Revised OP after latest community feedback.

@brandon220 said in AzureAD and shares:

Field techs use analyzers that collect monitoring data. They "sync" the data back to the main office. Each folder is a different job.

That smells like a web app using a DB, not at all a file share.

@brandon220 said in AzureAD and shares:

@Obsolesce They were using OneDrive for syncing. They 2-way syncs were consuming all of the bandwidth.

They can use an Azure DB with a web app attached to Azure storage. They can use the web app to track all the data and hold all the files, generate reports, etc. They don't know what they need at all, are trying to use the wrong tool for the wrong job. Plain and simple.

@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:

Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?

From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.

Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.

What is Ansible for if not managing your computers? It's what Salt is for.

MDM != configuration management

@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:

A simple test would be this.... if MDM is the right tool for your laptops, then it would also be the right tool for your servers.

Servers are not mobile devices.

Nor are Desktops but it would be nice to manage them with the same tool. Intune comes to mind it will do some state management and is getting better with time...

Nobody is managing servers with Intune. They are using SaltStack/Ansible/Chef/Puppet/DSC/SCCM for servers. NOT Intune. Also, Intune doesn't even support Server OSs.

@stacksofplates said in Ansible Agent Option?:

@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:

I don't see ZT as a solution to this, I see it as an unnecessary workaround.

I don't see it that way. Agents were created when things like SD-WANs didn't exist. Now, all of you devices can connect easily no matter where they are. It's actually easier to implement paradigms like zero trust when the systems are connected that way.

You expect hundreds of different MSP clients or tenants to be "okay" with having ZeroTier installed on all of their devices? Potentially being a mistake away from being on the same LAN as everyone else or controlled by the same client management server everyone else is? No thanks. sorry but I don't trust that any MSPs single client management system is that secure, and don't want ZeroTier on evyerthing either. There are much better solutions and I'd question why others aren't being suggested instead.

@scottalanmiller said in P2V Windows 2000 on KVM:

Has anyone tried doing a P2V of a Windows 2000 physical server over to a KVM host? Not a critical need, we have a customer where it would be handy to "archive" an old server "just in case." But I have a feeling that this might be a lot of work for something that might not work. I've not put W2K on KVM at all, let alone a P2V. Thoughts?

If it's for just in case, it might be better to back up the hard disk and archive it. After the replacement is up and stable, then back that up as a go-to instead of the W2K stuff.

Does the company want user device data backups or do they want to push network shares or one/Googledrive?

Were they already under the impression user device data was already backed up?

Do you redirect the documents folder?

Group policy, Etc...

Depends on a lot.

@scottalanmiller said in AzureAD and shares:

@brandon220 said in AzureAD and shares:

@Obsolesce Yes. Unbelievable.

Worse, is that someone pays and/or believes them. How could it come to that?

Someone better call up Linus Torvalds and tell him his kernel isn't secure enough for financial institutions and so to do a better job.

@brandon220

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-how-to-create-file-share

@brandon220

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-sync-files-planning

@Jimmy9008 said in License Hyper-V Virtual Machines...:

Hi folks,

I have Windows Server Datacenter 2019 licenses. If I install Hyper-V server, rather than Windows Server with the role, can I setup AVMA and have the host auto license the VMs?

Or, do I need to login to each VM and add the Datacenter key?

Best,
Jim

Avma does not work on Hyper-V Server.

You'll need to install Hyper-V role on Windows Server DC if that is a must have among any other DC only features.

@Dashrender said in Using Skype For Business For Conference Calls:

@scottalanmiller said in Using Skype For Business For Conference Calls:

@Dashrender said in Using Skype For Business For Conference Calls:

MS is clearly SHOVING Teams down everyone's throat

A clear sign that they don't believe that people will choose it on its merits.

Now this statement is a borderline bash. Sure it's shoving.. but at the same time, knocking off/replacing an incumbent is often challenging to say the least.

I won't go so far as to say they won't.. but I definitely see where you're coming from.

If Scott doest like it and/or has features he doesn't want or use, it's malware and evil.

@notverypunny said in EXE to MSI Converter:

@Obsolesce
Food for thought, and maybe some ammunition for a battle to add Chocolatey to our standard tools, but for the time being I've got the mandate to use existing tools to roll things out, and existing tools means AD infrastructure / GPOs, scripts and all the fun that entails.

Appreciate the options, but does anyone have any recommendations for the exe to msi converter?

DOesn't the .exe have built-in switches to install silently? You could install it via a PowerShell script.

@scottalanmiller said in Sales Person Wants Me to Provide Independent Rep With an Email Account:

@wrx7m said in Sales Person Wants Me to Provide Independent Rep With an Email Account:

how easy is it to limit functionality/isolate them from the broader environment, if I just give them an E1 license?

From what do you want to limit them? What automatic, universal access are you granting currently based on simply having email within the domain?

This was going to be my question as well.

This reminded me of a tweet I seennot so long ago:
https://twitter.com/MarkWilkinsonNZ/status/1155931194925522944?s=19

It leads to here: https://adamtheautomator.com/pending-reboot-registry-windows/

@Danp said in Managing spam posting:

Maybe they're enjoying the extra traffic. :man_shrugging:

Most definitely. Numbers are numbers.

@JaredBusch said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:

@Obsolesce said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:

@JaredBusch said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:

@Obsolesce said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:

Another solution for Macs will be required. It's not uncommon to have multiple solutions in place to cover different platforms

That is useless as it means the encrypted media is useless between macOS and Windows.

That's not an issue. There is no requirement to transport data between Mac and Windows devices on USB drives.

The point of wanting to use USB media is for portability. Otherwise, you simply disable it.

I don't know how many users are sticking data on a USB drive from a Mac, then giving it to someone else or marching it over to a Windows device, or vice versa, but if that's the case, there are ways to make it work.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-to-go-faq

@WrCombs said in Windows 7 File and Printer Sharing wont turn on:

Obviously Asking for help was the stupidest thing I could have done.

He did help, here:

@scottalanmiller said in Windows 7 File and Printer Sharing wont turn on:

@WrCombs said in Windows 7 File and Printer Sharing wont turn on:

@scottalanmiller said in Windows 7 File and Printer Sharing wont turn on:

@WrCombs said in Windows 7 File and Printer Sharing wont turn on:

We've had this issue before as well - But we just re-imaged the PC.

Time to image to Windows 10. Windows 7 is years out of support and extended support has just a few months left.

ok - but that's not an option - so how do I fix it?

... It could be any number of things from a bug to an application behaving badly to a GPO to a tool that is setting that on a periodic basis. So many possibilities.

Have you checked all of these things?

https://www.trickyways.com/2010/07/how-to-turn-off-network-discovery-file-printer-sharing-and-public-folder-sharing-in-windows-7/

Try that but in reverse.