Clint Schroeder's Blog

"Pausing" a PowerShell Script

I can't actually remember who showed this to me in the past.  So, I cannot give credit where it is due.

However, I recently was in a situation where I needed to write a PowerShell script (.ps1) that included some pauses while I demonstrated some results.

You can acomplish this by using the following:

Write-Host "Press any key to continue ..."
$x = $host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")

Of course, you can substitute the "Press any key to continue ..." with any text you want.

Enjoy!

ServerManagerCMD is deprecated

Ok. I'll be honest. I wasn't aware of this one.

I was bulilding out a new Windows Server 2008 R2 lab machine today. Instead of using an answer file like I normally do, I decided to enable the ADDS Role post-install using servermanagercmd.

I was surprised to find the following statement staring at me in the Command Prompt:

"Servermanagercmd.exe is deprecated, and is not guaranteed to be supported in future releases of Windows. We recommend that you use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets that are available for Server Manager."

So, I did a quick Bing search, and found that the cmdlet I should be using is Add-WindowsFeature.

More info can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731774.aspx.

Have a great day!

Clint

A computer stops responding during shutdown if BitLocker is enabled on the system drive on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

I have been playing with various builds of Windows 7 for the past year.  However, a particular issue I have been dealing with did not appear until just recently.

My laptop is of course running Windows 7 RTM and is running BitLocker per a corporate requirement for mobile employees.  In the past few months, about 90% of the time when I would either reboot or shutdown the OS would appear to shutdown, but the laptop would still have the fans running and be draining the battery.  I would have to manually kill power to the laptop.  When I powered back up, the OS would load like normal (meaning no indication that there was a "dirty shutdown").

I assumed that this was some strange hardware/BIOS issue with the particular laptop I am using.  I talked to a few co-workers, and they were seeing the same issue.  But, they were running different models and manufactorers of laptops than I was.

Uh oh.

So, it just so happens that earlier this week, we released a hotfix that resolves this issue.

The hotfix can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=975496.

From the link above:

Assume that you enable BitLocker for the system drive on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Then, you shut down the computer. You notice the computer intermittently stops responding during shutdown. Additionally, the operating system seems to have already shut down, and then the screen turns black. However, the computer does not turn off completely. Therefore, you may notice that the computer fan and other devices are still turned on.

This problem does not occur if BitLocker is completely disabled, or if BitLocker is enabled on a data drive but disabled on the system drive.

Note When this problem occurs, the functionality of the operating system is shut down. However, the computer hardware is not signaled to power off.

Well...there you go! So, for anyone that is running BitLocker on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (which I STRONGLY recommend doing), please download this hotfix, test it, and apply it as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Clint

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Something that I have always had to work with, and always found a work-around for, was getting my downloaded .ISO file of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 onto a USB key and use that as the installation source.

Well, this new tool is going to make that process much more simple.

Introducing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

From the link above:

The ISO file contains all the Windows 7 installation files combined into a single uncompressed file. When you download the ISO file, you need to copy it to some medium in order to install Windows 7. This tool allows you to create a copy of the ISO file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

Enjoy!

Remote Desktop Load Simulation Tools

I know that I have had customers in the past request this type of tool.

Well, we finally have something for you.

You can now download the Remote Desktop Load Simulation Tools.

From the link above:

The Remote Desktop Load Simulation toolset is used for server capacity planning and performance/scalability analysis.

In a server-based computing environment, all application execution and data processing occur on the server. Therefore it is extremely interesting to test the scalability and capacity of servers to determine how many client sessions a server can typically support under a variety of different scenarios. One of the most reliable ways to find out the number or users a server can support for a particular scenario is to log on a large number of users on the server simultaneously. The Remote Desktop Load Simulation tools provide the functionality which makes it possible to generate the required user load on the server.

ENJOY!

Create VHD versions of physical disks with new Sysinternals utility

Mitch Irsfeld posted a blog entry talking about a new tool called Disk2vhd from Sysinternals.

From the Disk2vhd page:

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

I won't have the time to check out the new tool today. But, I plan on downloading it and using it early next week.

Have a great weekend!

Clint Schroeder

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 Documentation

Our latest and greatest version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager RTMed a while back.  But, this is the first collection of documents that I have seen that provide information about Deployment, Operations, and Security.

Please check out the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 Documentation that is available for download now.

Clint "so far behind on blogging" Schroeder

***UPDATE***

I've been asked to send everyone to the main download page for Virtual Machine Manager Documentation.  This link will be updated when newer materials get released.  The other will not.

NM3EventCap - Check this out!

Ok...I'll be honest.  I am not a hardcore networking guy.  And...it doesn't take much to impress me (think of me like Homer Simpson).

That being said, I ran across this post over at the Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog.

I had never seen this before.  So, I was quite impressed to find out that you can stop a network capture when Windows logs an event.  This is going to be quite handy for me when troubleshooting customer issues (and building training classes where I want to have a netmon capture of some specific traffic).

Ran over the the post and check it out.

Clint

SYSVOL Replication Migration Guide: FRS to DFS Replication

Migrating SYSVOL from FRS to DFSR is not something that I have gone through with a customer in a production environment (yet).  But, it is something that I have covered time and time again in our Windows Server 2008 Directory Services Workshop.

I am pleased to annouce that that SYSVOL Replication Migration Guide: FRS to DFS Replication is availabe for download and review for our customers.

There are a few "gotchas" with regards to this process.  So, please review this document carefully before making this change.

Clint

Group Policy Settings References for Windows and Windows Server

I think that one of the more challenging things that we as I/T Admins do is keep track of Group Policies.  There are literally hundreds (thousands?) of different settings depending on your operating system and applications.

With that in mind, I strongly suggest that everyone take a look at the Group Policy Settings References for Windows and Windows Server.

These downloads include the following:

Hopefully, everyone will see these as a valuable addition to their reference documentation collection.

Clint

Infrastructure Planning and Design Documents Updated

First, please allow me to apologize for being a bad blog host.  It's funny how time slips away from you.  I was busy with work in July.  I got sick and took some vacation in August.  Now, here we are in September already!  I hope to do better in the near future.

Ok...now to the heart of the matter.

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Documents have been updated with the following information:

Of course, my focus will be on the Active Directory Domain Services document.  But, I think that all of the new Windows Server 2008 R2 information will be helpful to all I/T Admins.

Happy reading!

Clint

Deploying Server Core in Windows Server 2008 R2? SCONFIG is your friend.

Jeff Woolsey over at the Virtualization Team Blog just made a post about a great new tool to assist with deploying Server Core in Windows Server 2008 R2.

SCONFIG actually came from the HVCONFIG tool from Hyper-V Server.  With SCONFIG, you can join a machine to a domain, rename a machine, configure Windows Update, among other things.

Jump over to Jeff's post and check it out!

Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner

Hello, everyone!

I ran across an interesting download this morning that I thought I would share.

It is called the Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner.

The following description is from the link above:

The Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner is a diagnostic tool that is designed for administrators of small or medium-sized networks (recommended up to 20 servers and up to 500 client computers) who want to assess the overall health of their network infrastructure. The tool identifies common problems that can prevent your network environment from functioning properly as well as problems that can interfere with infrastructure upgrades, deployments, and migration.

When run from a computer with the proper network access, the tool takes a few minutes to scan your IT environment, perform more than 100 separate checks, and collect and analyze information about the following:
 

• Configuration of sites and subnets in Active Directory
• Replication of Active Directory, the file system, and SYSVOL shared folders
• Name resolution by the Domain Name System (DNS)
• Configuration of the network adapters of all domain controllers, DNS servers, and e-mail servers running Microsoft Exchange Server
• Health of the domain controllers
• Configuration of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for all domain controllers

If a problem is found, the tool describes the problem, indicates the severity, and links you to guidance at the Microsoft Web site (such as a Knowledge Base article) to help you resolve the problem. You can save or print a report for later review. The tool does not change anything on your computer or your network.

I found it interesting to say the least.  I hope you do, too.

The Death of Replmon

Ned Pyle has created a great post over at the Ask DS blog about replacing Replmon with Repadmin.

Great read for those Directory Services Administrators that need a primer on this great tool.

Guidance for Sizing your Page File

Hello, again!

One of the questions I frequently get asked by customers is, "How large should my page file be?".

Are you ready for the answer? *drum roll*

Answer: It depends.

One of the more helpful blog posts that I have read regarding this issue can be found at the Perf Guru Blog.

Another item that came across my inbox recently (thanks to my good buddy Clint Huffman) is this video by David Solomon.

I strongly recommend that everyone take a look at both links.  They will provide some great information and help you make sure you are creating your page file correctly.