Best Sysadmin Podcasts (2025)

1
TNO051: Networks That Do: From Automated to Autonomous Networks with Meter (Sponsored) 39:20

5h ago39:20

39:20

Will it be possible to have fully autonomous networks in the near future? Anil Varanasi, CEO and Co-Founder of Meter, joins Scott Robohn in this sponsored episode to discuss the ongoing evolution from automated to autonomous networks. Anil breaks down how Meter differentiates from other networking vendors, discusses how Meter’s network products are…

1
2.5 Admins 276: Very Prudish Network 26:16

15h ago26:16

26:16

What a government crackdown on VPNs would look like, malware groups play the long game with browser extensions, a new major version of FreeBSD is released, and using a single database vs one DB per application or VM. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Enabled Disaster Recovery for Virtualizatio…

1
N4N044: Redundancy Vs. High Availability Part 2 – HA Networking Isn’t Free 56:29

18h ago56:29

56:29

In Part 1 of Redundancy vs. High Availability, we said that sometimes high availability and redundancy are considered to be the same thing, but we disagree. Holly and Ethan do agree that high availability can be considered a network design goal, and that redundancy is just one technique that can be used to help make... Read more »…

1
IPB189: RFC 9898 – Neighbor Discovery Considerations in IPv6 Deployments 30:48

17h ago30:48

30:48

The newly published RFC 9898 is the discussion of today’s podcast. The IPv6 Buzz crew explore the complexities of neighbor discovery and review solutions for both operators and architects. They share how this RFC serves as a single, detailed resource to improve your understanding of neighbor discovery and to reduce the potential attack surface in..…

1
D2DO288: Technology, Career, and Finding a Purpose with Deana Solis 47:29

1d ago47:29

47:29

Ned and Kyler sit down with Deana Solis, a freelance FinOps engineer and mentor. They discuss the undervalued skills of communication, look at the inherent biases and misplaced confidence of AI models, and offer guidance for those starting their careers. Deana also talks about her journey to discover the intersection of technology, career, and find…

1
PP089: Hidden Wi-Fi Misconfigurations and Wi-Fi 7 Issues to Be Aware Of 1:02:49

2d ago1:02:49

1:02:49

There may be misconfigurations and other problems lurking in your wireless network. From a lack of peer isolation to poor segmentation to RADIUS problems and vendor fails, these issues can make your WLAN less secure. Jennifer “JJ” Minella goes from Packet Protector co-host to guest as she discusses these issues with Drew Conry-Murray. This episode.…

1
NB554: AWS, Google Link Public Clouds; Trading Data Center Has Zero Chill 36:44

3d ago36:44

36:44

Take a Network Break! We start with listener follow-up on Fortinet’s vulnerability numbering, and sound a red alert about an authentication bypass vulnerability in ASUS’s AiCloud service. AWS and Google announce a joint cross-cloud interconnect offering (other cloud providers are invited to play), Microsoft and Ciena pitch a new design to boost opt…

1
2.5 Admins 275: G-word 25:51

8d ago25:51

25:51

Google kept collecting sensor data even after bricking Nest thermostats, FreeBSD’s container support gets serious, and where to find cheap (or even dirt cheap) used hardware. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes How to Set Up a Highly Available ZFS Pool Using Mirroring and iSCSI December Webinar: The…

1
NAN107: How AI is Changing the Networking Landscape 1:06:19

9d ago1:06:19

1:06:19

The world of networking is changing at lightning speed thanks to AI. Today Eric sits down with Chris Kane to explore this new reality for network engineers. Together, they dive deeper into some of the changes that will be coming next, breaking down the technical demands and mindset shifts of intellectual curiosity and humility necessary... Read mor…

1
PP088: How Fortinet Delivers Web App Security in the AI Era (Sponsored) 44:32

10d ago44:32

44:32

Web applications have always been tricky to protect. They’re meant to be accessible over the Internet, which exposes them to malicious actors, they’re designed to take end-user inputs, which can be manipulated for malicious purposes, and they often handle sensitive data. Then the rise of public cloud and microservices architectures added new layers…

1
NB553: Palo Alto Networks Acquires Chronosphere; New Agentic AI Products for Orchestration and Networking 47:22

11d ago47:22

47:22

Take a Network Break! We start with a relative path traversal vulnerability in Fortinet’s FortiWeb. We’ll move on to an acquisition by Palo Alto Networks, another hiccup from our friends at Cloudflare, some AI announcements by Itential and Gluware, and finish with first quarter 2026 fiscal results from Palo Alto Networks. AdSpot Sponsor: Itential .…

1
TNO050: Resiliency and Transparency with Andy Lapteff 57:59

14d ago57:59

57:59

Today Scott interviews Andy Lapteff. He opens up about his non-linear career path, starting from a working class background and his physical jobs in telecom to becoming a senior product marketing manager and podcaster. Join us as Andy shares candid stories of how he developed his resilience and the heartwarming origin story for the Art... Read more…

1
HN806: Let’s Get NUTS! 46:07

14d ago46:07

46:07

Unit testing is a software development practice for checking that an individual component of code works before integrating that unit with other components in a larger program. A new open source project called Network Unit Testing System, or NUTS, brings the same concept to network automation. The big idea is that by incorporating unit tests into...…

1
HN806: Let’s Get NUTS! 46:07

14d ago46:07

46:07

Unit testing is a software development practice for checking that an individual component of code works before integrating that unit with other components in a larger program. A new open source project called Network Unit Testing System, or NUTS, brings the same concept to network automation. The big idea is that by incorporating unit tests into...…

1
HN806: Let’s Get NUTS! 46:07

14d ago46:07

46:07

Unit testing is a software development practice for checking that an individual component of code works before integrating that unit with other components in a larger program. A new open source project called Network Unit Testing System, or NUTS, brings the same concept to network automation. The big idea is that by incorporating unit tests into...…

1
Admin Admin Podcast #102 – Getting the band back together 47:23

14d ago47:23

47:23

In this episode we return after a couple of years in hiatus to talk about what we’ve been up to since we last recorded, including: LLMs; the differences between platform, DevOps, and sysadmin; and red tape. Show Notes: https://www.adminadminpodcast.co.uk/ep102sn/By Admin Admin Podcast Feed – The Admin Admin Podcast

1
2.5 Admins 274: Go Go Gadget Windows 27:15

14d ago27:15

27:15

Windows is becoming an “agentic OS”, some WD SMR drives are dying prematurely, backing up VMware with ZFS, and separating trusted and non-trusted devices on your network. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Understanding Storage Performance Metrics December Webinar: The 12 Days of ZFS: Tips, Tricks,…

1
IPB188: IPv6 Adoption for an Entire Country 35:54

15d ago35:54

35:54

What does it take for an entire country to adopt IPv6? Our guest today is Tenanoia (Noia) Simona, CEO of Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation, the country’s sole telecommunications provider. She’s here to walk us through the difficulties of connecting the many islands of Tuvalu and their journey to achieving one of the world’s highest IPv6 adoptio…

1
N4N043: Redundancy vs. High Availability Part 1 1:00:28

15d ago1:00:28

1:00:28

In today’s chat, Holly and Ethan consider a question from listener Douglas who asks, “How do you approach designing a network for high availability and redundancy?” They start by defining differences between redundancy and high availability, and talk about Holly’s experience with her own customers. Then they share examples of how to achieve redunda…

1
D2DO287: Leveling Up in Data Science 37:51

16d ago37:51

37:51

Ever wonder what it takes to level up your career in data science? Senior Data Scientist Darya Petrashka joins Ned and Kyler to share her personal journey from management and linguistics into data science, the real difference between a junior and a senior role, and helps us get under the “data science umbrella” to see... Read more »…

1
PP087: Why SBOMs Are Cooler and More Useful Than You Think 46:08

17d ago46:08

46:08

Just what’s inside that commercial software you bought? Does it contain open-source components, NPM packages, or other third-party code? How could you find out? The answer is a Software Bill of Materials, or SBOM, a machine-readable inventory of a finished piece of software. Why should you care about SBOMs? Our guest, Natalie Somersall, is here... …

1
NB552: Nokia Switches On AI Ops; IBM Seeks a Quantum of Advantage 44:58

18d ago44:58

44:58

Take a Network Break! Red Hat Samba server has a remote command execution vulnerability, and we cover some follow-up on fusion as a viable energy source (still a work in progress). On the news front, we search for signs in SoftBank’s sale of its Nividia stake, Mplify debuts a new certificate on carrier Ethernet for... Read more »…

1
HN805: The Past, Present, and Future of NANOG 47:46

21d ago47:46

47:46

NANOG, or the North American Network Operation Group, is an organization committed to the continuing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet. At the NANOG Conference 95 in late October 2025, Ethan Banks chatted with Steve Feldman, a member of NANOG’s Board of Directors. Steve has been involved with NANOG since the very first... Read mor…

1
HN805: The Past, Present, and Future of NANOG 47:46

21d ago47:46

47:46

NANOG, or the North American Network Operation Group, is an organization committed to the continuing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet. At the NANOG Conference 95 in late October 2025, Ethan Banks chatted with Steve Feldman, a member of NANOG’s Board of Directors. Steve has been involved with NANOG since the very first... Read mor…

1
HN805: The Past, Present, and Future of NANOG 47:46

21d ago47:46

47:46

NANOG, or the North American Network Operation Group, is an organization committed to the continuing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet. At the NANOG Conference 95 in late October 2025, Ethan Banks chatted with Steve Feldman, a member of NANOG’s Board of Directors. Steve has been involved with NANOG since the very first... Read mor…

1
2.5 Admins 273: Reliability Tracking 25:58

22d ago25:58

25:58

Allan tells us about the recent OpenZFS Summit including inconsistent JBODs, more details about mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard that allows you to keep using partially dead hard drives, Seagate’s roadmap for 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe connected mechanical drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work. Plugs Support u…

1
LIU004: From Fast Food to Leading Operations at an ISP 1:02:07

22d ago1:02:07

1:02:07

Think you need a degree or a ton of certificates to succeed in tech? Think again. Matthew Oborne joins our hosts Alexis Bertholf and Kevin Nanns to discuss how he went from working fast food to leading operations at an ISP. Your starting point doesn’t define your ceiling; resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to learn... Read more »…

1
Ask The Hosts – Episode 30 20:00

23d ago20:00

20:00

The skills we wish we had (but accept we never will), what we are most scared of and if we’d confront it for money, and whether free will exists. With May, Chris, and Gary from Linux After Dark. Patrons got this this in their feed two weeks ago.By The Late Night Linux Family

1
NAN106: Unimus: Network Automation By and For Network Engineers (Sponsored) 44:49

23d ago44:49

44:49

Tomas Kirnak, CEO of Unimus, joins Eric Chou in this sponsored episode to introduce Unimus, an on-premise network configuration management system built by network engineers to solve real-world problems. In this deep dive they discuss Unimus’ proprietary “Behavioral Tree” for automatic device discovery, the platform’s vendor support, the 70/30 rule,…

1
PP086: Using Let’s Encrypt and the ACME Protocol for Domain Validation Certificates 44:39

24d ago44:39

44:39

Certificates are the socks of IT—everyone needs them, and you always lose track of a few. On today’s show we dive into the ACME protocol, an IETF standard to help automate how a domain owner gets a domain validation certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). Our guest, Ed Harmoush, a former network engineer with AWS... Read more »…

1
NB551: Cisco Adds AI to Tech Support; Cryptography Hits a Post-Quantum Milestone 28:59

25d ago28:59

28:59

Take a Network Break! We start with a critical vulnerability in Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Express. On the news front it’s a Cisco triple play: the company brings AI to professional services and tech support with Cisco IQ, debuts converged infrastructure for the AI edge, and launches a new cert geared for running AI data... Read more »…

1
HN804: How Prisma SASE Builds on Public Clouds for Scale, Resiliency (Sponsored) 56:07

28d ago56:07

56:07

How do you architect a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to provide critical security services to millions of endpoints distributed across the planet? How do you build such a service for scale, performance, and resiliency? One option is to build your own PoPs or use colocation facilities, run your own infrastructure stack, and connect everything...…

1
HN804: How Prisma SASE Builds on Public Clouds for Scale, Resiliency (Sponsored) 56:07

28d ago56:07

56:07

How do you architect a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to provide critical security services to millions of endpoints distributed across the planet? How do you build such a service for scale, performance, and resiliency? One option is to build your own PoPs or use colocation facilities, run your own infrastructure stack, and connect everything...…

1
HN804: How Prisma SASE Builds on Public Clouds for Scale, Resiliency (Sponsored) 56:07

28d ago56:07

56:07

How do you architect a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to provide critical security services to millions of endpoints distributed across the planet? How do you build such a service for scale, performance, and resiliency? One option is to build your own PoPs or use colocation facilities, run your own infrastructure stack, and connect everything...…

1
TNO049: Automated Network Testing and Validation 52:50

28d ago52:50

52:50

What does network testing and validation really mean? How do testing and validation fit within an automation workflow? Is it possible to run meaningful tests without coding skills? Dan Wade from BlueAlly answers these questions and offers practical insights into building trust in automation through test environments, using AI for ideation and probl…

1
IPB187: IPv6 RFC Updates 20:19

28d ago20:19

20:19

Today the IPv6 Buzz crew provides updates on the latest in IPv6 standards, RFCs, and best practices. They break down the recent discussions around RFC 6052, explore the options for RFC 8215, and share Nick’s spin on the now defunct testipv6.com site. Episode Links: RFC 6052 RFC 8215 RFC 6598 IPv6.army…

1
2.5 Admins 272: NVMe Surprise 24:34

29d ago24:34

24:34

Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Advanced ZFS Dataset Management: Snapshots, Cl…

1
N4N042: Meet MACsec 52:19

29d ago52:19

52:19

MACsec is a protocol for encrypting Ethernet frames on a local (though not always local) network. Ethan Banks and Holly Metlitzky have an ELI5 (explain like I’m 5) discussion as to what exactly is MACsec and how it differs from IPsec. They talk about when and whether you need to implement MACsec with all the... Read more »…

1
D2DO286: Scaling Kubernetes Across Clouds – Identity, DNS, and Security 40:39

29d ago40:39

40:39

If you think managing Kubernetes clusters is hard, what about managing Kubernetes clusters across three different public clouds? We dive into the challenges that arises from running multi-cloud Kubernetes workloads. These challenges include workload identity, DNS query resolutions, and security. Here to help us navigate this complexity and offer po…

1
PP085: News Roundup – Naked Satellite Signals, Account Recovery Buddies, Busting Ghost Networks 52:28

30d ago52:28

52:28

Did you know college students are snooping on satellite transmissions? On today’s news roundup we discuss new research in which university investigators use off-the-shelf equipment to intercept traffic from geostationary satellites and discover that a lot of it is unencrypted. We also dig into the credential hygiene lessons we can learn from a corp…

1
NAN105: Campus Network Automation, Powered by Cisco Agentic Workflows (Sponsored) 44:30

30d ago44:30

44:30

Cisco Workflows is a new platform that makes network automation easier, smarter, and safer. On today’s episode, sponsored by Cisco, we get introduced to Cisco Workflows by Stephen Orr, Distinguished Solutions Engineer; and Reid Butler, Director of Product Management. They break down how Workflows helps you ditch repetitive tasks, roll out changes f…

1
NB550: A Cornucopia of AI Switches; DNS Strikes Again 29:38

1M ago29:38

29:38

Take a Network Break! We start with some educational content on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, and sound the alarm about a sandbox escape affecting the Firefox browser. On the news front, a DNS issue triggers a major Azure outage that affected numerous services and caused problems around the globe, Palo Alto Networks announces enhancements to... R…

1
TNO048: Ops to Orchestrated: An Architect’s Automation Journey 42:09

1M ago42:09

42:09

On today’s show, sponsored by Itential, we talk about automation in the real world. Guest Jesse Ford is an automation architect at Itential. We talk about his career journey, how he got into network automation, how he decides which is the best tool for a job, and why tool diversity isn’t the same as chaos.... Read more »…

1
HN803: How to Start a Networking Meetup 58:47

1M ago58:47

58:47

On today’s episode, we take a break from one’s and zero’s for a discussion about starting a networking meetup. Our guest is Steinn “Steinzi” Örvar, who recently founded the ISNOG, a network operators’ group in Iceland. We quiz Steinzi about what worked and what didn’t. We also pick his brain for the nitty-gritty details about... Read more »…

1
HN803: How to Start a Networking Meetup 58:47

1M ago58:47

58:47

On today’s episode, we take a break from one’s and zero’s for a discussion about starting a networking meetup. Our guest is Steinn “Steinzi” Örvar, who recently founded the ISNOG, a network operators’ group in Iceland. We quiz Steinzi about what worked and what didn’t. We also pick his brain for the nitty-gritty details about... Read more »…

1
HN803: How to Start a Networking Meetup 58:47

1M ago58:47

58:47

On today’s episode, we take a break from one’s and zero’s for a discussion about starting a networking meetup. Our guest is Steinn “Steinzi” Örvar, who recently founded the ISNOG, a network operators’ group in Iceland. We quiz Steinzi about what worked and what didn’t. We also pick his brain for the nitty-gritty details about... Read more »…

1
LIU003: A Chat With ‘The Cloud Therapist’ 44:24

1M ago44:24

44:24

Your background and experiences outside of tech can become a significant factor in your tech career. Guest Chris Williams is a good example; he talks about how his undergraduate and graduate studies in psychology influenced his work as a Developer Relations Manger at Hashicorp. Hosts Alexis Bertholf and Kevin Nanns chat with him about how... Read m…

1
2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet 27:54

1M ago27:54

27:54

Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster. Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Discussion Supermicro server motherboards can be infected with u…

1
PP084: Inside the CVE Process With Cisco (Sponsored) 44:50

1M ago44:50

44:50

CVEs, or Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, are such a routine aspect of tech that most IT pros probably take them for granted. But like many things we take for granted, the CVE process takes some serious organizational infrastructure to function. On today’s Packet Protector, sponsored by Cisco, we talk about the organizations and processes that…

1
NAN104: The Art and Science of Writing a Network Automation Book 57:53

1M ago57:53

57:53

Host Eric Chou talks with Jeff Kala, co-author of the newly released “Network Automation Cookbook 2nd Edition,” to discuss his book and the experiences that led him from networking to network automation author. They discuss Jeff’s learning style and why it was helpful when working on his book. Lastly, they dig into Jeff’s predictions on... Read mor…

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