10 free tools to control your IT infrastructure: software + video

Who said that in order to ensure control of your IT infrastructure, it is necessary to purchase expensive solutions? We at NetWrix took into account the problems of system administrators and information security specialists, and held a webinar last Wednesday where we talked about free IT infrastructure monitoring tools developed by our company. I must admit that this was our first story about free software. And how we did it - to judge you.
It should be noted that a great interest was shown to the webinar - more than a hundred people attended it. We hope that the topic of free tools is really relevant - and we talked about free and only free software - so it’s perfectly useful to share the webinar recording and the corresponding links.
On our site we have prepared a page where all the information (links to download videos and programs) is collected in one place.

This is the actual video of the webinar itself.


But it seemed to us that such a video was not enough, so for each of the demonstrated tools we made cutting fragments so that you can immediately see the work of the program of interest.

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10. NetWrix Disk Space Monitor

The program allows system administrators to track free space on domain controllers, file, Exchange and SharePoint servers and database servers. The program allows you to centrally track free space on specified servers and sends daily reports about free space. Also, when the critical values ​​of free space are reached, the program notifies the administrator about this by e-mail. The program allows you to track free space on an unlimited number of servers.



Download page

9. NetWrix Password Expiration Notifier

The main functionality of the program can be described as follows: “a reminder to users in the domain about the need to change the password within a certain period of time”. The program expands the regular features of the Windows operating system and provides additional features for administrators and the Help Desk to monitor the status of passwords. "The new version works under WIndows 8.



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8. NetWrix Password Manager

The program is a simple and cost-effective solution that allows users to reset forgotten passwords and solve account lockout problems through a convenient web portal and an extension integrated into a standard Windows login screen. Supports up to 50 users.



Download page

7. NetWrix Event Log Manager

The program is designed to combine event logs, alerts and archiving, supporting the collection of event logs and syslog from multiple computers on the network, warning of critical events, generating reports and centrally saving all events in a compressed format for easy analysis of archived log data. The free program supports work on 10 servers.



Download page

6. NetWrix SQL Server Change Reporter

The program audits changes made to the configuration, databases, access rights and other objects of SQL Server and creates reports on them. The tool reports changes related to server instances, users, roles, logins, schema changes, and many other objects.



Download page

5. NetWrix File Server Change Reporter

The program tracks important changes to folders, files, and access permissions and sends a daily report to administrators.



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4. NetWrix Active Directory Object Restore Wizard

With the help of the program, the solution of problems associated with the restoration of AD objects is simplified many times. After all, the program allows you to restore not only objects with attributes, but also roll back individual changes in attributes. Supports object recovery in Windows Server 2012.



During the webinar there was a hitch in the demonstration, so all participants were sent a link to a demo for the program.



It is also directly related to the issues of recovering AD objects and the demonstrated document " Collection of AD Object Recovery Scenarios ", which discusses 5 ways to restore objects, including the above-mentioned NetWrix Active Directory Object Restore Wizard.

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3. NetWrix Exchange Change Reporter

The program is designed to audit Microsoft Exchange, keeps track of all changes to the configuration and access rights of the Exchange server and notifies about them. The generated reports display all created, deleted and modified objects and settings. The new version supports data collection in Exchange 2013.



Download page

2. NetWrix Group Policy Change Reporter

The program sends daily reports of changes to group policies, including the name of the changed GPO, as well as the old and new values. The new version supports data collection in Windows Server 2012.



Download page

1. NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter

The program is designed for generating reports (What has been changed, deleted or added to Active Directory). Also, administrators who use the program receive daily email notifications of any changes in Active Directory made during the day. The program has recently received an update to version 7.2, the main changes in which are related to support for Windows Server 2012 / Exchange 2013.



Download page

Along with the free program at the webinar, the free document “Comprehensive Guide to the Audit of Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008 / R2” was mentioned, which is used to configure Active Directory auditing and work with the audit system in Windows Server 2008 / R2.

Of course, this is not all free programs that we have. For example, we said absolutely nothing about NetWrix Service Monitor , which allows you to monitor and restart Windows services, or USB Blocker , which is responsible for blocking USB media. But, probably, it was impossible to cover everything on one webinar. The new year should bring new free programs, which we will definitely tell about.