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As already announced (see here), the first draft of the Backup Scanning Tools Menu has just been made available in my GitHub repository. This script is designed to provide a user-friendly, menu-driven interface for triggering the various backup scan tools that I have provided in the past. It allows the user to choose from a number of options, each corresponding to a specific type of backup scan. The script provides detailed descriptions of each scan operation before prompting the user to enter the required parameters for execution.

Besides the actual Scanning Tool Menu script I also created an installer script that "installs" all necessary scan scripts into the selected directory.

Installation

Follow these steps:

  1. Download the Installer Script
    Download the backup-scanning-tools-installer.ps1 script to your local machine.
  2. Open a PowerShell terminal with administrator privileges
  3. Run the Installer script
    Execute the backup-scanning-tools-installer.ps1 script with the required parameter -InstallDir. This parameter specifies the directory where the backup scanning scripts will be installed.

    For example:

    .\backup-scanning-tools-installer.ps1 -InstallDir "C:\Scripts\scanningtools"

    Replace "C:\Scripts\scanningtools" with the path to the directory where you want to install the backup scanning tools.

Once the installation is complete, you can use the backup scanning tools from the specified installation directory. Run the menu script, and it will call the required backup scanning scripts based on the user's selection from the menu.


All details can be found on the corresponding readme page

Notes

For some of the scripts there is no detailed manual yet. However, this will be provided in the future. I also appreciate any feedback.

Now to you

Question to the community: How should the scans be logged by the scripts? Should the results be recorded in the Windows Event Log or should a separate log file (.txt format) be used for this purpose?

And...

How about a sneak-peek at the Menu Console in colourful, fancy and fresh HTML style? Would this be an alternative for the menu?
 

 

I don’t have time to test this out @SteveHeart ...but looks great. Personally, though I appreciate CLI a lot, I think an actual UI would indeed be beneficial. Well done!

@SteveHeart - this is great, and I am going to test this out.  I love things like PowerShell to help with daily tasks.  I think the UI will also be good too as like Shane I love the CLI for PS but sometimes you get lazy and want a Web interface.  😋

Looks very cool...I’ll need to check this out!  Appreciate the GUI.

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

Nice work man!!

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

VERY cool! I’ll test it when I get time.

 

Ex IBMer here. What did you do with Mainframes? I worked on Z-Series boxes for several years doing service.  Crazy they are up to the Z16 now. 

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

VERY cool! I’ll test it when I get time.

 

Ex IBMer here. What did you do with Mainframes? I worked on Z-Series boxes for several years doing service.  Crazy they are up to the Z16 now. 

 

I never messed with Z-series other than helping to make sure the mainframe guys were able to get their VTL’s to connect to the Data Domains.  I had I-series guys next to me as well.  I’ll tell you now, if you ever wanted a lucrative career, go into Z or I because there aren’t a lot of folks around anymore that know that stuff, and IBM snaps up those folks right away for what I’m told are the two colleges that still teach it.  I did have to marvel every time we opened the Z-series cabinets though….IBM builds some really nice looking, well thought out gear with some nicely structured cabinets.

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

VERY cool! I’ll test it when I get time.

 

Ex IBMer here. What did you do with Mainframes? I worked on Z-Series boxes for several years doing service.  Crazy they are up to the Z16 now. 

 

I never messed with Z-series other than helping to make sure the mainframe guys were able to get their VTL’s to connect to the Data Domains.  I had I-series guys next to me as well.  I’ll tell you now, if you ever wanted a lucrative career, go into Z or I because there aren’t a lot of folks around anymore that know that stuff, and IBM snaps up those folks right away for what I’m told are the two colleges that still teach it.  I did have to marvel every time we opened the Z-series cabinets though….IBM builds some really nice looking, well thought out gear with some nicely structured cabinets.

 Z, I, X, I worked on all of it, Including ATM’s (bank machines) IBM Point of Sale, 3890 Cheque Sorters (those were cool machines). If you want plumbing, pneumatics, mechanical, and cameras that take photos of cheques flying at 40 MPH while spraying ink to print on them, it was really cool technology for  something that came out in the 70’s with a few upgrades. 

 

As far as going back to IBM, not a chance. While I enjoyed my time there, it’s not the place to be if you want job security these days. After I left I know far too many old friends that have been laid off. Even jobs with 24/7 coverage that are running with 1 guy at this point. 

I hear you 😀 Actual GUI? Well, did you know I started my IT career on IBM Mainframe?! Have a look what’s ready:
 

 

VERY cool! I’ll test it when I get time.

 

Ex IBMer here. What did you do with Mainframes? I worked on Z-Series boxes for several years doing service.  Crazy they are up to the Z16 now. 

 

I never messed with Z-series other than helping to make sure the mainframe guys were able to get their VTL’s to connect to the Data Domains.  I had I-series guys next to me as well.  I’ll tell you now, if you ever wanted a lucrative career, go into Z or I because there aren’t a lot of folks around anymore that know that stuff, and IBM snaps up those folks right away for what I’m told are the two colleges that still teach it.  I did have to marvel every time we opened the Z-series cabinets though….IBM builds some really nice looking, well thought out gear with some nicely structured cabinets.

 Z, I, X, I worked on all of it, Including ATM’s (bank machines) IBM Point of Sale, 3890 Cheque Sorters (those were cool machines). If you want plumbing, pneumatics, mechanical, and cameras that take photos of cheques flying at 40 MPH while spraying ink to print on them, it was really cool technology for  something that came out in the 70’s with a few upgrades. 

 

As far as going back to IBM, not a chance. While I enjoyed my time there, it’s not the place to be if you want job security these days. After I left I know far too many old friends that have been laid off. Even jobs with 24/7 coverage that are running with 1 guy at this point. 

 

Interesting….my old job, we were a MSP/cloud provider that offered remote management of I and Z and used our gear as DR, or migrated to our own gear and ran it there (and could run on a separate set of gear ion our second datacenter for DR).  It was a good spot because a lot of those old-timers so to speak at banks and insurance companies and the sort were retiring and companies suddenly found themselves in a pinch needing someone with this skillset and the capability.  For instance, we had one company where their I series guy put in his two weeks notice, and we had a signed agreement 24 hours later, and someone on the plan to head down to the client site 48 hours after that.  We managed to onboard them, get a good grasp of all of their processes, batches (or whatever) that needed to run and had our Command Center techs trained up within those two weeks.  A pretty amazing success story, but my point is that there’s still a demand for it if you know where to look.  but I do think that the technology will eventually die out...it’s still hanging on for now but is getting chipped away slowly.

@Scott: My “real” IT career started on S390 and I focused on automation (log filtering of new messages) with the Boole & Babbage tool Mainview. And yes, wiring and restocking the tape library were also part of the daily tasks. And who knows what TSO is? Rexx anybody?

Finalizing version 1.0 of the Web Console. Maybe I integrate another tool…..

 

Finalizing version 1.0 of the Web Console. Maybe I integrate another tool…..

 

Looking good. 👍🏼

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