Sysadmin

The location of VMware Security Advisories (VMSAs) has changed on May 6, 2024. They are now available from the Broadcom Support Portal. The legacy VMSA URLs still work but are now redirected to the portal, for example: https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2024-0002.html points to https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/23681.

https://blogs.vmware.com/security/2024/05/where-did-my-vmware-security-advisories-go.html    

Edit: This Post covers what's going on. (thanks to /u/lost_signal and /u/RoomStrange6413)

Sourced from https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1cn3uhw/vmware_security_advisories_vmsas_are_now_to_be/

Samba is amazing, Windows server is a lot less so. The problem with Windows server is that it takes tons of steps to do basic things. On Samba I had Samba tool and it was very nice and friendly. On Windows server you have a ton of different management panels.

If there was a way I could hold off I would but due to changing requirements I didn't have much of a choice. (We needed Windows Server bare metal and I was not about to go and buy another machine.)

Hey all!

I’m a long time Linux user, and I’ve been avoiding it for the good part of the last ~15 years. Most of my Windows experience is from the XP times.

I’ve changed careers from agriculturing to ICT a few years ago (almost done with school), and while I can say I know my way around Linux pretty well, Windows is an alien landscape to me.

I got a job a few years ago as sysadmin (not so much, but still) / IT-support (more), and I find myself struggling to help customers with Windows / handle Windows servers. I would like to change that.

I have no intention on moving my personal computing to Windows due to privacy concerns, which is a bit contradictory to my goals, because AFAIK learning things this way is the “best” approach. It was the case with Linux for me, at least.

While i do learn Windows at my job, I’d like to compliment it with another approach, too.

Do you guys have any suggestions how I could learn Windows (the whole ecosystem, not just end-users computers)? I’d like it to be fun, as I get bored easily (breaking my Linux time and time again was really fun learning method) Maybe fire up some VMs and go from there, somehow? What do you think are the most essential skills for a Windows sysadmin? Active Directory, sure, but what else?

Hopefully this does not affect you but if you are running something like Arch, OpenSUSE tumbleweed, Debian sid or Fedora Rawhide and use SSH for remote access you should do a full wipe.

I received the below message. It states Skyline Advisor Pro can't be activated after 4/1. This doesn't look good for the Skyline program. I've been using it for a long time and between log assist and the recommendations, i've found it very helpful. I have the Dell integration in place but I haven't really used it much. It's unfortunate that this appears to be getting set out to pasture.

We would like to inform you of some upcoming changes to VMware Skyline's functionality and features, scheduled to take effect on or before April 1, 2024.

These changes are necessary as part of our VMware by Broadcom vision for the future of self-help issue avoidance and diagnostics for VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation.

Feature Changes 1 VMware Select Support Effective immediately, Skyline now supports VMware Select Support. This replaces VMware Success 360 (S360) Support, which reached End of Sale (EOS) in May 2023. As with S360 Support, Select Support provides access to Insights Reports, providing insights into the health and performance of your VMware infrastructure.

We highly recommend linking your Select Support Entitlement Account to your CSP Org as soon as possible to ensure seamless access to Skyline's proactive support and Insights Reports.

2 Availability After April 1, 2024

• Skyline Advisor Pro will remain available and fully functional for existing customers.

• Activation of new Skyline Advisor Pro services in new or existing CSP organizations will be discontinued and no longer available.

3 Active Skyline Organizations

Active Skyline Advisor Pro organizations will automatically be upgraded to Select Support level experience in Skyline and have access to Insights Reports. No action is required.

4 Inactive Skyline Organizations Skyline Advisor Pro organizations in an inactive state will be removed from the service.

Customers that have allowed their Skyline service to expire beyond the 60-day grace period must renew their access before April 1, 2024, to continue using Skyline.

5 Organizations in Limited Mode

Skyline Advisor Pro organizations in Limited Mode will be automatically renewed to Skyline at Select Support level experience to ensure full access. No action is required.

6 Technical Adoption Manager (TAM) Engagement

The process for TAM activation will be streamlined. Customers will now have full control over enabling TAM Reports. Once you opt in, no further action is required. The assigned TAM will have access to perform required duties as needed.

7 Integration with Dell's Secure Connect Gateway 5.0

Skyline Advisor Pro's integration with Secure Connect Gateway 5.0 will be discontinued due to the strategic direction of VMware Skyline.

VMware Skyline continues to provide proactive self-service support for your VMware environment. These changes will help deliver on the roadmap for self-help issue avoidance and diagnostics for VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our Skyline Community for assistance. We are committed to minimizing any disruptions to your operations.

Thank you for your continued trust in VMware Skyline.

Best Regards, VMware Skyline Team

Here is a video about Intel VDI.

Basically what it says in the title. I did a lot of searching in Internet. I think small form factor computers are mt best bet. But I still feel they are costly for my purpose.

I am going to be running some ansible playbooks periodically on the machine. SBCs i looked at either had very high specs for this use case and thus higher price or they had other fratures i dont want like - wifi, graphics card etc.

I am preferring enterprise hardware because this would eventually be used in business where people will not settle for anything less.

NIST is a US government org that releases industry guidlines on best practices for cybersecurity.

I know that infosec and sysadmin work aren't the same, but in my experience it often falls to sysadmins and systems engineers to fill the gaps. Hope this is useful.

I would never put Nix os into production as it is fairly obscure but since there was a interest here in Samba AD I though this might be interesting to some

Debian has less complexityand is very stable. It has a nice wiki and a Debian system can run for a few years on unattended upgrades.

Edit: this post was originally about cost savings but that is not really a useful metric

Hey guys,

Because of the unclear nature of Sharepoint folder permissions we want to make an export to Excel of each folder and the appropriate rights. Explicit rights only is fine but everything together is also fine.

Having tried and tested for hours I cannot seem to find a working script. Using outdated functions, random errors, etc.

Does anyone know a working script for this? A commercial solution (that does nog charge 4000$per year) is also fine. This is becoming an expensive headache for me.

I have already tried all the usual Google hits as well as ChatGPT. None seem to work but also not work with modern authentication when connecting to Sharepoint using Powershell for example which leads me to suspect they are too old.

If you are on call and you receive a call at say 3:45 am and you resolve the issue by 4:30 am. Is it then worth trying to go back to sleep to wake up for work the next day or should you just stay awake and power through it?

I'm asking because this happened to me and I went back to bed, did not feel tired at all and when I eventually fell asleep I got maybe an hour of extra sleep and I felt like complete garbage when my alarm went off and pretty much like that for the remainder of the day. Whereas I feel like if I just stayed awake for the extra time after 4:30 am I might have not felt as bad?

What are your opinions on this?

Edit: I'm appreciating all the responses and taking the information in. Sounds like this is not a clear cut case that is a simple yes do this or no don't do that.

Does anyone have recommendations for good VPS Linux hosting places? I used to recommend DigitalOcean, but I'm having a subpar support experience currently that sets off some slight alarm bells such that I might want to look elsewhere. What's good?

Honestly all new lenovos have been giving me issues, webcams break, stop charging, except for those black thinkpads.. This one suddenly decided to go display Chinese text and display goes black randomly

Have been using this for occasional outside broadcasts. It stopped working today. Downgrading to version 7.0.4 fixed it for now. Unfortunately Rustdesk doesn't support reverse tunnels so I'll have to hunt for an alternative method.

I manage hundreds of servers at work. They each have a BMC (remote power on/off, reset, KVM, etc) and we need to use those features frequently. I've been using a Google Docs spreadsheet to track their URLs, what each box is used for, specs, etc but it feels like a dynamic web app would be better for this purpose. Does anyone use anything like this? Did you make your own?

I read someone was trying to get Samba AD working in a container and now I am curious what else you guys are working on.

(PS: If that someone is still working on it you might try running DNS and LDAP in separate containers with samba running bare metal. Samba nor Linux supports windows distributed filesystems so you likely need either a central file share or rsync.)

I'm looking into building a new remote management with mesh VPNs but it may turn out not to be practical.

I've been seeing a lot of doom and gloom about VMware. The cutting of services and licensing changes of the cost of core offerings are huge issues. Is anyone planning or budgeting to change to another hypervisor? If so what?