Kevinsul's Management Blog

Fun with Hyper-V Replica in WS2012 RC

Kevinsul — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:44:46 GMT

The other day, I was messing around with the new Hyper-V Replica feature in my lab. I quickly came to the conclusion that although it is nice to be able to right-click on a VM in the Hyper-V MMC to initiate a failover, it would be even better if I had to a way to simply failover all Replica-enabled VM’s from one host to the other with a single action. And so I developed the attached Orchestrator runbook to do just that. About as simple as you can get. To run, you simply need to feed in which Hyper-V host you are failing over FROM and then which Hyper-V host you are failing TO. It then takes those parameters and feeds them into a relatively simple PS script which gets all of the VM’s that are enabled for HVR and for each of them, turns them off, prepares them for failover, fails them over, and finally turns them on upon the host your are failing TO. The script looks like this (and is of course embedded in the ois_export file):

…and as you can see, I do little to no error-checking or verification so the assumption is that each VM with HVR enabled has a replica on the same host you are failing TO. Also would be nice to verify that the VM is in a good state prior to trying to replicate but I simply didn’t do that but this could be easily modified.

And to make it more user-friendly, I integrated this runbook with a Service Manager Service Request so that one can simply go to the SMPortal SR page to get this kicked off:

IMO, a pretty flexible yet easy to implement way to provide automated site recovery services management…

Trouble with CM 2012 App Catalog Web Site…

Kevinsul — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:05:36 GMT

So I ran into an issue I have run into now twice so in case there is a third time, I can refer back to this entry! If after installing the Application Web Catalog web site and web service in CM 2012, you receive this when browsing to the site:

Could not load type ‘System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule’ from assembly ‘System.ServiceModel, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type ‘System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule’ from assembly ‘System.ServiceModel, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.

Try running this:

aspnet_regiis.exe /iru

The aspnet_regiis.exe file can be found in either

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 (on a 64-bit machine)

…a customer I was working with re-stumbled upon this for me as we were getting his lab installation working. Apparently this has to do with the order in which you add the IIS components – specifically, if you enable the WCF services AFTER you install .NET framework, this can occur. Also credit this web site for pointing this out: http://devonenote.com/2010/06/could-not-load-type-system-servicemodel-activation-httpmodule/.

How to set up Round-Robin IR Assignment in Service Manager Using Orchestrator–a Basic Example…

Kevinsul — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:49:00 GMT

In discussing the use of Service Manager for ITIL Service Desk needs, I have had a few customers desire a way to automate the assignment of a helpdesk analyst/technician. Through Service Manager’s workflow features, this is possible to accomplish with a few basic Orchestrator workflows or RBA’s. The below shows three RBA’s that work together to accomplish the following:

As New IR’s are created that are assigned to a specific Tier (Tier 1 in this example) and other criteria, the ‘RR Tier 1 Assignment’ RBA is triggered:

…As you can see this is a very simple runbook as it simply watches (monitors) for IR’s that are New and meet the criteria as specified in the ‘Watch for IR Assigned…’ object. Once it finds IR’s that meet the criteria, it invokes a second RBA to Assign the IR to a Tech and it looks something like this:

…Before we can figure out which Tech to assign, we first have to find out who is next in line to be assigned an IR. We do this through the third RBA which grabs the current position of the current RR Counter and either increments it by 1 (the next Tech) or resets back to the first Tech in line (if it is determined that the last Tech was indeed the last one in line:

…Once we determine that, we pass back the proper position (counter) value to the ‘Assign IR to Tech’ RBA and go through the process of getting the UPN what is at the proper position and finally assigning them to the IR which triggered this process in the first place.

Sound complicated? It might at first, but once you get your head around how Orchestrator works, it is fairly straight forward. You might ask why I created three different RBA’s vs. one big one to achieve the same goal. The response is two-fold – one – doing it this way allows for the IR’s that get submitted to be assigned 1-by-1 in the event more than 1 IR is picked up by Orchestrator to process. By having the initial RBA simply monitor for new IR’s and invoking the RBA that actually does the work, I essentially control this in a true sequence vs. an asequence set of events. The reason I created a different RBA for the Counter workflow is so that I can more easily make changes to the selection process. For example, maybe instead of round-robin, you prefer just a random selection method, or maybe you also wish to add logic to determine if a tech is off on vacation and therefore need to skip to the next available, and so on. Keeping this within its own RBA helps modularize this for any enhancements in the future.

Demonstration video on how to install Hyper-V to a Bare Metal Server from VMM 2012

Kevinsul — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:45:12 GMT

One of my peers, Carmen Crincoli, on the State/Local Government side shot a short video walking through the process of installing a Hyper-V server remotely to a bare-metal server. Pretty awesome stuff. Video can be found here:

Bare Metal Deployment of Hyper-V with VMM 2012

One last EDU Webcast–Quest/MSFT Desktop Virtualization

Kevinsul — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:40:00 GMT

One of my last webcasts for EDU where I team up with our good friends over at Quest Software (Patrick Rouse and Joe Dylewski). See the recording and get our presentation here: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=16a234bc89d4386c&resid=16A234BC89D4386C!362.

Kevinsul is now working in his own backyard…

Kevinsul — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:47:32 GMT

…or to put it another way, I have taken a role with my local US Microsoft district, known internally as the ‘North Central’ district or NCD. The NCD encompasses the states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. I will be focused on the same workload of technologies (System Center, Hyper-V, Windows Server, etc.), but for companies within the NCD territory. It is with mixed emotions that I leave the US Education sector having been a part of it for nearly 9 years with Microsoft, but look forward to the new challenges working in my local district will bring!

As always, I will continue to use this blog space to blog about tips, BP’s, and other technical stuff that I discover. As always, happy management!

Tune in and Listen to me tell of the Awesomeness that is the Microsoft Private Cloud

Kevinsul — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:26:44 GMT

If you have nothing better to do on October 11, between 12PM – 1PM Central, why not tune in to my webcast? In this session I will discuss the benefits of our current (and VERY near future) System Center and Hyper-V technologies. Below is the full description and link to register:

Microsoft private cloud solutions built with Hyper-V and System Center provide the benefits of cloud computing through the pooling of resources, elasticity, and self-service, while offering deep insights into applications, cross-platform support, and the ability to extend workloads between Private, Public, and Hybrid Cloud environments – at a fraction of the cost of competitor solutions. Join Microsoft to discuss how you can optimize your Education infrastructure.

https://www.educationwebcasts.com/Webcast.aspx?i=5199

Hello Again–It’s been a while–Again!

Kevinsul — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:05:00 GMT

It has been a great while since I have been a regular ‘blog poster’ and am looking to change that starting now! As I continue to work with the US Education team in the area of Datacenter and Management technology, expect to see posts related to the use of things like System Center, Hyper-V, and the like within EDU environments.

Creating a ‘ConfigMgr Remote Control’ Task within Service Manager

Kevinsul — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:20:47 GMT

In System Center Service Manager, as an analyst works on incidents and other items that are related to system – desktops, servers, etc. – there are tasks that are made available within the interface for troubleshooting or other purposes. For example, when looking at the IR form, you will have a list of available tasks on the right hand side:

One of the most common tasks that would be useful is the ability to remote control the affected system. By default, Service Manager does provide you a ‘Remote Desktop’ task when browsing/working on IR’s:

But what would be even better is if it provided a link to invoke ConfigMgr Remote Control which as we know is a shared RC session between the end-user and the analyst. To provide this is pretty simple but it took some pointers from the PG to help me create the proper custom task for this (thanks a TON, Vipul!). To do this, you need to assume/prepare the following:

The workstation being used for Service Manager tasks should have both the Service Manager AND Configuration Manager Administration consoles installed.
We need to know the name of the Configuration Manager Primary site server that is in the environment.

We can now create our own task and relate it to whichever classes make sense. In this example where we wish to have a task that will remote control the affected system, it makes most sense to relate this to the IR class. Here is how to do it:

In the Service Manager Console, navigate to the Library tab => Tasks section.
On the left, choose ‘Create Task’ in the Tasks pane.
Click Next if prompted with the ‘Before you Begin page.
Give the task a meaningful name and description.
For Target Class, choose Incident.
For Management Pack, choose a non-sealed MP set up to maintain your customizations. This page should now looking something like this:

Click Next.
Optionally, you can allow the Task to display in certain categories. If this is not desired simply click Next.
On the Command Line page, do the following:

In the ‘Full path to command:’ dialog, input: ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\bin\i386\rc.exe’ – NOTE: This assumes that you selected the default installation directory for the ConfigMgr Administration console. If different, type in the correct path.
Click the Insert Property button, and navigate to ‘About Configuration Item’ and on the right in the ‘Available Properties’ dialog choose ‘NetBIOS Computer Name’ as depicted here:

Click Add.
This will add the necessary parameter that will point to the appropriate computer name when the task is invoked. In the dialog, pre-pend a ‘1’ to the front of the Property you just created and then append ‘\\sccmservername’ at the end. It should look something like this:

Clear the checkbox at the bottom that says ‘Show Output when this task is run’.
Click Create.

You have now created a task that will be available to analysts when working IR’s that will allow them to initiate a Remote Control session using ConfigMgr with one-click. You should now have a task list that includes something similar to the following when working within IR’s:

Enjoy!

Simple DCM Example Using a PS Script to Detect Compliance issues with Local Administrators Group Membership

Kevinsul — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:54:08 GMT

One way I like to use this blog is to post responses to questions I get from my customers. However, I typically don’t look to post unless the question meets these two pieces of criteria:

It does not have a simple answer which can be found easily by more robust sites such as MyITForum or SystemCenterCentral.
The same question is asked twice by two different customers.

If it meets those criteria I feel it is worthy to blog about it as there is a good chance there might be a third, fourth, or fifth person wondering the same thing… The bad news is that I have a pretty good stack of these that I never seem to find the time to write a quality post. The good news is that at least this time, I DID find some time for one of these!

So one question I have received a few times is whether or not ConfigMgr has the ability to detect and report on if the desktops and/or servers in an environment have the intended members within the local Administrators group. Can you enforce/control this with AD GPO? Absolutely, however, some folks have said that for external reasons, they may not be able to do this and even if they do, they may need to allow changes to some systems but not others which may limit their ability to enforce this at all.

Again, the answer is yes, ConfigMgr definitely does have this ability – in general, you can create a DCM Configuration Item to detect and compare the membership in the Local Administrators group in the system and then compare this to the desired list of groups/members you wish to have within the Local Administrators group. If they check out, great – the system is compliant. If not, you can show that system or systems as being non-Compliant in any number of DCM reports supplied by ConfigMgr.

Now the magic here is in how we do this detection. ConfigMgr DCM has a lot of built-in ways to check files, registry keys, etc. but none of these really fit this scenario very easily so we need to utilize DCM’s capability to report on the results of some sort of script which returns whether or not compliance is met or not. DCM can use VBScript or Powershell to determine validation results. In this example, I have chosen to create a PS script to do this? Why PS? Because PS is awesome and besides, it is what all the cool kids are using these days! :)

Here is my script:

$strComputer = "."
$computer = [ADSI]("WinNT://" + $strComputer + ",computer")
$Group = $computer.psbase.children.find("Administrators")
$members= $Group.psbase.invoke("Members") | %{$_.GetType().InvokeMember("Name", 'GetProperty', $null, $_, $null)}
$membercount = 0
$illegalmember = 0

ForEach($member in $members)
    {
    switch ($member)
        {
           "Administrator" {$membercount = $membercount + 1}
            "Domain Admins" {$membercount = $membercount + 1}
            "juser" {$membercount = $membercount + 1}
            default {$illegalmember = 1}
        }
    }

If (($membercount -eq 3) -and ($illegalmember -eq 0))
    {
        Write-Host "Compliant"
    }
Else
    {
        Write-Host "NotCompliant"
    }

The section highlighted in green in the ‘switch’ part is where the magic happens. That is, you need to create a line for each and every user or group member you wish to be in the Local Administrators group of the target system. With the logic of this script, the result will be compliant only if each and every member returned is found in this list. The text highlighted in red will ensure that no other extraneous groups/members are found and needs to be set to the total number of entries you expect to come back (in this case, 3) so that if extra members are in the group, this will also flag non-compliance. The result is to Write-host ‘Compliant’ or ‘NotCompliant’ – why we do this is explained below.

Now we need to create a DCM CI and attach it to an existing DCM Baseline or create a new Baseline and associate the CI with that baseline. We can then assign that baseline to one more more ConfigMgr Collections so that we can proactively keep tabs on compliancy.

We can create whatever type of CI we wish:

In my example, I am using the OS CI item as I want to strictly control the OS platform that it will apply to but you could also choose ‘General CI’ if you wanted. You just have to make sure that whatever systems you assign this CI to has the ability to properly run the script. In this example, we are using PowerShell so by default Vista and above should be fine. XP and lower may need to have Powershell installed. Or you use VBScript.

So in the new CI dialog, we need to give it a descriptive name. We then bypass adding any ‘Objects’ as they are not needed in this CI. In the Settings dialog we add a New Script:

In this dialog we copy-paste our script and specify that it is a PS script:

Clicking the Validation tab, we can set how we check for compliance. DCM can read in the value that is outputted from the Script (thus the reason for the ‘write-host’ lines in the script) and we can use the values that are coming back to determine if this item is considered Complaint or Not Compliant. Now you can tweak this however you wish. In this example, I decided to simply check to see if the result is a string value of ‘Compliant’ because that is what my script will return if it checks out. Anything else will flag an Informational ‘non-Compliance’ state which will show up in a DCM report. My validation configuration looks like this:

And that is it – if the returned value is anything else, we should flag as non-compliant. So we take our CI, attach it to a baseline and assign that baseline to a Collection of systems we wish to check. The result might look something like this if we have non-Compliance issues in the dashboard:

…And we can of course drill in on the report to see exactly which system is non-Compliant, etc:

And yes, you can get even more sophisticated. For example, you can have the script return the actual membership to DCM so that the non-Compliant systems report will show the conflicting memberships from each Local Admin Group. Plus, with PS, VBScript, WMI queries, registry queries, etc., there is not much you can’t detect and report upon making DCM VERY powerful. Also keep in mind that SvcMgr when released will have the ability to create Incidents based on non-Compliant states as they happen from within ConfigMgr so you can know dynamically when items such as the above happen in an environment so that you can take the necessary corrective action. Pretty cool stuff…

How-To Information on How to Install and Configure ConfigMgr for Testing ReLoaded

Kevinsul — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:07:00 GMT

A while back, I posted a few articles on this blog that contained ‘no frills’ steps on how to get ConfigMgr installed, up, and running. Of all the System Center products, ConfigMgr seems to have more moving parts and therefore perceived to be the most complex in installation and configuration. So – I have once again posted an update to my steps to keep in line with the latest versions and such. The attached are the updated steps that can help you get ConfigMgr up and running the fastest way that I know how using ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2008. As a bonus, I have also recorded two screencasts over on EDGE where I walk through these steps and explain things along the way. Hope someone finds these useful!

Here are the links to the screencasts:

Part I is here: http://edge.technet.com/Media/How-to-Install-ConfigMgr-for-Testing-Part-I/

Part II is here: http://edge.technet.com/Media/How-to-Install-ConfigMgr-for-Testing-Part-II/

And again, attached to this blog are the updated ‘no frills’ steps…

Microsoft Acquires Opalis

Kevinsul — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:03:14 GMT

This is a pretty significant acquisition. Opalis offers some great IT automation processes that snaps right into key pieces of System Center today (OpsMgr and ConfigMgr) as well as maintains several Integration Packs for some of the most popular ticketing systems and other management systems.

In EDU, I have not had many opportunities to engage with folks using Opalis’ solutions and I believe it may have been because the cost of acquisitioning the Opalis solution may have been out of reach for many. Well, that is now all about to change!!!

Check out this site for more details: http://www.microsoft.com/pathways/opalis/

One stop shot link when looking for published EDU Case Studies involving Hyper-V, App-V, and System Center

Kevinsul — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:16:09 GMT

My teammate Michael Greene created this link - http://bit.ly/edtech-virt – to reference when looking for MSFT Case Studies that reference EDU customers (K-12 and HED) when they involve out virtualization stack (Hyper-V, App-V, etc.) and/or System Center technology.

Some webcasts that I have done recently…

Kevinsul — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:27:29 GMT

So if you want to see some webcasts that I have done recently on the topic of System Center and the like for EDU environments, check out www.educationwebcasts.com. There you will find several webcasts I have conducted on various aspects of management and a few yet to come in the next few months. There are also dozens of other webcasts on other topics conducted by several of my teammates.

Don’t Call it a Comeback…

Kevinsul — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:51:28 GMT

…Really – please don’t! As you can tell, I have taken a LONG hiatus from blogging these past several months. No excuse other than just slammed busy and running around the country supporting the US EDU folks to help spread the good word that is System Center, App-V, Hyper-V, etc. I have a few topics that I have been working on so will be looking to post more regularly starting…. now!

Trick/Tip: Assigning a Default Maintenance Window to Systems that do not already have one Assigned in ConfigMgr

Kevinsul — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:01:47 GMT

So a few weeks ago, Mr. Joseph Corey at Carnegie Mellon University presented on how they use ConfigMgr to keep their servers in their data centers updated and patched. As one would imagine, they need to be able to tightly control the window of time in which these servers can be patched and rebooted in order for those updates to take effect during prescribed offhour times and therefore rely very heavily on ConfigMgr’s Maintenance Window functionality. One issue that he ran into is that sometimes new servers may get installed into the environment but for various reasons, are not added to the proper Collections that have the maintenance windows set. The result? Those servers will install mandatory updates immediately at any time leading to reboots at any time as there is no Maintenance Window to enforce. ConfigMgr does not have a concept of a default Maintenance Window.

The fix? Create a few cleverly crafted Collections which as a result, will assign a default Maintenance Window if one has not already been assigned to that system. The following are the details and explanation Mr. Corey gave me on how they do just that:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First, you would create a collection that specifies all machines with a maintenance window set (“All Servers with a Specified Maintenance Window”). The items in red are the collection IDs of all collections with a specified maintenance window. I started to create an SCCM query that actually used the SCCM database to list all machines that were in a collection that have a maintenance windows set dynamically, but the logic is much more difficult since the collection contains the maintenance windows data, not the individual resource. I know it’s possible – I just haven’t sat down and hashed out the SQL for this.

select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name, SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where Client = 1 and ClientType = 1 and ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH00015) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH00016) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH00017) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH00018) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH00019) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH0001A) or ResourceId in (select ResourceID from SMS_CM_RES_COLL_PGH0001F)

Next, you would create the collection below where colID is the collection ID of the above collection (“6 A.M. Maintenance Window”). This will give you a collection that contains machines without explicitly set maintenance windows.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

LABMAN 2009 Scheduled for June 8 – 10 @ Notre Dame

Kevinsul — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:45:45 GMT

LABMAN 2009 is slated for June 8-10 and will be held at the University of Notre Dame. I have presented/attended at this annual event the past two years and find it to be a very nice (and economical) venue catering specifically to those folks tasked with the management of campus lab environments. If you are interested in attending or would like to nominate yourself to conduct a session, they are currently accepting both!

Although not 100% guaranteed, but yours truly plans to be at this event and may also conduct a session or two as I have done in year’s past!

EDU Windows Admins unite at the WinHED Conference!

Kevinsul — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:34:14 GMT

So I know I blog about once, oh, I don't know, every 2-3 months now! :)

Anyway, I aim to rectify this as I really should blog more and yes do have a lot of half-blog entries that I just never got around to finishing so stay tuned...

In any event, I wanted to let my 10's of fans to this blog know about a very cool conference coming up devoted exclusively to Windows IT folks within Universities and Colleges. This is a great opportunity to network with your peers as well as see some of the best MSFT presenters up close and personal such as MarkRuss and Steve Riley. The details can be found on Mr. Greene's OffCampus blog as he is the main organizer on the MSFT side.

Links/Resources for System Center Workshop at HECC 2008

Kevinsul — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:40:33 GMT

Here are some links to some useful resources to help you further evaluate System Center and other associated Management solutions as discussed during my workshop session at HECC 2008:

System Center Homepage: www.microsoft.com/systemcenter
MSFT Virtualization Landing Page: www.microsoft.com/virtualization
System Center Learning page (one-stop shop for webcasts, VHD's, virtual labs, etc.): http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/learning-resources.aspx
App-V Homepage: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx
MED-V Homepage: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/solution-product-vpc.mspx
The App-V Team Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/default.aspx
Softgrid Guru Site: www.softgridguru.com
MyITForum: www.myitforum.com

So you went and hosed up SQL Reporting Services by Removing OpsMgr Reporting...

Kevinsul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:39:39 GMT

So maybe I am the only one that has done this, but I have been dumb enough to now have done this twice so maybe there is someone else out there that is as 'smart' as I am! In my demo environment, I have an OpsMgr 2007 SP1 RMS on a W03 SP2 server with the Operations DB, Report DB, and ACS DB located on a remote W08 server with SQL 2005 SP2. SQL 2005 Report Services is also located on the W08 server as well. The problem? Well, I have found that if you suffer some type of corruption in your OperationsDW (I suffered a power outage in my environment which somehow put the OperationsDW in a Suspect state. And no, of course I did not have a backup of the DB!!!) DB and/or have a reason to re-install OpsMgr Reporting, the act of uninstalling OpsMgr Reporting renders the instance of SRS unusable - you will continually get errors if you try to re-configure/reset SRS back to a usable state and therefore are SOL if you wish to re-install OpsMgr Reporting on this instance. The following are some of the symptoms I have observed:

After uninstalling OpsMgr Reporting, you will get errors when trying to navigate to http://server/reports or http://server/reportserver
The Application Event Log on the SRS server may have entries with event id 18456 saying that "login failed for user...".

Basically, the fix for me was the following:

Stop the SRS service
Stop the IIS service
Delete the OperationsDW, Reports, and other associated TEMP DB's
Delete the Reports and ReportServer virtual directories via the IIS Manager
Start SRS
Start IIS
Fire up the Reporting Services Configuration Tool
Connect to the SRS Instance
Click Web Service Identity Select 'Classic .NET AppPool' for both Reports and ReportServer (you will have to re-create these as you blew them away in the previous step).
Create a new Report DB
***This is what screwed me up - seems that somehow the Rsreportserver.config file gets corrupted somehow. Go to \program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSSQL.X\Reporting Services\ReportServer and restore one of the previous versions of this file (should have a .0 or .1 appended to it).
Proceed and follow all instructions in KB938245 in the section titled "How to configure the Report Web Service or Report Manager to use an application pool that runs under a domain account"
***For me, one of the registry keys that they tell you to modify did not exist - I simply created it and modified to use my domain account and this seemed to work

You should then be able to go to http://server/reports or http://reportserver without error now... Therefore, you should ten be able to re-install OpsMgr Reporting.

Oh yeah - I found out that technically we do not support running OpsMgr Reporting on W08 just yet - thus explains why I had to run through a lot of hoops above. However, it seems to work for me with the exception of having to reset SRS if you ever have to reinstall...

Looking for training/more information on ACS in OpsMgr?

Kevinsul — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:44:36 GMT

Technorati Tags: OpsMgr, ACS, Operations Manager, SecureVantage

Our good partners, SecureVantage are going to be conducting free online seminars starting 7/10. To register for these free courses and to receive more information, go here:

http://www.securevantage.com/ACSTraining.aspx

SecureVantage also maintains a nice Spaces blog full of useful information regarding ACS and how their solutions can further extend its value - the blog can be found here: http://securevantage.spaces.live.com/

SteadyState 2.5 Now Available (Now Supporting Vista)

Kevinsul — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:39:18 GMT

Coming off the LABMAN conference from a few weeks ago, I know many in the EDU community rely on disk protection and lock down tools such as Faronic's DeepFreeze and SteadyState. At the end of last week, we made SteadyState 2.5 available for free download - big deal here is now we can lock-down and disk protect Vista workstations. You can get this here. Here is a bullet list of the new features:

New features in SteadyState version 2.5 include the following:

• Full support for Windows Vista

• Full support for Internet Explorer 7 and tabbed browsing

• Overall improved performance

• Faster booting

• Faster system caching

• Remote management of Windows Disk Protection through scripting

• Improved importing & exporting of user information

Also, I thought I blogged about this in the past but apparently I have not (or at least I cannot find the post), but yes, with SteadyState, you do have the ability to control the state of 'Disk Protection' via command line by making calls to the machines WMI interface - KB938355 explains this. Also this old forum post gives some sample scripts to turn WDP on and off as well. For you folks familiar with DeepFreeze this would be going from 'frozen' to 'thaw'. Granted, not as fancy as DeepFreeze as we do not offer a GUI console for SteadyState, but our price is a bit better (free download) if you are comfortable with making changes via script (or better yet, using something like ConfigMgr to modify the protection states when changes are needed).

Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 has RTM'd and ready for download!

Kevinsul — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:21:11 GMT

The ConfigMgr homepage may not be up to date yet but here is the direct download link to download SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5AAE62E8-4B7F-4AF7-BE01-AEFAA4BF059A&displaylang=en

This release (among the usual bug fixes) brings forward these new features:

1. More complete support for management of Windows Vista SP1 (Vista SP1)and Windows Server 2008 (Server 2008).

2. Support for SCCM 2007 Server Site roles on Server 2008.

3. Out of band and in band management of Intel AMT devices.

4. Asset Intelligence 1.5 which is our first release with a connection back to System Center Online for regular updates to the Asset catalog

Enjoy!

Announcements from MMS 2008

Kevinsul — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:12:52 GMT

So I normally do not regurgitate generic technical information that you can find on one of a thousand different blog sites and podcasts unless I feel that there is unique significance to the EDU community. If you attended MMS 2008 or paid attention to the announcements and press releases announced during the Summit, there were three major things and one 'quiet but intriguing thing' that I think will have a HUGE impact in EDU. The three major announcements (and one 'quieter' announcement) were:

- Beta Availability of Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions: So an ugly and long title but to put it simply, we are planning to introduce OpsMgr client agents for non-Windows systems including RHEL, Sun Solaris, SLES, HP-UX, and AIX. This is definitely a first and not just for the Management division but for Microsoft as a whole as we will be including actual agents for non-Windows based systems AND these are based on the OpenPegasus initiative which means the agents will be open-sourced. Yes, you read that correctly (read again, if you need to - I know I had to!). Beta 1 of these agents are available now off of the Connect site. For more information on how to obtain these, go here:

http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2008/04/29/operations-manager-2007-goes-cross-platform.aspx

- Beta Availability of Operations Manager 2007 Connectors: This one may not be as shocking as the above as you may have seen this coming when we acquired Engyro a little over a year ago and have since made the Engyro Connectors available 'for free' to licensed OpsMgr customers to connect OpsMgr to their HP OVO, Tivoli management systems and the like. What is significant is that we are basing the connector on the same OpenPegasus stuff and will be open-sourced. Like the extensions above, the beta is publicly available at the same link above.

- Beta Availability of Virtual Machine Manager 2008: Not as big of a surprise as we have been talking about the v.Next version of VMM allowing for management of Hyper-V and VMWare hosts, but very nice to see we are right on track with the public beta availability of this next version. Access to and information on how to get at the bits can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/scvmm/default.mspx

- Kidaro First Look: Although the acquisition at the time of this writing was not quite complete, there were a few breakout sessions and more detail around the technology that this acquisition will bring. Kidaro will become yet another technology provided to those customers that subscribe to the Desktop Optimization Pack (with no extra price increases planned, BTW) and will allow customers a way to deliver and control virtual OS's to clients via physical media (USB key, DVD, etc.) and/or streaming technologies with complete integration with the end client. Think of it as the best of virtual machines, terminal services, and virtual applications without any of the downsides these technologies have. IMHO, the Kidaro 'stuff' (we still have not picked a formal name for it yet) will solve MANY problems in EDU by allowing you to have a controlled set of OS images complete with your supported applications that can be seamlessly run and delivered to unmanaged machines - such as a student or faculty member's personal machine. Is this VDI? No - it is MUCH, MUCH, better... I am sure more information will be forthcoming once the acquisition is complete but here are some links to check out today:

http://www.kidaro.com

http://blogs.technet.com/james/archive/2008/03/25/mdop-to-get-bigger-more-value-included.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/03/12/Kidaro-to-be-added-to-Microsoft_2700_s-desktop-virtualization-products.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/technology_trumpet/archive/2008/03/13/i-kidaro-you-not.aspx

To Package or not to Package - that is the question...

Kevinsul — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:16:40 GMT

So on a topic that is not by any means new, however one in which I have been getting a lot of recurring discussions around lately from my customers...

So there seems to be a lot of different viewpoints on when or whether to re-package software for the purposes of automatic distribution (using ConfigMgr of course!). For years, I have employed the following guidelines - in this order:

1. Does the software natively support MSI? If yes, no need to re-package, use the built-in characteristics of MSI to create a silent install command line (with or without transforms) to get the job done. If not, consider Step 2.

2. Does the software support any documented way to deploy the software silently? If yes, great, use what the vendor gives you to get the job done. If not, or it is not very clear, consider Step 3.

3. Conduct research on sites such as www.appdeploy.com (one of my favorites, btw) to see if someone in the community has posted steps/tips on your software that allows for silent and automated deployment. If so, employ these in the lab to confirm they work and then deploy. If not, consider Step 4.

4. Utilize your favorite MSI re-packager. ConfigMgr users can use Macrovision's AdminStudio: Configuration Manager Edition to get the job done. But if you have purchased the Wise Installer and like their interface better, go nuts!

As a rule, I always attempt to go down the past of least resistance yet maximizing supportability. I see Step 4 as the worse case and most expensive as it is the most time consuming and you run the risk of the vendor no supporting your deployment if they do not support the re-packaging of their application. IMHO, if the app is not native MSI but has a documented way of silently deploying, I say use it - supportability to speed far outweigh some of the ability built into an MSI wrapper...

Anyway, that's my $.02 - I will stop rambling now...