Using Windows 7 management tools to your advantage

Using Windows 7 management tools to your advantage





The more enterprises get to know Windows 7, the more useful features they'll find. Among the neatest things in that operating system are the management tools for the Ultimate and Enterprise versions (often in combination with Windows Server 2008 R2). Here are my three favorites:



AppLocker

Arguably the most-needed from a security perspective, AppLocker lets you define and manage via Group Policy Objects (GPOs) exactly which executables run on your user's desktops. It's not unlike third-party whitelisting tools, such as Faronics' Anti-Executable and the Windows Software Restriction Policies, we've had available to us in the past. But now you've got a more feature-rich whitelisting/management application built right into the OS.



DirectAccess

DirectAccess is a virtual private network alternative that allows remote users to connect directly to the corporate network without the hassles of loading a VPN client from their workstations. It's a single-user interface that connects users to the Internet and an intranet at the same time. In my opinion, the coolest thing about DirectAccess is how it pushes Windows updates out any time the computer is connected to the Internet.



Windows XP Mode

Windows XP Mode is a full-blown version of Windows XP SP3 that runs inside a Microsoft Virtual PC session in Windows 7. As long as you have a reasonable amount of memory to support it, all you have to do is download and install Windows XP Mode and Virtual PC, and you've got yourself a working virtual machine in no time.





A great aspect of Windows XP Mode is that it enables users to run virtualized applications. This means that programs are available for use in both a Windows XP Mode virtual session and a Windows 7 session. This is a great way to quickly set up an environment for testing application compatibility, performing security scans and more.



There are numerous other management tools like Federated Search for network searching, BranchCache for speeding up downloads at branch offices, Reliability Monitor for monitoring and troubleshooting OS and application problems, and BitLocker and BitLocker To Go for disk and removable media encryption.



I've always been an advocate of using what you've got as long as it meets your requirements for performance, visibility and control. The new management tools built into the high-end editions of Windows 7 may do just that. You may not be a big fan of the look and feel of Active Directory, GPOs and similar Windows-related administrative functions, but these built-in tools are better than no tools at all.

Read More

Enterprise password protection checklist

Enterprise password protection checklist





Despite the good intentions of IT departments, end-user education and advanced forms of authentication, password protection -- or a lack thereof -- remains a vexing problem for enterprises.



Users still create easy-to-guess passwords, write passwords down, store them in plain text, or email passwords to their friends and co-workers -- even though passwords are often the first, and sometimes only, line of defense against intruders.



Many enterprises still use password-based authentication because it's simpler and cheaper than more secure systems. In addition, organizations often maintain legacy systems that support only password-based authentication. Even enterprises that have implemented more advanced forms of authentication often combine those password management methods.



It's good practice to regularly review your corporate password management policy to maintain a secure environment and protect sensitive data.



Password cracking

When developing a password policy, it helps to understand the methods used to gain unauthorized access to protected resources. Intruders use the following methods to crack passwords:



Brute-force attack: An attempt to access a secure resource by trying all possible combinations of characters that can make up a password.

Dictionary attack: An attempt to access a secure resource by systematically entering common words (which often come from a dictionary file) to determine a user's password.

Sniffing: The process of intercepting wired or wireless network transmissions and capturing password hashes.

Cracking solutions: Software that attempts to decrypt passwords.

Social engineering: The process of using social skills to obtain passwords and other personal information. Intruders will often implement telephone, e-mail or Internet schemes to get users to reveal their sensitive data. Phishing is a type of social engineering.

Spyware: A type of software that users unintentionally install on their computers. Spyware surreptitiously gathers sensitive data or records keystrokes and sends that information to the intruder.

Shoulder surfing: The process of gathering password information or other sensitive data by watching users enter passwords or reading passwords they’ve written down.





These methods are often used in combination. For instance, intruders might use sniffing to intercept a password hash and then use cracking software to decrypt the hash. Or intruders might use social engineering to gather personal information about users, and then run a dictionary program that creates a list of words based on that data.



Strong and safe passwords

An effective password policy should prevent passwords from being guessed, cracked or compromised in any way. Part of that policy should ensure that all users create strong passwords and follow specific guidelines when using and maintaining those passwords.



There's plenty of material that explains what constitutes strong passwords and proper password maintenance. The following guidelines summarize much of that information and provide a quick checklist to reference when developing password standards:



Keep passwords confidential. Don't write passwords down. Don't show or tell them to anyone. Don't store passwords or transmit them electronically, unless you're sure they're encrypted and safe.

Don't include personal information. Don't use first or last names, addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, Social Security numbers, usernames, nicknames, pet names or any other type of personal information.

Don't create passwords that can be easily guessed. Avoid using common words, including abbreviations, foreign words, common misspellings or words spelled backwards. If you're creating a passphrase, don't include common phrases, famous quotations, or words from poems or songs.

Used mixed characters. Passwords should include lower and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols such as @, %, !, &, and ^.

Create long passwords. The longer the password, the better. Most sources recommend passwords be at least eight characters long, often longer. (Microsoft now recommends that a strong password be at least 14 characters.) When passphrases are supported, use them. They should run at least 20 to 30 characters long.

Change passwords regularly. Recommendations vary on how often to change passwords, but 90 days is a common standard. The policy in some organizations is to change privileged (administrative) accounts more frequently than end-user accounts.

Don't reuse passwords. After you've used a password, forget it. And make the new password significantly different from the old one.

Use different passwords for different accounts. Don't use the same password for more than one account.





Not surprisingly, the stronger the passwords, the more difficult they are to remember, and the more difficult they are to remember, the more likely users will write them down, forget them or be calling the support desk.



The trick is to get users to create strong passwords they can remember. One way to achieve this is to base the password on the first letters in each word of a sentence or phrase. For example, the sentence The #3 train arrives this p.m. @ platform 2A! translates to the password T#3tatp.m.@p2A!. Notice that the password includes upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.



Password management

An effective security strategy should include a documented password policy, and requirements for strong passwords should be part of that policy. However, the policy should also address other issues critical to enterprise password management:



Educating users: All users should be educated in password-related issues -- including details about how passwords can be cracked, what constitutes a strong password, ways to craft those passwords and how to safeguard passwords.

Enforcing standards: Password policies should be enforced systemically, that is, through security policies and other network and operating system mechanisms that prevent users from creating weak passwords or mismanaging their passwords. For instance, passwords should be set to expire at preset intervals, password histories should be retained to prevent passwords from being reused, and new users should be required to change their passwords upon first login.

Detecting intruders: Set controls to manage the number of times a bad password can be inputted before an account is locked out.

Auditing passwords: Passwords should be periodically audited to ensure compliance. Such auditing should be done without providing visibility to the passwords themselves.

Storing and transmitting passwords: Passwords should always be encrypted whenever being stored or transmitted.

Managing privileged passwords: Privileged passwords -- those used to access administrative accounts, let computers access one another or run service programs -- should be stored centrally on a system that supports a secure access and change process.

Implementing password management: Password management solutions can help mitigate the problems associated with compromised passwords. Such a system might be a centralized technology (such as single sign-on or password synchronization) or one that lets users store usernames, passwords and other sensitive information locally. If your organization implements one of these methods, your password policies should incorporate the technology's operation and use.

Clearly, the factors that contribute to an effective password policy go beyond simply making sure that users create strong passwords. The goal must be to grant all authorized users access to protected data, while preventing unauthorized users from gaining such access.



To that end, you should create a policy that takes into account all issues related to managing passwords. The points above provide a starting point, but your policy must be specific to your enterprise. In other words, your password policy should reflect every step necessary to reduce the risks of compromise to any of your organization's systems.

Read More

Jetico BCWipe 5.02.2

Use military-grade procedures to surgically remove all traces of any file.

BCWipeTM data wiping software enables you to permanently delete selected files so that they can never be recovered or undeleted. BCWipe embeds itself within Windows and can be activated from the Explorer FILE Menu OR from the context (right-click) menu OR from BCWipe Task Manager OR from a command-line prompt. BCWipe complies with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M) standard, U.S. Department of Energy (DoE M 205.1-2) standard and a set of other standard wiping schemes. You can also create and use your own customized wiping scheme to wipe sensitive information from storage devices installed on your computer.

BCWipe Features:
Delete with wiping
Wipe free disk space
Wipe Swap File
Wipe File Slacks
Wipe Empty Directory Entries
Swap File Encryption
Hexadecimal File Viewer
BCWipe Task Manager
Transparent Wiping

Read More

Avast! Internet Security 6.0.1203

Maximum protection, now powered by new avast! SafeZone technology

Protects your sensitive online shopping and banking transactions
Ensures your safety on social networks (Facebook, etc.) or IM chats
Blocks hacker attacks, to protect your identity
avast! Internet Security provides complete antivirus, anti-spyware, antispam, and firewall protection, complemented now by new avast! SafeZone technology. It creates an isolated virtual desktop, invisible to any possible attacker, where you can do your online shopping and banking securely.

Shop and bank online with total privacy
avast! SafeZone opens a new (clean) desktop so that other programs don’t see what’s happening – and it leaves no history once it’s closed.

Worry-free social networking and web surfing
Our award-winning and certified antivirus engine and shields stop even previously unknown threats – for peace of mind when you chat or spend time on Facebook, Twitter, or other websites.

Prevent identity theft
Our silent firewall stops hackers and other unauthorized entry attempts to your PC, to keep your data where it belongs – safe and sound.

Keep your email inbox safe and clean
Internet Security’s antispam feature blocks both spam and sophisticated “phishing” attempts, to keep you from clicking “harmless” links that really can cause damage.

Read More

Spadix Disk Size Manager 2.1

Disk Size Manager is a powerful hard disk space manager for Windows.

Using Disk Size Manager you can keep track of your hard disks space to ensure its most efficient use. With its 2D/3D pie and bar charts as well as detailed descriptions in words, Disk Size Manager provides you with the complete information about folders and drives you indicate. The information includes folder/drive space (total available, compressed, used by different types of files, etc.) in units of volume (KB, MB, GB) or percents, number of files, cluster sizes of the drives, etc.

Disk Size Manager also offers you a search tool to look for files and folders satisfying conditions specified by you. The range of the conditions you may use is very wide contained text, creation/modification dates, size, attributes, etc.

more info @

Read More

ARASH feat Helena "Pure Love" (Official video)

Read More

VisualSVN for Visual Studio 2.0.6

VisualSVN makes your life easier with a reliable plug-in that integrates Subversion seamlessly with Visual Studio.

VisualSVN is a Visual Studio plug-in that integrates Subversion and TortoiseSVN seamlessly with Visual Studio. VisualSVN virtually eliminates the management of your project source code files within Subversion. Program, design, debug and deploy with VisualSVN as your silent partner that safeguards your source code.

With VisualSVN deployed throughout your development organization, all of your developers will be using Subversion confidently and effectively to manage and safeguard your organization's work product.

Why You Should Use VisualSVN

* Ease of use: VisualSVN makes Subversion substantially easier to use within Visual Studio than using TortoiseSVN alone with Subversion.
* Deep integration of Visual Studio projects and solutions with Subversion file management. You don't have to think about Subversion when you work with files and projects in Visual Studio.
* More stable, simpler and easier to use, and more reliable than available open source alternatives (according to independent reviewers and bloggers).
* One-stop source control lets you perform all user level Subversion functions — manage project files, checkout, commit, and other operations — within Visual Studio.
* Compatible with the latest Subversion and TortoiseSVN releases. Continually updated.
* Inexpensive to purchase, and easy to set up.

Quick and Easy Adoption

* One-click import of a new solution: the Add Solution to Subversion wizard gets you started quickly and reliably. With one simple step, your solution is placed under Subversion source control.
* One-click checkout: the Get Solution from Subversion dialog makes checkout quick and painless. Developers instantly get to work on shared projects.
* Fully TortoiseSVN integrated: all source control functions use the standard TortoiseSVN dialogs. Your knowledge of TortoiseSVN is immediately useful.
* Fully compatible: VisualSVN contains the most current available Subversion distributions plus the original command line binaries (including svn.exe).
* Watch the quick Getting Started demo and learn how easy Subversion can be.

Transparent Source Control That “Covers” You At All Times

* Automatically adds every created item to Subversion.
* No ignore/exclude patterns to manage: Visual Studio temporary files such as the contents of obj and bin folders are ignored by default when using VisualSVN.
* Transparently move/rename your files and folders (and the complete history of these changes will be preserved by Subversion).
* Common file operations are transparently reflected to Subversion: Drag & Drop, Copy & Paste and “Save As” all cause the right thing to happen within version control.
* “Traffic-light” style Subversion visual status is displayed for every versioned item in the Solution Explorer.
* Status display is displayed in the status bar at all times with a traffic light style visual indicator, so that you instantly know if files have changed. Avoid “dirty commits” and keep your work grouped logically as you commit your changes.

Unique Features That Enhance Your Productivity

* Quick Diff marks changes visually within Visual Studio using color coding. You can see the changes in your source file from the repository version at a glance. There is fast navigation available to move to the next changed section. You never have to open a separate “diff” window to see what you have changed. And you don't have to hunt for changes.
* Quick Revert uses the Quick Diff color coding to allow you to easily restore changes that have been made from the repository version. Just select the changes that are displayed by Quick Diff and perform “Revert Selection”. Quick Revert is fully integrated with the Visual Studio Undo/Redo stack.
* Track and manage all changes made to your source file by using the unique visual assists that are provided by VisualSVN. You are free to use external applications and you will always see exactly what has changed. Never make a “dirty commit” again.
* Seamless integration with built-in and third-party refactoring tools such as ReSharper. Source code changes and file operations such as renaming are handled for you and are reflected transparently to Subversion by VisualSVN. Even changes in more complex objects such as forms and ASPX pages are handled transparently by VisualSVN and are accurately reflected to Subversion.
* Handy VisualSVN toolbar provides clean, direct access to the most important commands and features of Subversion. We even provide a combo box containing the URL of the current Subversion branch, and you can use it to quickly change between branches.

Read More

Acronis Backup And Recovery Server 11.0.1 With Universal Restore

Fast Restore of Operating System, Applications, Files and Data:

* Fast and simple complete disk image backup and recovery
* Allows for easy bare metal recovery to the same, different hardware, or virtual machine
* Backup and recovery individual folders or network shares
* Recover individual files and folders from image backup
* Convert backups to virtual machines format

Broad storage support:

* Local folders, SMB or FTP network shares
* USB flash drives and HDDs
* Acronis® Secure Zone® - a special protected portion on a hard disk
* Acronis Online Storage
* CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray disks
* ZIP®, Rev® and other removable media

Broad Platform Support:

* Physical or VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix, Red Hat or Parallels virtual machines
* BIOS and UEFI systems
* MBR and GPT disks, basic and dynamic

Increase reliability and secure archives:

* Save backups in multiple destinations
* Save backup to Acronis Backup & Recovery Online cloud-based storage
* Secure backups with 256-bit AES encryption

Universal Restore
What happens when a system’s hardware fails or needs to be retired? How do you move the valuable applications and data to a new system or hardware after disaster strikes? How do you quickly restore a system after the hardware has changed?

Acronis solves this common issue with Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 11 Universal Restore™, a fully integrated module that restores servers or workstations to different hardware or to a virtual machine, providing highly flexible disaster recovery and migration options.

The Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Universal Restore module prepares you for even the most unforeseen events without requiring administrators to purchase and maintain identical spare machines.

The process begins when Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 is used to create a transportable image that disassociates the data from the old machine’s underlying hardware. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Universal Restore loads in the new hardware’s own drivers so that the image from the previous hardware platform will allow the machine to be flawlessly restored to a different hardware platform, complete with operating system, applications, data and all previous settings. Recovery can be implemented to an existing system, to a new system with different hardware, or to a virtual machine, in minutes, by following these steps:

* Boot your replacement system with Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 bootable media you have created and select ‘Recovery’ in the menu.
* Select the image to restore.
* Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Universal Restore then initiates the restore process, detects the hardware and installs the appropriate drivers for Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
* The result is a perfectly functioning system on a new hardware platform.

Top Features:

* Recover — Recover a failed system to different hardware or to virtual machines in minutes after unforeseen events.
* Migrate — Complete physical-virtual, virtual-physical, physical-physical, or virtual-virtual migrations for system recovery, testing, and other purposes.
* Fix – load new hardware drivers and replace HAL to make system bootable after replacing hardware such as motherboard or storage controller or moving HDD to another machine.
* Clone and deploy — Clone and deploy operating systems with complete hardware independence

Read More

Hithuwewath Nathi Dawasaka(Hamuwuna) - Shalitha And Mahesh

Read More

Angara Wasi - Nithin Gunaratna - Ori - DVD [www.HelaNada.com]

Read More

Call center disaster recovery plan checklists

What you will learn in this tip: Today’s call centers and contact centers use voice over IP (VoIP) technology, and the supporting computer systems and databases typically use the same network infrastructure. This presents unique challenges should a disaster occur. Learn about call center disaster recovery (DR) planning best practices in this tip, and read our call center checklists so you'll know what to include in your call center disaster recovery plan.

In order to determine what to include in your call center disaster recovery plan, we first have to examine a typical call center system.

The following diagram (Figure 1) depicts two primary systems, the voice system and the information system, and how they connect. Incoming calls are processed by the call center system; the call center system gathers relevant data from the caller and synchs up with the organization’s databases via the call center information system. This latter element can be part of the voice communications system, but for the purposes of this discussion we show it as a separate entity.

Figure 1: A typical call center system

Relevant information the agent needs for the call is displayed on their system. The agent can interact directly with the company’s information systems and databases while still on the call.

Call center system elements are typically linked by a local area network, such as 10/100 MB Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet, depending on the number of agents, number of calls and the amount of data to be moved.

What should be in your call center disaster recovery plan?

As you can see from Figure 1, nearly any part of a call center operation is a potential risk to the call center. The list below covers some of the potential risks that can impact call center operations. Use this list in your efforts to assess risks. As you develop your call center disaster recovery plan, you can base it on the risks you identify.

1. Loss of incoming calls through a network outage or other service disruption
2. Loss of network-based information, such as caller ID, that is needed to process the calls
3. Loss of physical connection from the network side to the switch side due to a cable cut, lightning strike or trunk interface failure
4. Loss of the call center switch due to a power outage, circuit board failure, software failure or human error
5. Loss of the database and other supporting information systems due to a power outage, server failure or storage element failure
6. Loss of the local area network (LAN) connecting all components due to a power outage, network interface card failure, cable problem or cable connector problems
7. Loss of the agent workstation due to power outage, system failure or software failure
8. Loss of the agent due to illness, union-based work stoppage, or the need for additional training

Call center disaster preparedness checklist

Like any specialized technology, call center systems have their own attributes, especially older call center systems that operate independently of data networks and the Internet. With newer systems, such as VoIP, some of the issues addressed below may be superseded, but it’s a good idea to factor them into your planning.

The following checklist can be used to determine you call center's preparedness.

1. Location of the equipment in a separate room as opposed to sharing space in a room with other systems; location of equipment in agent work areas
2. Need for separate heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) facilities
3. Need for separate power supplies, including commercial power outlets, battery backup systems, proper grounding and lightning protection
4. Need for access to specialized local access lines for connecting to local and long distance service providers; may also need separate Internet access lines
5. Specialized peripheral subsystems, such as call detail recording, source for music on hold, voice mail and computer-telephony interface (CTI) technology
6. Specialized phone devices for agents as well as individual users
7. Connectors for agent phones (e.g., RJ-11 or RJ-12, as opposed to RJ-45 typically used in VoIP systems)
8. Unique call center operating systems and frequently-changing databases that must be backed up periodically, both on site and at the vendor’s tech center
9. Unique call center system circuit boards that may need to be replaced quickly following a disaster; supplies of tested boards should be on site and readily available from vendors

Checklist for a call center disaster recovery plan

Before you begin developing a call center disaster recovery plan, be sure you have/address the following 10 items so you will initially be able to respond and recover from a disaster.

1. Ensure that call system maintenance plan covers disaster situations
2. Ensure that service-level agreement (SLA) provides remedies for disruptive situations
3. Have battery backup system(s)
4. Have spare circuit boards and/or telephone instruments
5. Have backup (and up-to-date) copies of all system-level software, including call center system and all other ancillary system elements
6. Contact list for all vendor and network service providers is up-to-date
7. Contact list for all agents
8. Contact list for any other stakeholders in the call center
9. Ability to reconfigure call center so that agents may work at alternate locations
10. Alternate space for emergency relocation of call center

Creating a call center disaster recovery plan -- one that responds to and eventually recovers the systems and/or network services -- is largely a straightforward process. The keys to success are to understand the risks to the call center systems and CTI technology, network infrastructure (both internal and external) and staffing; partner with vendors and network service providers as much as possible; define step-by-step procedures for response and recovery; validate these actions through periodic exercising; and keep the plan and its various components up to date.

Read More

IT disaster recovery plans should focus on power and hardware failures

The disaster in Japan has midmarket CIOs focusing on their own IT disaster recovery/business continuity (DR/BC) plans -- and it's a good thing, since earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters are responsible for only a tiny fraction of network outages, according to a recent poll by technology solutions provider CDW LLC.

Everyday power outages -- perhaps caused by a thunderstorm or high winds -- were responsible for nearly a third (32%) of the disruptions noted by respondents to the survey, a mix of midmarket and large companies. Hardware failures accounted for almost another third (29%), and a loss of telecom services caused 21% of business technology interruptions.

To guard against such business interruptions, Sisters of Mercy Health System in Chesterfield, Mo., recently flipped the switch on a new hot site that's chock full of redundancies, according to Jeff Bell, chief operating officer. "There are two generators instead of one; two utility feeds from a power generation plant; all the chillers back up to UPSes. If you look at the mechanical cross section, it's a mirror image," Bell said. This enables the IT department to take down only half of the building if there's a problem, and fix it.

And even though the new data center in Washington, Mo., is designed to take withstand a category F2 tornado, Sisters of Mercy is keeping its original data center in Sunset Hills open as a backup to the hot site. "There's always a disaster," Bell said. "The new data center is very unlikely to take a direct hit [from a tornado], but if it did, it might not survive. That's why we keep Sunset Hills up and running."

A grim truth about IT disaster recovery plans

Unlike Mercy, just over a third of the businesses responding to CDW's survey (34%) said they are updating their DR/BC plans, by improving network connectivity (30%); extending DR/BC coverage to accommodate an outage of 72 hours or more; increasing remote access for employees (18%); and improving data center power and backup capabilities (17%). However, one out of every five businesses (20%) is not planning any immediate changes to its DR/BC plans.

Since the Business Continuity Institute has deemed this Business Continuity Awareness Week, it's worth asking whether IT departments are wearing rose-colored glasses.

Judging by the results of CDW's survey, the answer would be yes. The Vernon Hills, Ill.-based firm asked 7,000 IT managers whether their businesses had suffered an outage in the prior year, and about 1,800 said they had. CDW closed the survey when 200 respondents, from enterprise and midmarket firms, had responded fully to its query.

The sobering statistic is that 82% of these 200 respondents said they'd had faith in their IT disaster recovery plans before the disruption, but 30% said at times, they were unable to operate at all due to a network disruption, and their location shut down completely.

A staggering 97% said their business had suffered detrimental effects as a result. Indeed, CDW estimates that such outages cost U.S. businesses $1.7 billion in lost profits last year. More than half of businesses (57%) reported productivity loss as the top negative effect, and more than a third (34%) said customer communications were interrupted. Internal communications also suffered at 22% of the companies, and 14% suffered data loss. Regardless of the cause, more than half of the companies said employees had problems connecting to the network, both inside and outside the building.

Solutions for IT disaster recovery

In a report on disaster recovery last year, Boston-based research firm Aberdeen Group Inc. estimated the average cost per hour of business interruption to be $98,000. In a nutshell, the report said, successful disaster recovery and business continuity involves keeping a backup of critical data off-site, and restoring it as quickly as possible.

Remember the old saw: Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Aberdeen analysts recommend a mix of backup solutions, at various costs. Tape stores data sequentially and is ideal for data that isn't accessed frequently.

Another solution is to store backups of critical data and backups off-site. Off-site storage services often specialize in secure practices and data restoration, enabling CIOs to set parameters for service levels such as the length of time it takes to retrieve data from a backup.

In addition, a number of best-in-class companies are backing up real-time data to remote locations or servers, or using this type of remote storage for archival purposes. These companies are also implementing all three backup scenarios two to three times faster than laggard companies.

Testing key to IT disaster recovery plans

There are several steps to ensuring that an IT disaster recovery plan will work, according to CDW. First, it's important to conduct a business impact assessment by working with leaders of each functional area to understand the cost and repercussions of losing each category of data.

CIOs should then document configuration diagrams of hardware, software and network components to be used in recovery, and include personnel requirements, travel needs and associated costs. Employees who are critical to continuity operations should be trained to work remotely, even if they don't do so regularly.

Also, consider adding uninterruptible power supplies for critical servers, network connections and select computers, and back up frequently. Look at telecom options such as redundant connections to cover spot outages, and alternatives such as wireless or satellite phones.

Finally, the key to recovery is to test the DR/BC plan at least once every 12 months to make sure people and systems are ready for the unexpected.

Read More

Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta

System Center 2012 cloud and datacenter management solutions empower you with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications and services. System Center helps you confidently deliver IT as a Service for your business. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 Beta is a key component of the forthcoming System Center 2012 releases.

Virtual Machine Manager 2012 enables you to:

*

Deliver flexible and cost-effective Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). You can pool and dynamically allocate virtualized datacenter resources (compute, network, and storage) enabling self-service infrastructure experience for your business, with flexible role-based delegation and access control.
*

Apply cloud principles to provisioning and servicing your datacenter applications with techniques like service modeling, service configuration, and image-based management. You can also state-separate your applications and services from the underlying infrastructure using server application virtualization. This results in a “service-centric” approach to management where you manage the application or service lifecycle and not just datacenter infrastructure or virtual machines.
*

Optimize your existing investments by managing multi-hypervisor environments such as Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and VMware vSphere 4.1 in a single pane of glass.
*

Dynamic optimization of your datacenter resources based on workload demands, while ensuring reliable service delivery with features like high availability.
*

Best-of-breed virtualization-management for Microsoft workloads like Exchange and SharePoint.

Read More

Free Windows Server 2008 R2 Study Guide for IT Specialists

Get on track for working in the cloud with this free Windows Server 2008 R2 study guide, powered by Microsoft TechNet, from ExamForce.

Windows Server 2008 R2 is the server release for Windows 7 and expands the Windows Server 2008 platform, adding tools for virtualization and services critical to delivering technology for organizations as they continue migration to the cloud.
This free study guide covers material in the three Windows Server 2008 R2 Exams:

* 70-640 Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuring
* 70-642 Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuring
* 70-646 Windows Server 2008 Administrator R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 is the core server platform for companies transitioning to Windows 7 and the cloud. It is designed to capitalize on the move to virtual platforms, providing new web tools, management utilities and scalability enhancements that save organizations of all sizes time and money.

ExamForce brings it all together for you with our latest study guide for Windows Server 2008 R2. This guide provides well organized, concise information in 106 pages, so you spend less time studying and more time learning.

Download link http://www.examforce.com/?page_id=1087&sid=1443

Read More

Instantly List All Files and Folders with Everything Search Engine

“Everything“, a free tool to search for files or folders on a Windows computer. The most impressive feature that Everything Search Engine has is the ability to list ALL files and folders on the program’s window instantly without any lag. Try exporting the list displayed on Everything from File > Export and then open the text file with Notepad. You will notice that Notepad takes even longer to open compared to Everything Search Engine. The export feature is useful for users that wants to keep track of new files being created or copied to the computer, but do note that ONLY file and folder names are in the exported text file without any other information such as file size, date modified, etc.

For more information and download refer the link.

Read More

Event Tracing for Windows: A fresh look at an old tool

While most Windows developers know of Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) as a logging and tracing mechanism, many administrators have never heard of it. Simply put, ETW includes event logging and tracing capabilities provided by the operating system. Implemented in the kernel, it traces events in user mode applications, the operating system kernel and kernel-mode device drivers.

Event Tracing for Windows is used by a number of core OS components and some third-party applications to provide event logging and tracing. Although it required access to a checked build of Windows to gather ETW information when first released with Windows 2000, more recent versions provide built-in tools with normal (free) Windows builds.

Getting started with Event Tracing for Windows
When diagnosing and troubleshooting Windows Server issues, it seems there is never too much data. The admin is always looking for additional details on what is going on with various components to pinpoint the problem. As such, there are a number of tools like Process Monitor, Process Explorer, Performance Monitor (Perfmon) and Performance Analysis for Logs (PAL) that dig considerably deeper than the event log, but there are times when we need to dig even further down than that.

ETW allows additional instrumentation for gathering data that would not otherwise be available and has a number of advantages. For example:

*

it uses per-processor kernel buffers from a non-paged pool that are not impacted by application crashes or hangs
*

it uses very low CPU overhead
*

it’s available for x86, x64 and IA64 architectures
*

it can enable and disable tracing without rebooting or restarting applications

Event Tracing for Windows may seem like a great tool, but using it is another issue since there is no GUI or user guide. It also requires a few preliminary steps just to produce output that can be used for analysis.

In order to provide useful output you need a consumer. The consumer built in to Windows Server is Tracerpt.exe. As you can imagine, there are a number of flags for Tracerpt to provide specific output formats, so it’s important to become familiar with the Tracerpt and Logman utilities that are native in Windows Server 2003 and up, as well as Windows 7 and Vista.

It’s also important to understand the architecture for ETW. As you can see in Figure 1, the controllers are used to start and stop a tracing session. The tool used to do this in Windows Server 2003 and 2008 is Logman.exe.

Windows Server 2003 also contains a handful of event providers that return specific events, including the following Active Directory-related providers:

* Active Directory: Core
* Active Directory: Kerberos
* Active Directory: SAM
* Active Directory: NetLogon

For instance, specifying Active Directory: Kerberos as a provider will only return Kerberos-specific events.

Event providers differ between Windows versions, however. For example, Windows Server 2003 has 22 providers, while Windows 2008 has 387. This gives more power to the trace and offers more granularities. Yet when it comes to LDAP traffic, the Active Directory: Core provider appears to give the same detail for either Windows version.

You can also combine event providers into a single trace. Since Kerberos authentication was involved in the example above, I used the Active Directory: Kerberos and the Active Directory: Core providers and applied the Logman option-pf, as shown in the following example:

Logman Create Trace CoreKerb –pf c:\etw\input.txt –o c:\etw\coreKerb

For more info refer the link

Read More