Tangled Cables

Replacing a Hard Drive

When there are signs that failure of a hard drive is imminent, but when the disk is still operational, one  has the opportunity to replace the hard drive using the following procedure.

Note: If the hard drive is installed in a server that does not currently feature fault-tolerant storage, consider whether this is an opportunity to upgrade the server to a RAID.

1. Confirm type of hard drive and bus. Obtain appropriate replacement hard drive. Determine if hard drive is covered by warranty. If it is possible to obtain a replacement drive under the warranty, consider pursuing this option.
2. Back up all data on the drive.
3. Shut down computer and install new hard drive. If possible, install new drive on a different channel than the current hard drive. Adjust jumper settings appropriately.
4. Start up computer and confirm that new hard drive is recognized in the BIOS. Continue start up.
5. Use hard drive cloning software to perfectly copy all information from the old hard drive to the new one. At the time of this writing, a fully-functional 14-day trial of Acronis TrueImage is available for download. Paragon DriveCopy is another inexpensive option.
6. If difficulty is encountered in cloning the drive, run a disk utility on the original hard drive to reassign any bad blocks on the disk.
7. Shut down the computer and unplug the original hard drive. Plug the new hard drive in its place and adjust jumper settings as needed.
8. Start up the computer and log into Windows. Check the system log for new errors and confirm contents of hard drive are intact.
9. If computer is a server, follow post-upgrade checklist to confirm its proper operation.
10. If original hard drive is to be disposed of or returned to the manufacturer, follow procedure for secure destruction of data after an appropriate period of time has elapsed.

Checklist: confirming proper operation of a server after upgrade

After performing any major upgrade on a server, confirm that any services it provides are unaffected by the upgrade. The exact procedure for the checks will vary depending on the server's role(s).

For example:

DHCP Server: Can clients renew IP addresses?
Directory Server (Domain Controller): Can clients log in?
DNS Server: Can clients resolve hostnames?
File Server: Can clients access files?
Mail Server: Can clients send and receive mail?
Print Server: Can clients print?
Web Server: Can clients view web pages?

Security tools on Live Linux CDs

How to run Drupal on Mac OS X.

I enabled PHP and installed MySQL on my Mac at home. Then I set up Drupal. It was really pretty darn easy. Even if you're afraid of the command line, it's not that hard when you follow these step-by-step instructions at MacZealots.

My only advice for anyone wanting to try this: do follow the directions and install version 4.0, not the latest version. I installed the later version and ran into the same problem described in the comments at the bottom of the article.

So setting it up was easy enough. It worked, looked great, etc. Only now I want to make it available to the outside world. Getting a dynamic DNS hostname was easy enough, and forwarding port 80 to my Mac's IP address was a piece of cake (I did have to assign my Mac a static private IP address, though). So now my Mac at home is a Web server.

Problem is, when I visit the drupal site, somehow it tries to resolve the URL to my local hostname. Which makes sense since I originally configured it with base URL http://localhost/drupal. But after changing that line in settings.php and restarting Apache, it still doesn't work. See what I mean?

Remote control for Mac OS X

How can an administrator remotely control a computer running Mac OS X for purposes of maintenance and support? Apple Remote Desktop is the software solution from Apple Computer. But for those of us on a budget there is Share My Desktop. A walkthrough on MacDevCenter includes additional information and some discussion by other readers.

How to print to a print server that is not compatible with Mac OS X

Many print servers will accept print jobs via LPR, a Unix print service. So if a print server will not permit printing via Appletalk, it can be configured using IP printing in the Mac OS X print center.

Let the machines do the work.

Here is a set of ideas for how to rapidly deploy a standard set of technologies on a network.

Automatic Installation of Windows

There are basically two ways to handle this. Disk cloning and scripted installation. (Deployment guide)

Two disk cloning tools are:

• Symantec Ghost
• Acronis True Image

 

A scripted installation makes use of the following:

• A managed (pre-patched) set of installation files
• Windows setup answer files (unattend.txt)
• Remote Installation Services (RIS) is an option if the organization has a Windows 2000+ domain.
• Unattended is a free, open source package similar to RIS.

Automatic installation of Microsoft Office

• An installation of Microsoft Office can be included in a disk image if cloning is being used.
• The Microsoft Office Administrative Installation Point is used to customize, pre-patch, and automatically install Office.
• If the organization has a Windows 2000+ domain, the custom installation can be deployed via the software installation feature of Group Policy.
• In  organizations that do not have a domain, installation can be automated with a simple batch file: msiexec.exe /i \\server\share\PRO11N.MSI \\server\share\customize.mst /qb+

Batch implementation of Group Policy

On a Windows 2000+ domain controller, it is possible to back up and restore policies in Active Directory. This means that it is possible to quickly implement a standard set of policies on a new server by restoring them from a backup.

Automatic installation of other applications

• Microsoft System Management Server offers a sophisticated solution for managing large-scale software deployment.
• In a Windows 2000+ domain, software installation via group policy is simple if the application includes an .msi file. In situations where the application does not include an .msi file, such a file can be created.
• In organizations without a domain, installation of an .msi can be automated with a batch file. Many applications that do not include an .msi file can also be customized and automatically deployed with a batch file.

Check version level compliance

Office
Microsoft Office Inventory Tool

Other Microsoft Applications
Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer can check service pack levels of the software it inventories. The tool includes a calculator to help track software license requirements.

Audit security configuration

• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is a free download from Microsoft that can scan an entire Windows network for common security risks.
  
• GFI LanGuard Network Security Scanner is commercial software that can not only audit patch level on Windows, it can deploy the patches. Also checks an entire Windows network for security flaws.
• MacAnalysis is commercial software which can scan a single Mac OS system or a network for security  vulnerabilities.
• Nessus is free open source software which scans multiple operating systems for a variety of security vulnerabilities. 

Check configuration against best practices

• Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer can check xchange 2003, 2000, and 5.5 (in some cases)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Best Practices Analyzer is useful in conjunction with many proprietary database products which run on the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE).

Automate router setup

Most routers, even cheap ones, allow for their configuration to be backed up. So if we want to replicate a certain configuration, it's just a matter of having a backup to restore to another device. Cisco devices, of course, have sophisticated tools for replicating configurations throughout a network. For example, you can give someone a PIX firewall. They take it home, plug it into the Internet, and it "dials home" to get it's configuration from the home office.

Checklist for setting up a new PC

1. Windows Updates
2. Anti-virus software.
3. Microsoft Office (or other office suite)
4. Updates for Microsoft Office
5. Any line-of-business applications
6. Download and install decompression utility such as FreeZip.
7. Download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
8. Install Flash and any other desired multimedia players (RealPlayer, for example)
9. Turn on Automatic Updates
10. Disable Windows Firewall
11. Set up user on computer

Add "command prompt" shortcut to Windows Explorer

When browsing the file system in Windows Explorer, an administrator may often wish: "if only I could open a command prompt right here". Usually, one must open a command window and then use the cd command to navigate to the desired directory.

Thank your lucky stars. Microsoft offers just this functionality, courtesy of a utility called CmdHere. This adds an option to "Open Command Prompt Here" to the contextual menus used in Windows Explorer. Although it is a free download for Windows XP, and can be found in the Resource Kit Tools for Windows Server 2003, the version for Windows 2000 Server is not available for download from Microsoft. If you dig around a bit you can find it on Google, or...you can use a registry entry to achieve the same end.

Microsoft describes how in a knowledgebase article, or you can just download and double-click this .reg file.

Contacts are not available in the Select Names dialog after Exchange migration.

After migrating a client to a new version of Exchange, some users report they cannot view their contacts when addressing an email message. This is because the Outlook Address Book service is still looking for the old server. The solution is to remove the service and add it back again.

In Outlook 2002:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Click on the Tools menu and choose Email Accounts.
3. In the window that opens, select “View or change existing directories or address books”, and click Next.
4. Select Outlook Address Book and click the Remove button. Click Yes when asked if you are sure you want to remove it.
5. Click the Add button.
6. Select Additional Address Books and click the Next button.
7. Select Outlook Address Book and click the Next button. Click OK on the message that appears.
8. Click the Finish button to close the Window.
9. Quit Outlook and start it again. You can now select from your Contacts when addressing an email message.

In Outlook 2000:

1. Click Tools, choose Services.
2. Remove Outlook Address Book service.
3. Choose Exit and Log Off from the File menu.
4. Open Outlook again and add the service back.
5. Choose Exit and Log Off again from the File menu.
6. Open Outlook again and the Contacts will be available in the Select Names dialogue box.