PC Manager Meeting April 27, 2005

Today Updates Next Meeting Security Licenses Meeting Maker This Month: Desktop Standardization Project – Adam Walters Desktop Search Tools – Mark Kaletka MMS 2005 – Jack Schmidt

Next Meeting May 25 th Securing IE (Joe Klemencic)

Security Mini Security Awareness Day May 9th, 9-12:30 Just repeating the 3 courses for ITNA requirements MS SQL attacks Image (next slide) from darknet showing flows from attackings coming THROUGH the border router and AutoBlocker Initially planned to block SQL port but other software makes use of that port. Working on solution! CST actively scanning for SQL vulnerabilities

Licenses MacOS Tiger Maintenance The new MacOS X 10.4 'Tiger' release is due out April 29th. Apple has added 200+ features, including some exceeding clever search technology that makes the Mac, the local area network, , and the Internet look like parts of the same search entity. We have purchased a second 100 user Apple Maintenance Program contract, which allows those who participate to get Mac OS upgrades for the next 3 years for the one-time price of $81. There are still about a Dozen seats available for anyone who is interested. All G5 and G4 users, and most G3 users can upgrade to 'Tiger' - contact if you (or those you support) are interested in joining in on the AMP agreement.

Meeting Maker 8.51 Upgrade Downtime April 29th 4:30 pm to May 2nd 6:00 AM Getting the word out to users and admins. General installs (via startup script) Manual Installs (Palm Users), MAC users Remembering Usernames and passwords Upgrade Virtual server consolidation New hardware, windows 2003 server Client pre-populated with server name Groups will be recreated after the upgrade

Meeting Maker 8.51 Upgrade After the Upgrade Who to call Helpdesk. They will forward the tickets to the DA primary Password resets Account creation Resource creation Helpful links css.fnal.gov/csi/meetingmaker/Documentation.htm User documentation HTML and Native Client help documentation Install guides FAQ’s coming soon

Main Topic Desktop Standardization Project Adam Walters

Business Case Improve support efficiency Increase level of security Enhance usefulness of tools Improve the user experience Reduce user downtime Better understand what is supported Get ahead of the support curve

Project Statement Migrate systems to standard image Microsoft Windows XP-SP2/Office 2003 Specific set of core apps Remove VNC, Citrix, Timbuktu Computer Security MS critical patches/SAV Install PatchLink client (future = SMS) Verify PSM in SysAdmindb - Clusters Tools Verify PL, AD and MISCOMP concur Verify accuracy of asset & user information

Proposal Execution Negotiate an agreement with a vendor who already has an on-site presence. Save on administrative overhead. The vendor is providing a Windows IT engineer on-site for 3 months to complete a well defined project. Goals, Deliverables, Timelines spelled out in very specific detail. Developed a written script for the engineer. No project creep. ESH complete, LSS 50% done, CD next. Expect to be done June.

Lessons Learned 7-10 day start up learning curve. Older systems take about 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs to complete depending on the processor and memory. Newer systems minutes. Hoped to leverage remote management tools, settled for visits to each desktop. Averaging about systems/week. Have deferred vendor OS upgrades so far. Use our people as liaisons with users. Keep the process efficient.

Success = Marketing Contract administration and infrastructure is already in place. The vendor is interested in additional business in other parts of the laboratory. Their IT engineer is familiar with the Laboratory and the project deliverables. Available in June. Contact me if are questions about this project –

Main Topic Desktop Search Tools Mark Kaletka

Motivation ~ 35,000 computer security s in Outlook which sometimes have to be searched for a particular user or machine or incident’s history. MOU’s and SLA’s with various organizations that were last updated three (or more) years ago. A complex system of filing and archiving documents and s. Documents on local desktop, on Windows and AFS shares, and on encrypted volumes.

Solution: Desktop Search Tools Recently, tools are available to index and search Outlook s and files on the desktop or on servers. Searching an index is much quicker than using Outlook’s “find” or Explorer’s “search”.

Evaluated Betas of… Google Desktop Search Lookout Copernic Desktop Search MSN Desktop Search

Commonalities All of these allow you to: Index and search Outlook s Index and search documents on your desktop Specify folders to index Use some syntax to limit/refine your searches Index in the background & automatically pause indexing Warning – indexing in any of these is very resource-intensive and take hours & hours the first time (allow overnight at least) & uses lots of disk space Also support “index on the fly” when documents or are opened Note – All require Outlook running to build Outlook index (More about Outlook indexing later.) Have privacy concerns?

Google Desktop Search Pros Familiar Google look & feel Familiar Google search syntax Indexes many file types, including PDF’s Works with Thunderbird, Firefox Plugins available Indexes & searches browser history & favorites Cons Familiar Google look & feel Didn’t find Outlook s to index Limited control on indexing files Especially on shares Get it from:

Lookout Pros Really fast! Good search syntax Works extremely well with Outlook Searches contacts & tasks as well as Good control over selecting folders to index Works on shares Cons Dead product (purchased by MS) Limited support for document types Limited extensibility Get it from:

Copernic Desktop Search Pros Best user interface Not Microsoft or Google Better file type support than Lookout Indexes & searches browser history & favorites Works with Thunderbird Works with IE, Mozilla, Firefox Cons Screws up Outlook headers  But not permanently But in a highly annoying way Where to get it

MSN Desktop Search Pros Too early to tell Lookout “heritage” is good Supports a good variety of file types Supports plugin filters Supposedly open – Cons MSN name  Comes with “MSN Toolbar Suite” Only works with Outlook & Outlook Express Probably only works (well) with IE Where to get it

Indexing IMAP Using Outlook IMAP messages must be locally cached to get indexed properly For each folder, set “Tools” > “Send/Receive” > “Send/Receive Settings” > “Make This Folder Available Offline” Or, “Tools” > “Send/Receive” > “Send/Receive Settings” > “Define Send/Receive Groups” Highlight (your IMAP account name) > “Edit” Right click the IMAP root folder > “Check All Subfolders” Highlight any IMAP folder > “Download complete item including attachments” Right click the folder > “Apply options to all checked folders” This could use a lot of local disk space (as much as your IMAP quota) This could slow down your mail download (although not by much after the first download)

Conclusions Copernic would be a winner if it didn’t cause Outlook problems. Lookout works great but is a dead end. I don’t like the Google look & feel for searching (large numbers) of s – despite using it all the time on the web. I’m trying out MSN at home but will stick with Lookout at work, for now.

Live Demo

Main Topic MMS 2005 (Microsoft Management Summit) Jack Schmidt

MMS 2005 Held yearly in Spring Several tracks: Microsoft IT Solutions Microsoft Operations Manager Sponsor Sessions/Vendor Expo Systems Management Server System Center Virtual Server 2005 Windows Management Technologies

MMS 2005 Keynotes: DSI In Action Reducing Your TCO How Microsoft Manages IT Keynote Highlights Microsoft is dedicated to System Management in the Enterprise DSI – Dynamic Systems Initiative WS-Management – Web Services One place to get patches! Interact with other OS

MMS 2005 Hands On Labs Instructor Led Self-paced Unsupervised

MMS 2005 Talks and labs at management/MMS2005/ My favorites New command line scripting tool ‘Monad’ MOM 2005 lab SMS Hitmen Web Services & Hardware Management