Archive for the ‘WINDOWS’ Category
2010
07.01
Tags: Pramodag
Posted in EXCHANGE, INFRASTRUCTURE, Management, Storage, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Exchange administrator required a tool for reporting. This gives traffic, storage, billing, mailbox content analysis, and outlook web access. Reporting tool should be very convenient, easy to use. Provide reports in various file types, agent installation not required in server, both graphical and tabular output, and individual mailbox selection. Also need to consider the costing of tool and easy to administration.
In this category I can recommend PRAMODAG. Gives all the reporting features, cost savings and easy administration. Below listed key features:-
The product is designed for simple, convenient, and effective user interaction.
• Reports come in tabular or graphical format with many configuration options to suit specific information requirements.
• Reports can be exported to different formats: HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV, RTF, MHT.
• Reports can be sent by email, published in a public folder, a Web site or to a SharePoint document library.
• Individual mailbox reports can be automatically sent to the user or manager.
• Reports options can be saved for instant access using the Favorites menu.
• Mailboxes can be selected based on various Active Directory attributes (server, OU, department…).
• Reporting period can be restricted to specific days or business hours.
• Data collection, report generation, export and publication may be automated and scheduled.
• Data repository can be an Access or SQL Server database.
Read More:- PRAMODAG
2010
06.24
Tags: ADFS, Authentication, SSO, Token
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, Network, Security, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) is standards based Web Single Sign-On (SSO) service that enables federated identity by implementing claims based authentication across forests. It is part of Windows Server 2003 R2 and later releases of Microsoft’s server Operating System as a server role.
Claims based authentication is the process of authenticating a user based on a set of claims about its identity contained in a trusted token. Such a token is often issued and signed by an entity that is able to authenticate the user by other means, and that is trusted by the entity doing the claims based authentication.
In ADFS, identity federation is established between two organizations by establishing trust between two security realms. A federation server on one side (the Accounts side) authenticates the user through the standard means in Active Directory Domain Services and then issues a token containing a series of claims about the user, including its identity. On the other side, the Resources side, another federation server validates the token and issues another token for the local servers to accept the claimed identity. This allows a system to provide controlled access to its resources or services to a user that belongs to another security realm without requiring the user to authenticate directly to the system and without the two systems sharing a database of user identities or passwords.
One of the biggest challenges an IT department can face comes when identities need to cross company boundaries. When your organization enters a relationship with another organization and anyone from one side needs access to resources on the other side, you need a way to establish a secure, trusted relationship. For Administrators this creates a dilemma. They don’t want to be giving administrative rights to people outside their organization, but at the same time they also do not want the additional burden of the extra identity management tasks for those, external people. But you do want to be able to use your current, Active Directory environment to provide single sign on.
Read More:-
1. Cross Organization Single Sign-on Made Real With ADFS
2. Simplify Single Sign-on Using ADFS
2010
06.10
Tags: Database Administrator, Exchange Administrator, Network Administrator, Security Administrator, System Administrator, Utilities
Posted in EXCHANGE, FIREWALL, INFRASTRUCTURE, LINUX, Management, Network, SOLARIS, Security, UNIX, WINDOWS | No Comments »
LANguard Network Scanner – LANguard network scanner is a freeware security scanner to audit your network security. It scans entire networks and provides NETBIOS information for each computer such as hostname, shares, logged on user name. It does OS detection, tests password strength, detects registry issues and much more. Reports are outputted in HTML.
HotFix Control – Tells you what hotfixes and service pack you have applied, neat utility. (163K)
Disk Investigator Disk Investigator is a program that allows you to see everything on your computer’s hard disk, undelete previously deleted files, and recover lost data
PRTG Network Monitor Full featured and easy to use network monitoring software for bandwidth, usage, and availability monitoring. Freeware supports up to 10 sensors. Learn more about PRTG Network Monitor. (The most popular of our free network monitoring tools)
PRTG Traffic Grapher Small footprint MRTG-like network tool for bandwidth monitoring. Also known as “MRTG for Windows”. Freeware supports up to 10 Sensors. Learn More about PRTG Traffic Grapher. (The second most popular from our free network monitoring tools)
Card Packet Counter Shows short term statistics about the network data packets passing a local network card using PRTG.
Local IP Lister Local IP Lister shows the list of IP addresses that are configured on your PC.
Process Explorer Freeware process viewer for Windows, which displays much more information on each running process than the built-in Windows task manager.
DNS Tools Resolve/reverse lookup, whois (domain name), whois (ip owner), check port, ping.
More Resources – AdminFavorites
2010
05.27
Tags: AD Management, ADManager Plus, Help Desk Technicians
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, ITIL, Management, ServiceDesk, WINDOWS | 1 Comment »
ADManager Plus is a simple, easy-to-use Windows Active Directory Management and Reporting Solution that helps AD Administrators and Help Desk Technicians with their day-to-day activities. With a centralized and Intuitive web-based UI, the software handles a variety of complex tasks like Bulk Management of User accounts and other AD objects, Delegate Role based access to Help Desk Technicians, and generates an exhaustive list of AD Reports, some of which are an essential requirement to satisfy Compliance Audits.
What problems does it solve?
• Eliminates repetitive, and complex tasks associated with AD Management.
• Automates routine AD Management and Reporting activities for AD Administrators.
• Facilitates Creation, Management and deletion of AD objects in Bulk.
• Acts as an essential resource during Compliance Audits like SOX, HIPAA, etc.
What features does it offer?
• Single and Bulk User Management
• Computer Management
• Group Management
• OU-based Administration
• Contact Management
• Help Desk Delegation
• AD reports (Schedulable/Compliance Oriented)
Ref: ADManager Plus
2010
05.23
Tags: Future Applications, HTML 5, TCO, Web Application
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, LINUX, Management, Network, SOLARIS, Security, ServiceDesk, Storage, UNIX, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Future applications are web based. Web applications are offering lot of advantages. Technology advances in web applications and tools giving more growth in this area. The flexibility, easy to build, rich contented, speed, run all devices (mobile devices). HTML 5 is giving more advancement in web applications. It’s integration; add video, audio, images. All the browser are supported applications and open standards. What are the benefits of web applications?
1. Installation not required. If you have a web browser you can run the application.
2. Updates are seamless to user. You don’t want to do any user system level upgrade of application.
3. Available anywhere any time. It can be accessible from any device, from anywhere.
4. Platform independent. No dependency with client OS and browser.
5. Easy of deployment, and Ease of access.
6. Lower TCO.
7. Secure.
8. User friendly, simple to use. Users are familiar to use.
9. Speed of application is higher. Access is faster.
10. Availability.
2010
05.19
Tags: GNU, GPL, SUN Solaris, VirtualBox
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, SOLARIS, Virtualization, WINDOWS | No Comments »
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Some of the features of VirtualBox are:
• Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don’t have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.
• Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.
• Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris. VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows, Linux and Solaris virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window). There are also guest additions for OS/2 with somewhat reduced functionality.
• Shared folders. Like many other virtualization solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as “shared folders”, which can then be accessed from within virtual machines.
• Virtual USB Controllers. VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines without having to install device specific drivers on the host.
• Remote Desktop Protocol. Unlike any other virtualization software, VirtualBox fully supports the standard Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). A virtual machine can act as an RDP server, allowing you to “run” the virtual machine remotely on some thin client that merely displays the RDP data.
• USB over RDP. With this unique feature, a virtual machine that acts as an RDP server can still access arbitrary USB devices that are connected on the RDP client. This way, a powerful server machine can virtualize a lot of thin clients that merely need to display RDP data and have USB devices plugged in.
Ref: VirtualBox
2010
05.03
Tags: AppLocker, BitLocker, Direct Access, RDP7, Windows 7
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Windows Server 2008 R2 has many features that are designed specifically to work with client computers running Windows 7.
Direct Access: Automatically establishes a secure remote connection to the corporate network without requiring VPN
Branch Cache: Caches content from remote file and Web servers on a server or client in a branch location
Read only Distributed File System (DFS): Supports read-only copies of files stored in DFS; this feature improves security in branch offices
Desktop and Application Feeds: Allows end users to launch remote applications on Windows Server 2008 R2 via RDP from a central location on a Windows 7 desktop
Agile VPN: Multiple network paths between points in the VPN tunnel; if one network path gets disconnected, Agile VPN automatically uses another network path.
BitLocker keys in Active Directory: Allows you to store a backup of the BitLocker key in Active Directory. I suppose this works only if you raise the functional level of Active Directory to Windows Server 2008 R2.)
Offline Folders enhancements: Offline files are copied to the Offline Files cache and then synchronized in the background with the server. This saves bandwidth and improves performance.
AppLocker: Restricts program execution on user desktops based on publisher signature
RDP 7: The version number of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) will probably be 7 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
2010
04.18
Tags: Communication, Exchange 2010, Mail, OWA, Unified Communication
Posted in EXCHANGE, INFRASTRUCTURE, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Every organization requires cost-effective and flexible communication tools. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 you can achieve new levels of reliability and performance with features that simplify your administration, help protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater mobility.
Microsoft Exchange Server, the cornerstone of Microsoft’s Unified Communications solution, is a flexible and reliable messaging platform that can help you lower your messaging costs by 50-80%, increase productivity with anywhere access to business communications, and safeguard your business with protection and compliance capabilities that help you manage risk.
1. OWA (Outlook Web Access) support for Multiple Browsers
2. Improved Storage Reliability
3. Mail Tips
4. Conversation View
5. Sharing
Calendar Sharing:
Contact Sharing:
6. Voice Mail Preview
7. Exchange Control Panel (ECP)
8. Critical Security
Mobile Device Block/Allow List:
Protected voice mail:
Outlook protection rules:
9. Distribution Group Management
2010
04.15
Tags: AD, Hyper - V, RAD, VDI
Posted in INFRASTRUCTURE, WINDOWS | No Comments »
Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations of all sizes increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, scalability enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.
1. Create a virtual machine using Hyper-V Manager
2. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
3. RemoteApp & Desktop Connections (RAD)
4. Active Directory Administrative Center
5. Offline Domain Join
6. Managed Service Accounts
7. Internet Information Services 7.5 (IIS)
8. Management tools
9. IP Configuration
2010
04.11
Tags: ARCA, BMR, Snapshot, Virtualization, Zenith
Posted in Backup, DISASTER, INFRASTRUCTURE, Storage, WINDOWS | No Comments »
When you can get all the required software for Backup and Disaster Recovery through single appliance which is affordable, simple, reliable and flexible solution to keep your business running at full pace without additional cost.
The Zenith Advanced Recovery and Continuity Appliance (ARCA) is a network-attached storage device for Windows Servers that comes preloaded with all backup, recovery and virtualization software it needs to protect your business. It’s a perfect complement or replacement to existing tape backups because of its ability to provide near-term, near-line recovery from a single file, database or mail message, up to a full production server, in minutes.
Zenith ARCA offers a unique set of features:-
• Block Level Transfer for More Efficient, Reliable Backups
• 15 Minute Incremental Snapshots for More Frequent Recovery Point Objectives
• Total Windows Server Backup Preserves OS and Applications, not just Data
• Restore systems in a fraction of the time of conventional backups
• Automatic and Non-Disruptive with No Backup Windows Needed
• Exchange Granular Recovery, restore down to the message level
• Rapid Failover Server Virtualization, right on the ARCA
• Bare Metal Restore, even to dissimilar hardware
• Industry Standard Encryption to keep your backups safe
• Multiple Replication Schemes
• Integrated Management and Reporting
Ref: – Zenith ARCA
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