Five Useful Open Source Tools for Windows Systems Administrators

Much of the work that Windows systems administrators do is tedious, repetitive, boring and time consuming. Thankfully, there are open source tools available that can greatly assist them in these mundane tasks. A selection of these tools is discussed in th

Anyone trying to install new software on a Windows desktop or laptop, by clicking on the .exe file, often gets a new window asking whether it should be Run as Administrator. Often, you click on ‘Yes’ and go ahead with the installation. But have you ever wondered who that administrator actually is and what role a Windows sys admin plays? If you haven’t given it a thought, then there is much you need to learn about.

Windows systems administrators take care of the configuration and reliable functioning of Windows computer systems or servers. They not only create user accounts, run Defrag once in a while or clear out caches to make sure there aren’t any viruses, but also ensure that the performance, resources, uptime and security of the Windows system meets the user’s needs without exceeding budget limits. They can troubleshoot, acquire, install or even upgrade different Windows components, train or supervise staff and provide routine automation in order to meet the needs of different users.

Let’s have a look at the various significant responsibilities that a Windows sys admin assumes:

1. Monitoring and maintaining the performance of the

Windows system 2. Setting up and maintaining Windows user accounts 3. Creating different file systems

4. Monitoring Windows network communication

5. Software installation

6. Updating the system as soon as a new version of Windows comes out

7. Framing the backup creation and recover policy 8. Implementing different policies for the use of the network and computer system

9. Setting up security policies for users

10. Managing Windows passwords and identity

How open source tools can aid Windows sys admins

Most of us want to avoid various manual tasks as much as possible by making tools do these tasks for us. Similarly, Windows sys admins try to use various tools to perform different sets of actions, which help them to get these tasks done faster, with greater accuracy and fewer errors. At the same time, sys admins cannot be dependent only on tools for all their tasks, as there are certain actions that need their intervention. Open source tools can assist Windows sys admins in a range of tasks, some of which are listed below.

Creating new users: According to Microsoft, there are more than 200 million users accessing Windows all across the globe; so we can’t even imagine sys admins creating accounts for all new users manually. Hence, this task is taken care of by using shell scripts.

Locking/unlocking user accounts or resetting user passwords: Just as it’s difficult to create any new user account, it also becomes impossible to either lock or unlock any user’s account manually, as and when required. It is not feasible to even reset any user’s password manually as there may be millions of such users requesting for these activities. Therefore, all such activities are carried out with the help of various available open source tools.

Network troubleshooting: This activity requires a lot of hands-on experience and training, but open source tools (like Wireshark) can help ease traffic analysis with the number of powerful features that they come with.

Creating backups for Windows based systems: It becomes quite painful for administrators to create backups for Windows based systems. An open source tool named AMANDA (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) helps Windows sys admins set up a single master backup server, which can support both Windows desktops and other servers present over the Windows network.

Locating all devices connected to the network: A Windows sys admin must locate all the tools that connect to the network and also the various pieces of hardware that have been installed on the system. OCS Inventory Tool or Zenmap help to do this quite easily and fast.

Defragmenting different system files and registry archives: In order to ensure improvements in the performance of Windows systems, it’s very important to defrag different system files, paging files and registry archives. This can be easily done using an open source tool called UltraDefrag.

Managing service upgrade schedules: A Windows sys admin has to manage different service upgrade schedules on a system and monitor the service uptime. An open source tool called Nmap is quite handy in carrying out this activity without much manual intervention.