subject: Most essential tools for IT pros in 2011 [print this page] Most essential tools for IT pros in 2011 Most essential tools for IT pros in 2011
What are those few crucial tools that should be in everyone's toolkit in 2011?
First of all, I always carry two USB drives around with me. One is a 16GB item that looks like a key and hangs off my office keyring. Made by LaCie, it cost a few pence under 50, and I've lost count of the times it's come in handy. Transfer a file from one box to another? No problem, (Hp pavilion dv4 batteries) it's on my keyring, plus I couldn't have got into the datacenter without that. It isn't the fastest but quick enough,and 16GB is plenty for day-to-day chores. And since it looks like a key rather than a USB drive, it doesn't attract unwanted attention when you leave your keyring in public view.
The second is a 64GB USB drive that I use for larger problems such as moving VMs, carrying ISO installation images, and so on. This one is large enough to hold a lot of the stuff you need to keep at hand when installing and repairing software. Make it bootable into Windows 7 and it rocks.
My third trusty tool is a 1TB self-powered USB 2 hard disk made by Western Digital. It's small and inconspicuous, but holds a full image of almost any PC configuration. I keep this drive empty, and it's incredibly handy to be able to stuff it into a server or desktop, and then use Ghost or a P2V (physical-to-virtual) conversion tool to take a snapshot. It doesn't require a power supply, it's fast enough and has saved my bacon on several occasions.
Its companion is a self-powered, self-contained USB DVD burner. When you need to boot from CD or DVD, or install an operating system, it replaces the optical drive that's missing from most netbooks and laptops these days (and I often see servers with hot-plug DVD drives that have gone AWOL when you need them most). This combination of a keyring USB, power USB stick and big USB hard disk is the sort of storage solution that can really make your day, replacing that satchel-full of CD-Rs loaded with utilities.
Wi-Fi analytics
MetaGeek's Chanalyzer Pro software and Wi-Spy DBx Spectrum Analyzer hardware came to my rescue a dozen times last year trying to debug Wi-Fi without them is just voodoo (Hp 6735s laptop battery). I see from theMetaGeek website that its new software lets you map the rooms and floors of your office building to see overlaps, range and interference between all your bases. This is a must-have tool for system administrators.
I always carry a proper managed network switch in the boot of my car. Far too often I find myself troubleshooting small-business networks with a no-name switch (or worse, old hub) that has no management port, so you can't see what's going down the wires. Judiciously inserting my own switch can give me an immediate overview of a network section, or if the organisation has just one main switch I can replace it with mine (port count permitting). Even firms that do have managed or semi-managed switches rarely have them configured properly, and trying to find the right USB-to-serial cable to configure them is tedious. You can't debug a network until you can see what's going on, and so my managed switch is a critical tool.
One last software tool to accompany the disk-imaging tools and obligatory sysinfo isGFI's LANguard. It's a remarkably deep and wide tool that lets you do useful things such as scan a target machine for open ports and other vulnerabilities, and (assuming you have login credentials) scan for out-of-date and unpatched applications. It can be very instructive to point it at a desktop and find that recent Microsoft patches aren't in place or that your copy of Adobe Acrobat is so old it has a veil of cobwebs. This tool is available as a free version and trialware, too, but I bought a licence a few years ago for a wide range of IP addresses and it's paid for itself several times over.
That's my current toolkit, but if you use a really handy tool that isn't in it, why not drop me a suggestion on comments below? The best suggestions will be featured in a future column.
