Written by Clifford
Unlike Linux, which belongs to everyone, Windows belongs to Microsoft.
It is not an open operating system.
So most of the tools the system administrators need are built by Microsoft.
Here we look at some of the most important tools for the Windows system administrator.
The Performance Monitor is rather more complicated to master, as it does so much.
Many people run performance tools as a reflex without really understanding what they are looking at.
So dont do that!
Windows Remote Server Administration Tools
This tool allows you to manage roles and features on remote servers.
Windows Power Shell
With Windows, most people are comfortable using menus, i.e., graphic screens.
But its also worth taking time to learn how to use the commands available in the Windows Power Shell.
The Power Shell has been included in Windows for some years now, but not every administrator uses it.
Most havent learned it but thats a shame as it can be a full-blown programming language if you want.
Or it can do simpler tasks with one command.
One thing the Windows Power Shell does especially well is provide Unix-like commands to the administrator.
For example, it provides thelscommand, just like Linux.
Ls is an alias for the Power Shell command Get-ChildItem.
Select-String is the UNIX equivalent of grep, except that it can also read the contents of files.
The command below searches the current folder for any file that includes the string targetType.
The string can be a regular expression or an ordinary string.
Windows Power Shell Troubleshooting Pack
The Windows power shell commands are calledcmdlets.
Thecmdletsare specific to the systems administrator in the TroubleshootingPack module.
This should be part of any system administrators toolkit to use as a means of auditing machines.
Examples of this include Adobe update and many of the other update tools that vendors install without telling you.
WireShark
Wireshark is a packet sniffer tool.
But you might plug in a laptop to a router and see all traffic on the online grid.
This is good for troubleshooting system issues.
Hyper-V
Microsoft invented virtual machines and then VMware took over the market.
So most people use VMware Workstation.
But you have to pay for it.
Hyper-V is included with Windows 2008 and Windows 2012.
Other than that you’re able to use Oracle Virtual Box for free.
Here is how to enable Hyper-V on Windows 2012:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846766.aspx.
Windows Snare
Snare is a tool that outputs Windows event logs to a syslog server.
Why is this important?
Most intrusion detection and other logging systems process logs in syslog format, which is a UNIX format.
Syslog is not a file, but a pipe.
Windows Process Monitor
The Windows Process Monitor is another tool from Microsoft.
It looks at each step of a running program, so it generates millions of events per minute.
it’s possible for you to download it fromhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx.
This screen shows what .dlls the program is loading and into which memory addresses.
GFI Languard
GFI Languard is not a free product.
It is, however, one of the better vulnerability and patch management tools.
It also provides auditing tools.
Youd characterize it as a system management and security tool.
It scans for security patches and installs those that are absent.
you’re free to use it to push out software.
Windows Reliability Monitor
The Windows Reliability Monitor is included in Windows 2008 and later versions of Windows.
The red Xs in the screen show below show critical operating system events.
you could punch the X to get detailed information drawn from the Windows event log.
To run it bang out reliability in the Start menu.
Access is an easy-to-use powerful database that Microsoft used to bundle with Microsoft Office.
But it is not included anymore, probably because people werent much interested in learning it.
Instead they learned how to make Pivot Tables in Excel.
What makes Access so powerful, is its ability to import data and run SQL commands against that.
You do not need to know SQL as there is a wizard to guide you.
Some Visual Basic programs can be run from the Windows command program using Cscript, as shown below.
