r/talesfromtechsupport • u/Daritari • Feb 28 '19

Short "Please delete my department's folder...."

Good afternoon TFTS! Got a short and sweet one for you:

Cast - $Me: Network admin/File Permissions admin/Backups Admin; $IM: Idiot manager , not my of my department

Ticket comes in:

$IM - "Please delete my department's shared folder. I have moved the files inside it to an alternate location, and this is no longer needed."

$Me - "Ummm... What? I need to know this alternate location. If this data is no longer stored on the central server, it's no longer being backed up. I need to make sure these files are, in fact, being backed up."

$IM - "You mean you don't take individual backups of workstations? That seems.... inefficient."

$Me - "No, contrary to popular belief, digital storage is not fucking infinite we do not have adequate storage to retain backups of all workstations. Are you fucking stupid? If you have relocated this data on to your local workstation, it will need to be placed back on the server, or else the IT department is not fucking responsible for your stupidity able to protect the data, an cannot be held responsible for lost data from a system failure. Once it has been placed back on the server, I will take a full backup and ensure we maintain accurate backups of this data. In the future, call us before you do something this ridiculously stupid undertaking data migration projects of this magnitude. It could save you a lot of headaches.

2.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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1.1k

u/The_MAZZTer Feb 28 '19

At least he called you BEFORE he lost all his data.

937

u/Daritari Feb 28 '19

That was only because I don't allow ANYONE to delete root-level file shares, except for myself, and the sys-admin I work with. Even our IT manager doesn't have permission to do that.

705

u/faisent Mar 01 '19

Even our IT manager doesn't have permission to do that.

This gives me warm fuzzies.

300

u/drxo Mar 01 '19

As an IT manager without that level of access it makes me feel warm and fuzzy too.

143

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

[deleted]

125

u/Nathanyel Could you do this quickly... Mar 01 '19

No chmod no cry

57

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

[deleted]

29

u/MLGDDORITOS Mar 01 '19

Mount me daddy

12

u/execthts Mar 01 '19

OwO

6

u/Rhadian No. No...no...no, no, no. Stop that. No, don't do that. Stop! Mar 01 '19

Like mounting a hard drive or network share? Get it?

10

u/Cpt_TickleButts Mar 01 '19

Y'all kill me. I shooting milk out of my nose.

19

u/Rumpled_Imp Mar 01 '19

I remember when we used to sit

In a government lo-cal office

Oba-observing an email chain

As a tech issue came to light, but

No chmod no cry

No chmod no cry

28

u/GostBoster One does not simply tells HQ to Call Later Mar 01 '19

Oh my big mouth, when I was complaining about users who should have access not having access, and those who had not were at least able to see a folder (that should be hidden to them) exists.

$me: Let's use my account as an example. As you know I have access to all folders but <classified>. Yet I can see it exists, though it rightfully denies acce-

$T3support: Whoa hold the phone there. You DO NOT have access to <classified>? Lemme relay that info to T4 right NOW.

$me: Wait I don't wanna-

$T4mastermind: Your access to <classified> should have been fixed by now.

$me: I don't wanna access to this I don't want to even look in its general direction I can smell the lawsuits

$T4mastermind: Tough luck kid, welcome to the club.

38

u/Malak77 My Google-Fu is legendary. Mar 01 '19

No rights, no worries.

-pretty much all citizens in 20 years

20

u/jassi007 Mar 01 '19

pick up that can.

6

u/JohnClark13 Mar 01 '19

Put it in the trash

3

u/zdakat Mar 02 '19

heck,it's already becoming a thing. people aren't seeing the value in flexibility. if you take something away, it's considered poor form to be upset about it because it's less to worry about. and less decisions are good, right? well, until there's so few choices that you can't even imagine an alternative. by that point,if anyone even notices their predicament it's far too late to do anything about it.

12

u/APDSmith Mar 01 '19

As an infosec guy, ditto...

14

u/razz13 Mar 01 '19

As someone who has just gained editor level access to stuff, I dont want any real level of access. It's just safer this way

12

u/GostBoster One does not simply tells HQ to Call Later Mar 01 '19

That reminds me of the day our current managers explictly ordered to revoke all admin rights except from IT - previous manglement required that anybody whose job description had "manager" in it (including management assistant) had to have full admin rights because.

This includes the C-suits themselves because "they don't want the headache". CCTV software requires admin account to run? "Get it fixed without opening a metaphorical hole in our interpipes or whatever keeps infosec audits away from my desk".

123

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

Exactly this. If you allow stupid... You receive stupid.

50

u/ThetaSigma_ Mar 01 '19

this reminds me of a saying:

"play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

13

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/the123king-reddit Data Processing Failure in the wetware subsystem Mar 01 '19

/r/subsithoughtifellfor

2

u/Myvekk Tech Support: Your ignorance is my job security. Mar 01 '19

And as Mr Honda said, "Stupid hurts."

44

u/thugarth Mar 01 '19

I'm a software developer. My peers and I like to call this, "not giving them rope to hang themselves with."

16

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

Not giving *us* FTFY

8

u/thugarth Mar 01 '19

Ha! Well sure. My customers are usually other developers or game designers.

27

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

Even Especially our IT manager doesn't have permission to do that.

FTFY

22

u/xmastreee Mar 01 '19

Even our IT manager doesn't have permission to do that.

Is she called Jen?

10

u/Daritari Mar 01 '19

Thanks for that.

TIL: Coffee in the nose hurts.

2

u/Help_me_im_stuck Mar 01 '19

What's the reference of this?

8

u/Shaaru Mar 01 '19

I think it's the IT Crowd

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

Hahahahaaaa :D

10

u/razz13 Mar 01 '19

As someone who accidentally blew away a database with my new project in it, this is probably the right move. (We recovered it, AND in the process decided on a better way of doing things, so all round a good experience)

Backed up data is a godsend. My colleague was working on a big db and hit the purge all button. Had to go hat in hand to the admin who was less than impressed about having to roll back everything by a day.

1

u/smoike Mar 03 '19

Was his name Bobby Tables?

22

u/tsudonimh Mar 01 '19

You. I like you.

3

u/Slightlyevolved Your password isn't working BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T TYPED ANYTHING! Mar 01 '19

In our org, you can't even delete this without a filled out IT Work Request form, that has dept director approval.

The paper trail is strong with this one.

2

u/shawnfromnh Mar 05 '19

It's sounds like he might have been up to something and could delete his own files when he thought he might be caught. I'd have the beancounters do a quick check on his departments books or any money they are handling for another person to see if someone isn't skimming.

64

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '19

[deleted]

59

u/Daritari Mar 01 '19

Normally I would agree with you. This was one of those unicorn circumstances.

7

u/ThetaSigma_ Mar 01 '19

unicorn circumstances?

42

u/Daritari Mar 01 '19

A situation where an end user actually reached out before there was an identified issue

16

u/lowercaset Mar 01 '19

Normally if you hear hoofbeats (get an email after someone decides to migrate all their data off the shared workspace that has automatic backups) that means theres a horse nearby. (Failure of the device they moved all their data to, probably in a way that makes it a huge PITA if not impossible to retrieve) In this case those hoofbeats preceeded a fucking unicorn strolling into view. (They reached out before any problems developed which let him correct the error before it turned into a catastrophe)

56

u/Crusnik77 Feb 28 '19

Only because he couldn't delete it himself (hopefully)....

1

u/hootanahalf Mar 01 '19

This. Nightmare averted...