Pi Tree SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL

Introduction

System administration is a job that requires the administrator to maintain and operate a computer system or network. That involves activities such as monitoring security configuration, managing allocation of user names and passwords, monitoring disk space and other resources, performing backups and setting up new hardware and software. That requires the administrator to be aware of Operating system, applications, hardware and software troubleshooting, network and computer security and to some extent, programming. The duties of a system administrator involves routine audit of the system, backups and configuration changes, configuration of new hardware, updating and adding/removing user accounts, resetting passwords, security, troubleshooting, performance tuning etc. Since the task is tedious and sensitive in nature, a quality software comprising at least basic functionality involving administration of the system will not only add value to the system but will also improve performance and efficiency of the system administrator. This administration panel would aid the administrator to watch the system closely and perform actions on it.

Description of Program

The program will perform the following functions:

  1. System information: This section of the administration panel would open up to show the information related to Hardware resources, Components and Software Environment. The Hardware resources menu show information related to DMA, Sharing, Forced Hardware, IRQs, I/O, and memory. The components menu shows all the information related to installed hardware on the system and the Environment menu shows configuration of the system.
  2. RAM information/size: This section of the administration panel would show the information/size of the physical memory, available physical memory, virtual memory and available virtual memory.
  3. Hard Disk information: This section of the program would show the size of each hard disk partition installed on the system
  4. Command Line tool: This will enable the system administrator to run different commands for retrieving system information as well as running different system commands.
  5. System Shutdown: This will enable the system administrator to shut down the system at any instance he desires.

Source Code with detailed comments

PublicClassForm1

PrivateSubbtn_info_Click(sender AsObject, e AsEventArgs) Handlesbtn_info.Click

Shell("msinfo32.exe", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus) 'this will open up the system dialogue to show system information

EndSub

PrivateSubbtn_RAMsize_Click(sender AsObject, e AsEventArgs) Handlesbtn_RAMsize.Click

//The line below will open up dialogue to show total physical memory installed on // the system

MsgBox(String.Format("Total Physical Memory: {0} MBytes", System.Math.Round(My.Computer.Info.TotalPhysicalMemory / (1024 * 1024)), 2).ToString)

//The line below will open up dialogue to show total AVAILABLE physical memory installed on the system

MsgBox(String.Format("Available Physical Memory: {0} MBytes", System.Math.Round(My.Computer.Info.AvailablePhysicalMemory / (1024 * 1024)), 2).ToString)

//The line below will open up dialogue to show total VIRTUAL memory of the system

MsgBox(String.Format("Total Virtual Memory: {0} MBytes", System.Math.Round(My.Computer.Info.TotalVirtualMemory / (1024 * 1024)), 2).ToString)

//The line below will open up dialogue to show total AVAILABLE VIRTUAL memory

// of the system

MsgBox(String.Format("Available Virtual Memory: {0} MBytes", System.Math.Round(My.Computer.Info.AvailableVirtualMemory / (1024 * 1024)), 2).ToString)

EndSub

//The following button click event would open up information related to hard disk

PrivateSubbtn_HDinfo_Click(sender AsObject, e AsEventArgs) Handlesbtn_HDinfo.Click

Dim count AsInteger

count = 1

ForEachcurDriveAsSystem.IO.DriveInfoInMy.Computer.FileSystem.Drives'this will show information of every hard disk partition

IfcurDrive.DriveType = System.IO.DriveType.FixedThen

DimtheFreeSpaceAsLong = curDrive.AvailableFreeSpace

MessageBox.Show("Drive " & count & " space(in MBs): " + theFreeSpace.ToString())

EndIf

count = count + 1

Next

EndSub

PrivateSubbtn_ShutDown_Click(sender AsObject, e AsEventArgs) Handlesbtn_ShutDown.Click

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("shutdown", "-s -t 00") ' this will shut down the computer without any delay (-t 00 ensures that there is no delay)

EndSub

PrivateSub Button5_Click(sender AsObject, e AsEventArgs) Handles Button5.Click

Process.Start("cmd", String.Format("/k {0} & {1} & {2}", "dir c:", "dir /w c:", "pause")) 'this will open up command line tool to run any command you like

EndSub

EndClass

Output of the Program

  1. System Information

This will will enable the administrator to see system information as discussed in the description section of the program

  1. RAM size

This section will enable the administrator to see the size of the RAM installed on the system

  1. Hard Disk Information

This will enable the system administrator to view the size of the hard disk partitions

  1. Command Line Tool

This will enable the system administrator to run any command related to system information and configuration

CONCLUSION

The system administration program is not only important for the efficiency of the system administrator, but it will also enable him/her to manage the system as per the requirements of the environment