Vyapin Blogs

We have made a significant release of our powerful SharePoint list management solution – SPList Manager for SharePoint 2007 (SPListM) version 1.2.

The following are some of the improvisations made to the product solution in this new release:

1. Support to Forms based authentication: SPListM now supports Forms Authentication validating the users against the corresponding SharePoint environment. SPListM would support websites configured with Forms based authentication mechanism.
2. Supports Fully Qualified Domain Name format: SPListM now supports a Fully Qualified Domain Name, i.e. ‘username @domain’ format in its entire validation schema.
3. Profile Manager Tool: Users’ logon information can be stored as User profiles and the same can be retrieved without necessarily entering the credentials every time. Profile manager supports both Windows based and Forms based authentication credentials. Using this, the users can just select their corresponding credentials without manually entering them every time when connecting to SharePoint.
4. Folder options: SPListM now allows users to create folders (if unavailable) on the fly and helps in restructuring folder hierarchy during content migration. The folders to be created can be defined in the external batch descriptor file.
5. Web Services Component Indicator: It is now easy to determine the existence of Web Services Component. The Web Services Component Indicator would now determine the presence of Web Services Component in the corresponding destination SharePoint server. The user can access the same from the Tools Menu of the application (ToolsàTest SPListM Web Service). This would avoid Web Service Component mismatch, if any.
6. SPListM application can now run on Windows 7 / Vista / XP computers. SPListM Web Services component can run on Windows Server 2008 and 2003.

For a free 30-day trial version or to upgrade to the latest version of SPListM software, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistm/sharepoint-2007-list-management-tool.htm .

IIS 7.0 with its scalable architecture is bound to increase the number of web applications hosted on a single server. But are the IIS administrators ready for the challenge? IIS7.0 certainly provides for a cost-effective and secure web server platform capable of hosting thousands of websites. While managing just a single web server with numerous web applications in itself is a challenge, imagine the arduous task before the IIS administrators to manage multiple web servers. Given the number of configuration parameters that have to be referred to, it is almost impossible for the administrators to pull out information manually, compare the settings with another website for reference and carry on configuring a new website, change the settings of an existing website or migrate websites from one server to another.

Admin Report Kit for IIS 7.5/7 (ARKIIS) has come out with a powerful comparison feature to address the plights of the IIS administrators. Comparison reports in ARKIIS allow you to compare IIS configuration settings with a baseline reference across virtual directories, websites and servers as detailed as following,

Comparing websites with a baseline website:

ARKIIS allows IIS administrators to compare the IIS configuration settings of numerous websites across multiple web servers with a single baseline (reference) website. Comparing against a standard baseline website would allow them to configure the web site same way or would help them troubleshoot issues, if any. A standard website is chosen as the ‘Baseline Website’ and the ‘Web Site(s) to be compared’ is chosen from the populated list. The scope of the comparison can include all Web site and ASP.NET reports (settings) or can be restricted to include only selected reports. A summarized view of the websites to be compared and the reports selected is also generated. Specific reports can be chosen from the ‘Report Pane’ and the comparative properties with their corresponding baseline website values and the Compared Website values are reported. The differences in the values against specific properties are displayed in red for the IIS administrators.

Compare virtual directories with a baseline virtual directory:

Not just websites, with ARKIIS it is possible for IIS administrators to compare multiple virtual directories across web servers against a single baseline (reference) virtual directory. A baseline virtual directory is selected from the enumerated list of web sites belonging to different servers and the virtual directories that are to be compared against are also selected. The scope of the comparison can again be restricted to include only specific Website settings reports and ASP.NET settings reports or can be expansive enough to include all the Website and ASP.NET settings reports. A summary of the virtual directories to be compared and the reports to be generated is displayed. To report information about specific parameters the corresponding reports are chosen from the ‘Report Pane’.

Comparing the whole IIS server with another:

What if the IIS administrator wishes to compare the whole IIS server with another? ARKIIS provides for an efficient way to compare a whole IIS server with another. The comparison can be between websites and/or virtual directories within the servers. The baseline server and the server to be compared are selected. The websites and virtual directories that are to be compared are selected from the list. The excluded entities can be viewed from the ‘View Excluded Lists’ button. The comparison can be defined to all Website and ASP.NET settings reports or can be restricted to include only selected reports. A summary of the compared websites and the corresponding selected reports is also displayed. The difference in values corresponding to the properties compared is displayed in red for the IIS administrator to draw inferences from.

Let’s see how ARKIIS draws a comparison between two servers ‘RD52′ and ‘RD48′.

Screenshot of Comparison reports-Comparison options:

The comparison option to compare two IIS servers is first selected. The scope of the comparison is to be specified by selecting the entities to be compared, i.e. websites and virtual directories.

Screenshot of Comparison reports-Selection of Web sites, virtual directories to compare:

‘RD 52′ is selected as the Baseline Server and ‘RD48′ is the server to be compared against. The list of common websites and their virtual directories is displayed and the corresponding web sites and virtual directories which are to be compared are selected.

Screenshot of Comparison reports-Selection of reports to compare:

The reports to be generated i.e.website settings and virtual directory settings to be compared are selected.

Screenshot of Comparison reports-Summary:

The summary of the virtual directories and websites selected and reports that are to be generated is displayed.

Screenshot of Comparison report:

The above screenshot shows the Comparison report comparing the IIS configuration settings of Baseline Server ‘RD52′ and Compare Server ‘RD48′. Specific websites and virtual directories can be compared one to one against the baseline settings by choosing them from the list box above. The differing Baseline Web Site Values and Compared Web Site Values are displayed in red. To compare other web site settings or virtual directory settings, the corresponding reports are to be chosen from the ‘Report Pane’.

Admin Report Kit for IIS (7.5/7) with its comparison feature is sure to make life easy for the IIS administrators in managing complex web applications across multiple web servers.

For a free 15 day trial version, visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/iis-audit/iis7-reports.htm.

Our much anticipated major release of Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) version 6.2 is finally here with the following new features included,

1. AD Summary Reports: ARKAD now comes up with the ability to report object-specific significant information in a powerful summarized view. AD Summary reports displays summarized vital information about Domains, Organizational Units, Computer Accounts and groups.
2. Quick Reports: Quick reports allow the users to restrict the scope of reports to include only specific entities within the domain and generate meaningful information faster. This saves the users from the time involved in scanning the entire domain to retrieve information about specific objects. This is especially useful for oft repeated administrative tasks.
3. ARKAD now allows the user to schedule reports by e-mail. The reports can be scheduled to later hours to reduce the operational load and can be automatically mailed across to the desired recipients.
4. Custom Queries: With ARKAD, it is now possible for users to create their own reports. Custom Queries feature within the Quick reports allow the user to create a custom report by defining logical queries and generating the reports within the ARKAD framework. A custom query can be used to extract information from various containers across the directory.
5. Additional user attributes such as Employee ID, Employee Number, Department Number, Division, Car License etc. can be now retrieved using ARKAD. This additional information better qualifies the users associated with the directory.
6. Computers’ last logon date and time: ARKAD retrieves the last logon date and time of a computer specific to domain controllers within a domain and reports the most recent value as the computer’s last logon date and time.
7. ARKAD now reports the list of nested groups and nested groups that form a loop. (Quick reports->List of nested groups that form a loop).

Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) with its above features could very well be indispensable for any Active Directory infrastructure.

For further information on ARKAD, visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/active-directory-audit/active-directory-reports.htm

Forests are at the top of the Active Directory hierarchy. Forests comprise within themselves one or more domain trees (independent or interdependent) administered by a common schema. Usually a networking infrastructure contains in it a Forest at the top level. The objects within the Forests are controlled by the Forest Root Domain, created initially when the Active Directory is installed for the first time. With companies operating across geographies, the Active Directory has expanded rapidly resulting in the Forests’ topology becoming increasingly complex. To administer an Active Directory infrastructure with multiple forests spread across geographies is no easy task. Imagine the volume of data that would be generated or the number of individual entities that have to be looked at.

Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) has in it numerous out-of-the-box reports that present a bird’s eye view of the Active Directory topology at a Forest Level. Through these reports ARKAD allows administrators to generate reports across multiple domains and take stock of the entire forest.

Domain Reports at a Forest level gives information about the various properties of domains within a forest. The domain controllers within the respective domains and the trust relationships (trusting or trusted) prevailing between them are also reported. The administrator corresponding to each domain, their permissions and the security settings are some of the other significant information reported at a forest level. Auditing information corresponding to the changes made within the domain can be viewed under ‘Auditing’ report. The Group Policy report gives information about the group policies that are applicable to the corresponding domains. The ‘Delegated Permissions’ report gives an insight on the users with their delegated tasks within the domain.

Site Reports at a Forest level provides configuration settings corresponding to sites within a forest. The location of the sites and their created and modified dates are reported in the ‘Location’ and ‘Object’ reports respectively. The ‘Security’ and ‘Auditing’ reports give information about the permissions associated with the sites and their auditing information respectively. The Group Policy Objects linked to the corresponding sites is reported in the ‘Group Policy’ report. The ‘Delegated Permissions’ reports users with delegated tasks within the sites.

Forest Level Group Reports provide information about various group settings corresponding to groups within a forest. Information about the members within the groups and the membership details of groups themselves are reported in ‘Member’ and ‘Member Of’ reports corresponding to the Forest. The created date and modified date values and details of the administrators managing the groups are also displayed. The Permissions associated with the members of the group and the auditing information are other relevant information reported. The ‘Deleted Object’ report displays information on the groups recently deleted.

Forest Level User reports enumerate the Users and their account information associated with the domains within a forest. The User display names, address, account details, profile path, telephone numbers, organization and position related details are effectively reported. The users’ membership details are also reported. Created Date and Modified date field values are displayed. The Permissions granted, their type along with the auditing information is retrieved in the ‘Security’ and ‘Permissions’ reports. The Last logon date of the corresponding user account and other relevant information such as Password Last Set date, Password expiration date etc. are reported in the ‘Additional Account Info’ report. The Password Settings Objects policies (applicable to Windows 2008 Domain Controllers) defined for users within the forest and the precedence level of such policies can be viewed under ‘Effective PSO (Win 2008)’. The deleted user accounts within the forest are reported under ‘Deleted Objects’ report.

Contact reports are similar to the User reports and display information about the Contacts corresponding to the forest. The Contact information such as display names, address, telephone numbers, organization and position held are some of the relevant information reported. The Membership details of contacts are also reported. The Created Date and Modified date values are some of the other significant information reported in ‘Object’ report. The Permissions defined against the Contacts and the auditing information are displayed under ‘Security’ and ‘Auditing’ reports. The information about deleted contacts and their last known parent are reported in ‘Deleted Objects’ report.

Group Policy Objects reports display information about the various Grouped Policy Objects within the forest. The details of Group Policy Objects linked with various objects within the forest are reported under ‘Links’ report. The objects that are connected to various GPOs and the corresponding details are reported in the ‘SOM Links’ report. The Security settings corresponding to each object, auditing information associated and related comments are retrieved for the administrator through the ‘Security Filtering’, ‘Security’ and ‘Auditing’ reports. ‘Deleted Objects’ reports deleted Group Policy Object corresponding to the forest.

Consider an example where the administrator wishes to generate a report on Trust relationships across various domains within a forest. Generating this report manually would be a cumbersome process.

Lets see how ARKAD does this with considerable ease. The following screenshot shows the Trust Relationship across domains within a forest

ARKAD with its out-of-the-box forests reports addresses administrators’ reporting needs with considerable finesse.

For a 15-day free evaluation visit our product home page at <http://www.vyapin.com/products/active-directory-audit/active-directory-reports.htm

Our powerful reporting tool for Internet Information Services 7.0, Admin Report Kit for IIS (ARKIIS 7.0) is out as a major release, Version 2.1 with the following significant features added:

1. Support to IIS 7.5: ARKIIS now supports IIS 7.5 in addition to the earlier IIS 7 version.
2. Comparison reports for web sites and virtual directories: ARKIIS would now allow the users to compare the configuration settings of various web sites and virtual directories. Using these reports, the users can compare the configuration settings of websites against a baseline website or virtual directory.
3. Favorite Groups for web sites: Users can now restrict the scope of scanning to include only specific websites and generate reports faster. This would save them from the enormous time involved in scanning the entire environment to retrieve information about specific sites.
4. Custom reports for web sites: Reports can now be customized using user-defined fields and values to generate meaningful information across selected fields from IIS. The user can now select the desired fields and is also given the discretion to fill the corresponding field values against the fields. The user-defined custom fields feature is one of the much anticipated ones by our customers.
5. Scheduled report generation using Power Export: Users can now schedule tasks to allow automatic report generation and export based on their need. The report generation can also be scheduled to non-office hours to reduce the system downtime and the corresponding frequency can also be set.
6. Report pane for easier navigation: A report pane is also added to facilitate easy access and retrieval of specific reports.

Admin Report Kit for Internet Information Services (7.5/7) V2.1 is a must-have tool that addresses the reporting, administrative and management needs of Administrators/IT Managers/CIOs and reduces their burden in managing IIS web servers.

For more information on ARK for IIS 7, visit our product home page at <http://www.vyapin.com/products/iis-audit/iis7-reports.htm

We have come out with a significant major release of our flagship SharePoint document migration tool, DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 / 2007.

DocKIT v4.0 now supports Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 in addition to its support to the earlier versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0).

DocKIT in addition to its support to native SharePoint 2010 environment has come out with the following new features:

1. Extended support to Business Connectivity Services: Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is all about keeping the users connected to external databases and other sources of enterprise data (LOB systems). BCS is an evolution of Business Data Catalog (BDC) feature in SharePoint 2007, allowing the users to better integrate external data to the SharePoint portal. DocKIT through its support to BCS / BDC ensures that users can map their existing line of business applications into the SharePoint portal, thereby allowing the users to leverage on integrated information.
2. Support to Managed metadata: Managed metadata resembles the ‘Lookup Columns’ of SharePoint 2007. Unlike Look Up columns where it was impossible for the users to share metadata across site collections, Managed metadata is not site specific. Managed metadata has a centralized repository of pre-defined metadata that can be replicated for use throughout the SharePoint environment without having to define them every single time. DocKIT helps users retrieve the metadata values from ‘term sets’ associated with the Managed Metadata column.
3. Supports Document Sets: Document sets allow users to bundle related documents and treat them as a single entity. With DocKIT, the users can migrate multiple documents from file repositories and manage them better by assigning metadata to these ‘compound documents’ through an external metadata source.

DocKIT with its support to SharePoint 2010 features such as ‘Ratings Column’ data type, ‘Asset Library’ etc. would help organizations achieve a better collaborative environment by allowing the users to leverage on the extended features of SharePoint 2010.

The interesting information is the latest version of DocKIT supports both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007 environment within the same version of the product. This means our DocKIT customers do not have to invest twice (lower TCO) in a SharePoint document migration solution, one for each SharePoint version and can also quickly adapt / transition to the new version using the familiar interface.

For a free trial version of DocKIT for SharePoint 2010/2007 please visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/dockit/sharepoint-migration.htm.