* A look at ScriptLogic Service Explorer Version 2
Just about every computer on your network is running multiple services. Some services are easy to identify but some are listed only with a cryptic name. Some run with limited privileges while others have full, unfettered, access to not only the computer they’re running on but to every computer on your network.
Back-up and archive services, anti-virus software and others are typically set up once and then left to run forever. Good security policies typically dictate changing the passwords to these service accounts on a regular basis – an interactive process that can be very time consuming when performed one service and one server at a time. So, also typically, the policy is ignored. That’s bad management, bad administration and a bad security practice. Now there’s help.
I was chatting with ScriptLogic’s founder, Brian Styles, the other day and he was enthusing about the new release (Version 2, out this week) of Service Explorer. Styles says that the company talked to users of Version 1 – as well as other network managers – and tried to discover their “pain points” with service administration. What they found, they rolled into Version 2.
The “one at a time” problem that changing passwords presents is ameliorated by Service Explorer which addresses these time-consuming problems using a one-to-many centralized search and replace approach. It accomplishes this through a new multi-threaded architecture, which enables Service Explorer 2.0 to carry out search and update operations on many machines in parallel. The time savings can be enormous, according to Styles.
The utility now has enhanced search capabilities that allow you to carry out searches across all computers on the network to find services and tasks based on combinations of a wide range of criteria. These criteria make it possible to carry out specific searches and cut through long lists of data from potentially thousands of services on the network. That’s even more time savings.
Service Explorer now also manages Service Access Control lists (Windows 2000 and 2003 servers) to monitor and maintain users rights and privileges to those services. Did I mention the new version was a real time saver?
There’s even more, including a much improved user interface, but it’s the new time saving features that impressed me. After all, time is money, right? Head over to https://www.scriptlogic.com/ and investigate Service Explorer 2. And while you’re there, take a look at the new version (6.0) of Desktop Authority.
