Hosted by

The 2003 Report Card

The state of our OSes

Some good news, some bad news, and some challenges for the near future

The Good News

no bugs in Server 2003 Hosted by

Hosted by

Server 2003’s Here

ready to upgrade?



Probably not, unfortunately



It’s not that 2003’s not a really neat tool – it is – it’s probably the cost



See if this looks familiar:

Logical outcome: people upgrade more slowly!

Hosted by

To Upgrade Or Not?

Marginal value of upgrade Cost of upgrade

Version number

Hosted by  

But people are still using it; in fact, many controller devices are only available in an NT 4.0 version



Imagine running NT 3.1 in 2000



Consider version skipping; how many go

• • •

SQL 6.5-7.0-2000-2003?

Windows 98-NT 4-2000-XP?

How many still use Exchange 5.5?

Hosted by

Is something wrong?



No, it’s a natural side effect of any technology maturing



That’s a significant point



Note that this is not advice… it’s observation



Some simply cannot afford to upgrade without a life-and-death reason … that’s important



But it also means that “being an expert” gets tougher – you must know a wider range of OSes

Hosted by

What does this mean?



Our jobs will become – have become – different



Less planning



More maintenance



Broader responsibility



So focus on whatever makes maintenance easier!

Hosted by

Other Effects: Older Bugs?



MS does a good job finding bugs during the beta phase



But there are a lot that will never get found until the system’s being “beaten” on



I see that in my current AD questions, appearing in the year 2003 … not 2000



So how long will it take before we truly trust any new software?

Hosted by 

Should I Upgrade to 2003?

the good news 

Forest trusts



Domain renames



Branch office goodies



Vastly, vastly improved group policy management tools



Better, easier security



Tons more group policies



All the XP lagniappe



Web-based admin tools



More command line tools



Better XP integration



IIS 6



E-mail server, database server built in

Hosted by

Should I Upgrade to 2003?

more good news 

2003 really doesn’t need more powerful hardware than 2000 Server in my experience, although more is still better



Upgrades seem smooth



2003 runs fewer services out of the box by default – they’re there, you just have to explicitly turn them on rather than them being on automatically

Hosted by

Should I Upgrade?

the bad news 

The usual: costs money and time



You MIGHT have to shell out for Enterpri$e, unfortunately



CALs



Product activation



No MSI packager shipped with 2003



Answer: www.ondemandsoftware.com/freele2003

Hosted by

Should Upgrade?

more bad news 

Exchange 2000 doesn’t run on 2003 DCs w/o a LOT of work (KB 325379)

Hosted by

Bad News: NT 4 Abandoned?



KB 331953 reveals a potential denial of service hole in the RPC port mapper, which uses port 135



Another “buffer overflow” problem



Basically it’s a bug that enables data entered into ONE program to leak out of that program and overwrite another one



Or, graphically…

Hosted by Data input area of application Buffer overflow Rest of application

Hosted by

Severity



Does not allow an attacker to steal data from a system



Affects NT 4, 2000 and XP



2000 and XP patched



NT 4 ISN’T… no patches for it

Hosted by

“Architecturally Impossible?”



MS patched 2000 and XP, but not NT 4



Their reason: that it’s “architecturally impossible.”



This seems odd, as RPCs didn’t really CHANGE all that much from NT 4 to 2000… but there’s a 2000 fix



So with all respect, this seems suspect and, well, awfully convenient for MSFT shareholders



Which leads to the delicate “trust” issue

Hosted by

Hosted by

Why this isn’t acceptable



NT 4 has quite a bit of expected lifetime left



Unless they’re willing to buy the old copies back or offer free 2000 upgrades…



Merely saying “don’t put a system with port 135 on the Internet” is a workaround, not an answer – despite “expert” opinion, there’s nothing wrong with it, given patches, passwords and permissions



It supports what was basically NT’s main reason for existence for years… file serving



Worst of all, it sets a dangerous precedent

Hosted by

Possible Microsoft Options



Release a patch



Explain that the patch is impossible, and release source code to prove it



Develop a more complex patch and charge for it



Adopt the Pentium approach… offer free upgrades



Never have exposed the vulnerability in the first place if they knew they couldn’t fix it

Hosted by

When Is an OS Obsolete?



I think users determine that, not companies



Not everyone needs the latest thing, or needs it ENOUGH



Not everyone can afford the latest thing



Hardware does not obsolete OSes anymore



Seven year old software is not unusual at all in other markets

Hosted by

CERT Incidents

Challenge: Security

90000 80000 70000 60000 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Hosted by

Challenge: Security



Not news, but it keeps getting worse



Good news: newer OSes really ARE more secure (XP, 2003), lower CERT high level advisories



But the bad guys get better…



Advice:

• • • •

Beware the “boogah-boogah” effect Try things out for yourself Stay on top of patches (SuS, SMS) Assume your firewall is doing very little (RFC 3093)

Hosted by

An Easy Security Consideration

a bit of homework 

NTLMV2 and Kerberos are both pretty secure



But 99% of the existing systems still support LM and NTLM



There’s really not a reason for it any more



Get rid of them:

• •

stop creating LM hashes and change passwords stop accepting LM and perhaps NTLM

Hosted by

Good News: GPMC



MS’s message in 2000 and later: GPs are the way to manage a network



But they don’t always work the way you expect



The trouble is the lack of management tools



Answer: Group Policy Management Console

Hosted by

What GPMC does



Backs up and restores GPOs



Diagnoses replication errors on GPOs



Shows what a GPO does, simplified



Shows what the total effect of your GPOs is, again simplified



Tells you which GPO performed each action

GPMC Opening Screen

Hosted by

GPO Manipulation in GPMC

Hosted by

GPO Diagnostics (1)

Hosted by

RSOP Wizard Invocation

Hosted by

RSOP Overview

Hosted by

RSOP Winners/Losers

Hosted by

Hosted by

Bad News



Only runs on 2003 or XP systems



Will not install on a 2000 box



Requires .NET Framework on XP or 2003 box



Can’t even run it remotely on a 2000 member server or domain controller



BUT you can back up / restore to/from a 2000 box, or view the results of policies gotten from a 2000 box by a 2003 or XP box

Hosted by

Challenge: Death to NetBIOS



AD was supposed to put an end to the broadcasts, WINS, strange name resolution problems, etc.



But it hasn’t



Challenge to Redmond: announce a date for NetBIOS’s “deathday”

Hosted by

Challenges: We Still Can’t…

a partial list 

Hide files that users can’t access



Restrict simultaneous logins



Kick a user off the whole network with one click

Hosted by

The Biggest Problem Remaining



The fact that the IT staff shortage will NOT, for some strange reason, return



SOMETHING’s got to be done about this



My suggestion to Microsoft: a new OS

Hosted by

Hosted by  

Online Help:

•

In response to customer desires for faster systems, we have trimmed all non essential files to reduce PX’s footprint. So sorry, no Help files. Call your help desk.

Driver Support:

•

All the drivers you can write. PX ships with an assembler and full examples to write your own. Hire some programmers. Smart ones.

 •

Our SimpleTCP™ network system speeds up networking by cutting out name resolution – no WINS, no DNS. Refer to Web and other servers solely by their IP addresses for greater reliability. Static IP-only support ensures that your network offers no surprises – and no complex DHCP!

User Interface…

Hosted by

PX User Interface

C:\> C:\>

Follow the arrow forward to Windows PX!

Hosted by

Sample PX Commands



See a folder on the first hard drive’s directory with the edit (Examine Disk InTeractively) command:



edit #1A:*.*



Format a disk with Edit (Erase Disk InTeractively command:



Edit #1A:*.*



Note all commands are case-sensitive!

Hosted by

What the analysts are saying



“Windows PX’s 27-test certification program will mean better-qualified professionals” -- Sylvan Prometric, VUE testing centers



“We estimate that desktop support costs will rise by 329.1433% under PX, with a 92.1182376% confidence interval. This will inevitably lead to an IT staffing shortage” --- Gartner Group

Hosted by

Thanks!



My sincere thanks for attending



Free tech newsletter: www.minasi.com



Seminars and audio CDs there too



email: [email protected]



HAVE A GREAT CONFERENCE!!!

Hosted by 

Don’t forget RedHat Enterprise Linux ES Standard Edition $599-799



http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/ es/