Computers

Most of Hyena's objects and functions are based on management of computers. Besides computer-specific functions (described below), Hyena will display a variety of objects beneath all computer objects in the tree window. Use the topic links below for more information.

Users	Services and Devices
Global Groups	Events
Local Groups	Disk Space
Printers	User Rights
Shares	Performance
DFS	Scheduling Jobs
Sessions	Registry
Open Files	WMI

A number of functions are available in Hyena specifically for computer objects, as follows:

Hyena includes different objects and methods for viewing and managing computers:

Computers,

Servers, and

Domain Controllers - These objects, displayed under each domain tree, can be used to display and manage computers in any given domain. The View All Computers, View Servers Only, View Workstations Only, and View Computers menu options (available on the Domain Computers object for NT domains) can be used to filter/restrict the type of computers to view.

Enterprise - The Enterprise object, located at the bottom of the tree window, provides access to both Windows domain and workgroup computer lists, as well as other options for viewing computers. See the Enterprise Object topic for more information.

To add new computers to a Windows NT domain, select the Add Computer option. For a Windows 2000/2003 domain, select the New... option. Note that the comment associated with a computer will not appear for newly added computers until Windows adds it to the local domain's browse list.

Use the Remove from Domain option to remove one or more computers from the domain.

The Properties option for computers can be used to display the following information:

General - Computer comment, remote time, system uptime, operating system, service pack information and IE version, and the roles that the remote computer is configured to operate in (ie print server, SQL Server, etc.)

HotFix - Displays a list of all installed hotfixes. To customize the location where Hyena searches for hotfix information, see the Customizing Hot Fix Properties topic.

Software - Displays a list of all installed software applications. This information can also be copied to the clipboard.

System - Shows system information, including CPU, logged on users, total memory, BIOS, and other system level information.

Network - Displays network transports, network cards, tcpip, DNS, and WINS settings.

Directory - (Active Directory only) Active Directory object information, such as Description, Location, and other directory elements.

Object - (Active Directory only) Active Directory object information, such as creation date, modification date, object path, etc.

MemberOf - (Active Directory only) list of all groups that the computer is a member of

The computer's comment can be changed on the General properties page. Note that a modified comment associated with a computer will not appear until Windows adds it to the local domain's browse list.

Both Windows NT and Windows 2000/2003 maintain a password for computer accounts. These passwords are set automatically by the client (workstation) and the computer's domain. The relevance of the password date, or age, is that since they are updated at least once per month, an old password age date could indicate that the computer is no longer operational. This can be used to remove old computer entries from the domain list.

Windows NT - To view the password age on all computer accounts, right click on the Domain Users global group and select View all User Member Details. Sort the resulting list by the password age column, and note the age for the computer accounts; these entries will be displayed with a computer icon next to the "username", which will be the name of the computer followed by a $.

Windows 2000/2003 - Select the Tabular Views -> Computer (Detailed) query for the Computers object under a domain. The column "Pwd Last Set" contains the last date and time that the password was set on the computer account

To access the shell (Explorer) menu, for any computer, select the Shell Functions... menu option.

This option can cause problems in some cases with some 3rd party software tools that adds non-standard items to the computer shell menu; this feature can be turned off under Tools->Settings->View.

Hyena can initiate a Wake Up request using the standard Wake-On-Lantm technique. For more information, see the Wake On Lan (WOL) topic.

Hyena's Shutdown option can be used to shutdown, and optionally reboot, one or more computers. In the list window, the selected computer or computers can be shutdown and rebooted at the same time.

The Shutdown feature does not require any remote agent or software to be installed. The Shutdown dialog allows a configured timeout to be applied to the shutdown operation, plus has options on automatic reboot, and termination of active applications.

When one or more computers are selected from the list window, the More Functions menu can be used to either change the startup settings or to start/stop a designated service. Since this operation can be done for any number of selected computers, making mass changes on services or service startup information can be quickly accomplished. See the Services and Devices topic for more information.

From the list window, when single or multiple computers are chosen, the More Functions menu can be used to schedule (add) a remote job using the AT scheduling system built into Windows NT and the Task Scheduler that is part of Windows 2000/2003. See the Scheduling Jobs topic for more information.

From the selected computers or computer from the list window, the More Functions menu can be invoked to change a designated account's password for all selected computers using the Set Account Password function.

When one or more computers are selected from the list window, the More Functions menu can be used to add or remove a designated user or global group to a local group. This operation can be carried out on a large number of computers at the same time, providing a quick way to manage large-scale changes on local groups. Use the Add/Remove Group Member menu option to access this feature.

Hyena supports sending a message to one or more computers using Windows's alerting capabilities. Use the Send Message context menu option to access the messaging dialog.

If a different security context is needed to access a computer, right click on the computer, and select the Logon As option. Enter the name of a domain or server and a valid username/password. Hyena will then establish a connection to the computer using an alternate security context.

The Object Manager is Hyena's central control mechanism for controlling the way that domains, computers, and other objects are displayed in the left tree window. The Object Manager provides for flexible grouping of domains, computers, printers, directories, and urls. Computers can be manually entered into any group, providing for a fast and efficient method of accessing computers over a slow WAN link, from a non-trusted source, or through the internet. For more information on using the Object Manager, see the Object Manager topic. The Object Manager can be accessed on Hyena's toolbar, or through the File->Manage Object View menu option.

To quickly add a computer to the Object Manager list, use the Add to Object Manager menu option.

Hyena can display the current interactive and service account users of a given computer. See the Viewing User Logon Information for more information on this topic.

For computer accounts that are part of a Windows 2000/2003 domain, Hyena adds a number of additional options to the computer context menu, including:

Shell Properties - Displays the standard shell properties page for the computer.

Security Properties / List Directory Security - See Managing Active Directory Security for more information on Active Directory security options.

Reset Computer Account - Performs a reset on the computer account. This effectively resets the computer account password, which requires that the computer be rejoined to the domain. Use this option carefully.

Disable Account - Disables the computer account, preventing any new domain logon from the computer.

Add To Group - Displays the Active Directory group picker dialog, allowing the computer to be added to the selected group.

To execute or create a WMI query for the selected computer, select the Execute Query... option from the WMI menu option. See the WMI topic for more information on WMI.