Lucid Blog

Over the last 12 years I have lead several Active Directory upgrade, migration and installation projects as an Active Directory consultant in Albany, NY - more than I care to count. These projects always start with an Active Directory assessment, followed by a full blown project to upgrade, fix or install Active Directory. But now I just want to teach people how to fish. Until now, we have kept this entire process under wraps, like most consulting companies do. In fact, if you do an exact phrase Google search for the term Active Directory assessemnt, most of page 1 is companies offering to do an assessment for your at a cost. But if you scroll down a bit (as of this writing), you will find this post giving you the tools to do it yourself!

Many infrastructure monitoring services boast about their ability to monitor devices such as Windows servers, end user desktops and even Cisco equipment. These are common devices you will find on any number of networks. However, large enterprise organizations are extemely heterogenous and include devices such as UNIX, AIX, Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Logical Partition devices (LPARs). Any solution worth its name should also have the abiltiy to monitor these devices as well. In this post we will address one of the toughest of the bunch - IBM AIX.

In our previous article on configuring snmp settings using group policy, we focused on the powerful features of Group Policy Preferences. This is by far the simplest and most effective method for configuring SNMP settings as well as a host of other. However, to realize the full benefits of GPP you must run Windows 2008 domain controllers. If you meet this requirement jump to the previous post. For those of you who have not upgraded their domain controllers to Windows 2008, no need to fear. The old method of using custom .adm templates still works.

Well, we hate to answer questions this way but...it all depends. Cloud based solutions are great benefit to companies of all sizes. But if you are the email administrator and that entire system was just moved into the cloud what should you do? Afterall, email support was your core function. Maybe that is exactly the problem. Shouldn't the core function of IT be to support the core business, not baby sit servers and technology?

So imagine this scenario. You have a server that randomly drops off of the network for no apparent reason. I say apparent because there is always a reason. However, we don't always know what it is. Your only option is to visit the data center or server closet to do a cold boot. This is exactly the scenario we walked into at a school.

Not quite. It seems like every time something happens with Google, Microsoft, Amazon and now Sony we get a flurry of "this means the end of the cloud" articles like this latest one from Yahoo and Reuters. However, despite the article's provocative headline here's the money quote:

We recently encountered an issue with a customer attempting to configure SNMP settings across all of their Windows servers. Of course the purpose was to send SNMP trap data to a monitoring station. There are two ways to accomplish this task.

Why the reference to losing your hair? I remember working on a project where one of my responsibilities was to monitor Active Directory account activity. We used an on premise solution designed specifically for monitoring and archiving domain controller security events including account modifications. The SQL backend database was a bear to maintain as I spent more than half of my time on database maintenance. The product produced very useful reports and helpful email alerts but maintaining it proved to be a bit much. We eventually opted to drop the product. 

Active Directory is a powerful directory services platform with a rich feature set. Unfortunately many organizations barely scratch the surface when it comes to utilizing Active Directory techniques that could make system administration much easier. Following are the top 3 neglected techniques that we come across when talking to system administrators and IT managers.

In yet another example of the "the cloud" moving from marketing hype to enterprise solution, the City of San Francisco is upgrading its email system to Microsoft's cloud-based solution. In a recent Cnet.com article the city addressed two key concerns of most enterprises when it comes to cloud based solutions.