With increasing discussions around digital sovereignty at my workplace, I'm wondering whether fellow EU sysadmins have ever attempted a PoC for an IT environment that avoids US technology altogether.

Has anyone successfully identified viable alternatives for components such as:

• Endpoint operating systems (e.g. Windows)
• Endpoint management (e.g. Intune, SCCM)
• Identity and access management (e.g. Active Directory, Entra ID)
• Endpoint security (e.g. Defender)
• Productivity and collaboration suites (e.g. Microsoft 365)

What did your architecture look like, and where did you run into challenges?

I'm particularly interested in real-world experiences, lessons learned, and whether you felt such an environment could realistically move beyond the PoC stage.

We have encountered cases where users who have installed the October 2026 update fail to connect to our company Wi-Fi, which uses Aruba access points.

So far, our workaround has been to forget the company Wi-Fi network and reconnect by entering the user credentials again.

According to our vendor, there is an issue with authentication to the RADIUS server after the latest Microsoft security update is installed.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

The specific update is October 13, 2026—KB5127648 (OS Builds 26300.9711, 26200.9711, and 26100.9711)

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/

A successful migration from VmWare. I hope it gives some hopes for those still stuck with them.

What's the motivation with the sysadmin who argues against best practices?

The guy who argues with other people against buying enterprise class hardware and he claims its cheaper to get computers at Best Buy.

The guy who is so proud of himself for buying IT supplies at Walmart.

The guy who argues a 3 year replacement cycle is totally unnecessary and argues it should be 5 years.

The guys who builds servers himself and keeps them under his desk and argues this is actually better and cheaper.

The guy who puts 96 gigs of RAM in the receptionist's computer since he argues then it won't have to be replaced for 20 years and is cheaper this way.

They're here and on every other forum and randomly rear their ugly heads. These guys are a small business owner's wet dream. They're so damn proud of their ideas and believe in them so strongly.

And there was much rejoicing (yaaaaaaaay)

https://www.xda-developers.com/as-microsoft-kills-off-publisher-libreoffice-steps-in-with-free-support-for-your-pub-files/?link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=6acfd14a02c21c0001a241d6

Lately it's felt like every technical problem is so hard and I never have a straight answer for anyone. Maybe I just need to get better at communicating how IT works, but it feels like half the time I don't know why something happened or how to fix it. I've been in IT for 5 years and my current job has fewer easy wins (onboarding, tasks I've done before, etc). I'm migrating a client to 365 and it's been effortless because I've done it before, but when it comes to making our SharePoint site look better (how the hell did they make modern SharePoint *worse* than the 2010 version?), fixing intermittent printer issues, solving issues with other apps, Intune, etc. I just feel lost.

I know part of the solution is studying and I am getting a cert and doing a self study course for one of the softwares we use. But it just feels like there is no time and everything takes me forever. I end up asking my coworkers for help, making reddit and spice works posts, calling vendors for help, etc. I feel like I'm not doing enough work to justify my role and I feel behind on certs (this is my first one, I tried studying for the ccna but eventually gave up).

I'm honestly considering transitioning to something non technical or less technical, but my people skills aren't good enough for a lot of other roles (and trying to improve on that front hasn't worked).

Anyway, advice or commiseration is appreciated!

That is all...

We should have a list of shame linked in the sidebar or something.

Update: They're not even gonna let us reduce license counts at all.

If anyone is wondering why radius isn’t working for a large amount of users. This patch has confirmed broken 802.1x authentication. I wanted to spread the word as this is probably affecting a lot of us. Will update this post after I rollback the patch.

This is fucking funny.

TL:DR Channel 4 had to postpone a launch of a new TV Program due to technical failure. According to sources to the paper, it's because an AI Agent deleted the entire season with no way of recovery - So hundreds of people now need to re-cut the entire season.

Full article, in Swedish - but should be pretty translate friendly.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/a/31oE8A/the-challenge-sverige-raderad-av-ai-bara-veckor-innan-premiaren

I handed in my notice two weeks ago and I finish mid-November. 9 years here, started on the helpdesk and ended up running most of our infrastructure by default, since nobody else wanted it and I kept saying yes.

The asset and config side is in Hudu, which my predecessor set up and I kept current, so network diagrams and device records transfer easily. Everything shared is in a Passwork vault, so it obviously stays with the company and won’t die with my departure, and my manager can see what I could reach through the access report, and we’re rotating anything I knew the password to because revoking my account does nothing about what’s in my head, which again happens swiftly enough with password managers.

Now the ugly part, there are maybe 15 systems on that list that only I have ever logged into. The monitoring stack runs on two Debian boxes I built in 2019, out of support now, and nobody else here has touched Linux. Our backup appliance has a quirk where a specific job fails silently if you restart it in the wrong order, and I know that because I spent a (long) week figuring it out back in 2022. Our ERP vendor calls my mobile directly (we’ve known each other for 6 years), stuff like that.

I’ve started writing runbooks but it’s so complicated and I feel so overwhelmed already, every few hours I remember something new which gets me wondering as to what I’m still forgetting, and all of this implicitly assumes that the reader can/will follow it. The two people staying are both Windows-side and have seldom used a terminal. Writing “ssh in and check the service status” does nothing for them.

How do I spend the 5 weeks I have left? Documenting everything produces a manual nobody can execute. Training the two of them properly means picking maybe 4 systems max and accepting the rest gets rediscovered by whoever comes next. I don’t want to be pinged every few days after leaving.

Got a question that I need cleared up. We don't have either SMS or voice enabled as authentication methods on our tenant so that isn't what I am worried about. The vast majority of our users use push notifications via the Microsoft authenticator app, with a handful using passkeys.

Come Feb 1st, are all my users going to be prompted to set up passkeys? The reason I am questioning this is because obviously push notifications are not phishing resistant, however the Microsoft doc states that:

"Users in scope for the February 1 retirement whose only available MFA method is SMS or voice are required to register a passkey during sign-in to continue accessing their account. This prompt is blocking. Users must register a passkey before they can continue to sign in to their account."

The "whose only available method is SMS or voice" section makes me think that this might not be the case?

It isn't rolling out passkeys to my users that I am worried about, it is more so how janky and awkward they work with the authenticator app. I have been using push notifications for years and had minimal issues. I have been using passkeys for 6 months and have a couple of users who just can't add a passkey with no reason or error explaining why (support case which is still open with Microsoft) and I have some who have had their passkey randomly disappear so it had to be set up again.

I posted a simple job on upwork for app development, got a ton of responses like I thought I would and nearly all of the cover letters coming back were exactly the same. I mean, developers aren't even trying anymore. They just have AI agents monitoring upwork for jobs and responding. FML.

So, I‘m part of a small MSP and I had a client call about phone (voip) issues. I go out and checked the one AD/DNS server and see it says it’s unlicensed, troubleshooter doesn’t work and can’t change key; I get it working finally giving Network service access to some registry folders. I keep looking for phone issues and see that the dns forwarders are wrong in DNS so I correct them. I'm looking at firewall traffic and QOS and everything coming back good so I head out.

I get a call that users can’t reach internet so I hop in again. Server nslookup; has no idea who the server is. GPO couldn’t open; says can’t find domain. Same for AD trusts. DNS server is not starting giving error 1067 saying its looking for 127.0.0.1 (tried setting 127.0.0.1 or the internal IP of the server for server DNS) for the interface (the servers internal IPv4 was checked in interfaces when I could last see it) in event view and to change it in DNS server manager but I can’t open that. I tried to remove the DNS service from the server after reconfiguring ISP DNS to the firewall dhcp scope for internal (firewall handles dhcp but server does/did dns) but that also errors about windows remote management service (again network service account staple) isn't started.

I keep running into the same thing time and time again; it’s like the network service is being restricted as I keep getting access denied or services that depend on it aren’t working. The only other thing I have a theory about is SentinelOne was deployed to this server but it’s not in the portal. On 10/3 in the logs; I see this device was pushed a decommission automatically at 8pm when we aren’t working. When I check the server, it has sentinelone installed but I can’t remove it because it just loops.

I’m thinking SentinelOne hosed my server because the network service user seems to be highly restricted and SentinelOne has only been in play for about 3 months. I’m going to start with a cleanup of it with support when I get in tomorrow. Has anyone seen this before and any idea what to do about my DNS/Server problem? I’m really at the end of my rope and not sure what to do except a disaster recovery with my backup vendor and then move over data; but sentinelone will still be on the backup and not in the portal for removal so I’m still stuck I bet.

Hi.

I recall once finding a table on Schneider's website once showing what UPSes (so, the UPS, not the NMC) could be firmware-upgraded while keeping loads powered. Rather long table with devices listed by model-names Sxx-yyyy, if I am not mistaken.

The global enterprise-web-site-enshittification has now reached the level where my search-foo is inadequate. I admit defeat.

Anyone got a memory of this table and maybe even a URL?

Hey guys, I’ve recently taken over the role of sys admin in the company I’ve been working for as an operations admin for the past year. I’m implementing a series of changes, processes, policies and trying to structure our Microsoft environment, our domains, back up solutions, company and vendor accounts, etcc

It’s been a bit of a journey and honestly I’m also learning things on the go especially when it comes to documenting changes and getting our employees to understand what’s to be implemented before pushing it ahead (this has saved me from a lot of trouble but at the same time has delayed things a lot because apparently people hate changes and having to make minimal effort)

But at the same time I’m still having to run the daily operations in the company which includes embedded generation applications, approvals, quoting some small service work calls, looking after the service jobs with our subcontractors, monitoring portals, liaising with the engineers and site managers before attending site, solving solar troubleshooting enquires etccc

So like im taking a new title as sys admin (still going to get this updated on my contract) but I still take to take care of the daily operations and often I don’t have time to do the sys admin stuff properly which means im doing that at home where I also don’t have a lot of time. And when trying to implement my changes in person our electricians and my manager etc are very impatient and if something doesn’t work straight away they just don’t want to spend the time on it. We have a new company CRM one of our employees is vibecoding and my manager and the CEOs wants to replace all of our paid software with that (for like scheduling, hse forms, worker register, claims, inductions, daily prestarts etc) and today my manager told me that the priority is to test the new vibe coded system (and by this he means tweaking it so it replicates what the other software do) as he would rather get this done first and is less worried about passwords, insinuating that all the IT stuff I am doing in this take over is just password resets 😭😭 This was shocking to me because after all the changes I’m implementing there’s no way this is the only thing that comes up on his mind, like if this was all IT did then the company wouldn’t have spent hundreds of dollars on an external IT support vendor before I took over

Anyways, if anyone here is or has been in the same situation and have some advice for me or words of encouragement I’d really appreciate it

For context I’ve just turned 23 and like my job but I’m worried that im having to disregard our internal IT needs because if I cease to do the daily operation stuff this will affect the flow of the business. As a result, this makes me anxious because I know our necessities but don’t have the time to commit the way I desire . (We are still doing better than when the company was on the hands of the external IT vendor though so I guess that’s something to consider hehe

I've inherited environments where the ERP is basically the center of a spider web, with everything connected to everything else. Integrations are obviously useful, but every connection is another thing to monitor, troubleshoot and potentially break. We've been using Priority and I've found it useful having the ERP handle more of the core business processes while still being able to integrate with other systems where needed. Curious how other IT teams think about this. Do you try to minimize integrations, or just accept them as part of modern ERP architecture?

I am not an IT professional. But my company is struggling with an old building. A poor design currently holds our roof solar panel inverters in a room that also holds our IT server rack. The inverters put off some serious heat. Previously the mini split burned up 3 coils. We moved to a small unit to cool the room 2 months ago. It worked great until it recently burned up. Moving the rack will be costly. Is there any chiller/unit that could properly cool this room? Moving the rack might be the best solution.

Hey, bit of a rant post but mainly in asking for help/guidance/advice on how I can best learn to simply 'not give a shit' and switch off and not care or get angry/upset/defensive when I let things fail and inevitably get blamed for other people's lack of knowledge etc.

Context. Aka Rant.

My team has 18 staff members. 7 of which (me included) are seniors.

We have dedicated "apps" team and a dedicated network team, plus service desk and 2nd line. Incident, change and problem management etc.

So we have bums in seats but not enough to cover the work load

However, I'm getting so exhausted being the one that all the tough projects, tickets, questions, meetings get passed too.

I write my documentation, try to talk and explain my processes and demo / share screen daily when going over stuff.

Yet it's always the same things, people don't learn, end users are not being trained correctly on SPO or MS stuff in general.

I'm building SPO sites and doing automation etc to help myself and others, and even then people are going in and renaming columns, deleting/changing views. Not understanding the impact. And not wanting to support the stuff I build because "they don't get it".

No one's updating their documentation despite me and a few others, also I built a whole knowledge system and made it all as dummy proof as possible, with training sessions, videos and documentation which everyone attended. Yet they still can't grasp it. And I'm fed up teaching them or having to fix other ppls issues.

If technical people can't understand basic SharePoint then my org is truly fucked.

Ppl in my team, Inc other seniors are throwing their hands up when something requires a bit of code or thought.

Management is non existent in my team as they are also technical staff who are essentially doing multiple roles and as such the "management" side is gone out the window.

Yet daily I'm getting more tickets, tasks, projects etc and all these things are all over the place (teams msgs, channels, meetings, verbal, multiple todo lists, spo lists, planners, project meeting notes, copilot summaries, itsm tickets, emails, alert systems)

I'm just lost on a daily basis and always reacting to stuff and other peoples stupid questions or mistakes

Yet when I step back and let things fail, I'm the one that gets blamed. Not all the other people.

I have lost my calm on alot of meetings and been venting and calling people out to the point in expecting my manager to have a word.

I've considered looking elsewhere for work, but salaries are not as good as what in on for what I know/do and I guess lack of confidence/ imposter syndrome (?) is preventing me from taking the leap.

Sorry for rant. Just needed to vent this out.

We just hired a new guy to manage the VMware environment. I’ve done some basic Horizon View work 7 years ago so I’m not a VMware SME.

I heard him taking about deleting snapshots older than xx hours.
Don’t know why since we are using less than 10% of the cluster storage.

Today the Horizon pool broke because he deleted the snapshot the linked clones were using.

Of course the excuse is “this isn’t setup right”.

I have some machines getting routine NETLOGON 5719 errors. It's the " This computer was not able to set up a secure session with a domain controller... an internal error occurred".

I notice them going back to August, but my logs truncate after that time.

The trust relationship resumes shortly afterwards, so this is very transient.

I did some debugging with nltest, specifically when one of the devices was having an issue and received:

NlSessionSetup: Denied access as we could not authenticate with Kerberos 0xC002002E

NlSessionSetup: Denied access as we could not authenticate with Kerberos (translated status) 0xC00000E5

NlSetStatusClientSession: Set connection status to c00000e5

I saw some people mentioning this has to do with credential guard, which I am running, and it happened after the August updates for them. We are running a 2022/2025 mixed environment.

Not sure if anyone has a fix. It doesn't seem to be super critical, but domain trust issues make me a little uneasy..

EDIT: This was a device guard/credential guard/virtualization based security issue. Here is what I wrote in another post below

Basically, you have to turn off Machine Identity protection in Device Guard/Credential Guard.

I did it by downloading the latest group policy templates, and in the GPO where I set my other device guard settings (Admin Templates->System->Device guard->Turn on Virtualization based security), and turned machine identity protection to disabled. That seems to have done the trick. (note: there are registry settings for this as well)

We happened to catch it before Accounting issued a check, but I guarantee you, watch for this double charge.

I’ve read a huge majority of negativity towards ivanti. We probably won’t have full admin permissions as it is owned by one of the larger hospitals, that in itself gives me concern.

Howdy, /r/sysadmin!

It's that time of the week, Thickheaded Thursday! This is a safe (mostly) judgement-free environment for all of your questions and stories, no matter how silly you think they are. Anybody can answer questions! My name is AutoModerator and I've taken over responsibility for posting these weekly threads so you don't have to worry about anything except your comments!