@dashrender said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@nadnerb said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
no wonder they don't typically make trays that hold the whole ream.
lol
Yes they do. Not home printers, but many business class printers do. I've seen some that hold 2 or 3.
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
Maybe we need to level set on what "KVM talent" means.
Sure, and as well, what does VMware talent, mean? It's not one sided. When someone hires a VMware resource, the average is pretty bad. This is nothing about VMware as a product or vendor, I'm talking purely IT practicioners out in the field selling themselves to employers. If I put out a job req for "VMware experience" or the like, what do I get and what do companies expect.
In many cases, as employees, you just get people who have a passing ability to install and spin up VMs. Rarely do you get someone who can even have a conversation about how VMware works at all. Knowledge rarely goes deeper than what can be gleaned by anyone who knows a little about virtualization looking at the interface for a few minutes. Even fundamental information about how to license it is often over their heads, something I think is a big piece of the baseline minimal viable knowledge base.
If you hire a VMware firm, most don't have anything more than one or two employees similar to the above, some don't even have that. The majority are just sales people who then call VMware and pay for support from the vendor. They aren't VMware experts or even VMware support, they are just resellers. Some, sure, have skills, but not the majority. Anyone and everyone can just call VMware (or any other vendor of this nature) and sign up to resell their product and maybe, and only sometimes, have to pass some minimal certification level.
So KVM talent, to you, means "more than the passing ability to install and spin up VMware VMs" and who can "have a conversation about how VMWare works"?
That seems more of a dance around the question.
Edit: OK just seen this later
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
Maybe we need to level set on what "KVM talent" means.
In the context of support for an SMB, like is the context of this thread and to meet or beat what is expected of a Fortune 100 hiring standard KVM support staff, it is someone who can manage licensing, consult and system design, install and implement the bare metal install, storage setup, performance tuning, updates, patches, networking, at least consult on backups, essential monitoring and automation, troubleshoot issues with all of the above. The ability to work with multiple tools, to work from the command line, etc. and, most importantly, the ability to reach out to highly level support meaningfully if more is needed.
A low bar, but the bar for any baseline talent should be.
@dafyre said in AD/AAD and VPN integration:
I can't quote much on the VPN side of things, but we use MFA here for nearly everything now.
Duo Security (duo.com) is great. You can use hardware keys or the app on your phone, and it's quick and easy enough to manage.
Edit: Even our VPN now requires MFA, lol.
Not everything supports Duo, though, such as WHfB unless you go through another IDP that does support it.
@dashrender said in Laptops versus desktops and roaming users:
@irj said in Laptops versus desktops and roaming users:
In the enterprise space, the vast majority of users have laptops, docks, and a spare AC adapter (so they don't need to borrow it from dock).
Exeptions would probably be assembly line or something like a shared nurse's station
Desktops are the exceptions though and not the rule.In the enterprise space you rarely see large groups of people sharing the same computers - it's one device one user.
As for Laptops vs Desktop - I have no idea if the reality is desktop are the exception today...
The cost of a laptop plus docking station plus external keyboard plus external monitors plus secondary power supply significantly outweigh the cost of a standard desktop.
If the user needs that level of flexibility of mobility it might make sense, but most desk workers likely don't.
I've only seen laptops in enterprise. The exceptions were purpose-specific desktops, being very few. But again it depends on the environment and industry not all enterprises are the same. I've not worked in hospitals but can image them with different needs and device purposes.
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
I'm not looking for a direct answer to the topic title.
I just had my first review with my new boss.
She asked me a question that seemed odd, but after more information was less odd due to her position.
Question: is there a certifying authority you can get certified in that you can also reach out to to get help with problems you can't solve?
Her example was SUNA - Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates. They certify nurses and have personal you can contact to get help with your questions.
IT is very broad. But to answer your question, if there is an IT issue you can't solve, you go to the product or technology's support method. If a MS issue MS support, Dell issue, then Dell support, etc...
@irj said in KVM or VMWare:
@pete-s said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@pete-s said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@irj said in KVM or VMWare:
@irj said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
The integration with the REST APIs is more important than any of the anscillary features of qemu/libvirt.
Exactly. Stuff isn't done manually anymore.
It's not even that about manual process. It's about being able audit, and have a repeatable process.
Auditing in KVM is pretty much not there lol.
Just a side note, but what type of auditing are you talking about? Security audit? Compliance audit?
All of the above.
OK, thanks.
But how about libvirt being used by openstack and openshift? There has to be a lot of enterprises running that in their hybrid cloud environment. Surely not everyone is running their workloads only on Amazon or Google. Red Hat has to be out there pushing a lot of this to their enterprise customers. And surely these environments are fully automated and auditable just like aws or gcp. Or isn't that the case?
Openshift is on azure now
And I bet the APIs, Monitoring, Auditing, ability to integrate services, etc. is fantastic.
@siringo watch resource monitor, resmon.exe, when during the delay of opening an app seemingly caused solely by connecting to the wifi network.
For paint.exe to open instantly prior to wifi connection, then slowly after, and instantly off wifi... seems like you'll notice something in resmon somewhere. Maybe A/V or something. Look at everything even the network and possible new tcp connections when you open paint.
@gjacobse said in Does a script imply Automation?:
@travisdh1 said in Does a script imply Automation?:
Where did that question even bubble up from?
This is from a Teams Chat with the other three Service Desk / IT people ....
Right. A script can be used as a means to carry out the automation of a task or a set of tasks.
I thought about paying for DuoLingo because I can't stand the ads all the time and lack of freedom.
But lately I have been doing a lot on Anki. There's some really great decks in there. I also paired it with Mango which has been great as well. Another one that is great is Beelingual when you want to start doing more reading.
TL;DR
Anki
Mango
Beelingual
@pete-s said in script to download and extract MicroSip portable:
@dashrender said in script to download and extract MicroSip portable:
I've been wanting a way to download the latest version of MicroSip portable.
I realize this doesn't ensure I'm getting the latest version of MicroSip - I'm relying on the lastest being the first listed item that's a portable version, but it's a start.
If you can offer suggestions on how to do a comparison of the list of /downloads/MICROSIP-x.xx.xx.zip I'd appreciate it.
I suggest scraping the source file list instead. https://www.microsip.org/source
From that take the highest version and download the zip version based on the version number.
I would also send the programmer(s) an email and ask if he/she has another way to determine what the latest version is. Perhaps without scraping html. Maybe there is a list of versions or files somewhere that is maintained.
Yeah that source page looks like a better place to do it. Same basic code will work with a few changes. Scraping HTML sucks but if that's what ya gotta do... until you find a better option it should work fine. Perhaps the sources page will be more reliable.
@dashrender said in script to download and extract MicroSip portable:
I've been wanting a way to download the latest version of MicroSip portable.
$Save_Path = 'C:\ESD\' $Expand_Path = 'C:\ESD\expand\' $Web_URI = 'https://microsip.org/downloads' $Web_URI_Root = 'https://microsip.org' $DL_list = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Web_URI -Method GET) $Link = $DL_list.Links | Where-Object {$_.outerText -eq 'portable'} | Select-Object href -First 1 Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ($Web_URI_Root + $Link.href) -OutFile ($Save_Path + (Split-Path $Link.href -Leaf) ) Expand-Archive ($Save_Path + (Split-Path $Link.href -Leaf)) -DestinationPath $Expand_PathI realize this doesn't ensure I'm getting the latest version of MicroSip - I'm relying on the lastest being the first listed item that's a portable version, but it's a start.
If you can offer suggestions on how to do a comparison of the list of /downloads/MICROSIP-x.xx.xx.zip I'd appreciate it.
I didn't feel like getting into any regex atm, and wanted to keep it as close as I could to what you already have and work with that. Here's the end result I came up with that takes all the version numbers, sorts them, then finds the link matching the latest version, and downloads using that link. I also filtered for links that do not cointain "Lite", but you can change the notmatch to a match if Lite was the one you wanted. ( I assumed you were not interested in the Lite versions )
$Save_Path = 'C:\ESD\'
$Expand_Path = 'C:\ESD\expand\'
$Web_URI = 'https://microsip.org/downloads'
$Web_URI_Root = 'https://microsip.org'
$DL_list = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Web_URI -Method GET)
$Link = $DL_list.Links | Where-Object {$_.outerText -eq 'portable' -and $_.href -notmatch "Lite"} | Select-Object -Property href
$zipVer = foreach ($zip in $Link) {
[version](($zip -split '-') -split '.zip')[1]
}
$latestVer = [string]($zipVer | Sort-Object -Descending | Select-Object -First 1)
$latestLink = $Link | Where-Object {$_ -match $latestVer}
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ($Web_URI_Root + $latestLink.href) -OutFile ($Save_Path + (Split-Path $Link.href -Leaf))
Expand-Archive ($Save_Path + (Split-Path $Link.href -Leaf)) -DestinationPath $Expand_Path
A hardened system doesn't use ADDS and Windows.
@pmoncho said in Powershell split and sort date/time:
@obsolesce said in Powershell split and sort date/time:
@pmoncho said in Powershell split and sort date/time:
Small update - Changed code as I realized I had to build an additional array outside the foreach loop.
$taskserver = "RemoteSystem" $tNames = "*Location*" $taskList = (Get-ScheduledTask -CimSession $taskserver -TaskName $tNames) $_taskListing = foreach ($task in $taskList){ $tName = $task.TaskName $tNameXML = ($tName+".xml") $tPath = $task.TaskPath Get-ScheduledTaskInfo -CimSession $taskserver -TaskPath $tPath -TaskName $tName | Select-Object TaskName, NextRunTime } #check to see the array is sorting at least by TaskName $_taskListing | Sort TaskName -Descendingon the last line, have you tried sorting by the next run time?
$_taskListing | Sort NextRunTimeI just got back here and yes, I did that and it does sort it correctly. I forgot I had it sorted by TaskName, changed it and it worked fine (after setting it as an array).
I would still like to figure out how to separate the Date and Time though. That way I can use the most recent start time and add 1 minute to it for the new task that will be created.
So, while I have the sort fixed, how the heck do I split it?
My quick example output:
PS C:\Windows\system32> $_taskListing
TaskName NextRunTime
-------- -----------
MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskMachineCore 10/13/2021 8:09:09 PM
MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskMachineUA 10/13/2021 12:39:39 PM
Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser 10/14/2021 3:14:14 AM
Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector
Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticResolver
If you get the type of one of the objects your script is outputting:
($_taskListing.NextRunTime)[0].getType()
The result is:
PS C:\Windows\system32> ($_taskListing.NextRunTime)[0].getType()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True DateTime System.ValueType
Because it's a DateTime object, it's easy to manipulate.
You can easily add one minute to it using one of the built in methods:
($_taskListing.NextRunTime)[0].AddMinutes(1)
PS C:\Windows\system32> ($_taskListing.NextRunTime)[0].AddMinutes(1)
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 8:10:09 PM
You can do this part how it works best with your workflow.
@pmoncho said in Powershell split and sort date/time:
Small update - Changed code as I realized I had to build an additional array outside the foreach loop.
$taskserver = "RemoteSystem" $tNames = "*Location*" $taskList = (Get-ScheduledTask -CimSession $taskserver -TaskName $tNames) $_taskListing = foreach ($task in $taskList){ $tName = $task.TaskName $tNameXML = ($tName+".xml") $tPath = $task.TaskPath Get-ScheduledTaskInfo -CimSession $taskserver -TaskPath $tPath -TaskName $tName | Select-Object TaskName, NextRunTime } #check to see the array is sorting at least by TaskName $_taskListing | Sort TaskName -Descending
on the last line, have you tried sorting by the next run time?
$_taskListing | Sort NextRunTime
@jclambert said in What are your Thoughts on Using LAPS to manage local admin account passwords on a domain?:
The basic premise of helping to stop horizontal attacks is wonderful
But the device is joined to an AD domain so horizontal attacks are allowed by default.
@eleceng said in What are your Thoughts on Using LAPS to manage local admin account passwords on a domain?:
What are your thoughts on Using LAPS to manage local admin account passwords on a domain?
Are these local admin accounts on servers or user devices?
@eleceng said in Local Administrator Accounts Security:
should we disable the administrator account and create a different named local account with admin privileges instead
@eleceng said in Local Administrator Accounts Security:
Are we gaining a lot of security by doing this?
Not likely, the fact the VM is joined to an on-prem AD domain means that it's very likely you've technically already lost any and all security to the device/VM.
The only gain here is that you're preventing some random person who's trying to authenticate to the system as a the local Administrator from automatically knowing which username to log in with at that moment. But that is such a small aspect to the actual security of the system you can basically say that no, you are not technically gaining any security by doing that.
It's still not even close to being a concise article. The only real metric there being discussed is simply age?
Maybe the SSDs moved 100x the data in their much shorter age so far? That would mean a lot and change the outcome significantly.
I've been playing some Diablo 2 Resurrected in the evenings and so far it's been a lot of fun.
Is anyone else here playing it?
@dashrender said in hot potato workers:
@jaredbusch said in hot potato workers:
@obsolesce said in hot potato workers:
TL:DR entire thread, but why not disable fast user switching? That would force the user to have to log out if anything.
Completely forgot about that.
Can a normal user force log off a logged on user if the screen is locked?nope.
You could turn on auditing for logon/logoff events, then run a logoff script when the lock event triggers if that's an issue.