Subscribe by emailing KaseyaScripts-subscribe AT yahoogroups.com

Here’s a great app/tool Yan from Jointtech posted about this week: Ninite.com for creating scripted autoinstallers….timely post for me as I need to create some Irfanview deployment scripts today.

Also loved this comment re the Video chat in K2: “P.S. I find my guys use video chat way more often with the younger hotter employees of my customers. Can’t really blame them either. Some of them are gorgeous. ”

Know any other tools the community could benefit from? Post a link in the comments

Related posts:

1. Kaseya Scripting Magic:Spam Blacklist Checker Here’s a piece of scripting gold and I think...
2. Kaseya Desktop Alerting Tool – an EOI for an EOI While the Kaseya Dashboard can be useful for keeping...
3. Kaseya Scripts – 2008 + K2 Script packs Long time no see!… I’ve been on the road...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve been on the road for a bit involved with various projects over the last couple of months and have been insanely busy so very few updates from me.

Thought I’d post a quick one anyway particularly for those who aren’t subscribed to the Yahoo user groups for Kaseya.

Couple of quick links to:

Kaseya 2008 Script pack for Kaseya 5 – several hundred scripts to do various things in Kaseya

K2 Script pack – handful of new scripts for K2

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Disable AVG Shell Extension Kaseya Script Here’s a quick post – this one annoyed me...
2. Kaseya Scripting Magic:Spam Blacklist Checker Here’s a piece of scripting gold and I think...
3. Another great Kaseya scripting/autoinstaller tool I think I’ve said this in a previous post...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you’re running an MSP business or in any way involved with selling MSP services you should check the site out.
Some really good stuff there on the less technical facets of the MSP business model

Mike’s the CEO of both Everonit.com and Kutenda.com

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It annoys me that AVG Corporate has such a bad name/reputation in the wild because of its association with AVG Free. As such, several MSPs I work with want to keep the AVG name away from users as much as possible. One of the options when rolling out KES is to setup a Windows Explorer shell extension – you know where you right click and choose “Scan with AVG”

There’s no way to undone this from the KES Management console once you roll out machines with it. So here’s the Kaseya script (v5.1) that does it – pretty simple, just delete the regkey and it disappears immediately. You should be able to straight copy and paste this into the script import window:

Script Name: AVG/KES/Managed AV - Disable Shell Context Menu
Script Description: This script disables the shell context menu that shows the "Scan with AVG" menu item when right clicking in Windows Explorer.
Script by Tullibo.com

Related posts:

1. Kaseya Scripting Magic:Spam Blacklist Checker Here’s a piece of scripting gold and I think...
2. Kaseya Scripts – 2008 + K2 Script packs Long time no see!… I’ve been on the road...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

To me, you could easily double the value you get out of Kaseya by switching all your clients to KES. Its not really about the dollars you bring in the door (although I did write another post about making 400%+ margin selling KES), to me its about not having to manage 50, 100 or 200+ odd antivirus consoles out there in the wild. The time saving there alone would justify giving KES away for free.

Bla bla bla, my antivirus is better than yours…

I’m tired of seeing arguments in forums about this antivirus is better than that antivirus. In the past 12-15 years of being in this space my experience tells me they’re almost all identical and the effectiveness of the top of the top tier commercial AV products compared with the bottom of the top tier may be 5-10%, IMO, this is almost nothing. Besides, endpoint security is only one piece of the security puzzle, if you’re not employing IPS/realtime AV at the network level using devices like Fortinet Fortgate Firewalls, Cisco PIX or Watchguard Firebox along with inline email scanning services like Messagelabs then you have failed, you aren’t doing your job properly.

To me, having a central console to manage AV deployments across all clients with the ability to ensure, at a glance, with very little time cost, that AV is deployed site wide with no gaps, beats the 5-10% advantage I may get by using the top tier product (effectiveness changes with every version, almost yearly anyway so the top usually isn’t the top for long). I feel much more comfortable knowing AV is rolled out everywhere, without any machines missing it. A single machine without AV installed is a much bigger risk than using a product that might be a tiny bit weaker overall.

I agree, AVG isn’t perfect but is still good – here’s how I do it

I’ll admit that AVG is “good” but not “great” and tech savvy clients may bawk at paying for it due to the over-exposure of AVG Free in the wild. Out of the box with default settings, AVG is actually quite rubbish. All their link scanning and webshield garbage is just bloatware IMO and as per my previous point, there are better ways to protect from web based threats.

So, to the point, here’s my KES installation checklist. It’s not pretty looking, but it works, and works good! I have this config running over 2000+ machines without a hiccup (bar the recent AVG bug). Download it, try it, check it out, post some feedback, ask questions, let me know what you think either way! Oh, and if you’re really stuck, you can always Hire Me and I’ll fix your KES for you

Click here to download Kaseya Endpoint Security Setup Checklist (PDF)

Related posts:

1. Ching ching! How much markup are you making on antivirus software sales? 400%? How much markup are you making on your antivirus...
2. A bulletproof way to configure your Kaseya patch management Here's my bulletproof method for configuring Kaseya patch management. I've...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

So if you follow me on twitter you’ll have seen my rant I had a few days ago about AVG9 problems and server freezing & crashing along with some stuff directed to @kaseyacorp re actively notifying clients of known issues.

Starting at the beginning – I’ve been working with a client on a Netware & Groupwise to Windows & Exchange 2010 migration. It’s in the final steps and we’re in the process of unplugging the old Netware gear and cleaning up minor tasks left behind.

The solution is a combination of data centre hosted VMs and a physical box onsite. Its been a difficult migration but all has been working well for a couple of months until the Exchange box locked up about two weeks ago, *almost* unresponsive. The weird thing was, mouse movements worked on the console, the box was accepting OWA/webmail connections through a web browser but wouldn’t allow SMTP connections or allow any Outlook clients to connect.

Fair enough, we’d been playing with the VM snapshot backups and VSS and figured it had broken something, hard booted the box and it’s been running fine every since.

I hate weird server crashes

Then comes Monday, the physical box onsite locks up with the exact same problem. Hmmm…coincidence? I think not. What do they have in common? One box is physical, one is a VM, can’t be a VM or hardware issue. Hmmm, both Win2008 boxes, same patch level, could be an MS update problem or Win2008 issue. Both running Kaseya & KES. Well, plenty of other Win2008 + KES servers about but these are missing about 15 odd MS patches since put into production. Lets roll out those badboys and log a case with Microsoft.

Crashedy crash crash crash…

Tuesday rolls around – I get a call in the morning, one of the other boxes has locked up, same problem again. One of the data centre domain controller VMs…..well this is getting awkward, fortunately the client didn’t notice this lockup. Looks like client signoff on this project is going to be delayed until we can work these bugs out.

So MS were completely useless. I logged a case on Monday. They suggested running Windowsupdates and then trying to do a manual memory dump the next time the issue happened. Great! The box isn’t blue screening and is unresponsive when it crashes, how am I supposed to do a memory dump? So, I took matters into my own hands because clearly I’m not getting anywhere in a hurry with Microsoft.

Kaseya agent v5.1.0.10

The client is running Kaseya 5.1 and the agents are at 5.1.0.0 version. Turns out theres an agent version 5.1.0.10 – thanks for the headsup Kaseya! Netter upgrade that agent version.
What else do all three boxes have in common? Hmm…KES/AVG
2 minutes and some snappy Google-izing later, I uncover a well known issue with AVG9 freezing boxes in the exact same manner as the three crashes on these boxes. Check the Kaseya forums, oh yeah, there’s multiple threads about the problem, oh, and with a workaround! Great

I then proceed to apply the workaround and all has been running sweet since.

Communication is key

So here’s my problem. I know that software issues happen. Bugs happen. Shit happens, its IT after all, stuff breaks all the time, we wouldn’t have a job if it didn’t. What really bugs me is that this is a known issue. From what I can see in the Kaseya forums, it’s been a known issue since January! Why then do I:

1-have to wait until this problem happens to me/clients I’m involved with, causing completely unnecessary downtime, stress and client angst
2-have to actively search for the potential existance of this particular problem
3-have to rely on a Kaseya end user workaround to resolve the problem

Selective hearing talking?

One thing that Kaseya is really good at is interacting on twitter. What I don’t get is that they have Twitter, Facebook (i think?), Kaseya forums, a blog, an email list and a knowledgebase and they still can’t advise clients of known issues, problems and their fixes.
For a company who’s primary business is software, this is absolutely beyond belief. Granted I tweeted this out and @cozthegrov @replied me right back and advised that they’re working on this in the Kaseya portal but frankly, I don’t care. For the last 3-4 years Kaseya has happily send me marketing emails at regular intervals, why can’t they have a second email list that advises clients of known issues, workarounds and also things like what the Kserver updates they roll out actually do!

There’s a lot of Labtech ranting on twitter lately and a lot of Kaseya bashing re K2 support…I totally understand the frustration and at the same time think that it’s a lot of noise over nothing and disagree whole-heartedly about the K bashing and labtech ship jumping. On the flipside, I think its time Kaseya got their asses into gear and started acting like a real software company.

Here’s my immediate right now Kaseya wishlist – to me, this doesn’t need to wait for the new Kaseya portal, it needs to happen right now, as in this week:

1-an email list I can subscribe to where I can get notified of known issues & notification of Kserver updates PRIOR to them being auto rolled out
2-ability to subscribe to knowledgebase updates so I get notified when new articles are published
3-a unified front across all Kaseya social media, I current need to watch Twitter, Kaseya Forums and the blog just to stay on top of things, why can’t important updates be published across all mediums?
4-an update on how Kaseya 2 deployments are going and regular updates on bug fixes/issues. With all the noise going on, I’m hesitant to get involved with K2

What are your thoughts?  A lot of noise on the net about K2 support & Labtech at the moment…how’s your Kaseya experience been lately?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Problem…

If you’re familiar with Kaseya BUDR, you’ll be aware that by default, Kaseya password protects the each image file it creates. This works great when you’re backing up data for a client, the image is protected by a password and encryption. The potential for disaster is when you’re using password protection in conjunction with the images of your Kaseya server and SQL backend box.

In the event of a disaster you’re going to need to rebuild one of those boxes or both from a BUDR Acronis image. If you’re protecting that image file with a password and your Kaseya system is down, where are you going to get the password from? You’re stuck, the password is stored in the SQL db somewhere and you have no quick and easy access to it

A simple solution…

So a simple solution to the problem is to either:

• stick the image password for your Kaseya and SQL servers in your doco somewhere; or the second choice (which is probably better for ease of restore during a crisis)
• disable password protection totally for your Kaseya and SQL server images, which you can do from the passwords section on the backup tab. Note that if you reset the password, the next image backup will be a full image backup

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

While you’re there, you should also have out David Walsh’s ebook, Source Control. As David says, “if you’re not outsourcing, you’re either about to get crushed by someone who is, or wasting time on worthless tasks.”

Nowhere in my mind is this more true than in the MSP market where we’re now at MSP 2.0. Everybody is using the same tools and price is now becoming a differentiator – ultimately, cost pressures are going to go up and outsourcing the routine, mundane, boring and specialized tasks is a smart way to cut costs. Outsourcing is hard, but David’s book really helps simplify the process.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve seen MSPs burn hours applying customized monsets to monitor server disk drive space for different drive letters. Here’s how I do it, simple and effective:

1. I use the in-built disk space alert and set this to alert at 3% free

I find 3% gives me the right balance to capture low disk alerts for both big and small disks.

Unfortunately, this alert only works after a latest audit is done on a server. I like to schedule my server latest audits nightly, but still, a nightly check of disk space is hardly realtime monitoring.

My main motivation behind using the inbuilt monitoring for disk space is to capture instances where no monset has been applied for disk space monitoring or the monset has stopped capturing data for whatever reason.

2. I use a single disk space monset that monitors free disk space on all drives.

I have a single monset that monitors all disk drive instances for both % free and GB free.

Again here, I trigger an alert at 3% disk space free or less and also at 2.5GB free or less. Once more, using a combination of % free and GB free gives me a good balance for coverage of a variety of disk drive sizes.

Not that here I use the *ALL instance which allows the set to monitor for all disk drive instances. Once the set is applied to servers Kaseya seems to do weird things and modify the monset itself and add drive letters to the monset. This will cause the monset to attempt to capture data for drives that do not exist but I figure no harm done, I rather that than not monitoring drives at all because a tech missed a monset.

What’s your feedback? Any other ways you’re monitoring disk space?

Related posts:

1. A smarter way to handle Kaseya Low Disk Space Alerts for PCs It still amazes me the volume and number of...
2. Editing Kaseya “INDividualized” & Standard Monitoring sets made by another admin Ever had to edit another admin’s IND monsets on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m really excited about the new iPad revealed last week. In fact, I’m really excited about Apple in general at the moment. A month ago I made the switch to a Macbook Pro fulltime because I’ve simply had enough of Windows. Win7 is simply too little too late. The elegancy and performance of Mac OS wins hands down every time. I love my new MBP…its just ridiculously fast compared to my old Windows notebook.

A growing trend towards Apple hardware in the SMB/SME space…

Talking with a few different clients over the past fews months, I’ve noticed a new trend occurring. CEO & Exec level staff at companies they support are heavily leaning towards iPhone and ditching their old Blackberry handsets. A lot of these guys have also ditched their Windows notebooks in favour of a Macbook (granted a lot are still running Windows on top of Parallels or VMware). Staff working for these MSPs seem to be moving towards Apple too opting to use their own personal MBPs at work too.

So here’s the thing, 2-3 years ago, many MSPs wouldn’t have even thought of supporting Apple machines or equipment. 18 months ago – many were forced into a position where they had to. Sure, the majority of machines on networks they managed were Windows boxes with a couple of Macs so not a big deal. Today, if the CEO of a SME business you support is ditching his beloved Blackberry and Windows notebook for an iPhone and Macbook Pro, you can be certain than 18 months down the track, he’ll be much more inclined to look at rolling out more Apple machines in that business.

MSPMentor could only find 1 Mac MSP firm?

So here’s the opportunity that I don’t think anyone in the MSP sector is really leveraging except maybe for these guys: MSPMentor.net found an Apple friendly MSP firm
Build some internal capability to support Mac machines and start promoting yourself as a capable Apple & Mac support provider.

At a time when the MSP market is becoming heavily commoditized, you need something to help you stand out from the rest and here is something that’s really simple. A lot of MSPs shun Macs because they don’t need much (any?) maintenance, rarely need patches and simply just work. The reality is, users need support regardless of what machine they’re running. The fact that Macs need significantly less maintenance than a Windows box is even more reason why you should be pushing into this vertical market.

Would love to hear your take on supporting Macs….post in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Social Media:Are you missing a massive opportunity? Social media is a massive opportunity for any business...
2. New site theme & mobile support I finally got around to implementing a mobile version...
3. Couple of great MSP resources I’ve been hearing quite a lot about Gary Pica...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.