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Vol. 13, #8 - Feb 25, 2008 - Issue #662
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Server Down! Which Brand Does Best?
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- Editor's Corner
- Server Down! Which Brand Does Best?
- Quotes Of The Week
- Admin Toolbox
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- Tech Briefing
- Microsoft Security Testing Tools
- How To Prevent Windows Vista's Green Ribbon Of Death
- Vista SP1 Prerequisite Updates Send Some PCs Into Endless Reboot
- Tracking Which Users Have Connected To A Terminal Server
- Intel Unveils Eight-Core High-End, Gaming Platform
- FAQ: Windows XP SP3 Nears Finish Line
- Server Virtualization Reseller Project Guide
- Windows Server News
- Yankee 2008 Server OS Reliability Survey Executive Summary
- WServer Third Party News
- UltraAdmin V6 Available For Vista - And Free
- Kudos And Flames
- WServeNews FAVE Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WServerNews - Product of the Week
- BOOK: Gray Hat Hacking Second Edition: Uncover, plug, and ethically disclose security flaws.
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Renew Your Ninja Maintenance. Here's Why:
Michel Bruyere from E-Z-EM Canada just renewed maintenance on Ninja for 250
users. He said, "There is no company elsewhere that are so customer oriented
than you guys. Also, the products are REALLY developed for admins, not for
management. This is a big point on the market today, the features are mostly
driven by management requirement instead of real technical requirement. As
I said, you're one of the VERY RARE that didn't fall in this trap. Keep up
the good work guys."
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Ninja-Email-Security
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Editor's Corner |
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Server Down! Which Brand Does Best?
Many of you participated in this yearly Server Reliability survey, and I
received a warm thanks from Yankee Group's Laura DiDio. The full Executive
Summary is in the Server News Section. This is original content and you
saw it here first!
"Thanks to all who participated in the Yankee Group 2007-2008 Server
Operating System Reliability Survey! Our apologies for the long wait but
primary research takes time. And in addition to the Web-based responses
from those of you here on Sunbelt's lists, Yankee Group also polled several
hundred of its own customers and conducted in-depth first person customer
interviews to get that all-important anecdotal data. As promised any of
you who participated in the survey, email me at: ldidio@yankeegroup.com
and you will receive a complimentary copy of the full Report as our way
of saying "Thanks" for your participation. Also, please feel free to
email me with any comments, constructive criticism as well as what topics
you'd like to see covered in our upcoming surveys and reports."
-- Laura DiDio, Yankee Group, Research Fellow
Quotes Of The Week
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
-- Voltaire (1694-1778)
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams
"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big,
worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's
the grain of sand in your shoe." -- Robert Service (1874-1958)
Warm regards, and thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber. Please
tell your friends about us. They can subscribe here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Subscribe
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Now Available: Ninja Blade - The Barracuda Killer
Ninja Blade is built on commercial grade soft- and hardware, as opposed to
inexpensive boxes which re-brand open source offerings. A lot of system
admins asked us for an email appliance with the quality of our Ninja Email
Security for Exchange software product. You told us you wanted an appliance
at the Barracuda price points, but more reliable hardware, and high-end
antispam and antivirus code with less false positives. So we created a
'barracuda killer' for you. Check out the specs and the prices, and draw
your own conclusions. You can now get an evaluation copy and see it for
yourself. Pricing starts at $1,995; annual maintenance and support costs
(which include automatic signature updates for anti-spam/anti-virus) start
at $599 for the 500 model which runs on a Dell server with 3 year warranty
and 4-hour on-site service!
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Ninja-Blade
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Tech Briefing |
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Microsoft Security Testing Tools
Learn which tools you can use to test the security in your Windows shop and
read about some of the top free tools available today in Chapter 2 of this
All-in-One-Guide to Microsoft security assessment and testing.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-MS-Security-Testing-Tool
How To Prevent Windows Vista's Green Ribbon Of Death
Successor to the well-known Windows blue screen of death, the 'green ribbon
of death' crashes Vista when the progress bar freezes an Explorer window.
Here's why it happens, and how to make it stop.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Green-Ribbon-of-Death
Vista SP1 Prerequisite Updates Send Some PCs Into Endless Reboot
In most cases, they reported that the final update hung while displaying the
message "Configuring Updates Step 3 of 3 -- 0% Complete," which was followed
by a reboot of the PC. Which was followed by another reboot, and another.
"[It] reboots ad infinitum," said Frank Melk on the Microsoft support
newsgroup. Redmond pulled SP1 and is debugging now.
Tracking Which Users Have Connected To A Terminal Server
Have you ever wanted to track which users have connected to a terminal
server and wondered if there is a log of these people? SearchWinIT.com
expert Christa Anderson explains how you can see interactive connections
that show the name and domain of the user who connected and more in this
Ask the Expert response.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Terminal-Server-Connections
Intel Unveils Eight-Core High-End, Gaming Platform
Intel Corp. unveiled its latest gaming and high-end computing platform, which
includes two quad-core processors and graphic cards. The new platform, which
had been code-named Skulltrail, not only holds a total of eight processors;
it also gives users a choice of two multicard graphics solutions -- one from
ATI and one from nVidia Corp. The platform is the latest product to run Intel's
45-nanometer Penryn microprocessors, which hit the market last November. I
want one! More at ComputerWorld in the link below, and I also found a good
article that compares Intel Santa Rosa vs. Penryn in LAPTOP Mag:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Penryn-vs-Santa-Rosa
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Eight-Core-Platform
FAQ: Windows XP SP3 Nears Finish Line
Now that Microsoft has released the latest version of Windows XP Service
Pack 3 (SP3) to the public, it looks like a final release of the OS update
is near. Here's what you should know about it, and how to get it.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Windows-XP-SP3
Server Virtualization Reseller Project Guide
Server virtualization may seem a panacea that promises to increase revenue,
but simply deciding which products will address a particular customer's
need is a challenge in itself. This SearchSystemsChannel.com Server
Virtualization Project Guide will help you select, plan and deploy
virtualization products.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Virtualization-Project-Guide
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Windows Server News |
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Yankee 2008 Server OS Reliability Survey Executive Summary
Disclaimer: Yankee Group polled over 700 users worldwide in this independent,
non-vendor sponsored survey. Yankee Group also took precautions to ensure the
integrity of the survey by implementing intrusion detection and authentication
mechanisms to ensure that no parties could tamper with the results or vote
more than once.
The latest survey, which was completed in January 2008 served up some very
interesting results and a few surprises. UNIX, the leading Linux distributions
from Novell and Red Hat as well as open source Ubuntu were the clear winners
in Yankee Group's 2007-2008 Global Server Operating Reliability Survey.
Yankee Group's second annual Server Operating System reliability survey polled
700 users from 27 countries worldwide. The latest independent, non-sponsored
Web-based survey showed that revealed that all versions of UNIX -- which
typically carry very high workloads -- are near bulletproof, achieving 99.999%
reliability. IBM's AIX UNIX led all server operating systems for reliability
with just over 30 minutes of per server annual downtime but Hewlett-Packard
and Sun Microsystems also got high scores.
The top Linux distributions Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Novell SuSE
Linux notched the biggest reliability improvements in the latest 2007-2008
survey. Each decreased per server per annum downtime by an average of 75%.
The biggest and most unwelcome surprise in the survey was that Windows Server
2003 downtime increased by 25% to nearly 9 hours of per server, per year
downtime compared to the results it achieved in Yankee Group's 2006 Global
Server Reliability Survey. Windows Server 2003's decreased reliability is
attributable to a series of security alerts Microsoft issued in the summer
and fall time frame which caused network administrators to take their Windows
Server 2003 machines offline for significantly longer periods of time to apply
remedial patches.
In the past two years, the Yankee Group polls indicated that all of the major
server operating system platforms have achieved a much higher degree of
reliability than they experienced in the prior decade. In general, none of
the major server operating systems -- Linux, Macintosh, Windows or UNIX are
today beset by the long list of bugs that plagued their predecessors back
in the 1980s and 1990s. Additionally, there is far less disparity now, in
both the number and severity of unplanned server outages and the time that
businesses experience on their standard Linux, Windows and UNIX platforms,
than at any time in recent memory.
Yankee Group's Individual corporate Linux, Windows and UNIX servers experience
an average of 1 to 4 failures, per server per year resulting in downtime that
ranges from 1 hour to up to 10 hours of annual downtime for each server,
depending on the server operating system and its specific configuration
(See Exhibit 1 in the PDF link at the end of this article).
Among the other survey highlights:
- UNIX-based servers, which represent about 10% of the installed base of
server operating systems, achieved the highest reliability ratings among
mainstream distributions.
- IBM's AIX achieved the highest level of reliability with corporate
enterprises reporting only 36 minutes of average per server downtime in
a 12 month period. Hewlett-Packard's HP UX version 11.1 recorded 1.1 hours
of downtime for each of its servers on a yearly basis, while Sun Microsystems'
Solaris customers reported 1.4 hours of per server, per year downtime.
- Both versions of Novell SuSE Linux -- the standard off the shelf
distribution as well as the custom implementation -- saw downtime decline
by 73% from just over 4 hours in Yankee's 2006 Global Server Reliability
Survey to a little over 1 hour of per server annual downtime in the latest
poll. The off-the-shelf version of Novell SuSE Linux, bested Red Hat
reliability by recording 37 minutes less downtime for each server compared
to the comparable off-the-shelf RHEL implementation. The customized version
of SuSE Linux experienced 65 minutes of downtime per server, per year, roughly
13 minutes more for each server than its chief competitor RHEL in a custom
configuration. Additionally, Novell's market share climbed from approximately
13% in last year's survey to roughly 17% in the current poll.
- Linux market leader Red Hat scored similarly rosy results: per server
downtime decreased by 75% for the standard off-the-shelf distribution to
1 3/4 hours for each server annually, down from just over 7.1 hours in
Yankee Group's 2006 survey. And Red Hat's Enterprise Linux also increased
in its enterprise presence. Custom implementations of RHEL delivered even
greater reliability -- a scant 52 minutes of per server, per year of unplanned
downtime. This year, 31% of the survey respondents reported they have standard
RHEL present in their shops, up 5% from the 26% who had it installed in the
2006 survey.
- Debian, a popular open source distribution, which last year posted the
highest number of outage minutes, saw significant improvement in the latest
2007-2008 Global Server Reliability Survey. Debian servers this year
experienced just over 5 hours of annual downtime a 41% decrease from the
downtime figure it posted in Yankee Group's 2006 Global Server Reliability
survey. And the open source operating system also increased its presence
year-over-year with 24% of the respondents reporting they had at least one
Debian server in their network compared to 15% who had it installed in the
2006 timeframe.
- Ubuntu, which appears in Yankee Group's Global Reliability Survey for
the first time this year, has also come on strong and is an open source
operating system to be reckoned with. Some 22% of the survey respondents
are running at least one Ubuntu server at their sites. And it has proven
highly reliable, with 1.1 hour of per server, per annum downtime.
Here is the graph with the Hourly Per Year Downtime per Server:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Downtime-Graph
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WServer Third Party News |
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UltraAdmin V6 Available For Vista - And Free
Version 6 of UltraAdmin software is now fully compatible with Vista, and
they are making the full version available *at no charge* to any Microsoft
Windows network admin who wishes to download and use it. You can read more
about the utility, as well as download a full feature list in PDF format:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-UltraAdmin
Kudos And Flames
A kudos to Sunbelt, a flame on other companies, and a quick analysis on
why False Positives rates are bogus: So, I just found that my AV Software
flagged one of my files as a virus. It's a Driver I have saved, not installed,
for a Samsung phone. I use it all the time. False Positive in my eyes.
The AV quarantined it as soon I tried to copy it a different folder.
I figured I will just send an email to the company and explain why I think
this is a false positive. They could either correct it, or enlighten my as
to why they include in their signatures. Then I realized - the company is
not Sunbelt! I can't just email a nice Lyris list or support team and start
a discussion about it. It's a different company, and I will have to jump
through hurdles to submit any info to them!
I highly appreciate Sunbelt's implementation of what I refer to as 'Open,
Public, Easy Support'. I think everyone on this list knows that, agrees,
and loves it. We all know the support rocks. Thanks.
I think other companies are getting hurt by not implementing this type of
support, and in turn, it hurts the customers. Here is why. FALSE POSITIVES.
My Example: SPAM Filtering / False Positives.
Many SPAM filtering companies now claim false positive rates in the 1/Million
ratio. Or they advertise it as virtually 100% FP free. It's BS. You know why:
BECAUSE THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SUBMIT THE FALSE POSTIVES FOR ANALYSIS.
And it hurts the customer in the end because the detection rates will not
improve without feedback. With my current SPAM filtering setup, I have opened
many tickets with them regarding my false positives. I have followed all
their recommendations. At times, I will have 100s of FP Emails that I will
need to submit to them. However, they make me submit them one-by-one. No
mass upload. No FTP. It would take me forever. So I just don't bother.
Not only that, but it took them 2 technicians to even tell me where to
submit the FPs to. (Shouldn't that be in the manual?)
Therefore, I believe their stats on False Positives are way off! Just are
just clueless because nobody reports them. That being said, even if Sunbelt's
products had a high false positive rate, I would still be more inclined to
purchase a product from them since I know that the FPs can easily be submitted
and rectified. And not only that, the Support team actually says an
unscripted, honest, human, heartfelt 'SORRY'. WOW. Rock on Guys.
-- Sam Cayze
Information Technology Administrator
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WServeNews FAVE Links |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- A 360 degree view of the A380 flight deck:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Airbus-A380-Flight-Deck
- A train going only five miles an hour tosses a semi truck like a toy:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Train-vs-Truck
- Music composed using only sounds from Windows XP and 98:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Windows-Music
- The Melting of the Perito Moreno Glacier, a a spectacular display of nature
that occurs every four years like clock work in Southern Argentina:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Melting-Glacier
- Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved | Science | The Guardian
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Computer-from-65BC
- xkcd is a fave techie webcomic, and I'm sure many relate to this one:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-xkcd
- The basic idea of using a weight to create power (think grandfather clock)
isn't novel but doing it to create light is a nice modern touch. Yessir,
mighty clever.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Weight-for-Power
- What your dog should be doing:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Dog
- The Red Bull Eurocopter BO-105 CBS 4 twin engine helicopter can do some
amazing aerobatics, including backflips. It takes a specific aerobatic
helicopter to do that. A normal bird will chop off the tail boom if
you try that:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Helicopter-Aerobatics
- Top Gear daredevils reckon they can leap from a plane and parachute into
a driving Mercedes Benz convertible. Can they?
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Skydive-into-Car
- If you've ever been interested in ASCII art, this might bring a little
smile to yourface. It brings back memories of the older days before the
Internet when BBSes were the thing and ASCII art was appreciated.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-ASCII-Art
- I'll never look at a can of compressed air the same way again. Researchers
at Princeton University have discovered a way to steal the hard drive
encryption key used by several high-profile products. With that key,
hackers could get access to all of the data stored on an encrypted hard drive.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Coldboot-Hack
- Researchers have figured out how to crack GSM phone security:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Crack-GSM-Security
- A funny piano piece, expanding the Windows XP startup sound theme, by Jim
Owen, Microsoft employee, pianist & composer:
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Windows-Theme-Music
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WServerNews - Product of the Week |
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BOOK: Gray Hat Hacking Second Edition: Uncover, plug, and ethically disclose security flaws.
Prevent catastrophic network attacks by exposing security flaws, fixing
them, and ethically reporting them to the software author. Fully expanded
to cover the hacker's latest devious methods, Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical
Hacker's Handbook, Second Edition lays out each exploit alongside
line-by-line code samples, detailed countermeasures, and moral disclosure
procedures. Find out how to execute effective penetration tests, use
fuzzers and sniffers, perform reverse engineering, and find security
holes in Windows and Linux applications. You'll also learn how to trap
and autopsy stealth worms, viruses, rootkits, adware, and malware.
http://www.wservernews.com/080225-Gray-Hat-Hacking
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