Going to MMS? Well, when you've done the ConfigMgr v.Next labs you'll be full of questions, so check out what Jeff Wettlaufer blogged recently for an opportunity to get the right answers:

MMS Panel Session: Ask the experts, use our hashtag

We hope you can attend, we want to meet you

Great picture of the MVP's and Microsofties at the MVP Summit 2010! 

Makes me smile seeing these folk again, such extremes from shy retiring to very outspoken, great!

I'm on the right hand side (Wally Mead, Wei King and then Me!)

Some of you that know me will know I have some interesting hobbies ... Scuba diving and Snowboarding!

Had a chance to take some quality time off a little while after the MVP summit took place, so headed to the French Alps, Chamonix, and enjoyed 3 full days of snowboarding on the glorious white stuff!

This year my skills came together, feel a lot more solid on that board and able to keep up most of the time. Didn't go as far as trying 360's, 1080's or forward\backward flips while whooping mid-air, but got a real rush from nosing down the slopes at terminal velocity (well not quite!).

A friend had to take time off from the pistes and as a result had a head-cam sitting around not being used, so I attached it on to the helmet with a not-too-clever bungie type strap and took to the slopes. Here's what I recorded, taken from hours of footage, most of which was pointing at the sky, my board or generally bouncing around too much to make for good video (lesson learnt for next time!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07bPPF_fFVM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUSW54mKwwM

I plan on going back soon, maybe beginning of April and want to get a good head-cam and solidly attach it to the helmet for some proper HERO (my fiance thinks I'm a HERO, she's right!) action!

I was privileged enough to be invited in Feb 2010 to the MVP Summit based in Redmond, the Microsoft HQ itself. Wow what a week.

The time was spent sitting in front of the product team covering feature after feature with seriously deep drill-downs and hands-on with the product itself in the lab. Priceless. Yes, I've been there, used the new console, toyed with the new features and boy, have we got some serious thinking to do. Simplification of the hierarchy, application\user targetting, and a host of new ways of doing things. Epic stuff. Really looking forward to ConfigMgr v. Next releasing.

This was the most defining experience I've had in IT. To chat and interact with the guys and gals that make the ConfigMgr product, to use the product before anyone (even TAPs) else gives me a huge insight in to where we are going. Unfortunately I cannot say much about it at all, at least not until MMS 2010 timeframe when you'll get some hands-on if you are attending.

Talking of MMS, if you are going and dig ConfigMgr then you are going to get HUGE exposure to the new features. I and 20+ other MVP's sat through those lab demo's and can assure you that you'll be seeing the new console and a stack of the key features that will change the way we do things. This kind of time in front of the product this early on is invaluable for getting a feel for what it has become, and where it is going. If you're not going to MMS 2010, why not? Get booked now! Get some hands on, it'll definitely give you a head-start in planning your infrastructure upgrade.

http://www.mms-2010.com/public/home.aspx

Attending the MVP Summit helped strengthen my links with Microsoft, my knowledge of the product, introduced me to some really nice people outside of the ConfigMgr product group and finally I got to meet the most active (and able to attend) MVP's so can put face, name and voice together finally :-)

What a break!

Back in the saddle now, and eager to crack out some blog postings and arrange more WMUG meetings.

Stay tuned!

Jeff Wettlaufer has put together a short video showing one of the cool new features soon to arrive when R3 is released

OS Deployment enhancements in Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Check it out here > http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2010/01/20/os-deployment-enhancements-in-configuration-manager-2007-r3.aspx

Great news, the ICP's (International Client Packs) for ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 are both available

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 International Client Packs are now available

International Client Packs (ICPs) contain international-language clients to use with System Center Configuration Manager (SC Config Mgr) 2007 SP2. ICP downloads contain only the Config Mgr client files, not the English-language SC Config Mgr 2007 SP2, which is required.

ICP1 contains the following languages:

• English
• French
• German
• Japanese
• Spanish

ICP2 contains all languages from ICP1 plus the following:

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Swedish
• Turkish

For all the details and to download the ICPs see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4C8FA7D6-1671-4D76-860B-195B16C214A8&displaylang=en

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

EXCELLENT write up on client approval on the ConfigMgr Support Team Blog (these guys turn out gold regularly!)

How It Works: Automatic Client Approval in Configuration Manager 2007

Purpose:

This post is intended to explain how client approval works when a Mixed Mode Configuration Manager 2007 site is configured to automatically approve clients in trusted domains and to offer insight into how to troubleshoot scenarios where this is not working as expected.  The configuration is shown below:

The short version:

1. The new client performs a CCM_POST to CCM_System_WindowsAuth on the MP.
2. The MP responds with a 401 as the request is anonymous and contains no security data.

Follow this link for the full article: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2010/01/20/how-it-works-automatic-client-approval-in-configuration-manager-2007.aspx

We're expecting to sync with MS around 6PM GMT to get the IE out of band patch in to the hierarchy so we can push this out quick.

New Bulletin Summary

As you can see, you need to reboot a platform to get the patch to show as installed in your reports.

More info here http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-jan.mspx

Noticed this earlier:

Hopefully you have been enjoying the DPM 2010 beta since September, but we are almost finished with the Release Candidate and our last milestones towards delivery. 

Please join us on January 14 at 9:00 AM Pacific US Time to see what is coming in the Release Candidate  We will demonstrate the pre-RC software that our early adopters have been running in production.  We’ll demonstrate the new Windows client protection capabilities, the new SQL/SharePoint/Exchange protection and recovery features, as well as the enhanced Disaster Recovery scenario.  We’ll also update you on our auto-healing/auto-scaling features, as well as a few surprises that weren’t in the beta.  Come join us to see what is coming in DPM 2010.

TechNet Webcast: Get Ready for Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 Release Candidate (Level 300)

Start Date:  Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Duration:  90 Minutes

Audience(s):  IT Generalist

[Read More and sign up for this webcast]

Bless her cotton socks, good old SMS2003 moves out of mainstream support at the end of January  12th of Jan 2010, and it's site on the microsoft domain has had a refresh and has now become more of a portal to assist in migrating from SMS2003 to ConfigMgr. This doesn't mean it is no longer supported by MS, just means it moves from mainstream support to extended support($$$).

Jeff Wettlaufer recently blogged about this: 

This week SMS 2003 moves out of mainstream support, and enters what is called Extended Support.  This is a natural transition for every Microsoft product.  Information about the SMS 2003 product lifecycle can be found here. 

SMS 2003 has been an incredibly popular product, and has been considered the most widely deployed management tool in the world.  Many customers who at some time were running a version of SMS have since migrated to Configuration Manager 2007, but we recognize this is not the case for everyone.

The industry has moved at a pace unparalleled by most.  Technology has accelerated in capability, adoption, depth, breadth, and complexity.  From a management perspective, the landscape configuration management technology embraces has grown from basic inventory and software distribution to new areas like OS deployment, Virtualization, Asset/ Performance and Workflow management, data protection, NAP and model based configuration management.  In addition to capabilities, new working styles, scenarios, users (Gen ‘Y’) and security models have become daily routine for Administrators. 

The management landscape has changed, there is no debating it.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is in the 4th release since SMS 2003.  With a 5th (R3) entering beta soon, and with the mainstream support cycle ending for SMS 2003, we wanted to collect as much assistance as possible

[Read More...]

The ProxyCfg.exe utililty is an important tool, which us SMS Admins will encounter when we need to adjust proxy settings on a client so that it can communicate with the assigned site servers WSUS role.

I needed ProxyCfg to solve a problem on a Windows 2008 Enterprise server today, and found out that ProxyCfg.exe has been deprecated on Vista and Win2008, but what replaces it?

The answer is the NetSH command.

To show the current proxy settings (from a CMD prompt)

1. NetSH
2. WinHTTP
3. Show Proxy

Or

1. NetSH WinHTTP Show Proxy

To set the proxy

1. NetSH
2. WinHTTP
3. Set Proxy proxy-server="PROXY.COM:8080" bypass-list="SERVER.COM"
4. Show Proxy

Or

1. NetSH WinHTTP Set Proxy proxy-server="PROXY.COM:8080" bypass-list="SERVER.COM"

More commands are available

dump           - Displays a configuration script.
import         - Imports WinHTTP proxy settings. (equiv of ProxyCFG -u)
reset          - Resets WinHTTP settings. (equiv of ProxyCFG - D)
set            - Configures WinHTTP settings.
show           - Displays currents settings.

So now all functionaly of ProxyCfg can be accomplished using the NetSH command

ProxyCfg -U = NetSH WinHTTP import Proxy ie

ProxyCfg -D = NetSH WinHTTP reset proxy

ProxyCfg -P = NetSH WinHTTP Set Proxy proxy-server="PROXY.COM:8080" bypass-list="SERVER.COM"

Should get you up and running again ...

This video just made my jaw drop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNR74UCidBI&feature=player_embedded#

(It gets going, and yep you ain't see nothing like it, at around the 55 second mark)

Of course, it is very safe for work so check it out!

... Just had to watch it again, be warned it's addictive viewing!

Round of of recent KB articles (courtesy of the ConfigMgr Support Team Blog)

KB976073 - The Windows Deployment Service stops responding when you use a PXE service point on a computer that is running a System Center Configuration Managr 2007 SP1 site server

KB978021 - The Distribution Manager that is in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 does not honor the "Number of retries" and "Delay before retrying (minutes)" retry settings

KB977176 - A "Run Command Line" task of a task sequence object in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 does not work on a 64-bit client

KB978022 - Memory leak in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 if the distribution point role is enabled