Ganesh Ghube

Top 10 Server 2008 Tasks done with PowerShell

2011-11-30T22:11:00.001-08:00

Petri IT Knowledgebase

Top 10 Server 2008 Tasks done with PowerShell – Part 1

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:43 AM PST

Introduction

There are lots of server tasks in Windows Server 2008 that can be done much faster with Windows PowerShell than with a GUI. What you'll find in this article series are ten common server tasks all done on PowerShell.

In this two part mini-series you'll learn how to:

Change the local administrator password with PowerShell
Restart or shutdown a server with PowerShell
Restart a service with PowerShell
Terminate a process with PowerShell
Create a disk utilization report with PowerShell
Get 10 most recent event log errors with PowerShell
Reset access control on a folder with PowerShell
Get a server's uptime with PowerShell
Get service pack information with PowerShell
Delete old files with PowerShell

In today's article we'll start with tasks one through five; in Part 2 in this series we'll continue with tasks six through ten.

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1. Changing the local administrator password with PowerShell

Let's assume you're logged in as a domain administrator on a Windows 7 desktop that belongs to your domain. Now, let's say you want to change the local admin password on a remote server in Chicago named CHI-WIN7-22. After an account password is used for some time, the chances of it getting exposed gets higher. That's why you need to change your passwords from time to time.

The first thing to do to change the admin password in question is to create an ADSI object for the local administrator on that computer. That can be achieved by typing this in your PowerShell screen:

[ADSI]$Admin="WinNT://CHI-WIN7-22/Administrator"

This will essentially retrieve the admin account on CHI-WIN7-22 and assign it to an ADSI object named $Admin. The WinNT monicker in that string is case-sensitive and is a common source of error, so take note of that. If you want to connect to another computer, just replace CHI-WIN7-22 with the name of the computer you want to connect to.

Naturally, you'll want to know first how long the password has been in use to determine whether or not the time has come to change it. You can obtain that information from $Admin by typing in:

$Admin.PasswordAge

That will display the time elapsed since the password of that account was last changed. However, since the resulting value is expressed in seconds, I normally divide it by 86,400, which is the number of seconds in a day:

$Admin.PasswordAge.Value/86400

The result will then be the same time elapsed but expressed in days, which I find more meaningful. If you notice, we used the Value property here. That's because the PasswordAge is actually stored as a collection, and so we need the value of that collection in order to return a number that we can perform a division operation on.

Finally, you can change the password by invoking the SetPassword method and then using the new password as the argument. For example, if you want the new password to be S3cre+WOrd, then type:

$Admin.SetPassword("S3cre+WOrd")

Note: After you hit enter, don't expect any confirmation message because there won't be any. Changes will take effect immediately. That's because what we're using here is a method, not a cmdlet. Which means, unlike with cmdlets, SetPassword has no support for a -whatif or a -confirm.

That's all there is to it. Let me now show you the steps we've discussed here in theory on an actual PowerShell:

2. Restarting or shutting down a server with PowerShell

Let's now move on to the task of restarting or shutting down a server using PowerShell. Just like the first task, we're still going to assume you're logged in as a domain administrator on a Windows 7 machine that belongs to your domain.

For these tasks, we'll be using a couple of WMI-based cmdlets, Restart-Computer and Stop-Computer. Although we won't be showing them here, it's worth mentioning that these cmdlets accept alternate credentials. Alternate credentials allow you to specify a user account other than the one you are already logged into so that you can perform actions that that (alternate) account has permissions for.

Another thing that's nice about these cmdlets is that you'll be able to make use of -whatif and -confirm. That means, if you want to do a restart or a shutdown, you'll have a way of making sure you'll be doing it on the computer you intend to do it on. This can come in handy if you want to perform restarts or shutdowns on a number of computers. You can just pipe a list or group of computers to these cmdlets.

To restart a remote computer or computers, the basic syntax is:

Restart-Computer -ComputerName <string[ ]>,

wherein -ComputerName <string[ ]> is a string array that can be comprised of the name of a single computer or the names of multiple computers. Stop-Computer uses practically the same syntax. So for example, if you want to restart two computers named CHI-DC02 and CHI-FP01, the command would be:

Restart-Computer "CHI-DC02", "CHI-FP01"

Here's an actual PowerShell screenshot wherein we used the -whatif argument. You use a -whatif if you simply want to simulate what would happen if you would execute the command in question.

Also see » End-User Experience, Administration, and Migration

That was pretty straightforward. Let's now try a more sophisticated example. Let's assume you have a list of computers in a file named servers.txt. You can use the Get-Content cmdlet to retrieve the contents of that text file, like this:

So, if you have a bunch of computers that you want to restart on a regular basis, you can list down the names of those computers in a text file. Then each time you need to restart them, you simply use the Get-Content cmdlet. Here's how we used Get-Content and Restart-Computer in a real-world scenario:

First, we got the content from the text file using Get-Content. Then, because we wanted to prepare for the eventuality that some computers would be offline, we piped the list to a where statement for testing. In the where statement, we ran test-connection, which is basically a ping on each computer.

The -quiet returns either true or false, while -count 2 means each computer will only be pinged twice. Those computers that were successfully pinged twice, were then passed along the pipeline.

Next, we used a foreach. Specifically, the objective was that: for each name that came out of the ping test, a green-colored message would be written saying that that computer was "Restarting". The $_ stands for the current object in the pipeline. Next, the Restart-Computer cmdlet was called to restart each computer that could be pinged. We also used the -force parameter to kick off anyone logged on.

Finally, we used -whatif again to see what would happen without having to actually restart those computers.

3. Restarting a service with PowerShell

Restart-Service is the cmdlet used for restarting a service. Although this cmdlet does not have a built-in mechanism to connect to a remote computer, PowerShell Remoting can be enabled so that you can execute it locally via remoting on the remote computer. This can come in handy when you want to restart a service on a group of computers.

To restart a service locally, simply say: Restart-Service "service", wherein "service" is the name of the service you want to restart. On the other hand, if you want to restart a service on one or more remote machines, then you can use the Invoke-Command cmdlet and PowerShell Remoting.

In the PowerShell screenshot below, you see two instances wherein we executed the Restart-Service cmdlet to restart the service called wuauserv, which is the Windows Update service. In the first instance, Restart-Service is executed locally. But in the second instance, it is executed on a remote database server named CHI-DB01 with the help of the Invoke-Command.

By default, Restart-Service doesn't write any objects in the pipeline unless you use -passthru. So the additional information you see at the bottom (Status, Name, etc.) is a result of using -passthru. If the service runs on multiple computers and you want to restart the service running there as well, just add more computer names in a comma-separated list.

Another way to do that same task is by using WMI. First, you create a WMI object:

gwmi is the alias for Get-WmiObject.

Let me show you first the methods of this object. To do that, we'll pipe the object to Get-Member (alias is gm).

If you notice, there is no method for restarting ther service. That means, we will have to stop the service using the StopService method and then start it again using the StartService method.

Here's how you stop the service using the object's StopService method. The parenthesis indicates it's a method. If you get a ReturnValue of 0, that means the service stopped successfully. In case you get another value, you can research what that value means by reading the MSDN documentation for the Win32 service class.

To fire the service up again, you use the StartService method.

You can verify by executing the get-service command for that computer. Get-service allows you to connect to a remote computer, so you can simply get that service from the target computer to verify if it is in fact running there.

4. Terminating a Process with Powershell

Another task that's commonly done on a server is terminating a process. To terminate a process, you use the Stop-Process cmdlet. Again, this can be executed locally or, if you want to stop a process on a remote system, you can use Stop-Process along with PowerShell Remoting.

There are two ways of terminating a process using the Stop-Process cmdlet.

The first one is pretty straightforward. You just run the Stop-Process command and then pass to it either the name of the process or its corresponding ID. In the screenshot below, the name of the process being killed is 'Calc' (which is really just the Windows Calculator). Note that Calc is running locally in this example.

The second involves using the Get-Process cmdlet to get one or more processes and then piping them to Stop-Process to kill all those processes at the same time. In the screenshot below, the process being killed is Notepad. Note that kill is an alias of Stop-Process. Again, just like Calc in the previous example, Notepad is running locally.

Let's now move on to an example where we have a process running remotely. First, let's fire up a process to kill. So here, we're starting notepad on a remote computer named chi-fp01.

Next, let's check whether the process is actually running. For this purpose, we use ps, which is an alias for Get-Process.

Ok. Now that we have a remote process to kill, let's go ahead and kill it. Like what we did in our discussion on Restarting a Service, we'll use Invoke-Command and PowerShell Remoting to run the Stop-Process expression on the remote server chi-fp01.

See how the Get-Process alias (ps), which is running in the script block, pipes the process to the Stop-Process alias (kill).

5. Creating a Disk Utilization Report with PowerShell

As admins, we often need to keep track of how much disk space is being used on our servers. We can accomplish this using WMI and the Win32_LogicalDisk class, which will give us information such as the Device ID, the size of the drive, free space, and a few other bits of information.

Using WMI, we can query local or remote computers. We can also perform those queries on either a single or multiple machines. In addition, we can: export the data we query to a CSV file or a database; create a text-based or an HTML-based report; or simply display the output to the screen.

Here's a sample command using WMI on a local computer.

Get-WmiObject win32_logicaldisk -filter "drivetype=3" | Out-File c:\Reports\Disks.txt

We use the GetWmiObject cmdlet to return information from the Win32_LogicalDisk class. Then we employ the -filter to return only information related to drivetype=3, which stands for fixed logical disks like the c: drive. That means, information regarding USB drives and network drives are not to be included.The returned information is then piped to a text file named Disks.txt.

Here's a similar example done in an actual PowerShell where we could see an actual output. Note that we are using aliases to shorten the command. Also, in this example, we specified that the output would include the device ID, disk size, the free space, and the system name.

While there's certainly nothing wrong with that output, it sure could use a couple of improvements. For example, you might want to display the size and free space in Gigabytes instead of bytes. We can actually get a more elegant output by adding a few extra steps. Let me show you how.

For this purpose, we're going to create a function named Get-DiskUtil. Although the succeeding example is going to show you how to do things interactively in the shell, you can actually put this function in a script file, load it into your profile, or load it to your other scripts so that you can use it again later on.

Here's the function I'm talking about:

Let's dissect that function now.

The function is going to take a computer name as its parameter and it will default to the local computer name.

Now we use the Process script blocks that this computer name property can be piped-in to the function. If it gets a piped-in value ($_), then it's going to set the computer name variable to that piped-in value. Otherwise, it will take the computer name that gets piped-in as a parameter.

Next up is the GetWmiObject expression.

The output of that expression is piped to the Select-Object cmdlet (represented by its alias, Select). We then make use of a hashtable to create a custom property called Computername. This basically renames the SystemName of the current object ($_) to Computername. The DeviceID is passed along as is.

We then deploy a couple more hashtables. The first one takes the Size property, divides it by 1GB, expresses the result into two decimal points, and renames the property to SizeGB. The second one takes the Freespace property and does practically the same thing to it.

Next, we create a new property called UsedGB, which doesn't exist in WMI. It simply takes the difference between the Size and FreeSpace properties and divides the result by 1GB.

Finally, we also create another property called PerFree, which stands for "percent free". This shows the free space as a fraction of total disk size expressed in percentage. And that completes the function.

Here's the function in action wherein we passed to it the name of the computer, piped the output to Format-Table (or ft), and set the final output to auto-size using -auto.

While all this looks nice and pretty, there's still a lot more that we can get from this function. So let's say that on a weekly basis, you need to get a disk utilization report of all the servers in your environment. Here are a couple of different ways you can work with this data.

The first thing we're going to do is to save the results of our expression to the variable $data. That's so we don't have to type in the command repeatedly. Next, we pipe the results to the where object, do the ping tests (pinging it twice when it can be pinged), and then pipe the computer name to our newly-created Get-DiskUtil function.

You'll know that the command is done executing when you get the prompt back.

That would mean the data has already been stored in $data. You can then pipe the information in $data to sort by computername and then set it to auto-resize. You can also send that information to Out-Printer or Out-File.

Similarly, if you want to load that information to a SQL database or an Excel spreadsheet, you can convert the data to a CSV file like this:

Later on, if you import that CSV file, you will be able to obtain a snapshot of the disk utilization status of those disks right at the time the command is run.

Here's a portion of that snapshot:

As a final example, let me show you how to create an HTML report that perhaps you will want to put on your Internet server to show disk utilization. So that, as an IT admin, you can go ahead and take a quick peek at your disk utilization status even while you're outside the office.

So again, you start by taking $data and pipe it to Sort Computername. You then pipe the result to the ConvertTo-HTML cmdlet. You also give it a title and specify a CSS path. The CSS part is needed because ConverToHTML does not do any formatting. So if you want your report to look pretty you'll need that CSS file. Finally, you need to send the output to a file.

Now that your file's ready, you can then look at the file by using the start command.

Here's a sample of that HTML report.

Remember that the values on this report are up-to-date.

Conclusion

That wraps up Part 1 of this article. In the second part, we'll take on 5 more server tasks that can be done using PowerShell.

The Power of Concentration

2011-11-30T05:16:00.001-08:00

The Power of Concentration - Part One

By Remez Sasson

When I was a child, I saw how a magnifying glass could burn a piece of paper, when the rays of the sun were focused through it. The fire could start only when the sun's rays were concentrated to a small point. When the magnifying glass was moved too far away or too close to the paper, the rays were not focused enough and nothing happened. This experience describes vividly the power of concentration.

This power can be described as focused attention. It is the ability to direct the attention to one single thought or subject, to the exclusion of everything else.

When our mind is focused, our energies are not dissipated on irrelevant activities or thoughts. This is why developing concentration is essential to anyone who aspires to take charge of his or her life. This skill is essential for every kind of success. Without it, our efforts get scattered, but with it, we can accomplish great things.

Concentration has many uses and benefits. It assists in studying and understanding faster, improves the memory, and helps in focusing on any task, job, activity or goal, and achieving it more easily and efficiently. It is also required for developing psychic powers, and is a powerful tool for the efficient use of creative visualization.

When this ability is developed, the mind obeys us more readily and does not engage in futile, negative thoughts or worries. We gain mental mastery and we experience true peace of mind.

This ability also plays an important role in meditation. Without it, the mind just jumps restlessly from one thought to another, not allowing us to meditate properly.

Do you now realize, why it is very important and worthwhile to develop and improve the ability to concentrate?

To develop this power you need to train and exercise it. Forget all your excuses about not having the time or being too busy. Do not say that the circumstances are not appropriate or that you cannot find a quiet place to exercise. With a little planning, desire and motivation you can always find the time to exercise each day, no matter how busy you are.

The Restless Mind

Thoughts claim our attention incessantly, and waste our time and energy on unimportant and useless matters. They actually rule our life. We have become so used to this slavery, that we take it for granted, and have become unconscious of this habit, except on certain occasions.

While breathing, we do not need to pay attention to each inhalation and exhalation. We become conscious of the process of breathing, only when we have some difficulty with breathing, such as when our nose is clogged, due to a cold, or when we are in an unventilated room.

It is the same with thinking. We become conscious of the constant onslaught of our thoughts, and of our inability to calm them down, only when we need to concentrate, solve a problem or study. We are also acutely aware of them when we have worries or fears.

Look at the following familiar situation. You need to study something for your job or for an exam. You sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading. After a while you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something.

You return to read, and then hear you people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring your attention back to the book.

After a while you feel restless and switch on the radio to listen to some music. You continue to read for a little while, and then remember something that happened yesterday, and you start thinking about it.

When you look at your watch, you are amazed to find out that one complete hour has passed and you have hardly read anything.

This is what happens when one lacks concentration. Imagine what you could have accomplished, if you could control your attention and focus your mind!

Work that requires physical strength, such as carrying heavy loads for example, develops physical strength. Yet, it is not as exercising daily to the gym in a systematic manner. It is the same with concentration. Reading, studying and trying to pay attention to what we do, develop some of this ability, but practicing exercises diligently each day is something else, it is like training in a gym.

Inner resistance to developing concentration

In order to develop this ability we have to train our minds. Most people think that concentration is a strenuous and tiring activity, and that it involves exertion and tension, which are difficult and unpleasant.

This belief starts at an early age. Parents and teachers expect children to study, do their homework and get good grades. This brings up in the children a feeling of being coerced and forced to do something they don't like doing. When they are too often told that they are not concentrating good enough, they develop a loathing for concentration, and often for studying too. These become associated with coercion, lack of freedom, doing something they do not like to do, and which is against their will. When they grow up, it is no wonder that their powers of concentration are weak, and they have no desire to strain their minds.

Though most people acknowledge the fact that good concentration is a great asset, yet most of them do nothing to strengthen it, because they don't know how, and because they lack the motivation. It is hoped that this article will provide the necessary information and motivation.

Concentration can be fun, if approached in the right way. It should be practiced with joy, positive attitude, optimism, and understanding of its great possibilities.

The benefits of developing concentration

Sometimes you can find strong powers of concentration in yourself. When you really and earnestly want to excel in your studies, pass an important exam or solve a problem, this power becomes available to you. In such cases, it appears because of some need or desire, but developing it in a systematic way brings it under your control, and grants you the ability to use it intentionally, whenever you need it. To do so, you need to practice special exercises on a daily basis.

Here is what you can gain by developing this power:
-Control of your thoughts.
-The ability to focus your mind.
-Peace of mind.
-Freedom from futile and annoying thoughts.
-The ability to choose your thoughts.
-Better memory.
-Self-confidence.
-Inner strength.
-Will power.
-Decisiveness.
-The ability to study and comprehend more quickly.
-Inner happiness.
-Enhanced capability to develop psychic abilities.
-More powerful and efficient use of creative visualization.
-Enhanced ability to meditate.
-And much more...

Seems too good to be true? Develop the power of concentration and find out for yourself!

So what about starting to develop concentration power today?

In part two of this article you will find advice and exercises for developing and strengthening this ability.

Concentration Exercises

By Remez Sasson

Sharpening the needle of concentration requires practice, as everything else in life. Do you go to the gym? If you do, how many times during the week and for how long? Do you study a foreign language? If you do, how much time do you devote to it? Developing concentration is not different; training is required. Even ten minutes a day of concentration exercises will do you good.

The mind does not like discipline and will resist your efforts to discipline it. It loves its freedom more than anything else, and will try to stand in your way to master it, in any way it can. It will cause you to forget to do the exercises, tempt you to postpone performing them or make you feel too lazy. It will find many tricks to stop and disturb you, but you can and must be stronger.

You will find below, some simple concentration exercises to perform. Always remember that the choice is yours, to be a slave to the mind and its whims, or to be its master. By practicing mental exercises, it is possible to train the mind and master it, and put it in its proper place, as your servant, and not as your boss and master.

You are not the mind nor the thoughts that pass through it. Though it might be hard to accept this idea, the mind is not you, the real you, but only a tool that you use. It is an instrument, which has great value, but it has to be taught to obey you.

Most people believe that they are the mind, and erroneously believe that controlling the mind means holding themselves back and denying their freedom. They feel that controlling their mind is not natural, and that it is some sort of repression. These beliefs are not correct.

The proof that we are not the mind comes with training. Accept the idea in theory, and in time, as your control over your thoughts grows, you will know it as a fact. In reality, you, the real you, is the one mastering the mind. It is not the mind mastering itself.

Advice for Practicing The Concentration Exercises

Find a place where you can be alone and undisturbed. You can sit crossed legged on the floor if you can, or on a chair. Sit with your spine erect. Take a few calm deep breaths and then relax your body. Direct the attention to your body, and relax each muscle and part of it.

I will now give you some exercises to practice. Sit down to practice for about 10 minutes, and after a few weeks of training, lengthen the time to 15 minutes.

Start with the first exercise, practicing it daily, until you are able to do it without any distractions or forgetfulness, and without thinking about anything else, for at least three continuous minutes. Every time you get distracted, start again, until the 10 or 15 minutes pass away. You have to be honest with yourself, and proceed to the next one, only after you are convinced that you have practiced it correctly and with full concentration.

No timetable can be given, as this may be frustrating. If for example, I tell you that a certain exercise has to completed in a week, two things may happen. You may get disappointed, if you cannot get the desired concentration within a week, or you may move on without practicing the exercise correctly. Mastering the exercises successfully might take days, weeks, months and sometimes even more.

Put your whole attention into the exercises, and do not think about anything else. Be careful not to fall asleep, daydream or think about other matters. The moment you find yourself thinking about something else, stop the exercise and start again. After you become proficient, lengthen the time, and if possible, include another session in the afternoon.

Do not attempt too much at the beginning, and don't try to perform them all at once. Go slowly, without overdoing them or tensing your brain.

If you find it too difficult, or thoughts distract you and make you think about other matters, don't despair. Everyone encounters difficulties along the way. If you persevere and never give up, in spite of difficulties and disturbances, success will crown your efforts. Remember, even those with powerful concentration had to exercise their minds.

It does not matter if your concentration is weak now, it can be developed and strengthened like any other ability, through training and investing the necessary time, energy and earnestness.

In time, you will find out that you can concentrate anywhere, anytime, no matter where you are. You will be able to focus your mind, think and function under the most trying circumstances, while remaining calm, relaxed and collected. The reward is worth the effort a thousand fold.

Now to the exercises. Some of them may be familiar to you, and some may seem too easy to perform. Some were taken from various sources, and others were created by me.

For full benefit, it is advisable that you practice each exercise for one additional week, after you are convinced that you are practicing it correctly and with full attention.

Concentration exercises

Exercise 1
Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing you finger at each word.

Exercise 2
Count backwards in your mind, from one hundred to one.

Exercise 3
Count in your mind from one hundred to one, skipping each three numbers, that is 100, 97, 94, etc.

Exercise 4
Choose an inspiring word, or just a simple sound, and repeat it silently in your mind for five minutes. When your mind can concentrate more easily, try to reach ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration.

Exercise 5
Take a fruit, an apple, orange, banana or any other fruit, and hold it in your hands. Examine the fruit from all its sides, while keeping your whole attention focused on it. Do not let yourself be carried away by irrelevant thoughts or associated thoughts that might arise, such as about the shop were you bought it, about how and where it was grown, its nutritive value, etc. Stay calm, while trying to ignore these thoughts and not be interested in them. Just look at the fruit, focus your attention on it without thinking about anything else, and examine its shape, smell, taste and the sensation it gives when touching and holding it.

Exercise 6
This is the same as exercise number 5, only that this time you visualize the fruit instead of looking at it. Start by looking at the fruit and examining it for about 2 minutes, just as in exercise number 5, and then do this one. Close your eyes, and try to see, smell, taste and touch the fruit in your imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If the image becomes blurred, open your eyes, look at the fruit for a short while, and then close your eyes and continue the exercise. It might help if you imagine the fruit held in your hands, as in the previous exercise, or imagine it standing on a table.

Exercise 7
Take a small simple object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words in your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.

Exercise 8
After becoming proficient in the above exercises, you can come to this exercise. Draw a small geometrical figure, about three inches in size, such as a triangle, a rectangular or a circle, paint it with any color you wish, and concentrate on it. You should see only the figure, nothing else. Only the figure exists for you now, with no unrelated thoughts or any distractions. Try not to think with words during the exercise. Watch the figure in front of you and that's it. Try not to strain your eyes.

Exercise 9
The same as number 8, only this time visualize the figure with the eyes closed. As before, if you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds and watch the figure and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.

Exercise 10
The same as above in number 9 but the eyes open.

Exercise 11
Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. This exercise is to be attempted only after all the previous ones have been performed successfully. The previous exercises, if practiced correctly, will endow you with the ability to impose silence on your thoughts. In time it will become easier and easier.

______________________________________

The secret of success is constant practice. The more time you devote to the exercises the faster your success arrives. Go on gradually; ten minutes at the start and in time as you gain the ability to concentrate, give it more time. When you see that you are successful, you will begin to love the exercises, and in time they will become a habit. You will be able to concentrate your attention easily and effortlessly upon anything you want to concentrate on.

Are you jogging, exercising at the gym or studying a foreign language? How difficult it was in the start? How many times you wanted to quit? Yet, after a while you started to like what you were doing. It became a habit, needing no effort to perform. So it is with developing the power of concentration.

After some of time you will start to feel differently. It will be easier to concentrate. Your mind will be calm and relaxed, and you will radiate peace into your surroundings. Things, circumstances and events that used to agitate and anger you, will not influence your inner calmness. You will experience happiness, content and satisfaction, self-confidence and inner strength. You will be able to cope more easily and efficiently with the outer world.

You will feel a new form of consciousness growing in you, bringing you peace of mind. It may come every now and then for a brief moment, but in time it will grow and fill you completely. You will be able to make the mind work for you when you need its services, in a most efficient way. You will be able to silence it when its services are not needed.

I assure you, from personal experience, that the attitude to life and the reactions to events change after starting to practice concentration. It is some kind of automatic and gradual process. You come to know many things about the mind and how it functions, and you learn to deal with it efficiently.

How to Avoid Getting Bored While Reading

2011-10-25T03:38:00.001-07:00

1
Try to step into the world of literature you are reading. Don't just read the words on the page, visualize them. If there is a tree, don't just read about it, picture it in your mind. If the wind is blowing, imagine it's effect on the tree, how the leaves move with each movement of air.
2
Make your reading area unlike your sleeping area. If you sleep with the radio on, then shut it off. If you don't like lights on when you're asleep, then turn on the lights. Make the area you read in an area that feels almost uncomfortable to sleep in. This will keep you from becoming drowsy and dozing off mid-page.
3
Determine what you are supposed to get from the reading material. If you're reading for a book report, then take occasional breaks to put what you are reading into some kind of context that you could apply into the report.
4
Take a break once in a while. Some books are a little too stale for 'hours on end' reading and are more suited to small doses in large numbers.
5
Pour a cup of coffee and dig into the book if you just have to get the book read for school or for a work project. It may not be the most exciting material you've ever read, but if you can come away from it with a substantial knowledge of the material, someone will appreciate your effort, even if they don't say so to your face.

Citrix XenDesktop 5: Intro to Desktop Virtualization Part 1

2011-10-06T22:26:00.001-07:00

Petri IT Knowledgebase

Citrix XenDesktop 5: Intro to Desktop Virtualization Part 1

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 08:52 AM PDT

Overview

What we have for you right here is a detailed introduction to desktop virtualization (DV). When you're through with this article, you'll not only know what desktop virtualization is. You'll also learn about the various types of desktop virtualization (there's actually more than just VDI), the reasons why companies are considering DV, what the benefits are, and even some tips and best practices.

Also see » Download: Windows Azure Training Kit

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Because of the length of this article, we've broken it down into three parts. However, we suggest you read it from Part I through III. Let's get started.

(Instructional video below provides a walkthrough of the steps contained in this article.)

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What is Desktop Virtualization?

First, let's correct a misconception.

You see, people usually associate desktop virtualization with VDI. There's nothing wrong with that. But while VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is a kind of desktop virtualization, it is certainly not the only one. Other forms of DV include: client hypervisors, streaming, application virtualization, and terminal server. We'll cover each of these in more detail later. But in the meantime, let's describe them briefly.

VDI - This is the most popular type of desktop virtualization today. It allows users to access dedicated virtual machines (VMs) that are hosted on servers like Hyper-V boxes, ESX boxes, XenServer boxes, etc.

Client hypervisor - Similar to a server hypervisor but is installed on a client, not a server. Normally, it is used on laptops but can also be used on desktops. It can abstract the hardware from the software, thus allowing one version of a VM to be deployed on different brands of laptops. In addition, it can allow you to install multiple VMs on a single laptop.

Streaming - Makes use of a single image file that is streamed over a network into end users' computers. In this type, end users may no longer need a local hard disk. All that a user will need is memory and a CPU to run the streamed OS or application. Other platforms like VDI or application virtualization have variants that already implement streaming, so we'll take this up as part of those platforms.

Application Virtualization - Allows an application to run on a physical machine without having to install it there. You can use this technology, for example, to run a Windows application on Linux. This arrangement also prevents the virtualized application to conflict with other applications.

Terminal Server - This is a server system that offers terminal services. It enables the use of dumb terminals and access to remote applications or desktops. It is similar to VDI except that users are given sessions for connecting to the server instead of dedicated VMs.

As you can see, there are many platforms of desktop virtualization and each have their own advantages. Later on, we'll discuss the pros and cons of each platform so you can determine which ones are best suited to meet certain needs. But now, let's have a look at some of the factors driving companies to consider desktop virtualization.

Why are some companies considering desktop virtualization?

It can ease migration to the latest operating system

When a new version of Windows comes along and its predecessor reaches end-of-life, companies are simply forced to adopt. For example, when Microsoft announced that they would no longer be providing support, service packs, and updates for Windows XP, companies were left with no other choice but to plan for a Windows 7 migration.

But upgrading hundreds or thousands of desktops to a new OS version is no easy task. A number of compatibility issues can arise. For example, your custom applications may not run properly on Windows 7 or web-based apps may not function properly on Windows 7's Internet Explorer 8. Furthermore, massive upgrades and the accompanying application installations can be very time-consuming, disruptive, and costly.

With desktop virtualization, it is possible to let applications run on almost any kind of OS - old or new. It is even possible to package the OS, applications, and profiles on a single image and assemble multiple virtual desktops for all your users. You can then simply stream the OS and/or the application to thin clients without having to go through time-consuming installations.

It can lower cost and is environment-friendly

Because certain desktop virtualization solutions reduce the amount of hardware and storage space needed when providing desktop services, it can help companies save money. Some of these solutions (e.g. streaming) even require minimal server infrastructures, and that should very well translate to lower energy consumption compared to traditional systems.

It can improve help desk efficiency and make desktop management easier

Desktops are one of the most difficult components to manage in a computer environment. Issues can pop up anytime. And each time a site visit is needed to resolve an issue, long disruptions can follow. Imagine this happening on a very large organization. These long disruptions, which render affected end users unproductive, can be very costly.

In comparison, when virtualized desktops are placed in a centralized location, a large part of the troubleshooting won't have to be done on the client side. In fact, IT personnel can even troubleshoot remotely, thus saving time on their side. On certain scenarios, a quick machine re-imaging can be performed, this time saving time on both the IT and the end user's side.

It can enhance a company's ability for true business continuity and disaster recovery

Desktops are usually left out in BC/DR planning. When it comes to preparing for BC/DR, companies usually focus their IT investments on technologies for protecting and recovering data.

Of course, your data should be given utmost importance. However, even if you're able to quickly recover your data after a major disaster, your company still won't be able to get back into operation if your desktops aren't available. How would your users go back to work?

Traditional desktops are practically linked to the hardware. If the hardware is seriously damaged, it would be very difficult to restore your desktop exactly the way it was. By comparison, virtualized desktops are completely isolated from the hardware. Because of that, they're easy to backup, replicate, and restore - that's almost everything you need to enable BC/DR for desktops.

It can enable companies to practice BYOPC (a.k.a. BYOC or CYOPC)

One new concept that companies are adopting nowadays is the BYOPC (Bring Your Own PC) or BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) or CYOPC (Choose Your Own PC). This entails giving employees a certain amount of cash and allowing them to go out and buy computers of their own choice.

The idea is that, since ownership of these computers now resides with the employees, the responsibility of maintaining them no longer belongs to the company. So, not only are the companies liberated from the duty of buying computers and managing PC upgrades but also the duty of maintaining them.

But there's a problem here. What if a PC does bog down? Even if the company is no longer obligated to troubleshoot and repair it, the productivity of the user will still be affected. This can subsequently affect the company as well. It doesn't look like a brilliant idea anymore, does it?

Other issues that you probably overlooked but really need to address when going into a BYOPC arrangement include:

Data ownership - Who will now own the data inside the computer? Obviously, they'll have some information that belong to the company in there but since the computers belong to them, what now?
Data encryption - Who'll be in charge of data encryption? Wouldn't you want to make sure that your employees wouldn't be violating regulations dealing with data integrity or customer data privacy & confidentiality?
Private and corporate data mix - Wouldn't you want to separate corporate data from personal data? or have a separate workspace for the office and another for personal use within the same computer?
Access to the corporate network - How will you give them access to the corporate network? Are you sure the necessary controls and security measures are in place?

As you'll soon discover in the second part of this article, desktop virtualization is perfect for BYOC because it easily addresses all these issues.

Server virtualization was a smashing success

Server virtualization introduced a lot of benefits to IT, like: improved up time, high availability, savings in CapEx, ability to implement server consolidation and containment, and so on. These breakthroughs led companies to think that similar benefits could also be realized with desktop virtualization.

But while desktop virtualization does introduce certain benefits, those benefits are different from that of server virtualization. For instance, DV won't let you save on CapEx. Instead, you'll realize savings in OpEx. We'll elaborate more on that later.

Enables the use of Thin Clients

Some desktop virtualization platforms, especially those that are server-based, support Thin Clients. Many of these clients have nothing except except CPU and memory. In the case of Pano Logic's Pano Zero Client, even CPU and memory are non-existent. You simply connect a keyboard, mouse, VGA display, and audio output and you're ready to go. Because there's no data or software on them, hackers won't have anything to exploit on the device.

Other devices that can already serve as Thin Clients include: tablet PCs (like the iPad), smartphones, and netbooks. These are devices that have very minimal hardware resources compared with regular desktops and laptops, but still - using desktop virtualization - you'll be able to access your desktop remotely through them.

These are very valid reasons to consider desktop virtualization and that's why many companies are already going in that direction. Before we end the first part of this article, we'd like to take up one topic that's creating a lot of buzz in the tech/IT world and which is very much related to desktop virtualization.

Impending cloud computing integration

As far as we see it, cloud computing is inevitable. Whether you like it or not, that's going to be how computing will be in the future. Don't believe it? Well, in case you haven't heard, Microsoft has now moved Office to the cloud by way of Office 365. If the most widely used suite of applications has gone to the cloud, then you can be sure a lot of end users will find their way there too.

So, assuming we're right, what has that got to do with desktop virtualization? Actually, it's not only going to be about desktop virtualization. You see, cloud computing, in simple terms, is a highly virtualized data center. That means, it encompasses not only server virtualization; but also network virtualization, I/O virtualization, storage virtualization, and, of course, desktop virtualization.

Virtualization 1.0

In 2010, we already saw more and more companies taking advantage of the benefits of virtualization to implement BC/DR, reduce outages, increase high availability, and improve resource optimization. We also witnessed adoption of server virtualization for Tier-1 applications like Exchange, Oracle, etc. We even saw the rise of advanced desktop virtualization technologies like VDI.

Virtualization 2.0

Today, we're seeing companies going into automation and orchestration; storage, network/IO, and application virtualization; and integrated physical/virtual management. Companies are starting to make use of self-service portals, policy-based management, and chargeback/utility style billing. But where is this all heading?

Virtualization 3.0

The direction we're headed is an environment wherein fully virtualized datacenters span internal and external clouds; adaptive and intelligent infrastructures are well established; and many businesses subscribe to the IT-as-a-service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) models. You can pretty much expect wide adoption of integrated cloud management, holistic monitoring/diagnosis, cross-hypervisor management, external cloud federation, and virtualization-aware applications.

Summary

So as the business world takes this inescapable journey to the cloud, the logical thing to do is to be prepared for it. What you're doing now is a tiny but nevertheless wise step to the right direction. In Part II, you'll move some more to that direction as you get a closer look at each type of desktop virtualization.

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vSphere Client for iPad – Administering vSphere 5 from your iPad

2011-10-06T22:25:00.001-07:00

Petri IT Knowledgebase

vSphere Client for iPad – Administering vSphere 5 from your iPad

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 09:17 AM PDT

Overview

Ever dreamed of administering your vSphere environment while on the go using an ultraportable device? I'm not talking about your laptop or even a netbook for that matter. I'm talking about something much lighter and more portable … something like the iPad. That's actually possible now with the VMware vSphere Client for iPad.

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The vSphere Client for iPad is an administrative client. Meaning, its features are mainly geared towards accomplishing VMware-related administrative tasks such as:

Searching for vSphere hosts and virtual machines
Monitoring the performance of vSphere hosts and virtual machines (VMs)
Starting, stopping, and suspending VMs
Viewing and restoring VM snapshots
Rebooting vSphere hosts and bringing them into maintenance mode
Diagnosing vSphere hosts and virtual machines using built-in tools like ping and traceroute

(Instructional video below provides a walkthrough of the steps contained in this article.)

Requirements for using vSphere Client for iPad

Before you can use vSphere Client for iPad, you will need the following:

A running installation of vSphere and vCenter - Actually, vCenter is not required if you want to implement this on an individual ESX/ESXi server
vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) - This is a virtual appliance which you can download for free from http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcma and is the most important component in this list. It allows you to manage your virtual infrastructure from either the vSphere Client for iPad (on the iPad of course) or from a web browser, when using other mobile devices.
A network connection to the vCMA server - This can be either a LAN or an Internet VPN. Although it is theoretically possible to set things up so that you can access vCMA straight over the Internet, this is not advisable for obvious security reasons. If you really want to access the vCMA from a coffee shop or the airport, then it should be through an Internet VPN.

Of course, you would need the vSphere Client for iPad application itself. This vSphere Client is available for free at the iTunes Store.

Installing vCenter Mobile Access

Go to http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcma and download the OVF file.

Note that this program is not designed solely for the vSphere Client for iPad. It can also be used with an application built for, say, a BlackBerry. In fact, if you click the Video tab, which is also visible on the screenshot, you can find a video showing a BlackBerry emulator connecting to vCMA.

We suggest you click the other tabs as well and take some time to read the System Requirements and Instructions.

Once you're done with the download, go over to your vSphere Client where you'll then deploy vCenter Mobile Access as a virtual appliance.

To start the deployment process, navigate to the File menu and select the menu item: Deploy OVF Template.

You'll then be asked to point to the OVF file you downloaded. Do that by clicking the Browse button, navigating to the folder where you stored the downloaded file, and clicking the OVF file itself.

After the file has been selected and you're back to the previous window, just click Next.

In the next window, you'll be shown the details of that OVF template. Click Next.

In the succeeding window, read through the End User License Agreement. If everything looks fine, click the Accept button and then click Next.

If you want, you can then specify a name and location for the deployed template. Otherwise, just accept the default values. When you're done with this part, click Next.

The next step is to specify where you want to store the virtual machine files. Select your desired destination storage, then click Next.

Select a format with which the virtual disks will be stored and click Next.

Finally, you'll be shown a summary of all the options you picked. See if everything looks alright. To power on the vCMA after deployment, check the Power on after deployment check box. Click Finish.

The actual vCMA deployment process will then commence.

This is going to take a while. But when it's done, the virtual appliance will launch automatically after boot. This is what will happen if you earlier instructed the system to Power on after deployment. You'll then see a console that looks like this:

Take note of the IP address shown there. That's the IP address you'll need to manage the virtual appliance. You can check whether you have the correct details by opening a Web browser and entering that IP address there.

Using the Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure

If that was correct, then you should see the Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure login page. To login, enter root for the user name and vmware for the Password. These are just the default login details, which you can change later.

There are only a couple of things you can do here. You can:

1. View the network status.

2. Change the network address settings. You might want to assign a static IP address and specify a preferred DNS Server. Of course, you can also change the Netmask and Gateway settings.

If you do decide to make those changes, don't forget to click the Save Settings button so that those changes can take effect. Since the IP address will have changed after you do that, you need to change the IP address on your Web browser's address bar as well.

After you change the IP address, you might encounter an error notification like the one shown below. Just click on the link: Continue to this website.

You may be asked to login again. Just enter the login details as before. If you go to the Network tab, you'll see that the changes have already taken effect. Other than that, the only other tasks you can do there is Shutdown the system or Reboot.

The vSphere Client for iPad

As mentioned, the vSphere Client for iPad is a free application that can be downloaded from iTunes. You can find the application on iTunes by either searching for "vSphere Client" or by going directly to this link using your iPad:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vmware-vsphere-client-for/id417323354?mt=8&ls=1

Here's that page as seen on iTunes:

Download and install the application as you would a typical Apple app.

Administering vSphere Using an iPad

Before you can start using the client, you'll need to specify settings for connecting to the vCMA VM. This is required when you first launch the client. You may enter either the vCMA virtual machine's IP address or a DNS name, assuming you have already assigned a DNS host alias for the vCMA Server's IP address in your DNS server.

On the next screen, you'll then have to specify settings for connecting to the vSphere infrastructure. You'll need to enter your vCenter server name, your username, and its corresponding password.

Once inside the VMware vSphere Client for iPad, you'll see on the first screen the name of your vCenter Server. That screen will also show you the number of hosts and virtual machines in your virtual infrastructure. In the lower half of the screen, you'll see some brief information regarding those hosts such as the number of VMs running on each one of them and the versions of their corresponding ESX servers.

If you click on a particular ESX/ESXi server, you'll be brought to that server's screen. There you'll see that server's CPU and Memory utilization expressed in percent. Other information you'll find there include the Processor Type, the number of processors, amount of RAM, number of NICs, and whether vMotion is enabled.

Below all that information are the virtual machines running on that server with icons representative of the specific guest operating systems of those VMs.

If you then click on a particular guest OS, you'll see:

the specific name and version of the OS;
the amount of CPU and RAM it's currently using;
its IP address, status, and VMware tools status;
snapshots made on it; and
the latest events related to it.

You can get even more information regarding that guest OS by clicking on the Performance button found at the bottom of that screen.

That will reveal some graphs featuring CPU, Memory, and Disk performance taken over time.

On the other hand, if you click on the Tools button,

You'll be brought to a screen where you can do Pings and Trace Routes.

In addition, if you go to the top of the screen and click the gear icon, you'll be able to Suspend, Stop, or Restart the VM.

Remember, all those procedures (e.g. showing performance graphs, troubleshooting using basic network tools, and doing certain VM actions) were carried out on a guest OS. You can do similar procedures on hosts as well. Here are those performance graphs again; but this time, they represent those of an ESX server.

Summary

We have finally reached the end of this article. Now that you know how to use the vSphere Client for iPad, you can now plan a trip to the beach just so you can try administering your vSphere environment from there. Enjoy!

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Deploying Printers by Using Group Policy – Networking Printers & Windows 2008 Server Part 2

2011-10-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

Petri IT Knowledgebase

Deploying Printers by Using Group Policy – Networking Printers & Windows 2008 Server Part 2

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 12:09 PM PDT

Introduction

In Part One I covered adding the Print Services role to a Windows 2008 Server, and then how to use the Print Management console to add shared printers with the correct drivers for your network clients. For a small network this may well be all you need to know, but with more users and printers there are more tools available to simplify management. In this article we will look at automating printer deployment with Group Policy and how to use GPOs to assign access to printers.

Windows GPOs

Anyone responsible for managing a Windows domain based network should be familiar with the basics of Group Policy Management, and the granular control it allows over virtually every setting available within the Windows client systems. Although quite impressive results can be achieved with old style login scripts (especially if you know vbscript), Group Policy Objects can do much more without requiring you to become a scripting expert. This particular printer challenge is a good example of how apparently complicated solutions can be achieved with a few simple GPO settings and some planning:

Pre-Requisites

To use Group Policy for printer deployment you will need to have a Windows Active Directory domain, and this article assumes that your Domain Controller is a Windows 2008 R2 Server. You will also need the Print Services role installed on a server (can be on your DC), and you will be using the Print Management and Group Policy Management consoles to configure the various settings. Its assumed that you have already followed Part One and have one or more printers shared on your server with the necessary drivers, ready to deploy to your client computers.

Planning Your Printer Deployment

The first thing you need to do is to establish your printer deployment requirements - which users or computers need access to which printers. Ideally to avoid confusion for users you don't want to give them access to printers they will never use, especially if your network is spread over a large building or multiple sites. If you havent done so already then now would be a good time to check that the descriptions and location details of each shared printer are correctly filled out, see Part One for details of how to do this.

Group Policy Objects need to be linked to Organisational Units in your Active Directory, so in order to effectively manage your printer deployments you will need your users and computers divided into suitable OUs. This is particularly important if you want to deploy your printers according to location, so for example if you have an OU containing all the computers in the Accounts department you can then create an "Accounts printers" GPO linked to it. For larger multi-site networks its also worth noting that you can assign printer deployments GPOs to AD Sites, so that laptop users moving between sites will automatically get local printers installed for them.

Printer deployment can be applied as part of either the Computer or the User Configuration section of the GPO, or even both, so there is plenty of flexibility as to how you can set it up. There is also no requirement to create separate GPOs for the printer deployment, so if you already have them set up to configure other features on your client systems you may find it easier just to add the printer settings to your existing GPOs. However for the purposes of this guide we will create a new GPO just for our printer deployment.

In this article we will be using a small network as our example; it has a Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller with 20 client PCs running a mixture of Windows XP and Vista, split between two offices which each have their own printers in. One office is "Sales", the other is "Accounts", and because their IT requirements are quite different there are two OUs setup in the AD, not surprisingly named "Sales" and "Accounts".

There is also one large copier/printer device which we will want to give all users access to, so our Printer Deployment GPO planning is therefore quite simple; we can have one GPO linked to the "Users" OU for the large copier/printer, and then we will have a GPO each for the "Accounts" and "Sales" OUs that deploy their respective office printers.

Creating a GPO

Once you have established your printer deployment requirements the next step will be to create the GPO that will apply the settings to the clients for us. To do this you will need to open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), which you should find listed under Programs - Administrative Tools on your Domain Controller server. Expand the tree down through your domain until you can see the OU where you have decided you need to create your GPO, then right-click on it and select "Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here....":

Using the example from above we will create a GPO to deploy our large printer for all users, so having right-clicked on the "Users" OU and chosen to "Create a GPO..." we will name it "Large Printer Deployment" when prompted so our GPMC now looks like this:

Supporting Windows XP Clients

If you are fortunate enough to only have Windows Vista and later versions on your network then you can happily skip this step and proceed to the next section, as they already include support for GPO printer deployment. However if you have any Windows XP client systems, or Windows 2003 Servers (e.g. a Terminal Server) that the GPO will apply to then you need to configure your GPO to install the "pushprinterconnections.exe" utility onto them. Rather pointlessly, Windows 2008 Server only includes the 64bit version of this utility, and its highly likely that your Windows XP clients are of the 32bit variety, in which case you need to download the pmcmgmt.exe utility from here and install it on one of your XP clients. Once installed browse to the C:\Windows\PMCSnap folder on that PC and copy the pushprinterconnections.exe file over to your server.

Now you have the vital 32bit version of the utility, right-click on your new GPO and select "Edit", and a new window will open containing the options for your GPO. Depending on whether this is a Computer or User based policy (in our example we are applying it to Users) expand down to "Windows Settings" and then select "Scripts" and then in the righthand pane right-click on "Logon" (or "Startup" if it is a Computer policy) and select "Properties":

This will open the "Logon Properties" window (or "Startup Properties" for Computer configuration):

First of all click the "Show Files" button, which will open a Windows Explorer window showing the "Logon" folder - this is in fact one of the default system shared folders on a Windows Domain Controller that clients can access during the logon process. Unless you have previously configured logon scripts or other utilities to deploy via GPO it will be empty though - you now need to copy the "pushprinterconnections.exe" file you downloaded earlier into this folder.

You can now close that folder window and return to the "Logon Properties" one, and this time click the "Add" button, which will open another window asking you for the script name and parameters. Just click the "Browse" button in that window and it should open the "Logon" folder again, this time with the "pushprinterconnections.exe" file in there. Double-click on the file to select it, leave the "Parameters" field empty and then click "Ok" to close the window. You should now see "pushprinterconnections.exe" listed in the "Scripts" section of the "Logon Properties" window and can click "Ok" to close that.

Note that for any additional printer deployment GPOs you create you should repeat this step to add the pushprinterconnections utility, it doesnt cause any problems if it ends up running twice.

Adding a printer to your deployment GPO

If you have had to edit your GPO you can now close that window and the GPMC, and instead open your Print Management console which you should be familiar with from part one of this guide. Expand the "Print Servers" section and select "Printers" to view the list of printers that you have shared in the righthand pane, then right-click the printer you wish to deploy and select "Deploy with GPO". You should then see this window:

Now click the "Browse" button to select the GPO you have just created, in the window that opens you may find it easier to just click the "All" tab to view all the GPOs on your domain and scroll down to the appropriate one, then select it and click "Ok". You will then see you have two options available, to deploy the printer connection per user or per machine - check whichever your policy applies to and finally click "Ok" to close the window. It is possible to have a printer deployed via multiple GPOs if your setup requires it, as you can see the "Deploy with Group Policy" window lists them and you can also remove them from here if necessary. You may also select the "Deployed Printers" option in the Print Management console to see the complete list of printers that you have deployed via GPO.

Final Steps

You should now have successfully deployed your first printer via GPO, and if you logon to an applicable computer or as a suitable user you should see that the shared printer is available for use. If it isn't then check the Event Logs as any error with the GPO deployment should cause an event to be logged that will indicate the source of the problem. Should you not see any printer or any warning in the Event Log then you may want to use Group Policy Modelling or the "gpresult" tool to check that the GPO is being correctly applied.

Group Policy Preferences and Setting the Default Printer

On a final note, you may encounter some guides that recommend the use of Group Policy Preferences for printer deployment instead, and in some scenarios that method does have advantages. However it is more complicated to manage and does not integrate with the Print Management console, hence why I prefer the standard Group Policy. There is one particular situation where they can be particularly useful though, which is when you need to set users' default printer, but that is something to be covered in a separate article.

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Raid Data Recovery

2011-09-27T05:47:00.001-07:00

RAID Levels and RAID Data Recovery

Berkeley researchers defined five types of RAID: RAID 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Since then however, many more levels have surfaced. Companies have come up with their own proprietary RAID levels; new breeds of RAID have been created by combining RAID levels, and mutations of existing RAID levels have engendered aberrant stepchildren.

Unfortunately, we won't be discussing any of these more esoteric RAID solutions. Instead, we'll be focusing on the five original RAID levels, and one RAID level that isn't really a level at all.

RAID 0

RAID 0 is considered by many purists not to be a true RAID level because it lacks the all important "R." RAID 0 provides no redundancy, and as such, should never be used for applications where data is critical. If a single hard drive fails in this configuration, RAID recovery may be necessary, because the loss of even one drive will result in all data in the array being lost.

Because it only involves striping, RAID 0 is one of the simplest levels of RAID to implement. It requires at least 2 hard drives, but as long as both drives are identical, no storage space is wasted. RAID 0 delivers the best performance and data storage efficiency of any RAID level.

Figure 0. In RAID 0, data is is broken down into stripes which are written across all the drives in the array.

RAID 1

RAID 1 employs the mirroring technique. As a result, it uses storage space very inefficiently. Fifty percent of your disk space will always be wasted in a RAID 1 configuration. However, it does offer the advantage of 100% redundancy. If one disk fails, there's no need to call a RAID recovery company to recover your data, simply rebuild your lost data from the mirror.

RAID 1 requires at least 2 hard drives, and additional hard drives must always be added in pairs. It is ideal for applications where data is critical.

Figure 1. In RAID 1, data from one hard drive is mirrored onto a second hard drive, so that there are two identical copies of the data.

RAID 2

RAID 2 is the black sheep of the RAID family in that it doesn't use one or more of the standard striping, mirroring, or parity techniques. It does however, use something similar to striping with parity, which we'll read when we cover RAID level 3.

Because of its high cost and complexity, RAID 2 never really caught on. In fact, it isn't even used commercially today. RAID 2 uses byte level striping with a form of error correcting code (ECC) known as Hamming code. The number of hard drives required for a RAID 2 configuration may vary, but a typical setup may use as many as 14 disk drives: 10 data disks and 4 ECC disks.

Figure 2. In RAID 2, data is split at the bit level over a number of data and ECC disks. Every time data is written to the array, the Hamming codes are calculated and written to the ECC disks. When the data is read from the array, these ECC codes are read as well to confirm that no errors have occurred since the data was written. If a single-bit error occurs, it can be corrected immediately.

RAID 3

RAID 3 has a lot in common with its younger brother RAID 2 in that it also uses byte level striping and a dedicated parity disk. Where the siblings part company however, is in their error correcting methods. While RAID 2 uses Hamming code ECC, RAID 3 uses the more effective XOR algorithm to generate parity.

Unlike the previous levels we've seen, RAID 3 is a practical solution that delivers good performance and fault tolerance. The dedicated parity disk does slow down write speeds though, because the parity information has to be written to the parity drive whenever a write occurs. RAID data recovery however, is not as big an issue with this implementation.

RAID 3 requires at least 3 hard drives.

Figure 3. Under RAID 3, data is striped at the byte level, across multiple disks. The parity information is sent to a dedicated parity disk, but the failure of any disk in the array can be tolerated.

RAID 4

RAID 4 is very similar to RAID 3. In fact, it's so similar that people often confuse the two. There is one major difference between them however: RAID 4 uses block level striping. The advantage of block level striping is that you can change the stripe size to suit your application needs.

RAID 4 requires at least three hard drives. Like RAID 3, it offers good performance and fault tolerance, and RAID data recovery isn't as much of a concern. The dedicated parity disk however, remains the bottleneck.

Diagram 4. RAID 4 improves performance by striping data across many disks in blocks. It provides fault tolerance through a dedicated parity disk.

RAID 5

The most popular member of the RAID family, RAID 5 combines block level striping with distributed parity for good performance, fault tolerance and storage efficiency. This level minimizes the write bottlenecks of RAID levels 3 and 4, by distributing parity stripes over a series of hard drives. In doing so, it provides relief to the concentration of write activity on a single drive, which in turn enhances overall system performance.

RAID 5 is often used as an all-purpose RAID solution, but it is also used for database and file server applications.

RAID 5 requires a minimum of three hard drives, but often costs less to implement than RAID 3 or 4. RAID recovery may be necessary if more than one disk fails.

Diagram 5. In RAID 5, data and parity information are striped in blocks across all the drives in the array. Fault tolerance is maintained by ensuring that the parity information for any given block of data is placed on a separate drive from those used to store the data itself.

Below is a summary of some of the features of the RAID levels we've discussed. There are of course, many more RAID levels that exist, which aren't listed.

Table 1. RAID Level Summary

Level	Techniques	Description	Min. Drives	Failure Conditions	Pros/Cons	Uses
RAID O	Disk striping (no fault tolerance)	Data is broken into stripes which are sent to each disk in the array.	2	When one drive fails, the entire array is compromised.	Offers Best performance No fault tolerance.	Video editing and production
RAID 1	Disk mirroring	Data on one drive is mirrored on another.	2	If one drive fails, data is not lost. If both drives fail, the data is lost.	100% redundancy of data/Slower performance and 50% loss of storage space.	Accounting, payroll, financial
RAID 2	Byte level striping with Hamming code ECC	Data is split at the bit level over a number of data and ECC disks.	Up to 14+	Only one drive may fail and still be recoverable "on the fly".	On the fly data error correction/Extremely high cost.	No commercial uses
RAID 3	Byte level striping with dedicated parity	Data is striped at the byte-level, across multiple disks.	3	When more then one drive fails, the array is compromised.	High read/write data transfer rates/Complex controller design	Image and video editing
RAID 4	Block level striping with dedicated parity	Data is striped in blocks across data disk, with parity store on a separate disk.	3	When more then one drive fails, the array is compromised.	High Read/Low Write data transaction rates.	General purpose
RAID 5	Block level striping with distributed parity	Data and parity are striped in blocks across all disks.	3	When more then one drive fails, the array is compromised.	High Read data transaction rates/ Complex controller design	Web, database or file servers

RAID Rebuilding

With their built-in redundancy, RAID systems are able to continue functioning even if a hard drive fails. When this happens however, performance is negatively affected, and the RAID is said to be operating in a degraded, or critical state. This occurs because the lost information must be regenerated "on the fly" from the parity data.

When a failed drive is replaced, the data that was removed from the array with its departure must be regenerated on the new disk by the RAID controller, a process called rebuilding. An array is vulnerable while it is running in a degraded state. Until the failed drive is replaced and its data rebuilt, the array provides no redundancy. Consequently, it's not a good idea to put off rebuilding a degraded array; you're putting your data at risk!

RAID Data Recovery Process

RAID systems are susceptible to the same ailments that plague single hard drives, such as viruses, logical problems, human error, and physical damage. Moreover, due to their complexity, they may suffer from additional points of failure, such as lost server registry configurations, accidental RAID drive reconfigurations, RAID controller failures and multiple drive failures.

If multiple drives fail, or other serious problems occur in a RAID, your data may be compromised.

Under such circumstances, if you fail to make a proper backup, you may have to call a data recovery company. Many have high success rates when it comes to RAID data recovery. Using specialized facilities, equipment, and software, they can even recover data from a moribund hard drive.

If the data is worth money, don't chance it!

Reputable recovery companies all follow a standard set of RAID data recovery procedures. This usually includes an initial evaluation, where technicians carefully examine the array to diagnosis the exact nature of the problem. During this time, they'll also attempt to make an image of the failed hard drives. The RAID data recovery specialists will then extract the data from the image, and work to piece it together. If successful, they will restore your data onto the media of your choice.

By far the most reputable data recovery companies are as follows:

Top Companies

Our #1 pick:

ESS Data Recovery

ESS Data Recovery (datarecovery.com) offers a wide range of service levels with turnaround time from 1-10 days depending on your budget and needs. They are not only affordable, but hugely successful, especially in the RAID recovery industry, with clients ranging from small schools to Lockheed Martin and NASA. They also offer extensive information about RAID recovery on their website: RAID Data Recovery.

Our #2 pick:

DataTech Labs

DataTech Labs is an excellent choice in raid data recovery engineering. Their prices are extremely competitive in the industry and their recovery engineering is top notch. DataTech Labs has an ISO 5 class 100 certified cleanroom to work on the physically failed drives in the array. Whatever the failure reason is, they can recover data on any type of Raid array you are running. With its corporate headquarters based in Denver Colorado in the USA, they are available to 24/7 to help in those critical situations. For more information on RAID recovery engineering, visit their raid page at: www.datatechlab.com/raid-data-recovery/index.html

Our #3 pick:

Datarecovery.com.au

Austrailia-based Data Recovery Services P/L is a full service data recovery company serving all of Australia and Asia Pacific. This organization was established in 1991 in the United Kingdom and in 1996 in Australia. They claim to be the oldest company in Australia devoted exclusively to recovering data, with more than 15 years of experience.

RAID Data Recovery Methods

If you do not think sending your RAID to a data recovery company is in your interest, you may want to try to recover the RAID yourself so we are providing detailed information about how to recover RAID systems with a hex editor. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Recovery companies ALWAYS make several bit-level backups of each hard drive before any RAID recovery procedure is performed.

***USE AT YOUR OWN RISK***

This information is provided AS-IS. The owners of this website make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Use at your own risk, and always make backups of your disks before performing any data recovery procedure.

This information is for your own personal use. None of this information may be reprinted or republished without the express written consent of the website owners who may be contacted by emailing: info{at}raidrecoveryguide.com.

RAID RECOVERY

RAID LEVEL ZERO RECOVERY

RAID zero is simply blocks of data striped between two disks. Block size can be anything, but is typically 64kB (128 sectors) Disk 0 will contain the first sector 0 through 127, disk 1 will contain sectors 128 through 255, and this will continue to alternate throughout the entire virtual disk. One complication can be expected in some cases, and that is the presence of an offset. An offset is a number of sectors before the first striped block. The presence of an offset is common in Adaptec cards. The offset can easily be found by searching for the partition table. When found, simply take the sector number where the partition table is located, and clone the disk to a file starting with this sector.

The next step is to find the stripe size. This is a very critical step and you must be absolutely sure. Typically the stripe size will be the same as the default setting for the card that was used. For instance, a Dell PERC 2 adaptec RAID card has a stripe size of 32K (64 sectors) and an offset of 64K (128 sectors). Use this as your starting point if possible. If you do not know the card type used, it is wise to use 64K (128 sectors) as your starting point as this is most common among all cards.

Now use Winhex to find a location on the disk that is easy to see a pattern. See the example below.

Notice above how we have text, apparently from a database of some sort. This text can be used to identify a data pattern. Now look at the current sector (53,721,904). Divide this number by the suspected stripe size in sectors. In this case the stripe size we are attempting to validate is 128 sectors. The resulting number will probably not be a whole number. In this case it is 419702.375. Take the whole number of 419702 and multiply this by the suspected stripe size (128). The resulting number is what we will refer to as the "stripe break point." It is necessary to know this simple calculation for all types of RAID except RAID 1 (mirroring).

Find the break point:

53721904/128=419702.375

419702*128 = 53721856

Answer: A break point is located at sector 53, 721, 856 (see illustration below)

Notice how at the exact break point of 53, 721, 856 we have a definite difference of data. This is because the stripe is from a separate area of the volume. Not all break points will be this easy. In some cases you will have to look at the actual data and determine if consistency exists. Train your eyes to catch a break point while you are scrolling the sectors using the "page down" function, and you will become very proficient. You will often have to repeat the steps above on different areas of the disk if the data is too inconsistent to determine the break point.

Once the break point is discovered, you will then be able to start the de-striping process. Using a software utility, such as the hex editor Winhex, place the disk images in the proper order, adjust the stripe size, and clone to a hard disk. Once complete, the disk should be mountable. Refer to the partition and boot sector repair section of this manual if the disk is not mountable, or review the stripe break points.

RAID Level 5 Recovery

Definition: RAID 5 is a very popular RAID level that uses block level striping and distributed parity. This level tries to remove the bottleneck of the dedicated parity drive. With the use of a distributed parity algorithm, this level writes the data and parity data across all the drives. Basically, the blocks of data are used to create the parity blocks which are then stored across the array. This removes the bottleneck of writing to just one parity drive. However, the parity information still has to be written on a separate disk whenever a write occurs, so the slowdown involved with that still applies. There is also a small calculation that must take place for every write. The fault tolerance is maintained by separating the parity information for a block from the actual data block. This way when one drive fails, the array goes into "degraded" mode and begins reading and writing to the parity areas on the other disks in place of that bad drive. When a new disk is placed back into the RAID, the controller or software begins copying the parity data back to the new drive until complete, then the array will kick out of degraded mode. Recovery is more complicated than usual because of the distributed nature of the parity. Many RAID cards and software use separate and sometimes proprietary algorithms to generate the parity stripes. On illustration A you see just one example of RAID 5, generally referred to as "standard" or "straight" RAID 5. Many times you can get the striping pattern from the RAID card or software manufacturer.

Disk One Disk Two Disk Three Disk Four

Sectors 0-127	Sectors 128-255	Sectors 256- 511	Sectors 0-127
512-768	1024 – 1151	128-255	1152-1279
1280-1407	256- 511	1408-1535	1536-1663
512-768	1664-1791	1792-1919	1920-2047
2048-2175	2176-2303	2304-2431	1024 – 1151

As you can see in the illustration above, there is a clear pattern. The sectors in the virtual disk are striped evenly across the disks, but every fourth stripe is dedicated to parity. Red denotes parity data.

Controller Requirements: Supported by most hardware controllers, both SCSI and IDE/ATA, and also most software RAID solutions.

Hard Disk Requirements: Minimum of three hard. Any type may be used, but they should be of identical type and size for best performance and to eliminate "waste".

Array Capacity: (Size of Smallest Drive * Number of Drives – Smallest Drive).

Fault Tolerance: Any one drive may fail and the array continues to operate (in fact, it operates faster in degraded mode!) Failure of another drive results in loss of all data, which is why you paid the big bucks!

Storage Efficiency: 75% if identical drives are used.

Availability: Loss of one disk = continued server functionality.

Rebuilding (Scrubbing) and Degradation: Rebuilding takes place automatically with most RAID cards and software.

Random Read Performance: Excellent

Random Write Performance: Moderate

Sequential Read Performance: Moderate

Sequential Write Performance: Very good.

RAID RECOVERY

RAID 5 DATA RECOVERY

RAID five uses a distributed parity algorithm, this level writes the data and parity data across all the drives. The blocks of data are used to create the parity blocks which are then stored across the array. Block size can be anything, but is typically 64kB (128 sectors) Disk 0 will contain the first sector 0 through 127, disk 1 will contain sectors 128 through 255, and this will continue to alternate until you reach the last disk of the set, and this disk will be the parity disk. The parity disk will rotate based on the parity rotation algorithm for that particular RAID card or software. One complication can be expected in some cases, and that is the presence of an offset. An offset is a number of sectors before the first striped block. The presence of an offset is common in Adaptec cards. The offset can easily be found by searching for the partition table. When found, simply take the sector number where the partition table is located, and clone the disk to a file starting with this sector. Repeat on all drives and you have a starting point!

Now use Winhex to find a location on the disk that is easy to see a pattern. See the example below. Notice how we have text, apparently from a database of some sort. This text can be used to identify a data pattern. Now look at the current sector (53,721,904). Divide this number by the suspected stripe size in sectors. In this case the stripe size we are attempting to validate is 128 sectors. The resulting number will probably not be a whole number. In this case it is 419702.375. Take the whole number of 419702 and multiply this by the suspected stripe size (128). The resulting number is what we will refer to as the "stripe break point." It is necessary to know this simple calculation for all types of RAID except RAID 1 (mirroring).

Find the break point:

53721904/128=419702.375

419702*128 = 53721856

Answer: A break point is located at sector 53, 721, 856

Notice above how we have text, apparently from a database of some sort. This text can be used to identify a data pattern.

Once the break point is discovered, you will then be able to start the RAID 5 de-striping process.

The best starting point is to clone all disks twice (to be sure) into image files on separate disks. Obtain the original card or find out the card make and model and purchase this.

Assuming you have no idea where the disks belong in the RAID then you must find a point on the disk where the data is sequential. This is very difficult unless the volume is formatted with NTFS, FAT32, or FAT16. In this case, you can use the Master boot record and NTFS/FAT32/FAT16 boot record to find the location of the MFT files or FAT tables.

RAID-5 Parity Rotation

RAID-5 under any operating system can use one of four algorithms for the placement of segments among the disks in the array. -Keep in mind in your troubleshooting that there may be an offset throwing everything off. Find the partition table or OS identifier and us this as your definite sector 0. In a RAID 5 there should be two drives with a partition table. One is the first drive in that array and one is the last drive in the array.

Right Synchronous

Left Synchronous,

Left Asynchronous

Right Asynchronous

Left Asynchronous (Backwards Parity Rotation, Standard)

In this layout, the segments are numbered sequentially, starting with the first non-parity drive in the stripe. The parity drive starts at the last drive, and moves backwards one drive per stripe. While this is the hardware 'standard' RAID-5 layout, it is not the default for Linux or Windows 2000, 2003 Server. This is sometimes called backwards parity or "Standard Rotation" R-studio supports this mode.

Left Synchronous

In this layout, the segments are numbered sequentially, starting with the first drive in the stripe after the parity. The segments wrap. The parity drive starts at the left-most drive, and moves right one drive per stripe. This is the default RAID-5 segment layout under Linux.

For large reads, this segment layout is the fastest. This is because each consecutive group of segments that is no larger than the total number of disks in the array, will use all the disks in the array.

Right Asynchronous (Forward Parity Rotation)

In this layout, the segments are numbered sequentially, starting with the first non-parity drive in the stripe. The parity drive starts at the right-most drive, and moves left one drive per stripe.

Right Synchronous

In this layout, the segments are numbered sequentially, starting with the first drive in the stripe after the parity. The segments wrap. The parity drive starts at the right-most drive, and moves left one drive per stripe.

Refer to the partition and boot sector repair section of this manual if the disk is not mountable, or review the stripe break points.

RAID Level 3 Recovery

Definition: Bit-Interleaved Parity: This level uses byte level striping with dedicated parity. In other words, data is striped across the array at the byte level with one dedicated parity drive holding the redundancy information. The idea behind this level is that striping the data increasing performance and using dedicated parity takes care of redundancy. 3 hard drives are required. 2 for striping, and 1 as the dedicated parity drive. Although the performance is good, the added parity does slow down writes. The parity information has to be written to the parity drive whenever a write occurs. This increased computation calls for a hardware controller, so software implementations are not practical. RAID 3 is good for applications that deal with large files since the stripe size is small. Since this level is so rare, we have not come up with a recovery procedure for this RAID level. Recovery is possible by finding the parity disk using the image compression technique, then removing it and treating the RAID as a stripe.

RAID Level 4 Recovery

This level is very similar to RAID 3. The only difference is that it uses block level striping instead of byte level striping. The advantage in that is that you can change the stripe size to suit application needs. This level is often seen as a mix between RAID 3 and RAID 5, having the dedicated parity of RAID 3 and the block level striping of RAID 5. Again, you'll probably need to eliminate the parity disk using the image compression technique, then removing it and treating the RAID as a stripe.

RAID Level 10 and 0 + 1 Recovery

Combining Levels of RAID

The single RAID levels don't always address every requirement that exists. To address these different requirements, someone thought of the idea of combining RAID levels. What if you can combine two levels and get the advantages of both? This was the motivation behind creating these new levels. The main benefit of using multiple RAID levels is the increased performance. Usually combining RAID levels means using a hardware RAID controller. The increased level of complexity of these levels means that software solutions are not practical. RAID 0 has the best performance out of the single levels and it is the one most commonly being combined. Not all combinations of RAID levels exist. The most common combinations are RAID 0+1 and 1+0. The difference between 0+1 and 1+0 might seem subtle, and sometimes companies may use the terms interchangeably. However, the difference lies in the amount of fault tolerance. Both these levels require at least 4 hard drives to implement. Let's look at RAID 0+1 first.

This combination uses RAID 0 for it's high performance and RAID 1 for it's high fault tolerance. I actually mentioned this level when I talked about adding striping to mirroring. Let's say you have 8 hard drives. You can split them into 2 arrays of 4 drives each, and apply RAID 0 to each array. Now you have 2 striped arrays. Then you would apply RAID 1 to the 2 striped arrays and have one array mirrored on the other. If a hard drive in one striped array fails, the entire array is lost. The other striped array is left, but contains no fault tolerance if any of the drives in it fail.

RAID 1+0 applies RAID 1 first then RAID 0 to the drives. To apply RAID 1, you split the 8 drives into 4 sets of 2 drives each. Now each set is mirrored and has duplicate information. To apply RAID 0, you then stripe across the 4 sets. In essence, you have a striped array across a number of mirrored sets. This combination has better fault tolerance than RAID 0+1. As long as one drive in a mirrored set is active, the array can still function. So theoretically you can have up to half the drives fail before you lose everything, as opposed to only two drives in RAID 0+1. The popularity of RAID 0+1 and 1+0 stems from the fact that it's relatively simple to implement while providing high performance and good data redundancy. With the increased reduction of hard drive prices, the 4 hard drive minimum isn't unreasonable to the mainstream anymore. However, you still have the 50% waste in storage space whenever you are dealing with mirroring. Enterprise applications and servers are often willing to sacrifice storage for increased performance and fault tolerance. Some other combinations of RAID levels that are used include, RAID 0+3, 3+0, 0+5, 5+0, 1+5, and 5+1. These levels are often complicated to implement and require expensive hardware. Not all of the combinations I mentioned above are used

Again, we must narrow these types of RAID arrays down to its simplest form. Utilizing the image compression technique will make this a speedy process.

Compressed Image Technique

Compressed Image Technique

The compressed image technique allows you to quickly identify the following:

A disk that dropped out of an array, such as a RAID 5 array, long before another failed disk.
A disk that does not belong in the array, for whatever reason.
A parity disk versus data disk.

Simply make your RAID images using Winhex, but store them on a compressed NTFS volume. Storing disk images on an NTFS compressed volume also saves space and allows you to work more quickly without having to shuffle many drives in your recovery attempts. Simply right-click on the image to see its compressed size. See the following example of a RAID five with one drive that failed long before the second drive failed. On the following pages, see if you can determine which disk does not belong. Do not pay attention to subtle differences.

Best Regards,
Ganesh :-)

File System analysis

2011-09-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

Best Regards,
Ganesh :-)

wxHexEditor – Powerful Hex Editor To Recover Data From HDD And System Partitions

2011-09-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

Generally, hex editors are used to tweak with source binary files for variety of reasons. For instance, you might want to change restricted user preferences, add or edit default configurations provided by an application, or to modify application version information to make it compatible with other software. wxHexEditor is an open source and powerful hex editor, which, while having all the basic editing and analyzing capabilities, allows you to recover data from raw HDD and system partitions. Moreover, you can edit partition tables and recover files from system by opening required file in it. It comes with multi-tabbed interface with a facility of doing comparisons, so users can open multiple files and check them for any differences. With powerful editor, HDD and SDD disk devices can also be viewed and edited. Unlike other hex editors, it doesn't consume too much of memory while opening large files.

The main window is divided into 3 panes. The offsets are listed at the left side while Hex values and original file content is shown in center pane and in right pane respectively. The main toolbar holds handy options to go to specified offset, inject user-defined bytes, delete selected data blocks, and find Hex and Text data, At the left side of main window, you can see the opened file information, such as, total size, read/write access permission, file path with options to view selected DataInterpreter values.

The right-click menu lets you open tag editor, create new tags, and perform basic copy and paste operations. The TagPanel is kept at right side of the window to quickly jump between tagged data values. If you are just reviewing a binary file, you can close tag pane to get more space.

You wont have to manually specify drive device or partition to recover data. From Devices menu, just choose the partition or disk drive to retain the data back.

It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Download wxHexEditor

Best Regards,
Ganesh :-)

Wedding Invitation

2011-04-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

We, Ganesh & Pooja along with our families, are delighted to announce "A Festive Celebration Of Love" in the form of the most auspicious event of our lives & that's "Our Wedding".

This big day for us has been finalized in the pleasant weather of May year 2011 on 18th , Wednesday.

So please reserve this day from your calendar only for us.

Please Click Here to find the detailed invitation, the time and the address to the wedding venue..

Cheers,
Ganesh & Pooja

Sweet Memories of Pune

2011-04-15T20:22:00.001-07:00

20+ INCREDIBLE GIGAPIXEL PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATIONS

2011-04-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Gigapixel photography is a new trend that has come about in the last few years, creating 1,000+ megapixels of data in single images, cropped together to create a monstrous image. The detail and spectrum that can be captured in a Giga pixel image is unlike that of anything that a single camera can capture.
For taking Giga pixel Photography, you need to have a Gigapxl Camera. The Gigapxl camera captures single exposures on film with enough resolvable detail to support scanning at resolutions up to four billion pixels. Single-gigapixel images are slightly larger than 44,000 x 22,000 pixels in size and four-gigapixel images are twice as wide and twice as high at 88,000 x 44,000 pixels.

One way of visualizing the size of a four gigapixel image is to consider a photograph of a regulation football pitch (soccer in USA) which is 90m x 45m. A four gigapixel top-down photograph of the entire field at 1mm per pixel would cover an area of 89.4m x 44.7m, which is 99.38% of the indicated size. This mm-per-pixel scale represents perhaps as many as 100 pixels per blade of grass across an entire pitch captured in a single exposure.

HOW IT WORKS?

These systems (and those like them) work quite simply in concept, but are actually quite complex. What happens is you need to mount the compact (point and shoot) camera inside the camera system. Then, simply put the camera in the position you want (mounted or sitting on the ground, etc) and you set up your shot. Remember that when you do this it is going to be a huge image, so make sure you place the camera to capture a great surrounding that adds to your image and doesn't detract.
Once you have the camera set up you let the machine go to work, It will take photos as it rotates through a system and course and actually moves the camera into different positions and takes the photographs. Finally after the image is saved and captured you move to the computer to start editing the huge file together. Make sure you have some processing power, as this will produce 200+ images, and my MacBook Pro with 512mb video/4gb RAM gets killed with a 10 image photoshop file.

Gigapixel images allow you to capture amazing details inside an image. This allows you to zoom in and out using software online to view the picture as a whole, or the intimate details of the work. This creates a level of interaction with your images, something that is often lost online. The user can manipulate the image and create a larger or smaller image cropped to their liking to enjoy.

WHY NOT USE A DIGITAL CAMERA?

Modern frame-exposure professional digital cameras have spatial resolutions ranging of 4-16 megapixels in "35mm D-SLR" formats and up to 22 megapixels for medium format backs. Using such cameras to create gigapixel images requires mosaicing hundreds of individual exposures. Alternatively, strip-sensors can be used to scan the image plane over a few seconds time. Even so, however, large format scanning backs have final image resolutions 1-2 decades below our gigapixel regime and require relatively static scenes, as does the mosaic approach, and are thus generally inappropriate for photos of traffic, people, water, and events. The single-exposure advantage is pronounced in images with crowds of people. The facial expressions of an half a stadium of fans can be captured at passport resolution in a single instant as they react to events on the field.
Using proven techniques allows artists to recreate this effect in many amazing places, from President Obama's inauguration to the Rocky Mountains, allows for some amazing work to wow you and captivate your imagination.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

This enormous picture, taken by David Bergman, was stitched together from 220 images taken on a Canon G10 mounted on a Gigapan panoramic imager system.

DEATH VALLEY

GASWORKS PARK, SEATLE WASHINGTON

CLOUD GATE "THE BEAN ", CHICAGO

THE MAGICAL WATER TOUR,PERU

Parque de la Reserva, Peru's capital city with an attraction that other countries around the world also have.
This is the biggest fountain park in the world, there are 13 fountains that are lit with more than 500colourful lights!

"HAUS DER PRESSE",DRESDEN

The picture was made with the Canon 5D mark II and a 400mm-lens. It consists of 1.665 full format pictures with 21.4 megapixel, which was recorded by a photo-robot in 172 minutes. The converting of 102 GB raw data by a computer with a main memory cache of 48 GB and 16 processors took 94 hours. With a resolution of 297.500 x 87.500 pixel (26 gigapixel) the picture is the largest in the world. (stand December 2009)

PRAGUE FROM THE TV TOWER

This is a super high resolution photo. Use your mouse to zoom in and see a startling level of detail. This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That's 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it's printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at regular photographic quality (300dpi). It was shot in early October 2009 from the top of the Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Prague 3 town hall. A digital SLR camera and a 200mm lens were used. Hundreds of shots were shot over a few hours; these shots were then stitched together on a computer over the following few weeks.

EASTERN SIERRA, ALABAMA HILLS

HUIJI TEMPLE DEVA-RAJA IN TAIPEI

CHACO CANYON, PUEBLO BONITO

UNIVERSITY PARK LIMA

Named for the house of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the first university in America.

In this park are several monuments and watch a monumental gift to the city by the German Cologne on the occasion of the centennial of the Independence of Peru in 1921. Also the Panteon de los Proceres.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE FROM DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN

The view from the Brooklyn Marriott Downtown hotel.

5 BEST GIGAPIXEL PHOTOGRAPHY BY GERARD MAYNARD

Gerard has got five Giga pixel Photography in his website. Those are really stunning and one of them is the biggest giga pixel image ever taken.

DUBAI CREEK GIGA PIXEL PHOTOGRAPHY

CHICAGO GIGAPIXEL PHOTOGRAPHY

200+ GIGA PIXEL IMAGES FROM 360 CITIES

360 Cities has got more than 200+ excellent Giga Pixel photography. You can check the photographs based on country name.

Congestion Management Configuration

2011-03-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Congestion Management Configuration

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 01:07 PM PDT

Congestion Management Overview

As discussed in the VoIP Quality of Service (QoS) Basics article, one of the methods of controlling the amount of congestion on the network is to utilize congestion management techniques, primarily queue configuration. This article addresses the various congestion management techniques, and reviews the steps required to configure it on a network.

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Congestion management techniques can be used alongside other Quality of Service (QoS) techniques to ensure that the traffic which requires a high level of service is able to get it. Congestion management techniques work by reducing the effect that network congestion has on the flow of traffic across the network; this is done with a number of different queueing mechanisms.

Congestion management, like classification and marking, is another subject area that is required for the completion of the CVOICE (642-437) exam. Congestion management, along with a carefully planned overall QoS plan, is essential when implementing multiservice networks.

Queueing

The majority of the time that a network is set up without the need for QoS or congestion management, a queueing mechanism is still being used to process traffic through a device. By default, all interfaces that are below 2.048 Mbps utilize Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ), while all interfaces above 2.048 Mbps utilize First-In, First-Out Queueing (FIFO); both of these will be covered in more detail later in this section.

So, what is a queue? One of the most recognizable examples of queueing is at a large store. There are a number of different lanes that are created so that people can check themselves out of the store with their merchandise. If using the FIFO method, all individuals would be able to check out in the order in which they got in line. What happens if there is only one line and the person in front has 100 items to checkout? In this situation, everyone waits for that person to check out completely before the next person in line is able to go. An extension of this concept works well as an example of weighted fair queueing as well. What if a separate 20 or less lane could be created to speed the rate at which shoppers with smaller amounts of merchandise can check out? In this circumstance, shoppers with a small number of items do not get held up by those with a larger number of items.

When implementing FIFO or WFQ on a networking device, the concepts in the examples hold true. When using FIFO, the traffic that arrives first gets sent first, regardless of who is waiting to be forwarded. What if a telnet session was happening at the same time a large file transfer was happening? With FIFO, if the file transfer traffic was received first, then the interactive traffic would be stuck waiting for that traffic to pass out of the queue. If the queueing method was changed to WFQ, then both types of traffic would be weighted so that each got to pass an equal number of packets regardless of who got there first; this enables the telnet session to continue to have a satisfactory response time and allows the file transfer to continue.

There are a couple of other queueing mechanisms that can be used as well; these include Priority Queueing, Custom Queueing, and Class-Based WFQ, among others.

Queueing Configuration

The configuration of advanced queueing can be quite complicated. This article will limit its scope to the basic commands used to configure FIFO, WFQ, priority and custom queueing; if seriously considering using any non-default queueing mechanism, please reference the Cisco website.

FIFO and WFQ Configuration

The configuration of basic FIFO and WFQ is rather simple as both require very little or no configuration.

The command syntax required to configure FIFO queueing on an interface is as follows:

router(config-if)#fair-queue [congestive-discard-threshold [dynamic-queues [reservable-queues]]]

In most situations the default parameters are adequate.

The configuration of FIFO queueing is even easier, as by default most interfaces use it. If there is an interface that has an existing queueing mechanism other than FIFO, simply remove it, and the interface will then use FIFO queueing.

For example, if an interface is using WFQ, the following command would configure the interface with FIFO queueing.

router(config-if)#no fair-queue

Priority Queueing Configuration

Priority queueing provides the ability to manually assign the traffic from specific interfaces or specific running protocols into separate low, normal, medium or high priority queues. The configuration of priority queueing begins by configuring a priority list that contains the different parameters used with priority queueing. The different commands that can be used to configure a priority list are shown below.

To configure a priority list based on the protocol, the command syntax includes:

router(config)#priority-list list-number protocol protocol-name {high | medium | normal | low}

To configure a priority list based on the interface, the command syntax includes:

router(config)#priority-list list-number interface interface-type interface-number {high | medium | normal | low}

To configure the priority given to all traffic that does not match any of the other commands, the command syntax includes:

router(config)#priority-list list-number default {high | medium | normal | low}

The priority list is then applied to an interface; the same priority list can be applied to multiple interfaces at the same time. Each of the rules in the priority lists are consulted in order, until a match is found; any traffic that does not match any of the rules is assigned the priority configured in the default rule.

The command syntax used to apply a priority list to an interface includes:

router(config-if)#priority-group list-number

Custom Queueing Configuration

Custom queueing works quite similarly to priority queueing, but provides a mechanism for more fairness between high and low priority traffic. With priority queueing, if there is traffic in the high priority queue it will be sent in front of all other traffic regardless of how long it takes to transmit. With custom queueing, each of the queues is configured with a queue depth, and an average byte count of the bytes forwarded, when it is time to empty that specific queue.

The configuration of a custom queue is similar to the syntax used by priority queueing, the commands include:

router(config)#queue-list list-number protocol protocol-name queue-number

router(config)#queue-list list-number interface interface-type interface-number queue-number

router(config)#queue-list list-number default queue-number

The commands used to configure the queue depth and the number of bytes forward per queue include:

router(config)#queue-list list-number queue queue-number limit limit-number

router(config)#queue-list list-number queue queue-number byte-count byte-count-number

Summary

The queueing mechanisms discussed in this article are not all of the ones available, but are the simplest to configure. For example, the Class Based WFQ and Low Latency Queueing methods are available for those applications with very specific traffic requirements. This article covers various congestion management techniques, which are used alongside other Quality of Service (QoS) techniques, and queue configuration, to reduce the effect that network congestion has on the flow of traffic across the network.

10 Steps for Boosting Creativity

2010-12-29T08:56:00.001-08:00

Johann Sebastian Bach

Listen to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. If Bach doesn't make you more creative, you should probably see your doctor - or your brain surgeon if you are also troubled by headaches, hallucinations or strange urges in the middle of the night.

Brainstorm. If properly carried out, brainstorming can help you not only come up with sacks full of new ideas, but can help you decide which is best. Click here for more information on brainstorming.

Always carry a small notebook and a pen or pencil around with you. That way, if you are struck by an idea, you can quickly note it down. Upon rereading your notes, you may discover about 90% of your ideas are daft. Don't worry, that's normal. What's important are the 10% that are brilliant.

If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking.

Define your problem. Grab a sheet of paper, electronic notebook, computer or whatever you use to make notes, and define your problem in detail. You'll probably find ideas positively spewing out once you've done this.

If you can't think, go for a walk. A change of atmosphere is good for you and gentle exercise helps shake up the brain cells.

Don't watch TV. Experiments performed by the JPB Creative Laboratory show that watching TV causes your brain to slowly trickle out your ears and/or nose. It's not pretty, but it happens.

Don't do drugs. People on drugs think they are creative. To everyone else, they seem like people on drugs.

Read as much as you can about everything possible. Books exercise your brain, provide inspiration and fill you with information that allows you to make creative connections easily.

10.

Exercise your brain. Brains, like bodies, need exercise to keep fit. If you don't exercise your brain, it will get flabby and useless. Exercise your brain by reading a lot (see above), talking to clever people and disagreeing with people - arguing can be a terrific way to give your brain cells a workout. But note, arguing about politics or film directors is good for you; bickering over who should clean the dishes is not.

To Access blocked sites: Use Calculator!!

2010-10-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

When both Domain Name & IP Address are banned, Use Calculator to Access that Website

This unique Mathematics based trick will probably work when websites are blocked in your institution or corporate network based on the host name or their IP address.
The trick is to convert the human readable website address that's blocked (like bebo.com) into an IP address (208.75.184. 160) and again translate this value to a decimal address which is probably not blocked by the website filters.
Here's a step by step guide to render www.myspace. com to a decimal address:

How to Access Restricted Websites
1) get its IP address (216.178.39. 74), by pinging the name (if you have a direct internet connection) or if you only have access via a web proxy then find it out by using a networking website like network-tools. com.
2) start your PC's calculator, and change it to scientific mode (using the "View" menu)

3) enter each of the four IP octets, one by one, converting them to binary (enter number and click on the "Bin" radio button)
Thus 216.178.39.74 becomes
216 = 11011000
178 = 10110010
39 = 00100111
74 = 01001010
Notice how any binary numbers less than 8 digits long have had leading zeroes added to pad them out. Reassembled into IP address order, you get 11011000.10110010. 00100111. 01001010
4) Remove the dots, so you get one huge line of binary, thus: 1101100010110010001 0011101001010
5) Copy this binary string
6) Go to your scientific calculator, and hit the "Bin" button FIRST (as you are about to enter binary), THEN paste in the binary string.
7) Click on the "Dec" button on your calculator, and you will get the converted value of 3635554122
8) Add the hypertext protocol prefix and paste into your browser's address bar: http://3635554122
Wuntoo adds: I used to be in a place that had websense, where both website names and their corresponding IP addresses were blocked. However was able to get limited access by converting the IP address to decimal, which websense (at the time) did not know about. This might have changed since, or if your school runs an old version it might still work. Note that if you surf away from the page you might hit websense blocks again unless you manually reconstruct the next address you want to get to.

Implement security management with these six steps

2010-10-29T02:29:00.001-07:00

Security management deals with how system integrity is maintained amid man-made threats and risks, intentional or unintentional. Intentional man-made threats include espionage, hacks, and computer viruses. Unintentional threats include those due to accidents or user ignorance of the effects of their actions. Security management ranges from identification of risks to determination of security measures and controls, detection of violations, and analysis of security violations. I'll describe the steps involved in security management and discuss factors critical to the success of security management.

Step 1: Determine and evaluate IT assets
Three types of assets must be identified.

Physical

Computer hardware and software resources
Building facilities
Resources used to house sensitive assets or process sensitive information

Information
The information category includes sensitive data pertaining to the company's operations, plans, and strategies. Examples are marketing and sales plans, detailed financial data, trade secrets, personnel information, IT infrastructure data, user profiles and passwords, sensitive office correspondence, and minutes of meetings. Recently, concern has also risen about protecting company logos and materials posted on the public Internet.

People
The people category includes vital individuals holding key roles, whose incapacity or absence will affect the business.

After you identify company assets, the next step is to determine their security level. Depending on the company's requirements, assets may be classified into two or more levels of security. I recommend two levels for organizations with minimal security threats: public and confidential. A three-level security classification scheme can be implemented if security needs are greater: public, confidential, and restricted.

Be wary of having too many security levels; this tends to dilute their importance in the eyes of the user. A large multinational IT vendor used to have five levels of security: public, internal use only, confidential, confidential restricted, and registered confidential. Today, it has cut down to three: public, internal use only, and confidential. Employees were confused about the differences among the secured levels and the procedures associated with each one. Having too many security levels proved expensive in terms of employee education, security facilities, and office practices—the costs were often greater than the potential losses from a security violation.

Step 2: Analyze risk
Every effective security management system reflects a careful evaluation of how much security is needed. Too little security means the system can easily be compromised intentionally or unintentionally. Too much security can make the system hard to use or degrade its performance unacceptably. Security is inversely proportional to utility—if you want the system to be 100 percent secure, don't let anybody use it. There will always be risks to systems, but often these risks are accepted if they make the system more powerful or easier to use.

Acceptance of risk is central to good security management. You'll never have enough resources to secure assets 100 percent; in fact, this is virtually impossible even with unlimited resources. Therefore, identify all risks to the system, then choose which risks to accept and which to address via security measures. Here are a few reasons some risks are acceptable:

The threat is minimal.
The possibility of compromise is unlikely.
The value of the asset is low.
The cost to secure the asset is greater than the value of the asset.
The threat will soon go away.
Security violations can easily be detected and immediately corrected.

After you've identified the risks, the next step is to determine the effect to the business if the asset is lost or compromised. By doing this, you get a good idea of how many resources should be assigned to protecting the asset. One user workstation almost certainly deserves fewer resources than the company's servers.

The risks you choose to accept should be documented and signed by all parties, not only to protect the IT organization, but also to make everybody aware that unsecured company assets do exist.

Step 3: Define security practices
Define in detail the following key areas of security management:

Asset classification practices: Guidelines for specifying security levels as discussed above
Risk assessment and acceptance: As above
Asset ownership: Assignment of roles for handling sensitive assets
Asset handling responsibilities: The tasks and procedures to be followed by the entities handling the asset, as identified above
Policies regarding mishandling of security assets
How security violations are reported and responded to
Security awareness practices: Education programs and labeling of assets
Security audits: Unannounced checks of security measures put in place to find out whether they are functioning

Step 4: Implement security practices
At this phase, implement the security measures defined in the preceding step. You can do this in stages to make it easier for everybody to adapt to the new working environment. Expect many problems at the start, especially with respect to user resistance to their security tasks, such as using passwords. Staged implementation can be performed:

By department, starting with the most sensitive assets. The natural first choice would be the IT department.
By business function or activity, starting with those that depend on (or create) the most sensitive assets. You might begin with all business planning activities, followed by marketing, human resources, etc.
By location, especially if prioritized sensitive assets are mostly physical. This approach is easiest to implement. However, its effectiveness is doubtful for information assets residing in networked computer systems. You might start with the IT data center, then gradually widen the secured area to encompass the entire business facility.
By people, starting with key members of the organization.

Step 5: Monitor for violations and take corresponding actions
An effective security management discipline depends on adequate compliance monitoring. Violations of security practices, whether intentional or unintentional, become more frequent and serious if not detected and acted on. A computer hacker who gets away with the first system penetration will return repeatedly if he knows no one can detect his activities. Users who get away with leaving confidential documents on their desks will get into bad habits if not corrected quickly.

You'll perform two major activities here: detecting security violations and responding to them. With respect to sensitive assets, it is important to know:

Who has the right to handle the assets (user names).
How to authenticate those asset users (password, IDs, etc.).
Who has tried to gain access to them.
How to restrict access to allowed activities.
Who has tried to perform actions beyond those that are allowed.

Document the response to security violations, and follow up immediately after a violation is detected. The IT organization should have a computer emergency response team to deal with security violations. Members of this team should have access to senior management so that severe situations can easily be escalated.

Responses can be built into your security tools or facilities to ensure that the response to a violation is immediate. For example, a password-checking utility may be designed to lock out a user name immediately after three invalid password entries. Alarms can be installed around the data center facility so that if any window or door is forced open, security guards or police are immediately notified.

A critical part of this activity is the generation of reports for management that discuss significant security violations and trends of minor incidences. The objective is to spot potential major security violations before they cause serious damage.

Step 6: Reevaluate IT assets and risks
Security management is a discipline that never rests. Major changes that would require a reassessment of the security management practice include:

Security violations are rampant.
Organizational structure or composition changes.
Business environment changes.
Technology changes.
Budget allocation decreases.

As information technology continues to grow in scope and importance, the value of managing the security of mission-critical computer systems running an organization's most sensitive processes and functions cannot be overstated. With security one of their highest priorities, executives are searching for effective techniques to deliver maximum security while simplifying security management. With a well-defined security management process in place, your IT organization will realize numerous benefits—reduce the number and effect of security incidents, reduce problem resolution time, and improve staff productivity.

Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute and Change Technology Solutions, Inc. represent the industry's leading minds behind the design and implementation of world-class IT organizations.

How to Protect Your Computer from Keyloggers

2010-10-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

Posted from www.gohacking.com

Keyloggers have been a major problem today as it does not require any prior knowledge of computers to use it. So hackers mainly use keyloggers to steal your passwords, credit card numbers and other confidential data.
Below are some methods through which you can protect your computer from keyloggers:

Use a Good Antivirus

This is the first and basic step that you need to take in order to protect your computer from keyloggers. Use a Good antivirus such as Kaspersky, Norton or Mcafee and update it regularly.

Use a Good Antispyware

Since keyloggers are basically spywares, if you are a frequent user of Internet then you could be exposed to thousands of keyloggers and spywares. So you should use a good antispyware such as NoAdware.

Antilogger can be Handy

Antiloggers are programs that detect the presence of keyloggers on a given computer. Over past few years, I have tested a lot of anti-logging programs and have found Zemana Antilogger as the best antilogger.
Zemana
Normally a keylogger can be easily detected by a Good Antivirus program, but hackers use some methods such as hexing, binding, crypting and similar techniques to make it harder to be detected by antivirus programs. In this case Zemana Antilogger comes handy as the program is specially developed to protect your system against harmful keyloggers.

Online Scanning

When ever you receive a suspicious file, you scan it with online scanners such as Multi engine antivirus scanner which scans your file with 24 antivirus engines and reports it back to you if the file is recognized as a virus or spyware. This ensures that none of the malicious programs can escape from being detected as there are 24 different antivirus engines are involved in the scanning process.

Sandboxie

Sandboxie is another great program to help you protect your computer against harmful keyloggers and spywares. Sandboxie runs your computer in an isolated space which prevents your program from making permanent changes to other programs in your computer.
When ever you receive a file that looks suspicious, just run the program with Sandboxie so even if it is a keylogger or any other virus it will not make permanent changes to your computer system.

To run a program in Sandboxie follow the steps as mentioned below:
1. Open sandboxie and click on sandbox menu on the top
2. Now goto Default sandbox
3. Then click on run any program
4. Now select the file you wish to run in sandboxie and click open

Keyscrambler

Keyscrambler is one of the best protection against keyloggers that you can have, Keyscrambler is a small program which encrypts your typed keystrokes so even if the victim has installed a keylogger on your system, he or she will get encrypted keys. Keyscrambler currently supports Firefox, Internet explorer and other applications, however its premium version supports more than 160 applications.
Hope you liked my post! Pass the comments.

This is a guest post by Rafay baloch who is an 18 year Computer engineering student, Ethical hacker, Tech blogger and an Internet marketer, He blogs at his blog Learn How to Hack and he is the writer of the book "A Beginners Guide To Ethical Hacking"

Talent versus Attitude

2010-10-26T00:19:00.001-07:00

Everybody today look at sportstars, musicians, artists etc and say - Wow! what an amazing talent, I wish i could possess that kind of talent. People often confuse themselves with the thought that excellence is all about talent. However, excellence is not about talent alone. In fact a major portion of excellence has nothing to do with talent. Beyond a certain point, talent or ability is the most useless virtue to possess. It is what you do with that talent that counts. Beyond a point, it is attitude that counts way more than talent.

It has been observed that even the most talented people in this world have not been able to achieve what they were supposed to achieve. This is because the moment they faced a road block, did not know what to do. Earlier it was talent that solved problems for them. But beyond a certain point when you reach a certain level, it is your attitude that counts. Once an individual is in the top league, the importance of talent fades away. This is because, others present in the top league possess the same talent. So whats the difference? The difference here is Attitude. An individual succeeds when he/she has the right attitude, the right work ethic and of course the passion to perform. Talent might open the first door, might open the second door, but will not open the last door. So to achieve anything in life, it is very important to have the right attitude and passion to do well.

Best Wishes & Regards,

Ganesh :-)

"Winning doesn't always mean being first, winning means you are doing better
than you have done before!"

http://ganeshghube.wordpress.com/