Often times when automating a multi-step process, there is a need to build into this automation a certain amount of delay. For instance, if I have rebooted an application server, we not only need to wait for the OS to come back online, but also the application host services to come back online before...

Good day all – if you were able to attend MMS2013 hope you had a great time, if not, no worries you are in luck. All MMS2013 sessions should now be available on Channel 9. Check out my session ‘Complex Maintenance Using System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Orchestrator: Patching...

With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 CU1 deployments starting to roll, I have received a few inquiries into how to determine if CU1 has been appropriately applied. As a cumulative update is not a major update, the version of your Configuration Manager Site will not be incriminated. That...

As I am working with the 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 (and CU1) PowerShell CMDLETs, the potential for automation around both the management and deployment spaces of Configuration Manager are expanding. That said, I have run against a few automation solution requirements that could not be met using...

Whoo - long time no blog. I am still around and kicking, just been occupied with a new baby ( New-CMFreak ), a new home, and wrapping up presentations for MMS. My hope is to kick this blog back into gear over the next month. Stay tuned for what I hope will be an exciting series of blog postings on ready...

While recently working on a Runbook solution for patching Windows Failover Clusters, I ran into the need of detecting if the Software Update installation process had placed the target system into a reboot pending state. After doing some research, I found many ‘loose’ methods for reboot detection...

I have long been a crusty old VBScript kind of guy, that just the way it is. I’ve been knocking out ‘short’ 300 line scripts for 10 plus years. In that time I have also gone through a few epic multi thousand line monstrosity scripts,,,, now that’s living. Many years ago at the...

In the first portion of this multi-blog look at software metering, I discussed how to create a software metering rule, observe on the client both the storage and processing of said rule, and finally discussed the server side summarization and how to manually initiate this summarization. With the metering...

Since the beginning of my involvement with Configuration Manager and SMS I have always considered and communicated with others the notion that software metering data can be used as a trigger mechanism for the removal of unused software. In other words, if software is not used, and this can be proven...

Many months ago I made available Runbook Commander: An Orchestrator Console Extension for Configuration Manager. I am pleased to announce that today version 2.0 has been posted to the TechNet Gallery for download . I have added many features (some significant) to version 2, all of which will be summarized...

With the introduction of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 Beta, we have been given access to a beta client for some distributions of the Unix/Linux Operating System. This is great news and will allow for many (but not all) Configuration Manager features to be leveraged against these non-Windows...

Introduction - Approaching my ten-year of systems management using SMS / Configuration Manager I can reflect back on many scripts, applications, and in some circumstances full systems I’ve implemented in order to facilitate a ‘self-service / approval friendly’ software delivery mechanism...

Introduction - Up until this point each scenario in this series of articles has detailed the management of ‘well connected’ clients. In other words changes have been introduced into existing infrastructure in order to facilitate untrusted, cross-forest client management; however no additional...

Cross Forest support in Configuration Manager is a topic often discussed, can be confusing, and has changed considerably with the introduction of 2012 Configuration Manager. While each environment may have its own needs based on environmental configuration, there are some ‘Hard’ technical...

I love the integration of System Center 2012 Configuration Manage and System Center Orchestrator . Any day in which I get to work in a mutual space between these two technologies is a good day. As seen in some of my previous blog postings I have written an application that allows for the manual execution...

Original ‘Deep Dive’ Posting with recorded demonstration - http://blogs.technet.com/b/neilp/archive/2012/02/10/updating-a-sql-cluster-using-system-center-configuration-manager-and-system-center-orchestrator.aspx Download Location - http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Patching-a-SQL...

Yesterday while enjoying a lazy afternoon read through the Configuration Manager 2012 TechNet documentation, I came across this gem which was at the time news to me - Client push installation starts and tracks the installation of the client by using the Configuration Manager database and no longer...

UPDATED 5/26/2012 Download location – http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Runbook-Commander-An-dba1fd33 Update 1 Additions - http://blogs.technet.com/b/neilp/archive/2012/06/27/runbook-commander-update-1-5-an-orchestrator-console-extension-for-system-center-2012-configuration-manager.aspx...

Updated 10/26/2012 - Runbook Commander 2.0 has been released. Information can be found and the following links. Download Location - http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Runbook-Commander-20-116ec91c Runbook Commander 2.0 Overview - http://blogs.technet.com/b/neilp/archive/2012/10/19/runbook-commander...

In this series of System Center PFE blog posting I will be taking a deep-ish dive into the Configuration Manager 2007 to 2012 Configuration Manager Migration capabilities. This series of posts will examine logging, status messages, data, and the flow of the migration process. For a basic understanding...

Continuing on with the automated SQL Cluster patching process, let’s examine some creative ways in which we can provide real time and summary feedback. At a high level we will see how to write data from the orchestrated process into an external database, and then use this data for reporting purposes...

Welcome to another System Center PFE blog post. In this publication I will continue to highlight how the System Center Suite of products can help manage and automate complex processes. If you’ve read my first post in this series, you will recall that the process being detailed is the graceful application...

I have updated this series of Runbooks to support System Center 2012. A downloadable copy of the exported Runbooks and a blog posting detailing the changes can be found and these links. Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/neilp/archive/2012/07/04/updating-a-sql-cluster-using-system-center-2012-configuration...