NT Services
For accessing and remotely managing services in which granular security isn't a concern, Backbone Software's NT Services offers nearly all its competitors' features for a fraction of the price. For $69, you can remotely manage services, processes, IIS Web sites, and Terminal Services sessions; view event logs and computer information; and back up IIS settings. In fact, NT Services' management features are equal or superior to those of other products that cost thousands of dollars.
NT Services' focal points are an IIS Web site and a COM+ application (which you have to manually configure, but the instructions are easy to follow). The Web server displays different pages depending on the version of Web client that you use: a small version designed for Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) or a standard version viewable from any Web browser. You don't need a proprietary Pocket PC client.
The included tools give you an overview of a particular function, then let you drill down for more detailed information. For example, click the IIS Sites link that Figure 6 shows, then you can start and stop the service or drill into the site to check permissions and other site settings. You can view information about the processor, memory, network adapters, drive, and installed service packs and patches for any remote computer system that NT Services can access. The software doesn't offer user or group management or a command shell, SSH, or Telnet for executing arbitrary commands.
You have to configure IIS security to protect access to an IIS Web site. By default, the NT Services management Web site is open to anonymous users and isn't encrypted. To manage systems across a domain, NT Services recommends configuring a dedicated account with domain administrator privileges and using that account to execute commands. Larger organizations might shy away from this product in favor of one that supports individual account permissions, but small companies might not mind this shared access.
Expand Beyond Mobile Suite for Microsoft
Expand Beyond Mobile Suite for Microsoft includes three applications: PocketAdmin for Windows, PocketAdmin Console, and PocketDBA. These applications provide a cross-platform remote management solution that supports Windows, database, and SSH/Telnet platforms. The PocketAdmin architecture consists of a client/server installation that includes a mobile client, an Apache Software Foundation Jakarta Tomcat–powered XBanywhere server, and a Windows gateway. You can use the PocketAdmin Console client to connect to an SSH or Telnet server, or you can use the Expand Beyond Mobile Suite to manage your Windows or database systems. Mobile clients connect to the XBanywhere server, which runs on Sun Microsystems Solaris 8 or later; Red Hat Linux 7.3 or later; or Windows Server 2003, Win2K, or Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a (SP6a). The XBanywhere server then connects to a Windows gateway, which communicates directly with the managed servers. You need only one XBanywhere server, but Expand Beyond recommends that you install a Windows gateway in every forest that you want to manage. The Windows gateway requires the Framework and uses IIS.
The PocketAdmin for Windows client provides an AD view of your environment. First, you specify the domain and a computer (by drilling through organizational units—OUs), then select management functions including user and group management, event-log viewing, processes, and services. In contrast to the software's colorful computer-management icons, data is presented in text-based tables, as Figure 7 shows, and isn't quite as clean-looking as the data displays of tools that use proprietary clients.
Well suited to organizations that have many servers, the AD-centric UI provides hierarchical navigation, which makes locating objects in a large list easy, assuming you know where they reside in AD. The program effectively uses a "bread-crumbs" approach to mark your location in the hierarchy, so backtracking through multiple levels is easy.
The software also features a robust shell that leverages an independently installed SSH server. You can use the separate PocketAdmin Console client as a full SSH shell, or you can execute short commands directly from the PocketAdmin for Windows Web client.
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