I recently came across a problem that drove me crazy for several hours. I've installed secondary site servers many times and have the setup down pat to work with my usual secure configuration. The secondary site server installed ok, but then the mpcontrol...

In a scenario where a hardened SQL named instance (e.g., SQLI1) is used to perform the database (e.g., SMS_P01) upgrade test for a service pack the ConfigMgrSetup.log may contain the following errors: The command line options are /TESTDBUPGRADE...

I recently had to manually remove a secondary site (S01) from a ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 hierarchy. It deleted ok from the parent site (P01), but since that doesn't replicate up the hierarchy, I had to go to the Hierarchy Maintenance Tool (Preinst.exe) on the...

I wrote the attached script to recursively parse a WsusContent directory and compare the file name to the SHA1 hash of the file. This performs a basic verification that the content is valid. WSUS does this by itself, but when moving the content across...

I've made the leap into the wonderful world of System Center Operations Manager, and wanted to post this obscure issue with the DNS 2008 Zone Resolution Monitor in the DNS Server MP. In certain complex DNS environments, queries may need to be in the...

I recently discovered an interesting issue when trying to uninstall the ConfigMgr Console from a Windows Server 2003 system to which the SSLF member server baseline policy is applied. When running through setup to uninstall the console, all of the components...

I'm happy to announce that my session was accepted for the Microsoft Management Summit 2009 . SY22 Deploying Configuration Manager 2007 in a High Security Environment Speaker(s): Aaron Czechowski Track(s): Security Management, Systems...

I love Notepad. I use it daily. But what really bugs me is when I go to print a text file and the lines wrap on the paper. So I've noted the following column numbers for the various font sizes to determine where the line will wrap. It's assuming Lucida...

Don Hite has a VBS Script To Change A Remote SMS Clients Cache Size , but I wanted to do it with PowerShell: $Cache = Get-WmiObject -namespace root\ccm\SoftMgmtAgent -class CacheConfig $Cache.size = 10240 $Cache.InUse = "True" $Cache.Put() Restart-Service...

The Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3 Deployment Guide documents a process by which update metadata and update content can be transferred from one server to another isolated server. Since Configuration Manager 2007 relies upon WSUS for the software...

One of the advantages of integrating MDT 2008 with ConfigMgr 2007 is a more dynamic state capture process. The MDT task "Determine Local or Remote" (ZTIUserState.wsf) gives you the ability to estimate the amount of space required for the state store,...

Several good articles at InfoWorld about CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest back in March. A few snippets that I especially enjoyed: Miller said that he chose to hack the Mac because he thought it would be easiest target...

Check out the Mojave Experiment .

For the past week I've been out in Las Vegas for the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2008 . Last year I did a better job of posting after each day, but I attribute a lot of that to the fact that a) I had just started my job at Microsoft the week before...

The Security Configuration Wizard is new to Windows Server 2003 SP1 and provides very detailed ability to lockdown a server based on the roles, services and applications. With SMS 2003, the toolkit provided security templates that would allow SMS to function...

Attached is a script that I wrote to automate downloading a large file (e.g., ISO, WIM) by using BITS. There are variables at the start that need to be updated with the URL from which to download the file(s), and then the file name(s). If only one file...

One of my customers requires additional security settings beyond the OMB-mandated Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) and I need to apply the settings as local policy during the MDT build process so that disconnected systems still get a baseline...

There's probably a sexier way to do it, but the attached script (rename to .cmd) can be used to set Windows Vista SP1 audit policy using auditpol. The current settings are based on the FDCC 2008 Q1 settings. It must be run elevated. I suggest using something...

I recently did some research on the version variable in gpt.ini, what it means, and how to modify it. Unfortunately I found some discrepancies: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/technologies/featured/gp/faq.mspx says to increase the value...

Product review: Windows Server 2008 is the host with the most, and the perfect guest

The WSUS Deployment Guide has good general guidance on how to export/import content and metadata to a disconnected network. Here are some quick scripts that I whipped up to ease the process, as it's something that you'll probably want to do regularly...

I often write little batch scripts, sometimes just as a way to save a lengthy command line. Frequently I also want to output the result to a file and give it a unique (and meaningful) filename. However the built-in %date% and %time% variables expand to...

We have a funny marketing campaign for the new Windows Home Server. I especially like the book for kids, Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House?

With quarterly training waiting to be done, I decided to procrastinate some more and tweak the ol' blog a bit. I've always been a big fan of simple, clean, sparse templates, so I'm trying out the Luxinterior - light_wide skin to see how it fits. I also...

I was doing some research/testing on IE7 search providers today and thought up a neat trick for quicker access to some common ConfigMgr reports. See Microsoft Support Article ID 918238 for some of the technical details on IE7 search providers. We strongly...