Being a linux guy, I’d suggest you install linux. Ubuntu is a very nice OS with a pretty window manager and with office suite and most other needed tools by default. You can surf the internet, check email, type papers and even play some games. You never have to worry about viruses, most malware, or ever need to defrag. If you are a die hard Windows user, or, more likely, just too scared to give linux a try then here are some things to make windows bearable.
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Category: Windows
If you are stuck using ntbackup as your only backup software. There is still hope. As much as ntbackup sucks, with the proper commands ntbackup can actually behave well. With some work you can create a decent backup script and schedule it with schtasks or at. And with added programs like blat, you can even have the script email you like the expensive stuff.
Note: you should allways verify your backups and don’t trust any backup automation 100%. With ntbackup I’ve noticed that if it hits a bad hard drive sector or other file system or permission problem then the program will just crash outright. It would be nice if ntbackup would report the bad sector or file and then skip the bad file and try the next one.
Note: I have seen situations where the domain admin can’t run backups scheduled as a task. I usually create a backupadmin account and verify it is a member of the backup operators.
Here is a sample full backup script.
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
@ECHO OFF
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** SETUP Variables ****
REM **** and prepare for email ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************ECHO Start %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time1=%date%, %time%
set BKTARGET=\\UNC\d$\PATH\TO\YOUR\DATA
set BKUPNAME=BK.Full_YourBackupFilename.bkf
set Sender=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Receiver=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Host=youremailserver
set ScriptName=%~nx0
set Subject=%computername% %ScriptName%
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word data
set folder=%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\dataREM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Doing the backup ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
net start vss
ntbackup backup %BKTARGET% /j “%BKUPNAME%” /f Y:\%BKUPNAME% /V:yes
ntbackup backup systemstate /j “SystemState_%BKUPNAME%” /f “Y:\SystemState_%BKUPNAME%”REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Email the Log files ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Stop %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time2=%date%, %time%
NT\NTBackup\data
ECHO Exec-time %time1% to %time2% > “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
ECHO . >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM NOTE: E: (below) represents your backup drive if connected locally
vol e: >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
DIR Y:\%BKUPNAME% | FINDSTR %BKUPNAME% >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word %subject%”
blat.exe -bodyF “%temp%\email.txt” -to %Receiver% -f %Sender% -server %Host% -subject “%Subject%”
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
DEL /Q “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
Here is a sample differential backup script.
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
@ECHO OFF
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** SETUP Variables ****
REM **** and prepare for email ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Start %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time1=%date%, %time%
set BKTARGET=\\UNC\d$\PATH\TO\YOUR\DATA
set BKUPNAME=BK.Diff_YourBackupFilename.bkf
set Sender=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Receiver=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Host=youremailserver
set ScriptName=%~nx0
set Subject=%computername% %ScriptName%
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word data
set folder=%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\dataREM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Doing the backup ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
net start vss
REM Warning, beware of word wrapping on the next 3 lines
ntbackup backup %BKTARGET% /j “%BKUPNAME%” /f Y:\%BKUPNAME% /M differential /V:yes
ntbackup backup systemstate /j “SystemState_%BKUPNAME%” /f “Y:\SystemState_%BKUPNAME%”
REM the following line is for exchange servers
ntbackup backup IS \%computername% DS \%computername% /v:yes /j “Exchange_%BKUPNAME%” /D “Exchange_%BKUPNAME%” /f %Destination%\Exchange_%BKUPNAME%REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ****
REM **** Email notifications
REM ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Stop %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time2=%date%, %time%REM ### EMAIL BODY
ECHO Exec-time %time1% to %time2% > “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
ECHO ————– >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM NOTE: E: (below) represents your backup drive if connected locally
vol e: >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
DIR Y:\%BKUPNAME% | FINDSTR %BKUPNAME% >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM ### END EMAIL BODY
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word %subject%”
blat.exe -bodyF “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt” -to %Receiver% -f %Sender% -server %Host% -subject “%Subject%”
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
DEL /Q “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
I looked at MS and other solutions for a way to save on the power bills and to get the computers to shut down at night. I couldn’t find anything that could fulfill my needs. Using AutoIT I wrote a Shutdown program. I called it ShutITdown.exe.
My Needs
What I did not want to do is shutdown the computer on someone who is actively working and cause them to loose their work. I wanted to give them a sufficient warning and a chance to cancel the shutdown. I wanted the Deployment, and the shutdown time, to be centrally managed. I wanted the computers to shut down instead of hibernate or suspend so a new GPO or other update would only be a day’s power on away.
We use a lot of imaging using Altiris Deployment Solutions. Apparently computers do not report to the WSUS console as computer name, but some other special identifier. And imaging just copies this identifier. The symptom was that one computer would show up in the console, and then vanish and replaced by another. And then vanish and re replace by another. The script below runs as a start up GPO and fixes the imaging issue as well as a other issues with windows update and WSUS. The script looks for errors in the update logs and if finding them performs corrective measures. Remember, be sure to test it thoroughly in your environment before moving it into production.