An invaluable source of Clustering, Virtualization, Tools, Scripts and Knowledge Base for Network Administrators Worldwide

Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) manages multiple remote desktop connections. It is useful for managing server labs where you need regular access to each machine such as automated checkin systems and data centers. It is similar to the built-in MMC Remote Desktops snap-in, but more flexible.

Remote Desktop Connection Manager is now available externally on the Microsoft Download Center - get it from http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=9733636.

BGP is the protocol that binds the Internet together. It is what sends one packet across the globe in a few milliseconds and allows you to send email, . Typically, you will see Cisco routers that will handle this sort of heavy lifting and that is the IOS that we will review briefly.

ASN – Starting point
In order to have a BGP connection you will need to have an ASN(Autonomous System Number). You can get one of these through ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers). BGP uses ASN's like VLAN id's or a higher level view of subnetting. There are private ASN's if you are planning on using BGP for internal purposes only. The private BPG range is AS64512 through to AS65535.

IOS – Configuration info
Here is the basic output of two connections to two different autonomous systems from one Cisco router.

The default management for Windows Server 2008 Core is the command line. Yes, the main powerful of Windows Server Core becomes available when using such an approach, but sometimes it's not so user friendly. This is why I've been asking so many times if exist anything more graphic :). Yes, one of the first recommendations to work and manage Windows 2008 Server Core is to use MMC from a remote machine, but MMC cannot do everything. Of course to allow work with remote tools this tool should be allowed passage through the firewall packages Server Core. In addition, this is for many more difficult than editing the registry. :) Therefore, I would like to have a simple graphical tool for configuring local system. The task of developing such an interface is complicated by that the Server Core has a limited set of graphics API, this is a reason why so beautiful MMC doesn't work on it.

So, if Microsoft has not established such utilities anybody else did this. Look at the utility CoreConfigurator developed by Guy Teverovsky, MVP from Israel.

This is what it can:

• Product Activation Product Activation
• Configuration of display resolution Configuration of display resolution
• Clock and time zone configuration Clock and time zone configuration
• Remote Desktop configuration Remote Desktop configuration
• Management of local user accounts (creation, deletion, group membership, passwords) Management of local user accounts (creation, deletion, group membership, passwords)
• Firewall configuration Firewall configuration
• WinRM configuration WinRM configuration
• IP configuration IP configuration
• Computer name and domain/workgroup membership Computer name and domain / workgroup membership
• Installation of Server Core features/roles Installation of Server Core features / roles

For me and my clients I create many scripts to simplify daily Administration tasks. Many of this script should be running from a command line ( cmd. exe). It’s very easy to run any script and to get a result of it to the log file. But, if you would like to run script and watch the result on the screen and in same time you need a hard copied log, you can use a MTEE command line utility. Mtee is a commandline utility that sends any data it receives to the console and to any number of files. Useful if you want to watch and record the output from a batch file or program.

Mtee is an 11kb standalone executable. There is no installation procedure, just run it.
Mtee is simple to use and only has several options. To list them, type mtee/?

You can download Mtee from offisial web site by following to the http://www.commandline.co.uk/mtee/index.html

Time to time I get the need to have some temp files of varying sizes. In Linux environment it's not a problem to do. And, in Windows environment it's not a problem anymore :).
I've used a "dd for windows". "dd for windows" could be downloded from official web site. I've created a very simple script, mkef.bat. Here is a syntax for using mkef.bat:

And now the content of mkef.bat:

I’ve a client that runs special program on about 100 servers. This program writes a log on central server every 3 minutes. So, when I checked main server, I found a directory Logs (C:\Logs). Log’s directory contains many log files (each log for each server).  On this server installed and runs a web server, Apache ;). So, I’d like to show a small AppsRuns.php file, which stored on web server. If we go to the http://server1/AppsRuns.php we will see a content of each log file on one web page. This web page refreshing every 10 sec. Here is a content of AppsRuns.php file:

<?php
    $refresh_time = 10; // seconds
    $path = "C:\LOGS";

    header("Content-Type: text/plain");
    header("Refresh: $refresh_time");
    

    if($handle = opendir($path)) {
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        $pi = pathinfo($path . '/' . $file);
        if($pi['extension'] === 'txt') {
        include($path . '/' . $file);
        }
    }
    }
?>