Wanted! IT Administrators with Windows Server experience (Puget Sound Only) Microsoft User Research is conducting a study focusing on the next version of Windows Server between August 22 and August 28, 2008

This is a great opportunity for IT administrators who have experience with Windows Server to provide feedback and help improve the next version. You do not need to prepare anything for this. We want to learn from you, the experts. We highly value your feedback and will be offering you a gratuity option in appreciation of your time and participation.We are recruiting individuals who:

• Have experience managing 3-16 Windows Servers.

• Are available for a 2 hour study session during the week of August 22, 2008

• Can make it to Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, Washington 

If you are interested or know someone who might be interested in participating, please email us at itusable@microsoft.com with Windows Server in the subject line. For information on other studies and to learn more about Microsoft’s User Research program, email us.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

Sysinternals Tools Can Now Run From The Web

While they also updated several of their tools like Process Explorer, Handle, ZoomIt and SigCheck, the much more interesting news is that you don’t have to download the tools any longer and put them somewhere in %PATH% you can execute them directly from the website.  How cool is that?

From a command prompt or Run simply type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<tool name here>

And this site has all of their tools, check it out on their site at http://live.sysinternals.com

You can sill download the tools if you want to use them locally, go to the same link and click on the exe and/or the chm file to download them.

This is a quote from the About_This_Site.txt file.

“What is this?

This is a file share allowing access to all Sysinternals utilities. We have developed this to test an alternate distribution mechanism for our utilities.

This will allow you to run these tools from any computer connected to the Internet without having to navigate to a webpage, download and extract the zip file.

If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Windows Sysinternals, it is highly recommended that you visit the website at http://technet.microsoft.com/sysinternals before using these tools.

If you have any questions or comments on this file share, please email syssite@microsoft.com

Regards,
The Microsoft Windows Sysinternals Team”

Sysinternals Site Discussion : Updates: Process Explorer v11.20, ZoomIt v2.0, Sigcheck v1.53, Handle v3.4 and introducing Sysinternals Live beta.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

Mars Lander Phoenix Touches Down Successfully!

NASA - Phoenix

Earlier this afternoon the Phoenix lander touched down on Mars’ north pole. It will spend the next three months digging up ice to try and determine if life was on Mars at some point.

This is the first photo in from the lander but you can be assured more pictures and videos will be available soon. You can follow the Phoenix Mission blog here, and get news and updates from NASA on the Phoenix Mission here.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

ConfigMgr SP1 Goes RTM

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

no comments yet.

XP SP3 Goes RTM

Windows XP SP3 went RTM today.  It will be available to the public on April 29th.  For ConfigMgr the biggest piece of this is that now you can use NAP on your XP clients as well.  There is also a rumored 10% increase in performance - YMMV.

Find out exactly what will be included when this link goes active in the next 24 hours or so.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

WAIK for Vista SP1 and Server 2008 and XP SP3 Dates

Hopefully you have heard by now that Vista SP1 and Server 2008 went RTM on Monday.  But can you use these with OSD or MD?  Well of course you can with the new version of WAIK.

Also it is being reported that Vista SP1 goes live on Feb 18th or 19th and Windows XP SP3 goes live on March 23rd or 24th. 

Download details here direct download here (1.1 GB).

Overview

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.

This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista License Terms.

Related links:

Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet.

Windows Vista Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet.

Group policy administrative templates for Vista.

ADMX migrator for old group policies.

Notable Changes in Vista SP1.

Release Notes for Vista SP1.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

I Recommend These Books!
SMS 2003 Administrator’s Reference: Systems Management Server 2003 -  SMS 2003 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach  -  Microsoft SMS Installer (Book/CD-ROM package)  -  Pro SMS 2003  -  Professional MOM 2005, SMS 2003, and WSUS  -  Start to Finish Guide to Distributing Software With Systems Management Server 2003  -  Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 - Administrator’s Companion

And you can check out more books and gadgets at my Amazon store here.

no comments yet.

Windows Server 2008 RTM on Jan 16

If the other offerings RTM at the same time we should see server 2008, Vista SP1, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Sever 2008 all in a few weeks.  This means NAP, Hypervisor, multicasting…

Source.

If you would like to attend the launch event in Los Angeles on Feb. 27th or any of the other launch events you can register here.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© 2007 - 2008 Anthony Clendenen

I Recommend These Books!
SMS 2003 Administrator’s Reference: Systems Management Server 2003 -  SMS 2003 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach  -  Microsoft SMS Installer (Book/CD-ROM package)  -  Pro SMS 2003  -  Professional MOM 2005, SMS 2003, and WSUS  -  Start to Finish Guide to Distributing Software With Systems Management Server 2003  -  Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 - Administrator’s Companion

And you can check out more books and gadgets at my Amazon store here.

no comments yet.

Top Ten Events in Systems Management During 2007

First of all, Happy New Year, and may everyone find that in 2008 that your glass is more than half full, you and your loved ones are all very healthy and overly happy, that your careers are very prosperous, and that you gain all that you desire and more. 

As we welcome another year and reflect on the year ending it is always nice to note what was the highlights of the year.  So below is my personal top ten of 2007 when it comes to Systems Management.

10.  Thursday, October 23rd, System Center Partner Airlift.  It was actually the dinner on Thursday night that got this on the list.  I set dinner for about 12 people at a local steak house, Daniel’s, and it ended up that at this dinner we had sitting around the table, Jeff Gilbert, Michael Niehaus, Paul Thomsen, Garth Jones, and Greg Ramsey, amongst others.

9.  New class in SMS 2003 SP3 causes CPU’s to jump to 100% utilization, and is fixed.

8.  Saturday, July 7th, SoftGrid 4.2 was available, adding support for Vista. 

7.  Monday, May 7th, System Center Essentials goes RTM.  This doesn’t get a lot of press either but for SMB sized companies this has great potential.

6.  Monday, April 23rd, I started my new position with 1E, I did say my personal top 10 so this had to come in somewhere on the list!

5.  Friday, March 23rd, System Center Operations Manager goes RTM.  While we don’t often talk much about it, it is still a great milestone.

4.  Wednesday, November 14th, Microsoft Deployment was released.  After Michael, Tim, and the other team members had been slaving away for months it was finally ready for all of us.

3.  Friday, April 27th, SMS 2003 SP3 was released.  The AssetIntel piece makes this a very important service pack for those sticking with SMS 2003.

2.  Monday, March 26th, MMS 2007 opens in San Diego, CA.  This is always such a great event.  The training, meeting people, product news, it can’t be beat and each year it gets better and larger.

1. On August 24th 4 PM PDT, System Center Configuration Manager goes RTM.

Regards and Happy New Year!
The Clendenen’s

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© 2007 Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

MMS 2008 Registration Now Open

Run - don’t walk, hand carry that training request through management for registration!  If you need assistance with the justification check here.

Back by popular demand MMS returns to Vegas this year, some of you may recall the Sea World party that Microsoft threw for my birthday two years ago, on April 27th, well this year MMS starts the day after my birthday on April 28th.  If you book your hotel through registration you can get a room at the Venetian for only $239/night for four nights, I went to the Venetian’s web site and a room for the cheapest room for the same dates is $399/night, it also where the conference is being held, so if you may have over indulged the night before it is not too far to the sessions or if you really over indulged it’s not too far back to your room.

I really enjoy this event, it is very nice to actually talk to everyone and meet some of the people you only see in the mailing lists and forums, and of course to catch up with old friends as well.  But it is by far the BEST training you can get for ConfigMgr and you can actually talk to Wally, you will have to bring two friends to hold him still while you talk, but you can really talk to the Microsoft people that work day-in and day-out on ConfigMgr and the other management products, not just an email but really discuss things with them and learn a tremendous amount and get a deeper understanding of the products, their features, and what is being planned.  Oh yeah, and the other vendors are there too like myITforum, so you can grill them talk to them.

Some useful links:

MMS 2008 home page

MMS 2008 Registration page (Prices go up after March 18th)

MMS 2008 Group Registration page, for those companies sending multiple people.

MMS Alum send email with your email address in the subject line

MMS 2008 Agenda page

MMS 2008 Hands On Lab page (will have content in Feb)

MMS 2008 Content Survey page where you can help determine what is included at MMS!

Official email contents:

Event Overview

In the past year Microsoft has released a range of new management products and technologies, including seven new System Center suite releases alone.  MMS 2008 provides the best way to learn how to apply these solutions in your organization, fueling productivity and building growth.

With sessions by technical experts, opportunities to try out new products and meetings to discuss them with leading Industry experts and peers, MMS 2008 remains the premiere technical event of the year for IT professionals and the IT community.

Event Theme

The theme of this year’s Microsoft Management Summit is Integrate IT, reflecting the increasingly complex world of IT Management and the key role integration has to play in reducing complexity while maximizing flexibility, availability and performance.  Sessions from Microsoft speakers and industry experts during MMS 2008 will focus on how the latest wave of management solutions support:

• Integration with your business objectives
• Integration across your IT disciplines
• Integration between your management products and technologies
• Integration across platforms and vendor boundaries

Event Agenda

MMS 2008 will offer more deep technical breakout sessions than ever before, covering a broad range of Management topics and technologies. Daily Q&A slots also allow attendees to meet the presenters and discuss specific session content informally in a 1:1 format. In addition, the event will provide over 9,000 Hands-On Lab places during the week, including more Instructor-led Labs than in previous years and a “walk-in” self-paced lab area.  All of Microsoft’s Management solutions, together with those provided by Partners, will be on show at the MMS 2008 Expo where you’ll have the opportunity to review the solutions and discuss your specific requirements with company experts.

Attending MMS 2008 will enable you to harness the power of System Center by Integrating IT with your business goals.  Visit the conference web site at www.mms-2008.com for more details of the overall agenda and registration information.

Event Content

Recent Microsoft product releases which will be covered in detail during MMS 2008 include:

• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
• System Center Essentials 2007
• System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Capacity Planner 2007
• Desktop Optimization Pack for SA
• Windows Server Update Services 3.0

In addition during the event there will be early looks at some releases due to ship during the coming year, including:

• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2
• System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Mobile Device Manager

MMS 2008 is the ideal opportunity to come listen to the product teams describe these new releases, try out the new products and discuss real-world deployment experiences with leading industry experts and your peers within the IT industry.

Content Survey

If you’d like to help in the content selection process for MMS 2008, we invite you to complete the MMS 2008 Content Survey. By taking a few minutes to tell us about your experience and information needs, you’ll help ensure the topics and labs presented at the event are relevant to you and your organization. The survey can be accessed here and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.  When the survey closes we will draw four entries from amongst the responses and will send a Portable Media Player to those respondents.

Registration

This year the summit will be returning to The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Two different registration options are available for MMS 2008 attendees - you may either purchase your MMS 2008 registration and hotel accommodation separately, or as a package.

If you choose to register using the “Package” option, your registration fee includes accommodation for the nights of April 28^th – May 1^st 2008 at the Venetian Hotel. This is adjacent to the event venue, a short walk from the Conference venue.  Alternatively you may choose to purchase accommodation separately from your registration or during the registration process.  The MMS 2008 Event Team has negotiated a special rate at the Venetian Hotel, available only through the registration web site. Details of the accommodation on offer are provided at the MMS 2008 web site.

Hope to see you all there.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© 2007 Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.

Microsoft Deployment Release Candidate 1 Available for Download

The latest installment of BDD, code named Deployment 4, now named Microsoft Deployment (MD) is available for download on the Microsoft Connect site.  This is the much anticipated version that integrates with ConfigMgr’s OSD and is the next evolution of BDD.  With this new version you can expect to have a single solution for the deployment of both desktops and servers as well as WDS, and ACT.  See below for more details on what is included.

Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) is now Microsoft Deployment!

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.

Microsoft Deployment is the next version of Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007. It unifies the tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment into a common deployment console and collection of guidance. Microsoft Deployment adds integration with current Microsoft deployment technologies - System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Windows Deployment Services, and the Windows Automated Installation Kit - to create a single path for image creation and automated installation. Microsoft Deployment adds integration with recently released Microsoft deployment technologies to create a single path for image creation and deployment, including:

• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Operating System Deployment
• Windows Automated Installation Kit
• Windows Deployment Services with new multicast technology
• Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0
• User State Migration Tool 3.0.1
• 2007 Office system
• Windows Server 2008 Server Manager for automated server role definition

Enhanced Program on Microsoft Connect

This release candidate also offers an enhanced Microsoft Connect portal including technical frequently asked questions, deployment tips and tricks, a recommended 10-step program for new users to quickly get acquainted with deployment accelerators, customer-ready Solution Accelerator informational materials, and deployment-related conference presentations.

Accelerator Description

Microsoft Deployment combines the guidance and toolset from previous releases of Business Desktop Deployment and Beta releases of Windows Server Deployment. This release continues to support Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) of desktop operating systems using Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 with the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack and adds new deployment and task sequencing capabilities for desktops and servers using System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Microsoft Deployment also continues to provide Lite Touch Installation (LTI) support without infrastructure requirements and adds capabilities for Windows Server 2003 and pre-release versions of Windows Server 2008.

New Features in Microsoft Deployment

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 support, with the following features:

• Full support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 deployments with Microsoft Deployment and Configuration Manager 2007.
• Complete integration into the Configuration Manager 2007 admin console and task sequencing capabilities.
  • Quick start Configuration Manager 2007 operating system deployments using one wizard to create needed task sequences and packages.
  • Extension of the Configuration Manager 2007 task sequencing capabilities with new actions.
• Feature parity with BDD 2007 and SMS 2003, including dynamic package installation, automatic determination of state store location, computer backup, and database settings.
• Installation support for computers unknown to the Configuration Manager 2007 database
• Added support for offline patching
• Support for offline and online language pack installation
• Deployment monitoring:
  • Updated Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

Lite Touch Installation (LTI) support for Windows Server 2008:

• Support for deploying Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 and potentially RC1 (to be verified after RC1 release), including support for Server Core installation options.
• Automated server role definition using Server Manager

Lite Touch Installation (LTI) enhancements:

• Enhanced disk and network interface cards (NICs) configuration options, including support for static TCP/IP configuration.
• Design changes to ease the migration from LTI to Configuration Manager 2007.
• Support for multiple task sequence templates. New sample templates include:
  • Client template: Windows Vista, Windows XP
  • Server template: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008
  • Replace scenario template
• Ability to invoke web service calls
  • Support for web service calls from rules
  • Web services can be invoked as part of the rules processing performed by Microsoft Deployment, using new rules that can be defined in CustomSettings.ini.
• Support for BDD 2007 upgrade or side-by-side installation with Microsoft Deployment.

Lite Touch Installation (LTI) multicast support:

• Deployment Workbench supports multicast transmission of operating system images when performing LTI deployments from Windows Server 2008 servers that are running Windows Deployment Services.

Where to Find Microsoft Deployment

Microsoft Deployment RC1 is available as a download in the Microsoft Deployment Connection Program on Microsoft Connect.

Download Now!

Related Resources

Desktop Deployment Center on Microsoft TechNet

System Center Configuration Manager on Microsoft TechNet

System Center Configuration Manager evaluation software on Microsoft TechNet

Windows Server 2008 on Microsoft TechNet

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© 2007 Anthony Clendenen

no comments yet.