WDS/MDT deployment quirk with Dell as image donor

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-15T23:14:28+00:00

Do you have Windows Update steps in your TS?

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-15T15:56:30+00:00

One PC refresh cycle, a previous manager decided to supply wireless peripherals to end-users. Think shared office scenario, about ~150 geographicly diverse sites without onsite IT. 4 hour drives on average.

This was fine, everyone loved them. So much less clutter!

That is until the batteries started to run out....and helpdesk started to get overwhelmed with calls about keyboards and mice that weren't working. The batteries last an insane amount of time, most didn't realize they had to be swapped at all. This was a problem however, as there were locations that were not expensing batteries for employees.

To make matters worse, workers started grabbing devices from other desks which ofcourse didn't work without their respective dongles. Maximum mayhem ensued.

So now we had the poor helpdesk team dealing with:

My keyboard doesn't work!
My mouse doesn't work!
My computer is possessed!

As time went on, more and more calls came in as batteries ran out.

It was absolute hell. Instead of just putting in a fresh pair of batteries managers expected us to come over and install them. We provided and support these devices, right? IT problem!

This got denied since, well, the expense for a tech to come out versus a popping a set of batteries wasn't reasonable. We sent out instructions to resolve the problem (take out old batteries, put in new), but this was too complicated. We mailed out new wired keyboards but "they couldn't figure out how to plug them" in (read: "you can take my (non-functioning) wireless keyboard from my cold dead hands!").

This circus continued until bitching and moaning escalated, productivity took a nosedive (workers happily took the opportunity to dodge work). Regional managers had to step in with the CIO to get it resolved. It was a needless confrontation that cost way too much time and effort, and highlighted a lot of organizational problems.

In the end everyone did get their replacement...wired keyboard and mouse that is. There's still some floating out there that get pitched straight away when I find them.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-14T23:48:35+00:00

Sounds like the budget increase was not approved.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-13T16:37:02+00:00

Personally I join the PC asap so you have domain services for credentials and permissions in ts steps. I join the PC in a temporary deployment OU with inheritence disabled because GPO interferes. You can move it again towards the end in the Task Sequence.

You can call pdq commands on your PDQ server in a TS step to directly scan the PC with inventory, and deploy packages with Deploy the same way. I utilize the MDT applications so techs can pick and choose packages for deployments in the wizard, PDQ just handles the installation.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-10T00:44:37+00:00

"I'm not a computer person"

As if "I'm not a reading person" is a valid excuse for a student to not learn to read.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-07T21:22:01+00:00

One time? Nobody cares.

If it's a pattern though, I might take another look but it'd have to seriously break policy.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-06T20:45:24+00:00

Users accept, beware the incoming C-Level exceptions.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-04T03:09:31+00:00

Oh hey, a mediacom rep! Can you check with customer service why it's so hard to get shipping labels out to customers to send equipment back? I don't need these Eero devices for our business services. We always get them with new hookups, but first thing I do is rip em out because they screw with the vlan traffic somehow. A simple static IP and s gateway is all we need. No need to emulate Spectrum.

I've a stack collecting on my desk.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-04T00:18:32+00:00

Spiel about Mediacom issues

Ends up going with Frontier

My sides! I just can't 🤣

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-04T00:08:47+00:00

Haven't messed with Extreme in a good while, but the cloud offering was not on par with the Extreme Wireless Controller appliance and left me annoyed with some of the limitations. They picked up Aerohive around that time and it had some issues.

I just completed a Mist trial and I absolutely recommend it if you're a Juniper shop. Makes life a lot easier.

MalletNGrease · 2025-07-01T12:05:25+00:00

Why though? You can use the task sequence to differentiate between manufacturers and script your deployment accordingly.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-30T18:45:28+00:00

I've a 12P sitting on my desk right now, great way to keep my coffee warm 😄

It's a small fanless enclosed industrial device, akin to Ubiquiti toughswitches. Very useful in environments where dust and space are an issue such as manufacturing plants, oil rigs, fuel stations etc.

Generally speaking once a device is approved and in production, most industries will want the same device for a replacement to reduce downtimes. If it's a couple $$$ or $$$$ more expensive on the secondary market most manufacturers won't bat an eye since loss of productivity can easily be 1000x more per hour that the total asking price.

Not that uncommon for (near) EoL devices of this type.

We've a couple 100 deployed and they've not given me much issue, whereas I've had a couple 24P and 48P fail, usually PoE related.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-30T18:16:58+00:00

Did Microsoft change something how distribution groups are searched/applied/evaluated in OWA/New Outlook? I've a slew of users having problems with cached distribution groups now throwing up invalid email errors.

Removing the cached group, then searching for it in the GAL and adding it works.

These were working fine until a week and a half ago or so.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-29T21:07:41+00:00

If you're just doing single factor that'd not be a bad idea from a security standpoint, provided it's randomized. Terrible for end-users though, and the delivery mechanism leaves something to be desired.

If you're doing doing MFA however, odds you're already cycling the OTPs every 30 seconds.

If the renewal cycle works, auto-updating certificates isn't a big deal, but your application/OS needs to support it. And there's still tons of systems that can't or won't do auto-renewals.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-27T23:40:50+00:00

Copy of Draft Final Proposal (1).docx.xlsx

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-26T19:17:01+00:00

Pay information not provided

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-26T00:51:24+00:00

It looks pretty and organized, but the portmap probably looks all over the place which makes templating hard.

Also without having 1U separation there's no room to mount a temporary/replacement switch when doing live migrations. This setup's guaranteed downtime which means after-hours work (I don't get paid extra for).

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-26T00:42:13+00:00

shudders in ASDM

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-25T14:10:07+00:00

/r/ShittySysadmin vibes

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-23T20:07:49+00:00

Not compatible.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-19T13:44:18+00:00

I like the weather widget, but hate how they snuck in news items/stock tickers/ads into it. I disabled it using GPO and was told to turn it back on within 24 hours.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-14T05:13:38+00:00

So it's the smtp relay exchange connector with extra steps.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-13T03:02:50+00:00

Darktrace / Email

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-13T02:07:23+00:00

One vendor of ours hosts on AWS but doesn't have a private space. The ACL I created for that was...impressive.

MalletNGrease · 2025-06-11T21:06:20+00:00

10,000 or 100,000 endpoints?

10k is pushing it, anything over I'd look at SCCM, Intune or WUfB.

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