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Sysadmin shock as Windows Server 2025 installs itself (www.theregister.com)

submitted 1 month ago by superkret@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] GreeNRG@slrpnk.net 295 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Since rolling back to the previous configuration will present a challenge, affected users will be faced with finding out just how effective their backup strategy is or paying for the required license and dealing with all the changes that come with Windows Server 2025.

Accidentally force your customers to have to spend money to upgrade, how convenient.

[-] Dremor@lemmy.world 203 points 1 month ago

Congratulation, you are being upgraded. Please do not resist. And pay while we are at it.

[-] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 125 points 1 month ago

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[-] Maestro@fedia.io 80 points 1 month ago

Since MS forced the upgrade, you should get 2025 for free. That would probably be really easy to argue in court

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 69 points 1 month ago

Ah, but did you read the article?

MS didn't force it, Heimdal auto-updated it for their customers based on the assumption that Microsoft would label the update properly instead of it being labeled as a regular security patch. Microsoft however made a mistake (on purpose or not? Who knows...) in labeling it.

[-] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 93 points 1 month ago

Then it's still on Microsoft for pushing that update through what is essentially a patch pipeline

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

MS will be sued over this and they will lose. This is not an ambiguous case. They fucked up. It’s essentially an unconsentual/unilateral alteration to a contract, which kinda violates the principle of, you know, a contract.

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Uh, if they didn't ask for it, how is Microsoft going to make them pay for it?

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Good luck arguing with Ms if you aren't a giant company

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 94 points 1 month ago

Misleading title. It was installed by a third-party updater, Heimdall, but MS labeled a Windows 11 update wrong.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 118 points 1 month ago

They labelled an OS version upgrade as a security update.

[-] dditty@lemm.ee 27 points 1 month ago

Yet another reason to not do auto-updates in an enterprise environment for mission-critical services.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 41 points 1 month ago

In an enterprise environment, you rely on a service that tracks CVEs, analyzes which ones apply to your environment, and prioritizes security critical updates.
The issue here is that one of these services installed a release upgrade because Microsoft mislabelled it as security update.

[-] NocturnalEngineer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Should still be doing phased rollouts of any patches, and where possible, implementing them on pre-prod first.

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Pre-prod is ideal, but a pipe dream for many. Lots of folks barely get prod.

We still stagger patching so things like this only wipe some of the critical infrastructure, but that still causes needless issues.

[-] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

For security updates in critical infrastructure, no. You want that right away, in best case instant. You can't risk a zero day being used to kill people.

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[-] Wooki@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Wrong.

Microsoft labelled the update as a security update

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[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 87 points 1 month ago

I'm truly, totally, completely shocked ... that Windows is still being used on the server side.

[-] Hobo@lemmy.world 62 points 1 month ago

A bunch of enterprise services are Windows only. Also Active Directory is by far the best and easiest way to manage users and computers in an org filled with a bunch of end users on Windows desktops. Not to mention the metric shitload of legacy internal asp applications...

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[-] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago

We run a lot of Windows servers for specialized applications that don't really have viable alternatives. It sucks, but it's the same reason we use Windows clients.

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[-] kokesh@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

It must have been the same fun as when back in 2012 (or 2013?) McAfee (at least I think it was them) identified /system32 as a threat and deleted it :)

[-] funkajunk@lemm.ee 46 points 1 month ago

One of the few things that accursed software actually got right!

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[-] Buttflapper@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago

Do system administrators still exist? Honest question. I was one of those years ago and layoffs, forced back to office bullshit drove me away

[-] superkret@feddit.org 64 points 1 month ago

yes, but we spend most of our time in meetings with cloud service vendors now.
I haven't been inside the server room for a month.

[-] Toribor@corndog.social 21 points 1 month ago

I only go in the server room to t-pose in front of the giant air conditioner to cool off.

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[-] floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 36 points 1 month ago

1000020048

[-] njordomir@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I knew a guy with almost that exact resume, except he told me it was chickens. He worked in Lagos during the week and went back to his chickens in rural Nigeria on the weekend.

[-] johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago

I think they call them devops now.

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[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

There are dozens of us (working for MSPs because in house doesn't pay as well and companies are cheap and want to outsource that cost center)!

[-] superkret@feddit.org 30 points 1 month ago

I switched from an MSP to a unionized in-house position, doubled my salary and my days of paid time off.

[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

I worked for a classic MSP a while back, barely lasted 3 months. Such a toxic environment, tons of pressure to spread yourself thinner and thinner.

It was one of those places where you were expected to be there an hour early, stay an hour late, and work through your lunch.

Even though that's illegal, it was never explicit, just one of those, wink wink type things. But the workload was always so heavy, you couldn't stay on top of everything unless you were working 50+ hours a week.

And of course, all salary, no overtime or double time for weekend work.

I do internal IT now, much better. Trying to get my own one-person shop going to eventually be fully self-employed. Actually, it would be really cool to become a worker-owned co-op, but that's still a faint dream.

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[-] Dashi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

That's my job title.

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[-] DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

I know this has nothing to do with my home computer, but this just further affirms my decision to switch to Linux earlier this year.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Copilot just forced itself onto my personal machines again so it's just typical Windows fuckery all around.

[-] VantaBrandon@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago

When the OS becomes the virus

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

When reading comprehension is limited to the title.
MS mislabeled the update
Heimdal (apparently a patchmanagement) auto-installed the falsely labeled update.

If OP (this was reported by a Redditor on r/sysadmin) and their company is unable to properly set grace periods for windows updates I can't help them either.
IMHO you are supposed to manually review and release updates either on a WSUS or the management interface of your patching solution.
Not just "Hehe, auto install and see what happens".
And if you do that shit, set a timeout for 14 days at least for uncritical rated updates.

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[-] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Hate to be that guy but if you automatically patch critical infrastructure or apply patches without reading their description first, you kinda did it to yourself. There’s a very good reason not a single Linux distribution patches itself (by default) and wants you to read and understand the packages you’re updating and their potential effects on your system

[-] Gimpydude@lemmynsfw.com 25 points 1 month ago

While you are generally correct, in this case the release notes labeled this as a security update and not an OS upgrade. The fault for this is Microsoft's not the sysadmin.

[-] festus@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago

Many distros (at least Ubuntu) auto-installs security updates, and here a mislabeled "security update" was auto-installed. This is not the fault of the sysadmins.

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

here a mislabeled "security update" was auto-installed.

To be fair, you would have to read all the way to the first paragraph to get this information from the article. Hard to blame people for not knowing this critical bit of information when it was buried so deep

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[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 1 month ago

You thought you were in control?

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[-] GatoEscobar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago

Crowdstrike moment

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Meanwhile I've still got customers who are running CentOS 6.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago

We have an app running on CentOS 6. The vendor of the app informed us they expect to have a new version that can run on RHEL 8 by the end of the year - 2025.

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[-] vordalack@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

"Labeling error"

Lol, okay.

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this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024

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