Real-World Scripting: Adding a Local Group

A big benefit of scripting is the time you can save when you have to perform a task on many machines. When you run a script that needs to connect to many machines, you can encounter a small snag: The script might encounter machines that are inaccessible. One scripting technique that you can use to work around this problem is to record the inaccessible machines in an output log, then use the output log as an input file for future script runs. Let's look at how you can incorporate this technique when writing a script that adds a local group to 500 machines.

Suppose a hardware vendor recently delivered 500 Windows 2000 Professional PCs to your company. After several initial spot inspections showed that the PCs were what the company ordered, the vendor's contractor deployed the PCs throughout the company.

After that deployment, several problems surfaced. All the computers were supposed to have a global group named HelpDesk added to the local Administrators group, but the HelpDesk group members discovered that the contractor didn't add this group to every PC. To work around this problem, the group members began using the local Administrators account to log on to make configuration changes. This workaround led to the discovery of another problem: The local Administrators account had been renamed on some machines. (In Windows NT 4.0, the Administrators group is a built-in group that you can't rename. In Win2K and later, you can rename this group.) Thus, the HelpDesk group members had a difficult time performing tasks that required administrative privileges. . . .