TechVirtuoso

Two great tools for the low/no budget sysadmin

April 7th, 2010 at 11:30 AM  4 Comments

We all know how in our struggling economy, finding effective tools that help us do our jobs, and not breaking our shrinking budgets, is getting harder and harder. A fellow in Ireland by the name of Dan Cunningham (his website is here, follow him on Twitter here), who just happened to post in post in the comments of our previous articles, has written two very excellent looking tools for the low/no budget systems administrator. Both of these will be going straight into production in my office ASAP.

Dan also has some useful tools for encoding video content on his blog, both of which are worth taking a look at.

Workstation Migration Assistant

wma_mainThe Workstation Migration Assistant is a visual wrapper for Microsoft’s User State Migration Tool, designed to simplify the capture / restore process for your end-users, and at the same time being highly configurable so that it can be customised to suit your organisations needs.

Some of it’s features include:

  • Migrate via a pre-defined network storage location, external USB drive, or user-specified location. USB drive detection is automatic, and you can decide whether drives below a certain size are ignored (ie, memory sticks)
  • Optional Hard Disk Health Check will run a CHKDSK prior to capture and fix errors if any are found
  • Optional Encryption using a pre-defined company encryption key, or per-user customised encryption (for highly sensitive data that can’t be stored on a server without being encrypted)
  • Use different configurations for “XP Only” (XP > XP) migrations via Standard (XP > Vista and Vista > Vista)
  • Automatically run pre and post-capture / restore scripts and programs (very useful to further configure machine settings)
  • Migrate domain only accounts, or domain and local
  • Automatically exclude certain domain or local accounts from the migration
  • Automatically send log files to an e-mail address via SMTP after the migration
  • On-screen status during every stage of the migration, including ETA
  • Option to limit migrations to a certain size, i.e. if over 20GB of data to backup, then fail and inform user. This is also overridable
  • Automatic checks for USMT installation and optional download
  • Command-line automation

It requires .NET Framework 2.0 on both the capture and target machines | Download

Software Compliance Tool

The Software Compliance Tool is a small application designed to reduce the overhead in managing unwanted applications in a business environment. While Windows Vista and Windows 7 have made a lot of headway in easing reduced user rights into the Enterprise, it’s still very common that Local Administrator rights are given to end users. The reasoning for this is usually to work around application compatibility (both external and in-house). However, this introduces the ability for end users to install whatever they want on their computers, including games, peer-to-peer software and security vulnerable applications. It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that copyrights are not infringed, and that their network is secure.

The Software Compliance Tool will try to automatically remove any applications which are contained on your custom-built “blacklisted applications” policy.

Some of the features include:

  • Can automatically remove most Windows Installer (MSI) based installations
  • Uninstall Strings for non MSI-based installs can be supplemented with switches (ie, “/S” for silent)
  • Blacklist allows partial name matches (ie, “Mozilla” will blacklist all Mozilla applications)
  • Blacklist allows version matches (ie, allow all versions greater than v1.6.5, remove all previous versions)
  • Blacklist, but allow exclusions based on Active Directory Users or Groups
  • Blacklist policy is encrypted to prevent tampering or reading by users
  • AD Exclusions list is cached and encrypted, to allow running SCT off-domain
  • Simple SQL logging to allow tracking of policy breaches (and potentially further action for repeated breaches)
  • Extremely fast execution. Can be run from your Active Director login scripts

It requires .NET 3.5 to run, and must be run as a local administrator to successfully uninstall applications. | Download


TV Guide for April 7

April 7th, 2010 at 11:15 AM  1 Comment

The folks over at the ISO group are none too happy with Microsoft’s implementation of the OOXML document specification in the upcoming version of Microsoft Office 2010. Due to delays in the final approval and recent changes to the strict specification, Microsoft was not able to include full support for creating new OOXML documents in 2010, and will only include transitional support. However, Redmond has stated that they intend to have full support for the creation of OOXML-Strict documents by the next version of office… what is not clear is if that means Office 2010 will be patched for full support or it will not be 2010 at all and users will need to wait until Office “15” for support.

Microsoft has released MED-V 1.0 SP1 and App-V 4.6. The big update to MED-V is full support for 32-bit & 64-bit Windows 7 hosts, but it also includes support for Japanese versions of Windows. Chances to App-V are mostly centered around language support. MED-V is an enterprise desktop virtualization management system that allows administrators to deploy and control Windows XP or Windows 2000 deployments running inside Windows 7 or Windows Vista host operating systems.

For all five of our readers with a Zune HD, you’ll be happy to know the Zune 4.5 firmware was released last week. It features an new Smart DJ mix with personalized recommendations, Zune Marketplace for TV, and better video codec support. Microsoft will also be releasing a new Zune HD 64GB model soon. To get the update, plug it in and sync with the Zune software on your desktop.

For all five of our readers running Windows Server on Itanium processors, you’ll be disappointed to know that after Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft will no longer be releasing versions for Itanium processors, and will focus on the x64 platform going forward. There was no 2008 R2 version released for 32-bit processors, either. Microsoft will no longer develop other software for Itanium, and SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are also the last versions to support it. Mainstream support for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems (and R2) will end, in accordance with that policy, on July 9, 2013, while extended support will continue until July 10, 2018.  That’s roughly eight more years of support.

Just so that our entire update isn’t focused on Microsoft today… If you’ve been living under a rock since last week, we just wanted to remind you that the iPad came out on Saturday. It’s magical, especially when you watch Harry Potter on it.

Win a free year of RingCentral service, and more!

April 6th, 2010 at 12:24 PM  No Comments

TechVirtuoso has teamed up with RingCentral, to offer our visitors a year of free RingCentral Mobile service! This is a $300 value, and all you have to do is a couple simple things.

  1. Make sure you’re following the @techvirtuoso Twitter account.
  2. Tweet this message, exactly as it says below:
    Win a year of RingCentral by following @techvirtuoso and RT this message, see http://bit.ly/tvrcm for more details. #YourBusinessIsCalling

It’s that easy to enter… the contest ends on April 10 so make sure to enter before then. We’ll select a random follower and announce the winner on our site, and through our Twitter account, on the morning of Monday, April 12.

This is a great way to get your consulting business going, and look as professional as the big guys by having your own phone number, extensions, fax line, recorded custom greetings, on-hold music and promotional announcements and more!

But wait, while TechVirtuoso is the first to give away this awesome prize, we’re not the only ones. We’re partnered with other technology sites to offer this service. Each site will have their own contest rules, so be sure to check them out as well. There is no limit to how many site contests you can enter.

The winners from each site, will then be entered into a grand prize drawing for one of five Ultimate Small Business Start-up Packages from Ivy Worldwide. Each package will contain, in addition to RingCentral service:

  • company incorporation services provided by LegalZoom
  • logo design service provided by Logoworks
  • 1000 premium business cards provided by Vistaprint
  • and web hosting provided by BlueHost

The value of the entire Ultimate Small Business Start-up Package amounts to over $1000!

This could be the tweet that launches the your next great idea, or helps move your current business ahead of your competitors.

Google Chrome to include Adobe Flash player

March 30th, 2010 at 2:27 PM  No Comments

In a move that is sure to anger those who like total control over the software on their computers, Google has teamed up with Adobe to bundle Flash player with their Chrome browser. From the announcement on the Chromium Blog:

Today, we’re making available an initial integration of Flash Player with Chrome in the developer channel. We plan to bring this functionality to all Chrome users as quickly as we can.

We believe this initiative will help our users in the following ways:

  • When users download Chrome, they will also receive the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. There will be no need to install Flash Player separately.
  • Users will automatically receive updates related to Flash Player using Google Chrome’s auto-update mechanism. This eliminates the need to manually download separate updates and reduces the security risk of using outdated versions.
  • With Adobe’s help, we plan to further protect users by extending Chrome’s “sandbox” to web pages with Flash content.

Improving the traditional browser plug-in model will make it possible for plug-ins to be just as fast, stable, and secure as the browser’s HTML and JavaScript engines. Over time this will enable HTML, Flash, and other plug-ins to be used together more seamlessly in rendering and scripting.

Those who were hoping to see HTML5 deal a killshot to Flash, should be very disappointed.

TV Guide for March 30

March 30th, 2010 at 11:01 AM  1 Comment

This is the introduction post to the TechVirtuoso Guide, what we hope will become a daily breakdown of important IT tidbits from the previous day, and what we expect to happen that day.

Yet again, someone has come forward with another rumor that a CDMA iPhone is coming this summer. This time, it comes from the Wall Street Journal. The new iPhone would work on Verizon Wireless, as well as Sprint Nextel in the United States and a handful of carriers in other countries including South Korea and Japan. The current iPhone is designed to work on the vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T and T-Mobile in the US, using a signaling technology called GSM.

It would seem that SSL isn’t as secure as once thought. The problem isn’t the encryption, but the certificate providers. Ars has a breakdown of how governments are working with the CAs to “subvert the entire system to allow them to spy on anyone they wish to keep tabs on.”

Apple has released a major update to OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” — fixes in version 10.6.3 include enhancements to USB, OpenGL, DNS, QuickTime X, AirPort, iCal, Mail, MobileMe, Time Machine, and numerous other areas of the operating system. Choose Software Update from the Apple menu to check for the latest Apple software via the Internet, including this update.

Future versions of the Ubuntu Linux operating system will change the way units are measured in the operating system and enforced throughout applications used in the OS. Starting in Ubuntu 10.10, coming this October, SI prefixes (base-10) will denote 1 kB as 1000 bytes, 1 MB as 1000 kB, 1 GB as 1000 MB, and so on. This is similar to the way OS X started measuring data in Snow Leopard. Neowin has a full breakdown of the measuring guidelines.

You will soon be able to jailbreak an iPhone over the air, instead of having it tethered to a computer. Your move Apple.

Need help running Linux as a guest OS in Microsoft Hyper-V? Sounds strange, but Microsoft has released a best practices guide to do just that. Download it off their website. Don’t blame us if you create a black hole in your datacenter though. In related news, Hypervizor.net has a great article on anti-virus exemptions in Hyper-V. Proper configuration of your antivirus can prevent performance issues, but also keep your VMs from being eaten alive by an aggressive scanning engine.

Virtual PBXs, are they the future?

March 11th, 2010 at 12:23 AM  2 Comments

Phone Systems have evolved over the last 10 years.  With the death of the traditional PBX and the new VoIP movement businesses have more reasons to upgrade and more feature sets to choose from.  I previously managed the IT department for a small company that relied heavily on the phone system.

They purchased a (at the time) a state of the art system and spent a big chunk of change thinking it would last them forever.  Fast Forward 10 years and that same system that cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars is now worth 30K (if they found a sucker on the street) and they were spending thousands of dollars every month on maintenance for the ancient piece of equipment sitting on the wall.  They were stuck with a dinosaur and were quickly falling behind their competitors.

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Not everything made by Cisco is made of gold

March 8th, 2010 at 3:14 PM  5 Comments

The scenario:  You’ve found yourself working at a company that is experiencing phenomenal growth.  The employees have actually decupled in the past year and show no signs of slowing in the near future (on this note, when was the last time you saw the “decupled” in print?). You have inherited a network that is truly a Frankensteinian creation that not even the original architects understand any more.  You have noticed that you neither have a working firewall nor a decent VPN system, though Cisco VPN is used by a handful of key employees to connect to a Cisco 1800 series router.  The IP scheme for the organization, which spans three sites, is using the 192.x.x.x address space. You wish to straighten everything out with a minimum of downtime and as seamless as possible for the end-users.  What do you do?

Well, instead of telling you what to do, allow me to tell you what not to do.  Not just that, let me drill into your collective skulls what not to do.  Are you ready?  Here it comes:

Do not, and this is key, so write it down… do not buy a Cisco SA 500 series device.

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HTC Supersonic coming sooner then expected?

March 3rd, 2010 at 12:29 AM  2 Comments

SPRINT BRAND LOGO Sprints soon to be flagship Android device may be coming to big yellow sooner then anyone expected.  According to a article at Forbes.com the HTC Monster could be available by Summer of 2010.  Is it coincidence that this date has been pushed up a week after Verizon announced that they are looking better then expected for the LTE rollout of 2010?  Is Sprint trying to 1 up Verizon by getting their first WiMAX enabled phone out the door before Verizon gets their first LTE roll out functional?

No matter the reason I cannot wait to get my hands on this device.  The rumored Snapdragon processor, slim form factor and large display should make this phone a winner among many Sprint fans.  Look below for some leaked photos of the new device, these photos have been taken from EngadgetMobile.com, androidmobileos.com and youhtc.ru.

View HTC Supersonic

HP Blades Tech Day 2010: Day 2

February 28th, 2010 at 11:42 PM  No Comments

Today was the first day on the HP Campus and our schedule is jam packed with sessions with HP experts.  We started off watching a video about how HP provided data solutions for the new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys.  They have over 200 concession stands and each one needed it’s own server to run properly.  They run those 200 Windows 2003 servers on 16 HP blades running VMWare.  They went from 500 servers in their old datacenter to 250 blades in the new stadium.  This not only cut the amount of space and power that was required but also sped up some of their basic tasks 50 times what they were with the old setup.

cowboysandhp

After the video Gary Thome, Chief Architect for ISB presented an overview for the Infrastructure Software and Blades division as well as presenting his thoughts for Data Center trends for 2010.  One of the key points of his presentation was virtualization of the data center, including power.  After Gary’s presentation was complete we had a partner presentation from a HP Partner on their business and why they partner with HP.  Before we broke for Lunch we had a great presentation on Virtual Connect and how HP views standards like FCoE and other standards.

After we broke for lunch we split up into two groups.  My group went into the BladeSystem lab to discuss the HP Blades.  We then visited the Insight Software group to learn about the Infrastructure Software HP is working on.  After we went over the Infrastructure Software we then went back into the BladeLab to go over a competitive difference session.  Stay Tuned for more in depth posts of these sessions coming in the next few days!

We ended our day at HP with a discussion from Paul Perez, CTO of Storage for HP.  Paul had some very interesting views and ideas of where storage is going toward the future.  One of the items he was very passionate about was something called a memristor, a new type of storage that he believes will fuel the next generation of storage products.

This trip was sponsored by HP.  HP paid for the travel arrangements and most meals for 10 bloggers to visit the HP Houston campus.

HP Blades Tech Day 2010: Day 1

February 28th, 2010 at 2:29 AM  4 Comments

After arriving in Houston for the HP Blades Tech Day 2010 I met in the lobby with the rest of the Bloggers, IVY Worldwide Staff and Calvin from HP.  We had a couple of drinks at the hotel and then headed over to Fusion Pizza, right down the road.

The pizza and drinks were very good and during dinner I had some great discussions with @kevin_houston, @Knieriemen, @rbrambley, @kiwi_Si, @StorageNerve and @sfoskett.  We talked about everything on how to create a good podcast (Contact Greg Knieriemen if you need to know how to create one, he loves it) to the origins of ProCurve (which we still do not have a full answer).

bloggerdinner Dinner at Pizza Fusion – Picture taken by Stephen Foskett

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where John Obeto surprised us with some Nigerian Palm Wine.  I was a little hesitant after the smell but after a couple of drinks I decided it wasn’t to bad.  After a couple of glasses I decided It was probably best to call it a night before I wasn’t able to get up in the morning.

Nigerian-Palm-Juice The Palm Wine – Picture taken by Rich Brambley

Stay tuned for more posts on the HP Blades Tech Day!

This trip was sponsored by HP.  HP paid for the travel arrangements and most meals for 10 bloggers to visit the HP Houston campus.

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