An ordinary guy trying to make a difference
The face behind the FAQs
Mumbai – why?
Windows Server 2003
959613 Recommendations for thin-provisioned volumes for computers that run Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP
960246 Hang When Reading StdErr/StdOut Properties of WshScriptExec Object
558124 How to find computer serial number
959466 Stop error on a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server that has a third-party Input Method Editor (IME) installed: "Stop 0x000000AB (SESSION_HAS_VALID_POOL_ON_EXIT)"
959260 A system memory leak may occur when you play video media content that is encoded by the Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile codec in Windows Media Player 10 on a Windows Server 2003-based computer or on a Windows XP-based computer
957930 A name resolution query fails when Windows Server 2003-based DNS servers set the AA bit for the DNS query and forward the query to conditional forwarders
953829 Interfaces that have the TCP/IP version 6 protocol installed in Windows Server 2003 incorrectly send duplicate address detection (DAD) packets when DAD fails
944112 FIX: A memory leak in the ole32!CAsyncCall DCOM object may occur when a Windows XP-based client computer connects to a server by using an asynchronous RPC
… meaning of the “SMS” acronym?
There is of course “Software Moving Slowly”.
I like the suggestion made by my colleague Rob Thomas many years ago “Send More Squirrels” (damn useful creatures at times – just ask Willy Wonka (although I prefer the original not the remake)).
My submission would be “Serious Migraine Stuff” as sometimes trying to work out what SMS is doing (or not) can drive you barmy. But whatever I call it I do love SMS/ ConfigMgr – I can’t explain why, I’m just passionate about it.
As Yoda once said “once down the path of SMS begin you, forever will it dominate your destiny”.
Now it does make you wonder if one of THE reasons why Microsoft changed the product name to System Center Configuration Manager was to try to see how clever folks could be with new takes on the acronym so get your thinking caps on (oops I mean hats as there are no more CAPs in ConfigMgr – sorry bad joke), and let me know your suggestions.
Ah SMS has finished now just as I was about to pop a migraine tablet – maybe the 7th Squirrel Calvary has arrived…
Licensing is not one of my favourite subjects and I’m sure this is the case for many folks. So when I found this in my Inbox I thought I’d pass it on in case anyone wasn’t aware of these changes. If you have any questions with this just let me know and I’ll hook you up with Phillip or contact your local Microsoft Representative.
“Hi Cliff,
I thought you would like to know that Microsoft has recently made some changes to its Open Value license programme. In case you weren’t aware, Open Value is designed for small and mid-sized businesses who want to take control of their software investment through simplified license management. In essence, through Open Value, SMBs can combine their various software licenses into a single agreement which, in turn, can help them to save costs.
Please find below a summary of the changes. They have been designed by Microsoft to help simplify license acquisition, make payment options more flexible and ultimately, enable customers to save money.
· New Customer Platform Option – Customers can now mix and match the software applications they distribute through their servers using one license. Previously, if one user wanted to have Office Professional, everyone had to have Office Professional installed on their computer due to license restrictions. This has now changed so that customers can customise various IT components including operating system, Office and Client Access License (CAL) according to the needs of each user.
· More Enterprise Products - Microsoft has added several Enterprise Products to its Open Value programme including; Office Enterprise, ECAL Suite, Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack and Essential Business Server solution.
· New All Language Agreements – Customers no longer have to pay for additional language functionality when setting up their Open Value license agreement. Businesses can use multiple language versions of software for no additional cost.
· Software Assurance Enhancements – Microsoft’s Desktop Deployment Planning Services (DDPS) are now included in the Open Value license program. Through DDPS, customers receive a number of vouchers which they can use to get training and advice from Microsoft partners around how to plan and deploy Microsoft software. The number of vouchers customers receive relates directly to the amount of software covered in the Open Value agreement. The more software, the more vouchers you receive.
· Microsoft is also introducing a one-year contract option for Open Value subscription for Government customers. Whilst Open Value agreements are typically three years, Microsoft is now offering a special one-year contract option for Government organisations who need more flexibility with the way their software is licensed.
I hope you have found this interesting. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you may have around this so please do ask if you have any.
Kind regards,
Phillip Neill”
Visio 2007
957251 Description of the update for Visio 2007 Help: November 11, 2008
959665 Detection and deployment guidance for the November 11, 2008 security release
955069 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 3.0: November 11, 2008
958804 You cannot log on to the domain, join a computer to the domain, or run the Active Directory Installation Wizard (Dcpromo.exe) in Windows Server 2003
957097 MS08-068: Vulnerability in SMB could allow remote code execution
954430 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 4.0: November 11, 2008
955218 MS08-069: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft XML Core Services could allow remote code execution
955066 Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server may crash during the terminal session logoff process, and you may receive a Stop error message: "Stop 0x00000050"
957877 Stop error on a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server that has hotfix 951749 installed: "0x0000008E"
957749 A Windows Server 2003-based DNS server may crash when the DNS server hosts the forward lookup zones that have the "Use WINS forward lookup" option enabled
960050 EFS may not be enabled expectedly after you disable a policy and this policy turn off the EFS feature
958837 Error message when you run an old scheduled task or a newly created scheduled task on a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2-based domain controller: "0x8007000d: The data is invalid"
959815 DCOM Error 10021 is logged when you run a WinRM command against a remote computer that has update 936059 applied
954459 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 6.0: November 11, 2008
911832 A Windows Server 2003-based terminal server that is added to the Terminal Services Computers group cannot obtain a license from a terminal licensing server that has the "License server security group" setting enabled
960104 If you start a system from iSCSI, the gateway specified in the iSCSI Boot solution will always be used by Windows to communicate with the iSCSI Target
960154 IsBadWritePtr IsBadReadPtr Can Cause Hangs and Deadlock
958149 Performance decreases when you stream isochronous data on a Windows-based computer that has a Texas Instruments (TI) IEEE 1394 host controller installed
Links and titles are below:
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Sys Ctr Mobile Dvc Mgr 2008 EN 959900 - Error message when you run the Pre-enrollment Wizard and browse for a user or an organization unit in System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 on a Windows Server 2003-based computer: "Active Directory server <name> is not available" Published - Updated
Enjoy!
J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer
We had ten updated and two new Knowledge Base articles for the week, covering everything from SMS 1.x to System Center Mobile Device Manager. Links and titles are below:
Sys Mgmt Svr 2.0 SP2 EN 317872 - How to troubleshoot SMS Administrator console connectivity Published - Updated
Sys Mgmt Svr 2.0 SP2 EN 318434 - SMS: How to Use SMS 2.0 to Silently Install .NET Framework Published - Updated
Sys Mgmt Svr 2.0 SP2 EN 321372 - SMS: Systems Management Server 2.0 SP3 Support of Window XP Professional Published - Updated
Sys Mgmt Svr 2.0 SP2 EN 318479 - SMS: Error Message: Cannot Start SMS_Key_Creation_Service, Error Code = 997 Published - Updated
Sys Mgmt Svr 2.0 SP2 EN 325390 - Support WebCast: Troubleshooting SMS 2.0 Site Server Performance Problems Published - Updated
Sys Mgmt Svr Ent Ed 2003 EN 915198 - You may receive inaccurate reports when you run SMS hardware inventory reports on the parent site server Published - Updated
SMS 1.2 EN 185333 - SMS: Crystal Reports May Not Install on Large (GB) Drives Published - Updated
Sys Center Config Mnger 2007 AL 956733 - Some attributes of a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 client may be missing after it is configured as a branch distribution point Published - New
Sys Center Config Mnger 2007 AL 954716 - The SMS_EXECUTIVE service of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 on a child site server may crash when it handles the .sha file and sends inventory data to its parent site Published - New
Sys Center Config Mnger 2007 AL 949957 - The Active Directory System Discovery process and the Active Directory System Group Discovery process run slower than expected in a Configuration Manager 2007 site Published - Updated
SMS 2.0 EN 322967 - SMS: Client Software Distribution Component May Not Be Upgraded Published - Updated
For Release 1400 GMT Nov. 17, 2008
Companies offering products, training and deployment services for storage, networking and server consolidation; joint sales programs aimed at lowering customers’ IT costs and accelerating business responsiveness.
Reading, UK. — Nov. 17, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced expanded product, sales and services initiatives with HP aimed at helping businesses more easily adopt and deploy virtualisation to help lower information technology (IT) costs and make IT more efficient. Microsoft has expanded its work together with HP to sell and market storage, server and networking consolidation solutions and desktop virtualisation solutions to small-, medium-sized and large-business customers worldwide.
Today’s announcements include the following:
· In the U.S., Microsoft is working with HP to offer products, training and deployment services for storage, networking and server consolidation that are designed to help customers decrease costs, increase business agility, improve data access and protection, and increase employee productivity.
· Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 and Microsoft System Center are supported on the new industry-standard HP Virtual Connect 10Gb Flex-10 module, which works with the Flex-10 NIC on the recently introduced HP ProLiant BL495c virtualisation blade server. Together these technologies help enable customers to significantly lower costs with their server and network consolidation, business continuity, and dynamic datacenter projects.
· The HP and Microsoft Frontline Partner Program in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) has registered 60 percent of eligible partners across 36 countries to receive access to virtualisation training, sales tools, marketing materials, workshops, and incentives targeting small and medium-sized businesses.
· Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) features will be delivered in the HP ProLiant PRO Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, running on HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers, in December 2008. PRO is a feature of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 that enables dynamic management of virtual machines and the associated host platforms.
· HP provides comprehensive services, built on Microsoft technologies, for customers to virtualise their desktops and data centers. The services address strategy, design, transition, operation and continual improvement. HP offers virtualisation workshops and proofs-of-concept as the first step for virtualisation projects. HP also provides education and support for technology staff as well as services to develop a strategic technology road map using best practices to consolidate and manage infrastructure.
· HP Business Service Automation will enable automation of change and configuration management processes across virtual and physical environments for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environments, and will integrate with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 for managing advanced platform capabilities, while decreasing downtime associated with uncontrolled change. HP is scheduled to release a beta in the first quarter of 2009.
“Microsoft and HP are working together to help customers obtain more value from their Microsoft virtualisation software, HP services and infrastructure offerings,” said Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualisation, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “Customers and partners are responding well to the clear benefits of the joint solutions and initiatives for desktop and datacenter virtualisation and holistic management. This response is evident at customers such as MLS Property Information Network among many others, and our initiatives will fuel continued value for new customers.”
MLS Property Information Network Inc. is the largest multiple listing service in New England, serving more than 30,000 real estate professionals with a database of nearly 60,000 active listings. Keeping its Web servers up and running is thus a business-critical goal. The company decided to replace its 60 stand-alone servers with 20 clustered servers supporting dozens of virtual machines that run Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V on HP ProLiant servers and HP Insight Software. At the same time, the company replaced its storage infrastructure with a Sanbolic Melio FS clustered file system that provides Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) storage using a 10-gigabit Ethernet connection at a substantial cost savings compared with fiber channel storage.
“Virtualisation frees the business to grow. We have been able to achieve a dynamic IT infrastructure and can almost double computing capacity on demand across the enterprise, which is huge,” said Matt Lavallee, director of technology, MLS Property Information Network. “We’ve been able to consolidate our infrastructure by 60 percent, and we’ve been able to reduce operational costs by 30 percent, which maximizes value for our shareholders.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Reading, UK. — Nov. 12, 2008 — As part of Microsoft Corp.’s $6.5 billion annual investment in products, support programs and incentives for small and midsize businesses, the company today announced the general availability of Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008). These solutions bring the power of Microsoft’s enterprise-class server technologies to small and midsize companies in a way that companies can best consume them. They are designed and priced to help customers save money and compete more successfully in the global marketplace.
“If time equals money, then we’re saving a lot of money,” said Rob Harris of Robby Gordon Motorsports. “Our race car business is very performance-based with things constantly changing. I attribute a lot of our growth to Microsoft’s server solutions and the impact they have on our company’s ability to perform in a competitive worldwide arena.”
According to AMI-Partners Inc., home-based, small and midsize businesses employ 90 percent of the global work force and account for more than 50 percent of gross domestic product worldwide.
“Around the world, small and midsize businesses are the engine that drives economic growth and opportunity,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “To help these businesses succeed, Microsoft has focused on creating integrated, affordable server solutions that are optimized to meet the needs of companies with limited IT resources. Small Business Server and Essential Business Server deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that will help small and midsize business thrive and grow.”
Large enterprises typically have specialists on staff with the technical knowledge, budgets and time needed to manage IT environments — a luxury small and midsize businesses can rarely afford. Based on feedback directly from customers, SBS and EBS greatly help reduce the setup and ongoing management of IT, while enabling new scenarios to enhance end-user productivity, as well as saving companies money on license costs.
“We used to spend 15 hours a month doing upgrades,” said Tom Goddard, director of Information Technology for Lee Company. “Instead, with EBS, this is down to two hours a week. That alone saves us $11,000 per year and allows us to spend more time thinking strategically about our business.”
Licensing and Financing
To ease customer concerns about the initial investment cost of rolling out new infrastructure technology, Microsoft has developed licensing and financing options that allow flexible payment terms from 24 months to 60 months. Both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 are priced significantly less for qualified customers than it would cost to separately purchase products similar to those included in SBS 2008 and EBS 2008, and Microsoft is offering financing for the hardware, software and partner professional services. In addition, Microsoft offers several flexible licensing options to allow for complete scalability of customers’ cost in relation to their usage, including various client access licenses (CALs) in quantities to suit customers’ specific needs. For example, a company will be able to purchase a single CAL and pay only for the exact number of employees using the product. More licensing information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing.
Partner Ecosystem
Microsoft has turned to its more than 400,000 partners worldwide — 20,000 of which are small-business specialists — and provided them with other resources to help small and midsize businesses successfully implement and use these solutions.
Microsoft hardware partners are offering a broad choice of solutions for SBS 2008 and EBS 2008. Dell Inc., HP and IBM Corp. have optimized their hardware configurations for a superior customer experience when installing, running and maintaining SBS 2008. HP, IBM and Intel Corporation have also designed and priced blade servers specifically for midsize customers. Combined with EBS 2008, these blade servers give customers an affordable and scalable infrastructure solution that is easy to set up and manage. Customers can also choose from a wide variety of traditional rack-and-tower servers from Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo and Sun Microsystems Inc.
Many independent software vendors (ISVs) are also supporting SBS 2008 and EBS 2008, across a wide variety of applications such as backup and recovery, security, business management, systems management, line-of-business applications, and more. In addition, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 will run virtually any applications certified on Windows Server 2008.
Platinum sponsors participating in the worldwide launch event are Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), CA, Citrix Systems Inc., Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Sun Microsystems, Symantec Corp. and Trend Micro Inc.
Product Details
Designed for companies with up to 75 users or PCs, SBS 2008 is an integrated server solution created to help businesses keep their data more secure and make their company more productive. SBS provides many of the technologies used by larger companies, such as Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and other Microsoft products. EBS 2008 is designed for businesses with up to 300 users or PCs, and allows IT managers to have more control over their environment by reducing complexity and automating common tasks. With support for Windows Mobile phones, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 can significantly help boost productivity with access to business e-mail, calendar, contacts and files when away from the office. More information on both standard and premium editions of the products, including detailed feature lists, can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/wess/en/us/default.aspx.
More information about the worldwide launch activities can be found at http://www.thedreamserver.com or http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/serversolutions/default.mspx. Additional information about the products, pricing and customer feedback is available at http://www.microsoft.com/wess.
Useful SQL Information [12/11/08] Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP ConfigMgr/ SMS] I've updated the SQL Page to not only include download locations for all of the SQL Service Packs but also to contain useful information such as Critical Updates, Support Lifecycles. If there's anything missing please let me know.
I openly admit I’m not very good at maths which is probably why I hate it. But seems I’m not alone as the following from the Microsoft Download Centre demonstrates:
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language: English
76 results found; results 61-77 shown.< Previous
The Southeast Management User Group invites you to attend the next SMUG meeting scheduled for November 14th, 2008 for a day of great presentations, discussions, and networking, at the Alpharetta Microsoft Campus.
More details at:
http://www.systemcenterusergroup.org/blogs/smug/default.aspx
The System Center Professional User Group of Jacksonville will hold their 4th quarter meeting on November 19, 2008 at 6:30 P.M. It will take place at New Horizons Learning Center, 7020 A.C Skinner Parkway Suite #180, Jacksonville, FL, 32256.
A meet and greet period is scheduled for 6:30 to 7:30 with food and drinks provided. This will be followed by a presentation from sponsor SecureVantage Technologies entitled “Security Auditing with System Center Operations Manager and the Audit Collection Service.” All System Center Professionals in North Florida are invited.
SPUGJax was created to connect I.T. professionals working in the Microsoft System Center ecosystem with products such as SMS, SCCM, MOM, SCOM, Microsoft virtualization technologies, SoftGrid and the many third-party tools that support System Center.
More information:
http://systemcenterguide.com/2008/11/11/system-center-professional-user-group-of-jacksonville-meeting/
System Center Operations Manager 2007
957567 When you try to deploy a System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 agent, the Health Service does not start, and event ID 7024 is logged
957511 Warning alerts and warning monitor state changes do not occur as expected for a Web application that is created by using the Web application template in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1
957199 The System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 operations console cannot display English product knowledge when you open the properties dialog box of an alert: "No product knowledge was available for this Alert"
951529 System Center Operations Manager 2007 runs scripts in the Rule Name field or in the Description field
953817 The Administrator Console exits when you try to use the "Set Resolution State" option for an alert that is generated in System Center Operations Manager 2007
957135 You cannot change the alert resolution state of any alert in the Active Alerts view in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1
952857 The Custom Event Report does not list the GenericLog-type events in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1
954329 An Audit Collection Service forwarder may be unable to retrieve the distinguished name for the ObjectGUID in the collected events in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1
954823 A custom event report does not display events that are generated by the generic CSV text log collection rules when Parameter 1 to Parameter 20 is included in the Report Field criteria in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
910617 When you try to restart or shut down a remote Windows XP-based or Windows Server 2003-based computer, the restart or shutdown process may stop responding (hang) if a screen saver is enabled on the remote computer
955457 It takes longer to log on to a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server than expected when you enable Group Policy preferences in the terminal server
959318 You receive a fraudulent e-mail message that claims that an attached executable is a Microsoft security update
957585 You cannot easily determine the source of a time-out error when you run a query by using the ODBC SQL Server driver or the OLE DB provider in MDAC on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003
955860 High CPU usage occurs for six seconds on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that has multiple network adapters
823749 A Windows Server 2003-based computer or a Windows XP-based computer may stop responding
933071 The "Effective Permissions" tab may report incorrect permissions in Windows Server 2003
957492 When you try to start a terminal session to a Windows Server 2003-based computer, the computer may be unresponsive
957216 A handle leak occurs in the Csrss.exe process after the desktop heap is exhausted on a Windows Server 2003-based computer
943853 Some Windows services do not run as expected after you install ISA Server 2006 Supportability Update on a computer that is a member of an Active Directory domain
953731 Device Manager displays an exclamation point next to the Generic Packet Classifier device on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that uses the iSCSI Initiator boot version
958885 The Internet Connection Wizard starts and requires you to set up an Outlook Express e-mail account when you click the Mail button in Internet Explorer on a computer that is running an x64-based version of Windows Server 2003
958246 The logoff process may take a long time when a user makes a terminal session from a Windows Server 2003 terminal server in a trusted domain, and the terminal service roaming profiles are used
955692 Your screen flickers when you start WPF applications in a Windows Server 2003 terminal server session
959252 Error message when you switch the operating system from a dual monitor setting to a single monitor setting on a Windows XP-based computer or on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that has the security update 954211 installed: "Stop 0x0000008E"
959573 PRB: GetVolumeNameForVolumeMountPoint API may return Incorrect Name for Volumes with Multiple Names
950234 Error message when you try to open a shared file in Windows Explorer on a Windows XP-based computer: " is not accessible. Access is denied"
894270 The error message of the Reg command may be truncated when you redirect a standard error message to a file on a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer