Computer Management

The computer management console has the following categories of tools: System Tools Storage Services and Applications System Tools Event Viewer - Used to view logs about events associated with file and directory replication, DNS, security, and more. System Information - Replaces Windows NT Diagnostic Administrative Tool. Listed folders include: System Summary - Lists operating system version, installed services packs, processor, and memory. Hardware Resources - Interrupt, DMA, and I/O address usage are listed. Components - Information about peripheral devices such as modems, ports, USB, and display is listed. Software Environment - Lists installed software including services and drivers. Internet Explorer - Internet Explorer configuration information. Applications - Information about installed application programs. Performance Logs and Alerts - Includes: Alerts - Alerts can be sent when system performance falls below minimum settings. Counters - Objects that can be monitored. Trace Logs Shared Folders Tool - Entered from Administrative Tools, "Computer Management" or by right clicking on "My Computer" and selecting "Manage". Categories: Shares - Used to create shares and list all system shares. Sessions - Any open session from the local computer or a remote computer is listed. Open Files - Files being used by users or other computers are listed. Device Manager - Used to view all system resources. Local Users and Groups - Used to make user and group accounts on the local computer.

Storage

• Disk Management - This is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and is the replacement for the Windows NT Disk Administrator. Only a member of the Administrators group can use this tool. It can manage local or remote disk volumes. It is used to:
  • Make and format partitions.
  • Create, format, or delete simple, spanned, mirrored, striped, or RAID-5 volumes.
  • Modify a disk from basic to dynamic type or vice versa, create. A disk can only be converted from dynamic to basic by first deleting all the volumes in the dynamic disk.
  • Display information about the disk including the disk type (basic or dynamic), disk number, disk size and disk status. Disk status can be:
    • Online
    • Foreign - Remote disk
    • No Media - For removable disks.
    • Offline - For dynamic disks that cannot be reached due to various possible reasons. The disk may be remote.
    • Online (errors) - There are errors on the disk.
    • Unreadable - Errors preventing access have occurred.
    • Unrecognized - Unknown type of disk.
    It will also provide volume information including size, name, and status. Volume status can be:
    • Healthy
    • Healthy (boot) - Active primary partition on the first drive.
    • Healthy (system) - if same as boot volume, it is called "Healthy (boot)".
    • Failed
    • Failed Redundancy - A fault tolerant volume is not on line.
    • Failed Redundancy (At Risk) - A fault tolerant volume that has lost fault tolerence has errors detedted on it.
    • Healthy (At Risk) - Errors have been detected on the volume.
    • Initializing - Dynamic volume being initialized.
    • Regenerating
    • Resynching - Mirrored volumes are being resynchronized
  • Recover from drive failures.
  To install Disk Management:
  
  1. From an MMC console, click "Add/Remove Snap-in".
  2. Click "Add", select "Disk Management".
  3. Select the computer to install on, and finish.
  To start Disk Management, do one of:
  
  • Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select "Manage" and click "Disk Management" in the left pane.
  • Select "Start", "Programs", "Administrative Tools", and "Computer Management". In the left pane of the computer management box in the MMC, select "Disk Management".
  • Run the program "Diskmgmt.msc" from the command line.
  • Double click Diskmgmt.msc in the SystemRoot\Winnt\System32 directory.
  Volume and disk properties dialog box tabs:
  • General - Label, volume type, capacity and use are displayed. Options include "Compress drive to save disk space" and "Allow Indexing Service to index this data for fast file searching".
  • Tools - Contains defragmentation, backup and error checking tools.
  • Hardware - Device properties are listed with the type and name of the disk drives.
  • Sharing - Volume sharing options are set including permissions, user limits and share name.
  • Security (NTFS volumes) - Can set user, group and computer permissions along with auditing configuration.
  • Quota (NTFS volumes) - Can enable disk quotas and set disk quota administration values. Quota management must be enabled. Warning levels may be set and hard limits may also be set. Disk space may be denied to users who exceed their quota limit. The events may be logged when the user exeeds their warning and/or quota limit.
  • Web Sharing - Can share the volume on a web site.
  Disk properties:
  • Disk - Number
  • Type - Basic, Dynamic, or Removable
  • Status - Online, offline, foreign, or unknown.
  • Capacity
  • Unallocated Space
  • Device Type - IDE, EIDC, SCSI, etc.
  • Hardware Vendor
  • Adapter Name
  • Volumes Contained On This Disk
• Disk Defragmenter - This is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and is used to analyze and defragment volumes.To start Disk Defragmenter, do one of:
  
  • Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select "Manage" and click "Disk Defragmenter" in the left pane
  • Select "Start", "Programs", "Administrative Tools", and "Computer Management". In the left pane of the computer management box in the MMC, select "Disk Defragmenter".
• Logical Drives - This is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and is used to change logical drive labels, configure security settings, and view properties.To start Logical Drives, do one of:
  
  • Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select "Manage" and click "Logical Drives" in the left pane
  • Select "Start", "Programs", "Administrative Tools", and "Computer Management". In the left pane of the computer management box in the MMC, select "Logical Drives".
• Removable Storage - Information about removable storage media such as tapes and CD-ROMS is provided.

Services and Applications

Is only available on Windows 2000 Servers. It lists information about installed services such as DNS.

• WMI Control - Windows Management Instrumentation control allows monitoring and controlling system resources.
• Services - Lists all computer services
• Indexing Service - Creates an index of files on the computer allowing search functions to work better.

• Windows Scripting Host (WSH) assists administrators in creating many users and groups quickly
• Fax Service Management
• Security Configuration and Analysis