Z@RAYS

¹LooksAlive is a cursory status check that runs every 5 seconds (default). This routine simply checks that the disk status is not marked failed. LooksAlive is a cursory status check that runs every 5 seconds (default). This routine simply checks that the disk status is not marked failed. IsAlive is a more thorough check and occurs every 60 seconds (default). This routine checks that the disk status is not marked failed. If status is not failed, then FindFirstFile runs on the root of the disk to make sure the file system is still mounted and the disk is accessible

Technorati tags: MSCLUSTER, CLUSTER, WINDOWS 2003, Windows 2000

AD Infrastructure from No Man's Land View

2007-02-18T13:02:00.001+08:00

There are people who knows why it happens, there are people who explain how to make it happen and there are people who use the above two concept for their own customization.

Suppose one day your manager asks to get over to the role of Active directory team lead. First question that comes to mind, is there any AD Infra documentation about it, In most case it is not. But with powershell by your side, it is simple to get these details. Lets start with Forest

$forest=[system.directoryservices.activedirectory.forest]::getcurrentforest()
write-host ""
Write-Host "Forest Mode :" $forest.Get_forestmode()
write-host ""
Write-Host SCHEMA ROLE OWNER
$forest.SchemaRoleOwner | select Name,Domain,IPAddress,sitename,OSVersion
if($forest.SchemaRoleOwner.IsGlobalCatalog()) {write-host $forest.SchemaRoleOwner.name is GC}
write-host ""
Write-Host NAMING ROLE OWNER
$forest.namingRoleOwner | select Name,Domain,IPAddress,sitename,OSVersion
if($forest.namingRoleOwner.IsGlobalCatalog()) {write-host $forest.namingroleowner.name is GC}
write-host ""
Write-host "SITES AND ITS LOCATION"
$forest.Sites | %{$_.name,$_.location}
Write-host "Number of sites "$forest.Sites.Count
#Global Catalogs
Write-host Number of GC : $forest.FindAllGlobalCatalogs().count
write-host ""
Write-Host "ALL GC'S NAME"
$forest.FindAllGlobalCatalogs() | %{$_.name}

OUTPUT:

Forest Mode : Windows2000Forest

SCHEMA ROLE OWNER

Name : snguatser.Zarays.com
Domain : Zarays.com
IPAddress : 192.168.100.110
SiteName : Default-First-Site-Name
OSVersion : Windows Server 2003

snguatser.Zarays.com is GC

NAMING ROLE OWNER
Name : snguatser.Zarays.com
Domain : Zarays.com
IPAddress : 192.168.100.110
SiteName : Default-First-Site-Name
OSVersion : Windows Server 2003

snguatser.Zarays.com is GC

SITES AND ITS LOCATION
Default-First-Site-Name
Number of sites 1
Number of GC : 1

ALL GC'S NAME
snguatser.Zarays.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$domain=[system.directoryservices.activedirectory.domain]::getcurrentdomain()
Write-host Domain_Name: $domain.name
write-host Forest_Name : $domain.Forest.name
write-host Domain_Mode: $domain.DomainMode

Write-Host (""*25 + "Domain Controllers" + ""*25)
Write-Host Number of DC : $domain.DomainControllers.Count
Write-Host Domain controllers details:->
$domain.DomainControllers | %{$_.name,$_.IPAddress,$_.sitename,$_.osversion}
write-host ("-"*60)
Write-Host "Infrastructure Master Role :"
$domain.InfrastructureRoleOwner | fl Name,OSVersion,IPAddress,Sitename
if($domain.InfrastructureRoleOwner.IsGlobalCatalog()) {write-host $domain.InfrastructureRoleOwner.name is Global Catalog}
write-host (""*60)
Write-Host "PDC Master Role :"
$domain.pdcRoleOwner | fl Name,OSVersion,IPAddress,Sitename
if($domain.PDCRoleOwner.IsGlobalCatalog()) {write-host $domain.PDCRoleOwner.name is Global Catalog}
write-host (""*60)
Write-Host "RID Master Role :"
$domain.ridRoleOwner | fl Name,OSVersion,IPAddress,Sitename
if($domain.ridRoleOwner.IsGlobalCatalog()) {write-host $domain.ridRoleOwner.name is Global Catalog}
write-host""

OUTPUT:

Domain_Name: Zarays.com
Forest_Name : Zarays.com
Domain_Mode: Windows2000NativeDomain
Domain Controllers
Number of DC : 1
Domain controllers details:->
snguatser.Zarays.com
192.168.100.110
Default-First-Site-Name
Windows Server 2003
------------------------------------------------------------
Infrastructure Master Role :

Name : snguatser.Zarays.com
OSVersion : Windows Server 2003
IPAddress : 192.168.100.110
SiteName : Default-First-Site-Name

snguatser.Zarays.com is Global Catalog

PDC Master Role :

Name : snguatser.Zarays.com
OSVersion : Windows Server 2003
IPAddress : 192.168.100.110
SiteName : Default-First-Site-Name

snguatser.Zarays.com is Global Catalog

RID Master Role :

Name : snguatser.Zarays.com
OSVersion : Windows Server 2003
IPAddress : 192.168.100.110
SiteName : Default-First-Site-Name

snguatser.Zarays.com is Global Catalog

That's all for this post. It is simple idea what you can idea from CMDlets without even going through all places collecting and documenting this information. SInce my test machine doesn't include multiple domains, I can really get hold of better formatting.

Daily logs of DiskSize

2007-02-11T14:26:00.001+08:00

I truly believe in learning new things and try out new things. Even there could be more than one way of doing it, it makes me crazy to put old things in new way, because you never new that it could be done in this way.

$Cusdate=(get-date).tostring("ddMMyyyy")
$file=new-item -type file "$Cusdate-freedisk.txt"
get-content "E:\PowerShell\Outputfiles&Folders\servers.txt" | % {

if((get-wmiobject win32_pingstatus -Filter "address='$_'").protocoladdress) {
$wmiObj=gwmi win32_logicaldisk -filter "deviceid='c:'" -computer $_
$freesp="{0:N02}" -f ($wmiObj.freespace/1MB)
$Totalsp="{0:N02}" -f ($wmiObj.size/1MB)
add-content $file "Total Size on C Drive of $_ : $Totalsp (MB)"
add-content $file "Free Size on C Drive of $_ : $Freesp (MB)"
}

else {
write-host $_ is not reachable -foreground "RED"
$Doubleline = ("="* 60)
add-content $file $Doubleline
add-content $file "$_ is not reachable"
}
}

http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2007/02/08/sesame-powershell-scripting-text-files.aspx

Above link is where the original code and Idea resides. I've modified it little but to look more like PowerShell.

Output is:

New things learnt:

$Cusdate=(get-date).tostring("ddMMyyyy") you can customize the date format.

Below is single line which will check if server is online, cause it makes sense before you do anything on the server, to make sure it is live.

if((get-wmiobject win32_pingstatus -Filter "address='$_'").protocoladdress) this will return true if server is live.

IceRocket tags: Powershell, DiskSize, File

del.icio.us tags: Powershell, DiskSize, File

Technorati tags: Powershell, DiskSize, File

2007-02-08T23:34:00.000+08:00

Managing groups in Active Directory with Powershell

Let's do something with groups in Active directory, I have couple of users and one group under OU named Singapore. My intention here is to modify only user accounts and not group so I have condition them with SamAccountType.

$SNGOU=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://ou=singapore,DC=zarays,dc=com") # Let's connect to OU name Singapore
$UserObject=$sngou.psbase.Children # Lets get the object under OU

foreach($user in $userobject) {
if ($user.sAMAccountType -eq 805306368) { # we want to just update user object and not group object
$user.put("Description","Storage Admins") # We change the description to Storage Admins
$user.setinfo() # Commit changes
}
}

Let's create a group in Singapore OU :

$SNGOU=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("ldap://ou=singapore,DC=zarays,dc=com/") # Let's connect to OU name Singapore
$Grp=$SNGOU.psbase.Children.Add("CN=Storageadmins","group")

$grp.psbase.commitchanges()

Group is created. Now lets add member to this group. Assuming there are several users in OU, we will only add user whose department is Provisioning. But before I go to the code, I would like to share something with you. You won't see member property if you do

$Grp | gm

or $grp.member

cause there is nothing to display but moment you add user, the next moment you do

$grp | gm

you will see member property.

If you are as beginner like me & would like to know the property, simplest way is to use google. After searching 4 hours I got to know Oh what is happening. And similiarly there is attribute called managedby, it is also having same story. There might be many.

$grp.managedBy.Value

$grp.managedBy.Add("CN=Preetam,OU=Singapore,DC=Zarays,DC=com")

$grp.psbase.CommitChanges()

Let's get to adding members to the group. Remember one thing if your CN name has space you will have to use quotes [$grp.member.add("$DN")].

Also you need a distinguished name in order to add it to any particular group, which is quite logical cause it confirms user object is present and where is it.

$Grp=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://cn=storageadmins,ou=singapore,dc=zarays,dc=com") # GRP -Connection
$SNGOU=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://ou=singapore,DC=zarays,dc=com") #OU -Connection
$UserObject=$sngou.psbase.Children # Populate childs in OU

foreach($user in $userobject) {
$DN=$user.distinguishedName # Get there distinguished name
if ($user.department -eq "Provisioning") {
$grp.member.add("$DN") #Add them to group

$grp.setinfo() # Commit changes

}
}

There is very good post available on http://janssenjones.typepad.com/, I liked it very much for adding members to the group.

Again there is very very stuff on internet but this cooked by me and I always like to eat that way. And my experience hopefully will help you all.

CoolOne with Powershell

2007-02-06T12:36:00.000+08:00

Yesterday there was question in KBC , English version[Original] Who wants to be Millionaire, how many 9's are there from 1 to 100. Before they could answer I answered it quickly with Powershell. This is how

(1..100 where{$_ -like "*9*}).count

Bulk User Creation using PowerShell

2007-02-05T22:52:00.001+08:00

When we think of making any changes in AD, we must start at creating objects. And as always first thing that comes to Mind is to create multiple users. And again here reference are same as previous one's MOW and Arulk. MOW's concept is used but methods I have to use from Arulk, cause things work.

Usually you get a excel sheet from the HR etc dept, I would always convert it into CSV since PowerShell will do the magic for me.

Contents of CSV file [Busers.csv]

Below are the headers of the CSV file and you can fill in the data.

CN,SN,GivenName,Name,Title,Description,PostalCode,TelephoneNumber,Department,Company,StreetAddress,Countrycode,SamAccountName,userPrincipalName,Mail,HomePhone,mobile.

I've shared the CSV file using google docs. Click Here

I'm going to create bulk users in India OU, which is under Zarays' OU

$IndiaOU=[ADSI]LDAP://localhost:389/ou=India,dc=zarays,dc=com
# Connecting to India OU

$UserDetails=Import-Csv "Buser.csv" #-----importing bulkusers data

foreach($UD in $UserDetails) { #--------looping into csv file and

# Passing all data into variables
$CN=$UD.CN
$SN=$UD.SN
$title=$UD.title
$description=$UD.description
$department=$UD.department
$streetAddress=$UD.streetAddress
$postalcode=$UD.postalcode
$telephoneNumber=$UD.telephoneNumber
$givenName=$UD.givenName
$company=$UD.company
$mail=$UD.mail
$homePhone=$UD.homePhone
$mobile=$UD.mobile
$userPrincipalName=$UD.userPrincipalName
$Samaccountname=$UD.Samaccountname

$Indiauser=$IndiaOU.create("user","cn=$cn") #I created actual user here and later I'm

#filling all properties for user
$Indiauser.Put("sAMAccountName",$Samaccountname)
$Indiauser.put("SN",$SN)
$Indiauser.put("Title",$Title)
$Indiauser.put("Description",$description)
$Indiauser.put("department",$department)
$Indiauser.put("streetAddress",$streetAddress)
$Indiauser.put('Postalcode',$postalcode)
$Indiauser.put('telephoneNumber',$telephoneNumber)
$Indiauser.put('givenName',$givenName)
$Indiauser.put('company',$company)
$Indiauser.put('mail',$mail)
$Indiauser.put('homePhone',$homePhone)
$Indiauser.put('mobile',$mobile)
$Indiauser.put('userPrincipalName',$userPrincipalName)

$Indiauser.setinfo() #All data committed. There are lots of other properties you can

#add
}

Below here I'm doing two things, First is enable the user and second set password. Because for some reason I'm not able to get these two things done in above loop. It throws exception. But I'm sure it can be included.

$IndiaOU=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://ou=India,dc=zarays,dc=com")
$UserDetails=Import-Csv "Buser.csv"

$userdetails=$IndiaOU.psbase.Children

foreach($UD in $UserDetails) {
$CN=$UD.CN
$accts=$IndiaOU.psbase.Children.Find("cn=$CN")
$accts.psbase.Invoke("SetPassword","P@ssW0Rd")
$accts.psbase.InvokeSet('Accountdisabled',$false)
$accts.psbase.CommitChanges()
}

Last and least, I'm sure there much better CMDlets to do this job, but what makes me proud it that I've created this script and I understand it very well. As compare to those VBScript scripts available on the net, I can use it but can't customize it. Thanks GOD there is PowerShell Team of Blogs.

Technorati tags: Powershell, Active Directory

IceRocket tags: Powershell, Active Directory

del.icio.us tags: Powershell, Active Directory

UPDATED :Please check comment where you will see the reason Why code has been updated.

Marc !! Bingo here it goes..the way it should work.

$IndiaOU=[ADSI]"LDAP://localhost:389/ou=Singapore,dc=zarays,dc=com"$UserDetails=Import-Csv "latestusers.csv"
foreach($UD in $UserDetails) {

$CN=$UD.CN

$SN=$UD.SN

$title=$UD.title

$description=$UD.description

$department=$UD.department

$streetAddress=$UD.streetAddress

$postalcode=$UD.postalcode

$telephoneNumber=$UD.telephoneNumber

$givenName=$UD.givenName

$company=$UD.company

$mail=$UD.mail

$homePhone=$UD.homePhone

$mobile=$UD.mobile

$userPrincipalName=$UD.userPrincipalName

$Samaccountname=$UD.Samaccountname

$Indiauser=$IndiaOU.create("user","cn=$cn")

$Indiauser.Put("sAMAccountName",$Samaccountname)

$Indiauser.put("SN",$SN)

$Indiauser.put("Title",$title)

$Indiauser.put("Description",$description)

$Indiauser.put("department",$department)

$Indiauser.put("streetAddress",$streetAddress)

$Indiauser.put('telephoneNumber',$telephoneNumber)

$Indiauser.put('givenName',$givenName)

$Indiauser.put('company',$company)

$Indiauser.put('mail',$mail)

$Indiauser.put('homePhone',$homePhone)

$Indiauser.put('mobile',$mobile)

$Indiauser.put('userPrincipalName',$userPrincipalName)

$Indiauser.setinfo()

$Indiauser.psbase.Invoke("SetPassword","P@ssW0Rd")

$Indiauser.psbase.InvokeSet('Accountdisabled',$false)

$Indiauser.psbase.CommitChanges()

}

[DSQuery]-With PowerShell

2007-02-04T13:37:00.000+08:00

[DSQuery]-With PowerShell

Below post talks about querying AD. However before you go through this post I strongly recommend you go through below link from

MOW : - http://mow001.blogspot.com/2006/09/powershell-rc2-and-active-directory.html

Let me admit it that below post are original ideas and concept by MOM, here at the most I using better formatting and pulling out corollary out of it.

Connect to AD

[adsi]''
$root=[adsi]'' or $root=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry

List properties of AD Objects

$root fl *

List methods of AD Objects

$root.psbase gm -membertype method # Get all methods

Walk to the Domain structure to wanted OU

$root.psbase.Children

distinguishedName
-----------------
{CN=Builtin,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=Computers,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{OU=Domain Controllers,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=ForeignSecurityPrincipals,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{OU=France,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{OU=India,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=Infrastructure,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=LostAndFound,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=NTDS Quotas,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=Program Data,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{OU=Singapore,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=System,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{OU=UK,DC=Zarays,DC=com}
{CN=Users,DC=Zarays,DC=com}

$users=$root.psbase.children.find('CN=Users') or $users=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://CN=Users,DC=Zarays,DC=com")

-To get properties of user containers

$users fl *

-To find user in a container

$users.psbase.Children.Find('cn=Preetam')

$users.psbase.Children.Find('cn=Preetam') fl *

Corollary 01

Lets use this feature.

$preetam=$users.psbase.Children.Find('cn=Preetam')

$shilpa=$users.psbase.Children.Find('cn=shilpa')

Compare-Object $preetam.memberOf $shilpa.memberOf

Output is

InputObject SideIndicator
----------- -------------
CN=Domain Admins,CN=Users,DC=Zarays,DC=com <=
CN=Enterprise Admins,CN=Users,DC=Zarays,DC=com <=
CN=Schema Admins,CN=Users,DC=Zarays,DC=com <=

Which means Shilpa is not member of above group

Corollary 02

$OU=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://ou=Singapore,dc=zarays,dc=com")

$b=$ou.psbase.children
foreach($c in $b) {
$c.mail
}

output is Email address of all users inside OU singapore. And these address are generally required when you need to communicate back with your colleagues when you leave you current job

2007-02-02T21:53:00.000+08:00

ACTIVE DIRECTORY AND POWERSHELL

I want to devote this and may be next month on Active directory and powershell.Just a simple search on google will lead you to very good posts by MOW.

I checked the datestamps and they where way back mid 2006.It is the best thing to start. Also Arul writes a lot on Ad mgmt. But lots of things changed with RC2. I'm looking forward to put same stuff in better format. And these are not only reference but there are lots articles on AD. However I'm looking forward to use powershell's power get proper format, in short MOre with less.

Broadly speaking there are always two things you do with Active directoy, Querying AD and committing changes to AD.

Both of these are very very interesting and I'm loving it with powershell by your side.

Within System.DirectoryServices there are two main classess

DirectoryEntry for creating objects [Committing changes]
DirectorySearcher for searching objects [Querying]

Let first create OU's

Out of it I got little things done by myself. I have created multiple OU's in one go.

$objUser = [ADSI]"LDAP://localhost:389/Ou=India,dc=zarays,dc=com" # Connection established with LDAP port
$readfile=get-content "E:PowerShellActiveDirectoryOUList.txt" # Reading file

foreach($readf in $readfile) {
$ou=$objUser.create("organizationalunit", "ou=$readf") #Creating OU
$ou.setinfo() # Committing changes
}

Following OU's are created assuming India ou is already there

Bangalore
Chennai
NewDelhi
Mumbai

Let's edit properties of OU here

$readfile=get-content "E:PowerShellActiveDirectoryOUList.txt"
foreach($ou in $readfile) {
$u=$ou + " Operations"
$OUC=new-object directoryservices.directoryentry("LDAP://OU=$ou,OU=India,Dc=zarays,dc=com") #connect to OU
$ouc
$oUc.Put("description", $u) #Description but there is one more way to do this.
$oUc.SetInfo() # very important line, this where you says please commit what has been said above.
}

Descriptions changes to

Bangalore Operations
Chennai Operations
NewDelhi Operations
Mumbai Operations

Contents of oulist.txt

Bangalore
Chennai
NewDelhi
Mumbai

REF:

MOW

http://mow001.blogspot.com/2006/06/powershel-and-active-directory-part-1.html

ARULK

http://blogs.msdn.com/arulk/

Hotfix by Powershell

2007-01-29T23:30:00.001+08:00

Script is actually not about Hotfix but more about formatting. How you customize the format of output.

$Hotfix=Get-WmiObject Win32_quickfixengineering
$Bulk=@()
foreach($hotf in $hotfix) {

if($hotf.hotfixid -like "KB*") {
$Bulk += $Hotf
}
}

$Bulk format-table @{Label="HotFixID" Expression={$_.HotFixID}},
@{Label="InstalledBy"Expression={$_.InstalledBy}},
@{Label="InstalledOn"Expression={$_.InstalledOn}},
@{Label="Descr" Expression={$_.Description}} -autosize

The way you customize label and more important use of expression

To get more on this, I have two CSV files and my goal is to append data from both these files. I have imported here CSV but I 'm appending this csv file based on some critiera and that criteria here is Name.

Contents of Name-NC.csv

Name,NC
Shilpa,1
Paatu,1
Anju,2
Mom,3
Papa,3
Preetam,1

Contents of Name-City.csv

Name,City,Age
Preetam,Sng,30
Shilpa,Sng,26
Paatu,Ah,33
Anju,Kh,38
Mom,Ah,56
Papa,Ah,66

So I will check Name in Name-NC and append all the data if the name is present in Name-City.csv.

$NC=import-csv Name-NC.csv
$NCT=import-csv Name-City.csv
$BT =@()
$CT =@()
$Tot =@()
foreach ($Name in $NC) {
# write-host $Name.name `t $Name.NC
$CT =$Name.NC
$BT =$NCT where {$_.name -eq $Name.name}
$BT format-table @{Label="Name" Expression={$_.name}}, @{Label="City" Expression={$_.city}},
@{Label="Age"Expression={$_.Age}},
@{Label="Printer"Expression={$Name.NC}} }

above code I've mark it as bold. actually I got the whole data (again based on name)from one file and only got one detail from other file(Name-city) . Hope you would be able to use this funda somewhere.

Output:

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Shilpa Sng 26 1

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Paatu Ah 33 1

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Anju Kh 38 2

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Mom Ah 56 3

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Papa Ah 66 3

Name City Age Printer
---- ---- --- -------
Preetam Sng 30 1

Technorati tags: Powershell

IceRocket tags: powershell

SurPriZED

2007-01-24T22:31:00.000+08:00

hoey, I'm surprised to find me script on Microsoft site. Not because I don't know from where they came to know but I forgot I've send script to win some Goodies on occassion Powershell scripts. Certainly it is Goodies for me. It is very inspiring for me. This continues to fire my senses. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/csc/scripts/media/itunes/index.mspx

Memory Dump configuration check

2007-01-23T13:00:00.001+08:00

How to check if Server is configured to capture memory dump . Answer is in the code. From my personal experience whenever Servers faced Bluescreen, we check if the Memory dump file is created if not then we check few things if they are configured properly. Script below simply does it.

______________________________________________________________________

Write-Host ""

# ----------------->Get free space on C Drive where generally memory dump file is configured
$Cdrive=get-wmiobject -class win32_logicaldisk where {$_.deviceid -eq "c:"}
$CSpace=($Cdrive.FreeSpace/1MB)

#------------------->Converted it in KB's Since all other values are in KB's
Write-Host Free Space on C:\ $CSpace MB

#------------------>Lets get memory details of the computer
$TotalMemory=get-wmiobject win32_logicalmemoryconfiguration
$MEM=($totalmemory.TotalPhysicalMemory/1KB)
$PAGE=($totalmemory.Totalpagefilespace/1KB)
Write-host Physical RAM :- $MEM MB
Write-host Pagefile Size :- $Page MB

#------------------>Page file size should be atleast 12MB more than Physical RAM
$Recsize=($MEM+12)

if ($PAGE -ge $Recsize) {

#------------------>There should be enough free space on to capture memory dump.

if ($CSpace -ge $Recsize ) {
write-host "Machine should be able to generate kernel dump"
}
else {
write-host "Check disk Space on C: drive if memory dump file is configured on it"
}

#------------------>Crash control values are enumerated here
$CrashControl="hklm:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl"
$CrashProp=$CrashControl Get-itemproperty
$CrashNo=$CrashProp.CrashDumpEnabled

#---------------->Switch used over here.

Switch($CrashNo) {

0 { "Memory is NOT configured" }
1 {"Complete memory dump is configured" }
2 {"Kernel memory dump is configured"}
3 {"Small memory dump (64KB)"}

}

Write-host Dump file location $CrashProp.DumpFile

$AutoNo=$CrashProp.AutoReboot
If ($AutoNo -eq "0") {write-host Auto Reboot is not enabled} else {write-host AutoReboot is enabled}

$CrashNo=$CrashProp.Overwrite
If ($CrashNo -eq "0") { write-host Overwrite Memory dump option is not enabled} else { write-host Overwrite Memory dump is enabled}

}

else {Write-Host "Page file size should be atleast 12MB more than RAM"}

Write-Host ""

______________________________________________________________________

OutPut:

Free Space on C:\ 4029056 KB
Physical RAM :- 1039744 KB
Pagefile Size :- 2500248 KB
Machine should be able to generate kernel dump
Kernel memory dump is configured
Dump file location C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP
Auto Reboot is not enabled
Overwrite Memory dump is enabled

----------------------------------------------------------

# References:
#http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139
#http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254649

#CrashDumpEnabled REG_DWORD 0x0 = None
#CrashDumpEnabled REG_DWORD 0x1 = Complete memory dump
#CrashDumpEnabled REG_DWORD 0x2 = Kernel memory dump
#CrashDumpEnabled REG_DWORD 0x3 = Small memory dump (64KB)

Technorati tags: Powershell

IceRocket tags: Powershell

One Good Day

2007-01-20T19:07:00.001+08:00

I discovered great thing today, you can divert the output of text file using out-file.

USAGE : .\RemoteSvc.ps1 . a* | Out-File services.txt

No big deal I know but it is always better to share it. I'm happy today as I was able to use powershell scripts in production enviornment and I was able to get satisfied results. Generally I don't check if the server is reachable, as result for few servers error was thrown. but script continued to work, for this to work in VBScript you will have to type

"On error resume next" at the top of text file or else script will exit

del.icio.us tags: Powershell

Technorati tags: Powershell

Computer Inventry with Powershell

2007-01-17T22:37:00.001+08:00

I'm planning to put here series of code to get the computer inventory of machines. As you could remember last time I got the IP Address of the machine. This time I wanna know how many and what programs are installed on this machine.

$ALLPROGS=Get-ChildItem "hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall" ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty $_.pspath}
if ($args -eq "sort" )

{
$ALLPROGS Select-Object displayname,publisher sort publisher

}
else

{

$ALLPROGS Select-Object displayname,publisher group publisher sort count

}

I've purposely left this code hanging whether you wish to have group programs or sort by name of the application publisher. Program is simple but fact that I would like to mentioned here, I tried the other way round, which I've pasted just for the sake of not to do do this.

USAGE: .\AllPrograms02.ps1 sort or .\AllPrograms02.ps1

$ALLPROG="hklm:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall"
$CHILDPROG=get-childitem $ALLPROG
$PROGNAME=$CHILDPROG select-object pschildname
for($i=0;$i -lt $PROGNAME.length; $i++) {
$EACHPROG=$PROGNAME[$i].pschildname
$PROGS="hklm:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\$EACHPROG"
$PROGS get-itemproperty select-object displayname,publisher sort displayname
}

Even though I have mentioned sort by displayname it won't work, sorting fails here because it has to be with POST here...

http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/01/11/sorting-out-groupby.aspx, just though of keeping it in my mind. Please bear in mind this is not going to work on remote computer, But for me it doesn't matter. Because I'm going to run this everytime I built the server or someone asks me or Best one is to do by using psexec..hahaha. But certainly in future there is would be simpler way to run this across enterprise.

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Accessing Registry using PowerShell

2007-01-15T12:40:00.001+08:00

Accessing registry is quite common in Powershell Now, so lets get into it. Idea was to gather inventory of entire computer. I thought lets start with simple code.

$regpath="HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion"
$items=$regpath get-itemproperty
$items.RegisteredOwner
$items.systemroot
$items.SourcePath

Then I felt like exploring little more. I came with Idea of getting IP address of machine. When I wrote code I felt it was easy but it went too long than I felt.

$NICSPOOL="HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards"
$NOSNIC=get-childitem $NICSPOOL
$EACHNIC=$NOSNIC select-object pschildname
for($i=0;$i -lt $EACHNIC.length; $i++) {
$CardName=$EACHNIC[$i].pschildname
#Write-host CNAME $CARDNAME
$NICCARDS="HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\$CardName"
$NICPROP=$NICCARDS Get-ItemProperty
$SVCNAME=$NICPROP.ServiceName
#Write-host $SVCNAME
$Des=$NICPROP.Description
Write-host $Des
$IPPOOL="HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces"
$IPS=$IPPOOL + "\" + $SVCNAME
write-host IPS $IPS
$IPPROP=$IPS Get-itemproperty
#$IPPROP
if ($IPPROP.EnableDHCP -eq 1) {
Write-host IPAddress $IPPROP.DhcpIPAddress
Write-host SubnetMask $IPPROP.DhcpSubnetMask
Write-host DefaultGateway $IPPROP.DhcpDefaultGateway
Write-host DhcpServer $IPPROP.DhcpServer
}
if ($IPPROP.EnableDHCP -eq 0) {
Write-host IPAddress $IPPROP.ipaddress
Write-host SubnetMask $IPPROP.SubnetMask
Write-host DefaultGateway $IPPROP.DefaultGateway
Write-host DNSServer $IPPROP.NameServer
}
write-host ""
}

Few interesting things I discovered I've marked as pink.Above script assumes you have multiple NIC, nowadays it is more common. And I wanted this script to be enterprize compatible. Script would look for one parameter, DHCP if it is enabled it will get different out. Script did what I wished but only in parts. Again this won;t work across enterprize. So next step was googling.

Found

http://abhishek225.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!13469C7B7CE6E911!145.entry

http://mybsinfo.blogspot.com/2007/01/powershell-remote-registry-and-you-part.html

Both the blogs are quite interesting to an extend which explains remote registry access is possible.

Let's take simple example

LOCAL REGISTRY ACCESS

$regpath="HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\2"
$items=$regpath get-itemproperty
$items.Servicename

REMOTE REGISTRY ACCESS

$Srv="Singaporelt"
$key = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards"
$type = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine
$regKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($type, $Srv)
$regKey = $regKey.OpenSubKey($key)
Write-Host "Sub Keys"
Write-Host "--------"
Foreach($sub in $regKey.GetSubKeyNames()){
$NICPOOLS = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\$sub"
$regKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($type, $Srv)
$regKey = $regKey.OpenSubKey($NICPOOLS)
Foreach($val in $regKey.GetValueNames()) {
if ( $val -eq "Servicename") {
$Keyvalue= $regKey.GetValue("$val")
$Keyvalue
}
}
}

See the difference in code. No No....it is not about lines in the code but it is property and methods available in local registry are not easily available while accessing remote registry. I was able to get the IP address using remote registry class but output was not quite satisfying and code manipulation was nothing but another vbscript. Yeah I can't expect best of both the worlds...not so early. For simple reason, without .net knowledge struggle will continue.

2007-01-12T04:03:00.000+08:00

iPHONE

With due release of iPhone, mobile phone market is going to change. Innovation always takes lead. Competitive product O2,HP PDA’s will also need to change their game in order to stay in Market.

Another Article here is cool

I'm already planning one for me due in Asia 2008. It is pretty cheap when I compare with O2 Model.

Full specification of iPhone could be found at http://www.apple.com/iphone.

Managing remote/local services with Pow6r Sh6ll

2007-01-11T15:22:00.001+08:00

When I was exploring various possibilites from Admin point of view in Powershell, I was never aware that such CMDLET would not work for managing servers remotely. However it was not difficult to implement it when blogs like http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/ are available on the Internet. I happen to see MOW blog entry on blogspot (http://mow001.blogspot.com/)and there I realized yeah it is possible to do everything remotely same as sysinternal tools can do it. Again .NET Classes.With this idea in my mind, I was able to convert my all existing CMDLETS for managing stuff remotely. For doing this you should be aware of one very important thing, which classes to load. For example if you run this script as it, it will error out

"Unable to find type [System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController]: make sure that the assembly containing this type is loaded."

It means nothing but load the revelant classes before I can do anything. Let me admit it I don't know which class to load but to get it work you just run get-services before running the script below. It will internally load the relevant classes. Of course if the information comes from POWERSHELL GURU's, I will post it here.

Write-host $args[0]
$LikeVar= $args[1]
$remSVC=[System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController]::GetServices($args[0])
$remSVC where {$_.name -like $LikeVar}

Let's come to the script.

$args[0] which is standard variable(default) will pick first word which I have assigned for computername and second variable is your servicename string. Remember I have selected servicename not displayname to query.Above CMDLET is similiar to sc query findstr /i al*

NOW it is .\svcvar.ps1 computername al*. Much simpler.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now there is scenario where in you need to stop three services on 200 servers across Enterprize. In fact I got this idea because I had dealt with it in reality and I have us SC STOP stuff which was quite murky in a way.

$Services=get-content "E:\PowerShell\MakesSense\Ser-ices.txt"
$Servers=get-content "E:\PowerShell\MakesSense\Servers.txt"
ForEach($Server in $Servers) {
$LOADSVC=[System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController]::GetServices($Server)
foreach($service in $services) {
$REMSVC=$LOADSVC where {$_.name -eq $service}
if ($REMSVC.status -eq "Running") {
Write-host $REMSVC.stop()
$REMsvc.WaitForStatus("stopped", (New-TimeSpan -seconds 3))
Write-host $REMsvc.displayname been successfully stopped on $server
}
elseif ($REMSVC.status -eq "Stopped") {
Write-host $REMsvc.displayname is already in $REMsvc.status state on $server -foregroundcolor "RED"
}
else {
write-host Please check if $service Service exists on $server -foregroundcolor "RED"
}
}
}

Write services which you wish to stop in ser-ices.txt and servers in servers.txt on which you wish to manage services. And then code is typical VBSCript code. Most important (new) thing here is how INFANTLY (Simply) I can manage output with $REMsvc.displayname, $REMsvc.status which Re-emphasize DO MORE WITH LESS Principle.

Technorati tags: Powershell

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IceRocket tags: Powershell

Reading Eventlog before and after shutdown

2007-01-08T18:06:00.001+08:00

$gener=Get-EventLog -LogName system where{$_.eventid -eq "6005"} sort timegenerated Select-Object -last 1
$timegen=$gener.timegenerated
$afterReb=get-eventlog -logname system where{$_.timegenerated -gt $timegen}
Write-host "-------------------------Error Type --------------------------- " -foregroundcolor "WHITE"
$afterReb Group-Object entrytype
#Start-Sleep -m 500
Write-host " "
Write-host "-------------------------ERRORS --------------------------- " -foregroundcolor "WHITE"
#Start-Sleep -m 500
$afterReb where{$_.entrytype -eq "error"} Select-Object timegenerated,Source,EventID,Message format-list out-host -paging
#$afterReb sort-Object entrytype format-list Out-Host -Paging
Write-host " "
$BforeShtdn=$timegen.addhours(-1)
Write-host "-------------------------Error 1 Hour Before ShutdownType --------------------------- " -foregroundcolor "WHITE"
$LsbforeShtdn=Get-EventLog -LogName system where{(($_.timegenerated -gt $BforeShtdn) -and ($_.timegenerated -lt $timegen))}
$LsbforeShtdn sort-Object entrytype format-list Out-Host -Paging

Suppose you get a call from Helpdesk, that system has gone unexpected shutdown.And now system is up but you wish to know why it went down.So first thing you look is event log. And what is your area of concentration. Obiviously when system went down and if there were any errors before and after shutdown. Exactly same thing this script does. It gets all event logs when system went down unexpectedly. Event ID in this case should be either 6008/6005, you can certainly include that logic here.But not only this I also got event logs before system went down for 1 hour duration. And I'm again amazed by $BforeShtdn=$timegen.addhours(-1), it is simple mathematics. I don't have to do programatically subtraction. Simple Superb. Thanks to Powershell team.

Well the script is again very simple, But it should be unique.I parsed the eventlog and filtered out 6005. I got all logs from after this event. Logically all events after system is shutdown.

Apart from the script above I found a very simple method to detect the uptime of any computer across the network.

$wmip=get-wmiobject Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System -computername "SystemName"
$time=$wmip.SystemUpTime
$uptime=new-timespan -seconds $time
$formattime="{0:N}" -f $uptime
Write-host $formattime [Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds]

Technorati tags: Powershell

IceRocket tags: Powershell

PowerShell EventLog Parser

2007-01-05T21:40:00.000+08:00

#you need Error-Patters.txt which can include any pattern for example terminated failed Stopped unexpected

#----------------CODE BEGINS-------------------
$Patterns=get-content "E:\Powershell\Makesense\Error-Patters.txt"
foreach($Pattern in $Patterns) {
$Errevents = get-eventlog -logname system -newest 1000 where{$_.entrytype -eq "error"}
$failedpattern=$Errevents Select-Object eventid,timegenerated,message,source Select-String -Pattern $Pattern
Write-host "________________________" $Pattern "_______________________" -Foregroundcolor "RED"
for($i=0;$i -lt $failedpattern.length; $i++) {
[string]$splitt=$failedpattern[$i]
$splitt.Split(';')
Write-Host "_____________________ " -foregroundcolor "GRAY"
}
}

#--------------------CODE ENDS---------------------------

Yesterday I was going through basic of Powershell again. Just to see If I could dig out more. I came across select-string, Wow..another beautiful feature. I just wanted to utilized it's full powerBelow example is just sleek and does what things which always expect.
C:\PS>$events = get-eventlog -logname application -newest 100$events select-string -inputobject {$_.message} -pattern "failed"
Below is example in powershell inbuilt help. GET-HELP SELECT-STRING -EXAMPLES
Let's talk about the script. I'm basically going into system event log and then filtering only errors.Once I have errors I check content of the message for text likefailed,stopped,unexpected,terminated. Since this strings might differ in individually cases, I have included them in text file. One I thing I noticed here, output which select-string produceincludes message,eventid,source seperated by ";" So I have to use split command to manipulate the output. I have used again color backgrounds to make it more readable. I'm delighted by the output. Do try out.

Schedule reboot with PowerShell

2007-01-01T21:31:00.001+08:00

$now=get-date

$MachineName=read-host "Please Enter Machine Name you wish to reboot :"

$When=read-host "Please enter time when you wish to reboot the server Later THAN ($now) :"

$results=$now.subtract($when)

#write-host $Results Results

$time2act=$now.Subtract($results)

#Write-host $time2act is time2act

$action=$time2act.subtract($now)

$Sec2Act= $action.totalseconds

$totalsecs="{0:N0}" -f $Sec2Act

$SecINint=[int]$totalsecs

write-host $testint

if($results -le 0)
{
write-host "done"
Write-host $MachineName "will Reboot in next " $SecINint Seconds
shutdown -s -m $machineName -t $SecINint
}
else {
write-host "Time entered has already past,please enter time later than " [$now] -Background "RED"
}

Due you remember days when you have to apply patches on 1000 servers in phased manner. But in this scenario servers are not rebooted, they are rebooted only when customer/client gives downtime. Such scenario needs a schedule reboot for the server. But what happens when each client gives different reboot time. I thought lets write something on similiar lines, where in we can schedule a reboot of the server as per client's requirement. Above is just the logic, but the script requires few more additions. First is we need to read content of server name, time it is schedule to reboot, which is easily possible to read from text file. And certainly this is small step towards automation.

Here I was able to use shutdown.exe command without invoking wscript.shell, which I like the most, which was not possible to do with VBScript. If you run this command you would get computer name prompt, time to enter in specific format and that it. I have tested the script. But I think it will require little more finishing.

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Review Year 2006

2006-12-30T19:46:00.000+08:00

Review Year 2006

Year 2006, has been far far different than I can put in words. I certainly have experienced it in much different manner than I can imagine. January 2006 I have been to London Via Texaco. It was certainly great opportunity, to understand culture of UK. I liked the fact, people respect each other so much. I have certainly gone down and shared that experience with my friend. Lot of them really liked it. More I say of UK it will be less. But difficult circumstances lead me to leave Texaco, and I joined Sussee,Singapore. Culture of Singapore is so much different than UK. Two totally different countries. These experience goes far beyond in understanding not only culture but also working style,Architechure of city, Construction, Innovation and above all collating all this information, to do similar things in India at whatever level you can.I'm thankful to GOD and all other people who have helped me out time and when I needed them, to reach such places.

On career front, I've learnt VB Script, the fact that I felt need within myself to learn, has paid me a lot. Understanding of VB Script has not only increased my domain knowledge but also gave me edge over all other Admins. It was like one day I went to Shop and got the Book for 350 Rs (I'm surprised because I thought it was costly), Started learning from the Book daily. And what ...I made a daily schedule and started moving towards achieving the goal of finishing it in 3 months Flat. I did it. And during this journey I experienced how powerful,confident you feel when you are about to reach towards your goal. Joyful and pleasant to catch in lucid words. Multiple goal has potential to give this Kind of Happiness.

All those planning,daily schedules got inspired by Robin Sharma's book Monk who .....Great Book. As we all know if you understanding (learn)something and you don't implement it, then you have not understood. Based on this experience I've decided to come up on number of books I should be reading in year 2007. I feel proud to apply the same VB Script knowledge to make Admin life easier in previous and current Organizations. When power shell got released, it was like dream came true, Because my knowledge of VB Script has cultivated my Mind, which obviously saw advantage of PowerShell. As result I have come up with Idea of Blog. Techstarts has great ideas I had: To utilize power of shell.

Financially year 2006 more or less can compete with BSE Index growth,India. Next year's goal is to leverage on it.

Purchases: Laptop was major and most beneficial.

Trips: Ooty,Kodai Kanal,Mysore

Books Read: Cracking the Code of Millionaire;Monk who sold his Ferrari;Timeless Wisdom;The Man eater of Malgudi;The One Minute Manager;Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes.

Relations:This is the front, I have continued to be at lost, Because every time I change my serving point, I lost all relations which has been built in that organization. This is deeply felt by me.Every time I think of it, Blame game starts in my Mind.

I wanted to keep review as small as possible, since I don't think everyone would love to read this. I'm currently reading 8th Habit of highly effective people, inspired by one of the chapters I decided to share few things with you.Since we all know "Knowledge is a power which continues to grow unless you share it." These events were certainly not planned but had I planned I can't say anymore how much effectively year 2006 would've been utilized.

But I certainly take this as starting point and this is the place I always consider as base point. From where I would continue to accelerate in forward direction. I would suggest you all to start something like this, so your planning for entire year would start for 2007.

For example:

How many books you are going to read this year
How many days you are planning vacation this year
How much you plan to save this year
Where you want to be at the end of the year

Below mentioned article inspired me to review 2006 in my life...how about you?.........

Please feel free to comment. I would certainly look forward at least ONE.

Happy New Year 2007

So, this holiday season, I respectfully suggest that you take the time to review 2006. Find a sacred space, grab your journal and write down your answers to the following questions. First, write the story of the year. Describe how 2006 went for you in as much detail as possible. Open your journal and describe the year that just happened. What were your successes? Your disappointments? What experiences were breathtakingly great? Try to recall each month or season and describe all aspects of your life. Your career, your finances, your relationships, your health, your contribution. Yes, I know that this will take some time. However, leadership is about doing the right things not the easy things.

Second, look at your goal sheets, schedule and journal from the year. How did you do on your goals? Give yourself a mark for each of your goals. If you committed to running a faster 10k and you did then give yourself a ten out of ten. If you aimed to read 50 books and only read 40 then give yourself and 8 out of 10. After reviewing your performance (big idea: all great companies and leaders look at their past performance) look for patterns. Did you excel and business but let your health slide? Did you let disappointments get in the way? Did you make the necessary mid-course corrections when circumstances changed? Reflect on your decisions. How did you perform as a decision maker? Did later events confirm your assumptions? Did you act too quickly or not quickly enough?

- Robin Sharma

PowerShell RSS Reader

2006-12-29T20:40:00.001+08:00

$oIE=new-object -com internetexplorer.application
$oIE.navigate2("About:blank")
while ($oIE.busy) {
sleep -milliseconds 50
}
#$oIE.visible=$true

$feed=[xml](new-object system.net.webclient).downloadstring("http://www.rediff.com/rss/newsrss.xml")

#$feed=[xml]$(get-content C:\Preetam\Money.xml)
$results=$feed.rss.channel.item Select-Object TITLE,DESCRIPTION ConvertTo-Html
$oDocBody=$oIE.document.documentelement.lastchild ;
#populate the document.body
$oDocBody.innerhtml=$results
$oDocBody.style.font="10pt Arial";
$oIE.document.bgcolor="#D7D7EA"
#Reading back from IE.
$oTBody=@($oIE.document.getElementsByTagName(">] ;
foreach ($oRow in $oTBody.childNodes)
{$oRow.bgColor="#AAAAAA" ;}
#Prepare a title.
$oTitle=$oIE.document.createElement("P")
$oTitle.style.font="bold 20pt Arial"
$oTitle.innerhtml="PowerShell NEWS Reader";
$oTitle.align="center" ;
#Display the title before the Table object.
$oTable=@($oIE.document.getElementsByTagName(">] ;
$oDocBody.insertBefore($oTitle,$oTable) > $null;

#$line=$oIE.document.createTextNode("MADEND")
#$Para=$oIE.document.createElement("HR")
#$oDocBody.appendchild($Para)
#$oDocBody.appendchild($Para)
#$oDocBody.appendchild($line)

#--------------------------------------------------------------

$feed01=[xml](new-object system.net.webclient).downloadstring("http://www.rediff.com/rss/moneyrss.xml")
$results01=$feed01.rss.channel.item Select-Object TITLE,DESCRIPTION ConvertTo-Html
$oDocBody=$oIE.document.documentelement.lastchild.firstchild ;
#populate the document.body
$oDocBody.innerhtml=$results01
$oDocBody.style.font="10pt Arial";
$oIE.document.bgcolor="#D7D7EA"
#Reading back from IE.
$oTBody=@($oIE.document.getElementsByTagName(">] ;
foreach ($oRow in $oTBody.childNodes)
{
$oRow.bgColor="#336600" ;

}
#Prepare a title.
$oTitle=$oIE.document.createElement("P")
$oTitle.style.font="bold 20pt Arial"
$oTitle.innerhtml="PowerShell NEWS Reader";
$oTitle.align="center" ;
#Display the title before the Table object.
$oTable=@($oIE.document.getElementsByTagName(">] ;
$oDocBody.insertBefore($oTitle,$oTable) > $null;
$oIE.visible=$true

Before I begin, what this script does, let me thank three people over here.
Scott Hansell --------> http://www.hanselman.com/blog : For giving such superb presentation on parsing XML via PowerShell ..worth watching...
Website Brainjar --------> http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/intro/default2.asp This site tells us how to parse HTML tags; I’ was absolutely dumb about it before I visited it.
PowerShell Blos --------> Yuksel Akinci http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/09/10/748883.aspx This where I got the hint of parsing and formatting html output.
Disclaimer: This is no way like a RSS reader, as you get on internet, it is just explains latent potential lies in Powershell to unleash power of XML, Non-programmer like me it has been very simple to prove it. Of course code can be made much more complex get our favourite RSS reader formatted in our own way. And there is already something like this on Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell)
Code is nothing if you know DOM (document object modelling).
$feed=[xml](new-object system.net.webclient).downloadstring(http://www.rediff.com/rss/newsrss.xml)
I have pulled two separate XML file from the internet and pasted into HTML document using DOM. To do this I have to typecast which means to convert thing specifically into XML;if this is missing it is normal HTML document.
After that I have converted them into html format
$results=$feed.rss.channel.item Select-Object TITLE,DESCRIPTION ConvertTo-Html
After this everything is about formatting HTML in way it looks as attractive HTML page
$oDocBody=$oIE.document.documentelement.lastchild.firstchild ;
Above line is important since this line actually pulls the second link and drops it in first child of last child, it can get tricky if you more xml links.
Lastly how to run it, you will need to change ("http://www.rediff.com/rss/newsrss.xml") and get your favourite XML link, of course one you have it you don’t need to change everytime. Atleast I’ve made provision for two RSS links, further can be made easily
Technorati tags: Powershell, RssReader, XML
del.icio.us tags: Powershell, XML

Bulk Ping Via PowerShell

2006-12-25T09:28:00.001+08:00

CODE:

$readfile=get-content "E:\PowerShell\MakesSense\Servers.txt"
foreach($readf in $readfile)
{
$ALive=get-wmiobject win32_pingstatus -Filter "Address='$readf'" | Select-Object statuscode

if($ALive.statuscode -eq 0)
{write-host $readf is REACHABLE -background "GREEN" -foreground "BLACk"}
else
{write-host $readf is NOT reachable -background "RED" -foreground "BLACk"}
}

OUTPUT:

I was reviewing my codes and I realise it would only start making difference only when I show the output. Also most of the codes in previous post might not work, because of formatting. But I want to know which are not actually working. Please let me know if you come across something like this.

Remember to create servers.txt file and put in all servers in txt file which you which to ping.

Apart from this, I'm getting question in similiar nature what can you do with powershell. Yes that is very simple to answer and believe it, if you go to the MS Site mentioned below.

Worth Visiting collection of Powershell Scripts, you are bound to love it.

~~What Can I Do With Windows PowerShell?~~

Flickr tags: Powershell, Scripting

Technorati tags: Powershell, Scripting

Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs

2006-12-22T21:15:00.001+08:00

Please check the link below to get official guide in what exactly is VISTA's requirement.

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹.
1 GB of system memory.
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
DVD-ROM Drive³.
Audio output capability.
Internet access capability.

Get Feeded here :Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs

Vista's Feature :Aero Feature Let me know how many of them are requirment of daily use at the cost of Hardware.

Flickr tags: Vista, Dailyfeeds

Technorati tags: Vista, Daily Feeds

PowerShell-MSClustering

2006-12-22T05:31:00.000+08:00

PowerShell -MSCluster-WMI
Word multithreading itself is obfuscating for me, and then think what programming can be for me. But powershell renews interest in me to become one, specially when .Net classes are invoked from here.

Simple example is here
$shell=new-object -com shell.application
$shell.ShutdownWindows()

And not that, there are so many other Methods available which can of great use, to find them all here...just type

$shell get-member

There was some problem in watching recording of web cast, so I decided to download only PPT’s, since I was hungry of codes and the latent thinking that generates in me out of the codes. I saw foreground and background impact. Instantly I thought hmmm looks different. And then mind starts to think….as it is mentioned in 8th Habit
No thing is as powerful as the idea whose time has come…..

Lots of jabbering lets get to the code.

Write-Host "CLUSTER VIEW ONLY IN THE ORDER OF DEPENDANCY" -backgroundcolor "GREEN" -FOREGROUNDCOLOR "BLACK"
WRITE-HOST " " -backgroundcolor "YELLOW"
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: QUROUM" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "Physical Disk"} Select-Object Name,description,State
WRITE-HOST " " -backgroundcolor "GRAY"
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: NON SYSTEM DRIVES" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "Volume Manager Disk Group"}
WRITE-HOST " " -backgroundcolor "GRAY"
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: IP ADDRESS" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "IP address"}
WRITE-HOST " " -backgroundcolor "GRAY"
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: NETWORK NAME" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "Network Name"}
WRITE-HOST " " -backgroundcolor "GRAY"
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: FILE SHARE" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "File Share"}

Code is very simple but results you get out of it are truly superb. Formatting makes life easier and interesting.I thought of using WMI/Clustering to get the results.

Lets get to first line
WRITE-HOST "RESOURCE: QUROUM" -backgroundcolor "DARKRED"
Get-WmiObject -namespace root\mscluster -computername CLUSTERNAME -class mscluster_resource where{$_.type -eq "Physical Disk"} Select-Object Name,description,State

My intention here is to sort cluster resource by type. In other words you puch below line on CMD prompt.

Cluster /cluster:CLUSTERNAME RESOURCE

And you would get cluster resources. I sorted these resources by type. Common types are file share,Network Name,Physical disk and third party would like Volume Manager Disk Group. In order to get cluster WMI you have to specifically connect to it. You simply can’t do get-wmiobject win32_Service.

Once that happen, next code is…

Write-host “ “ –foregroundcolor “DARKRED”

Above line, I have put lots of spaces to get you DARKRED thik border.

Not much…

I can't get you the output of it, or screen shot, But you won’t be feeling sorry if run similiar in any MSCluster enviornment.

Daily News

2006-12-20T17:28:00.001+08:00

Google has come with top search for year 2006, have a look.

2006 Top Searchs

Firefox version update Firefox 2.0.0.1 is available, as per them it is must to update it. With every update some or other extension stops working.Now blog this is not working for me.

God and Bad of Year 2006 and whole lot of Trends which we have almost forgotten and certainly must read Time Person of the Year:YOU

Go to Time

To make things easier and faster always use Windows Live Writer, for latest version

Go Here

Technorati tags: Google, FireFox, Time Mag

PowerShell Lab Experience

2006-12-20T09:00:00.001+08:00

Set-ExecutionPolicy

Get-ExecutionPolicy

PS E:\> Get-ChildItem E:\PowerShell | measure-object length -Average -Sum -Maximum -Minimum

Count : 4
Average : 19491
Sum : 77964
Maximum : 37856
Minimum : 768
Property : length

--------------------------------------

PS E:\> Get-ChildItem E:\PowerShell | Group extension

Count Name Group
----- ---- -----
2 {MakesSense, NeedtoTry}
4 .log {Ldisk.log, process.log, properties.log, service.log}

------------------------------------

PS E:\> ((Get-ChildItem C:\WINDOWS\system32 | Measure-Object length -sum).sum)/1MB
354.373404502869

------------------------------------

PS E:\> Get-ChildItem c:\ -Recurse -Include *.tmp | select-object pspath

PSPath
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\WINDOWS\system32\CONFIG.TMP
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\WINDOWS\system32\setb6.tmp
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\WINDOWS\SET3.tmp
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\WINDOWS\SET4.tmp
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\WINDOWS\SET8.tmp

------------------

PS E:\> Get-ChildItem c:\ -Recurse -Include *.tmp | select-object fullname

FullName
--------
C:\WINDOWS\system32\CONFIG.TMP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\setb6.tmp
C:\WINDOWS\SET3.tmp
C:\WINDOWS\SET4.tmp
C:\WINDOWS\SET8.tmp

-----------------------------------

PS E:\> Get-ChildItem C:\Softwares -Recurse | where {$_.length -gt 100MB}

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Softwares\SeverSupportTools\ServicePack01-Win2k3

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 14/10/2006 20:21 345322744 WindowsServer2003-KB889101-SP1-x86-ENU.exe

-------------------------------------

Get-ChildItem C:\WINDOWS\system32 | Select-Object extension | Sort-Object extension -Unique

-------------------------------------

Get-ChildItem C:\backupfiles.bak -Recurse | ForEach-Object{$D=get-date;$_.lastwritetime=$D}

Technorati Tags:

powershell Windows powershell

Power Shell Folder Size

2006-12-19T20:07:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I was going through the Virtual Labs for powershell, and found few more powers of shell. I will posting that in different post soon, I just need to format it. Live writer from MS makes life easy in formatting blogs. Here we go. I wished to find out folder size, similiar like treesize (But not tree size)

$TotalFoldSZ=0 #total folder size
$foltree=get-childitem "C:\Program Files\iTunes" #Which fold size you wish to check out, this can be easily turn into user's by using read-host

foreach ($folt in $foltree) {

if($folt.mode -match "d") { #I used mode attribute to get only directories, so what about files in the parent directory...hmm coming to in...:-)
$fsz=((get-childItem $folt.fullname -recurse Measure-object length -sum).sum)/1MB #Got the size in MB
FSize="{0:N2}" -f $fsz #Formatted to two decimals
write-host $folt.name $fsize MB # wrote to screen FolderName,FolderSize
$TotalFSZ=$TotalFSZ+$fsize #To get the total folder size
}
}
$filesize=(($foltree measure-object length -sum).sum)/1MB #This is where I check if there are files present in the parent folder. If there are #only files then I will get folder size zero, not to miss that out, I've to include it.
$fsizeMB="{0:N2}" -f $filesize #Formatted it get in MB
Write-host Total Size of Folder is ($TotalFSZ+$fsizeMB) MB #here finally I add each folder size and files inside parent folder.

Most important thing in this script is the usage of ((get-childItem $folt.fullname -recurse Measure-object length -sum).sum)/1MB . It is just makes life easy, you get powershell to add the file size and report it.

Try this PS E:\> Get-ChildItem E:\PowerShell measure-object length -Average -Sum -Maximum -Minimum and you will be pleased to see ..yeah it gives number of files in the folder,Average size of the file and maxmimum file size and Minimum file size. Just a thing to note, you can manipulate only file items, I've to checkout if there is something which can do for folders as well.Next thing I would like someone to helpout with the sorting stuff.

Technorati:powershell , Windows powershell

Powershell to view EventLogs

2006-12-19T06:11:00.000+08:00

I was actually expecting to see some noted difference in event viewer in Vista. If you are core System Admin your job is mostly revolved around finding out in digging logs and then relate it to some meaning full Unexpected Shutdown root cause analysis. And everytime we open event logs we normally tend to open error or warning logs around 6008, unexpected reboot. And then starts the double click attack on every event log in around...to delve in message details. I wonder if there is some better solutions planned in future OS's...just for time being I have got a work around with PowerShell, this is again one Length one liner....

Get-EventLog -LogName application where{$_.Entrytype -eq "error"} convertto-html -property timegenerated,Index,Source,Message -title "ErrorLogs" -body "Errors on Server" > log.htm;invoke-item log.htm

Lets get into details, in fact there is not much technical into, it is straight forward.

Get-Eventlog -logname Application -------with this line we are in Application log. (Just imagine how many lines you will require to get into appln log via VBSCript)

We piped it to get only error with $_.Entrytype...Hmmm I was searching for long where is eventtype embedded..in the help file.

for example: get-eventlog -logname application get-member..

finally I got it. I would like this help to be more descriptive, it says everything in greek to non-programmer like me.

With above line we got all errors. Here you again have choice how many error/Warning/Information you wish to have. Just modify first line as "Get-EventLog -LogName application -newest 10"

Once I have all errors, I asked Powershell to converto-html and with properties as Header I selected TimeGenerated,Message,Source..you select as per your requirement.

Now last step here is to re-direct the output to htm file and then invoke the same with Invoke-item.

powershell
Windows powershell

Power Shell's other side

2006-12-17T10:59:00.000+08:00

Remember last time I told you powershell's power are far beyond than what you could observe in this simple blog. It is all because of .Net classes. I've to get to that level but I few pointers in that directions, Please check this link. And don't forget to open his homepage and pageflakes.com. For details check the bottom of this page.

Deployment Scenario using PowerShell

Found at Under the Stairs

Technorati:PowerShell

One Liner Saga Continues

2006-12-17T00:02:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I read sapien blog yesterday about file age. I was amazed at the power of date formats. I was amazed by simple code

$age=($now.subtract(($file.LastWriteTime))).days

After reading, something just strike me, I though date manulation is becoming so easy, to do such a simple thing you have to all sorts of subroutines and method calls. Working in late night in office never gets me easy and happy sleep. I took that time to think about it and later in the morning I though of cracking UPtime from sysinternals via Powershell. So I began....

With below mentioned code I find out the Magic of one Liner again.

PS E:\PowerShell\MakesSense> Get-EventLog -LogName system |where {$_.eventid -eq "6005"} |sort timegenerated

Index Time Type Source EventID Message
----- ---- ---- ------ ------- -------
8237 Nov 29 19:21 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8266 Nov 29 19:42 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8299 Nov 29 20:27 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8497 Dec 02 13:20 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8553 Dec 03 03:55 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8591 Dec 03 12:23 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8632 Dec 03 15:32 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8666 Dec 03 22:01 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8740 Dec 04 22:49 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8818 Dec 06 11:46 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8843 Dec 06 16:51 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8897 Dec 07 10:12 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
8957 Dec 08 13:17 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
9803 Dec 10 21:13 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
9859 Dec 11 14:20 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
9933 Dec 12 14:12 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
9962 Dec 12 20:20 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
10025 Dec 13 11:40 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
10077 Dec 14 14:12 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
10154 Dec 15 14:41 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.
10551 Dec 16 22:19 Info EventLog 6005 The Event log service was started.

Now next step was to get the system uptime. I got $now=get-date

$uptime=($now.subtract(($Eve.timegenerated))).days but the next question was how I get the most recent 6005 event, time generated subtracted by current time. There was no way I can find when was last time 6005 was written. I was actually going to use bubble sort. I was stubborn of about not using it. Because somewhere I felt there is no need with Powershell, it will do that for me. And it did. After another 3 hours in struggle I realise there must be something to sort which will give me more specific result and below line cracks UPtime.

$now=get-date
$events=Get-EventLog -logname system | where {$_.eventid -eq "6005"} | sort timegenerated |select-object -last 1
foreach($Eve in $Events) {
$uptime=($now.subtract(($Eve.timegenerated))).days
$uptimeh=($now.subtract(($Eve.timegenerated))).hours
$uptimem=($now.subtract(($Eve.timegenerated))).Minutes
$uptimes=($now.subtract(($Eve.timegenerated))).Seconds
write-host $uptime Days - $uptimeh Hours - $uptimem Mins -$uptimes Sec

}

One Liner New ERA

2006-12-15T14:01:00.000+08:00

I guess with powershell new era has started, that is all about one liners. Code which takes about min 10 lines in VBScript is reducing to one line and with much better output. below is one of the example which finds out local drive on the computer and list there properties

Power shell code

$process=get-wmiobject -class win32_logicaldisk where{$_.drivetype -eq 3}

foreach($proc in $process) {

write-host VolumeName :-> $proc.VolumeName

write-host Filesystem :-> $proc.filesystem

write-host Filesize :-> $proc.size

write-host Freespace :-> $proc.FreeSpace

Write-host ========================

}

Output is below

VolumeName :->
Filesystem :-> NTFS
Filesize :-> 20974428160
Freespace :-> 2152263680
========================
VolumeName :-> Windows2004
Filesystem :-> NTFS
Filesize :-> 39028953088
Freespace :-> 11977916416
========================

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_logicaldisk | where{$_.drivetype -eq 3} | sort size (Just one line...........)

OutPut is Below

DeviceID : C:
DriveType : 3
ProviderName :
FreeSpace : 2152235008
Size : 20974428160
VolumeName :

DeviceID : E:
DriveType : 3
ProviderName :
FreeSpace : 11977916416
Size : 39028953088
VolumeName : Windows2004

But power of powershell is explored in different ways I know. I would soon get use to it and come with more examples like this.

Technorati tags:

Windows PowerShell

PowerShell -Great Computer Shell and Not just another

2006-12-14T22:17:00.000+08:00

I know there are lots of better and much better articles on Power shell, But still powers of powershell are so much immense that I can't resist tell you what I learnt so far.

As per Jeffery there are 5 things you must know before you start powershell

So let's start
Get-Help
Get-Command
Get-alias
Get-PSdrives
Get-Member

Any Get-Help (command name) has following option
1) Syntax reference
2) -Detail gives detail information
3) –full everything plus more examples

For example:

Get-help wmi-object
get-help WmiObject –full
get-help WmiObject -detail

Get-Help wmi -Examples out-file c:\wmiexa
(Above command get the results and push over bridge(Pipe) to out-file wmiexa.txt )

Get-command: this command not only show what command are available in PS but also can help in search any file on your C-drive. Just try get-command *.dll and see for yourself.

Get-PSDrives: one of the most daring innovations of PS. You can actually browse into registry using this command and check out what is stored over there and that too much much better format.

First run get-psdrives and then simple CD into HKLM to get into registry. If you can get into registry sure there is specific way to modify it as well.

Now Get-member, I found this command very handy. You know to get details of methods of any class, I use to run scriptomatic if it was WMI Class or move to MSDN, where every min something keep changing, so after min change link goes dead. Don’t trust me, search for Media Player SDK and get proved. But now Jeffery and his team makes this very easy. I don’t mumble out any words check the screen shot below.

One of the major source of inspiration for me to go for Power Shell , is the Dotnet class can also be invoked from here. This was lacking in VBScript and as result I was actually going to learn VB.net. Thank GOD..And Many thanks to Jeffery Hicks and his book on Powershell, Please download Powershell sample chapter to learn.

I wanna put screen but it is not getting display properly...I will put in few days on my google pages.

Daily Feeds

2006-12-11T22:00:00.000+08:00

I found out a very good Webcast on PowerShell, Worth watching wish I get it some way downloaded for future use. It is given by powerShell Architect. And most important thing about this webcast is that it has 50 min of demo and it is very good quality video.

There is no point in giving link so take down the title of the Webcast.

TechNet Webcast: Windows PowerShell: Next Generation Command Line Scripting (Level 300) (ID:1032306183)

Favorites

2006-12-06T12:19:00.000+08:00

Probably the easiest thing I do is post favorities on this Blog. Below are favorities which I use it frequently when I find nothing to do. Well guys you might be aware now even our favorites are shared and same could be used to get what others have stored in their favorities, this is achieved by utility which comes as add-on with fireFox. Well I have stored most of my book marks on Google's BookMarks, But unfortunately I don't see anyway to import it. Even in Firefox you can't export BookMarks, sounds unrealistic for me

SCRIPTING Resources

SearchScripting.com - The Scripting Search Engine

www.searchscripting.com

ScriptingAnswers.com - VBScript samples
www.scriptinganswers.com

The Script Center Script Repository
www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx

DevGuru VBScript Introduction
www.devguru.com

WMI and VBScript to Query Disk - Tutorial with Basic Examples
www.computerperformance.co.uk

Power Shell

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/default.mspx POWER SHELL Home Page

http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell

Windows PowerShell 1.0 Documentation Pack

FAQ

http://www.jsifaq.com/

http://www.svein.dk/Visartikler.asp?ART_id=30&S_Menu=2 (WMI Classes non English site)

http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowsnt20002003faq/

Great Resources on clustering Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Cluster Service

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/server/clustersteps.asp

WindowsCluster, windows cluster 2003 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/technologies/clustering.mspx

http://www.windowscluster.com/tools.html

http://www.nw-america.com/

http://www.nwnetworks.com/cluster.html

I would add more. may be a Monthly Activity would be better.

Command Line experience shared

2006-11-27T13:24:00.000+08:00

Few weeks back I discovered that you don't need to give anyone Join to domain account permission and neither you need to go to client's place to add the machine to domain, with Netdom you can easily achieve the purpose. Netdom command Microsoft introduced long back with Windows2003

netdom join /d:zarays.com clu_node_b /userd:zarayspzare_s07 /passwordd:* /usero:administrator /passwordo

Above command is explained.

d: domain name

clu_node_b: Machine name

Userd: who has permission to add machine to domain

usero: who has admin permission on the machine/Workstation

you also have a reboot option , if you use it entire process is automated.

Below mentioned commands are introduced starting WinXP SP2 I guess

systeminfo /S \wkstn1 "c:sysinfo.txt" this command will help you gather information of remote machine,especially the make/Model.Physical Memory and Page file size stuff, which helps you confirm if the machine is configured for dump analysis.

sc \server2 query this is of great help to control services running on remote machine. If it is way behind when you compare it with Sysinternal utilites.

eventquery /L application I don't want to put this command here but Ithought because it is waste of time using this command. So don't use it at all

openfiles /query –s server2 : This command will help you get open files on the remote computer. This is generally require when you user call IT Helpdesk Excel is saying file is locked and owner of the file is the owner(user who call IT Helpdesk). It is of great use in this case. But again sysinternal tools are way ahead of it.

tasklist /s server2 : This is good starting point to get information about what is happening on the remote server. Infact it is quickest way of checking things.

compmgmt.msc /computer=SERVERNAME Run this stuff in RUN Box and you don;t need those redundant clicks. You directly get the management console of remote machine. Infact there is one more way of it, I can't recall it right now.

Sysinternals tools are way beyond these few command line tools mentioned above but these tools are not only handy but also widely accepted by cooporate enivornment by default as approved tools by MS. But as far as sysinternal is considered it won't be case any longer since they are working for Microsoft now. But anyways I would be most happy to share few tips and tricks on Sysinternal tools which I have used and customised it. But Next Time

Technorati Profile

thankS GIVING

2006-11-27T12:04:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I called my friend in India, but not directly. I called UK number from Singapore and it went to UK which was VOIPed to India. But normal person from India cannot call officially from India to anywhere in the India(Most Important) then world(less important) in the same manner. We are way behind implementing best technologies even though we are expert in Administration and Managing the same for other countries.

What so ever. Reason to write a mail is way beyond this. It is To thank you all for being so much helpful. In this busy-ness of life we often forget to say this simple words, with time changing so fast and giving us less oppotunity to talk face - to face

Sunita: Thank you for being making me understand what is true love.
Sangli(Place in Maharashtra): Thank you for giving me the much need recluse when I needed the most.
Swati: Thank you for being helping me out in getting my first job.
Sharat: Thank you for sharing all your great Experience in UK/Malaysia AnnaLaxmi and so many others stories which are still fresh in My Mind. In way you were preparing me for Singapore. But list doesn't end here.It was fortunes of me to have your company.
Shobha: Thank you for helping out in getting hold of right people in Intricate IBM
Shweta: Thank you for smoothing out Pre-joining process in Microsoft
Sheila: Thank you for smoothing out Pre-joining process in Tesco
Srinidhi: If you where had not refer my name to Srikanth, probably I might never have got a call and had you not ask me to be patient I might be India to receive you at Bangalore airport
Srikanth: If you were not to act always on your words, I would never have felt confident enough to come to Singapore,Above all I simply miss Bangalore
Shanti: For finding me better house in Singapore.
Singapore : Thank you for secure/Friendly and beautiful environment.

Above all Shilpa my wife I can't use more better word THANK YOU GOD

There is certainly a pattern in all above mentioned people(who have had played great role in steering me in right direction), they all start with S. Sharat "S" is actually has brought me where I was destined. However it is not beginning or neither it is End, it is just a occasion where I found a opportunity to THANK YOU ALL on THANKS GIVING DAY. With technology now everything possible but getting support/Guidelines/Help will continue to require effort from all of us.

New things learnt

2006-11-16T12:09:00.000+08:00

Cluster Diagnostic Tool

2006-11-04T17:44:00.000+08:00

Hello Guys,

I have been googling for long time to get hold of good guide for cluster diagnostic tool published by MS. I ended up with one link which gives only way how it works but it never tells you what it is does and what are things which you use to make best of it. And what you should never do. That fact that there aren’t clear guidelines on this tool I decided to explore the tool. You certainly can't explore this tool on production enviornment so created a virtual server and set cluster in i t.

CLUSDIAG: can be downloaded from Microsoft site or else if you have resource tool kit installed for windows 2003 then you just need to go to E:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools and double click clusdiag.msi. Shortcut is automatically created for this tool on the desktop.

Doubleclick the shortcut and start working on it. There are two things in this tool, you can read logs of cluster online (live) or offline. Live is pretty clear to understand and offline is nothing but copy cluster log and paste it any directory and then point this tool to pick log file from that location.

Online will be very useful in doing pre-production activities. It gives you disk view and network view. In order to get disk view and network view you will have to run the diagnostic test available under Tools menu or simply press Ctrl+R.

Other useful feature of this tool is that you can bookmark and toggle very easily between bookmarks which gives very clear view of what has happened and will helps you in keeping tab of things. By default filter is applied to these logs. You can remove the filter which is of less use because cluster log file becomes more verbose and it is bit of less use right now. To remove default filter navigate to View -> Filer and clear (Shift+F4)

In the end you can also find error code, for example error code is 0 it means it was success, if the error code was 2 the source file couldn’t be located. In order to carry out this activity, open cluster log file, search for word status and check what is the number infront of it. Select only number (try not to select 0 it doesn’t like it) and go Tools and find win32 error it will give you what will decode the error for you. Here you can try zero. J

Things which are mentioned above are steps which you would certainly like to carry out only on test machine. I hope this log might be of some help to all.

I'm finding ways how can I put images which makes this whole blog more helpful.

When you open Clusdiag 1

When you open Online Log 1

Cluster Log file location 1

Cluster Log file view 1

Log file without filter 1#

Decode Win32 Error 1

If you try to click on Network View or Disk view without running the test you are more likely to get this error.