Matt Goedtel on Operations Management : Windows Vista

Desired Configuration for the Desktop

mgoedtel — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:12:00 GMT

Desired Configuration Monitoring 2.0 for SMS 2003 and System Center Configruation Manager 2007 (included as part of the product), provide a great way to ensure standards compliance of your systems. Something that desktop administrators have been missing for many years is an easy way to identify systems that have drifted from their original configuration or developed standard. Now there is a way to avoid configuration errors, track changes made without approval, and avoid unintended impact on the end-user.

From a process perspective, DCM falls under the "Change, Config, Release" framework of ITIL.

In a past life I was a desktop administrator responsible for the creation of a desktop standard build, automating the deployment of it, and managing it with SMS. Without custom developed scripts/programs or a mirad of third-party solutions, you had no way to determine if the desktop was still configured matching the version of that standard build with respect to security settings, OS configuration settings, driver versions, and so forth. Even though Group Policy, WMI scripting, SMS's extensive inventory capabilities, and other solutions from us and our partners were introduced to help aleviate the administrative overhead in some areas, it still didn't address a way to define what the standard policy was and how to identify those systems who did not comply with that policy. DCM really moves us into that direction.

Now you have an integrated solution with SMS that can monitor a plethora of settings through different data sources (File system, WMI, Registry, etc.) and provide meaningful reports out of the box or allow you the administrator, to develop your own set of customized reports. In addition, with a little bit of work you can configure SMS Collections with queries to capture those systems who are not compliant and have an advertisement ready to remediate them based on that specific CI (configuration item) and have it established as a standard change within your Change Management process.

While you are developing your standard desktop build, create the CI manifest in parallel. Once the version is finalized, test, pilot and approve for deployment following a Change and Release Management process. BDD 2007 Solution Accelerator has a specific guide to help you with this called "Desired Configuration Monitoring Feature Team Guide" which can be found here - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx. I strongly recommend you consider this in support of managing your desktop environment.

Installing the MOM 2005 Consoles on Windows Vista

mgoedtel — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 06:24:00 GMT

So I thought for my first blog posting, I would discuss how to install the MOM 2005 consoles (Administrator and Operator) on a Windows Vista client. Hmm, should be straight forward enough, no? Well unfortunately the MOM 2005 Setup prerequisite checker will state the minimum requirements have not been met - specifically with regard to the OS. So how do we get around this? By referencing the MSI Package – MOMSERVER.MSI from the command-line providing specific properties to avoid the prerequisite checker and successfully installing on Windows Vista.

Minimum Requirements: Because MOM 2005 was developed using .NET 1.1 managed code, .NET Framework 1.1 must be installed! Remember, .NET Framework 3.0 is included with Windows Vista and you can install prior versions of .NET side-by-side. Once you download .Net Framework redistributable package from here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en install it and then you can the proceed with the installation of the MOM 2005 Consoles.

Installing the Consoles: I recommend installing from the MOM 2005 SP1 media that is available on MSDN subscription or SA media and not the MOM 2005 RTM media. Once you find the source media, the command-line syntax to install the consoles is the following - MSIEXEC.EXE /i MOMSERVER.MSI ADDLOCAL=”MOMXUI” MOM_SERVER=”[Computer Name that hosts the MOM Management Server]” /qb

For further details on the command-line properties for MOMSERVER.MSI, please review the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Guide found on TechNet and review the section “Deploying MOM 2005 in Advanced Environments\Deploying MOM Using the Command Line” and you will see a sub-section for “MOMSERVER.MSI.” Use the following link - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/mom/mom2005/Library/b7b0c768-64d1-486e-b9ed-7292c9e545f9.mspx?mfr=true

One note that should be mentioned, once the installation of the MOM 2005 consoles is complete and you execute one of the consoles; Vista will display a warning message indicating “known compatibility issues.” In my experience thus far, no issues have been encountered but your mileage may vary. The installation has been tested using MSDN and SA media on both Windows Vista x86 and x64 Ultimate SKU. It has not been tested on the Enterprise SKU; however there is no cause for concern as the differences between the SKU’s are simply the features installed.

So there you have it folks. Enjoy!