Selected Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit Utilities

For more information about these new tools, refer to the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit Tools Help File (ntrktool.chm).

Creatals.exe: Modify Domain_Create_Alias

This command-line utility modifies the DOMAIN_CREATE_ALIAS right on a domain so that only domain administrators can create domain local groups.

The default Windows NT user rights allow non-administrative users to create domain local groups. Domain local groups reside only on domain controllers that share a single security account manager (SAM).

A non-administrative user could potentially abuse the ability to create aliases on a domain by creating a large number of domain local groups and causing the size of the account database to grow without restrictions. Unlimited local group creation could cause the domain controller to crash and create excessive network traffic because of the replication of local group information to backup domain controllers.

This tool must be run by the Domain Administrator on the Primary Domain Controller.

-daccount denies CreateAlias access to the specified account.
Note CreateAlias cannot be denied to Administrators. -gaccount grants CreateAlias access to the specified account. -a restricts access to Administrators/AccountOps only. -r resets the ACL to the Windows NT 4.0 default. -l lists the accounts that have CrealeAlias Access -? displays command-line syntax (as does creatals without arguments).

You can use any number of -d and -g arguments. CreatAls, however, doesn't check for consistency in the arguments: it simply processes the arguments one at a time. This means that you should carefully determine the required accesses. For most purposes, you should use the -a or the -r option. The -d and -g options allow for greater control, but require more diligence in determining the correct settings.

Dhcmp.exe: Heap Compare

This command-line tool compares two dumps of heap usage from Dh.exe, matching the backtraces from each file, to find leaks.

Dnscmd.exe: DNS Server Troubleshooting Tool

Dnscmd.exe is a command line tool designed to assist administrators in DNS management.

DNScmd allows the administrator to view the properties of DNS servers, zones and resource records. In addition DNScmd can be used to manually modify these properties, to create and delete zones and resource records, and to force replication events between DNS server physical memory and DNS databases/datafiles.

Note DNScmd enhances the functionality of and replaces Dnsstat.exe, a tool included in previous Resource Kits.

Is the name of the DNS server the administrator is planning to manage, represented by one of the following:

DNSCMD Commands

Reloads the specified zone from its database (file or DS) on the specified DNS server.

Forces refresh of the specified secondary zone on the specified DNS server from its master.

Updates the specified DS integrated zone by data from DS on the specified DNS server.

Changes a type (Primary/Secondary/DSintegrated) of the specified zone on the specified DNS server.

Creates a record in the specified zone or RootHints on the specified DNS server.

Deletes a record from the specified zone or RootHints on the specified DNS server.

Deletes all records at a name from the specified zone, RootHints or Cache at the specified DNS server.

Expand.exe: File Expansion Utility

This command-line tool enables you to expand files that have been compressed by Compress.exe: File Compress.

List.exe: Text Display and Search Tool

This simple text display and search tool lists the contents of a file. Unlike other text display tools, List is a good tool for looking at large text or log files because it does not read the whole file into memory when you open it.

List is useful for displaying text or log files remotely and for use on servers where administrators are concerned with degradation of system performance.

Memsnap.exe: Memory Profiling Tool

This memory profiling tool takes a snapshot of the memory resources being consumed by all running processes and writes this information to a log file.

MemSnap logs system memory usage to a log file with the default name of Memsnap.log; however, any file name can be chosen by specifying it at the command line when starting the tool.

is the name of the file where Memsnap writes its information (the default is Memsnap.log).

PPTP Ping: Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol Ping Tools

Pptpclnt.exe and Pptpsrv.exe are tools that work in unison to verify that the required protocol and port for Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is being routed from a PPTP client to a PPTP server or vice-versa.

In order for a PPTP client to access a remote PPTP server, all routers in between the two hosts must allow traffic to pass through TCP port 1723 (PPTP) and must support protocol type 47. Protocol type 47 is the GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) protocol.

Note This tool is not meant to test the functionality of a PPTP server or a PPTP client. It is meant to assure that the path between the two hosts is passing through TCP port 1723 and using the GRE protocol (type 47).

Remote Administration Scripts

The Remote Administration Scripts are a collection of Visual Basic scripting tools designed to perform specific administrative tasks using Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Rscripts.chm is an HTML Help file that documents the Remote Administration Scripts.

These files are located in the \Vbsscripts folder of the Windows NT Resource Kit.

RPC Ping: RPC Connectivity Verification Tool

This tool can confirm RPC connectivity between Microsoft Exchange Server and any of the supported Microsoft Exchange Client workstations on the network. RPC Ping checks if Microsoft Exchange Server services are responding to RPC requests from client workstations via the network.

is the friendly name for one of the supported transport mechanisms of RPC, as follows:

Rpingc is the 32-bit version of the client side of the RPC Ping tool. Rpingc16 and Rpingdos are the 16-bit versions of the client side. They will connect and bind to the specified destination RPC server and display the status, available protocol sequences with end points, and quality of the RPC connection. Both Rpingc and Rpingc16 are set up to run in the Windows environment. Rpingdos runs in the MS-DOS environment.

Rpingdos Syntax

Friendly Name	Description
namedpipes	NCA connection over Named Pipes (ncacn_np)
tcpip	NCA connection over TCP/IP (ncacn_ip_tcp)
netbios	NCA connection over NetBIOS on Netbeui (ncacn_nb_nb)
ipx/spx	NCA connection over SPX (ncacn_spx)
vines	NCA connection over Banyan Vines (ncacn_vns_spp)

rpingdos [-p ProtocolSequence] -n NetworkAddress [-e EndPoint] [-c xxx] [-s]

Snmputilg.exe: SNMP Troubleshooting Tool

SnmpUtilG is a graphical tool that complements the older command prompt SNMP browser tool (Snmputil.exe). System administrators can use either tool to obtain information from SNMP-manageable systems on the network.

You can use SnmpUtilG to perform the basic SNMP operations such as GET, GET-NEXT, and SET from a graphical interface. SnmpUtilG also supports saving SNMP data to the clipboard, as well as saving data to comma delimted text files.

Caution Even though many OID values are "read only" by default, you should use the SNMP SET command with caution. Incorrect use of this tool might cause network name resolution or network connectivity problems adversely impacting performance.

Files Required

For background on SNMP and MIBs, see "Using SNMP for Network Management," Chapter 11 in Windows NT Server Networking Guide.

MIBs are also documented in detail in "MIB Object Types for Windows NT," Appendix C in Windows NT Server Networking Guide.

Vfi.exe: Visual File Information

Visual File Information retrieves and generates file information. You can use this information for testing purposes to detect what files have changed in different versions of applications or what the difference are between two seemingly identical machines. This information is also valuable to track different versions of resources that normally don't store version information. Results can be copied to the clipboard or save it out to a tab-delimted file or Excel file.

Tools with Platform Limitations

1.5.2 POSIX Source Code

On your Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit Supplement Four CD, the \platform\Scrpting\posix\source directory contains the C language source code to the POSIX utilities that are shipped with the Windows NT Resource Kit. This source code and the POSIX utility binaries are not supported by Microsoft and have not undergone formal testing. If they do not work correctly and you are a proficient C programmer, you may be able to fix any bugs yourself. Consult the Win32 Software Development Kit for Windows NT for background information on building POSIX programs.

To install the POSIX source code

•	At the command prompt, type the following lines: md c:\posix xcopy cd_driveletter:\platform\Scrpting\posix\source c:\posix\ /s /e /i c: cd \posix longname

Notice that the partition to which you copy the source code must have the NTFS file system. Also, from the directory to which you copied all the source code, you must run the Longname.bat file before attempting to compile any of the utilities. This batch file renames many of the files to their correct name, which is often longer than the standard 8.3 filename. If you do not run this batch file, the utilities will not compile correctly.

The following utilities may require code changes to make them work on RISC-based computers: AR.EXE, CC.EXE, DEVSRV.EXE, LD.EXE, MAKE.EXE. For example, CC.EXE invokes "CL386" to compile other programs; on RISC-based computers, you must change the code to invoke the proper compiler.

The following copyright notice applies to both the POSIX utilities provided in binary form as well as the source code on the CD.

This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by Adam de Boor.

This software and documentation is based in part on BSD Networking Software licensed from the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley. We acknowledge the role of the Computer Systems Research Group and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Other Contributors in its development.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1.	Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2.	Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3.	All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
4.	Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

Reference

The following is a list of tools included in the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit, Supplement 4:

Etc

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