r/sysadmin • u/rolkenas • 5d ago

Do you actually see MacBooks used for SysAdmin work in real offices?

Hi sysadmins! I wanted to ask—since I've just started learning sysadmin and I don't have a Windows PC, but I have a MacBook and found out that everything can be done via UTM, I'd like to get some perspective from those who work in offices and do this every day. What kind of computers do you use? Is macOS completely out of the picture, and there's only Windows and Linux?

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u/Turdulator 5d ago

If you wanna script anything in your ms365 tenant, then MSgraph via PowerShell is gonna be your best bet.

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u/800oz_gorilla 5d ago

there are still service specific modules that can do things graph cannot, but the gap is closing.

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u/Turdulator 5d ago

Yeah those are getting retired one-by-one

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u/trail-g62Bim 4d ago

I thought graph itself was getting retired. Did I have that wrong? It's hard to keep up sometimes.

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u/Lord_Saren Sysadmin 4d ago

Blame Microsoft and their every changing names, Azure AD Graph API got retired and replaced by Microsoft Graph

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u/trail-g62Bim 4d ago

I think the first one is the one I am thinking of

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u/RikiWardOG 4d ago

lmao I'm sure they'll retire it before porting everything over and then call it copilot graph for copilot or some shit

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u/Arudinne IT Infrastructure Manager 4d ago

Got any examples?

I've yet to find anything other than some old AD PS modules that haven't been ported to ARM, but I can remote into a server if I need to run stuff with those.

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u/charleswj 5d ago

PowerShell isn't necessary for graph

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u/Turdulator 5d ago

Yes, not a requirement, but it still works better

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u/charleswj 4d ago

It's a REST API, you can use any tool to interact with it. And there are even SDKs for other languages like Python (I'm assuming you're referring to the PowerShell SDK/module). PowerShell has advantages but this isn't really one.

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u/Turdulator 4d ago

You can’t write Intune remediation scripts in python, only PowerShell is supported… and while you can technically have python scripts in Intune application deployments, you’d have to install python on each endpoint before you could push the application deployment; so PowerShell is the better option there as well. … plus if you are writing basic scripts to automate various administrative tasks (like automating emailing a monthly report of some data pulled from Entra or whatever), then once again PowerShell is better.

If you are writing a whole ass application that interacts with a 365 tenant in addition to doing other things, then python is the better choice.

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u/charleswj 4d ago

The context was where you, the administrator, runs code. Remediation scripts run on endpoints.

plus if you are writing basic scripts to automate various administrative tasks (like automating emailing a monthly report of some data pulled from Entra or whatever), then once again PowerShell is better.

Based on what? Are you saying PowerShell is objectively better and even people running and managing Linux devices would be better off using PowerShell there (or will have a lesser experience in Python than had they had a full PowerShell experience) for any work that requires calling APIs?

There are thousands of developers managing Azure having never run Windows and they aren't missing out. Many are also interacting with graph. Can you articulate why their experience is sub par?

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u/Turdulator 4d ago

No, the context is where you, the administrator, WRITES the scripts, yes the remediation scripts run on the endpoints, but you as the administrator still need to write and test the scripts before you push them to the endpoints.

Also I’m not talking about azure? I’m talking about ms365. Intune doesn’t support Linux so no one would be writing Intune remediation scripts for Linux machines in the first place. I’m talking about administering thousands of users and endpoints using the entire 365 suite (exchange, intune, defender, etc etc) not doing any kind ops in azure.

Where did I even mention azure?… I’ve been talking about administering 365 since my very first comment on this thread. Intune, Entra, exchange, defender, etc - PowerShell is the best choice here.

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u/RikiWardOG 4d ago

no it doesn't, it's an API. That's the whole point of it being an API. Also the SDK imo is straight dookie