Greener Pastures

I was poking around on the command line, and I tried this command out...

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C:\>defrag
Windows Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2001 Microsoft Corp. and Executive Software International, Inc.
Usage:
defrag <volume> [-a] [-f] [-v] [-?]
volume drive letter or mount point (d: or d:\vol\mountpoint)
-a Analyze only
-f Force defragmentation even if free space is low
-v Verbose output
-? Display this help text

C:\>defrag c: -a
Windows Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2001 Microsoft Corp. and Executive Software International, Inc.

Analysis Report
18.62 GB Total, 5.11 GB (27%) Free, 17% Fragmented (34% file fragmentation
)

You should defragment this volume.

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So look at that!!! I vaguely remember this becoming available for windows 2003 server and Windows XP, but honestly in whatever it's been 4 years, I had not tried it out...

This is very kool, after some research, I set it up as part of a 'Maintenance' plan for a client, and it's been great.  I run it in with some other commands in a batch file, and it werks like a champ.  I have since added to a managment process server, and it looks good so far.  My biggest concern is managing when to run it during maint. time...between AV scans and backups for most of my clients the window for 'other' tasks like defragging wanders into production sometimes.  After discussing it with a client, I was able to extend the maint. window on Sunday to accomodate additional taskss...we'll see how this works out...

-Later!

So yes, it's true Vlad is coming to Big-D.  Apparently he's over here all the time, but this time he's the Keynote speaker at this Month's DFW-SBS Group meeting.  In the midst of all the Vista and Office 2007 buzz, there's a reason to come see Vlad and learn more about DFW-SBS.  Vald's gonna be talking and walking though Exchange 2007.  And not just the fluff and stuff, but getting down to some of the nitty gritty.  Vlad's a key contributor to the Small Business Server Community worldwide.  What's better than that?  He's an Exchange MVP!!!  He's been working on and with the product for probably a couple of years, even before Exchange 2007 was a thing...Come on out and learn something you probably didn't care to know anyhow...

:-P

If that's not enough for ya, then how about this...we may, or may not have Pizza there!!! WOW!!!  I hope someone comes up with sumpin different between now and then, but if Pizza it be, then so be it.  They probably don't have Pizza down there in Gatorville anyway...or maybe they do.

Who knows we may see some of our Amigos from San Antionio for this thing!

If you are coming on Thursday January 25th, 2007 @ 5:00 for the business meeting and then 7:00 for the technical content, then pop over to DFW-SBS and post a note that you'll be there!  Better hurry, we have limited space and are expecting over 2000 people at this event!!!

k, so maybe not 2000 but we should have enough to have a pitchfork wielding posse, just in case we come across any Gators!!!

If you are scared of scripts and scripting processes, maybe this will adjust your feelings...

In a previous life I managed a a series of Unix based backup disk and tape systems for a large enterprise.  What Fun!!!  I had had a fair amount of scripting experience at the time writing batch files and vbs/js scripts before that at various positions to make my daily/weekly/monthly tasks more interesting and less redundandt.  Specifically, and most elaborately I wrote a script to build and analyze an excel spreadsheet with data populated from event logs.  It was quite elaborate and involved some command lines to dump the event logs and then some vba to get the flat files into excel and then creat some sorting and charting...later I redid that to dump into an SQL DB and then read with excel and chart that in a more real-time situation.  On the Unix systems I learned a ton about cron and bash shell scripting.  It was alot more fun to do that than to log into to like a dozen servers and run a series of commands.

Back on topic...so we've had a bit of ice this weekend and today a client is wanting to work from home, but the desktop is not allowing her to log in through RWW...WHY DID I BUY THIS IF I CAN'T DO THIS???  So I get onto the server's console and start pinging the desktop, it's up...  So then I try to connect using RDP, nuttin'...hum...I try to access the admin shares c$, etc, nuttin'...k, so this ain't right.  After several attempts to 'manage' the desktop, all failing, I turn to the Script Center.  If you don't know about this, get to know about it...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/

While looking around I found the solution to my problems...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx?mfr=true click on Desktop Management -> Startup and Shutdown and there it is...Restart a Computer...  So the 'sample' has a fictisious machine name, but substitute the target desktop...

I plugged that script, properly edited for the traget machine into a .vbs file ran it from the command line with cscript.  In another cmd window launched the old ping -t computername watched it go down then come back up...  tried RDP, it werked for me, so I emailed the customer and told her to try it out...sure enough it werked...

Some other tools that may have come in handy had I wanted to use it...running shutdown /i from a cmd line will sometimes do it.  You may want to try the pstools if you have a service providers lic. (I am still not sure about the lic. since microsoft bought sysinternals...)http://www.sysinternals.com

I have some improvements on tap though...first will be to prompt you for the remote computer name, perhaps with a 'browse' feature...also wrap it in a nice hta GUI, that maybe will ping and report when the remote machine is back up and maybe start an RDP Session for testing...

So I was watching the on demand webcast from November 30, 2006 "Business Value Launch Event"  about 1 hr and 15 minutes or so into it, the reporter asks if ..."Microsoft will offer vouchers to customers for training or relearning the operating system."  Good question if it's a softball.

Honestly it occurs to me that it shows the continued lack of understanding of the Microsoft Licensing model.  Perhaps the largest benefit to Software Assurance, which most Enterprises, and Corporations should have Software Assurance.  If your business does not know about Software Assurance or care about it, call me, tell me why!!!  For any business that uses Windows based software, there is no longer a reason not to do this.  The EA, Select, Open Value, etc are all created specifically to meet the needs and budgets of clients.

Are you excited about the Ribbon?

Are you excited about the Sidebar?

Are you excited about the Glass?

Unlike Vlad, I have spent a good part of this week catching up with and  getting a lead on some of the new technologies from Microsoft.  Office 2007, Exchange 2007, Office Sharepoint 2007 and Vista.  I have not yet gotten the MAP release, but have been using the RC1 of several of these that I did get from MAP and various other Partner events.

Vlad has clearly been up with Vista and Office for a while...

While much of what I am reading and watching on Vista and Office, is marketing fluff, I gotta say it looks great.  What excites me is that we can deliver locked up data much easier to businesses.  Many of my clients are heavily invested in there information, but for many of them, that data is locked up in Data Islands.

What excites me, is how easy it is to access data 'islands' through Sharepoint.  This is great stuff!  Call Abbie or me for a test drive of Vista, Office, Sharepoint or Exchange 2007.  If you aren't sure you can get into it on your hardware or budget, Let's talk, there's a ton of opportunities to get into this technology for less than coffee or less than fries.  Let's talk about your business and the tools you use everyday.  If you are not excited about the Ribbon, Sidebar or Glass, then let's talk about what it can do for you!