Tools | Server Ninjas

PAL Version 2.1 Released

Jan 152012

PAL version 2.1 was released on November 8, 2011. I just wanted to take a few minutes to create another post so hopefully more people will hear about this great tool. PAL stands for Performance Analysis Of Logs and is hosted on SourceForge. Clint Huffman who is a premier field engineer (PFE) for Microsoft is the main contributor to the project.

PAL is used to read performance logs from Windows and analyze them based on thresholds that are set. From the SourceForge website here are some of the features.

Thresholds files for most of the major Microsoft products such as IIS, MOSS, SQL Server, BizTalk, Exchange, and Active Directory.
An easy to use GUI interface which makes creating batch files for the PAL.ps1 script.
A GUI editor for creating or editing your own threshold files.
Creates an HTML based report for ease of copy/pasting into other applications.
Analyzes performance counter logs for thresholds using thresholds that change their criteria based on the computer’s role or hardware specs.

In the future plan on looking for some tutorials on how to use PAL. In the meantime please check out the links below. If you have used to tool please leave me a comment on how you liked it.

PAL 2.1 By Clint Huffman

PAL SourceForge Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/

PAL v2.0’s New Counter Generation Feature is Powerful
http://blogs.technet.com/b/clinth/archive/2010/03/02/pal-v2-0-s-new-counter-generation-feature-is-powerful.aspx

The PAL Tool on Memory Leaks
http://blogs.technet.com/b/clinth/archive/2011/03/28/the-pal-tool-on-memory-leaks.aspx

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Hash Tab 3.0 Easy To Use

Tools No Responses »

Jun 232010

Hash Tab 3.0 is a small program that allows you to calculate file hashes. The great thing about hash tab is that it is supported as a Windows shell extension. This means that once you have the program installed all you have to do is look at the file properties to see the hash. Hash Tab 3.0 supports several algorithms including MD5, SHA1, SHA2, RipeMD, HAVAL and Whirlpool. Check out the link below to download the program and learn more about it.

Download Hash Tab 3.0
http://beeblebrox.org/hashtab.aspx

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Ultimate Boot CD 5.0.1 Released

IT News, Tools No Responses »

May 262010

One of the best boot CD that exist was just recently updated to version 5.0.1. This is one of the must have tools for system administrators that deal with server different operating systems. Check out the information below which is from the sites main page.

You need the Ultimate Boot CD if you want to:

Run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. More and more PCs are shipped without floppy drives these days, and it is such a royal pain when you need to run diagnostic tools on them.

Free yourself from the slow loading speed of the floppy drive. Even if you do have a floppy drive, it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive.

Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Wouldn’t you like to avoid digging into the dusty box to look for the right floppy disk, but simply run them all from a single CD? Then the Ultimate Boot CD is for you!

Run Ultimate Boot CD from your USB memory stick. A script on the CD prepares your USB memory stick so that it can be used on newer machines that supports booting from USB devices. You can access the same tools as you would from the CD version.

Download Ultimate Boot CD
http://www.serverninjas.com/ultimate-tool-list/boot-utilities/ultimate-boot-cd/ultimate-boot-cd-download

Ultimate Boot CD Site
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

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