A few months ago I talked about a
couple tools including the SoftGrid Migration Tool which helps you “convert” existing automated application setups to SoftGrid Virtualized Applications (aka streams or sequences). It looks like the folks over at Login Consultants have an updated version out on the web that includes new features such as:
Allow local interaction option.
Terminate children option.
Disable virtual services option.
Add one or more custom shortcuts while sequencing.
Load/Save a project for future reference.
Create your own default setting using the GUI.
For more information as well as a link to down the tool see the
http://www.softgridblog.com. As always, this is not a Microsoft tool and as such we make no warranties or guarantee's, nor does Microsoft support the use of this tool in any way. This is more of a 'use at your own risk' type of thing but I think you'll find it helpful.
Patrick G just announced on his Technet blog a new Microsoft product, called "Bulldog". He writes about the main points of the product in development:
The Stratature +EDM product will be released as a Technology Preview in February, 2008 to a select group of customers.
A formal TAP program will commence in the first half of 2008.
The first CTP release should be available Q3, 2008.
General availability for Bulldog is currently planned to coincide with the next release of Office.
Where "Bulldog is about making Stratature +EDM a Microsoft product. Bulldog will remain almost identical to +EDM with some enhancements."
"The Microsoft MDM product codename is “Bulldog”. Bulldog includes Microsoft process and standards applied to the Stratature code base as well as several important new capabilities described below. This document introduces the short term roadmap for master data management at Microsoft and the timelines for reintroducing an enhanced master data management product in the near future."
You can view more here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/mdm or check out the detailed roadmap here:
The Microsoft MDM Roadmap.
The
November Edition of TechNet Magazine is now available online. This month it's all about keeping users happy which in turn keeps Administrators happy. Below is a quick list of the featured articles:
Changes to Offline Files in Windows Vista
Simple Scalable deployment with BDD 2007
Exchange Edge Transport Servers at Microsoft: Part 2
Configure VPN Remote Access with ISA Server 2006
Optimizing SQL Server Query Performance
So there's something for everyone in this month's edition. Check it out!
TechNet Magazine - November 2007
In order to assist customers in designing their storage layout for Data Protection Manager 2007, we have put together a calculator that focuses on outlining the storage capacity requirements based on a set of input factors. For the first release, the calculator focuses on Exchange 2007 backup scenarios only. Future releases may include other technologies. The calculator uses all the recommendations outlined in:
Protecting Exchange Server with DPM 2007 White Paper
Exchange 2007 Planning Storage Configurations
Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Calculator
DPM Blog
The calculator does not make any recommendations toward storage design (RAID parity, number of disks, etc) as the storage design is largely dependent on the type of storage array being utilized.
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The other day I needed to get a list of all SCOM 2007 agent-managed computers in my environment, because they needed to have a registry key fixed. I constructed a SQL query to do so:
SELECT MEGv.[Displayname] AS Object FROM dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView AS MEGv
INNER JOIN dbo.[ManagedTypeView] AS TMv
ON TMv.[id] = MEGv.[MonitoringClassId]
WHERE TMv.[Name] = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.HealthService'
ORDER BY MEGv.[Displayname]
I saved the results to a file called "servers.txt". Essentially, it queries the OpsMgr operational DB for any instance of the HealthService class. Enjoy!
My fellow MOM-MVP and overall knowledgable guru,
Pete Zerger, is doing a multi-part blog post about Gateway scenario's with Operations Manager 2007:
I get a question from someone almost every day about a variation of the gateway scenario, so in a series of posts I’d like to expand on the gateway scenario and how it works. Let’s start with this question:
Question: You explain in the Gateway and PKI scenarios document how to make a Gateway fail over to a another Management Server in the event one fails. I have agents in an untrusted environment. How can I make my agents fail over to another Gateway in the event one of my Gateway fails?
(more)
OpsMgr 2007 PKI and Gateway Scenarios Part 1: Agent failover when the primary Gateway fails
J.C. Hornbeck writes: Here are some Proof of Concept guidelines I put together that I thought you might find helpful. While this document provides an overview of installing Configuration Manager in a Proof of Concept (POC) environment, it should under no circumstances be considered a replacement for reviewing SCCM product documentation in detail prior to production deployment.
Note: SCCM can be downloaded from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Site MVLS website on or shortly after 11/1/07 (SQL 2005, which SCCM requires, can also be downloaded from the MVLS website). Customers can download the 120-day evaluation version (which is RTM code, link is below) to begin their testing and once they get their MVLS product key, they will be able to apply the product key using a simple upgrade process (no re-installation will be required). It should be noted that the 120-day evaluation version does NOT support an in-place upgrade from SMS 2003 SP2/SP3. SCCM is also available for download for MSDN subscribers, but this version cannot be used in production (which is the case for all products downloaded from MSDN).
(more)
Boris Yanushpolsky writes: I added a couple of things that people have asked for in the MPviewer:
The ability to save to HTML. Looks like quite a bit of people asked for this.
More info about monitors (whether it generates an alert, what's the severity, is the alert auto resolved)
More info about discoveries (how frequency does the discovery run)
MP Viewer 1.2
Trika Harms writes: I think these posts on the actual process of applying for and sitting your panel review for Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) are interesting. There is good reason that the MCA has such a great reputation--it is a pretty thorough process...
Richard was at Microsoft when he went through his early-days MCA process (he passed)
Congratulations to Natasha for passing her board! Read her advice.
Miha has a pretty funny story. Not funny ha-ha. More roundhouse-to-the-shins funny. On the MCA blog.
The Ranger programs (for database and messaging architecture) are another facet of MCA and part of our Microsoft Certification program. The Ranger director, Per, is going to talk about the program and process in our MCP meeting on Wednesday, another reason to attend:
meeting info.
I just came across a great new blog around System Center. The System Center team put up their team blog here:
Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog
This blog is still young and I know they will have some great information with the products currently in their launch schedules. There first post has a lot great resources take a look here:
Welcome to the official System Center blog from Brad Anderson
This feature is currently known as the “Database Mounting Tool” (DMT), which is better than the previous name of “Data Mining Tool”. Who knows what we’ll end up calling this at RTM, but I like the previous name “Snapshot Viewer” the best so this is what I entitled the post.
DMT allows you to quickly take snapshots of your AD database at any point in time and view those snapshots using the LDP viewer of your choice. At first I was extremely excited about this feature, but after realizing the command-line action you have to go through in order to do this (see below), it killed my buzz a little bit. If you compare this to automating ldifde/csvde backups of your AD, I can see these advantages to snapshots:
(more)
The Server Virtualization Management Pack provides enterprise-wide monitoring of Microsoft virtual environments. The Management Pack monitors the health and availability of virtual machines deployed on hosts running Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and the health and availability of the hosts. The Management Pack also monitors the components of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (VMM), including the VMM server, database server, hosts, library servers, and self-service portals, and provides reporting for VMM.
The Server Virtualization Management Pack provides the same comprehensive monitoring of hosts and virtual machines that is available through the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, and can be used by organizations that have not yet deployed Virtual Machine Manager.
Server Virtualization Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
Fellow MOM-MVP,
Cameron Fuller, has written a blogpost about Agentless monitoring:
"With all of the options available to monitor devices with OpsMgr 2007 why would you want to use Agentless monitoring? As a background, the recommended method to monitor Windows-based systems is by deploying the OpsMgr agent to the system. When an agent cannot be deployed to the system, your options include monitoring via SNMP, TCP Port, Ping, and third party vendor solutions (click here for background on monitoring network devices ) AND there is Agentless monitoring. So why use it? In what situations is Agentless monitoring the best available solution?
As Kerrie Meyler discusses in her article, I agree with her summary statement “For Operations Manager, agentless monitoring is recommended only when an agent-managed configuration is not possible.” I would recommend that you check out her article before reading through this." (more)
DNS provides the name resolution services required by Active Directory. The DNS server in Windows Server 2008 complies with the set of Requests for Comments (RFCs) that define and standardize the DNS protocol. Because the DNS Server service is RFC compliant and it can use standard DNS data file and resource record formats, it can work successfully with most other DNS server implementations, such as DNS implementations that use the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) software. The DNS Server service in Windows Server 2008 includes some new and enhanced features described below.
1. Background zone loading
A DNS server running Windows Server 2008 now loads zone data stored in AD DS in the background while it (re)starts, so that it can respond immediately to requests for data from other zones. Because the task of loading zones is performed by separate threads, the DNS server is able to respond to queries while zone loading is in progress. Let's have a look at the startup sequence:
(more)
Anders Bengtsson, a fellow MOM-MVP, writes: "In the ”Windows Client Operating System Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007″ you can read about monitoring Business Critical Clients. But even if you import this management pack, and add your business critical workstation to the “All Business Critical Windows Critical” group you will not get an alert when the workstation are unreachable for example disconnected from the network.
If you look at the “Computer Not Reachable” monitor you will see a default override that disable it for Computer Clients. The same thing for the “Health Service Heartbeat Failure” monitor. If you then add your workstation to the for example All Business Critical Windows Client/All Business Critical Windows XP Clients” group and then create a override that enable “Generates Alert” for the two monitors for this group, you will get an alert if they are unreachable."
Today sees the update of Windows Live Gallery, the online site where users can personalise their Windows Live experience. From a user's perspective the update adds the new Wave 2 UI, as well as a new area showcasing gadgets for Windows Live Events, not surprising given that Events runs as part of Spaces. The Gallery update adds much more for developers though, turning it into a true marketplace for developers to showcase their wares, and if they want to, receive payment for their efforts.
Gallery now uses the existing Microsoft Points system, which also power Zune and Xbox Live purchases. The addition of a points-based based payment methodto Windows Live has been talked about for a while, with confirmation that it would be included as part of the Windows Live developer platform being given at CES 2007. As well as potentially providing the impetus to galvanise independent Windows Live developers, integrating Microsoft Points potentially provides a further revenue stream for Microsoft, albeit maybe only a small one. Just as Facebook has Gifts, Microssft Points enables a similar scenario with Windows Live. Think Messenger content available to buy, with parents being able to give Microsoft Points gift cards, and not have to hand over their credit card.
(more)
PR sent out a link to
this slick new Windows Home Server Demo this afternoon. Nothing really notable about it (although I do want one)…except the demo is in Flash.
Microsoft has been pushing their alternative framework to Flash called
Silverlight since announcing it earlier this year, even going so far as to have a
new search user interface created that shows off some of the Silverlight features. Did the memo never get to the Windows Home Server team? Eat your own dogfood, or else no one else will.
Of course, everyone has Flash on their computer, and few have Silverlight installed. So what does Microsoft want more - Silverlight installations or sales of Windows Home Servers? I guess the answer is - servers.
Given that groups are used for role based security, overrides, reports, and some other features, it might be pretty interesting to know what groups is a particular computer member of. Attached is a sample script that dumps the list of groups that a particular computer is a member of.
Steps to run the script:
1 - Save the script file
2 - Open the OpsMgr command shell
3 - Run the following: C:\GetContainingGroups.ps1 -computerFQDN:'server1.contoso.com'
OpsMgr / Powershell: Computer Group Membership (.ps1)
The
DHCP Server Callout DLL helps to filter out DHCP requests based on MAC address. When a device or computer tries to connect to network, it first tries to obtain an IP address from the DHCP Server. The Callout DLL (read: hook-in DLL) also works and should continue to work on Windows Server 2008.
The DHCP Server Callout DLL checks if this device MAC address is present in known list (text file) of MAC addresses configured by administrators. If it is present, the device will be allowed to obtain an IP address or the device requests will be ignored based on the action configured by administrator.
MAC address based filtering will allow network administrators to ensure that only a know set of devices in the system are able get ip address from DHCP Server. This DLL will help administrators to enforce additional security into network. After installation, both the DLL (MacFilterCallout.dll) and the installation/configuration instructions (SetupDHCPMacFilter.rtf) are available under %windir%\system32.
Download here
Additional reading:
DHCP Team blog
Jason Langridge held a webcast yesterday evening on System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. After request, he posted them to the web. You can download them
here. It also contained some nice screenshots of the current build, still called "Codename Yona":
SC Mobile Device Manager: Screenshot #1
SC Mobile Device Manager: Screenshot #2
SC Mobile Device Manager: Screenshot #3
The presentation containes more screenshots and information. Check it out:
System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008
Good news for all you wannabe Groove adapts, this is your change. Microsoft has just published they new and all improved Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Client and Server E-Learning. So this is your change to build up to the Groove 2007 Exam 70-555 and go for that certification. The E-Learning consist of the following modules:
Collection 6452AE: Implementing Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007
Course 6453AE: Installing and Deploying Microsoft Office Groove 2007
Course 6454AE: Configuring and Administering Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007
Course 6455AE: Managing Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Accounts and Workspaces
Course 6456AE: Using Advanced Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Workspace Tools
Course 6457AE: Deploying Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Data Bridge and Disaster Recovery
Course 6458AE: Securing and Maintaining Microsoft Office Groove 2007
These courses can be accessed at
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/6452.mspx
Great news from Jeff on the
Virtualization team blog, here is a short summary you can get the full details from
here.
"The hypercall API enables partners to develop solutions with Windows Server virtualization allowing customers to achieve dynamic IT environments. These APIs are available for use by any organization seeking to integrate or extend their software with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server virtualization."
"Microsoft is taking a step further in its commitment to interoperability by extending the Open Specification Promise to the hypercall API within Windows Server virtualization. With the OSP, any individual or organization is free to implement, commercialize and modify Microsoft’s virtualization format technology for free, now and forever..."
Geert Baeke writes:
"Creating a failover cluster with iSCSI disks is quite simple but there is one thing you need to be sure of: support for persistent reservations by your iSCSI target. I tried to create a failover cluster with iSCSI disks served off an OpenFiler target but that did not work.
But how do you know it will not work? Well, the good thing is that Windows Server 2008 has a Cluster Validation tool that will tell you if your configuration is supported. Click the images below to see parts of the validation tool."
(more)
There was a webcast on the new System Center cerfications the other day. As you might know, the beta TS exam for Operations Manager 2007 (71-400) was held the past two weeks, but has now reached its limit. The public TS exam, called 70-400, will be live starting January 2nd 2008. In the webcast Microsoft outlined the new TS examens and the IT Pro certification. Thanks to
Alipka, here is the flowchart:
So, if you're in the System Center area of products, study for Operations Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007 the coming months. If you're going to IT Forum; be sure to attend the Configuration Manager sessions, as Barcelona will the official launch moment with many many in-depth technical sessions. The ConfigMgr Certification will be available in March 08, and beta in Jan 08.
(more)
In this article we will discuss “Starter GPOs”. With Starter GPOs you get the ability to save baseline templates to use when creating new Group Policy Objects (GPO). These templates can actually be exported to other domain environments, giving you enhanced flexibility.
Built into Windows Server 2008 is the new and shiny Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) version 2.0. The look and feel is pretty much like the older versions, but some nice features have been added.
As you probably know, Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista will uninstall the version of GPMC that comes as part of the operating system – leaving you without a tool to manage you domain GPOs… But don’t get too disappointed now: around the release of SP1 for Vista GPMC version 2.0 will be available as a separate download from the Microsoft website. (
continue at source)
SyncToy 2.0 Beta for Windows is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.
There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.
SyncToy v2.0 Beta |
SyncToy White Paper
"We are pleased to announce the RC1 release and new name for the fourth generation deployment Solution Accelerator, Microsoft Deployment. The current generation of automated deployment tools from Microsoft is increasingly unified; the same tools, utilities and products in many cases offer support and functionality for desktop and server deployment tasks. Following the trend of unified tools, the Business Desktop Deployment team has incorporated new functionality and guidance to support automated server deployment in addition to desktop deployment capabilities. This expanded feature set, with its guidance and ability to automate installation of Windows client and server operating systems – as well as applications – has effectively outgrown the current name, Business Desktop Deployment. Previous Beta releases have been using the code name “Deployment 4” to refer to Microsoft Deployment before the name was finalized.
(
continue at source)
There are new Virtual Machine Additions for Linux available for download. There key change to be aware of is the addition of support for SuSE Enterprise Linux 10. The official supported list is now:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (update 6)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (update 6)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Red Hat Linux 7.3
Red Hat Linux 9.0
SuSE Linux 9.2
SuSE Linux 9.3
SuSE Linux 10.0
The download is no longer on connect.microsoft.com and does not require any registration (yay!). You can easily download it from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bf12642f-77dc-4d45-ae4e-e1b05e0a2674&displaylang=en&tm. As always - this is only supported on Virtual Server - but should work just fine on Virtual PC.
Kurt Roggen writes:
"Easy Print" builds on the functionality provided by the XPS (XML Paper Specification) printer/driver infrastructure delivered with Windows Vista and also included in Windows Server 2008. XPS (XML Paper Specification) printing provides some extra advantages:
Public open document format
Portable and printer independent (incl. print server x86/x64 independent)
Flexible document properties handling
Lower bandwidth consumption
- For typical knowledge worker print jobs
- For print jobs with multiple copies
But what is the real advantage of this "Easy Print" ?
First of all, you no longer need to map the local client-side print driver with the exact Terminal Server-side print driver, which introduced some administrative overhead, and in some case (x64 Terminal Servers) would be blocking due to the absence of x64 print drivers.
(more)
Gmail is getting support for IMAP clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, and the iPhone. This means that Gmail users will no longer limited to the Gmail.com user interface or to the weak integration they can get from clients using the much more rudimentary POP email protocol.
There's no word on the official rollout schedule for IMAP support. Some users have it, some don't. I do. Don't ask me why. To see if you have support, click on the "Settings" link and then see if you have a "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
The Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 Operating System Management Pack has been updated to include an OpsMgr07 specific MP Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3529d233-5e3e-4b51-8f66-5d6f27005ec3&DisplayLang=en
The version of the MP itself has not changed.
Microsoft has announced the next component of System Center, the
System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. When it's released (look for it in Q2 of 2008) it will allow IT departments to enhance security by enforcing company and departmental policies across a wide variety of Windows Mobile phones. Features will include:
The ability to restrict the use of Bluetooth, SMS/MMS, WLAN, Infrared, POP/IMAP e-mail, as well as camera functionality
The ability to restrict which applications will run on your devices
Encryption of files
Remote wipe of lost or stolen phones
Software and firmware deployment, based on WSUS 3.0
Device Inventory and reporting
Not to mention behind-the-firewall access to documents through a mobile VPN feature. All in all, it looks to be a solid offering. Phones will require Windows Mobile 6.1, which isn't available yet, but will be out by the time SCMDM2008 (sheesh, these product names are getting long) ships.
The Microsoft Windows Domain Name System 2000, 2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 has been has been updated to include an OpsMgr07 specific MP Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=633b718f-5fe8-47d5-a395-8203f8ec354f&DisplayLang=en
The version of the MP itself has not changed.
Microsoft has announced that support for the F# functional programming language will be fully integrated into Visual Studio. This marks a bold new commitment to facilitating functional programming on the .NET platform and could potentially help legitimize functional programming in enterprise environments. Microsoft’s promotion of F# to a fully-supported language in Visual Studio is also indicative of the extreme versatility of the .NET platform and Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime.
F# began its life as a Microsoft Research project to demonstrate the efficacy of .NET as a platform for mixing multiple distinct programming paradigms. F# is heavily inspired by the OCaml programming language, and a subset of F# and OCaml are largely compatible. F# offers developers many valuable and compelling features without sacrificing much runtime efficiency. F# supports type inference, pattern matching, high-order functions, and currying. F# also supports interactive execution, which means that F# programs can be run like scripts or inputted in an interactive top-level environment similar to the Python shell or Ruby’s IRB. F# also has full access to the .NET APIs and components written in other .NET languages.
(more)
We are pleased to announce the release of the remaining 19 languages packs for Windows Vista Ultimate. This Ultimate Extras release brings the total number of language packs for use with Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) to 35. Windows Vista Ultimate enables users install multiple languages on their system and quickly switch between them by associating a system language with their login name.
MUI is particularly useful in multilingual homes where multiple people use a single computer and choose different languages for their primary use. People who wish to learn a new language will also find MUI to be a particularly useful feature. We are aware of a very large number of customers who have purchased Ultimate for this feature specifically and are gratified that these customers can now realize the full benefit of Windows Vista Ultimate.
(more)
What is the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription?
The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) is a quarterly update for Microsoft Partners that allows access to new software releases and updated sales and marketing resources to stay competitive and ahead in your marketplace. MAPS costs £199 +VAT per year and contains things like licenses of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 - which come in handy when running your business.
What are the changes?
A new online training and assessment requirement will go into effect 30 November 2007. New and renewing subscribers will be required to take any Microsoft E-Learning course and then pass its associated assessment with a minimum score of 70 per cent. To continue receiving your Microsoft Action Pack Subscription, you will be required to pass an assessment every two years. For more information on these changes check out the Partner Portal for more information.
Do you have questions or feedback on this?
If you have any questions or feedback on this decision please let me know, I am going to be doing a Partner-TV interview on the subject with a UK expert in the next couple of days and I'll get your questions answered.
Well, It doesn't appear that Microsoft will be
taking direct aim at the iPhone on Tuesday. Rather, the software maker is playing to its strengths, announcing a new piece of server software to help businesses manage a company's worth of smartphones. That doesn't mean Microsoft isn't interested in say, adding a full Web browser into Windows Mobile, according to Scott Horn, a general manager in Microsoft's mobile device unit.
"Do I see a path where we are going to have a phenomenal browsing experience," Horn said. "Yes, I do."
But the bulk of Microsoft's announcements for Tuesday focus on the company's enterprise strengths. The company is announcing a new product, known as System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 and noting that it is providing start-up funds for Enterprise Mobile, a new Boston-based service provider that will help companies manage the process of doling out smartphones to large workforces.
(more)
On monday November 12th, Barcelona will be filled with more than 5000 people, attending Microsoft's flagship event for IT Professionals in Europe: TechEd ITForum. The 2007 edition was sold out way in advanced and based on the session content, promises to be a very exciting week. From monday through friday, IT professionals can get technical in-depth content ranging from Windows Server 2008 to System Center.
The
Techlog team will also be attending the conference with three people! Maarten will be an Ask The Expert at the Sytem Center booths during the week and covering the session content. Kenneth and Aad will be reporting live from the Keynote and delivering you the latest content and scoops. Like every year and every conference, Techlog will also provide you with photos from the event!
Want to get in the mood? Check out the pre-conference videos here:
http://www.mseventseurope.com/teched/07/itforum/news/Pages/PreInterviews.aspx or check out Daniel and Tony (also from The Netherlands) in their preview movie, as they will be the hosts for this year's Virtual Teched:
http://www.mseventseurope.com/Downloads/Teched/07/LiveITF/ITF_Hosts.asx.
Barcelona will be the official launch event for the three new System Center products; Virtual Machine Manager 2007, Data Protection Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007. Ofcourse we will try to get you the latest news on SQL 2008. Windows Server 2008, Windows Server Virtualization and other infrastructure products. We love to hear from you, so join us in Spain for a great week!
Brad Rutkowski writes: "I've been seeing a lot of churn internally and externally about installing a role on a server core machine and then trying to connect to it remotely only to find that the remote server core machine won't allow you to connect.
Remote Management:
To allow remote management of a server core machine run this locally on the box:
C:\>netsh advfirewall set currentprofile settings remotemanagement enable
After which point the firewall should allow all your remote admin tools to connect (computer management and DNS snap-in for example).
(more)
Instead of trying to hunt down the docs you need, follow the link and download the services you will be deploying. Get them while their hot!
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=518d870c-fa3e-4f6a-97f5-acaf31de6dce&DisplayLang=en
Creating and Deploying Active Directory Rights Management Services Templates Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Deploying Active Directory Rights Management Services in an Extranet Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Deploying Active Directory Rights Management Services with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Step-By-Step Guide.doc
Deploying SSTP Remote Access Step by Step Guide.doc
Server Core Installation Option of Windows Server Longhorn Step-By-Step Guide.doc
Server Manager Scenarios Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node File Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server Longhorn.doc
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node Print Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server Longhorn.doc
Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2008.doc
Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying Policies for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.doc
Using Identity Federation with Active Directory Rights Management Services Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Certificate Services Step-By-Step Guide.doc
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Terminal Services RemoteApp Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Windows Server 2008 RC0 TS Session Broker Load Balancing Step-By-Step Guide.doc
Windows Server Active Directory Rights Management Services Step-by-Step Guide.doc
Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 Release TS Gateway Server Step-By-Step Setup Guide.doc
Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 Release TS Licensing Step-By-Step Setup Guide.doc
The OpsMgr product team writes:
"I recently started owning performance and scale for OpsMgr and it is definitely one of the most interesting and challenging areas I have ever worked on. I know the first question that is popping up in most of your minds is why is console performance so darn slow in OpsMgr 2007? There are various reasons for this which I will divulge at another time but the one thing I will assure you is that the console performance with Service Pack 1 is a lot faster (Geo Metro to BMW M3 faster, if that is a valid comparison).
But I wanted to dedicate today’s blog to talk about the network bandwidth utilization as it seems to be a question a lot of customers have been asking. There are essentially three sections to discuss a) Agent to Root Management Servers\ Management Server\ Gateway Server b) Root Management Server\MS to Database c) Audit Forwarders to Audit Collectors." (more)
The new white paper "Managing Virtual Server Host Clustering using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007" is available in the download center at:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/2/8/32849b7a-4f69-4c20-a988-333d954b3500/VMMandVSHostClustering_final.doc.
"This document provides an introduction to the methods and concepts that Information Technology (IT) professionals can use to manage Virtual Server clustered hosts using VMM. Virtual Server host clustering allows you to use a small number of physical servers to provide a wide variety of services, while maintaining the availability of the services that you provide. If a physical host server requires scheduled or unscheduled downtime, another host server is able to quickly begin supporting services. "
The paper also includes an updated Havm.vbs script you cna use to ensure that in a Virtual Server host cluster managed by Virtual Machine Manager, the virtual machines function correctly when a command is issued from the VMM Administrator Console or from the Cluster Administrator snap-in. The script is configured as a Generic Script resource in the cluster.
NOTE: use the updated script from Appendix A in this document instead of the Havm.vbs script included in the Virtual Server Host Clustering Step-by-Step Guide for Virtual Server 2005 R2. The updated script in Appendix A already contains the correct variables for usage with VMM.
The Office Communication Server 2007 for MOM 2005 has been released. The Office Communications Server 2007 Management Pack for MOM 2005 monitors the health of computers running Office Communications Server 2007 on Windows Server 2003 and alerts IT administrators about critical health conditions that indicate degraded performance. The management pack monitors and provides alerts for:
Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
Performance degradation
Health monitoring
Centralized management
The management pack monitors and provides alerts for:
Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
Performance degradation
Health monitoring
Centralized management
Office Communication Server 2007 MP for MOM 2005
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TMSAM03
This is a pretty neat video of Eric Traut from Microsoft talking about virtualization. He gave this speech for the Association for Computing Machinery at the University of Illinois. In the video he's demoing also a super stripped down version of Windows 7. Apparently Windows 7 will scale to 256 core machines.
Eric Traut from Microsoft about virtualization
The Terminal Services Easy Print driver is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 that enables users to reliably print from a RemoteApp (remote/published application) or from a terminal server desktop session to the correct printer on their client computer. It also enables users to have a much more consistent printing experience between local and remote sessions. By default, the Terminal Services Easy Print driver is enabled in Windows Server 2008.
But what is "TS Easy Print" actually?
"TS Easy Print is a proxy for every print action that simply redirects all printing-related work to the user's local machine without the need to install any print drivers on the Terminal Server. This system provides several benefits, such as being able to redirect any printer from the user's client machine without having to reconfigure the server while still allowing the user to configure the print job as though he were printing on his client machine."
What are the client/server requirements?
On the (Terminal) server-side, Windows Server 2008 needs to be installed. No additional drivers need to be installed; no additional configuration needs to take place. The Terminal Services Easy Print driver is enabled by default.
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While Active Directory created a great deal more flexibility in terms of supporting a large or decentralized environment, it also generated new challenges for maintaining the integrity of directory data. When two admins on opposite ends of your organization make conflicting changes, how do you reconcile those changes?
In the
October issue of TechNet Magazine, Laura E. Hunter explains the
Active Directory replication model, how updates are communicated to all domain controllers within an environment, and best practices for handling any conflicts that arise as a result of this multi-master ability to make changes from practically anywhere.
You can find additional Active Directory content in our
TechNet Magazine archives, and subscribe to the
RSS feed for notice of new Active Directory articles or columns.
Don't forget to check out the many
Active Directory resources available through the TechNet Windows Server TechCenter as well.
We get questions about ports all the time so I thought I would send a heads up on this. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a distributed client/server system and as such, the distributed nature of Configuration Manager 2007 means that connections can be established between site servers, site systems and clients. Some connections use ports that are not configurable, and some use ports that can be customized. You must verify that the required ports are available if you use any port filtering technology such as firewalls, routers, proxy servers, and IPsec.
To continue this article click here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632618.aspx
Now that we are aware of the internals of syslog module, internals of managed discovery data mapper module, this blog-post aims at providing an example of how various modules in OM 2007 can be connected, configured and leveraged for various purposes.
Let us define the health of a host such that any syslog message generated by it with a severity less than 4 indicates something bad. So, how do we make this happen in OM 2007? We would first need a managed type. So, lets define that:
[ClassType ID="Demo.Syslog.IP" Accessibility="Public" Base="System!System.LogicalEntity" Hosted="false" Abstract="false"]
[Property ID="IP" Type="string" Key="true" CaseSensitive="false" /]
[/ClassType]
Now, that we have this managed type, we need a discovery rule to submit various discovery instances of it. Let's add that to our demo MP too.
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Management Servers
The management server (MS) role has not changed significantly from previous versions of Operations Manager (OpsMgr). An MS is still responsible for receiving data from agents, and forwarding that data along to the relevant locations. For more information on the management server role, refer to the OpsMgr 2007 deployment and design guides. There are a few relevant points that are worth making, which might not be readily apparent from the documentation:
1. Management servers write their data directly to the OpsDB, as well as directly to the data warehouse if it has been installed in the management group. They do this via direct SQL connections (1433/tcp by default) for both DBs.
2. Management servers communicate with the root management server over the standard agent communication channel (5723/tcp by default).
3. It used to be that in some larger MOM 2005 infrastructures multiple management servers were deployed due to the need to use diverse action accounts. With OpsMgr 2007 the association with action accounts is no longer strictly at a server level, and therefore the number of management servers deployed can be based strictly on scale, and redundancy requirements.
Gateways
The gateway server role is something that is completely new with OpsMgr 2007. In effect a gateway server acts as a proxy for agent communication between a group of agents and one or more management servers which do not have a full trust between them. Again we’ll defer to the OpsMgr 2007 deployment and design guides for the details of this role, but simply stated gateway serves should be used to bridge a gap where a two way trust doesn’t exist between a group of agents and one or more management servers. A few additional points to make on the gateway server role:
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During the London roadshow, a gentleman came up to me and asked about a solution to allow CAD designers to synchronize jobs across two branch offices. Basically his problem was that the ADSL connection between the offices was too slow to easily transfer large CAD files back at forth. Another problem was that multiple designers on one project caused a huge versioning problem, meaning at any given point designers were not confident that they were working on the latest version of the file.
This individual was asking if a SharePoint environment would allow for synchronization and better collaboration. My response to him was, "yes, but it depends on what functionality you want and how much you want to spend." If this was the Microsoft of the old days, I would have stated the monumental productivity benefits he could realize with deploying a $20,000 SharePoint environment; instead I took on the role of a trusted advisor and gave him phased approach to addressing multiple issues.
It would have been too easy to say "well you need a faster Internet connection which should then be linked by
two ISA servers, and then you need to deploy
MOSS 2007 so that you can have a secure central repository where you can check-in and check-out project files." *gasping for air* Instead, I drilled down to the exact business problem he was trying to solve using a Microsoft technique called Precision Questioning (PQ). Here is what I asked him:
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Anders Bengtsson, a fellow MOM-MVP, writes: "I couple of days ago I posted about ACS and failover. As I wrote there is no failover back to the first ACS collector. If your ACS forwarder failover to a second ACS collector your will have your ACS forwarder data in two databases, as there is a one-to-one relationship between ACS databases and ACS collectors. That will lead to a lot of extra work for you.
I have wrote a simple script to show you one way to get the ACS forwarder to return to the first ACS collector in the list. This script gets the ACS collector settings from the registry, then it test if it can ping the first ACS collector, and if it can, it will restart the ACS forwarder service. That will make the ACS forwarder return to the first ACS collector. If it cant ping the server, it will wait some time and then try again.
Even if your ACS forwarder will start send data to the second ACS collector as soon as your first ACS collector is back online your ACS forwarder will return and you will hopefully not have that much data in the second database. You can setup a rule to trigger on event ID 4368 from Source AdtAgent in the Application log. The description should also include the name of your second ACS collector. Make the rule run the script as a response.
ACS Failover Script
Some discoveries in the management packs that ship with OpsMgr are disabled out of the box. One of the reasons is that not everyone might be interested in monitoring certain components. The easiest way to prevent a particular component from being monitored is disable the discovery for it. If OpsMgr cant discover something, it will not execute any rules or monitors which will result in no alerts/performance data/events. If you are interested in seeing what discoveries are disabled by default, here is a simple powershell script that should shed some light on what discoveries are disabled by default:
$mg = (Get-ManagementGroupConnection).ManagementGroup
$discoveries = $mg.GetMonitoringDiscoveries() | where {$_.Enabled -eq 'false'}
$discoveries | select-object DisplayName, @{name="MP";expression={foreach-object {($_.GetManagementPack()).DisplayName}}} | Sort DisplayName | ft
To run the script, open up the OpsMgr command shell and paste in the script. The output will be a table with the names of the discoveries and the management packs in which they are defined. If you decide to enable some of the disabled discoveries, you will need to create an override since the management packs are sealed and you cannot modify them directly.
This article describes how to use diagnostic tracing in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and in Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007. Important We recommend that you perform diagnostic tracing only in association with a Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) representative. We recommend this because the generated traces contain no human-readable text. After the traces are converted by a Microsoft CSS representative, human-readable text is available. However, this text contains only low-level information such as source-code file names, locations, source-code functions, and return codes. This information may be helpful if you have to troubleshoot a complex issue.
MORE INFORMATION
System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 implement a diagnostic tracing method that differs from earlier versions of Microsoft Operations Manager. This new tracing method creates binary files in which to store tracing information. Because this new tracing method is implemented at the Windows kernel level, it is highly efficient, and it can log tens of thousands of trace messages per second. Trace information contains information about the context of a text-based trace message. However, this trace information is not in a human-readable format. The traces must be sent to Microsoft CSS for conversion. This article discusses the tools that are available to start and to stop tracing if you are asked to do this by a Microsoft CSS representative.
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KB942864 - How to use diagnostic tracing in SCOM 2007 and SCE
Boris Yanushpolsky writes: "One thing I realized after the last blog post about dumping the contents of a management pack is that in many cases it’s very useful to know what's inside a management pack before you import it.
So I put together a small utility to display the following contents of a management pack: Rules, Monitors, Views, Tasks, Console Tasks, and Reports. At the bottom of the window it will also show you the knowledge associated with the particular management pack item. The only requirement is that you have the OpsMgr console installed on the same computer."
Management Pack Viewer
Generic performance reports are ones of the most powerful generic reports in SCOM 2007. I like to start from "Performance Top Objects" and "Performance Top Instances" reports. They are the easiest and creating linked reports for them could be quite useful in case where you like to simplify customer experience in searching for objects or instances that are "on top" for a specific performance rule. In most cases the way to simplify the experience is to hard-code the rule in the linked report so the customers won't need to search for it.
If you haven't done this already I highly recommend reading "Linked availability reports" and "Linked reports" posts before continue. They cover some theory behind linked reports authoring. Reading "Report parameters block" and "Report parameter controls" could also be useful in understanding RPDL part of the story.
RuleId, SortOrder and TopCount are parameters that are customizable for "Performance Top" reports. "Performance Top Objects" report also has an additional RuleInstance parameter. This parameter is not valid for "Performance Top Instance" report since the rule instance is the result of the report rather then a filter.
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Justin Zarb has all the info, more in his post and a snippet is below:
A virtualized computing environment can improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources. Windows Server virtualization enables you to create a virtualized server computing environment using a technology that is part of Windows Server 2008. The Infrastructure Planning and Design Series: Windows Server Virtualization guide discusses Microsoft virtualization options using Windows Server virtualization in Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. The guide explains design considerations at critical decision points and helps with plans for an optimized server virtualization architecture to meet organizational goals for performance and consolidation.
To join visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (
http://connect.microsoft.com) using invitation ID is:
IPDM-QX6H-7TTV
When we started working on this product, we tried to wrap our heads around what it really means to provide a "VM Management Solution". A great way to figure it out is to spend a few days doing the work of a Windows Server admin and walk a mile in their shoes. We went out on the road to work with customers and here's what we found they spent most of their time doing:
Managing/configuring host computers to run Virtual Server
Managing images (that includes VHDs, ISOs, scripts, templates...the list goes on)
Configuring Virtual Machines
Converting physical machines into virtual machines
Figuring out which physical host to run the VM on (Excel spreadsheets were used here...Excel is great but there had to be a better way)
Monitoring, Patching and Backing up their VMs and hosts
Automating and scripting all of the above
After returning to Redmond, we decided to assign a group of engineers to focus specifically on each of these areas of management with one goal - drive down the pain and cost associated with all of these tasks so people can get more real work done. Over the next few posts I'll walk you through some of the details on each of these areas, how VMM helps you out and what you can expect moving forward. Lets start with host management.
After firing up the VMM UI for the first time, the first thing you typically do is add a host or two to manage. Sometimes you're just adding 1, other times you're importing a large chunk of an existing environment. There are several ways we made this easier:
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Today Jalasoft has made Xian Network Manager Io SP1 available for download at its website.
The stability of the Xian Io product has been improved, several enhancements have been made and the following management packs are now in a RTM state.
IBM AIX
VMware VirtualCenter
The download is directly available at the Jalasoft website:
www.jalasoft.com
Most Common Events in an Operational Database:
SELECT
CONVERT(char(10), TimeGenerated, 101) AS "Events Date (by Day)"
, COUNT(*) AS "Number of Events"
FROM EventView
GROUP BY CONVERT(char(10), TimeGenerated, 101)
ORDER BY "Events Date (by Day)" DESC
SELECT
Number
, COUNT(*) AS "Number of Events"
FROM EventView
GROUP BY Number
ORDER BY "Number of Events" DESC
Continue to the original article..
The ADMX Migrator enables you to convert ADM files to the ADMX format and take advantage of the additional capabilities that it provides. The new XML-based format includes multilanguage support, an optional centralized datastore and version control capabilities.
You can select multiple ADM files for conversion. The ADMX Migrator creates a unique namespace which you can rename and will display a warning if a collision is detected due to duplicate names. Also, any items that cannot be validated against the ADMX schema are preserved in an Unsupported section. Please note that any annotations in ADM files are removed during the conversion process.
Additionally, the ADMX Migrator provides an ADMX editor with a graphical user interface for creating and editing Administrative Templates. You can select settings from menus rather than entering them manually in a text file, speeding template creation and reducing the chance for error.
Download here
One of the most expected guides has been released, the guide to deploy SCOM 2007 in HMC 4.0. Be one of the first ones to update your MOM 2005 infrastructure in HMC 4.0 by following the details mentioned in this guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessagingscomupdate.mspx
There you'll find:
A white paper that provides a feature overview and guidelines on deploying the Operations Manager 2007 update in an HMC 4.0 environment
An updated Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) management pack.
In case you are new to HMC 4.0, you can get more information on the solution from the following site:
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessaging.mspx
SSTP or Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol is a new type of VPN connection that uses port 443. SSTP is part of Windows Server 2008 RRAS (Routing and Remote Access). On the client side, you need Vista SP1.
The setup is very simple. Just setup RRAS on Windows Server 2008 and follow the wizard. When you setup the VPN, ports will be created for PPTP, L2TP and SSTP:
The RRAS wizard does not help you with the required certificate. It does not matter how you get the certificate (online CA, public CA, ...) but you need to make sure you store the certificate in the Computer store (Personal):
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When creating a Windows Performance Counter unit monitor, you might want to include in the alert description four pretty important pieces of information: Performance Object Name, Counter Name, Instance Name, Counter Value. Here are the expression that you need to use in order to include this info in the alert description:
Counter Value - $Data/Context/Value$
Performance Object Name - $Data/Context/ObjectName$
Performance Counter Name - $Data/Context/CounterName$
Performance Instance Name - $Data/Context/InstanceName$
If you’ve been in the work force for 20 years or more, you can remember a time when the pace of business—and life in general—was quite a bit slower than it is today. Back then we read newspapers and magazines and watched the network news to stay informed. Faxes were just becoming a common way to share written business information. A phone call might elicit a busy signal or no one would answer at all. In those days, no one expected to send documents to coworkers on the other side of the globe instantly, collaborate in real-time with colleagues in distant cities, or share photographs the very day they were taken.
These and similar advances have delivered remarkable results. The ability to access and share information instantly and communicate in ways that transcend the boundaries of time and distance has given rise to an era of unprecedented productivity and innovation that has created new economic opportunities for hundreds of millions of people around the world and paved the way for global economic growth that is unparalleled in human history.
But few people would argue that there is no room for improvement. Although we have once-unimaginable access to people and information, we struggle today to keep track of emails and phone calls across multiple inboxes, devices, and phone numbers; to remember a growing number of passwords; and to synchronize contacts, appointments, and data between desktop PCs and mobile devices. The fact is that the proliferation of communications options has become a burden that often makes it more difficult to reach people than it used to be, rather than easier.
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Yesterday 16th of October 2007, Microsoft launched the next wave of Microsoft Unified Communications products AND services, including Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, and Office Live Meeting 2007, as Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes took the stage to keynote the Worldwide Kickoff Event in San Francisco.
MAY I INVITE you to Watch the Keynote RECORDING from the Worldwide Kickoff Event
We encourage you to view the keynote recording (1h 22 min) internally as soon as you can and tell our value story
750k : http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/10162007_750k.asx
300k : http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/10162007_300k.asx
From Microsoft PressPass you find
Feature Story “Partners Rally Around Microsoft Unified Communications Software
Press Release: Microsoft Launches Next Wave of Business Communications Software
Executive E-mail: Bill Gates on the Age of Software-Powered Communications
Microsoft Unified Communications Virtual Pressroom
GARTNER'S MAGIC QUADRANT FOR UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
Gartner's newest UCMQ shows Microsoft strongly positioned in the "Leaders" quadrant, while Cisco has slipped from its 2006 "Leader" position into the "Challengers" quadrant for 2007.
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/article3/article3.html
Microsoft PowerShell is a new admin-focused command line and scripting language developed by Microsoft to let administrators work more efficiently with applications running on the Windows Platform. PowerShell is rapidly gaining attention because of its extensive use in Microsoft Exchange 2007 and because of its simple to use syntax and command line automation features that are easy for day-to-day administrators to use.
The ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory is a set of PowerShell commands (CMDLETs) that can be downloaded and used for free to perform administrative tasks within Active Directory.
John Howard:
Following on from my post last week, I had some good questions asking about the difference between the SCSI adapter in Virtual Server and the SCSI controller in Windows Server virtualization. In Virtual Server 2005, the best practice is to configure Virtual Machines to boot from the SCSI adapter for performance reasons. This is not the case in Windows Server virtualization. This post takes a dip into explaining why.
(
Continue at source)
Specops Password Policy Basic is used to configure fine-grained password policies in Windows Server 2008. Specops Password Policy Basic is a feature limited and free version of Specops Password Policy.
Fine-grained password policies is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 that can be used to specify multiple password policies and apply different password restrictions and account lockout policies to different sets of users within a single domain. Password policies apply only to user objects (or inetOrgPerson objects if they are used instead of user objects) and global security groups. Fine-grained password policy cannot be applied to an organizational unit (OU) directly.
A Password Settings object (PSO) has attributes for all the settings that can be defined in the Default Domain Policy (except Kerberos settings). A user or group object can have multiple PSOs linked to it, either because of membership in multiple groups that each have different PSOs applied to them or because multiple PSOs are applied to the object directly. However, only one PSO can be applied as the effective password policy. Only the settings from that PSO can affect the user or group. The settings from other PSOs that are linked to the user or group cannot be merged in any way.
Direct download link
Exception:
Application: System Center Operations Manager 2007
Application Version: 6.0.5000.0
Severity: Error
Message: Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Common.ObjectNotFoundException: Requested object(s) not found. at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.DataAbstractionLayer.SdkDataAbstractionLayer.HandleIndigoExceptions(Exception ex) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.DataAbstractionLayer.InstanceSpaceOperations.GetMonitoringObjectByMonitoringObjectIds(List`1 monitoringObjectIds, String languageCode, MonitoringObjectMode monitoringObjectMode) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ManagementGroup.GetPartialMonitoringObjects(ICollection`1 ids) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Internal.UI.Administration.RunAsProfile.ProfileAccounts.<>c__DisplayClass1.b__0(Object, ConsoleJobEventArgs ) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Internal.UI.Console.ConsoleJobExceptionHandler.ExecuteJob(IComponent jobOwner, EventHandler`1 job, Object sender, ConsoleJobEventArgs args)
If you encounter an ObjectNotFoundException in the UI when trying to browse run as profiles or accounts, the issue is an incorrect SQL query being used. It is fixed in SP1, but in the meantime, you can also fix the issue by running the following query against the SCOM database and then restarting the SDK service:
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Since the boot.ini file no longer exists in Windows 2008, the way to boot into directory service repair mode has changed. You can setup the OS to boot to DSRM a couple of ways as shown below. I'd also mention that to due offline defrags and other NTDSUTIL commands against the database you can now just stop NTDS from the services.msc snap-in. So the main reason to get into DSRM now would be to do an auth-restore of an object.
GUI:
Type MSCONFIG in the start men and go the the boot tab.
CMD prompt:
C:\Users\Administrator.BRAD-DC-04>bcdedit /set safeboot dsrepair
The operation completed successfully.
To restart the server normally, type the following command:
C:\Users\Administrator.BRAD-DC-04>bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot
The operation completed successfully.
Michael Kleef writes: "Brian Tucker's at it again. He's gone
SCCM 2007 mad! He's done a blogcast...actually lots of blogcasts (Yes
Keith there are others that call them blogcasts aside from me).
He's done a massive
all up start to finish guide on getting going with SCCM 2007. Kinda like
my guide but much more visual and better! I'm glad he's done this as my old work colleague, Darren who now works at Phillips Oil wanted me to come and show him all about it...now I don't have to!"
We get questions about ports all the time so I thought I would send a heads up on this. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a distributed client/server system and as such, the distributed nature of Configuration Manager 2007 means that connections can be established between site servers, site systems and clients. Some connections use ports that are not configurable, and some use ports that can be customized. You must verify that the required ports are available if you use any port filtering technology such as firewalls, routers, proxy servers, and IPsec.
To continue this article click here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632618.aspx
Some customers have asked how they can obtain a certificate for use with Operations Manager 2007 when are using a Certificate Authority (CA) other than Certificate Services on Windows Server. Use the template below:
[Version]
Signature= "$Windows NT$"
[NewRequest]
Subject = "CN=
agent.contoso.com"
KeySpec=1
KeyLength = 1024
KeyUsage = 0xa0
ProviderName = "Microsoft RSA Schannel Cryptographic Provider"
ProviderType = 12
RequestType = PKCS10
Exportable = TRUE
MachineKeySet = TRUE
UseExistingKeySet = FALSE
[EnhancedKeyUsageExtension]
OID = 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1
OID = 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2
Microsoft have released a few updates on the Microsoft Download Center to resolve various issues in Vista and Server 2008:
Vista:
-
KB941229 (x86) (x64): This update addresses issues with Media Center for Microsoft Vista.
-
KB941651 (x86) (x64): This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista in certain scenarios.
-
KB941600 (x86) (x64): This update resolves some reliability issues in the USB core components on the Windows Vista operating system.
-
KB941649 (x86) (x64): This update resolves some compatibility and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better reliability and hardware compatibility in various scenarios.
Server 2008:
-
KB942239 (x86) (x64) (IA64): Install this update for Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 to provide the same storage upgrade support that is included with Windows Server 2008 RC0.
With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can read your Active Directory structure through Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool automates Microft Office Visio to draw a diagram of the Active Directory Domain topology, your Active Directory Site topology, your OU structure or your current Exchange 200X Server Organization.
With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can also draw partial Information from your Active Directory, like only one Domain or one site. The objects are linked together, and arranged in a reasonable layout that you can later interactively work withthe objects in Microsoft Office Visio.
Download the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer
Microsoft Active Directory uses the Schema to represent the classes, attributes and objects that are used to display what you can see in the GUI of the Active Directory Users and Computers Snap In or other Snap Ins. The schema is part of the Schema partition in Active Directory and the Schema partition will be replicated through all Active Directory domain controllers in the Forest.
Because Active Directory schema changes are an important part of a healthy Active Directory environment, only members of the Schema Administrators and Enterprise Administrator groups have the right to extend and manage the Active Directory schema.(
continue at source)
Under restricted user account on Vista, you may get write successful when writing to the program files folder. These files get virtualized to a different folder, so that old applications continue to run on Vista.
When you actually go to “Program Files” in a Windows Explorer and see there will be no files there.
The file was redirected to the users’ folder. The virtualized directory is a hidden folder, to expose this view go to Organize: Folder options, from a Windows Explorer and then on the view menu, click “Show Hidden Files and Folders”.
Then go to c:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\ and see that the files are created there. This is just a mitigation and not a feature of Vista.
Home vs Work vs Public? Ever wondered what happens when you choose one of these selections the first time you connect to a new network?
Vista is clever. We all know that. In this case, Vista has the ability to automatically configure security and other settings based on the type of network to which the computer is connected. This new feature makes computing more secure and easier for users because they no longer have to be aware of the type of network that they are connected to and configure security settings to prevent unwanted access. A related feature for developers makes it easier to enhance applications by automatically adjusting settings and behaviors for changes in network conditions and for different network types.
The use of the icons, along with a useful description means that even the most non-IT savvy people among us can make an informed decision and choose the setting that is correct for their current situation.(
continue at source)
