More suggestions for changes to SBS 2003

Last night at the Glasgow Partner Group meeting the following additional changes were requested to SBS - what do you think?

1. Offering a version of the ConnectComputer script that removed the user from local admin once they were logged into the system
2. Adding checks to the default login.bat file so that if the user was not a local admin if failed graciously

What do you think, and are there any more requests like this?

 

ttfn

David

While I am aware of a script that can rename a computer, I would like to be able to rename a desktop from  MMC.

Why would I want to change the name? Because people want a computer to be named after them, but often they move around an office (aint roaming profiles great). I am then 'asked' to change the computer name so that people can see x, y or z's pc on the network.

I'm not sure I understand.  Do you want the capability to remotely change the name of someone's PC?

 

thanks

 

David

Yep. (bet your going to tell me its already there and I have been having a blonde moment)

not a mmc, but download the XP SP2 support tools and look at the NETDOM command (by running it) - it now has a RENAMECOMPUTER option:

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>netdom renamecomputer
The syntax of this command is:
NETDOM RENAMECOMPUTER machine /NewName:new-name
           /UserD:user [/PasswordD:[password | *]]
           [/UserO:user [/PasswordO:[password | *]]]
           [/Force]
           [/REBoot[:Time in seconds]]

NETDOM RENAMECOMPUTER renames a computer that is joined to a domain. The
computer object in the domain is also renamed. Certain services, such as the
Certificate Authority, rely on a fixed machine name. If any services of this
type are running on the target computer, then a computer name change would
have an adverse impact.

machine is the name of the workstation, member server, or domain controller
to be renamed

/NewName        Specifies the new name for the computer. Both the DNS host
                label and the NetBIOS name are changed to new-name. If
                new-name is longer than 15 characters, the NetBIOS name is
                derived from the first 15 characters

/UserD          User account used to make the connection with the domain
                to which the computer is joined. This is a required parameter.
                The domain can be specified as "/ud:domain\user". If domain is
                omitted, then the computer's domain is assumed.

/PasswordD      Password of the user account specified by /UserD. A * means
                to prompt for the password

/UserO          User account used to make the connection with the machine to
                be renamed. If omitted, then the currently logged on user's
                account is used. The user's domain can be specified as
                "/uo:domain\user". If domain is omitted, then a local computer
                account is assumed.

/PasswordO      Password of the user account specified by /UserO. A * means
                to prompt for the password

/Force          As noted above, this command can adversely affect some services
                running on the computer. The user will be prompted for
                confirmation unless the /FORCE switch is specified.

/REBoot         Specifies that the machine should be shutdown and automatically
                rebooted after the Rename has completed. The number of seconds
                before automatic shutdown can also be provided. Default is
                30 seconds

 

Hope this helps for now :-)

 

ttfn

 

David

I have been messing around with this very command line,  hence it would be nice to incorporate this function into future SBS boxes.

Another suggestion...

Scenario:
Monday morning and there's a dying server 200 miles away. Very important client with an SBS2003 sever thats taking 50 minutes to get to the logon screen and an office full of staff just itching to work. Fortunately I have someone within the clients area that can be onsite and help get the system running.

Suggestion:
1. What would have been useful is the ability to do a shadow restore of the entire OS from the F8 screen, thus rather than trying to fix a limping server, we can simply restart the server into a known good working snapshot.

2. Can there be an ability that a server that is having problems, (but not related to hardware issues) have a limp mode (not safe mode). What I am thinking is that there's the full blown running OS version, and an emergency mode based on the settings / configuration of the (once) healthy server, so that if the server is unable to start / run normally it goes into limp mode so that to the end user everything is working correctly as if nothing has changed, yet gives an engineer time to get onsite and wait until there's a better time to fix the 'broken' server version.

I am aware of the need to have backups etc, but these are to help get the system up and running faster.

Terry

ps, still not sure we have cured the dying server, but DNS, DHCP, ISA, IIS, Exchange & SQL all failed. both NICs had somehow been disabled, and error 4312 in AD. Oddly,turning on everything and a restart seems to have fixed it!!