May, 2008

[TLBAT] The IT swiss-knife

In my previous article I wrote about removable media used to access dead/dying computers and I mentioned a bootable USB drive that you can always have with you. Personally I have the USB pendrive always with me because it is tied to my car keyholder.
Let’s describe my USB swiss-knife: it has a bootable WindowsXP that has been built as described here and also features the PortableApps suite loaded with the WireShark utility, the InfraRecorder and all the standard applications that may save you some time on almost every x386 computer.

In addition I added a Tools folder filled with:

• BGInfo
• Double Driver
• KeyFinder
• Microsoft Key Update Tool
• HijackThis
• AntiVir

BGinfo: This tool adds some useful information on the desktop background and is highly configurable.

Double Driver: Useful for saving all installed drivers that can be used for driver reinstallation after a format.

KeyFinder: It finds the Microsoft Windows XP /Office product key.

Microsoft Key Update Tool: It can change the WIndows XP product key.

HijackThis: Really helpful tool that helps discovering BHO, Hijacks and spywares.

AntiVir : Free antivirus software.

So adding these tools to the PortableApps Suite made my swiss-knife for easy problem solving on most computers.

[TLBAT] Accessing dead/dying computers

On my previous article I had a comment about someone trying to access a dying computer where because of wrong drivers, tons of software and other reasons the system couldn’t boot anymore; this article explains my preferred methods of booting a dead/dying computer with an extenal media such as USB or a livecd and perform data recovery, password changes and so on.

:: Booting from USB Drive ::..
This is the slower method but is the more usable seen that not all the times you have your CD case with you so having the USB stick that is bootable and loaded with basic tools is always a good thing; I personally have my USB drive with the car keyholder
My choice goes to PEBuilder that is the most used and reliable technology to build bootable CD/DVDs; this article explains the entire process that enables you to create a WindowsXP bootable USB drive that can be used to access a dying/dead computer and many other useful things (E.g. change the lost local Administrator password!)

:: Booting from CD Drive ::..
Here my choice goes directly to the great UBCD4WIN (Ultimate Boot CD For Windows) that, with its list of preinstaleld tools, enables you to do many useful things directly from a WindowsXP livecd. This saved me a lot of times!!

[TLBAT] Ghosting computers without Symantec’s Ghost

At the moment whenever you talk to the IT you may hear “You have to ghost your computer” meaning that you have to create a snapshot image of your computer partitions and store it somewhere. But why people says that you have to ghost it? Because Norton (actually Symantec) Ghost is the leader in this technology but it has a small problem: it costs bucks and you have to spend some money in order to have a business like repository of computer images.

There are many reasons you may need to image computers: it may be for a huge rollout, for backup purposes or for any other reasons that leads you to have a centralized storage for images of the computers in your network.

Seen the spirit of this TLBAT (The Low Budget Admin Tools) section, I alwas prefer to apply opensource/freeware solutions, in this case I suggest you using the PING project (Partimage Is Not Ghost) that says it all: partition imaging is not strictly Ghost! This great tool can be either a bootable cd or a RIS (Remote Installation Services) tool that enables computers in your network to boot from cd/network and save or load an image of their computer to a centralized point.

Once again a great tool, for free and completelly integrable with your Windows environment, I hope someone is enjoying this TLBAT section, if please let me know your impressions through the comments on this blog area.

[HowTo] Have the Windows Explorer shell as a different user

You know that you can RUNAS almost everything in a Windows machine…indeed “almost” means that not all the programs, utilities and tools can be RUNASed, especially the Windows Explorer that is really useful when changing file/folder ACL, opening the control panel with admin privileges and other tasks where you obvioulsy need it.

Normally you should logoff the user, logon with admin account and perform your task, but there’s a trick to have the Windows Explorer open with admin privileges.

1. At the command prompt type your RUNAS command (e.g. RUNAS /USER:DOMAIN\UBERADMIN CMD) and provide your password
2. Once the new command is open with the admin account, move to the C:\PROGRAM FILES\INTERNET EXPLORER folder (it may be in a different directory depending on your locale settings or installation) and launch IEXPLORE C:\

Et voilà, this will open Internet Explorer but on local drives (it is always the same shell) with your admin privileges activated.

[TLBAT] Network inventory made easy… and free!!

Do you want to have a network inventory of computer and devices, do you need an out-of-the-box solution for IT HelpDesk? Here it is…for free!!!

I tested SpiceWorks for a couple of months and I really appreciated this product that comes with a really easy setup process and gives you good results in terms of inventory, reporting and so on.

I suggest you to have a look at this free product that can save time and money for everyone.

P.S. This is not an AD but simply a suggestion!!

[HowTo] Avoid Windowx XP SP3 reboot loops

If any of you has faced the problem of infinite reboots of AMD based PCs after installing the Windows XP Service Pack 3 by Microsoft, Jesper Johansson just released a Visual Basic Script that will check if the computer where you want to install the Service Pack is an AMD based one, if yes the IntelPPM driver (responsible for the issue) will be disabled and the computer should be ready to accept the SP3 without problems.

Here you can find additional information, and here you can find the VBScript file.

[TLBAT] Microsoft SQL Express Edition automated backup

An ERP application that the company where I work at the moment is selling, relies on Microsoft SQL databases but, obviously, most of the customers where this application is deployed yell as crazy when they do know the license cost for Microsoft SQL 2005.

So you are at a crossroad:

1. Install a “friendly” copy that you own
2. Install the Express/Advanced edition with limits

Seen that you’re a good guy you always install the Express/Advanced edition but you know that you are going to miss lots of functions and opportunities that you’d have with the Standard version…first of all the backup!!!

In order to have similar scriptable feature that you have in the Standard version you can use ExpressMaint that can be scheduled to run at night time so you can perform backups, reindex and so on.

Personally I prefer to have a full backup, compress it with WinRar and then, if no reliable backup device is present at the customer site, send it via ftp to our server.

Hereafter an sxample of a daily full backup of all user databases on a computer called PC01 that will be saved in the c:\backup folder:

c:\ExpressMaint.exe -S PC01 -D ALL_USER -B c:\backup -BU DAYS -BV 1 -T DB

[TLBAT] The low budget Admin’s tools!

You are used to work in good IT departments where all tools, programs and servers are exactly as you would them. You have CD/DVDs licenses, gold support for almost everything but it comes the day when you are in a low budget IT department or simply a poor project and cannot afford spending too much bucks for satisfying your needs.

This series of articles that will be identified with [TLBAT] aim at providing tools, suggestions and ideas on how to solve your admin issues with low money or simply for free.

Welcome!!

This is not a post for those IT guys in the big companies where in the IT Department you have Db Admin, Network Admin, Security Admin, Helpdesk with 1st 2nd and 3rd level and so on; this is a blog for those IT guys who do all of these jobs AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I’ve been working in IT teams in worldwide firms and I have been assigned to several jobs that, case be case, were just one of the above mentioned…now, after a move to southern part of the country, I’m in the situation where my “customers” think that “If it has a plug, it’s IT stuff!”.

How many times you are a System Administrator and are providing support for a cluster for a terminal servers farm are requested to explain to an user how to change his/her password?
How many times you are a DB Admin and are requested to help the huberleetonebilliondollarspermonthplusbenefitsandstockoptions Sales Manager to sort data in an Excel row?
How many times you having your coffee after you spent your night restoring a dead AD server and someone jumps in “Hey, I bought this new mobile, how can I do…?”

This blog is for you guys!

Despite of the humoristic nature of this blog, here you will also find some day-by-day tricks, script examples, code snippets and suggestions to accomplish to a variety of tasks you’ve been assigned to.

I hope that the day in which you’ll be assigned to the job function you prefer comes soon…meanwhile read here.

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