Automating Chores with Scripts

Of necessity, most network administrators quickly acquire scripting skills. There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything manually, even if that were desirable. In addition, good scripts are like any program: once the information is entered correctly, there's no need to worry about it until something external changes.

Through ActiveX, Windows 2000 enables scripting options using Visual Basic, Scripting Edition (VBScript); JScript; or Perl. Previously, the only native scripting language supported by Windows was the MS-DOS command language, and many administrators will undoubtedly continue to use MS-DOS scripts because they're very small and very fast. Why use anything else if an MS-DOS script will do the job? The answer is that you shouldn't. However, in a large enterprise or for more complicated scripts, a more sophisticated scripting language is in order.

The Windows Scripting Host (WSH) is built into Windows 2000 and Windows 98. In addition, Windows 95 and Windows NT can run WSH, so scripts are portable across the Windows spectrum. Scripts run under WSH using Wscript.exe and Cscript.exe. Wscript.exe runs in the background, and Cscript.exe runs at the command prompt. To run a script from the command line, the syntax is

 Cscript <scriptname.extension> [options] [arguments] 

To view the entire list of host options, enter Cscript //? at a command prompt. The most important options are listed here:

• //B Specifies batch mode; script errors and prompts are not displayed
• //D Enables active debugging
• //T:nn Indicates the maximum time in seconds that the script is permitted to run

Real World

Uses for WSH

WSH is useful for logon and logoff scripts that can be assigned to users—individually or as a group—or to computers. The other important use for WSH is the creation of user accounts, a tedious process at best and, in a large enterprise, quite impossible without scripts. Chapter 9 covers Group Policy objects and the creation of user accounts.