An ordinary guy trying to make a difference
One of the great things I get to do as an IT Pro Evangelist is play with some cool technologies. One of the tools I recently had a chance to play with is the Service Level Dashboard for SCOM 2007 R2. This dashboard provides a way for managers, application owners, and IT professionals to monitor the availability and performance of business-critical applications, and to view the reported data on a single, web-based interface. By the way, it is a free solution accelerator. Check out the brief introduction video below:
Resources:
http://edge.technet.com/Media/System-Center-Operations-Manager-2007-R2--Service-Level-Dashboard-part-1-Introduction/
Full Title: The Capture Network Settings task in a ConfigMgr 2007 OSD Task Sequence may not properly capture DNS & WINS settings on teamed NICs
From the ConfigMgr Support Team Blog:
When using the "Capture Network Settings" task in a Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM 2007) OSD Task Sequence on a PC that has teamed NICs, not all of the settings of the NIC may be captured properly. This mainly applies to DNS and WINS settings that are set statically. In these cases the settings are not captured and instead are set to obtain from DHCP when the network settings are restored via the "Apply Network Settings" task.
Microsoft Windows does not officially support teamed NICs. Support for teamed NICs are provided by third party vendors via third party drivers and software. For this reason, the "Capture Network Settings" task was never tested to work with teamed NICs.
The ZTINICConfig.wsf script from the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) properly captures all settings on teamed NICs. This script can be run instead of the "Capture Network Settings" task.
Note: Because of some known issues with the ZTINICConfig.wsf script in MDT 2008 Update 1, it is recommended to use the ZTINIConfig.wsf script from MDT 2010. If using MDT 2008 Update 1 instead of MDT 2010, please see the instructions after the steps below on the modifications that need to be done to the ZTINICConfig.wsf script of MDT 2008 Update 1.)
1) Integrate MDT 2010 with SCCM 2007, making sure to create the MDT Toolkit Package via the "Create Microsoft Deployment Task Sequence" wizard.
2) Right click on the affected Task Sequence and choose "Edit".
3) Click on the "Capture Network Settings" task and then click on the "Options" tab. Check the option "Disable this step".
4) Immediately after the "Capture Network Settings" task, add the "Use Toolkit Package" task (found under the Add - - > MDT menu), and then point to the MDT Toolkit Package created in Step 1.
5) Immediately after the "Use Toolkit Package " task, add the "Gather" task (found under the Add - - > MDT menu), and then set to "Gather only local data (do not process rules)".
6) Immediately after the "Gather" task, add a "Run Command Line" task (found under the Add - - > General menu).
7) In the "Run Command Line" task created in Step 6, check the option "Package" and point to the MDT Toolkit Package created in Step 1, and then set the following values:
"Name:" Capture Network Settings
"Command Line:" cscript scripts\ZTINICConfig.wsf /ForceCapture
If using MDT 2008 Update 1, the ZTINICConfig.wsf script needs to be edited to correct a known issue in the script. These changes are already present in the ZTINICConfig.wsf of MDT 2010 so these changes should NOT be performed on the ZTINICConfig.wsf script of MDT 2010:
1) Find the package source for package that contains the MDT 2008 Toolkit Package files (which is where the ZTINICConfig.wsf script is stored)
2) Open the Scripts folder and make a backup copy of the file ZTINICConfig.wsf
3) Open the file ZTINICConfig.wsf in Notepad
4) In the ZTINICConfig.wsf file, find the lines
ElseIf ObjNetworkAdapters.Count = 1 then
' If there is only one MAC Address, there is no need to save the MACAddress, there is only one Configuration.
SaveMACAddress = FALSE
and comment them out by putting an apostrophe (‘) before the first and third lines (the second line is already commented out). When finished, they should look as follows:
'ElseIf ObjNetworkAdapters.Count = 1 then
' SaveMACAddress = FALSE
5) Save the file making sure that when the file is saved that it is saved as a WSF file and not a TXT file.
6) Update the MDT 2008 Toolkit Package package on the the DPs where the package exists. Make sure that the package source version is updated.
Hope this helps,
Frank Rojas | Support Escalation Engineer
http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2009/11/30/the-capture-network-settings-task-in-a-configmgr-2007-osd-task-sequence-may-not-properly-capture-dns-wins-settings-on-teamed-nics.aspx
Take a tour through the virtualization features in the upcoming release of System Center Essentials 2010. In this demo, you will learn:
http://edge.technet.com/Media/Demo-Virtualization-Features-of-Essentials-2010/
From the Virtual PC Guy’s Blog:
Tore Lervik has released an updated version of his fantastic Hyper-V Monitor Gadget. New features in this release include:
If you have not tried this tool out, you should go and grab a copy from here: http://mindre.net/post/Hyper-V-Monitor-Gadget-for-Windows-Sidebar.aspx
Cheers, Ben
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/11/30/updated-hyper-v-monitor-gadget-now-available.aspx
I've just added links to the various vendor specific ConfigMgr Deployment Packs to the Downloads page. The four that exist at present are from Dell, HP, IBM and Sun...
Microsoft Partners, find out how MDT 2010 simplifies the process of deploying Windows 7, while also providing many opportunities for customization. Explore ways that you can extend MDT 2010, adding value to your customer’s Windows 7 deployment projects. Join this Web Seminar on December 1st from 10am-11am PST to learn how to simplify the process of deploying Windows 7.
Next Steps:
· Sign up for the Web Seminar: Adding value to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010: Extending Windows 7 Deployment
· Download MDT 2010
· Learn more
I’ve always been a bit confused over the choice of editing software for digital photos be it Photoshop, Lightroom, Paintshop Pro,or even the software that Canon ships with their cameras.
I had a quick dabble with Lightroom 2.x and LOVED the ability to keyword and organise my photos but I didn’t get much further with it. Speaking to lots of people it seems a large number of photographers use Lightroom for 90%+ of their stuff and then use something like Photoshop for the missing 10%.
I’ve just discovered that Adobe have the public beta of Lightroom 3 available and it will work until April 2010 which is when I’m assuming the end product will be available. Off to download and have a play and if you fancy joining me just go to:
http://labs.adobe.com/
Looks like I need to be making a trip to British Library between now and the 7th March for this free exhibition:
“An exhibition that signals the welcome public debut of one of the world’s great photographic collections” Financial Times Find out more”
.NET Framework 2.0
200715 In a multithreaded access to a Type's custom attributes via Type.GetCustomAttributes() (or PropertyInfo.GetCustomAttributes()), sometimes an attribute object returned does not have the constructor run
977981 Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer could allow remote code execution
977051 How to apply a hotfix for SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 in a transactional replication and database mirroring topology
976367 FIX: The Date data type may be corrupted when you use the SAP BI Destination component of Microsoft Connector 1.0 for SAP BI in a SQL Server 2008 Integration Services package
976124 FIX: After you install SQL Server 2008 SP1 for the IA-64 version of SQL Server 2008 with Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) installed, SQL Server hangs during startup and cannot be started
976098 December 2009 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems
975158 A hotfix is available for Remote Desktop Client (RDC) 5.2 to fix a drawing failure after you apply the security update 958470 (MS09-044) on a computer that is running Windows XP SP3 or Windows Server 2003 SP2
975683 You cannot open an OLE link whose path contains one or more spaces in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003
200526 Restoring a backup fails with error: "The library is unable to load the media at this time because the drive is in use"
976470 The "Date and Time" window shows "Date out of range" error message
975929 The Meiryo UI font is available for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008
975696 The Account Name, Account Domain, and Security ID fields are not populated in event ID 5136 for "Directory Service Changes" on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008
975697 An LDAP client authentication request fails when the Digest-MD5 SASL subsequent authentication mechanism is used
200804 An application that uses .NET Framework to monitor the event log does not read the descriptions from COM and DCOM sources on a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008
974868 When you examine the playback devices after you start a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, some audio devices are missing or display the "Not plugged in" status
977518 You receive DFSR event ID 2212, and DFSR stops after you restart Windows Server 2008
975153 A hotfix is available for Remote Desktop Client (RDC) 5.1 to fix a drawing failure after you apply the security update 958470 (MS09-044) on a computer that is running Windows XP SP2
Security Advisories Updated or Released Today * Microsoft Security Advisory (977981) - Title: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/977981.mspx - Revision Note: V1.1 (November 25, 2009): Corrected the CVE reference, added a mitigating factor concerning Web-based attacks, and clarified the workaround involving DEP.
Received this from my friends at 1E and thought I’d pass it along:
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· Increased Platform Support - for a wider range of platforms including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008
This new release of Shopping 3.1 also offers enhanced scalability and performance, multi-domain and Unicode support enabling application name and description displays in foreign language character sets such as Chinese and Japanese. Shopping is fully integrated with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and Active Directory.
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By deploying Shopping, our customer Peterborough City Council has seen cost savings in terms of money spent on support calls relating to the availability of new software for users. Similarly, Reed Elsevier* saw productivity savings when it gave individual users the freedom to select and install the authorized applications they wanted.
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Download this podcast
WMA | MP3
Summary The following bulletins have undergone a major revision increment. Please see the appropriate bulletin for more details. * MS08-076 – Important
Bulletin Information: * MS08-076 - Important - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-076.mspx - Reason for Revision: V5.0 (November 24, 2009): Added entries to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to This Security Update section announcing the re-release of this update for the Windows XP Embedded operating system. Customers using the Windows XP Embedded operating system should install this automatically offered security update at the earliest opportunity. Customers of all other operating systems who have already installed this update do not need to take further action. - Originally posted: December 9, 2008 - Updated: November 24, 2009 - Bulletin Severity Rating: Important - Version: 5.0
From the Because It's Everybody’s Business blog:
Good morning everyone from a dark and raining Redmond, USA. My name is Jeff Wettlaufer and I am excited to join you here on the ‘Because It’s Everybody’s Business’ blog.
Like many of you, I have been in the IT industry for a number of years, and have enjoyed a passion for technology throughout. I have been with Microsoft for about 10 years, both in the UK and here in Redmond. My time in Redmond has mostly been in the System Center team (~4 years now) where we produce a powerful collection of configuration and performance management tools. It has been an incredible 4 years being a part of a product group that is growing like the System Center business. It is even more exciting to look ahead at the stuff in the pipes. The short term ahead of us is jammed with new market shaping capabilities across a number of areas that are especially important to you.
You guys have a lot on your plate. Your success is measured in ways that even a few years ago did not exist. As you strive to do more with less, centralizing your workflows, management technologies, admin consoles, investigating virtualization and improving workload strategies have all become massive accelerators to saving you cost – direct and indirect. I want to help you do that.
Our team has been active on the ‘social networking’ scene for a few years, and personally I have been blogging for both work and family for quite a while. If you haven’t seen our System Center team blog yet, check us out here, it’s a very active blog, with a lot of passionate contributors.
I am really pleased to be given a chance to connect with you here on this blog, and I am really looking forward to sharing news, updates and stories about our management and security division through the BIEB site. I hope you find my contributions valuable. If there is some topic or capability you would like me to dive on, let me know. This site is for you guys, its your valuable time you are spending reading our posts, and I want to make sure you find it worthwhile.
I don't want to assume anything, you guys know your business, your challenges, and where your pain points are. Let’s work together on helping you succeed, grow, gain agility and streamline your costs.
Thank you for your time.
To see Jeff’s video:
http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenterexperts/archive/2009/11/23/thank-you-for-your-time.aspx
Just a quick reminder about today’s webcast:
Event ID: 1032428200
Language(s): English.
Product(s): Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.
Audience(s): IT Generalist.
Duration: 60 Minutes
Start Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Event Overview With the release of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems, new capabilities and usage scenarios are emerging for system management. Economic, regulatory, green IT, and security issues continue to be the challenges organizations face. In this webcast, we provide a technical update and overview for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. We focus on Service Pack 2 and R3 enhancements, market capabilities, and describe our near-term release road map.
Presenter: Jeff Wettlaufer, Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032428200&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US