Tag: labtech software

LabTech Plugin -> Office 365 UM keeps improving with new features.

Squidworks Office365 UM Evolves

“New Flash we are now at version 1.8.6 and have added many great features since the writing of this blog, come check out all the new stuff when your done reading.”

 

Today Version 0.1.7.0 is launching, the 7th release of the first plugin in Labtech to manage Office 365 in the cloud.

GM-O365UM

 

In the beginning

 

If you are in the Labtech community then you should know about Cubert’s Office365 Plugin but did you know that it has been evolving?

Back in the beginning our plugin looked a little like this:

office365UM

 

In the  first version publicly available V 0.0.11 you could only see your users and change their passwords but this was a big step. We were now using remote Powershell CMDs in Labtech scripting and bringing the collected data back into Labtech’s database. This was the first steps to building a plugin for Labtech and getting the data from the cloud into Labtech. We now had a method and a functional process to import data from the cloud and the possibilities opened up for all sorts of new things to come.

It wasn’t long before we were trying new commands and adding some features to our new plugin. Shortly there after we had release a new version that provided the ability to manage some basic permissions like Send As and Send on Behalf As. We started working on added the ability to setup a forwarding email address and full level permissions to allow access for users to other users mailboxes. Version 0.1.4 was released which added the final pieces to our Office365 UM or so we thought.

Office365UM0.1.4

 

 

 

Moving Day

 

The Office365 tab’s face was full, no space left to really do anything new but the requests kept coming in for new features. Cubert can you do this was the common theme in the forums. We asked ourselves where are we to put all this new requested functionality? We were out of space and something was going to have to change if we were going to move this plugin any further.

In version 0.1.5.0 we introduced some tabs of our own:

Office3650.1.5

 

 

We redesigned the face of the plugin giving us the ability to spread out our functions across different tabs. This gave us the space we needed to really start making this thing preform.We added some new features like adding new users to Office365 , deleting users and also restoring deleted users, converting user mailboxes to shared mailboxes and improving the data collection and error management on the back end.

Our look was getting notice

 

Cubert heads to Labtech’s Automation Nation 2014 for the second year to see whats in the pipeline in the skunk works at Labtech. Speaking with several people at AN2014 we discovered that there were people using the plugin and had some insight in to how we could make it better and we were determined to do just that.

Our plugin was starting to take shape and the download counts were starting to roll in but with the users comes the problems. The first real wide spread issues started to arise with how Labtech was executing Powershell scripts. This process did not always produce the same results. We found that across platforms that some users were experiencing execution errors with the Data Miner scripts we had designed. We decided a rewrite of the collector was needed, a design that would use the native Powershell application on the PCs instead of the one provided with the Labtech Agent.

We re-crafted the entire data collection process and called it of course “Collect Data” aka “Office 365 Collect Data” . The new method incorporates all user data mining in a single session and adds our newest feature to the Office 365UM Distribution Group Management.

 

GM-O365UM

 

Come and get it

So today we announce our 7Th release of the Office365UM plugin for Labtech available for download now at Squidworks Office365 Plugin for Labtech . We hope you enjoy our products and post  here at Squidworks, your experiences with the plugin. This will help drive the development in the direction that is most useful to you and helps us build a better plugin.

 

Here is what we can do today:

  1. Add, update and delete user accounts and email addresses
  2. Manage Send As, Send on Behalf As and Full Permissions on Mailboxes for other users
  3. Set and delete Forwarding email addresses for users
  4. Restore soft deleted users (30 day limit on retention)
  5. Convert User Mailbox to Shared Mailbox
  6. Set/reset users password
  7. License/unlicense user
  8. Add and delete distribution groups
  9. Add,delete and view group members
  10. Add/Remove groups from Global Address Lists
  11. View License counts and type

 

Thanks to everyone involved!

Cubert

[LabTech] IPBlock Windows Firewall plugin.

Block entire countries from seeing your PC on the Internet

Squidwork’s garage has released version 1 of their new IPBlock for Labtech RMM. IPBlock is a Country based Network Firewall plugin for Windows based systems. When deployed you can select different countries you do not want to have access to your IP address for any Windows Vista / 7 / 2008 or new system and block them from network access to your PC.

ipblock-main

How it works:

The plugin launches a script that goes out and refreshes a complete list of all countries and any IP ranges assigned to those countries. It imports them into the local host and stores them in zone files inside the LTSvc directory. Then based on your selection it applies each zone to the Windows firewall as a rule set.

What does this do for me?

This greatly reduces your Internet footprint and attack surface. Preventing access from countries that have large amounts of attacking systems. It also reduces your ability to be fully exploited by Trojans, Virus or Worms as if infected it makes it much harder to “Phone Home” if the attack comes from a Country you have blocked like “China”.

Version 1 only controls the lists that are applied to your PC it does not turn on or off the actual firewall on Windows. You will need to turn on firewall through the Windows control panel for rules to actually take effect. Then to stop the filtering shut down Windows firewall or go into plugin and select “None” and apply for all rule sets placed in by IPBlock to be removed.

Get Version 1.0.3 here

download

Enjoy Cubert 😎

APPAssureD – Dell AppAssure Backup Plugin For LabTech

appassured-logo600

A new plugin is under development here inside the Squidworks garage that allows Labtech MSPs to manage Dell Appassure Backup Cores servers from a common console inside of Labtech. The new plugin leverages Appassure REST API to mine data from each core and send that data back to the Labtech database. Using the same processes the plugin is able to send commands back to the cores to preform various tasks like start a new backup or replication.

The plugin provides a common view of each core at the location level console in Labtech. You can select one of many cores at any location and view the protected servers managed by that core. Selecting a protected server provides details about that server and the list of snapshots preformed on that system. We have many great features planed for this plugin so start following us now!

 Client Console5-20-look

Dashboard View

dashboard

The plugin is still under development and will we have a release  for early beta testers. Place a comment here you would like to be notified of updates and being included in the beta testing.

Get Version 1.0.1 Beta  here

download

You Will need Powershell 3 on all Cores, Here is a script to install Powershell 3 directly from LabTech

Get PS Installer Script Here

LabTech & ConnectWise Plugin – Printer Health Status

print-icon

     Printer Health Status

Mr Keigher posted on the Labtech forums that wouldn’t it be great if there was a Printer Status Plugin for Labtech that could show if there were any issues with a printer and maybe even interact with a failed printer. Well Marty your ship has come in! Let me introduce you to your new Printer Status Plugin. The team down in Squidwork’s basement went to town taking what seemed like minutes (and it looks like it) to build a Labtech plugin that would do what had to be done.

In Version 1.0.4 you have good management over printers in 2 main views; the global view and the client view. The Global view allows for the full management suite of tools to be executed on any printer being scanned and will give you a quick view in to the troubles your clients maybe having. The Client view provides the same management functions but also allows you to enable and disable scanning for a client and to include desktops in printer scans.

Lets show you what we have:

Printer Status Global Manager:

printerstatus-preview1

Printer Status at the Client Console:

printerstatus-preview2

Printer Status Exclude Printers:

printerstatus-preview3

Download Labtech Plugin – Printer Status Version 1.0.4

download

Enjoy

Cubert

LabTech & ConnectWise VMWare ESXi Heath Monitor Plugin v3

ESXi Health Monitor Plugin

weblogo

Well it’s finally here, the plugin we have all been waiting for, Vmware ESXi Health Monitor plugin for Labtech. This plugin installs into your Labtech system as a Location plugin to monitor the CIM data available in most hardware. Easy to configure controls and full view of the CIM data collected is just part of what this plugin can do. We have incorporated new functions into this plugin that are stark differences from our earlier version 2 and version 1 ESXi Health Monitors. We are now supporting multiple usernames and passwords per location for ESX hosts and only require 1 probe system to monitor all the ESX hosts at a single location. I could talk all day about the plugin but maybe it’s better if I show you.

Here is the main view of the ESXi Health Monitor plugin.

mainview

The hosts get listed with status face based on current status and when you select a host the CIM data is displayed so you can see all the reported statuses of the hardware.

This is the ESXi host configuration tab of the ESXi health Monitor plugin.

config-tab

This is where you will add and edit your host systems to monitor, you can set the system you want to be responsible for probing the ESXi hosts for the CIM data. Then you select a system and “Set” it as the probe the plugin will launch a script against the probe to prep it for monitoring automatically. You will not need to “install” the probe software manually as this is handled by the plugin when the probe system is selected.

The ESXI Health Monitor plugin uses a custom group to locate all the probes available by using a custom search to locate all systems with the EDF of “VMware Master CIM Scanner” selected as seen it the example below. You will find this setting under the Info tab -> VMWare on any system console. Just checking it will not install probe software so you must “Set” the probe via the plugin.

master-scanner

The Custom group should look like this and have the custom search setup as seen in this example.

group-join-search

The custom group also has a scheduled script to run every 2-4 hours and I use the exclude time range as I do not need this data so bad that I can’t sleep with out it running every hour or 2. This is just my personal preference but saves on CPU cycles during backup windows and maintenance schedules. You will need to reset this when you import your group as this seems to always get rest to nothing during imports.

group-schedule-probe

You can see your probe run on the system by watching the script logs on the probe systems console. This helps when troubleshooting common issues.

probelogs

This version is in Beta! this is the first release of this plugin and as such may have odd behavior issues and or may not work for you as expected. I seriously doubt you will have any issues but as this is Beta expect a few minor glitches. We are actively working on updates and with your help we can make this a great plugin!

You can run the version 2 and version 3 side by side and they will not effect each other.

Updates:
———————————————————————————————————-

Changes in New Version 0.3.0.3

Changed Version number back to what it should of started at. It was a typo starting with (3)
Added Internal monitor called CIM –  VMWare ESXi Health Monitor
Added Client View and Global View of System Statuses
Corrected a few minor coding mistakes
Added Linux Probe Support
Updated the data views

Changes in New Version 0.3.0.5

Added Last Scan Time Stamps
Added color coded data views
Added new images

Changes in New Version 0.3.0.6

Fixed Scan Time not updating

Changes in Version 3.0.7

Updated Python Packages to 2.7.8
Fixed several SQL issues with table creation.
Minor enhancements

Changes in Version 3.0.8

Added new instant host probe from the configure tab
Fixed minor issues in plugin
Fixed issues with installer script

Changes in Version 3.0.9

Fixed CIM Monitor in LT
Fixed Versioning context
Fixed password bug when resaving the same password for esx probe.

Changes in Version 3.0.10

Fixed Issues with Installer where latest PY script requires several new Python modules.

New Client Level View

mainview

This view give you a look at all systems under the clients control. you can select the system and review the CIM data returned.

This plugin monitors the condition all the systems and will alarm when a system is found to be in error. You can customize the alarms and the methods of alerts received through the Monitors management interface in Labtech .

monitors_alarm

You can download the latest version here.

Version 3.0.10 Now Available

download

If you like what we are doing then please donate to our cause, help keep our software free.

How to install plugin

Please post here any comments and issues you may have so we can get them fixed and out in the next release.

Enjoy

Cubert 😎

Vitals Dashboard for Labtech MSP Providers.

Squidworks Vitals Dashboard for Labtech Software

Vitals Dashboard for Labtech Software

Download SWVDB here  -> SWVDB-0.1

 

Install instructions are included in the “install.txt” file inside of zip. You will need to have PHP 5.3.27 installed on you Labtech server and can be downloaded at http://php.net

The purpose of the Vitals Dashboard is to get key pieces of information about the health of your client base in front of you and your techs. Each time you launch your control center your dashboard can appear in the console’s display. This brings the vital information to the forefront like Offline Servers and HitmanPro alarms.LabTech-logo

vitalsDB1.1

Some dashboard items are interactive and will supply more data if selected. Clicking on the HitmanPro Alarms will launch you to the HitmanPro Dashboard.hitman1

HitmanPro Dashboard

The HitmanPro Dashboard shows all the current threats found and lists them by client and computer. By clicking on the computer name you will get a detailed account of the threat alarm. At this main view level you can also see what systems were scanned in the last 24 hours  and when, displayed by client.

 

 

hitman2

 

 

 

Hitman Pro detailed alarm viewer allows you to see in detail the cause of the alarm and what threat was found. We have color coded the alarm message and added some formatting to better display the details of the alarm from the default view Labtech offers.

 

hitman3

Agents with excessive reoccurring logs

reoccuringlogs

Agents Missing Service packs or are out of date

MISSINGSP

Agents With Disk Space or Failures

Diskspace

I hope this helps some of you out there.

Cubert

😎

Labtech – How to access and manage VMWare ESX 5 Hosts remotely using Application Redirect

Labtech VMWare vSphere Client Redirector

Wouldn’t it be really cool if you could somehow safely access any VMWare vSphere ESX 5 host directly just using the local vSphere 5 Client installed on your workstation without porting and NATing traffic through your customers firewalls? With Labtech that is no problem,  by setting up a Application Redirector you can create a new proxy that will pass all your traffic to any ESX or vCenter host and allow you to fully manage that host using your own installed vClient on your workstation, using the Labtech server and an agent, wow is it fast.

 

Let me show you how to do it.

I want to thank the guys over at www.labtechgeek.com for creating the outline I am following here.

 

1.) You will need to create a new redirected app named vSphere Client.
Goto [System Dashboard] -> [Config] -> [Redirected Apps]

LT-RedirectedApplication

2.) In the program field, enter the location of your local vShpere client like ->  C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\VpxClient.exe

3.) Now we will redirect the following ports.

Local Port: 443 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 443 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 902 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 902 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 903 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 903 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 8080 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 8080 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 9443 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 9443 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 10080 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 10080 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 10443 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 10443 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: TCP Local Listen
Local Port: 902 Local IP: 127.0.0.1 Remote Port: 902 Remote IP: %RemoteIP% Type: UDP Local Listen

Redirector type should have the “Computer” box checked, this makes the redirector show up on computer consoles along side the other redirectors.

LT-redirectors

4.) Now we need to create an entry in your hosts file for the redirector to work. Add -> “127.0.0.1 vsphere-redir” to your local host file. If you just use 127.0.0.1 or localhost when the client pops up then the client may actually try to connect to the NetBIOS name of your PC, which will not work.

5.) Reload your systems cache and you should see the redirector show up under Computer consoles Redirectors menu.

 

To connect directly to an ESXi host,  while holding the Shift click on the vSphere Client redirector from meun. This will prompt you for an IP address for the remote ESX host you want to control – enter the IP of the ESXi host.

redirect-IP

Once you place your IP of the ESX host in the IP for Redirection box click OK. Give it a few seconds to get the proxy up and app to launch then you should see your VMware client pop up.  You now type in to IPaddress/Name area “vsphere-redir” as the host IP and then the user and pass needed to log in to the ESX host.

vclient

***Note – When you’re connecting directly to a host, or to vCenter, you must always enter vsphere-redir as the IP Address/Name  in the VMWare vSphere client.

***Note – If you’re connecting to a vCenter server, you won’t be able to view the console of any VMs (MKS) – this is because the vSphere Client makes a direct connection to the ESXi server on port 902. If you connect directly to the ESXi host, MKS works fine.

 

Enjoy,

Cubert 😎