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Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks
You’re a seasoned administrator, so you’ve seen it all. From your humble beginnings at the help desk, setting up accounts and accesses and solving problems, all the way to building whole networks from the ground up. But you can never have enough tips and tricks to make your job easier. Troubleshooting skills are a must. Led by popular speaker and Redmond magazine contributing editor Greg Shields and several other battle-hardened speakers with real-life experiences, the T3 track is your path to the best tips from down in the trenches.
Getting the Most out of the New Windows Event Log
12:30 – 2:00pm
Greg Shields
It used to be called “Crimson.” Now, it’s the “Event Log” in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and it’s completely new and improved. In this session, we’ll dig deep into the features and capabilities of the new Windows Event Log. We’ll examine its new search capabilities, its XML-based back-end, and how to set up Event Forwarding to centralize log data to give you easier and better information on system status.
Another Brick in the Wall: Isolation Groups & the New Windows Firewall
2:15 – 3:45pm
Greg Shields
ACL’s are so retro. They’ve been around forever now, quietly protecting your data against prying eyes and accidental deletion. What if some misinformed administrator accidentally opens a file share to Everyone | Full Control? You’re out of luck. Isolation Groups are a way of adding another ACL down at the network layer to protect your most sensitive information. This session will discuss how you can use them, the IPSec configurations you need to set them up, and how to troubleshoot when they act up.
Top Tricks for Monitoring and Analyzing System Performance
4:00 – 5:30pm
Don Jones
Solving the most difficult system problems often means comparing performance during the problem with behavior before the problem occurred. Keeping an eye on your systems’ performance is the most overlooked responsibility of a systems administrator. No more -- in this session, you’ll learn about the best tools for monitoring, managing, and alerting on system performance issues. We’ll discuss how to use performance indicators as a measurement for solving problems. You’ll come away knowing how to watch your performance logs for signs of trouble.
Windows Crash Dumps Made Simple
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Mackenzie-Low
Do you feel helpless when your Windows servers crash? Do you dread spending hours on the phone being passed around the world seeking assistance for your BSOD? Fear not -- join Bruce as he introduces the basic principles of crash dump analysis. You too can use Bruce's easy cookbook approach to identify failing software or hardware components responsible for Stops, Hangs and Blue Screens. Impress your boss as you use Microsoft's Windows Debugger (Windbg) to pinpoint the failing driver that's causing your downtime.
Tips & Tricks for Preventing an Active Directory Failure
2:30 – 4:00pm
Greg Shields
Is your Active Directory configuration a ticking time bomb? Ever wondered if there’s something lurking that could cause a major disaster? Prevent that Resume-Producing Event by attending this fast-paced session. We’ll cover the overlooked settings in your AD that could someday cause a major failure. Gleaned from real-world experience through countless AD assessments, you’ll learn the top Active Directory mistakes and how to make them right before that bad day arrives.
WSUS 3.0 Architecture, Implementation, and Troubleshooting
4:15 – 5:45pm
Greg Shields
WSUS is one of those services that…just…works -- except when it doesn’t. This session is devoted to the design, build, and troubleshooting the newest WSUS, and will help make you a successful WSUS administrator. You’ll learn how to set up new WSUS servers, migrate your old WSUS data to this new version, and even a little trickery that’ll give you the ability to patch when you want without waiting. If you do patch management at all, you won’t want to miss this session.
Tricks of the Vista Masters
8:30 – 10:00am
Peter Bruzzese
Did you know miners often have to sift through anywhere from 250 to 400 tons of rock, gravel and sand to extract one carat of diamond? There are quite a few diamonds in the rough buried within Microsoft Vista. You just need to know where to look to bring them to the surface. This session will teach you all the tips and tricks about how to perform shortcuts, work with ImageX, peer inside a VHD file of your backup, tweak the WEI, work with new Group Policy settings and more! It will be one face paced joy ride into the Vista world, so sit back... and enjoy the Vista!
Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Windows Cluster Troubleshooting
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Mackenzie-Low
Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows Clusters can be a challenging experience. Learn the tips, tricks and tools that can expedite your troubleshooting efforts, reduce downtime and increase cluster stability. Join Bruce as he reviews the anatomy of the cluster log file and correlates events with the system event log. Fill your toolbox with a variety of handy utilities you can use to maintain Windows clusters, such as fixing disk signatures with Dumpcfg, interrogating SAN components with FCinfo, and translating error codes with WinERR. Leverage tools such as ClusDiag, Netmon, MPS and HPS Reports to collect baseline or troubleshooting information across your cluster.
Vulnerability Management: Beyond Patching
2:30 – 4:00pm
Greg Shields
Patches are great, but they only go so far to protect you. If a vulnerability shows up and there’s available no patch, then you’re in a world of hurt. This high-level session will go beyond the idea of patching and talk about the world of vulnerability management. We’ll talk about some of the products currently on the market that can help protect you, as well as the compensating mechanisms you can implement now to protect yourself against the next big zero-day.
The Art of Network Troubleshooting: How to Fix Any Network Problem
4:15 – 5:45pm
Mark Minasi
Network software and hardware comes and goes, protocols grow and change, and what we do with networks expands all of the time. One thing doesn't change: how often we use the words "network" and "not work" in the same sentence. One day, we'll just plug it all in and it'll just work. For now, though, "to network is to troubleshoot." In this session, veteran networking consultant, teacher and writer Mark Minasi shares the twelve immutable laws of troubleshooting any network problem. Zen archers are reputed to be able to hit a target blindfolded. During this talk, you can become a Zen network troubleshooter and fix network problems with both hands tied behind your back.
Hardening Server 2003 SP1/SP2: Tips & Tricks
8:30 – 10:00am
Mark Minasi
Once upon a time, all you had to do to make a server or workstation useful was install it and configure it to the client's needs. Unfortunately, now that's only part of the job. Nowadays, you've also got to tailor it against the needs of the other clients on your systems -- the bad guys. Configuring a system to be harder to attack isn't hard. It just requires understanding and implementing an array of settings. In this informative and enjoyable talk, A7 level computer expert Mark Minasi explains how you can make your system as dirtbag-proof as possible, and as simple as possible.
IE7 Deep Dive: Protecting Against SpyWare, Phishing and Bad Employees
10:15 – 11:45am
Greg Shields
Internet Explorer 7 is a powerful new tool in the fight against bad code and bad employees. With features like Internet Explorer Protected Mode, its internal anti-Phishing filter, and RIES, it’s more secure than ever. It’s still far from perfect, though, and keeping your coworkers protected from themselves can be a full-time job. In this session, we’ll dive deep into the new features of IE7, learning which ones are interesting and useful and which ones are more annoying than anything. You’ll leave with the knowledge you need to best administer Microsoft’s newest browser.
SQL Server 2005 Administration Tips & Tricks
1:00 – 2:30pm
Chris McCain
SQL Server 2005 is now almost three years old; a veteran database server with many improvements over its predecessor. Join us to learn to add some nifty tricks to your SQL Server 2005 administration tool bag. Watch common tools pull and manipulate data, see demos on automating common database management tasks, and learn the most common SQL server best practices including protecting the server, protecting the data, and maintaining the server.
Faster, Better, Cheaper: Disaster Recovery with Virtualization
2:45 – 4:15pm
Greg Shields
Virtualization is fast becoming “the next big thing” in IT. Many IT shops are already moving to it to inexpensively solve a host of problems, including disaster recovery. With virtual servers, DR becomes easy and can be affordable. But there are also some very important gotcha’s. This session will help you learn those common mistakes and give you the tools and techniques you need to nuke-proof your virtualized servers.
Vista Rapid Deployment Tools
8:30 – 10:00am
Rhonda Layfield
Microsoft’s new imaging and deployment technologies can help you deploy Vista quickly and easily. This session will not only explain the new tools, but also provide demonstrations and step-by-step instructions. When you walk away from this session, you’ll be ready to create a custom Windows Pre-Installation Environment (WinPE) and installation script using Windows System Image Manager (WSIM). Last but by no means least, you’ll be ready to install, configure, implement and optimize the performance of a Windows Deployment Service (WDS) server. There are no prerequisites for this session. Everyone from novice to expert will walk away with new information to help deploy Vista in your environment.
Troubleshooting Group Policy Application
10:15 – 11:45am
Derek Melber
Have you ever configured a GPO and waited for it to apply, but it never did? Group Policy is one of the most important of all Active Directory technologies, but it is also one of the most complex to troubleshoot. Understanding how to decrypt where the problem is initiating is not all that easy, since there are very few good troubleshooting tools. We will look at the diverse tools that are available to troubleshoot Group Policy, as well as how to analyze the results to get the core of the problem. Experience with Group Policy is required.
