penfold

Another question on this. I have got a backup of this SQL and I want to run a shirnk on the db. Can anyone clarify what the difference is between using Truncate or not? Do I understand correctly that I can run a truncate and it will release all the empty space at the end of the file? In this case it does not make any changes on the file? I have tested this on a test machine and it runs very quick( as opposed to running a shrink) I have also read that a truncate is not undoable but if it only drops empty space from the end of the file what is the downside of using truncate?

@googlemad - I know!! I've been playing around with it on some test machiens and have already sorted some issues that we will have in the upgrade (I hope) but the one thing that looks really wrong to me is the db size. We have about 6000 devices so I would expect our db to be something similar to yours - which it is with actual size in use.

Currently that is the plan - But if we backup the disk will be pretty much full (it is removed when it the file is backed up) so if we do this and need to revert there is a need to restore the file> then restore db which will obviously take time.

@RobD - that's what I understand, but I can't see how a reindex would inflate the db from 15GB to >200GB. But like you I'm no expert hence asking the questino My concern is that the db is so big it will cause a problem with the upgrade.

Bump for morning readers...

Hi, I need someadvice from some SQL experts. We have inheritted an ePO server which has been running an SQL database which has not been maintained since it was instaleld (about 5 years ish). As such it had grown to over 200GB in size. I have run some pruning of old data which is no longer required and the actual size is showing apx 15GB which is obvisouly a big difference. Now when I run the pre-check for McAfee ePO upgrade I am getting an error about disk space not being enough and problems with some tables. My question is I know it is not recommeneded to shrink database but what is the impact shrinking the db down compared to leaving it as it is. At the momenet each backup is ~200GB in size and basically fills the disk each time (db backup is cleared after it gets backed up). I was thinking that due to potential issues during the upgrade and ongoing performance of going through a Databse which is >200GB in size but only using ~ 15GB it would be a good idea to shrink the database and keep it in order so it doesn't grow so large? Before I shrink the db I would like to know if I could cause more problems than it fixes. Any suggestions? Thanks

@HPlum78 - Thanks I think I can get everything I need with that.

I'm trying to check all the exclusinos we have in McAfee and I'd like to export them into csv so I can compare what they acually are with what they are supposed to be. I have exported some settings which can only be done into xml file but I am trying to get it into a readable (csv or other) format. The structure is as follows: . . . . . What I want to be able to do is pull out the values for the ExcludedItems after the Section name "Server_Default-Exclusions". I have been able to read the file using $XmlDocument = Get-Content -Path $Path but what I can't seem to do is select the correct section. I've tried $XmlDocument.SelectNodes but I just don't know how to get to the correct section name and pull out all the settings within that section. Is this possible - or even an easier way to do this?

I am currently working outside the UK and I am looking for some online courses so I can do them in english. Ideally there would be a certificate at the end as I do not have any certificates. I am currently working with Server/Client support and Antivirus administration. Most of the courses I have seen are over £1000 so they are over my budget and any less than that are too basic. I have been looking at Ethical Hacker/Cyber Security courses but they are not cheap. I looked at Udemy earlier this year as they had lots of sales on. The problem is for online courses like this I don't know if they carry much recognition when completed. Does anyone have any recommendations that they have used in the past? Thanks

Hi, I need an overhaul of the reports we produce for our Antivirus environment. At the minute our reporting is from something that was decided years ago and from what I can see doesn't give any real information. I would like to leave the old reports we generate and create something new which represents the actual state of the environment we have and gives an accurate picture of what we are doing (and trying to do). Does anyone have a report they already use that they would be willing to share? The problem comes from the reports being run and only giving a snapshot of the state of the clients so we get a lot of questions asked why systems are not up to date. For the most part this is either due to the client being offline or does not exist anymore. We are running through a clean up of the console but I would like to create a better report also. So far I have broken the report down into Servers & Workstations and created a record of the DAT compliance so we can report a daily compliance chart for clients connecting to the console. At least this way we can see a history of compliance rather than a one off "snapshot" which is what we are doing now in our reports. I also want to run a report of compliance for the versions we are running but this is as far as I have got so far. We are using McAfee to do this so if anyone has any suggestions on things we need to report or point me in the direction of best practice for what to report on that would be very welcome. Thanks

I ended up using this from spiceworks fourm - https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1955129-powershell-counting-zip-contents

Hi, We have an issue where our Antivirus scanning is taking too long and I need to count ALL files on a server. I think the problem is the AV is scanning inside of zip files and that the scan is just taking a long time because there are a lot of these files. Problem is we are having complaints because when someone checks the files on the client it doesn't match what our AV is scanning. I want to cound ALL files including inside of ZIP files to see if I can see how many files are really there. I don't need anything fancy just a complete count for files. Ideally it would have a breakdown of folders also - but for the time being I am just trying to prove that the file totals being scanned is accurate. I used: Get-ChildItem $Server -r | Measure-Object -property Length -sum | select -property Count & Get-ChildItem $Server -Recurse | Measure-Object | %{$_.Count} as a way of getting file count which is fine. Both count files but neither search inside of zip files. Is this possible via powershell?

I need more help with this. I have 1 csv which contains infomration about systems frmo EPO. What I want to do is add an extra column with the lastlogon date from a DC. What I can currenrtly do is find the lastlogon date and export it to a new csv but not to the end of the line of an existing csv. What I was thinking was that I could import the existing csv file and get the last logon time and export everything to a new csv file which contains all the data. The problem is I don't know how to do it. Would I need to import the csv into an array>get last logon>export array contents to csv? If I export I can either get the date of lastlogon OR if I try and add original content from the imported csv I get the array length. If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

Thanks, I can get the date properly. Now all I need to do is work out how to import my existing csv data and export it with the additinoal lastlogontimestamp.

What I am trying to do is check that systems in our AV console that have an old last communication date are OK by checking the last logon timestamp. I have exported a csv with details from EPO and now I want to add a column which contains the last logon timestamp. If these match then I know the system has not connected to the network. If the Laslogontimestamp is more recent I know there is a problem with communicaiton and so can troublehsoot. I am trying to do a cleanup of old stale entries and want to be sure that that the system is no longer on the network before I delete them from the console.

I'm trying to run some checks that our systems are commubnicating with our AV server properly. As such I want to export the LastLogonTimeStamp from AD so I can run a comparison with our AV server. The problem is that if I get the timestamp when I try and export it to csv it just exports the variable length. I was pretty sure I have done this (or something similar) in the past but I can't find any script I have. I am trying to use Export-csv which gives me the vairable length and also I have tried Out-File also but this exports a single entry on each line. What I need to do is export a number of fields into 1 csv so I can do some reports from it. How can I get the LastLogonTimeStamp value and export to csv the actual date? Thanks

Sorry - nothing to do with me.

I have fairly recently joined a new company that uses SharePoint as a replacement for network drives. All documents are stored there but for my department it looks like it was created to duplicate a network drive without much consideration for what it could do. As a result it was set up with multiple folders in a similar fashion to a normal group folder. In addtion to that we also have a ticketing system that is just used for outside in (ie there is no tracking of daily tasks etc that we need to perform outside of issue that require a ticket). As we are merging teams and having a new area of SharePoint to manage I have looked at changing the structure to move the files to the Documents location and tag them so they can be filtered and identified for specific purposes. This seems to be working OK. I have also been looking at creatnig re-occuring tasks to help us track our daily tasks which are currently not always performed (and certainly no logging). I think I have got this now with the use of SharePoint designer. The other thing that needs to be done is completely restructure the documentation as this was dumped into a OneNote document, but without any structure so finding relevent information is proving to be difficult. Basically what I am trying to do is use SharePoint as the structure to store all our documentation in an easy to find way. Also use it to manage projects we are currently working on and Tasks for daily/weekly/monthly checks. I found OneNote really good but the existing structure is too difficult to navigate so we are in a process of updating everything we have. Unfortunately I have no experience of SharePoint or OneNote and as there are soooo many resources on line it would take me months to read through all of them to get an idea of what I want to do. I figured someone here must have done something similar and am hoping you can offer some advice? Thanks

For some reason I am thining this was somehting @elsiegee40 posted but I'm not 100%?

The document I am thinking about had steps such as 1) Identify Users - check the encrypted file properties to obtain user details 2) Disable User account and disconnect Computer from network. 3) perform full scan of end system (off line) 4) reimage if required. I just want staff to know what actions to take

I know someone posted a document some time ago about steps to take when a virus/ranswomware was detected on the network. I used this to create a quick step guide to pass out to members of the department so they knew the severity and steps to take to help prevent the virus from speading. I've since left my old job and need to produce this documentation again. Rather than do it from scratch (as I forgot to take a copy) has anyone got one or knows the post where this was provided please? I need to get something done today as we have had a virus over the weekend so I want to put something out to staff of what to do. From memory I thought it was for the wanacry thread but I can't see it, unless I've just skipped over it.

This is exactly what I was looking for. NOw I should be able to do the following: Create csv files from individual server (Automated) Link these files to SPreadsheet template Save as appropraite file nae (Month) REmove all links with Macro Email to all interested parties. This should be much quicker once I have put all the styeps into progress. Thanks

thanks, that looks like it will do what I'm after. Will take a look later

Unfortunately when I export it to PDF it doesn't look quite as good. However, I may be abe to do it by copying the sheet content and paste into a new file with Past>Data which will keep all the relevant data and remove the formulas. I just need to work out a macro that will do this for mutliple sheets so I don't have to do that part manually.

Actually this doesn't matter so much as this is a one off process I can put up with having to open all files for the time being. I'm just trying to get a proof of concept. If I manage to link all the data to the summary file, how can I then convert that back to "dumb" data so it uses the data value in the cells and not the formula. What I was thinking is as this would be a repeated task, the template can just be reused, then an exported version of the summary can be renamed Jan, Feb...etc but I don't want linked spreadsheet in this file as it needs to be static for that month. Does that make sense? Edit : @ricki - yes the data displays fine when it is first imported, or the other files are open. All I need to be able to do now is export the template as a static file. Is this possible?