Hyena also handles open files with ease. To work with open files, you right-click a server in the tree window and choose Open Files from the pop-up menu. In the list window, Hyena displays all open files on that server. When you right-click one or more of the listed open files, Hyena lets you choose to disconnect the user or send a message on the fly to the user's console. I was hard-pressed to find administrative tasks that I could perform with the OS's built-in tools that I couldn't use Hyena to perform. For those few cases, however, Hyena can integrate with third-party tools or you can develop a custom solution. For example, to run Performance Monitor, which Hyena doesn't directly support, you can create a custom tool that has a command string of
Perfmon.exe -c \\%E%
Creating Custom Tools
If you have a homegrown or third-party utility that you use for administration, you can set it up as a user-defined tool in Hyena. Then, you can start the tool by using Hyena's Tools menu or by pressing Ctrl and a function key that you assign to the utility. After the tool launches, Hyena can pass parameters to it and can prompt for user input. From the Tools tab in the Settings dialog box, I configured a custom tool to display parameters that Hyena passes to a utility I use. I consulted the Installation and User's Guide for a list of parameters and their usage syntax. The command string I used was
cmd /k echo %S% %E% %C2% %C3% %G% %P1:Name?%
When I selected an object in the list window and ran the tool, a command window opened and displayed the parameters I asked Hyena to pass to the tool. These parameters were server name, name of the selected object, the content of columns 2 and 3 in the list window, group name, and a user-entered response to a Name? prompt. Except for the group name, which applies only to group members, Hyena displayed the parameters for each object I ran the tool on.
Then, I selected multiple objects and ran the tool. A dialog box asked whether I wanted to wait for each command or tool to finish before the next one began, and I clicked Yes. Each successive command window opened only after I closed its predecessor. When you run a tool on multiple objects, you input the user-entered parameter only once, and the parameter has the same value for each selected object. If you need the flexibility to enter different parameters for each selected object (e.g., if you're using the command line to create user accounts and don't want each user to have the same password), Hyena requires that you select only one object and run the tool multiple times.
Batch Processing and Macros
From Hyena's Settings dialog box, you can specify a batch file to run after additions, deletions, and changes to a user account. You can also configure a batch process for home-directory creation. These batch processes let you set user or group permissions or perform other site-specific tasks on affected objects. Hyena passes nine parameters (e.g., whether the operation was an addition, deletion, or modification of a user account) to the batch file that runs after user modifications and six parameters to the batch procedure for new home directories.
The macro facility in Hyena generates external scripts or batch files according to selected objects and a user-provided command. The same parameters that custom tools use can also function in a macro-generated script. Figure 3 shows the Generate Macro dialog box and the Hyena list window, which displays the services I selected to create a script. After I clicked OK, Hyena created the stopexch.cmd file, which contained a net stop command for each selected service. Batch procedures and macros can help you automate tasks to achieve consistency and efficiency.
A Versatile Tool
Hyena is a must-have tool for administrators who currently rely on the built-in administrative tools in Win2K or NT. The product is easy to learn until you start using advanced features, such as custom tool creation or batch processing. Even then, administrators who are familiar with scripting will find Hyena easy to use. Although the product's Settings dialog box is complex, you can configure most of the detailed tabs on an as-needed basis.
Hyena's biggest drawback is the lack of thorough documentation. Considering the program's extensive functionality, the 21-page user manual serves as only an overview. Adkins Resource is reworking the documentation and online Help to improve their usefulness. The improved online Help and online documentation will appear in Hyena 2.5, but Adkins Resource will no longer offer hard-copy documentation.
For people who perform systems administration tasks daily or weekly, Hyena will quickly pay for itself through productivity gain. Hyena is a useful tool, and I recommend it to any Windows systems administrator.