IT Automation Update April 2019

Here at Datalyst, we are always working on ways and methods to automate repetitive manual tasks on computers and servers in an effort to streamline remediation efforts.  The goal for us is for our Managed Service clients to experience an optimized working system, while eliminating or reducing the manual labor and costs involved to perform those tasks as well as limiting end user interruptions.  We take pride in our efforts to recognize issues and trends and be proactive by creating customized scripts that we can deploy to any system whether on demand, automatically at a pre-set date and time or when an alarm or alert is generated from any managed system.

Updated: PC Cleanup Scripts  

Customer value:  Automatically remove files slowing down your computers.

End user value:  Better performing computer and less disk space utilization

Manually: 45 minutes labor each computer when needed or reported

Automated: 5 minutes each computer weekly. No Labor

There are many files on your computers and servers that collect over time in temporary locations.  These files build up and cause performance and disk space issues.  As part of the automated weekly maintenance procedures on your systems, we have developed a PC Cleanup script that automatically runs and cleans out all of the excessive temp, application and system files that are no longer needed or required.

Changes: We updated the procedure to NOT include some minor temp file locations where certain 3rd party software has been keeping user application settings

Updated: Check Disk Analysis and Repair Scripts:

Customer value:  Proactive disk management reducing costs for failed systems.

End user value: Less downtime for failed drives and better disk performance.

Manually: 15-60 minutes labor each computer when needed or reported

Automated: 15-60 minutes, no labor

Every computer over time gets disk errors.  When they occur, a system event is generated in the computers system log.  Datalyst Managed Service clients that we monitor then report that disk event to our NOC.  When the alarm is received, we automatically issue a procedure to analyze the disk to confirm if there is indeed an issue.  If there is, the procedure performs a check disk routine on the next reboot.

Changes: We updated the procedure to include if the user is logged on to present a pop-up notice to ask the user if they wish to restart now or later at the end of the day.  If the user is not logged in, then automatically reboot the computer now.

New: Google Chrome High CP Utilization Issue Remediation Script

Customer Value:  Performance and productivity.

End User Value:  Limits slow computers and systems hangs,

Manually: 10 minutes labor each computer when required

Automated: Less than 1 minute, no labor

It was noted recently that some systems began experiencing higher than normal CPU utilization.  Upon further review and research it was determined that an updated Google Chrome browser installed a start-up application to monitor if your computer needed anything or needed to uninstall anything.  Given that your system does not need or want this forced on you feature, we were able to create a procedure script to prevent it from running on your computers.  This procedure was then added to the weekly computer maintenance procedure script to ensure that all managed computers get this start-up item removed.

New: Windows Search Database Defragmentation

Customer Value:  Performance and productivity.

End User Value:  Limits slow computers, Searches and systems hangs,

Manually: 10 minutes labor each computer when required

Automated: 10 Minutes.  No labor

Windows 10 and 2012/2016 Remote Desktop Servers that have the Windows Search feature installed tend to have an ever growing search database that may be eating up much needed disk space.  Running this script as part of our weekly computer and server maintenance routine off-hours, stops the search service, defragments the search database, then starts the search service.  In many instances the database size is significantly reduced and optimized.