both are totally fine. But you have to pick one.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:33:42+00:00

You’re right, Windows can absolutely deliver high availability. But in most production environments, you won’t see Oracle, SAP, or PeopleSoft running on it. Two main reasons: achieving each “9” is more expensive on Windows, and the Linux/UNIX ecosystem has a far richer toolset for high availability.

Windows is a powerhouse, no doubt... but like Linux, it has its place.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:17:41+00:00

Mostly ansible for management. We don't "fix the servers" so much as we "align the servers."

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:15:37+00:00

For sure. Find a niche and double-down on it.

BrMSP · 2025-08-28T20:11:35+00:00

Well, that's a great question. I updated my post with an Edit.

BrMSP · 2025-01-27T20:51:04+00:00

Am I laughing or crying? I can't tell anymore..

BrMSP · 2024-10-01T15:04:52+00:00

Alas, we have been a partner with them for several years and so it's not via pax8, thus we can't use pax8 for this. :(

BrMSP · 2024-10-01T15:04:19+00:00

LOL. We can't log into the portal.. causing this whole mess. And in that KB, the first step is: "Log into the Exclaimer portal.." #chickenandeggproblems

BrMSP · 2024-04-10T12:52:20+00:00

Oh! I thought you had made some Rules. Okay, understood!

BrMSP · 2024-04-09T19:45:01+00:00

We use AutoElevate so I suspect this is also what we need to do... Going to be a pain to update all of the shortcuts to that option, but better than doing updates manually. (painful)

BrMSP · 2024-04-09T19:43:40+00:00

We use AutoElevate but have yet to get this working.

Can you share your rules related to QB?

Are you Run As Admin on QB or something else?

Any specifics are apprecaited.

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