Automation is a wide-ranging term, covering topics from cron to "push-button provisioning and deployment" or system and application stacks. The ultimate goal of some automation projects is the so-called "Zero-Latency Data Center", while for others it may just be sending alerts based on certain ...
2
votes
1answer
25 views
Start services.msc attached to remote computer
Is there a way to start services.msc already attached to a remote system (e.g. from command line)? I want to avoid clicking Action -> Connect to remote computer, because I have to do it so often...
2
votes
2answers
34 views
Automatically set static routes between two networks without dhcp or default gateway
I have a windows domain network with two different subnets. Both are connected trough VPN gateways.
DHCP and default gateway is an exiting router blackbox. Unfortunately I have very limited control ...
1
vote
1answer
48 views
Removing non-present hardware with Devcon?
I'm automating the removal of a USB printer from machines with Windows XP SP3.
To do this, I'm using Microsoft's Devcon Utility.
Running the command:
devcon findall *hp*
Returns:
...
6
votes
1answer
53 views
How to copy many Scheduled Tasks between Windows Server 2008 machines?
I have several standalone Win2008 (R1+R2) servers (no domain) and each of them has dozens of scheduled tasks. Each time we set up a new server, all these tasks have to be created on it.
The tasks are ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
How do I automate the installation and configuration of a local printer?
I'm running Windows XP SP3.
I have a fleet of laptop computers that I'm creating a master clone for.
Each of these computers will have a different function when deployed so I've created a series of ...
21
votes
6answers
964 views
Automatically Configure New Computers
My company is in the process of upgrading all of our users from old Windows XP computers to newer quad-core Win7 computers. This is a good thing - it's long overdue that we upgrade our workstations - ...
0
votes
1answer
30 views
Multiple related resources in chef recipe
I need to run some commands depending on a result of previous execution, which again depends on some package being installed.
On the first run, I'd expect something like:
install package "XXX"
get ...
1
vote
3answers
148 views
Automatically find permission problems of a directory
I often have the problem that a program - e.g. apache - may not access a certain file or directory.
Solving the problem means to manually check the file and every single directory in the path up to ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
Setting client IP in pppd using scripts?
Is it possible to set a client IP in pppd scripts (e.g. in auth-up) ?
The reason is, we would like to give different IP address ranges to connecting peers based on their username prefix.
0
votes
1answer
26 views
ubuntu 10.04 automated LAMP configuration script with virtual hosts
I am looking for a set of bash scripts which can help me to automate the procedure of getting LAMP server up and running.
Typically what I am looking for is boot a VPS (say linode) with Ubuntu ...
0
votes
2answers
49 views
How can I pass in a FTP username and password to WinSCP?
I'm scripting WinSCP, and need to dynamically pass in a FTP username and password, depending on which environment I'm using.
However, the docs say, "WinSCP does not support providing the passphase ...
0
votes
1answer
112 views
Command Line - programmatically add/remove/rename BIND alias records?
For our local dev server, we routinely add and remove name alias records in our BIND/named server for our local network domain. I usually do this manually through Webmin, just out of convenience. But ...
1
vote
3answers
37 views
Setting up Tomcat on shared drive for clustered environment
We have a production environment with externally load-balanced Tomcat servers running on multiple servers, serving HTTP requests and maintaining stick sessions.
Due to lack of complete build and ...
0
votes
1answer
77 views
DIY: automate cloning of Xen VMs, gold templete?
looking for DIY way without commercial tools like XenServer LabManager product.
0
votes
1answer
33 views
Software for scanning installation process?
I forgot what is the name of the very good software which make some kind of restore point (save registry, and program files folder, etc...) before installing any software. After you install some ...
0
votes
1answer
51 views
Deploy across multiple webservers, remove from load balancer on EC2
I'm wondering if there is a 3rd party application that can help me deploy a web project (website) to IIS across multiple web servers. While, taking one server out of the load balancer deploying, ...
3
votes
1answer
24 views
Automatically create test database every week
There is a production db in SQL Server. We still have development on this database and I want to create it's copy in every X day/week/month. Is there any job or something else what can make this on ...
1
vote
3answers
57 views
How can I automate the process of fetching files from remote Windows servers?
We have a handful of machines that we administer: some Windows 2003/8 and some various flavors of Unix. I need to write some sort of script/task/etc (I'm a programmer, so any language/tool is fine) ...
1
vote
0answers
44 views
How to make a script run when Windows connects to a specific wireless network?
What must I do to cause a script or batch file to be run when the computer succeeds connecting to a network with a specific SSID, in Windows 7 Ultimate?
I need it to be triggered by connecting to a ...
-1
votes
1answer
57 views
What is the quickest way to read 150+ dvds? [closed]
We have over 150 DVD's that we need to read. There is no time crunch, but I don't want to have someone manually swap DVDs for two weeks. Does anyone know of an automated way to get this done? Is ...
1
vote
3answers
44 views
How to modify configuration file from command line?
For example, I often need to login to a new virtual machine just to open "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" and set "PasswordAuthentication" option to "no".
In this way, I can not automate this process.
How to ...
2
votes
2answers
193 views
Automated Server cloning and deployment
I have an ERP system that requires a local installation on a Windows Terminal Server to operate properly. Right now I pay for each TS that I have the vendor install the software on directly. ...
3
votes
1answer
193 views
How to create a SQL Server database from a mysqldump file automatically on a daily basis?
Recently, a vendor announced that they were upgrading their processes, and an automated, daily data dump we are getting from them will now come in a MySQL datadump format. Unfortunately, we're a ...
8
votes
1answer
191 views
Remotely renaming a domained Win 7 computer
I'm having a hard time figuring out how to rename a Windows 7 computer remotely. This is for automating Win 7 builds in a vSphere 5 environment, and I'm trying to get it as hands-off as I can. So far ...
0
votes
1answer
19 views
Where should I make a GUI program auto start as daemon after auto signing in to Gnome
I have a GUI program written in Java. And it seems it could only be executed in Gnome environment which my box had installed.
The box was set to boot at init 5 (which is Gnome)
I tried to place ...
0
votes
2answers
103 views
How to write robust automation scripts for large scale data management?
I have been needing to automate the moving of quite large amounts of data (possibly around 1TB/day+ in average. 60TB so far, and counting) to a separate, remote storage system.
I have so far been ...
6
votes
5answers
156 views
How can I automate clearing and resetting a Linux user's home directory to a default?
I'm helping to teach two Unix courses next week. Users will be granted an account on a RHEL 5 machine, during which time they'll add files to their /home folder, update their .bashrc and other ...
2
votes
1answer
88 views
What to put in startup / login / logoff scripts?
I certainly hope this question is deemed acceptable, and doesn't violate the Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. portion of ...
0
votes
1answer
77 views
How to set adequate permissions to a scheduled task for a service controller query?
I'm a programmer, but the problem encountered has stepped beyond the code and into the system administrator realm, at least that is what I think at this time. I will only use one bit of code to show ...
2
votes
2answers
39 views
Creating an Update System With Serial Number Logins
Our company has a server that is a locked down version of Linux (custom shell for users, no direct access). I am currently pushing updates to the user, but it would be more ideal for the users to do a ...
1
vote
2answers
78 views
Automating windows desktop deployment
I’d like to prefix this question by mentioning that I’m a Linux administrator, so managing a network of Windows desktops isn’t really my forte; however I’ve been tasked with upgrading a network of ...
2
votes
2answers
94 views
How can I automatically create/control VMs using vsphere?
Is it possible to automatically create virtual machines using vSphere / ESXi? How would I go about doing that?
I have a script to automatically create + install windows on a VM using VirtualBox. It ...
2
votes
2answers
128 views
Local Admin and Policies
I have company/domain setup with about 150 + users. I don't want to grant the users a local admin account to prevent them from installing programs that may used to attack - harm the network or other ...
1
vote
2answers
236 views
Upgrade the Ubuntu puppet package within kickstart process
My Ubuntu based kickstart-host is almost working like it should, serving Ubuntu 10.04 (both i386 & amd64) and CentOS 5.6 to new (VMware-)hosts.
One of the things that bothers me is that Ubuntu ...
0
votes
1answer
34 views
On my webserver, opinion/advice on automatically adding php-fcgi users?
I am not 100% sure of how to actually add users, however I am choosing Apache over other backends finally and that may be easier.
From what I can gather, adding an fcgi user would mean adding a Linux ...
0
votes
2answers
63 views
Windows Service Based Software to Run Script Everytime a file arrives
Does anyone know of a tool were that is service based which I would be able to run a script every time a file arrives in a directory? I would write the script all I want is the tool to be a service ...
1
vote
2answers
43 views
Securing database credentials in automated deployment of nodes
In a situation where you're deploying nodes (e.g. amazon ec2), what are the recommended best practices for securing things like credentials to other resources? Without solving for scale, we might ...
1
vote
2answers
116 views
How can I script an HKCU setting for a handful of users on a specific server who don't have profiles?
Here's what I would do manually:
Log onto a server with Account1 to create its Windows profile.
Start Internet Explorer. Click Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Uncheck "Check for publisher's ...
0
votes
2answers
82 views
Ubuntu configure keyboard non-interactive
Im setting up some Chef scripts to build and configure a Ubuntu 11.04 instance for development.
I'm having some trouble finding away of reconfiguring the keyboard with no user interaction.
I tried ...
1
vote
1answer
87 views
Scripted check for a specific feature from an msi installer
I need to be able to check for the installation of a particular feature from an msi installer. For context, I need to check whether the "Powershell Cmdlets" feature (TFPS from Feature table in Orca) ...
1
vote
2answers
986 views
How to auto-start MongoDB on CentOS reboot?
How do I setup MongoDB so that it will start back up automatically after a server reboot? This is on CentOS 5.5.
I start it with the following command, but if the server reboots, I have to login to ...
2
votes
1answer
82 views
Linux automated media files transcoding
I'm looking for software that would help to implement above described scenario. By automation i mean minimization of actions needed for that process. For example, it would be nice to run some daemon ...
0
votes
1answer
52 views
Application to automate Windows software installation in a test lab
I have several test environments (hyper-V) which contain a variety of windows servers. Each machine needs periodically rolling back to a given snapshot and then re-installing with the latest version ...
0
votes
2answers
441 views
How do you autostart VMware Player with VM when host server restarts?
The only thing I can think of to do is create a bat file that points to the VM in question that will auto start when a admin logs into the server.
The downfall to this is that if the server goes down ...
0
votes
2answers
374 views
How can I automatically remount CIFS shares when remote servers restart?
I need to mount shared volumes from various remote servers on my local server which is running Ubuntu Server 10.10. I typically use commands like this to mount the shares:
sudo mount -t cifs ...
3
votes
1answer
194 views
Windows 2008 R2 Unattended installation example?
In following-up another question, are there any sources of reliable (ie, "just works") unattended response files for Windows 2008 R2 x64 available for modification, or do you have to start with the ...
1
vote
1answer
177 views
how-to deploy files to several nodes on network automatically?
need to push(deploy) few batch files to the machines on a network. All nodes are running Windows.
The batch files contain some commands to initialize an env on each node.
what ways can this be ...
1
vote
1answer
181 views
What does /v/qn parameter do for windows silent installers?
This page says to do a silent install you pass in the parameters /s /v/qn. It mentions what /s does - silent install - but not what /v/qn does.
So what does it do? Why the weird format? (on one ...
4
votes
4answers
544 views
Perl or Python, better suited for Unix system automation?
I have been using bash for most of my system administration tasks. I also know a bit of perl.
Should I learn Python or Perl is better for system automation. So far from my experience learning perl ...
0
votes
0answers
28 views
Buildbot — Restricting Build Times for BuildSlaves
I'm currently setting up a large distributed build environment using BuildBot, however I need to be able to configure the runs such that some of the slaves only receive and run jobs during specified ...
