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[Keith] Welcome to the Mind Of Root. I'm Keith Albright
[Rich] and I'm Rich Niemeier.
[Steve] and I'm Steve Murawski.
[Keith] This is Episode 59 recorded on July 15th, 2008.
Chit-Chat - What's going on with you?
[Steve]
- I've been doing a lot of application and database testing, using PowerShell and SQL. I'm also working on getting my network documentation up to par. Fun, fun, fun!
[Rich]
[Keith]
- Can't watch iTunes movie rentals. Just found that odd. Maybe it creates a DRM loophole? Nah, probably just competes too closely with AppleTV?.
- Off this week. Project week.
Housekeeping Items
[Rich]
[Steve]
[Keith]
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PowerShellASP? is an ASP-like template language for Web Applications; templates contain a mixture of markup (HTML, XML or whatever you want to generate) and inline
PowerShell code. At runtime, templates/pages are fully translated to
PowerShell code and executed as a single unit inside a
PowerShell pipeline, with the results sent to the client browser.
-Cool idea, but you can't take advantage of the code behind like in the other .net languages - so spaghetti code is back!
-I still might play around with this some, but it won't be my first choice.
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- Proxy Problem fixed [KEITH]
-I think I spoke about this before. I changed my ISA proxy to require credentials passed for reporting purposes. We were using static IP's for reporting activity, but I have since converted everything over to use DHCP. When I did, everyone was logged as anonymous. So by adding the auth requirement, I captured the username for reporting.
-My BES server routed through the proxy and I would get 403 Access denied errors on the handheld when trying to use any Google apps. I reconfigured the BES server and apps to use the firewall as the gateway and stripped any references to the proxy from IE. Still didn't work. I then double-checked my group policy for pushing the proxy settings and ran a GPRESULT on the server. No proxy should be in use.
-I finally figured it out. Any guesses as to what was causing it?
-Steve's guess DNS setting / auto-discover of proxy by client?
-I've been working a lot with SQL and
PowerShell. I wrote a quick script to run two SQL queries and compare the results, which has been really useful. I've also written a variation of that script that runs a query, waits for you to do something in the application, re-runs the query and shows you what has changed in the database, which has been great for some of the application testing I'm doing.
I've put a link in the show notes for the first query, and I'm writing a blog post about the second, which I'll be posting shortly.
-You are probably familiar with Symantec Ghost for imaging and deploying PC's, but you may not be aware there are a couple Open-Source options out there that are just as robust.
-FOG is a complete image capture, deployment, and management system that is operated from a server and utilizes Wake-On-LAN, DHCP, and PXE to remotely image PC's. More like Altiris and Ghost Server in it's design. It also has a Windows-based client that can change the host-name after imaging to make it unique.
-
CloneZilla? Live is more like a direct replacement for the Ghost client app. You create a bootable disk and can uni-cast and image. It also works with the DRBL server that acts like the Ghost Server application and allows you to stream images in multi-cast to clients. I've used this feature when staging a couple dozen PC's and would setup a Ghost Server on my laptop and connect up everything though a workgroup switch and stream to 5 or 7 PC's at a time.
- Exchange 2007 Migration [KEITH]
-Since I'm taking some time off, I had to push the final migration of the users off until next week, so co-existence with Exchange 2000 was necessary. It worked out well as it gave me time to troubleshoot several problems.
-My biggest headaches have been Public Folders (Which were theoretically supposed to go away in deference to Sharepoint) and the Offline Address Book (OAB).
-I spoke about my problems with
PoSH? last show and it's been getting better.
-As part of the process, I downloaded a Public Folder admin tool PFDAVADMIN. It gave me fits trying to manage my new server public folders when I ran it on the server. I found a blog entry that indicated it requires .Net 1.1 and .Net 2.0. Since the new server only has .Net 2.0, they recommended it run from a workstation. Later in the day, I found Karl Prosser (Thanks to Steve) is able to get
PoSH? v.1 and v.2 running in a portable environment (Using Thinstall which we mentioned a couple shows ago). This solves a lot of problems with believing in the ubiquity of
PoSH? was possible. Assuming I am understanding the capabilities of this portable environment, I envision having an network share with the portable
PoSH? environment that I can then call up from a server or workstation and run commands without having to load the necessary frameworks. Smaller attack surface, less vulnerabilities introduced, single instance update.
-[SIDE NOTE] I went to
VMWare's website to check out thinstall (now
ThinApp?) and was floored by the pricing. $6k is the cheapest price for the suite and 50 client licenses. Additional client licenses are $50+. Nice app, but man that is steep. I guess for a large environment, the fixed cost would be absorbed easier.
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Listener Feedback
From listener....Andy Helsby who posted a comment on the blog
I've made several additions and changes to the server docs for our use and once i've edited them for our internal use I'll add data to the wiki page.
As to daemon tools, I've stayed away due to their adware free version and I think symantec detected it as malicious at one point too.
I do like using virtualclonedrive (freeware) from http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html for my cd iso's - even get a nice sheep icon for the drive as a free bonus. Enables you to mount and unmount iso, img files on the fly and works in w2k8 too.
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Website Picks
Rich - http://
Steve - http://www.virtualapple.org/
Keith -
http://www.snopes.com - http://shrinkster.com/10c4
http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html - http://shrinkster.com/10c3 Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie. I got this one from my wife's cousin. Thank you Jeff. Jeff is 16 and definitely an IT guy in the making. When his dad told me he loves Monty Python, I told him his career choice was clear. Jeff told me about the video/song they have on here called 'Every OS Sucks'. It's very humorous and basically makes fun of every OS since the Apple IIe?. I haven't looked through the whole site and the look and feel tells me there might be some content that is NSFW. So, you have been warned.
I love the bottom of the page with the video where it has a couple of "upcoming" Windows features and then follows it up with...
Upcoming Mac Features:
Windows XP compatibility and emulation! Soon Mac users will be able to run thousands of new viruses and be up to date with the latest trojan horse windows attacks!
Upcoming Linux Features:
None planned, Linux is perfect.
Last Call
Anyone....Anyone....Buehler.....Buehler....
Closing
All right, well that is it for the show. For listener feedback; you can email us at Feedback [at] mindofroot.com or post a comment on the main site at mindofroot.com. If you use iTunes, you could write a review. If you just want to show us your listening, drop a pin on the Frappr map...there's a link on the show site.
Lastly, you can drop any show ideas or topic requests on the wiki. There is a link to the wiki on the main show site. If you would like to participate in the show; either through an interview, a segment contribution, or any other way, please let us know. We are also a member of the Techpodcast and the Blubrry networks. Check out some other great shows by going to Techpodcast.com and Blubrry.com....That's Blubrry without the E's
Thanks everyone.
