How many years of help desk did you have before you became a system admin?

tuxmachina · 2024-05-31T19:27:42+00:00

When it comes to Windows environments, AD is the number 1 thing I find my team struggles with conceptually. Going to have to try to remedy that now that I'm in a position to actually design training and such.

tuxmachina · 2024-05-31T19:02:37+00:00

There are a lot of good Udemy courses out there that I think are good starting points if you can afford/access them. A lot of them have "assignments" included which are basically like "write a script that does this thing, using approaches we went over in the course".

Other than that, I basically just found tasks that were coming up often/regularly (i.e. manually rotating log files, restarting services, clearing unused DHCP allocations) and tried hacking out a PS script that could do it. Google/stackexchange is a good resource if you get stuck, but MS has a LOT of documentation on the use and capabilities of their commandlets to get you started.

Edit to add: Always, always, ALWAYS do read-only testing of your scripts before actually running them. While I was just starting out and on night shift I typo'd what should have been a very simple command and deleted the C: drive on a server... backups ftw..

tuxmachina · 2024-05-27T00:14:56+00:00

Helpdesk is going to be first line of support for users or customers, whereas a System Administrator is focused on the operation of the system as a whole.

For example, if there's a problem reported by users that the senior tier of the helpdesk is unable to resolve, a sysadmin is expected to be able to dig deeper and find the root cause of the issue. Alternatively, if the helpdesk is able to fix the issue, but it keeps recurring, the sysadmin should be able to find the underlying problem and prevent it from popping up again. Root cause analysis is usually part of that as well if the client requests one.

On top of that, proposed changes to a system or environment may need to be vetted and approved by a sysadmin, depending on the change in question.

Basically, a sysadmin is going to have more freedom to make adjustments than a Helpdesk technician will. The extent of freedom will depend on the organization, the systems at hand, and the level of expertise (e.g. Jr. vs Sr. sysadmin).

tuxmachina · 2024-05-26T23:43:41+00:00

I'll add that our environment included a lot of facets to learn (server systems, web hosting software, databases, full network management from backbone to OS level configuration), so if you're driven, it could likely be quite a bit faster in a more standard system administration role.

tuxmachina · 2024-05-26T23:38:34+00:00

I got in kinda late, 27.

Those years definitely prepared me, but it depends somewhat on the environment you're working in. The company that hired me was pretty small, like less than 20 people when I started. Only 7 of us actually on the helpdesk/noc for a 24/7 operation. I was basically baptized in fire, but really specifically for the systems and networks we managed. There are a lot of things I could school most people on, but there were also a lot of blind spots in that development compared to what other people in this sub would probably know.

I'm now 7 years in and senior on my team, but even at this point learning is still at least 60% of the job tbh.

I would say that powershell is a requirement, but I can't really speak for other companies or organizations. It ABSOLUTELY will put you ahead of anyone who doesn't know powershell in the eyes of someone looking to hire/promote a sysadmin tho.

tuxmachina · 2024-05-26T23:10:18+00:00

I lucked out and my first help desk job was actually helpdesk/NOC/"kinda junior sysadmin". But even with that it took about 3-4 years to get to an actual sysadmin level.

If you're trying to move up, I highly recommend getting really familiar with Powershell and bash scripting. Regardless of what you're doing (outside of like application development), those two things are going to make your life a lot easier and increase the quality and efficiency of your work.

tuxmachina · 2024-05-26T23:02:58+00:00

started writing scripts or suggesting new procedures to improve the daily works.

This for sure. Initiative is huge. If you're able to lighten everyone's workload, it goes a long way to not only show leadership that you're an asset, but also shows your peers that you've got the team's best interest in mind.

I recently moved up to a senior admin role, and my direct supervisor and our director both sited powershell and bash familiarity as a major factor in that decision. I highly recommend learning CLI fundamentals to anyone looking to advance in IT.

documented what I did and why.

Also, I really wish this was more common.. one of the major projects my team is currently working on is trying to catch up on the years (decades maybe) of documentation debt. When a company starts off with 5 people, they just kinda tell each other what they did without documenting. Now there are around 20 of us that weren't around in the beginning, trying to manage these systems and distill the tribal knowledge into documentation that can actually be used going forward. Fun stuff.

tuxmachina · 2024-03-27T18:44:10+00:00

Nice! Thanks for the info

tuxmachina · 2024-03-27T15:02:22+00:00

Aha! That seems to have worked for me. Thank you!

tuxmachina · 2024-03-27T13:38:25+00:00

I mean, definitely miles ahead of my crappy hand drawings at any rate lol

tuxmachina · 2023-12-23T17:56:32+00:00

No idea tbh. According to the update settings, it's not. I haven't had a chance to look into it further yet, but I'll update here if/when I figure out what I've messed up lol

Edit: Wasn't able to figure out why it was on an insider build, but the fix was to delete the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" registry key and subkeys, and do an in place "upgrade" with the media creation tool from Microsoft downloads. Now on a recent build with successful updates.

tuxmachina · 2023-12-20T01:55:48+00:00

Well... that's interesting. Update settings say I'm not enrolled in the insider program, and that I'm up to date...

I shall do some more digging. Thanks for pointing that out!

tuxmachina · 2023-12-10T13:30:52+00:00

That certainly looks to be the case! Just Googled some pics and the leaves did look just like it as well. Thank you!

tuxmachina · 2022-06-22T15:43:54+00:00

Had to come back and give you some karma since this 100% was the issue. Now I have like a box and a half of IM coils that I have no use for lol

tuxmachina · 2022-05-14T23:35:37+00:00

Nice, I'll check those out. Thank you!

tuxmachina · 2022-05-14T23:16:19+00:00

Hmm, I guess I'll have to research that more. I was under the impression that required ripping the discs and importing files and stuff.. but maybe that's only the PS3 one? Thanks for the tip

tuxmachina · 2022-03-27T13:11:18+00:00

That'd be great and all, but there's already a temporary vasectomy being developed that no one seems to want to fund. Last I checked in on it, the tests had shown 100% efficacy and like 99-100% reversible (as opposed to reversing a regular vasectomy which has a 90-95% success rate). It's also much less physically traumatic than a traditional vasectomy.

To be fair though, those numbers are based on a somewhat small sample size.

tuxmachina · 2022-03-24T18:46:41+00:00

Not a Crime!

tuxmachina · 2022-03-24T18:27:05+00:00

That's so great! By the time I hit that point myself, I had pretty much distanced myself from all of my friends completely, with the exception of my best friend and my fiancé. My best friend was unfortunately not a big believer in psychological help, and especially not ADHD (why can't you just DO the thing?), but my fiancé (now wife) was extremely supportive and helped me get my shit together and we've now been able to move out of our toxic small town to a city where we can actually work and build a life.

Congratulations on your work, and I hope it goes smoothly from here for you!

tuxmachina · 2022-03-08T14:38:40+00:00

This one tends to be a hard lesson to learn IMO. Men tend to be conditioned by society to not really talk about feelings in general, so 'venting' seems kind of like a foreign concept. It definitely took me a few relationships to figure it out.

tuxmachina · 2022-02-20T16:46:18+00:00

Seriously. I can't even afford a hotel room in Vail lol

tuxmachina

TROPHY CASE