=== RESEND, we had some transmssion problems ===
W2Knews[tm] (the original NTools E-News) Electronic Newsletter
Vol. 5, #34- August 7, 2000 - Issue #208
Published by sunbelt-software.com since 1996 - ISSN: 1527-3407
'Immediate Notification Of Important Windows NT/2000 Events'
*******************over 600,000 subscribers**************************
This Issue of W2Knews contains:
1. EDITORS CORNER:
* Two short points
2. TECH BRIEFING:
* 10 Steps to Put your Network Storage Usage Policy in Place
3. NT/2000 RELATED NEWS:
* Ghosting your machines costs TWICE the W2K OS price?
* Free IBM Redbook on Tuning NT/2000 Performance
* Rebels Pledge To Keep NT 4.0 Certification Alive
4. NT/2000 THIRD PARTY NEWS:
* How Much Time Are You Going To Spend Installing SP1?
* Network Performance Boost by Defragmentation
* Domain Security Auditing with Sunbelt Domain Reporter
5. W2Knews 'FAVE' LINKS:
* NEW: This Week's 3 Cool HotLinks
6. HINTS AND TIPS:
* News about the MS XBOX
7. THE NT/2000 STOCK WATCH - Week of August 4, 2000 -
8. HOW TO USE THE MAILING LIST
Instructions on how to subscribe, sign off or change your address.
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**********************What Is W2Knews?**************************
Sunbelt W2Knews is the World's first and largest e-zine designed
for NT/2000 System Admins and Power Users that need to keep these
platform up & running. Every week we get you pragmatic, from-the-
trenches news regarding NT/2000 and 3-rd party System Management
Tools. W2Knews will help you to better understand NT/2000 and pass
your Certification Exams. You will get breaking news like new
tools, service packs, sites, or killer viruses via W2KNewsFlashes.
Sunbelt Software is THE NT/2000 e-business tools site. At the end
of this message are links to all indexed and searchable back issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. "EDITORS CORNER"
Hi NT/2000 Pros, two short points:
This is a retransmission. If you already got this, sorry! Just delete.
1) Please read the NT/2000 items and voice your opinion about the
MS policy about ghosting software. You'll find out what I think
about it when you browse down.
2) My new book: 'Windows 2000 Administrator's Black Book' will be
available THIS WEEK! I'm going to send you an announcement re this
on Wednesday, Aug 9 when you get the special 'guest issue' of
Certification Must Know News that I promised last week.
Warm regards,
Stu.
(Email feedback to [EMAIL PROTECTED])
***************************SPONSOR*********************************
GETTING SICK & TIRED OF KEEPING UP WITH HOTFIXES AND SERVICE PACKS?
To keep your systems UP and SECURE, you are constantly confronted
with questions like: What was the latest Hotfix? Hot to get it on
all the systems? Which hotfix is included in what Service Pack?
What is the right sequence of installing them? Do I have the most
recent hotfix version? Well, here is finally the conclusive answer
to all these problems: The brand new V4.0 (supports NT+W2K) of
SPQuery! http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=355
****************************************************************
2. TECH BRIEFING:
* 10 Steps to Put your Network Storage Usage Policy in Place
How can you put a lid on network storage so you won't have to worry
about servers crashing, and employees becoming server squatters?
Some organizations put in place a storage policy, which, in some
cases, has become part of a large corporate computer usage policy.
A storage policy defines what gets placed on the server, how much
space your users get assigned on the server; and what kinds of
housekeeping tasks employees will be asked to carry out if they
exceed their space allotment.
Meanwhile, the corporate computer usage policy defines acceptable
employee business practices for using the server, such as no
downloading of pornography, and the actions taken by the company
if employees don't follow these practices. A policy like this saves
you tons of time, and by keeping data growth under control also
saves money spent on backing up all kinds of junk-data.
Here are 10 steps for putting a storage usage policy in place.
1. Get buy-in from corporate management, human resources, and legal.
Ask a senior information technology (IT) management member to
spearhead the rollout of the policy.
2. Do an audit of all storage resources and back up procedures,
and load balance servers to distribute applications across
the network.
3. Invest in storage resource management tools like StorageCentral,
which has quota management and disk usage reporting capabilities
and shows you current storage trends.
4. Work with local systems administrators to set thresholds and
alerts for specific storage resource attributes, such as tracking
size of partitions, specific types of files, or specific groups of
users.
5. Make available certain types of servers for applications such as
archiving, or storing images. Likewise, invest in document
management software to keep track of specific types of files,
such as Lotus Notes.
6. Confine applications, such as data warehousing, to their own
server.
7. Establish backup procedures for both desktops and mobile PCs.
Investigate storage management tools for archiving, allocating,
and retaining documents.
8. Have the senior IT management executive call an all-hands meeting
with the department heads to discuss the policy. The department
heads, in turn, will alert their staff to the policy and how it
will be managed locally to employees.
9. Gather historical data about storage patterns for capacity planning,
budgeting, and look at the feasibility of doing storage chargebacks
to departments.
10.Make it a routine to give employees reports listing files that meet
certain criteria for removal from servers. Such files could be
more than a certain size, type, or inactive for a certain period.
An HTML page listing with links to each file allows an employee to
click on the link and instantly know the contents of that file to
identify the file and delete it immediately..
The Tool: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=423
****************************************************************
3. NT/2000 RELATED NEWS:
* Ghosting your machines costs TWICE the W2K OS price ?
I just read a story on CNET that made my eyes pop. My first reaction
was "You GOTTA be kidding." But it seems to actually be the case.
Here is the story in a nutshell. URL is below.
Market researcher Gartner has issued a report that says confusing
and ornate contractual terms in Microsoft's licensing agreements
are forcing many corporate customers to buy two copies of Windows
2000 for the same computer or to invest in additional upgrade
packages.
Everyone has been using tools such as Ghost to wipe out the software
on hard disks of new computers and install their own "software image".
We do this too at Sunbelt, it's an OS plus a standardized desktop
with all the apps we have for end-users. And you only need to buy
one OS license for that workstation, because they are virtually
identical, right? Well, think again!
I'm baffled. Microsoft is telling customers it's not that simple.
The software that comes on their computers and the software that is
part of their software image are covered by separate license contracts.
Although they might be identical technically, customers cannot legally
replace one copy for another without incurring consequences.
If they want to replace the software that comes on the computer with
their software image, they have to buy all of the software twice.
Wiping off the software on the computer also voids any obligation on
the part of the PC manufacturer to provide technical support.
Technical support can be had from Microsoft, but at a cost of $375
per incident, according to Gartner.
The scenario does not apply to all corporate customers or all buying
situations, but it does affect a large population. Business customers
with fewer than 10,000 employees that subscribe to Microsoft's Select
licensing plan can be affected, according to Gartner. Microsoft hotly
denies this contention and says the problem occurs because the two
Windows versions--the one that came with the PC and the one added later
--cannot be considered the same. I respectfully disagree. That is
basically nonsense, and I'm sure something lawyers cooked up.
Ultimately corporate buyers are responsible and have to take action
to avoid being caught in a licensing violation.
HOW TO SOLVE THIS?
CNET thinks the following: "One option is to receive new PCs without
any operating system and use Microsoft's Select media to create custom
software images, although this could prove more costly than getting
Windows from the system manufacturer. In this situation, the customer
would pay only Microsoft for the cost of Windows and not the PC maker
as well.
Another option is to use Windows software provided by the PC maker to
create the custom software build. A third workaround is to have the PC
maker load the custom software images at the factory, but this adds $25
to $35 per system".
CNET did not propose a fourth solution that I would suggest. Get your
Purchasing Office to talk to your Legal Department, and have both of
them communicate their discontent to Bill Landefeld, Microsoft's general
manager for pricing and licensing. You all know me by now, I'm a fairly
easy going kinda guy, and relatively tolerant. But in this case I'm
saying: MICROSOFT, GIVE ME A BREAK !
Here is the CNET article:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2427307.html?tag=st.ne.1002.bgif.ni
------------------------
* Free IBM Redbook on Tuning NT/2000 Performance
IBM just published the 2nd edition of their Windows NT and W2K
Performance book. Just like the 1st edition, a complete 6.8MB PDF
of the entire 600-page book is freely downloadable from the IBM Web
site (URL below). You can also buy it online as a regular book,
(list $49.99) via Amazon or other booksellers if your laser printer
is going to choke on such a big PDF as mine did last week.
When I announced the first edition of this book back in December 1998,
IBM got 18,000 hits right after. Looks like you guys would be interested
in hearing about the new edition. It's been updated to include the
latest info on tuning Windows 2000, tuning IBM Netfinity hardware and
tuning some of the major NT/2000 server applications.
IBM sent me a copy for my library, and this is worth giving your address
info and email address to them. (You have to register to get access to
it). Check out: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com ISBN: 0-13-040612-0
-------------------------
* Rebels Pledge To Keep NT 4.0 Certification Alive
Client Server News reported yesterday that Lanop (a 13-year
old IT training company offering Cisco, Novell and MS courses)
decided to create independent certification called NT Certified
Independent Professional: NTCIP.
They are supported by a consortium of independent training
professionals, and plan to keep NT4.0 certification alive after
MS will no longer offer NT4 Exam tests December 31-st 2000.
All MCSE Certs expire a year after that date. By that time
MS would like all MCSE's to have upgraded to the new W2K certs
to meet the need for W2K certified engineers.
It is obvious that a whole bunch of MCSE's are very unhappy with
this and say that MS does this to forcefeed migration to W2K
in a faster pace. And a lot of people have spent thousands of
dollars out of their own pocket to get certified. Those certs
will be void and that's an unhappy scene. The good news is that
current MCSE's will be grandfathered into the new certification
if they can supply the documentation.
Lanop claims there will be sufficient demand for NT 4 MCSE's
for quite a while and that W2K migration is not going to go
as fast as MS thinks it will. John Goodfriend is Lanop's
head honcho and said: "Many companies upgraded to NT 4.0 in
1999 because of the Y2K scare and they're not about to foot
the bill for another upgrade until they've gotten their money's
worth out of the NT 4.0 upgrades".
Well, there is something to say for that. We just started our
W2K preps in Sunbelt and this _is_ the mother of all migrations.
Not something we are particularly looking forward to. NT has been
running pretty well for us in the last few years. We have a file
server that gets rebooted maybe twice per year.
Lanop claims it has gotten the agreement of testing houses Sylvan
Prometric and Virtual University Enterprises (VUE) to run their
rebel exams. Tests are already being assembled, and will be very
similar to the existing MCSE exams, and perhaps even a bit more
difficult. The first tests will only be offered Jan 1, 2001 and
will cost the same 100 bucks.
Well I can tell you that Microsoft ain't gonna like this one,
and perhaps they'll even sue, but if I can make a suggestion
to them, I'd say 'leave this puppy alone'.
Here's the rebel base: http://lanop.com/ntcip/
*****************************************************************
4. NT THIRD PARTY NEWS:
* How Much Time Are You Going To Spend Installing SP1 ?
Attention Windows 2000 users: How much time are you going to spend
installing SP1 on your Windows 2000 machines?
St. Bernard Software has made life easier with SPQuery V4.0, the
latest version of its service pack and hotfix management software.
SPQuery's Now supports both NT and W2K. More important it has a
really cool "Live Update" feature that complements the just released
SP1 for W2K.
SPQuery's "Live Update" provides you with a notification when new
service pack or hotfix information is available for download. You
You receive the most updated information available every time you
launch SPQuery. With these and other enhanced features, SPQuery
plays a key role in maintaining the security of your NT/2000 boxes.
Some more detail: SPQuery gets you real-time data about what service
packs and hotfixes are available, as well as what operating system
issues they address. You can now _remotely_ query, identify, and
update service packs and hotfixes on multiple NT/2000 systems from
the convenience your own chair. The SPQuery central console finally
means no more manual updates on each individual machine!
Additional enhancements include:
- Support for Microsoft's Terminal Server Edition (TSE)
- Ability to schedule or cancel service packs and hotfixes installs
- File distribution capability for self-contained silent-install-
based .exe files
You can now stop wearing down your sneakers and wasting valuable
time managing service packs and hotfixes the old fashioned way.
If you need to present your management with a cost justification,
here is an example we worked out for you: A company with ten servers
and 100 workstations with NT/2000 and Terminal Server will spend
approximately $2,250 every time an update is distributed. Not to
mention additional costs incurred for research and testing. If your
company deploys SPQuery you will not only eliminate unnecessary
expense, but you'll gain back the time to get your real job done.
Now supports both NT and W2K. Price indication and Eval over here:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=355
-------------------------
* Network Performance Boost by Defragmentation
NSTL's is an independent testing lab, that recently confirmed
a boost in performance of 85.5% for Windows 2000, combined with
a whopping increase of 80.6% for Windows NT on computers that
were being defragmented on a regular basis. And their results
were also interesting to see on a whole network. Where it has
been deployed to all machines on a domain, similar results for
the entire network were being reported.
More over, it was noted that disk fragmentation is responsible
for a wide array of service desk calls and trouble tickets. System
admins who have installed and run a defragger have reported
significant drops in server and desktop support costs. They simply
got a lot less complaints about why the 'computer was so slow'.
Sunbelt has two solutions to boost your network's performance.
Diskeeper: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=455
SuperBoost: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=900
(this is a super bundle of a disk cache, defragger and tuner)
------------------------
* Domain Security Auditing with Sunbelt Domain Reporter
Security auditing is a major concern in many organizations.
Security of data contained in NT file systems can be challenging
to evaluate as there simply are no native tools that can report
on file system permissions. SDR's 2.61 NTFS reporting allows you
to get specific info about where a particular user or users have
been given explicit access - something which is not normally
done outside of users' personal directories.
Another security-related use pertains to employees leaving an
organization - where did that employee have access and what
data might they have taken when they left? If you use Sunbelt
Domain reporter to assess you company network, the following
point is important: Offline Reporting on Collected Data.
Offline Reporting (enabled by offline Scopes) is a feature that
will be very useful if you do network assessments as part of an
inside or perhaps outside service offering. You want to be able
to review the data you have collected after leaving the customer's
site. Using "create offline scopes" in Scope Manager, it is now
possible to create a stored copy of all the network objects to
permit offline viewing of collected historical data.
The Sunbelt Domain Reporter generates automated and customizable
reports quickly and easily from historic and real-time data from
multiple, enterprise-wide Windows NT domains, and Microsoft
Exchange Server application directories. Eval for download:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=866
****************************************************************
5. W2Knews 'FAVE' LINKS: July 3, 2000
==============
Need to Audit Windows 2000? Here is a cool article about that
http://www.ntsecurity.net/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=9633
==============
Need to know what ASAP, AFAIK, TIA, LOL, ROTFL mean?
http://www.acronymfinder.com/ has a 156,000 of them. Useful on-line.
==============
Vote for your FAVE TOOLS! See what tools your NT/2000 colleagues
like best: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/targetawards/
==============
****************************************************************
6. HINTS AND TIPS:
Microsoft's launch into the home games market with the XBOX -
running Windows 2000 as it's kernel operating system has been
exposed by the guys over at www.xbox365.com. They have a cool
story detailing the W2K software behind it after they got their
hands on an xdk - xbox software developer kit. Check it out at:
www.xbox365.com
****************************************************************
7. THE NT/2000 STOCK WATCH - August 4, 2000
PS, if this looks all messed up, change the font to Courier New 10pt
52 WK 52 WK P/E WEEK
SECURITY CLOSE HIGH LOW RATIO CHNG
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced Micro Devices... 62 13/16 97 15 5/8 30 -10.9%
BMC Software............. 18 5/8 86 5/8 16 1/8 19 +6.8%
BindView Development Corp 7 7/8 45 3/4 6 5/16 -9.3%
Cisco Systems............ 65 9/16 82 28 1/8 +4.3%
Citrix Systems Inc....... 14 15/16 122 5/16 14 1/4 26 -1.2%
Compaq Computer.......... 28 7/8 34 18 1/4 42 +3.1%
Computer Associates...... 27 79 7/16 23 7/8 13 +9.0%
Data Return Corporation.. 22 3/16 94 1/4 13 1/4 -14.6%
Dell Computer............ 41 3/8 59 3/4 34 7/8 65 -5.2%
EMC Corp................. 85 5/16 89 7/8 26 1/4 +4.6%
Electronic Data Systems C 45 76 11/16 38 3/8 29 +6.3%
Gateway Inc.............. 59 84 36 5/8 39 +7.0%
Hewlett Packard Co....... 111 3/4 136 3/16 52 1/4 35 +4.5%
Intel Corp............... 62 9/16 73 3/4 32 1/2 55 -3.0%
Intergraph Corp.......... 6 1/8 9 3 3/16 +0.5%
International Business Ma 115 7/8 137 11/16 89 3/4 29 +3.6%
Legato Systems Inc....... 9 25/64 82 1/2 8 7/8 -3.5%
Micron Electronics Inc... 10 5/16 20 11/16 8 3/16 30 +3.7%
Microsoft Corp........... 69 1/8 119 15/16 60 41 -0.8%
NCR Corp................. 34 7/16 47 26 11/16 10 -2.1%
NetIQ Corporation........ 46 3/4 81 1/2 14 3/4 -1.5%
Network Associates Inc... 20 3/16 37 3/16 15 58 +10.9%
Novell Inc............... 9 9/64 44 9/16 7 13/16 16 +1.3%
Oracle Corp.............. 81 9/16 90 17 3/8 39 +12.6%
Qualcomm Incorporated.... 64 200 34 82 +2.5%
Quest Software Inc....... 51 1/4 98 1/8 10 1/4 +8.7%
Seagate Technology....... 54 7/8 76 26 3/8 12 +23.6%
Silicon Graphics......... 4 1/2 6 3/8 2 +2.8%
Sun Microsystems Inc..... 106 5/8 110 33 97 +3.7%
Sybase Inc............... 25 5/8 31 9 5/8 36 +7.6%
Symantec Corp............ 55 1/16 81 5/8 25 3/8 19 +12.2%
Unisys Corp.............. 11 1/4 49 11/16 9 1/8 8 +20.0%
Veritas Software Corp.... 112 5/16 174 21 1/4 +28.0%
Dow Jones 30 Industrials. 10,767.75 +2.4%
*******************************************************************
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********************************************************************
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