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I'm the on-site tech at a remote healthcare facility with a few hundred workstations/devices and half a dozen servers. I'm having difficulty having a physical presence everywhere I'm needed. Corp. IT doesn't allow unattended remote access(RDP) and getting help from AD/SCCM admins is difficult for anything smaller than a facility wide change/install. I have local admin privileges, but not domain level are there any tools or methods preferably within windows (without installing something like team viewer) to help facilitate making changes?

I'm intrigued by the idea of a cmd line ssh type session where I can do simple things such as run scripts, install network printers etc. Something net-cat(ish) would save me a lot of time.

Stranger Danger
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  • VNC ? If there's nothing sensitive going over the network like passwords then telnet ? What sort of remote management are we talking ? You could write scripts that can do a lot using powershell. – Lawrence Mar 31 '14 at 01:40
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    Myself and techs like me at our sister facilities use vnc and team viewer in certain situations. Technically it's unattended remote access and frowned upon. However at 2am on a Sunday... Mostly, I'm looking for something new to help me be more efficient without interrupting the workflow of our 24/7 staff. – Stranger Danger Mar 31 '14 at 01:46
  • Related: [How can I connect to a Windows server using a Command Line Interface? (CLI)](http://serverfault.com/q/429426/118258) – HopelessN00b Mar 31 '14 at 12:45

3 Answers3

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I'm intrigued by the idea of a cmd line ssh type session where I can do simple things such as run scripts, install network printers etc.

PowerShell Remoting will give you a rough equivalent to SSH on Windows.

MDMarra
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    I'm in a very similar situation. I support an office that uses AD but no access to the group policy. Powershell has become my lifeblood. – Bad Neighbor Mar 31 '14 at 12:25
  • This was a great idea, unfortunately IST security shot me down.. I'll remember this for future careers. Thanks again. – Stranger Danger Apr 02 '14 at 17:54
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Look into Sysinternal's PsTools

It's really easy to use, no need to install anything on target machines, works with older Windows versions. Make sure you test the command on a test machine/VM, sometimes it needs escaping of parameters.

Examples:

  1. Check new Microsoft Updates for all servers listed in servers.txt

for /F "usebackq" %%i in (cmd /c "more servers.txt") do psexec \\%%i cmd /c "hostname & net stop wuauserv & wuauclt /detectnow"

  1. Wrap your actions in batch script, upload it and then execute

for /F "usebackq" %%i in (cmd /c "more servers.txt") do echo ====started %%i & copy /y install_msupdates_and_reboot.bat \\%%i\c$ & psexec \\%%i cmd /c "c:\install_msupdates_and_reboot.bat" & del /q \\%%i\c$\install_msupdates_and_reboot.bat

Note: there are backquotes in parenthesis there, it's being removed by website engine as part of markdown syntax)

Alec Istomin
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Puppet can manage Windows. I ran into issues with PowerShell remoting without a domain.

ptman
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