There have been hundreds of posts about the top tools for Windows. This one is about the server side of the house here. Each version of Windows comes with a great selection of accessories, utilities, and cmd-line tools. And every company has their particular chosen antivirus software, host intrusion detection agent, backup agent, patching agent, etc. that should be installed on all platforms.
The first time you are stuck on a server at 0500 (what does the O stand for? Oh my God it’s early!) working an issue and find that nothing is installed that you just take for granted every time you are on your workstation, you might want to consider taking the advice in this post to heart, and making a few choice tools a part of your standard image. All are free (as in beer) and none require much more than a next, next, enter install. All can be installed prior to sysprep or VMware template creation, or any other tricks you might use to streamline system deployment.
the informative
1. bginfo
The first tool on our list is bginfo. We’ve talked about this tool before, and will probably do so again. It’s just that good. While you can probably go completely overboard with the amount of information that it can display, I like to go for a minimalist approach. Name, some basic hardware information, network addresses if you really need it, and call out things that might not be so obvious, like you use static routes or a hosts file. If your naming convention is not obvious, see this post, and include a little line about just what this particular server is.
You can download bginfo from here. The only drawback is that every user must accept the EULA the first time they log on…but you might have an older version laying around that predates Microsoft buying Sysinternals. If you do…it works just fine!
the indispensible
2. WireShark
Either you get why this one is indispensible, or you don’t. Either way, trust me and install it on every system you deploy. When trying to troubleshoot anything between systems, a trace if the best way to see what is happening, and one of the first things you’ll be asked for if you have to contact vendor support or bring in a network consultant. You will earn many points should they find this tool already installed and ready to go.
the secure
3. sshd
There are several commercial, free for non-commercial use, and open-source options. I like freeSSHd, which you can download from http://www.freesshd.com. While psexec, sc, and PowerShell scripts exist for Windows remote cmd-line…think smaller, like your iPhone or Crackberry. That is where having a PPTP VPN and an SSHD running on your Windows servers will become two of your very best friends!
the gone but not forgotten
4. support tools and 5. the resource kit
Back when Microsoft uber-geeks were allowed to give stuff away, the resource kit tools and support tools were awesome and chock full of diagnostic goodness. Having them installed made any number of KB, TechNet, Experts-Exchange, and other troubleshooting documents easy to follow. But of course, folks couldn’t respect the concept of free, unsupported tools, so in 2008,
NO TOOLS FOR YOU!
You can run many of the 2003 tools on 2008 though. I like to just copy them into my home directory, that way they are available on any server I happen to use.
the ones you can live without it, but why would you?
6. pdf reader-Seeing how most vendor documentation is delivered this way, and you usually only really read that when you are on a server in the middle of the night trying to fix something, it’s nice not to have to go back and forth between your desktop and your full-screen RDP session. My personal fave? Foxit PDF Reader. While Adobe’s Acrobat has grown into bloatware, Foxit stays mean and slim, and has never failed to deliver the goods.
7. pdf creator-So that whether I am dumping log files, diagnostics, or great blog posts, having a pdf creator installed as a printer makes it fast and easy to take the output with me. Product of choice? PDFCreator. Quick, simple, installs like a printer, and your done! Well, as long as you like A4 paper size anyway, otherwise you do want to set your default paper size.
8. text editor-Notepad is okay for opening K sized files, but if you need to do any hard core searches, replacements, edits, or diffs, you need something with a little more power. Everyone has their personal favourite. Most tend to cater to more of the developer side of the house. My first and only true love in this field is PSPad. It slices, it dices, it juliennes, and once, it even made me a tasty cup of coffee. Mmmm…coffee. Search and replace in multiple files/directories, diff, templates for several scripting languages, and more.
9. zip tool-And last, but certainly not least, some kind of compression tool is vital. Again, there are so many options out there, I’ve lost count. 7zip is my go to package in this category. It can open just about any file format you can encounter, is free (as in beer AND speech,) and works the same in Windows and Linux.
the name resolution tools for real geeks
10. Windows ports of dig, whois, and host
There are certain cmd-line tools that I always want, though I don’t expect everyone will agree. I may do a follow up post on them soon, but let’s call this a preview of coming attractions. Dig, whois, and host. These are ports of Unixish name resolution tools, and are much more useful than nslookup.
finally, these go to eleven
11. Err
The last is found on Microsoft’s site as an Exchange tool, but it is so much more than that…translating hexadecimal error codes into useful text to help you with your troubleshooting.
Now about that guy pictured with the reskit and support tools….really? You really don’t know who the Soup Nazi is? What, you spent the 90′s living under a rock or something? Here, watch this. You’ll thank me later.
So, what tools do you find vital to have on a server? Who was your favourite Seinfeld character. Leave a comment and let me know.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Solid list! It’s sad how often these essential utilities are left out of the build process. BGInfo ALONE has saved me from so many issues especially when running through a migration with a billion RDP sessions open. Don’t want to decommission the wrong machine
On the text editor front I have to say I lean more toward Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm). A very, very cool site that’s helped me find even more nifty utilities is http://alternativeto.net/
It compares popular apps to free or mostly free alternatives. Great way to broaden your horizons and find a new favorite.