Windows 2003 Resource Kit

If you are a system administrator for a Windows 2003 Server setup, you'll find this resource kit-a set of 128 tools-quite 

useful. The kit consists mostly of command-line based tools, and some GUI tools that can be used for tasks such as managing Active Directory, automating application deployment, and checking server load balancing. In fact, some of these tools are already a part of the Windows 2003 Server, but the utility value here is that you get it all in one place. You can install it on a Win 2000/XP client machine on your network, and then use it to remotely manage your servers. 

Moreover, it can be installed on more than one machine to divide the routine management tasks amongst multiple administrators. Here, we'll talk about some of the GUI tools in the kit. Download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/. It installs in the \Program files\Windows 2003 Resource Kit\tools directory. 

Recover lost certificates

If you have lost or damaged private key files, you can use the Certification Authority Recovery tool to recover certificate private keys to a file. To add, it can also be used to get authorization for
certificates. The filename for the utility is 'krt.exe'. When run, it shows all certificates present on your server machine. Select the one you want to recover to get the private key for it. Then select the recovered key text, copy it to a file and save it. 

Unlock locked users' accounts

If one of your users is not able to access your Windows 2003 domain, then a tool called Lockout Status (lockoutstatus.exe) can be quite handy. It can be used to give the administrator information on why a user account has been locked out. It collects information from every contactable domain controller in the target user account's
domain. Run the tool, go to File menu and choose 'Select Target'. 

Yu can run the tool remotely or on server itself to check the status of locked out users on a particular domain On server, run this tool and give the name of the cluster. Select the Recovery option and set domain name to be recovered

Now in the credentials window, give the administrative user name and password for the respective domain. Administrators can even change a user's password with this tool. 

Manage shared storage

The Cluster Recovery Tool (clusterrecovvery.exe) is a useful tool if you have a shared storage infrastructure or server clusters.

It primarily restores resource checkpoint files, replaces a failed disk, recovers disk signature changes and migrates data to a different disk on the shared bus. This provides fail safe kind kind of environment to your Windows 2003 Server.

Sanjay Majumder