The Lonely Administrator

New File Shortcut

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:10:34 +0000

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

TechMentor Orlando 2010 Decks and Demos

Jeffery Hicks — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:46:24 +0000

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

PowerShell in the Enterprise

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:11:15 +0000

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

TechMentor Orlando 2010

Jeffery Hicks — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:20:48 +0000

I’m busy polishing my presentations and demos for next week’s Techmentor conference in sunny Orlando, Fl. I’ve been presenting at Techmentor for a number of years now and it is a great show for administrators searching for answers to the problems and challenges they face today. You get intimate sessions with industry experts like Don [...]

PowerShell Picasso

Jeffery Hicks — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:22:09 +0000

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

Blog Transistion Complete

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:01:56 +0000

I think the transition to the new hosting is complete. Hopefully you’ll notice a little faster response. If you have problems drop me a DM on Twitter.

In Transition

Jeffery Hicks — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:33:30 +0000

I’m still in the process of moving my blog and domain to a new hosting service. As much as I appreciate your comments and feedback, please hold off on posting anything new for the next day or so. I’ll post something when everything is back up and running.

Power Up your R2 Server Core Shell

Jeffery Hicks — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:54:27 +0000

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

In the Beginning and at the End was the Command Line

Jeffery Hicks — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:51:23 +0000

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

Promoting Scripting and PowerShell

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:51:04 +0000

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