The Lonely Administrator

I’ve been looking at the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 a lot lately. One very nice part of FSRM is the ability to schedule typical file management tasks. One of the examples from the Microsoft storage team is to create a custom task to move old files to another [...]

I had a great time in Orlando at the TechMentor conference. The crowd was enthusiastic and asked good questions. As promised, here are my slide decks and demos. My sessions tend to be heavy on demonstration so I can’t promise you’ll get a ton of value from the decks alone.  You’ll simply have to attend [...]

A new whitepaper I wrote for Quest Software has finally made it’s public appearance: PowerShell in the Enterprise: Best Practices and Recommendations. The paper discusses some best practices for using PowerShell in an enterprise environment. Essentially, getting the most from your PowerShell “investment”, especially when you might have multiple PowerShell-based administrators. Although certainly the suggestions [...]

You have probably heard the story (or legend) about Pablo Picasso and his napkin drawing. A guy goes up to Picasso in a cafe and asks for an autograph or something. Picasso sketches out something in a minute or so. He turns to the guy and says, “That will be $10,000".”  The guy is [...]

I’ve recently started using the Server Core option for my test servers, especially for things like domain controllers. I can get by with smaller disk and memory requirements. Once you get the server configured, there’s very little you have to do that actually requires logging on to the server. Which is good because all you [...]

I just finished reading a terrific essay (or short book) on the nature of operating systems and how we interact with them. The book is In the Beginning…was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson. The book was written about 10 years ago so some of the material might seem a little dated. But for those [...]

Last week I was interviewed on the Mind of Root podcast about what administrators can do to promote PowerShell and automation in their environments. The show is now available for streaming or download. I still think your best approach is to gently let everyone know that it’s not a matter of if you will use [...]