While recording a podcast episode in the wake of the 2024 Crowdstrike Incident, I spoke briefly about the reactions I had seen from the technical community. At that moment, I realized that, even though many of us treat the terms “kernel”, “shell”, and “operating system” as 101 level, basic, simple concepts, we should not. You …
Continue reading “Kernels, Shells, and Operating Systems (Re)Visited”
Understand how PowerShell’s ValidateNotNullOrEmpty combined with default values can address the shortcomings of Mandatory parameters.
Hey sysadmins! Do you want to automate more, but get bogged down in the time and complexity of bulletproof PowerShell scripting? After a period of skepticism and reading a lot of negative opinions on Copilot, I finally decided to try it out for myself. I discovered that you can’t simply allow it to go off …
Continue reading “Supercharge Powershell with Github Copilot”
[citationic] As with many of my articles, this one serves as a public “note to self” for a problem that I run into often enough to need to skip a lot of searching but not often enough to remember how to fix. I have set up a new Ubuntu server system and I want to …
Continue reading “How to Configure Ubuntu for Public Key WinSCP Access”
Scenario: You connect your Windows or Hyper-V system to a FiberChannel or iSCSI target device that supports multi-path I/O (MPIO). When you view Disk Management, it shows up twice (or more). You can bring one online, but any others show “Offline (The disk is offline because it has a redundant path with another device)”. The …
Continue reading “Fiber Channel or iSCSI Disk Appears Two or More Times in Disk Management”
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) brings the convenience of native Linux functionality to Windows Server. You have access to a fully functional Linux kernel in the distribution of your choice embedded right where you have instant access without needing to rely on a heavy virtualization layer or a thick emulator. This article focuses on WSL …
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The growth of digital threats has made our need for security more pervasive. Where possible, we try to use active schemes. However, private key infrastructure and certificates serve a powerful purpose and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As threats grow, we as systems administrators need to improve the way that we …
Most yes/no questions in server administration have the wonderfully vague answer of “it depends”. This question, however, does not. Unequivocally: yes, server administrators should learn to code. If you got into this line of work because you enjoy computing but don’t want to program, take heart. You do not need to achieve anything like the …
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In a perfect world, server administrators would only need to install, maintain, and troubleshoot hardware and software. We would have access to detailed manuals, walkthroughs, and capable support staff. Employers would give us the freedom we need to select and deploy the best options. Industries and verticals would have standardized on the most superior solutions, …
Continue reading “Decision Making for Server Administrators and System Architects”
Whether setting up a lab or deploying into production, server administrators need to gain comfort with the installation process for Windows Server. This article specifically shows how to install Windows Server 2022. The process has not had much more than cosmetic changes for about a decade. These directions start at the beginning and go through …