Blog Host: Rod Trent - Author READ ENTIRE BIO

It seems there is no limit to the number of jobs heaped on one individual.

To help organized your daily tasks, Danielle Ruest sent along an awesome spreadsheet that I wanted to share with you. It breaks down a lot of the tasks you might experience as an administrator for a Windows 2003 Server environment. A lot of these tasks can be applied to other things, as well.
Posted by Rod Trent Good book resource for daily, weekly and monthly IT tasks
14 JUL 2004 06:00 EDT (10:00, GMT)
I received an e-mail yesterday that was basically a wake-up call. With the recent blog topic on primary and secondary job responsibilities, I completely forgot about a book I worked on with Danielle and Nelson Ruest. The Windows Server 2003 Pocket Administrator is a handy resource that describes 160+ tasks including recommended task frequencies broken down into daily, weekly and monthly.

You can download a sample chapter or buy it from Amazon.com.
Posted by Rod Trent Systems management Weblogs
13 JUL 2004 13:50 EDT (17:50, GMT)
If you're like me you love to get great information. These days Weblogs are a great way to receive information without too much trouble on your part. All you need is a good RSS feed reader.

No matter what your favorite feed reader is, there are some great systems management Weblog resources you should be aware of. These Weblogs include those from Microsoft MVPs and Microsoft employees.

• Richard's Management Blog (MVP)
• SMSPerfGuy's WebLog (MS employee)
• myITforum.com (MVP)
• Larry Duncan's Microsoft Management Blog (MVP)
• Jonathan Hardwick (MS employee)

A systems management application is supposed to help with this, but it rarely does. Why?

A lot of IT folks perform more than just a single task. Most have multiple tasks heaped on them, like data backups, updating the environment's antivirus application, building and distributing new computers, or even helping out with HelpDesk calls. Putting in a system that automates management of your environment only proves to show your manager that you have more time to handle more responsibilities.

So what daily, weekly and monthly tasks do you perform in your IT job? I'd like to know. Send me a list of your responsibilities, and I'll tally the results.
Posted by Rod Trent Two systems management product beta programs
08 JUL 2004 12:00 EDT (16:00, GMT)
If you're the kind of IT person who can't get enough of testing beta programs, there are a couple systems management betas you should be aware of -- posted to the myITforum Beta Announcement forum.

Ecora Provisioning Manager Beta
Ecora Provisioning Manager is now available for beta testing. Ecora Provisioning Manager, based on Microsoft ADS, automates the operating system installation, application installation and server configuration process through an entirely Web-based console. This can be simultaneously replicated on as many servers as an administrator needs to deploy.

Once the server is set up and configured, an exact copy can be made for additional system replications. This process guarantees the configurations are exactly the same, helps minimize security exposure and further reduces the amount of time required to deploy a server from hours to minutes. This functionality is as available to any network-connected server as it is to a local machine.

We extend the value of ADS by adding an entirely Web-based console, reporting functionality, unattended OS and application installation capability and a LOT more. Participants who complete the beta process with us will receive the software for use on up to 10 servers FREE of charge.

Vintela Releases VMX Beta -- SMS Support for Non-Windows Environments
The VMX beta includes platform support for Linux Red Hat, SuSE, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and Mac OS X.

VMX extends SMS 2003 to enable IT administrators to manage Unix, Linux and Mac OS X systems through the SMS console.
Posted by Rod Trent The Administrator Shortcut Guide to Patch Management
07 JUL 2004 18:00 EDT (22:00, GMT)

Just a quick entry today to make note of a good resource you may want to jump out to the Internet and grab. Since everyone is reeling from the latest round of patches from Microsoft dealing with the Internet Explorer issues, you may be interested in a little thing I've been working on with RealTimePublishers. Check out the Administrator Shortcut Guide to Patch Management. It's a short read (only three chapters); one chapter is already available, the second chapter is close to release, and the third chapter should be available in August.

If you have some comments, clarifications, or simply want to rant while you're reading, drop me an e-mail.
Posted by Rod Trent Critical Update for Windows
06 JUL 2004 17:38 EDT (21:38, GMT)
If you've not heard (and I'm sure you have) there's a critical update available for Windows that shuts down the ADODB.Stream object from Internet Explorer. If you haven't deployed this yet, you'll want to think seriously about doing so.

The update is available from the Windows Update web site, for your SUS servers and from the Microsoft Download Center. For SMS 2.0 and 2003, you'll need to utilize their software distribution capabilities to deploy the update, after downloading the appropriate version of the update from the Microsoft Download Center.

Here are the download links:

• Windows 9x
• Windows NT, 2000, 2003 and XP
• Windows 2003 and XP 64-bit

• Read about the vulnerability.
• Read the MS04-013 Security Bulletin

So, just what is systems management? To me, take all of those answers and roll them into one big application, and you'll have my answer. Systems management is the key to managing and controlling the computing environment. Having a systems management application in place means the entire environment can be monitored and controlled from a single point.

I've been a systems management evangelist for years -- long before it was a common technology term. I remember working for a large organization (more than 70,000 computers across several countries) and spending a good amount of time simply trying to "sell" the systems management idea. One would think an organization this large that relied heavily on technology would understand how important managing technology is. To this day, that company is still sifting through some patching nightmares, because they spent the last few years ignoring the importance of systems management.

There's a horde of vendor offerings for systems management. Some vendors offer only one piece, so that you have to go to many vendors to get the whole pie. The cost of doing it this way can be extremely expensive -- but many companies still do it. A lot of companies get locked into this method because they add in a piece only when it becomes critical to do so.

But there are other systems management vendors that offer the whole pie at once and will feed it to you on a silver spoon. Some companies look at these everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of offerings and say, "It looks nice, but we only want to use three or four of the 10-20 pieces that it offers." Believe me, if your company continues to grow, you'll most likely end up using all 10-20 pieces of the technology eventually. If you invest in this type of systems management product, you'll save a bundle of money over a piecemeal solution.

So, what does systems management mean to you? I'd like to know. I'll post some of the better explanations to this Weblog in the next two weeks. Drop me a line and let me know if you want to remain anonymous or if you don't mind me posting your name and/or company name in the Weblog.
Posted by Rod Trent