STSADM Extensions… explored

First off, for those of you not familiar with Gary LaPointe’s STSADM Extensions, I would recommend checking out his blog over at http://stsadm.blogspot.com and investigate what he’s got to offer.

For those of you that are familiar with stsadm for WSS and MOSS then you’re familiar with the likes of Ben Curry‘s Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator’s Pocket Consultant which provides a thorough reference of the STSADM command set.  Sometimes the command set can be tedious, at other times, fairly trivial, but more than likely scripting something with it is somewhat tedious.

Enter Gary LaPointe’s stsadm extensions which take stsadm to the next level.  Gary’s extensions go above and beyond where arduous scripting would more than likely lead you, allowing you to quickly step out on administrative tasks without having to get stuck in the world of windows script host.

My current favorite extension would have to be the gl-backupsites extension which allows for the quick and easy backup of all site collections within a web application or farm.  For those of you that have had to write scripts to do this in the past, you’ll find that this is far simpler.

Thanks for your contribution to the community Gary!