GFI MAX Service Provider Tool

I have no data to back this statement up but here goes: every IT has heard of LogMeIn.

I offer an alternative: GFI MAX. http://www.gfimax.com/remote-management

On the advice of himuraken I have been using MAX to support two Windows servers, one Windows desktop and (now in beta) a Debian server. I still have a ton to learn but the initial though it that this service is pretty solid. The main IT user interface is the dashboard which is very intuitive. Similar to LogMeIn Central, the monitored devices are split up in to client groupings. A big advantage of LMI is that all the cost is in the connected server/PC fee. There is no additional cost for the dashboard functionality.

Agent install is straight forward with multiple delivery options. You do have to configure the remote control separately from the monitoring agent.

Much more to come as I dig in to this service. Certainly interested in hearing from anyone that uses this.

– habanero_joe

12/30/12 Update

I am still using this service and I am really enjoying the notification system. Alerting is very easy to configure and can be applied to groups of systems that have similar needs.
The Linux agent is now in general release. Looking forward to getting more clients set up (and paying!) for this tool in 2013.

– habanero_joe

Breath a little life into your Small Business Server

This one seems like an obvious one, but I will post it anyways. Chances are that you have deployed and/or maintain Windows 2003 Small Business Server. Many small businesses purchased SBS during “the good times” of 2003-2008.

Due to the licensing restrictions imposed on the product by Microsoft, these servers are always one boxed. That is to say that they have too many servers and services on the same hardware. Most of these systems are reaching their end of life and are running slower than ever.

These 32bit boxes are usually maxed on RAM (4GB) and are starving for more. Lately I have been auditing the list of installed applications and removing as needed. The memory hog is usually some SQL server running even though it isn’t in use. Take into account Backup Exec, WSUS, SBS Monitoring, and Sharepoint and you begin to see where all that RAM is going. Almost all of my clients have been moved over to a managed services platform which handles Windows Updates and system monitoring. That takes out two standard SQL databases/instances right off the bat.

So the long story short is this: Reevaluate the needs of your aging servers and get more from them by removing obsolete tools.

–Himuraken

Kaseya and Snow Leopard are incompatible (At this point)

This came to me via email and is worth noting if you are a Kaseya user.

–Himuraken

Kaseya Agent & Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Important Notice:

For planning purposes, please be advised that the Kaseya Agent for the Mac OS X is currently incompatible with the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard release. Apple has announced that Snow Leopard will be available on Friday (28-Aug-2009). We have confirmed that Kaseya Agents cannot be successfully deployed to Snow Leopard. In the case where an Agent is installed on a Leopard system, and that system is subsequently upgraded to Snow Leopard, the Agent will be non-functional after the upgrade. We are working on a resolution and will advise when available.

Scripting in Kaseya, silent CCleaner installation.

We recently purchased Kaseya One for MSP’s and I have been engaged in many hours of training and configuring this week. One of the more interesting topics that were covered during the Kaseya Boot Camp training was scripting. Simply put, Kaseya is scripting. Script this, script that, and things that appear to just be menu options, are just dolled up scripts. When I have more time I will try to go into Kaseya and scripting even further.

Anyways, one of the most common things that admins like to install and run regularly is CCleaner. If you live in a cave and don’t use CCleaner, it basically just simplifies temp file, cookie, and etc removal. What many people do not know is that ccleaner.exe, the main executable, can be run simply by copying it to a drive and running it. So if you have the exe on a client drive, just script the program to run.

CCleaner has some documentation here and there regarding scripting and command line execution, but for simplicity sake I thought I would add the ones I use most. The two most common tasks are installing and running CCleaner.

To invoke the ccleaner silent installation, run the setup executable with the /S switch. A direct example would look like this:

ccsetup220.exe /S

*Note* that this switch is case sensitive and /s is not the same as /S.

To run ccleaner silently in the background to run with the default options use the following command from c:\program files\ccleaner\

ccleaner.exe /autoclean

So to create an application package for deployment to agents, just follow the application deployment wizard after uploading the ccsetup file to the VSA Shared Area. Be sure to use the /S for command line parameters when you have the option.

Obviously this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the possibilities available to you via scripting and Kaseya, but it is a simple example.

–Himuraken