Config Manager

Do you know ConfigMgr and OpsMgr?  Microsoft is hiring.

Premier Field Engineers at Microsoft

We are looking for a SCOM/SCCM PFE and a SPS Dev PFE in New York, NY as well as a Platforms PFE in Bentonville, AR and Dearborn, MI.. Know anyone interested, please ping Dana Whitley (dminshew@microsoft.com)

You can bet the PFE in AR is going to be working at Wal-Mart.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

erbium doped fiberhttp://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

MMS 2009 – Live Keynote Webcasts

This year the MMS 2009 Keynotes on Tuesday and Wednesday are being webcast live on the Internet. The keynotes may be viewed live at 8:30am PDT each day via this page: IT Infrastructure Software Spotlight.

These presentations may also be viewed offline at a later time via the same page.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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1E released a new white paper written by Ian Godfrey last week entitled Remote Management of BIOS Configuration, which is centered around configuring Wake-on-LAN but the concepts and tools can be used to manipulate other BIOS settings as well. 

This paper covers a number of different hardware vendors and how to remotely configure the BIOS, something that is not standard across the hardware vendors.  It includes links to different tools, ConfigMgr integration, scripts, tips, troubleshooting, and a very in depth explanation of WOL.  If you are having trouble getting some computers to wake up when they are sent a magic packet or you need to learn how to remote administer the BIOS without touching each computer this is a must read.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

1E released a new white paper written by Ian Godfrey last week entitled Remote Management of BIOS Configuration, which is centered around configuring Wake-on-LAN but the concepts and tools can be used to manipulate other BIOS settings as well. 

This paper covers a number of different hardware vendors and how to remotely configure the BIOS, something that is not standard across the hardware vendors.  It includes links to different tools, ConfigMgr integration, scripts, tips, troubleshooting, and a very in depth explanation of WOL.  If you are having trouble getting some computers to wake up when they are sent a magic packet or you need to learn how to remote administer the BIOS without touching each computer this is a must read.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Right before Christmas 1E released its first free tool for ConfigMgr admins in a while called Service Window.  This tool will allow you to edit, delete, add and view maintenance windows for ConfigMgr clients.  You can run the app on the client machine or by specifying the remote computer you want to examine. 

Here is the app running on my laptop where you can see there are currently no Maintenance Windows defined, so essentially my laptop will run an mandatory advertisement or task sequence at any time.

If I want to add a new maintenance window I click the button with the “+” key on it.

This opens another window to configure and set the maintenance window.

As you can see I can define the start and stop time of the maintenance window, the date it begins, if it reoccurs, what type of reoccurrence, and on which day it reoccurs.  There is also a checkbox at the bottom of the window that allows you specify that the maintenance window only applies to an OSD task sequence.

I am going to use the defaults just to create the window.  If you are following along you should be back in the main window with the new maintenance window defined like this.

If I select the maintenance window I get the two other options to view the selected maintenance window and edit it, and also the delete button which will delete the maintenance window selected.

At the bottom of the main window is also a view button that will open a window that displays the maintenance windows in a graphical format such as below.

You can switch the view to show a week at a time or just today as well.

One of the best options is the ability to delete a maintenance window, if you are testing a client this tool makes testing maintenance windows easy and extremely quick, you do not have to wait for you clients to get the policy to define, modify, add or delete a maintenance window.

1E has plans to develop a number of free tools for ConfigMgr moving forward, if you have any ideas for tools or have any feedback on this one send me an email.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

I got a really good question today on maintenance windows and patching and how they can or cannot work together.  Specifically if you had a maintenance window defined, but told the patches to install ignoring the maintenance window but suppress the reboots until the maintenance window will it install the updates and hold off on rebooting the clients until the maintenance window?

First let’s go over defining maintenance windows.

Assuming you already have a collection of computers built that you will apply the maintenance window to right click on that collection of computers (never users for maintenance windows).

Select Modify collection settings from the context menu.

On the Maintenance Windows tab click the starburst icon to create a new maintenance window.

Give it a name, and set the reoccurrence pattern, I set mine to daily and left the default time from 1 – 4 AM.  Then click OK.

You should now see the maintenance window defined, click OK again and now we have set the maintenance window for these clients from 1 – 4 AM each day, or however you defined yours.

OK now for software updates.

The machine I am going to test on is an XP box that is one of my test machines in my home lab, it has been off for quite some time so it is not fully patched and makes an excellent client.

I have also created a search folder under software updates for critical XP patches in previous testing.  This makes deployment much easier and if you don’t use search folders I highly recommended it.

Let’s look at the different settings for this package of XP Critical updates I have defined. 

In the Deployment Management folder there is already the XP Critical Updates package, I am going to right click on the package itself and select properties and then look at the Schedule tab.  I want to check the bottom box that tells it to ignore the maintenance windows and install as soon as the deadline comes. 

And then on the Restart Settings tab, make sure that the checkbox telling ConfigMgr to restart outside of the maintenance window is not checked.  I also have the box to suppress reboots on workstations unchecked.

Now I am going to add the new patches to this package by going to my search folder selecting my search for Critical XP Patches, selecting the new patches

and in the Actions pane clicking Download Software Update under the selected items section which start the Download Updates Wizard and I tell it to add these patches to my XP Critical Patches package.

I finish going through the wizard and wait for the patches to download and about a minute later I get a success telling me that the patches have been downloaded and added to my package.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch or on our client, once the client notices that there are patches to be installed and the deadline for install has passed the patches do get installed on the computer.  You can completely hide this from the user now, or you can give them a balloon notification and allow them to watch the progress.

If the user does watch the progress, assuming you allowed this through your configuration, they also have the option to reboot now or close the window.  If the users selects the close option we see in the %System32%\CCM\logs\RebootCoordinator.log file that our maintenance window is preventing the client from being rebooted until the maintenance window.

I have adjusted the maintenance window settings for this client to put us inside a maintenance window to see if it will actually reboot the computer.  And after I force the client to do a policy refresh a couple seconds later up comes the dialog box telling the user they have five minutes before their computer is restarted.

To answer the original question, yes you can use maintenance windows to only delay the reboots and have the patches install ASAP.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Update: Download link

More Details.

Overview

Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 now offers full support for management with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, integrates customer feedback, feature Integration with Intel vPro Technology and enhances Asset Intelligent features.

• Full Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Support: Deploy and manage Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008—with full support for the latest Windows platforms, from planning through inventory, to deployment, and into operational scenarios such as software distribution, software update management, desired configuration management, and more.
• AMT Integration: Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 integration with Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) enables hardware-based power control (on/off/restart) and delivers many new remote diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities. Configuration Manager can now perform scheduled or on-demand power control operations on Intel vPro enabled systems in the enterprise, enabling higher levels of software update compliance as well as increasing application installation and operating system deployment success rates. The new out of band management console provides direct hardware interaction using Windows Remote Management (the Microsoft implementation of WS-MAN). This enables remote boot control, allows forced PXE boot for operating system deployments, remote network boot for customized remote tasks and diagnostics, and direct inspection of hardware inventory and power state—even if the system is powered off.
• Asset Intelligence: Building on the original release within Configuration Manager, this enhancement to the inventory capabilities of Configuration Manager 2007 provides improvements for stronger inventory of hardware, software, and software licenses in use throughout the enterprise. The enhancements made enable administrators to more easily, and more accurately, inventory and manage hardware and software assets as well as view and manage purchased software license information. By providing this essential information, Asset Intelligence makes it easier for administrators and asset managers to more effectively plan for upgrades, migrations, and software license compliance reporting.
  Asset Intelligence in Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 adds the following additional functionality over that provided by the Asset Intelligence feature in Configuration Manager 2007:
  • The Asset Intelligence feature node has been added to the Configuration Manager console to allow easier Asset Intelligence–related administration tasks and rich reporting capabilities.
  • The Asset Intelligence Configuration Manager Console home page has been added to provide at-a-glance feature state status and information.
  • The Asset Intelligence catalog has been expanded to contain categorization and identification information of a large catalog of software titles—both Microsoft and 3rd party—as well as the hardware requirement information for many software titles found in today’s IT environments.
  • The ability to customize the Asset Intelligence catalog with additional software categorization information and hardware requirements information has been added.
  • New reports have been added that enable administrators to generate a total of 70 reports, based on inventoried information, that present data about hardware, software, and license usage.
    • General reports are linked to more specific reports and allow IT administrators to query general information or drill down to more detailed levels if required.
  • Hardware inventory enhancements have been added to gather information such as processor age, speed, and USB devices in use or when hardware has changed since the last inventory or during a specified period of time.
  • Installed software inventory enhancements have been added that gather information about installed software in use in the enterprise.
    • These enhancements allow IT organizations to identify and better categorize their software assets.
    • Robust reports provide information about types of software in use to help identify redundant software and optimize software support and purchasing.
  • Software license management capabilities have been added that allow purchased software license data (both Microsoft and non-Microsoft) to be imported into the Asset Intelligence catalog to enable better license management and reporting.
  • Improvements have been made to provide data about utilized Client Access Licenses (Windows Server, and Exchange Server) and computers acting as Key Management Servers for Windows Vista activation.
    • The report output format is congruent with Microsoft License Statements facilitating system-wide license tracking and compliance.

Just made public today, it will take a day or so to get the bits available for download.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Some great tips on what is included in the exam, and study materials based on feedback (brain dump) from someone who recently took and passed the exam over here.

Good luck!

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

This is a 1E customer who not only uses our NightWatchman software to save electricity and subsequently reduce their own carbon footprint in doing so but they are also saw a return on investment of of less than three months on a project that also included our user self service product Shopping and services to design and implement SMS.  In the long run they are going to reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the environment by 1 metric tonne annually and their head count is only 4,500 employees.  Other benefits they will realize are faster and easier application delivery to the end users, and less IT staff costs by implementing SMS and Shopping, all along side NightWatchman.

I was not involved in this project personally, but I can tell you that with all of my customers who use NightWatchman they are not only saving millions of dollars on electricity each year and saving the planet at the same time but when they add our other software solutions like 1E WakeUp with our custom Wake-on-LAN solution and the much imitated Client Health patching of computers is much faster and reaching a patch level of 100% compliant is not only possible but now the expectation, add in our branch distribution software Nomad Enterprise and the fear of sending a package over a link and hoping it doesn’t saturate the pipe is gone, no longer can the Network admin’s point their finders at the SMS or ConfigMgr if their traffic shaping doesn’t quite work, Nomad has dynamic true bandwidth throttling built in that handles any change in network traffic, oh the stories I could tell.  And then when you add Shopping in and you never have to worry again about getting those frantic phone calls from your manager or director telling you to stop what you were working on “…because the department head of X is leaving for the airport in 45 minutes and has to have the latest version of Visio and PowerPoint installed on their laptop before they go, and I mean right now!  Create the package and ad thing you do. No, I have no idea what their computer name is why?  Oh, and make sure they have the right service pack and all the patches installed with those too!  We can’t have them getting infected.”  Because with Shopping that department head could sit in their chair open up their browser, select Visio and PowerPoint from the list of application on the Shopping portal and in just a few minutes it would all be installed while they were checking online to make sure they had the best seat for their return flight next week, all without ever contacting IT!

My customers scale, as far as client numbers, are almost always in excess of 100k so I get to design and test some very interesting solutions.  Hierarchies are very large and complicated, not to mention the sheer size of the IT operations and the risk associated with making changes to the computing environment and processes.  But when the design is complete, and we have checked every box indicating that all of the PoC tests are a success, and all requirements have been met, and I produce a report telling them how much they are going to reduce their carbon footprint and save on electricity, that they no longer have to worry about traffic shaping to make sure an SMS distribution doesn’t cause a network outage, that we meet and exceed application delivery to the end users where service level agreements are measured in seconds not days, and they are finally going to get the client fixed on all those computers where it hasn’t worked for no one knows how long, all they can do is smile in disbelief and ask me why they didn’t call sooner!  

So I can attest to this case study being factual even though I didn’t work on the project because I have seen it all with my own customers using the 1E products and services.

PeterboroughCaseStudy.pdf

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Download the Visio add in and the web server component to connect and generate datasets to connect to your existing diagrams or auto generate your diagrams for your infrastructure monitoring needs. See your data from OpsManager and ConfigManager live in Visio diagrams.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=521B3884-1EDA-4B9D-8AD7-67D00FE9CE8A&displaylang=en

Ronni Pedersen’s Blog Site: Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Pro SCOM & SCCM Connectors

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen