Here is a basic run of the tool to find and list computer accounts that haven’t been accessed in a year:

oldcmp.exe -report -age 365 -llts -sh

When working with a client I am very cautious to delete, so I would disable those accounts and move them to an Archive OU in AD:

oldcmp.exe -disable -age 365 -llts -newparent “ou=Archive,dc=xxxxxxxx,dc=local” -excldn “Archive” -safety 10

If everything looks OK with that, add the -forreal flag to actually do the work and adjust the -safety flag to a reasonable value:

oldcmp.exe -disable -age 365 -llts -newparent “OU=Archive,DC=xxxxxxxx,DC=local” -excldn “Archive” -safety 20 -forreal

If after a couple months no one has squawked about problems, it is probably safe to delete those accounts.

Once the initial disable and move to Archive is done, you can run this to find accounts that may need attention:

oldcmp.exe -report -age 180 -llts -excldn “Archive”

I claim no original thoughts here, but I did want to preserve a link to a good answer I found and have implemented.  The original thread is here on the Technet Forums.

First create ups-shutdown.vbs and load it with:

set wmi = GetObject(“winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Shutdown)}!\\.\root\cimv2″)
set batteryColl = wmi.ExecQuery(“select * from Win32_Battery”)
set osColl = wmi.ExecQuery(“select * from Win32_OperatingSystem”)

while true
for each battery in batteryColl
battery.Refresh_
if battery.batteryStatus = 1 and battery.EstimatedChargeRemaining <= 40 then
for each os in osColl
os.Win32Shutdown 1
next
end if
next
wscript.Sleep 15000
wend

Schedule this to run at startup using the Task Scheduler.  (Connect from another machine and set this up.)

Next create ups-monitor.ps1 and insert:

# Initialize Variables
# Shutdown threshold at 50% of remaining UPS capacity
$threshhold = 40
$interval = 60
$OnBattery = 0
$Event = 0

$hostname = hostname

# Create SMTP client
$Server = “mail.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com”
$Port = 25
$Client = New-Object System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient $Server, $Port

$Client.Credentials = [System.Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultNetworkCredentials

$To      = “admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com”
$From    = “hyperv@yyyyyyyyyyyy.com”

# Loop on Battery Query
while (1)
{
$bat = get-wmiobject -class CIM_Battery -namespace “root\CIMV2″
$batstatus = $bat.batterystatus
$batcapacity = $bat.estimatedchargeremaining
$timetoshutdown = $bat.estimatedruntime/2

if ($batstatus -eq 1)
{
$Event = 1
$OnBattery = 1
# “On Battery”

$Subject = “Utility Power Failure: {0} is running On UPS Battery” -f $hostname
$Body   = “UPS at {0} % remaining capacity, approximately {1} minutes before {2} shutdown.” -f $batcapacity, $timetoshutdown, $hostname

if ($batcapacity -lt ($threshhold +5) )
{
$Body = “Shutdown imminent at {0} %, with ” -f $threshhold + $Body
}

}

elseif (($batstatus -eq 2) -and ($OnBattery -eq 1))
{
$Event = 1
$OnBattery = 0
# “Power Restored”

$Subject = “Utility Power Restored to {0}.” -f $hostname
$Body   = “Battery at {0} % capacity. UPS charging… ” -f $batcapacity
}

if ($Event -eq 1) # Create mail message
{
$Event = 0
$Message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $From, $To, $Subject, $Body
$Message.Priority = [System.Net.Mail.MailPriority]::High
try {
$Client.Send($Message)
# “Message sent successfully”
}
catch {
“Exception caught in UPS_Monitor.ps1″
}
}

sleep $interval
}

Change the mail server, to and from address, and you’re in business.

Create ups-monitor.cmd with the following:

powershell -command c:\path\to\your\script\ups-monitor.ps1

Again using Task Scheduler, schedule ups-monitor.cmd to run at startup, and you’re set.

Make sure you have your VMs set to save at shutdown and autostart, and then go pull the plug on that UPS just to make sure things work to your liking.

Also from the above referenced thread, you can check the battery condition using powershell with this:

PS$ get-wmiobject -class CIM_Battery -namespace “root\CIMV2″

Have fun.

This command line reference for wbadmin was helpful so I wanted to mark it in case I need it again in the near future.

Coalescing a few links I’ve been keeping up with for further reading:

• Planning for a VMWare vSphere 4 Deployment
• Virtualization Benefits for Small Business
• Vimsh – /usr/bin/vmware-vimsh
• Drobo Performance Testing
• A Virtual Door Opens for SMBs

Photo credit pedrosimoes7

I’m bookmarking a couple more videos to watch.

First, Defcon released their teaser set of videos from this year’s con, including Adam Savage’s “Failure”.

https://www.defcon.org/

Second, I saw a link to Marcus Ranum talking at TEDx MidAtlantic.

http://tedxmidatlantic.com/live/#MarcusRanum

I had the opportunity to watch the first few minutes of the stream of Marcus Ranum’s talk at DojoCon 2009 but then had to go to a client site.  I was happy to see they posted the videos to UStream so I can go back and watch the rest.

Among those who spoke:

• Richard Bejtlich
• Marcus Ranum
• Chris Hoff
• …and a whole lot more

In case you want to catch up too:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dojocon-2009

When I get to try this out, I’ll post some notes about using it and how it stacks up against something like VMWare Converter.

Be sure to add http://www.sterlingideas.com/feed/rss/ to your feed reader.

When you do domain masquerading with sendmail, root is exempted from that by default.  No big deal unless the host name of your system is not actually registered in DNS.  I have a couple VMs that don’t need outside access or DNS registrations, but I’d like to receive their cron output cleanly.

This is a rather easy fix.  In most sendmail .mc files you will find the DOMAIN(generic) statement.  This refers to loading the generic.m4 file which includes a default statement to expose root without masquerading — EXPOSED_USER(`root’).  Copy the generic.m4 to mycustom.m4 and remove the EXPOSED_USER line.  Go to your .mc file and change the DOMAIN(generic) to DOMAIN(mycustom) and rebuild your sendmail.cf file.

• On the VMWare server, copy the guest’s directory to a new name.
  • cp -ax /vm/srv1 /vm/srv2
• Rename the vmdk disk image
  • cd /vm/srv2
  • vmware-vdiskmanager -n srv1.vmdk srv2.vmdk
• Rename the other files
  • mv srv1.* srv2.*
• Open the VM configuration and change the names there
  • vi srv2.vmx
  • :%s/srv1/srv2/
• In the VMWare host’s web console, use the Add Virtual Machine to Inventory to add the new VM.