Slipstreaming is the application of service pack files into the original install files from the distribution media so that you can point to one location when adding components to Windows Server 2003. The command with Service Pack 2, and probably others is: sp2 /integrate:c:\win2003std\ sp2 is the name of the service pack .exe, and win2003std […]
Slipstreaming SP2 into Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Install Files
Hail Support
Have you ever had a user call you, and the thought of guiding them through running ipconfig or winver is daunting? Hail Support is a program that users can run to submit a support request. The program runs identically on MacOS X (Intel and PowerPC), Windows (NT and 2000+), and GNU/Linux (GTK 2) systems, and […]
Using sar – Part 2
Using sar Part 2 – Making it Play In Part 1 of this article, we looked at basic invocation of sar and how it works. In Part 2 of this article, we’ll use sar to look at disk, network, and CPU activity. In Part 3, we’ll look at the options available to report on the […]
Using sar – Part 1
Getting Started sar (System Activity Reporter) is an oldy but a goody that should be in your bag of tricks and installed on every *nix system you administer. It collects and logs system data at regular intervals, allowing analysis of system actity historically, trending, baselining and much much more. It comes as part of the […]
Testing Daylight Savings Time on Microsoft Windows
There is a curious and strangely insidious problem associated with the change of the start of Daylight Savings Time. One thing that is counter intuitive for some is that just because information is stored in GMT for stuff like future appointments, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be problems when the time changes. The exact […]
LiveJournal Systems Documentation Example
There is a glorious example of systems documentation of the LiveJournal system here. It includes how to install, administer, and program the system. Further, the documentation was generated with DocBook and XSL stylesheets, which means that it is relatively easy to produce documentation that looks exactly like this. Another benefit of using something like DocBook […]
Creating a One Way External Trust Between Windows 2003 and NT (MMC)
To allow users in an NT domain to use resources on a Windows 2003 domain, you need to set up a one way external trust. In NT-style language, this means that the Windows 2003 domain (trusting) trusts the NT domain (trusted). In User Manager for the NT domain, select policies->trust relationships, and add a trusting […]
Services Subkey Entries
Beware! Make sure you have a backup of the registry and are 100% confident of the syntax of the entries before you change anything. If you mess up, your NT system may never boot again, and you will have to reinstall NT. Try to tweak the registry indirectly whenever you can through control panel/services, system […]
Using the CACLS command
The cacls command is used to edit and display file permissions on NTFS partitions. Here is a list of the options: D:\>cacls Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files CACLS filename [/T] [/E] [/C] [/G user:perm] [/R user […]] [/P user:perm […]] [/D user […]] filename Displays ACLs. /T Changes ACLs of specified […]
Our Favorite NT Registry Entries
Beware! Make sure you have a backup of the registry and are 100% confident of the syntax of the entries before you change anything. If you mess up, your NT system may never boot again, and you will have to reinstall NT. Try to tweak the registry indirectly whenever you can through control panel/services, system […]
Pstools freeware from Sysinternals
One problem with upgrading software remotely is that you often need to stop the software you are upgrading first. Often, there is no service that can be stopped. The process must be killed. This can be a bit nasty with Windows systems because there is no easy way to find all instances of a particular […]
Using Cygwin for Automated File Transfer
Although Windows 2000 can be set up using proprietary (Well… MSified) secure connections via IPSec, there are a variety of problems. Most notable is the difficulty to get secure connections to work across multiple platforms, even between different Windows products. It is quite easy to create keys and pull files securely over the Internet from […]
Using VB to Create an Administration Console
There are many tasks that you may want to automate using a custom console. This could be for your Jr. Systems Administrators, for users, or for yourself. One tool that we like to use for this is Visual Tcl, but sometime it is nice to use plain old Visual Basic. If you do use Visual […]
Using rasdial to automate RAS connections
If you have servers or workstations that use RAS to connect to your servers directly or via the Internet, you can use the rasdial command to automate the connection. This would be particularly useful for nightly file transfers. Enter: rasdial /? to get a list of the options for rasdial. For more info on rasdial […]
The Arusha Project
The folks at the Arusha Project are *extremely* caffeinated. The best way to describe this project is that it is a language that defines systems objects. The catch is that it can be specific and useful. You can actually do package management with it. If you are running Open Source software of any ilk for, […]
Creating PDF Network Diagrams on Windows with Free Software
If you have tons of money, buy Visio. Visio is very easy to use, has tons of symbols… well, you know. This article, though, will introduce you to a number of tools that will allow you to create PDF network diagrams with free, open source software on a Windows workstation. The first tool you will […]
Free Books
Check out the collection of free books at O’Reilly’s Open Books Project. Much of the reason for the books being free is O’Reilly’s and the author’s involvment in Open Source. Don’t miss out on the unofficial biography of Richard Stallman, “Join us now and share the software, you’ll be free…”. There are also some good […]
Word Abbreviation With Vi
You can use word abbreviation with vi to insert common chunks of code, commands, or text into your documents. Simply type esc: (to go into command mode) and enter ab abbr phrase. For instance, say you were editing html, and you wanted sztt to enter standard table tags of BORDER=”0″ BGCOLOR=”#E0E0E0″ WIDTH=”99%”, you could enter: […]
Disabling Shutdown Reasoning on Windows Server 2003
When you shut down or restart Windows Server 2003, you are required to explain yourself: The only way to shut down is to enter something in the lower box: Whatever. Makes us want to punch the screen in defiance, like when XP gently asks if you have forgotten your password. Now, you might think this […]
Network Auditing Using the Mountain Climbing Journal
Mountain Climbing Journal (MCJ) is a general purpose journal application that can be used to explore links between ideas, people, places, things, and times. In the realm of network administration, this can be used to store the results of, say, an Nmap scan, and proceed to wrangle with the associated security and networking issues the […]
