Free MS tools to make life easy?????

fommy

Heya people, just got a jb as a system admin and I need some help in making my life easy as a new admin. I dont want the boss thinking Im not no good at doing my job....so...

Anyone have a top list of free tools which they use for daily or weekly checks on the DNS, AD, Exchange etc? I run a W2k3 network if that helps..

I do use tools from sysinternals and MS Website...so anything else really???

Matt.

HeroPsycho

Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA)

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)

DCDiag & Netdiag (included in Support Tools for your Windows version)

fommy

thanks thats a great help...

hypnotoad

Useful admin tools:

-powershell (ms's new scripting language)
-ntbackup
-robocopy
-"command prompt here"
-printmig (copies printers & drivers from one server to another)

undomiel

smtpdiag
wireshark
and even though you already mentioned sysinternals my most favourite tool is psexec.

doom969

-Replmon

-Process explorer

-SyncToy

-Many new ADM templates for gpo'S

Ahriakin

fommy wrote:

I dont want the boss thinking Im not no good at doing my job....so...
Matt.

Run some performance monitors in the background. All those folks who don't understand enough of what you do to see you're busy when simply using a console will walk away suitably "ooh'd" and "aaah'd" after they see the pretty graph colours

PSTools is a must
Hyperic HQ is a great monitoring app.
Setup WSUS 3.x for a more global and corrective approach than MBSA
Replmon, DCDIAG,NetDIAG,DNSLint, etc. all great AD tools.

HeroPsycho

Ahriakin wrote:

Setup WSUS 3.x for a more global and corrective approach than MBSA

Keep in mind those two don't do the same things. You need to use both. WSUS is primarily a patch management tool. While it does reporting of which machines have what patches, WSUS is sometimes inaccurate about the patch levels.

MBSA actually audits the machines and scans for missing patches far more thoroughly, along with checking other things like IIS, Windows, SQL misconfigs that lead to security vulnerabilities, etc.

I've frequently seen MBSA declare a machine missing patches, and WSUS (SUS, WSUS 1.0, 2.0, 3.0) declare the machine not missing patches. Everytime I bothered to check down to file versions of files the patch is applicable to, MBSA is right, WSUS is wrong, and I've done this numerous times.

Moral of the story: use both!

Also, check out the very cool and free MBSA plug in for Visio!

binarysoul

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx

Let the link speak for itself about this geeky treasure tool

APA

Active Ports

SysInternals - (Very handy stuff)

Look@Lan

Dameware NT Utilities

PSTools

Command Prompt is your friends (Especially when you have 2k3 Support Tools and 2k3 Resource Kit)

Too many too list!!!!

Silentsoul

hate to bring an old thread back to life but I just started my new position and wondering if anyone has ran across anything else they like to make their life easier.

jbaello

powershell

rickjr13

GPMC.msi (Group Policy Management Console)

Google it and you'll find the download somewhere.

Makes managing GPOs easier, also easier on the eyes, plus the policy resultant wizard is useful.

jbaello

rickjr13 wrote:

GPMC.msi (Group Policy Management Console)

Google it and you'll find the download somewhere.

Makes managing GPOs easier, also easier on the eyes, plus the policy resultant wizard is useful.

+1 GPMC makes it a whole lot easier...

M$ very good on tools...