Network Administration & Consulting Services

For me and my clients I create many scripts to simplify daily Administration tasks. Many of this script should be running from a command line ( cmd. exe). It’s very easy to run any script and to get a result of it to the log file. But, if you would like to run script and watch the result on the screen and in same time you need a hard copied log, you can use a MTEE command line utility. Mtee is a commandline utility that sends any data it receives to the console and to any number of files. Useful if you want to watch and record the output from a batch file or program.

Mtee is an 11kb standalone executable. There is no installation procedure, just run it.
Mtee is simple to use and only has several options. To list them, type mtee/?

You can download Mtee from offisial web site by following to the http://www.commandline.co.uk/mtee/index.html

Microsoft Application Virtualization, formerly known as SoftGrid Application Virtualization, is the first Microsoft-branded release of this product...

innotek has released an update to VirtualBox, 1.5.2.

Few days ago, on Microsoft TechNet's web site published a very good article "Top 5 Exchange Server 2007 Security Best Practices". This article so clear and simple to implement that I decided to republish it here...

Earlier this week at TechEd IT Forum in Barcelona, Microsoft announced pricing, packaging and licensing options for Windows Server 2008, which includes Microsoft’s server virtualization technology Hyper-V, previously code-named “Viridian.” The new packaging outlined in the announcement includes eight new versions, three of which include Hyper-V. For a rundown of the pricing, see the press release. In addition, Microsoft announced Hyper-V Server, a standalone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that complements the Hyper-V technology within Windows Server 2008, allowing customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server.

All Network Administrators at least once thought about how to install a program on remote computer without ever touching it. Hopefully, today we have a lot of ways to achieve this goal. The very interesting part of it all is, when ever I provide a consulting services to companies, I hear the same question, “Michael, do you know any FREE solutions to distribute programs, patches or run anything on remote computers?”

I’d like to show you the solution, I’ve created for myself. Let’s call it “Free Deployment System :)”...

For the last few days, the four giant display "screens" in Toronto downtown have been crashed. Could this be the world's largest BSOD?

Iperf is an easy-to-use free command line tool that allows you to measure your network bandwidth by generating artificial traffic. Such a tool can be useful if you want to test whether the network speed is fast enough for a certain application or not. You can also use it to troubleshoot network related problems.

Iperf is quite a sophisticated tool with many options. Some of them are for network professionals who want to fine tune network devices. However, if you just want to measure the network bandwidth, you don’t have to be a network expert to use Iperf.

First, you have to run Iperf on your server in server mode:

iperf -s

Iperf will respond like this:

------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------

Then you launch Iperf on your client:

iperf -c 10.0.0.5 -t 30

My test server had the IP address 10.0.0.5. You could also use the server name. The t option is for configuring the time interval that Iperf will probe the network performance between client and server. In this example I had to wait for 30 seconds until Iperf measured the network speed. Take note that during this time Iperf will send large amounts of data thru your network. So it is not a good idea to use this tool if your system or network is already quite busy. This was the output of Iperf in my example:

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.0.0.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.0.0.211 port 1793 connected with 10.0.0.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[1912] 0.0-30.0 sec 680 MBytes 190 Mbits/sec

In 30 seconds, 680 MB were transferred which corresponds to a network speed of 190 Mbits/sec. If you ever wondered how fast a virtual network under VMware Workstation is, then you know now. Both, my client and my server were virtual machines. Of course, I just measured the CPU power of my host system.

Iperf is certainly a nice tool. It has many options allowing you to hunt down all kinds of network-related performance problems. However, I usually prefer tools with a graphical user interface, especially if I use them only once in a while. After not working with the tool for some time, I forgot its parameters and so I have to start reviewing its documentation again. If you know a free GUI tool with similar capabilities like Iperf, please let me know.

Source: http://4sysops.com

Sysinternals Tools have been updated. PSExec v1.90 improves handling of arguments, BgInfo v4.12 offers improved reporting, Process Explorer v11.04 fixes a memory leak, ADExplorer v1.01, DebugView v4.72 and Process Monitor v1.26 fix some minor bugs.

I've asked by one of companies, where i provide an IT consulting services, how to install directx on client's computers unattended?

By going to the http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219742.aspx you can find, black on white, how to install directx in unattended mode. All you have to do, is to add the switch "/silent"!

Admins, I'm also VERY lazy admin, but reading a HELP save your time, remember the RTFM rule ;)

These technical overviews provide IT Professionals with information about how a Windows Server 2008 technology works. They may also cover design and planning considerations and basic setup and operating instructions. 

The download contains the following documents:

• DNS Server Global Query  Block List
• Installing and Configuring and Troubleshooting the Microsoft Online Responder
• What's New in Failover Clusters
• What's New in Terminal Services for Windows Server 2008

Download: WS2008 Technical Overviews

If the primary Windows NT account for a mailbox is changed, the new primary Windows NT account does not have immediate access to the mailbox and the previous primary Windows NT account still maintains access for some period of time.  This problem may also occur after a move mailbox operation.

It's because of the information store caches information contained in the directory store and, by default, it re-reads it every 120 minutes. Therefore, any change to a directory object (for example, a primary Windows NT account change) is not reflected in the information store for two hours.

To have changes to directory objects picked up immediately by the information store, follow these steps:

1. Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value.
4. Enter Mailbox Cache Age Limit for the Value name.
5. Type REG_DWORD for the Data type.
6. Type 1 for the Data of type DECIMAL, and then click OK.
   
   NOTE: This registry entry is not a switch, it is a setting. If it is set to 1 the server rereads the cache every minute; if it is set to 2 the server rereads the cache every 2 minutes, and so forth.
   
   
7. Stop the information store service.
8. Restart the information store service.

The information store now updates its mailbox cache frequently by rereading the directory every minute. 

Microsoft internal IT: 

600k connected devices
10,000 Servers
3 Datacenters 1 operations center
11% is virtualized in Microsoft Datacenters
330 of 385 servers run Windows Server 2008 (RC0) plus all 85 Microsoft.com servers
11 clustered systems
30,000 users in redmond domain (50,000 with vendors)
NAP reporting 140K clients, 90 clients deferred mode

The Redmond Active Directory domain is running in Windows Server 2008 mode since last thursday (Nov 1st)

Microsoft Email: 

6 million internal emails per day
20 Million emails from Internet
97% rejected as spam
99,999 uptime

Worldwide: 

140,000 end users
550 buildings
98 countries
1/3 of the sites are connected over Internet only

2300 Line of business applications
1 single SAP instance (5 Terrabyte database)
Dynamics/MSCRM

Windows Live Services: 

130,000 servers online
435 Million unique users
280 Billion pageviews daily
12 Billion emails daily
6 billion Instant Messages daily

Remote connect
1 million VPN sessions per month
80,000 unique OWA users
Remote app portal
TS gateway 20,000 users
Direct Connect pilot

Microsoft.com figures
55,7 million unique users, #4 overall site in US
280,5 Unique users wordwide #6 site worldwide
15,000 request a sec

The Redmond Active Directory domain is running in Windows Server 2008 mode since last thursday (Nov 1st)

Source: Bink.nu