I have this philosophy when it comes to justifying cost. How much does it cost to not have the proper monitoring/admin tool? You are correct, it is totally up to management to decide where money is allocated, but you know as well as I when there is a problem, that is when management really cares.
With IT dollars being tight in the private sector, I think Vendors need to do more in helping people justify the cost of the additional tools. Microsoft should lend a hand too and discuss the real cost of running a AD, and potential areas that need to be addressed. (Especially in large Enterprises) Take ER Disk for example. If you deleted the Exchange 5.5 Service account how much would it cost the organization to not have email access while the account is restored from a "Microsoft Approved" Authoritative method. Now compare the cost of the product to the cost of the outage, and the history of outages in your organization, and potential frequency or probability of having a problem. You get the picture. Also like you pointed out, you identified things that weren't even evident. That is the real value. Preventive measures. I think we can all take a lesson from the Space Shuttle disasters. Group Think, Apathy, and Denial are ramped in many organization. AD's aren't space shuttles, they are just the rocket fuel to IT organizations. As Microsoft gets more into Identity Management. Legal issues will probably become a great forecaster where new products need to be developed and adopted. Just my 2 cents. Toddler -----Original Message----- From: Rick Kingslan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 10:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Ultrasound for FRS troubleshooting. Todd, To follow up from yesterday, I installed UltraSound today. I've really got to admit for a 'free for the downloading' tool, this is really pretty good. It does quite a bit and is very non-invasive. It pointed out some intersting small issues that I have (had) with FRS, and indicated specific resolutions in a prescriptive manner. Very nice tool. However, if I could ever get my management to spend a few bucks - NetPro would be my suite of choice. For the time being - UltraSound is it..... Rick Kingslan MCSE, MCSA, MCT Microsoft MVP - Active Directory Associate Expert Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Myrick, Todd (NIH/CIT) Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 4:24 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Ultrasound for FRS troubleshooting. I did some additional digging and it appears NETPRO Directory Analyzer already does this as part of their entire suite of AD monitoring. If you are going to go to the trouble of setting the utility up you might as well get all the monitoring you can get is my opinion. Toddler -----Original Message----- From: John Reijnders [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 5:37 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED] ' Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Ultrasound for FRS troubleshooting. Nope ... though we have been using Sonar.exe (sonar ... ultrasound, sounds alike) for a couple of months now. Works like a charm for FRS monitoring! Sonar.exe monitors key statistics and status, including traffic levels, backlogs, and free space of file replication service (FRS) replica set members. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/new/sonar-o.asp Cheers! John Reijnders MCSE Windows Server 2003 -----Original Message----- From: Myrick, Todd (NIH/CIT) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 23-9-2003 20:23 Subject: [ActiveDir] Ultrasound for FRS troubleshooting. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61acb9b9-c354-4 f98-a823-24cc0da73b50 <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61acb9b9-c354- 4f98-a823-24cc0da73b50&DisplayLang=en> &DisplayLang=en Anyone try this product yet? Thanks, Todd Myrick List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
