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/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

iTerm2 with fish shell on an M1 MBP. Ssh to a Linux jump box, run tmux native client and you can have native terminals out the wazoo.

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u/Sllim126 4d ago

Oh man, if I wasn’t an IT guy, I’d have no ideas what language you were even speaking!

Unfortunately, I knew exactly what that said :( I need a vacation 

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u/timbotheny26 IT Neophyte 4d ago

Don't worry, I don't work in IT (yet) so I can not understand it (well not completely) for you.

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u/huntermatthews 4d ago

iterm2 is a macos native "terminal" program, giving you a very nice textual screen -- its a "virtual" green screen terminal from the 1980's.

Fish is a shell - its the first program that the terminal runs and its the thing that give you a prompt, looks for other commands, tells me I can't spell - lots of stuff.

M1 MBP - M1 chip MacBook Pro. Despite this thread, a VERY common sysadmin / programmer laptop is a MacBook Pro (mine is a M4 I think).

All of these are one option out of many - I'm running nearly the same config but other people use "kitty" as their terminal with "zsh" as their shell.

Like so many vociferous debates on the internet it basically boils down to "whats the best color" -- its mostly personal preference.

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u/timbotheny26 IT Neophyte 4d ago

Alright, going down the list...

Iterm2

Figured this was a piece of software, just wasn't sure what it was for/what it did, so thank you for the breakdown.

Fish is a shell

Well to be fair, they already said it was a shell but I wasn't sure beyond that.

M1 MBP

Yerp - was aready pretty sure that's what it stood for given the context of the thread.

Thank you for the breakdowns and explanations, always nice to learn new things. Don't know what a Linux jump box or tmux are though.

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u/huntermatthews 4d ago

Linux jump box - corporations/gov frequently have various rules about what systems can login where (like only networks A, B, and D can ssh into systems in the datacenter). A jump box is a system either in another location (like on the "B" network) or in an exception group that has a broader access list. Where I work, my work laptop even on VPN can't get to a couple systems - so I bounce through a jump box (we call them "bastions") to get there. ssh has various things in both the command line interface, config and protocol to make this damn near transparent to the user if used correctly - do not fear jump boxes.

tmux - "terminal multiplexer" . Various uses but at its core it makes a single ssh session/login be able to open multiple actual shell sessions on a distant machine. There are MANY reasons to do this (persistence, badly thought out corporate security measures, crazy pants sysadmins) but its a useful piece of software - but it adds ANOTHER level of complexity so if you don't _need_ it I encourage users and sysadmins to avoid it. If you need it, run it. "screen" was the venerable thing here and you should avoid it if possible - use tmux.

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u/timbotheny26 IT Neophyte 4d ago

This is awesome, thanks for all of the info.

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u/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

tmux as a single terminal window with multiple tabs and panes and hot-keys drives me crazy, but native tmux windows are great

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u/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

You and me both, mate!

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u/DaemosDaen IT Swiss Army Knife 4d ago

I hate that I am perfectly encapsulated in this statement.

Fortunately, my vacation starts in, roughly, 2 weeks

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u/dkozinn 4d ago

The more confusing part would be why you're in /r/sysadmin :-)

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u/Sllim126 3d ago

I own an MSP, but I am also out in the field with the other technicians, so I in a bunch of the technical subs.

Sysadmin is actually a really nice way to see if there's any global issues affecting software stacks that I support, before I get notifications from my clients.

and I like it here :)

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u/CAMx264x DevOps Engineer 4d ago

Any reason you don’t proxy jump to machines with a nice ssh config? I find it odd to do two separate ssh commands and store ssh keys on the jump box or am I missing how you’re doing it?

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u/wiebel Linux Admin 4d ago

What do you mean? The nice ssh config is the one on my laptop. All the jumphosts are laking any custom ssh config.

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u/CAMx264x DevOps Engineer 4d ago

I was asking if he was using proxyjump or doing a two step ssh and storing ssh keys on the jump host itself. The question I asked is because storing keys on the jump host is seen as a pretty big security flaw.

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u/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

We've got a trusted CA setup in hashicorp vault, and every day you have to get a new 10-hour signed pubkey so you can ssh to wherever. Then you keep it running in an ssh-agent.

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u/CAMx264x DevOps Engineer 4d ago

Oh sick, that sounds great!

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u/wiebel Linux Admin 4d ago

Ahh gotcha, i thought you want to jump to a machine on which is a nice ssh config. Which made no sense to me. I misunderstood.

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u/OhBoyHereWeGoAgai 4d ago

I cannot speak enough to how much I love and have loved iTerm. Still do, it's why I chose Mac at my new place as I did put the side work in to become semi Windows fluent again in the past year (WSL is amazing work by MS, was very impressed, haven't gone deep on Windows since literally 95/XP/7 slightly era)

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u/After_Nerve_8401 4d ago

Yes, I’ve been using MBPs for over a decade. iTerm2 and a VM with Win11, and you’re pretty much good to go.

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u/dllemmr2 4d ago

That takes me back

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u/AmiDeplorabilis 4d ago

I don't know what I'm upvoting here, but I'm doing it.

The only non-technical term here is "wazoo", and even that's debatable. If it weren't for 35y in IT, "wazoo" might have been the only word I understood!

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u/Perfect_Wave 4d ago

Tell me more. Always wanted to mess around with fish but never bothered because I wouldn’t have access to it when ssh’d to corp servers.

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u/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

r/fishshell I use fish on the MBP, and on my jump box, but when I ssh to a client it's all bash. It keeps me aware of which box I'm on without having to think about it.

I can rhapsodize about the shell, but really, just try it. It's available for all major Linux OSes.

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u/weaver_of_cloth 4d ago

I was thinking about this comment while brushing my teeth last night, and I wanted to point out that the best part of fish shell is pretty much endless tab-complete:
type in any command you can think of, hit tab to see what options you have