PC Manager Meeting

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PC Manager Meeting

• April 27, 2005

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Today

• Updates
• Next Meeting
• Security
• Licenses
• Meeting Maker
• This Month
• Desktop Standardization Project Adam Walters
• Desktop Search Tools Mark Kaletka
• MMS 2005 Jack Schmidt

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Next Meeting

• May 25th
• Securing IE (Joe Klemencic)

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Security

• Mini Security Awareness Day
• May 9th, 9-1230
• Just repeating the 3 courses for ITNA
  requirements
• MS SQL attacks
• Image (next slide) from darknet showing flows
  from attackings coming THROUGH the border router
  and AutoBlocker
• Initially planned to block SQL port but other
  software makes use of that port. Working on
  solution!
• CST actively scanning for SQL vulnerabilities

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Licenses

• MacOS Tiger Maintenance
• The new MacOS X 10.4 'Tiger' release is due out
  April 29th. Apple has
• added 200 features, including some exceeding
  clever search technology
• that makes the Mac, the local area network,
  email, and the Internet look like parts of the
  same search entity.
• We have purchased a second 100 user Apple
  Maintenance Program
• contract, which allows those who participate to
  get Mac OS upgrades for
• the next 3 years for the one-time price of 81.
  There are still about a
• Dozen seats available for anyone who is
  interested. All G5 and G4 users, and most G3
  users can upgrade to 'Tiger' - contact
  licensemgr_at_fnal.gov if you (or those you support)
  are interested in joining in on the AMP
  agreement.

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Meeting Maker 8.51 Upgrade

• Downtime April 29th 430 pm to May 2nd 600 AM
• Getting the word out to users and admins.
• General installs (via startup script)
• Manual Installs (Palm Users), MAC users
• Remembering Usernames and passwords
• Upgrade
• Virtual server consolidation
• New hardware, windows 2003 server
• Client pre-populated with server name
• Groups will be recreated after the upgrade

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Meeting Maker 8.51 Upgrade

• After the Upgrade
• Who to call
• Helpdesk. They will forward the tickets to the DA
  primary
• Password resets
• Account creation
• Resource creation
• Helpful links
• http//www-css.fnal.gov/csi/meetingmaker/Documenta
  tion.htm
• User documentation
• HTML and Native Client help documentation
• Install guides
• FAQs coming soon

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Main Topic

• Desktop Standardization Project
• Adam Walters

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Business Case

• Improve support efficiency
• Increase level of security
• Enhance usefulness of tools
• Improve the user experience
• Reduce user downtime
• Better understand what is supported
• Get ahead of the support curve

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Project Statement

• Migrate systems to standard image
• Microsoft Windows XP-SP2/Office 2003
• Specific set of core apps
• Remove VNC, Citrix, Timbuktu
• Computer Security
• MS critical patches/SAV 9.0.3
• Install PatchLink client (future SMS)
• Verify PSM in SysAdmindb - Clusters
• Tools
• Verify PL, AD and MISCOMP concur
• Verify accuracy of asset user information

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Proposal Execution

• Negotiate an agreement with a vendor who already
  has an on-site presence. Save on administrative
  overhead.
• The vendor is providing a Windows IT engineer
  on-site for 3 months to complete a well defined
  project.
• Goals, Deliverables, Timelines spelled out in
  very specific detail. Developed a written script
  for the engineer. No project creep.
• ESH complete, LSS 50 done, CD next.
• Expect to be done June.

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Lessons Learned

• 7-10 day start up learning curve.
• Older systems take about 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs to
  complete depending on the processor and memory.
  Newer systems 30 - 40 minutes.
• Hoped to leverage remote management tools,
  settled for visits to each desktop.
• Averaging about 30-35 systems/week.
• Have deferred vendor OS upgrades so far.
• Use our people as liaisons with users.
• Keep the process efficient.

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Success Marketing

• Contract administration and infrastructure is
  already in place.
• The vendor is interested in additional business
  in other parts of the laboratory.
• Their IT engineer is familiar with the Laboratory
  and the project deliverables.
• Available in June.
• Contact me if are questions about this project
  awalters_at_fnal.gov.

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Main Topic

• Desktop Search Tools
• Mark Kaletka

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Motivation

• 35,000 computer security emails in Outlook
  which sometimes have to be searched for a
  particular user or machine or incidents history.
• MOUs and SLAs with various organizations that
  were last updated three (or more) years ago.
• A complex system of filing and archiving
  documents and emails.
• Documents on local desktop, on Windows and AFS
  shares, and on encrypted volumes.

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Solution Desktop Search Tools

• Recently, tools are available to index and search
  Outlook emails and files on the desktop or on
  servers.
• Searching an index is much quicker than using
  Outlooks find or Explorers search.

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Evaluated Betas of

• Google Desktop Search
• Lookout
• Copernic Desktop Search
• MSN Desktop Search

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Commonalities

• All of these allow you to
• Index and search Outlook emails
• Index and search documents on your desktop
• Specify folders to index
• Use some syntax to limit/refine your searches
• Index in the background automatically pause
  indexing
• Warning indexing in any of these is very
  resource-intensive and take hours hours the
  first time (allow overnight at least) uses lots
  of disk space
• Also support index on the fly when documents or
  email are opened
• Note All require Outlook running to build
  Outlook index
• (More about Outlook indexing later.)
• Have privacy concerns?

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Google Desktop Search

• Pros
• Familiar Google look feel
• Familiar Google search syntax
• Indexes many file types, including PDFs
• Works with Thunderbird, Firefox
• Plugins available
• Indexes searches browser history favorites
• Cons
• Familiar Google look feel
• Didnt find Outlook emails to index
• Limited control on indexing files
• Especially on shares
• Get it from
• http//desktop.google.com/

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Lookout

• Pros
• Really fast!
• Good search syntax
• Works extremely well with Outlook
• Searches contacts tasks as well as email
• Good control over selecting folders to index
• Works on shares
• Cons
• Dead product (purchased by MS)
• Limited support for document types
• Limited extensibility
• Get it from
• http//www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/faq/faq.html

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Copernic Desktop Search

• Pros
• Best user interface
• Not Microsoft or Google ?
• Better file type support than Lookout
• Indexes searches browser history favorites
• Works with Thunderbird
• Works with IE, Mozilla, Firefox
• Cons
• Screws up Outlook headers ?
• But not permanently
• But in a highly annoying way
• Where to get it
• http//www.copernic.com/

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MSN Desktop Search

• Pros
• Too early to tell
• Lookout heritage is good
• Supports a good variety of file types
• Supports plugin filters
• Supposedly open http//www.ifilter.org/
• Cons
• MSN name ?
• Comes with MSN Toolbar Suite
• Only works with Outlook Outlook Express
• Probably only works (well) with IE
• Where to get it
• http//toolbar.msn.com/

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Indexing IMAP Using Outlook

• IMAP messages must be locally cached to get
  indexed properly
• For each folder, set
• Tools gt Send/Receive gt Send/Receive
  Settings gt Make This Folder Available Offline
• Or,
• Tools gt Send/Receive gt Send/Receive
  Settings gt Define Send/Receive Groups
• Highlight (your IMAP account name) gt Edit
• Right click the IMAP root folder gt Check All
  Subfolders
• Highlight any IMAP folder gt Download complete
  item including attachments
• Right click the folder gt Apply options to all
  checked folders
• This could use a lot of local disk space (as much
  as your IMAP quota)
• This could slow down your mail download (although
  not by much after the first download)

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Conclusions

• Copernic would be a winner if it didnt cause
  Outlook problems.
• Lookout works great but is a dead end.
• I dont like the Google look feel for searching
  (large numbers) of emails despite using it all
  the time on the web.
• Im trying out MSN at home but will stick with
  Lookout at work, for now.

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Live Demo
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Main Topic

• MMS 2005 (Microsoft Management Summit)
• Jack Schmidt

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MMS 2005

• Held yearly in Spring
• Several tracks
• Microsoft IT Solutions
• Microsoft Operations Manager
• Sponsor Sessions/Vendor Expo
• Systems Management Server
• System Center
• Virtual Server 2005
• Windows Management Technologies

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MMS 2005

• Keynotes
• DSI In Action
• Reducing Your TCO
• How Microsoft Manages IT
• Keynote Highlights
• Microsoft is dedicated to System Management in
  the Enterprise
• DSI Dynamic Systems Initiative
• WS-Management Web Services
• One place to get patches!
• Interact with other OS

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MMS 2005

• Hands On Labs
• Instructor Led
• Self-paced
• Unsupervised

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MMS 2005

• Talks and labs at
• https//plone3.fnal.gov/WinPol/ou-management/MMS2
  005/
• My favorites
• New command line scripting tool Monad
• MOM 2005 lab
• SMS Hitmen
• Web Services Hardware Management