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Vol. 12, #9 - Mar 5, 2007 - Issue #615
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Hassles With Vista On Your Admin Workstation
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- Editor's Corner
- Exchange Migration Costs Feedback
- Hassles With Vista On Your Admin Workstation
- Come See Us At Windows Connections Orlando
- Ninja and CSE Beta Invitation
- Quote Of The Week
- Admin Toolbox
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- Tech Briefing
- Vista Adoption: When, How and What Changed
- Improving Microsoft Virtual Server Security Series, Part One
- Tip: NTFS Permissions Control
- Modeling Your Consolidation Server
- Windows Vista Tips And Expert Responses
- Windows Server News
- Black Hat Demos Show Hardware Is Not Safe Either
- WHOA Nellie. Check Out Virtualization Licensing for SQL 2005 SP2!
- Vista Bug Forces Legit Users To Reactivate OS
- Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta in April
- WServer Third Party News
- Double Take For Small Business Server Success Story
- The Real RFID Holes
- WServerNews Fave Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WserverNews - Product of the Week
- Climbing The Tall Certification Ladder? Check The Red Column!
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Why Upgrade From "Yesterday's" Exchange AV to Messaging Ninja?
Stop fighting next generation email security threats with yesterday's
products. While email security remains a critical area that your
organization must stay vigilant in addressing, many solutions have
not kept pace with the ever increasing and evolving blended threats.
Second-generation Exchange products just do not cut it in this rapidly
evolving security landscape. Sunbelt Messaging Ninja uses a policy-
based technology, new plug-in architecture, and the most advanced
detection methods. Combined with AD integration, Third-Gen Ninja
provides you with a powerful tool that takes HALF the Admin time:
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Sunbelt-Messaging-Ninja
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Editor's Corner |
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Exchange Migration Costs Feedback
Subscriber Keith sent me this: "We have done the migration (to Exchange
2007). I would say the biggest pain was ditching our well-loved Anti-virus
and anti-spam platforms, and learning to live with MS's hard to configure
and understand anti-spam engine. It also required lots of effort to retrain
users. Plus the anti-virus we have to pay twice now, since our old sub-
scription is still active and we have pay for a new one. I have also
noticed a memory leak with Exchange 2007."
Hassles With Vista On Your Admin Workstation
I asked our Sunbelt Admins here what they thought of using Vista in
their admin environment. We have about 130 people here, but more than 250
machines and a Gigabit connection to the Net. Here is what John said:
"Here are the two biggest problems that I run across daily - AD Users and
Computers and DHCP. To start with the last, with DHCP I'm able to add the
DHCP snap-in to my MMC but it doesn't let me really do anything. I manage
authorized servers and all of the features that I'm used to seeing are
non-existent. For some reason, I'm able to change global server settings
but I'm unable to view DHCP leases, add DHCP registrations or the like.
Basically useless.
"AD Users and Computers; Flat out isn't't available so I have nothing bad to
say about the functionality because, well, there *IS* none! I have found
some posts out there about ways to trick the system into letting you use
some of the snapins, for example:
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Vista-Hassles
"If I wanted to spend this much time setting my system I'd install Linux...
I should mention that I am running the 32-bit version of Vista and it
apparently gets the red-headed-step-child treatment (no more than 3GB of RAM
- just like XP). I believe there might be some add'l functionality available
on the 64-bit version, but since I'm running this to find out what kind of
problems our users are going to have when they decide to take the plunge
and upgrade... I need to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples and run
the version they would be using.
"Another one. If I have to TS into a Windows 2000 machine (client or server),
you have to log in twice. They've changed the authentication on the remote
desktop client such that you have to give RDC your credentials before you
connect to the machine, and if it's not W2K3 you will have to enter your
info a second time. Is it that big of a deal? Not really. Just an annoyance.
Last one, Telnet isn't installed by default. OK, it's an easy fix... it's in
Add/Remove Windows Components. It's an optional component now as opposed to
'just being there'. Normally not a big deal but at 12:30 at night when you're
trying to check firewall rules it's kind of annoying. ;)
The link below has an article with add'l comments on the lack of IT tools
available to Vista users." My comment: Redmond, do something about this please?
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Vista-Tools
Come See Us At Windows Connections Orlando
Microsoft, Windows IT Pro magazine, and Tech Conferences all come together
to produce the essential conference on Windows, Exchange, and Office tech
for systems administrators and IT managers. Attend in-depth sessions on
Exchange, Vista, and Office. There are over 100+ sessions to choose from
and 60+ industry experts presenting in-depth sessions and hands on labs.
If that is not enough there is the expo hall with exciting new products
and the great networking receptions.
Windows Connections
April 1-4, 2007
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
Orlando, FL
Visit Us at Booth # 314
Ninja and CSE Beta Invitation
We're currently looking for a few good men (or women) to test out the latest
versions of Sunbelt's Ninja and Counterspy Enterprise products. The new
functionality in Ninja V2.1 is disclaimers, and the new features in CSE V2
are too many to list here! If you are interested in signing up for either
product please send an email to "[email protected]" with the product
you are interested in testing in the subject of the message.
Quote Of The Week
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
-- Dr.Seuss
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Tech Briefing |
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Vista Adoption: When, How and What Changed
Attend this free one-day seminar, which is coming to six cities starting
in May, and find out how to prepare for a Vista rollout from best-selling
author Mark Minasi. Whether you are deploying soon or are still in the
planning stages, find out what you need to know about key migration issues
such as licensing and application compatibility. And get time-saving tips
about the Windows Automated Installation Kit and learn the pluses and minuses
of new desktop security technologies like the controversial User Account
Control and Windows Integrity Control that protects systems from rootkits.
Don't miss this exclusive opportunity - attendance at each seminar is limited.
Reserve your free seat today by filling out the quick online registration
form or call Chris King at 888-274-4111 ext 1773.
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Vista-Adoption
Improving Microsoft Virtual Server Security Series, Part One
Do you need to secure a Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 installation? This
article will walk you through securing local access to the Virtual Server
2005 host machine and the virtual machines hosted on it.
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Virtual-Server-Security
Tip: NTFS Permissions Control
In this tip, Windows networking security expert Wes Noonan offers his thoughts
on how to manage the rights of junior administrators in Windows Server 2003.
(free registration)
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-NTFS-Permissions
Modeling Your Consolidation Server
To calculate how many servers can be consolidated into one without hitting
diminishing returns, learn each of your servers' real needs and behaviors,
and model the consolidation server accordingly.
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Consolidation
Windows Vista Tips And Expert Responses
Is Windows Vista the most secure operating system ever? Read how the security
experts of SearchWindowsSecurity.com have broken down the elements of Vista
in this Vista security Resource Kit.
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Vista-Tips
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Windows Server News |
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Black Hat Demos Show Hardware Is Not Safe Either
Unless you were at Black Hat on Feb. 28, you probably woke up safe in the
assumption that if a rootkit hit your system, reimaging would remove it. You
probably also thought that the best way to search a PC's volatile memory, or
RAM, was by grabbing it with a PCI card or a FireWire bus. You were wrong.
At the Black Hat Briefings, two breakthrough hardware hacks were demonstrated.
One shocker was Coseinc Senior Security Researcher Joanna Rutkowska's demo
of a way to subvert system memory through software-in essence, the shattering
of our long-held belief that "going to hardware" to secure incident response
is a security failsafe. For the other hack, read the article in eWEEK.
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Hardware-Hacking
WHOA Nellie. Check Out Virtualization Licensing for SQL 2005 SP2!
Remember when Redmond told the world about their virtualization license
policy for WinServer 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition? If you purchase Datacenter,
you can run an unlimited number of Windows OSen within virtual machines
running on that host. Well, they did it again. Redmond is making it very
interesting to buy one big fat server, install Datacenter and next
virtualize all of your Windows servers, and -include- just one SQL Server
2005 Enterprise Edition license, and you can run an unlimited amount of
virtual instances of SQL too.
Vista Bug Forces Legit Users To Reactivate OS
Because of a bug in Windows Vista's antipiracy technology, some users are
being told that they need to reactivate the operating system after
installing new device drivers or software. It was all over the news
but ComputerWorld had the best summary:
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-Vista-Bug
Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta in April
Microsoft announced it is wrapping up the beta test code for its first
service pack for Exchange Server 2007, and plans to begin testing
the update in April.
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WServer Third Party News |
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Double Take For Small Business Server Success Story
"I have spent the past month working with DoubleTake on the Shadow
Caster product. I set up two servers and used the product extensively.
During that time I was glad to have been able to help Doubletake by
unearthing a technical issue and also better defining the licensing.
I now have a full understanding (both conceptually and practically)
of the product and more importantly of the licensing issue involved
with it. Its a great product that works. I have also established a
relationship with their level II support team - which is crucial on
a new product such as this.
"At this point, I am comfortable that the software works well and will
most likely work on other heterogeneous environments. I purposely chose
to have the two servers we used for testing be very different in their
hardware configuration - as that would make sure that there were no
'got yas' in the process.
"As you know, my practice is in the Washington, DC metropolitan area
(Virginia, Maryland and DC) and is focused on Small and Medium sized
Businesses (SMB). I am going to write up and recommend this product in
my monthly newsletter. In addition, I am going to present it to my
customers who have a strong need for a 'hot' backup. I am hoping to
be the organization to which Double-Take and its distributors like
Sunbelt will refer business to support small offices onsite with
Shadow Caster. I have made, as you have seen, a significant investment
(time, two servers, etc.) into this product to be knowledgeable and
confident". -- Ronald L. Herold, Small Office Solutions,
(703) 573-2222 - email ronsolves AT rrr DOT org
The Real RFID Holes
Nothing to do with windows servers, but with security. Ephraim
Schwartz from InfoWorld was wondering how insecure RFID truly is.
"The real vulnerabilities in RFID are not in the cards, but in the
middleware and in the RFID reader software," he writes. "RFID reader
software and middleware is built on the assumption that it is talking
to a dumb tag and so the bad guys pretend to be the dumb tag and from
buffer overflow it gets right into the executable space." Voila.
Reality check. Here is the blog:
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-RFID-Holes
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WServerNews Fave Links |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
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WserverNews - Product of the Week |
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Climbing The Tall Certification Ladder? Check The Red Column!
Normally, for exam cramming you think "Transcender". But there is
another name just as good: CramMaster. I told you about them last
week. We were able to negotiate a special deal for all of you.
But I forgot to mention something important. You can get $50 off
every exam you buy, and it's OFF the RED column! Here are the steps
to get it: Step 1) Scroll down this page to the CramMaster section
and note which exams you want at your WServerNews special discount:
http://www.wservernews.com/070305-ExamForce
Step 2: Email Doug Burke: doug AT examforce DOT com and tell him
"Stu sent me" and which exams you want! He will get back to you.
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