DTSBackup 2000

DTSBackup 2000 is a designed to help with both backup and transfer of DTS package. This version of DTSBackup provides full support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000. New features introduced in this version of DTSBackup include a new DTSBackup file format and direct transfer of packages between SQL Servers. These methods do not suffer the loss of layout information encountered when using the DTS object model.

For further information and download the tool just visit this link.

Beside DTS (Data Transformation Services) tool, there is SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) tool also. Just visit this link.

This tool has helped me to transfer thousand DTS package when there is a request from developer to get DTS from production and put it into development. After relocate, just check all the package make sure there isn’t  information of production environment such as server name, user and password in development.

Cannot Delete NTUSER.dat

Problem
Today when I tried to remove some user profiles on my server, I got an error message “Cannot delete NTUSER.dat: It is being used by another person or program”. I’ve checked if there is an application open this file, but I found nothing. I tried remove this file using an application called “ForceDelete.exe” but still could not delete this file.

Solution
You can download tool called “User Profile Hive Cleanup Service” from microsoft. I’ve tried to download and installed this tool in my server. After installation is finish,  navigate to C:\program files\UPHClean using windows explorer. Run the exe file than try to remove the profile again. It’s working for me .

Defragmentation Tools

Issue
These few days, disk fragmentation on our servers become an important issue. Some case prove that when fragmentation occur, the backup on that server become more slowly than ever besides make your server/PC not in the best performance. Actually we have scheduled to defrag the C drive  every month using windows defrag command line. Unfortunately some drive still fragmented.

Recommended Tool
I found Defraggler, tool for defragmenting disk. This tool is very great. It can defrag not only whole disk, but it is also able defrag individual files. Some of my servers which is before can not be defrag with windows defrag tool, should be no issue with this tool. It also give visualization that allowing us to visually see the location of file on the disk. Last but not least, this tool is completely free for both corporate and individual use . Just download from http://www.defraggler.com

Thank for Piriform Ltd for the nice tool . Now I use this tool to defrag my PC and my laptop too.

System Administrator Command Line

As a Windows 2K/2K3 System Administrator, there are some command lines that a we need to know to help us solving the problem or to show information of the server or network. Go to windows command prompt by type “cmd” from Start -> Run to go into console mode.

Here some command line that  is useful for a Windows System Administrator. Some command lines also exist in UNIX system.

1. ping <hostname>
   i.e : ping www.yahoo.com
   When SA want to check if the server reachable over the network or not, ping should be the only command can be used. If there is a reply message that mean the connection to the server is OK but if there is message request time out, something wrong happen to that server connection. It can be caused by many matters like hardware failure, the network cable unplug, the server is down etc. You can add parameter -t to test connection to the server until you press ctrl+C.
2. IPConfig/all
   This command used for display all current TCP/IP network configuration such as IP address, MAC Address etc.
3. IPConfig/flushdns
   Purges the DNS Resolver cache.
4. nbstat-a <hostnamename>
   Returns the NetBIOS name table and MAC address of the address card for the computer name specified. Few days ago, our network team ask  us to collect all our server’s MAC Address. There are 2 ways to do this task. We can do it by remote console to the server one by one and use command ipconfig/all or use NBTSTAT command from our local PC .
5. tasklist
   This command line for displays list of applications / processes currently running either a local or remote server. To display remote server processes use Tasklist /s <hostname>.
6. taskkill
   This command used to end one or more processes. We can kill the process by the process id or image name. To further information used this command type taskkill/?.
7. tracert <destination server>
   used to determine the route taken by packets across an IP network.
8. nslookup
   to find various details relating to DNS. i.e :  when you type nslookup www.google.com, you can see the IP address that used by www.google.com. You can also type nslookup <IP Address> to  get the server name which is used that IP address.
9. netstat
   displays the active TCP connections and ports on which the computer is listening.

Mostly the command lines have a documentation for help us see what parameter that we can use on the command line. Just type command line/? i.e : taskkill/?