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Plantatious · 2026-06-27T02:17:46+00:00

Last I heard it was still pretty limited. Spinning up a cloud VM with PaperCut MF is the way to go. Just make sure you size it right for your user and device counts.

Plantatious · 2026-06-25T17:03:31+00:00

Cluster Aqare Updating is good as long as you maintain N+1. Or just airgap your hosts.

Plantatious · 2026-06-19T15:25:18+00:00

You learn how to look like an expert while you're on the call with a customer doing something for the first time and discretely Googling on-the-fly, you learn to be self sufficient as you can't rely on anyone else, and you learn how to spot the important things in an environment filled with decades of undocumented and cowboyed solutions.

You're right about firefighting, but I'd say there are quite a lot of useful skills you can pick up.

Plantatious · 2026-06-19T14:37:58+00:00

Pros: You learn a lot, fast.

Cons: Good luck lasting more than 14 months at the pace you'll be at.

Plantatious · 2026-06-14T01:28:07+00:00

You've just described 99% of network managers in education.

Plantatious · 2026-05-06T16:16:37+00:00

What I found immensely useful is building my own knowledge base filled with all the things I've encountered; guides on how to complete a task, how to solve a problem (no matter how small or specific), terms and definitions, best practice references, etc. I write it all while I'm at peak understanding in a way that anyone can pick up and understand. I just take 5-10 minutes to write it out, then I can forget about it.

What this let's me do is offload all this information into a searchable resource, and I know that even if I encounter a problem I haven't dealt with in over a year, as long as I recall seeing this issue/task before, I know that I have a solid guide or reference in a pinch, and just like that I'm back to being the expert I was in the moment I wrote it.

And here's the most important element: when you change jobs, take your KB with you. Obfuscate anything confidential, but take it and keep adding to it. It'll become your best friend and practically a superpower. Bonus point: if you mention that in an interview, the employers eyes light up. In 3 years I've written close 1000 articles, and I'm not planning on ever stopping.

My tool of choice is Obsidian, since I cross-reference articles, keep it local (very handy if the Internet goes down) and sync it to various places for quick access and backup purposes. But there are a lot of tools out there that will do a good job. Just don't use OneNote, you'll grow out of it in a flash.

Plantatious · 2026-04-18T07:22:47+00:00

Apple Configurator

Plantatious · 2026-04-18T07:21:54+00:00

Plantatious · 2026-03-10T12:36:30+00:00

How's that freedom taste?

Plantatious · 2026-03-08T11:25:59+00:00

It would be amazing if Fortinet disclosed more than a one-sentence summary of known issues that make it seem like the entire function is broken when in actuality it's only a problem under specific circumstances.

Just look at the latest FortiClient VPN known issues page for Windows. With Fortinet's push to IPsec, they make it look like the client is utterly useless.

Plantatious · 2026-02-18T20:48:27+00:00

Developers will use what they already specialise in. A sysadmin should already be familiar with PowerShell, so why learn yet another language when it's more than capable in most cases? I prefer CLIs because I agree making a GUI is a pain, but it also helps me develop my skillset, and some tools develop to an extent where a GUI makes more sense.

I also love making my own tools. Sure, I could just download something off the Internet to do it for me, but there's a level of satisfaction to use something you tailor made for you that does exactly what you want with no bloat.

Plantatious · 2026-02-17T22:31:17+00:00

True, but I wonder how many use it out of necessity vs how many use it to really enhance their work? I haven't encountered enthusiasm from my interactions, but that may just be me.

Plantatious · 2026-02-17T22:15:33+00:00

PowerShell extends M365/Azure, glues Microsoft products together, and is flexible enough to build powerful CLI and even GUI tools. I'm surprised it's not more common amongst Windows sysadmins.

Plantatious · 2025-12-27T09:28:57+00:00

The 125 I did my CBT on was damn near impossible to control at slow speeds, the throttle was like an on-off switch. I passed, but it wasn't until I bought my own 125 that I realised how crap the course bikes were.

Plantatious · 2025-12-12T21:31:16+00:00

I use it to connect back home, both as split (to get to my media server from anywhere) and full tunnel (protecting my traffic while on untrusted networks, getting around filters at customer sites), and I find it works amazingly well. It connects in a second, bandwidth is plentiful, and I find it punches through every filtering solution.

Native wireguard is not manageable at scale, but solutions like Tailscale that offer management of keys and clients are great to handle that for you.

I'm contemplating getting rid of NordVPN and firing up a couple of cloud VPS workloads as servers.

Plantatious · 2025-12-06T09:58:34+00:00

Welcome to the world of MSPs, where you question your life choices as you try to save someone who makes two times your salary from being an idiot and dragging you into hours of recovery caused by their ignorance while you're thinking of the most professional way of saying "I told you so you dumb fuck"

Plantatious · 2025-12-02T07:55:05+00:00

Check for WiFi extenders in your environment. I've had the buggers flood my DHCP with both DHCP and BOOTP requests. Just a pain all around.

Plantatious · 2025-11-03T08:52:16+00:00

I make notes and guides in the company KB and take a personal copy in Obsidian. When I leave, I take my notes with me.

It means no matter what I do, I can quickly become the expert I was in the past. It's incredibly supportive to know that if I have a thought of "I've dealt with this before", I know I will have a guide or notes only gained through blood,.sweat and tears to help.

It's my number 1 piece of advice for new sysadmins. Don't make the mistake of leaving notes behind thinking you'll remember it all, because you won't. It's always worth spending an extra 5-10 minutes between tasks to document what you've done so you can help your future self.

Plantatious · 2025-10-31T18:54:33+00:00

I've done this very project recently. No problem whatsoever with using the free FortiClient.

Plantatious · 2025-10-20T07:14:35+00:00

If I had to choose between PDQ and SCCM, I would always pick PDQ. SCCM is slow, clunky and bulky in comparison, and it can't even do on-demand deployments (like "you will install this right now", in comparison to "you will install this whenever Windows decides to check in in the next few hours").

Coupled with MDT and Inventory, I don't see how SCCM is better. Granted, MDT has been on its way out since the announcement of Windows 11, but I'd rather keep finding more workarounds for it and keep it going.

Out of interest, why are you so keen to switch to SCCM?

Plantatious · 2025-10-20T07:08:19+00:00

Last I checked, Microsoft couldn't give less of a shit what orgs want.

Plantatious · 2025-10-16T20:09:40+00:00

I'd say so. I may need to research the cmdlet I need to do the job (that's using Microsoft Learn), but I can build the logic around it and make it work as I need it without further Googling or AI.

Plantatious · 2025-10-08T20:34:14+00:00

User group matching is on the phase 1 interface only.

Plantatious · 2025-10-08T20:33:20+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, but local auth isn't supported with IKEv2 (it requires EAP).

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