Microsoft lends more help to Windows admins

Another exciting trip to our ANCL (Advanced Network Computer Lab) affiliate lab at the University of Hawaii resulted in more sun burning, female ambivalence, and failed attempts to improve one’s physical health. What can I say? Jogging bites.

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On the upside, testing at ANCL always gives me a glimpse of large-scale deployment tools, and since Microsoft actually decided to show up at the identity management test we’re conducting here this month, I got the company's 2 cents on the topic as well. Which was all to the good, because the Redmondite in charge pointed me at two new managerial developments for Windows that I might otherwise have overlooked while scoping out more important things, like bikinis.

First, Microsoft just released Windows Management Instrumentation Code Creator (WMICC). This tool autogenerates WMI code that you can use to query performance or health data for management purposes. For those looking to use WMI scripting or WMI.Net, WMICC is not only a time-saver, it’s also an excellent learning tool.

WMICC’s interface wasn’t as terrifying to me as those of most development tools, and it uses most of the same conventions that Microsoft managers are accustomed to seeing. Menu options allow you to run WMICC code on single computers right up to groups of remote computers, depending on your needs. They also allow you to execute newly generated code directly from the WMICC interface. It’s easy to query specific machines or machine groups for information such as OS version, hardware statistics, or service errors. You can also create custom event generators and event alerts.

Overall, WMICC takes a lot of the touchy-feely fear out of scripting and can really open new doors of functionality to IT administrators who may have been avoiding scripting simply because they’re more comfortable around hardware.

Another management aid that our visiting Microsoftee pointed me at is the updated Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Version 2.5. For those who haven’t yet encountered this verbosely named application, BDD amounts to a best-practice baseline for those involved in desktop deployment.

BDD comes in both Standard and Enterprise Editions, each targeted at different needs. BDD Standard Edition is aimed at enterprises with 250 or more PCs, and comes with something called Lite Touch networking installation that enables a mostly hands-free deployment strategy. BDD Enterprise is aimed at 500 users or more and includes Zero Touch deployment models. Zero Touch has two components: Zero Touch Install (ZTI) and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP). BDD makes use of the SMS (Systems Management Server) 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack  to manage large-scale remote and network-based installations without the need for handling target machines. ZTP is the process of creating a self-service provisioning portal that allows users to manage common provisioning tasks, like password resets.

BDD 2.5 also includes an updated cut at documentation and support for Windows XP x64, and will soon provide support for Vista. Just remember that BDD isn’t a tool by itself, but actually a documented methodology manager that makes use of other Microsoft technologies, especially SMS 2003. Think guidance, not actual deployment. But the guidance you’ll get is worth the download time: Even seasoned MCSEs tell me the tool is incredibly useful at the beginning of large deployment projects.

Frankly, reading through a lot of this documentation, especially the stuff Microsoft includes with TechNet, tends to put me into a coma. But if you’re faced with large Microsoft projects, especially OS or patch deployment, you can really save yourself a lot of grief by doing the homework up front.