AppDelivery

A little output of some of the many parameters you are able to apply to robocopy;
I used these for a simple User Home Directory migration from one fileserver to another.

…………

/E – Copies subdirectories including empty ones

/SEC – Copy files with security

/COPYALL – Copies ALL file info

/ZB – Use restartable mode (useful if f.x your mapped network shares suddenly disconnects during the copy)

/V – Verbose output – showing skipped files

/ETA – Show estimated time of arrival of copied files

/TEE – outputs to console windows as well as the log file

/LOG – outputs status to specified log file

For Windows 2k3, Robocopy is available in a GUI version;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

And a command line version in the 2003 server ressource kit;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9D467A69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en

Additional file utilities;

The ordinary Ntbackup.exe is also a simple and useful method to backup and restore f.x folders with security settings etc.

To export shares and share permissions, these a stored in the registry area as follows;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\Shares

Another tool from Microsoft is ShareEnum, which lists all shares with details on permissions etc. this can then be exported.

ShareEnum source;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897442.aspx

SubInACL from Microsoft, is also a command line tool that enables administrators to obtain detailed security information and transfer this from user to user or domain to domain etc.

SubInACL Source;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E8BA3E56-D8FE-4A91-93CF-ED6985E3927B&displaylang=en

Optimizing Virtual Memory (Page File) on Win2k, 2k3 and XP

Niclas — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:28:09 +0000

Daniel Petri wrote a good article about “How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)?”

The article covers some best practices on RAM, Virtual Memory and some Memory tweaking….

Read it here;

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Monitoring and Reporting File Server Changes

Niclas — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:17:01 +0000

Auditing a File server can be a critical requirement for organizations. Accidental and unauthorized changes in files, folders, permissions and other objects can have great impact on the infrastructure by means of security and instability issues.
Tracking down what was changed, who did it and when did it occur, can be a difficult task with the default auditing system available in windows servers today.

Some time ago I came across this tool from NetWrix called File Server Change Reporter. The tool is available in both a freeware and a commercial version. See comparison table here; http://www.netwrix.com/file_server_change_reporting.html

I tried out the freeware edition in my demo lab. It´s very easy to setup the tool.

Fig. 1 – Configurator

Here we can add which servers we need to monitor and configure the reporting.

Fig. 2

The report viewer.

Fig. 3

Example output.

It is not nessasary to install the tool on every server you need to monitor, it does remote querying on the servers you add to the list in the Configurator.
Basically it works by using a snapshot method to report changes. The tool installs a scheduled task, where you can configure how often you want query your servers. Keep in mind, that when running the task it consumes some CPU ressources on your server, therefore running the task off-duty hours would be preferable.

Additional Info;

Several other compliance tools are available from NetWrix;
- Active Directory Change Reporter
- Change Reporter for Vmware Infrastructure 3
- Group Policy Change Reporter
- Server Configuration Monitor
- Etc.

http://www.netwrix.com

Server Admin Toolbox

Niclas — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:16:09 +0000

Here is a collection of freeware tools, that is useful for windows server admins, at least these has helped me out a lot, the last couple of years;

(This post will be updated as i discover new useful admin tools)

Citrix / Terminal Server

TrackWinstall

Tracks which system changes installations programs make.

http://www.withopf.com/tools/trackwinstall/

Rdt/Sdt

Shadow key timestamping utilities from Microsoft.

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=238

PS4-documentor

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/guestbloggers/archive/2005/07/26/ilja-godau-releases-tool-to-automatically-document-your-citrix-ps4-environments.aspx
ThreadMaster

ThreadMaster monitors all running applications, and detects when a application starts to use excessive processor resources. It dynamically hunt down the offending thread, and clamp the CPU for this thread. This feature ensures that other users can remain working without noticing anything. The clamped process will eventually finish, and the clamp will be removed automatically.

http://threadmaster.nyland.dk/download.htm

CitrixHeroTools

A small collection of nice to have citrix tools…
community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/renea/2008/11/12/How+to+Become+a+Citrix+Super+Hero

CitrixTools.net

http://www.citrixtools.net

DelProf

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=901a9b95-6063-4462-8150-360394e98e1e&displaylang=en

RegShot

Snapshot compare registry / file changes into html report.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/regshot

RegFromApp

RegFromApp monitors the Registry changes made by the application that you selected, and creates a standard RegEdit registration file (.reg) that contains all the Registry changes made by the application. You can use the generated .reg file to import these changes with RegEdit when it’s needed.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/reg_file_from_application.html

AppTrack

Track application usage on your Citrix and Terminal Servers.

Simply record specified application usage patterns. Information recorded includes when application was started, how much CPU time and memory was consumed (and more).

The output file can be loaded directly into Excel or any other spreadsheet package to graph the results.

Installs and run’s as a service.

http://wbisoft.com/index.php?id=52

PrintMigrator

Backup, Restore and Migrate printers on Windows-based print servers.

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b9f2925-cbc9-44da-b2c9-ffdbc46b0b17&displaylang=en

WinAudit

Freeware audit and inventory tool. Both GUI and Commandline available.

http://www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm

Troubleshooting Tools for Citrix Environments

A complete list of troubleshooting tools for Citrix environments.

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX107572

Troubleshooting / Server / Windows Tools

Debugging Tools for Windows

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx

DebugDiag

http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?FamilyID=28bd5941-c458-46f1-b24d-f60151d875a3&displaylang=en

Microsoft Network Monitor 3.2

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f4db40af-1e08-4a21-a26b-ec2f4dc4190d&DisplayLang=en

Sysinternals Suite

- RegMon

- FileMon

- ProcessMon

- PsExec

- ProcessExplorer

- TCPview

- Etc.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Nmap

http://nmap.org/

Obj2SID

Convert SID to USER, and vice versa.

http://www.petri.co.il/software/objsid.zip

Portable FolderSize

http://www.sulaco.co.za/downloads/foldersize.zip

Microsoft Baseline Secuirty Analyzer 2.1 (MBSA)

The Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer provides a streamlined method of identifying common security misconfigurations. MBSA 2.1 adds Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 compatibility.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f32921af-9dbe-4dce-889e-ecf997eb18e9&displaylang=en

Group Policy

PTFE (Policy Template File Editor)

A Freeware tool for creating and editing ADM files.

http://home.tiscali.nl/adsl429174//ptfe.zip

GPtime

This handy little utility is designed to quickly and succintly report the last time computer and user Group Policy was run on a local or remote system. If there has been more than one user logged onto the system, the tool will report GP processing times for all users found.

http://www.gpoguy.com/FreeTools/FreeToolsLibrary/tabid/67/agentType/View/PropertyID/80/Default.aspx

Group Policy Drives Options

http://www.petri.co.il/gpdrivesoptions.htm

Adm2Excel

http://www.tonykrijnen.com/Oldsite/downloads/adm2excel.zip

RegToAdm

http://yizhar.mvps.org/

Active Directory

Ldap Browser (Ldp.exe)

Microsoft Ldap browser…Part of MS Server 2003 toolkit.

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/ScriptsGuy/ldp.zip

Active Directory Topology Diagrammer

The Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer reads an Active Directory configuration using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and then automatically generates a Visio diagram of your Active Directory and /or your Exchange 200x Server topology. The diagramms include domains, sites, servers, administrative groups, routing groups and connectors and can be changed manually in Visio if needed.

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?familyid=CB42FC06-50C7-47ED-A65C-862661742764&displaylang=en

AdModify

ADModify.NET is a tool primarily utilized by Exchange and Active Directory administrators to facilitate bulk user attribute modifications.

http://www.codeplex.com/admodify

XenApp Farm Maintenance

Niclas — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:43:15 +0000

Recently I needed to move 9 XenApp farm datastores from old SQL2000 servers to new SQL2005 servers. Approx. 150-200 citrix xenapp servers was affected by this change.
A manually way of configuring each citrix server to reflect the datastore change, would be a very time consuming process
Therefore I created a simple batch script to automate this change wíth some simple logging.

I used Psexec.exe from Sysinternals to remotely connect to the XenApp servers and run the farm maintenance script, see the scripts below.
This approach worked successfully on XenApp 4.0 and 4.5 /5.0 2K3.

Note. If Windows Firewall is active on the servers. SMB port 445 need to be open. Psexec relies on this port.

PsExec Script

^?View Code TEXT

@echo off
REM ========================================================================
REM Executes DSN_Maintenance script on Servers listed in the specified text ref file
REM For the best performance, execute this procedure on the data collectors after all
REM other servers are reconfigured
REM ========================================================================
REM Author: AppDelivery.dk
REM Version 1.0
REM 2008.03.26
REM ========================================================================
 
REM Variables
set tool="%~dp0\psexec.exe"
set admin=ADMINISTRATOR
set passwd=PASSWORD
set farmscript="%~dp0\XenApp_FarmMaintenance.cmd"
set servers="%~dp0\FARM_Servers.txt"
set logfile="%~dp0\Psexec_Status_Farm.log"
 
REM Commands
ECHO =============== PsExec Status Log Started =============== %TIME% %DATE% >> %LOGFILE%
ECHO. >> %LOGFILE%
%tool% @%servers% -u %admin% -p %passwd% -e -c %farmscript% >> %LOGFILE%
ECHO. >> %LOGFILE%
ECHO Errorcode Returned by PsExec: %ERRORLEVEL% >> %LOGFILE%
ECHO. >> %LOGFILE%
ECHO =============== PsExec Status Log Ended =============== %TIME% %DATE% >> %LOGFILE%
pause

XenApp Farm Maintenance Script

^?View Code TEXT

@Echo Off
REM =======================================================================
REM Citrix XenApp DS maintenance config for Ctx Farm 
REM For the best performance, execute this procedure on the data collectors after all
REM other servers are reconfigured
REM =======================================================================
REM ScriptName: XenApp_FarmMaintenance.cmd
REM Author: AppDelivery.dk
REM Version 1.0 
REM Date: 2008.03.26
REM 
REM =======================================================================
 
REM Source DSN path - new dsn file
Set DSNpath=\\SERVER\DSNFileshare
 
REM Destination DSN path - XenApp IMA install folder
Set ctxDSNpath="D:\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture"
 
REM SQL DBO user on Datastore
Set ctxsqluser=CTXSQLDBO
Set ctxsqlpass=CTXSQLDBO_PASSWD
 
REM Path to script to replace entry in MF20.dsn - Accessible UNC path from XenApp server
Set vbstool="\\SERVER\fileshare\replace_entry_wsid.vbs"
 
REM Local server log
Set LOCAL_LOG=D:\dsmaint_%COMPUTERNAME%.log
 
REM Global farm Log path -
Set SHARED_LOGPATH=\\SERVER\fileshare\
 
Rem Writing status to local server log
ECHO. > %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO =============== Farm X Maintenance Status - %COMPUTERNAME% =============== >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO =============== Starting DS maintenance script on %COMPUTERNAME% in Farm X %TIME% %DATE% =============== >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
REM Start DS maintenance commands
ECHO ===== Stopping IMA services at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
NET STOP IMAservice /Y >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 1 ECHO === %TIME% : Imaservice could not stop - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 1 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 2 ECHO === %TIME% : Imaservice could not stop - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 2 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
ECHO ===== Copying new source MF20.dsn file to Server at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
XCOPY %dsnpath%\MF20.dsn %ctxDSNpath%\ /Y >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
ECHO ===== Running dsmaint config command at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
dsmaint config /user:%ctxsqluser% /pwd:%ctxsqlpass% /dsn:%ctxDSNpath%\mf20.dsn >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO ===== Running dsmaint recreatelhc command at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
dsmaint recreatelhc >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO ===== Replacing WSID entry in new MF20.dsn on Server at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
cscript %vbstool% %ctxDSNpath%\mf20.dsn "WSID=" "WSID=%COMPUTERNAME%" >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
ECHO ===== Starting IMA services again at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
NET START IMAservice >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 1 ECHO === %TIME% : Imaservice could not start - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 1 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 2 ECHO === %TIME% : Imaservice could not start - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 2 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
NET START "Citrix SMA Service" >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 1 ECHO === %TIME% : Citrix SMA service could not start - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 1 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 2 ECHO === %TIME% : Citrix SMA service could not start - Check %COMPUTERNAME% NOW! level 2 >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
ECHO ===== MF20.dsn output at %TIME% >> %LOCAL_LOG%
TYPE %ctxDSNpath%\MF20.dsn >> %LOCAL_LOG%
 
ECHO =============== DS maintenance script finished on %COMPUTERNAME% %TIME% %DATE% =============== >> %LOCAL_LOG%
ECHO. >> %LOCAL_LOG%
REM Copy the local status log to shared logpath
 
XCOPY %LOCAL_LOG% %SHARED_LOGPATH%

replace_entry_wsid.vbs

^?View Code TEXT

'Find and Replace Text in a Text File
'example cmdline = cscript *.vbs %DestinastionFile% "WSID=" "WSID=%COMPUTERNAME%
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
 
strFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
strOldText = Wscript.Arguments(1)
strNewText = Wscript.Arguments(2)
 
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading)
 
strText = objFile.ReadAll
objFile.Close
strNewText = Replace(strText, strOldText, strNewText)
 
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine strNewText
objFile.Close

Unattended server documentation with Sydi-server

Niclas — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:48:42 +0000

A guy called Patrick Ogenstad has started a great open-source project for documenting servers, called SYDI.
Check out sydiproject.com

Basically it consist of vbscripts taking advantage of WMI (Windows Management Instrumenation) and reqistry queries, which you can use to gather information about a host on your network.

Several scripts are available for specific roles, currently;

Sydi-Server
Sydi-Exchange
Sydi-SQL
Sydi-Linux

sydiproject.com/products/sydi-server/

Usage:

You run the script in a command prompt;
cscript.exe sydi-server.vbs -h (for help)

A lot of parameters can be used.
Unfortunately I am not a visual basic expert….yet

So I started out to make simple generic batch script which simplifies documenting servers individually…. A GUI wannabe

Requirements;
sydi-server.vbs, sydi-transform.vbs, sydi-html-styles.xsl and serverhtml.xsl in same directory as the batch script.

Example 1…

Example 2…

Example 3 …

^?View Code TEXT

@echo off 
 
TITLE Server Documentor running from machine %COMPUTERNAME% by user %USERNAME% 
 
set rundir=%~dp0
color 17
echo ===============================================================
echo Server Documentor - 
echo Using Sydi-server from http://sydiproject.com
echo. 
echo.
echo Description: 
echo This program documents windows servers in either HTML
echo or MSWORD format.
echo ===============================================================
echo.
:loop
set /P server="Enter target host to document: "
set /P format="Which format do you want document %server% in (msword or html) ?: "
set /P user="Enter Admin credentials (domain\user): "
set /P passwd="Please Enter password for %user%: "
set /P outputdir="Enter Output directory (fx. C: or UNC path): " 
 
if /i %format% == html goto :html
if /i %format% == msword goto :msword 
:html
cls
echo.
echo Documenting %server% in HTML.... Please wait...
cscript.exe sydi-server.vbs -ex -sh -o%outputdir%\%server%XML.xml -t%server% -u%user% -p%passwd% > %outputdir%\%server%_html.log 
 
REM Transforms the XML file to HTML
cscript.exe sydi-transform.vbs -x%outputdir%\%server%XML.xml -sserverhtml.xsl -o%outputdir%\%server%.html >> %outputdir%\%server%_HTML.log 
 
REM Deletes temporary XML template files
del %outputdir%\%server%XML.xml /F 
 
echo.
echo Server Documentation finished successfully.... 
echo Please check %outputdir%\%server%.html for result....
goto :fin 
 
:msword
cls
Echo MS Word must be installed locally where you run the script from!
Echo Otherwise this will fail
echo.
echo Documenting %server% in MSWORD.... Please wait...
cscript sydi-server.vbs" -t%server% -o%outputdir%\%server%_msword.doc -d > %outputdir%\%server%_msword.log 
 
cls
echo.
echo Server Documentation finished successfully.... 
echo Please check %outputdir%\%server%_msword.doc for result....
goto :fin 
 
 
:fin
pause

I compiled the above batch to an exe file via Bat to exe converter;
f2ko

Download Here

Just rename to .exe

Run the executable from any location where you got administrative rights.

Credits goes to the man behind SYDI, for sharing this project and making life as administrator a bit easier

How to compare two GPO settings

Niclas — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:06:14 +0000

If you come into a situation where you need to compare the settings of two Group Policy Objects without having to go through each screen one by one, then take a look at the following option to accomplish this.

Pre-reqs.;

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0a6d4c24-8cbd-4b35-9272-dd3cbfc81887&displaylang=en
XML Notepad / XmlDiff
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72d6aa49-787d-4118-ba5f-4f30fe913628&displaylang=en

Steps;

Open GPMC.msc
Find the GPO´s you want to compare, right-click the GPO’s and save reports as XML
Launch XML Notepad and open the first GPO.
Then click “View” > “Compare XML files…” select GPO to compare with.
´
Then all settings which differ is marked with green.

Besides the above approach, I am currently only aware of 3rd party vendors who enables you to compare GPO´s, unless you use Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) Which is a component of MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack). But if you know a smarter method for doing this in a 2003 environment please drop a comment