“When a user logs on to a machine in our
domain, a Visual Basic logon script creates
a new row in an Access database table, containing
the username, computer name, and date/time of the logon. The script also creates a
unique environment variable (the row number
from the database table), which is stored on the
local computer during that user’s logon session.
When the user logs off, a VBScript logoff script
runs and, using the environment variable to
look up the appropriate row in the database
table, appends the logoff date/time for that
user. The result is a single row (containing
username, computer name, logon date/time,
and logoff date/time) for every logon session
that occurs in our domain.”
With the logon information now housed in
the database, Brandon
can develop
queries to specifically
pull out needed information
as requested.
Information that can
be drawn from the
database includes
logon and logoff
times and session
duration keyed by
username. Using this
information, Brandon
has been able
to provide faculty, at
their request, with
information about
student activity. “A
professor suspected
that one of his students
never showed
up for an exam in a
computer lab, even
though the student
insisted he had,” says
Brandon. “My solution
not only confirmed
that the student had logged on in the lab
during the exam, but also told us the computer
he used and how long he was logged on.”
Brandon reports that the logon-tracking
solution has been working effectively since
implementation and that it also has had an
unexpected side benefit: contributing to the
arrest of a car thief. Thanks to Brandon’s logontracking
system, the university can provide timely information to authorities when needed.
“Last semester, information obtained from my
solution helped police apprehend an individual
who had stolen computers from one of
our labs,” says Brandon. “More recently, police
arrested a car thief—who had logged on to one
of our computers before taking someone’s car
keys—just hours after we provided them with
information acquired from my solution.”
To download Brandon’s detailed explanation
of his solution, go to www.windowsitpro.com,
InstantDoc ID 97204, and click the Download
the Code button.
Hands-Free, Large-Scale
Software Deployment
Tim Manley oversees IT operations for a large
overseas US Department of Defense installation.
Until recently, Manley’s IT staff spent an excessive
amount of time keeping hundreds of computers
at numerous remote sites updated. “Our
legacy OS build was image based and required
numerous man-hours to build or rebuild a PC,”
says Tim. “We had different images for each of
our different makes and models—Windows
2000 ghost images that were sent out from headquarters,
over a slow WAN link. Our guys might
waste a whole day trying to find what image
was supposed to go on which type of hardware.”
Compounding the problem was the fact that
the upgrade process required a lot of manual
tweaking and that systems frequently crashed
because of outdated hardware.
Tim’s challenge was to seamlessly automate
the upgrade process so
that his organization’s
planned migration
to Windows XP and
future upgrades could
be done much more
quickly and with minimal
manual intervention.
“I had just come
on board, and my
supervisor said, hey,
we’ve got to automate
this. The methodology
we’re using is so
outdated and difficult
to maintain, we
need to look at other
options.” Because of
tight security requirements,
Tim’s options
for doing large-scale software upgrades were
limited. “Basically, the only tool that I could
find that would work in our environment was
Remote Installation Services,” he says.
In less than a month, Tim developed a
scripted RIS build process that he says enables
“100 percent automated and hands-free OS and
core application deployment.” The build process
is initiated on RIS servers at the organization’s
two main sites where IT staff rebuild machines;
a build is replicated from one site to another to
ensure an optimum transmission of the build
over the WAN link.
When an IT staffer is preparing to replace
a computer, he runs a premigration VBScript
script to obtain configuration details about
the computer to be replaced, such as what
applications are installed, the computer’s
name, and its IP address. Finally, a postmigration
script, which is part of the RIS
automated installation, enables a variety of
settings to ensure that the PC complies with
government security requirements and other
organization standards, such as the desktop
background image and screen saver. “These
are all settings that we couldn’t do via Group
Policy and didn’t want to do manually,” Tim
says. “The goal was for the desktop guys to
be able to hit the button and walk off. When
they come back, they’ve got a complete OS
build, and the user can then log on and use
all their basic applications. Furthermore,
since users’ data is redirected to the user
home drive via Group Policy, there’s no data
to migrate, and PCs can be rebuilt on the fly
and swapped out without any loss of data or
downtime to the user.”
Tim’s solution has made the upgrade process
virtually painless for IT staff and much
faster than before. “We’ve reduced migration
time by 70 percent,” says Tim. “Now it takes less
than two hours from end to end to build a PC.”
Since completing the mass XP upgrade, IT staff
have found additional uses for the automated
build process. “About once a month we have
to replace a machine, so we use the automated
process for that,” Tim says. Another key use is
to slipstream software updates, such as service
packs, applications, or new drivers, into a
build, so that the update will be automatically
included in future PC upgrades. “If we were
still using an image-based upgrade process,
the image might not be able to support the
new hardware drivers. With RIS, we can just
download and copy the drivers to the share, to
immediately support new hardware.”
Runners up
Intranet Portal Makeover
When he worked at Capitol Federal Savings,
Ryan Rackley—now a senior local network
administrator for ISG Technology—was spending
an inordinate amount of time and money
nursing a proprietary and crash-prone corporate
intranet portal. Finally, he decided it was
time for a change.
“The biggest problem was just how complex
the system was,”
explains Ryan. “The
portal application
required software to
be installed on each
of our clients, as well
as the server piece
… there were multiple
points of failure
in the system, and it
was frequently down
for days at a time.”
Ryan’s headaches
were amplified by
inadequate support
from the original
developer of the system
and an expensive
service contract
that was stretching
department budgets. The time was right to
make a switch, and Ryan decided that a better
solution could be developed internally.
Ryan didn’t have time to try a new standalone
application, and the budget didn’t allow
for new servers or a new Microsoft SharePoint
Portal Server installation. “We also wanted to
keep the look and feel of our new solution as
close as possible to the existing one,” say Ryan.
“We didn’t want to confuse our users, so that
consistency was important to us.”
A small team of IT staffers began development
of the new portal, which centered on
using an open HTML format dedicating a
file server to house company documents and
other files accessed through the portal. Ryan’s
team eventually employed Adobe Dreamweaver
to create the portal site, resulting in
a more reliable solution that could be edited
with off-the-shelf HTML editing tools. The new
solution was created and deployed in a sixweek
timeframe and has since helped Capitol
Federal realize substantial cost savings in its IT
department budget.
“Our system uptime reached 100 percent
after we switched, mainly due to the simplicity
of the solution,” says Ryan. Using Windows
integrated security with AD eliminated the need
for users to have multiple passwords, contributing
to a 94 percent reduction in portal support
calls when compared with the previous system.
Ryan explains that for those reasons (and many
more), the old system wasn’t missed.
“We had used that system for more than
two and a half years,” says Ryan. “We had a big
party when we unplugged that thing!”
Prev. page
1
[2]
3
next page 
