Tim Mintner

Getting Operations Manager 2007 Overrides with Powershell

tmintner — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 04:55:28 GMT

I am currently on an Operations Manager 2007 project and it's been a lot of fun so far. One of the new concepts of Operations Manager 2007 is that any change made to the provided management packs are done through the use of Overrides. Overrides were very difficult to manage and create in MOM 2005 but they are really simple to implement and change in Operations Manager 2007. By default all Overrides are placed in a separate Management Pack called Default Management Pack. This allows all of your custom settings to be mainted when upgrading your Management Packs.

Opeations Manager 2007 also has a great number of commands available to manage the product through Windows Powershell. One of the commands that I found this week is called get-override. After playing with this command a bit I found that I could run this simple command to give me a list of all of the overrides I have configured:

get-managementpack | get-override | format-list name,parameter,value

This will output a list of all of the overrides from all of the management packs that are installed giving me the name of the Override, the parameter that was changed, and the value of that changed parameter.

Have you started testing Operations Manager 2007 yet? If not sign up today for the beta at http://connect.microsoft.com!

Add myITforum Search to IE7

tmintner — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:29:09 GMT

One of the cool features of IE7 is that you can easily add any new search provider to your search bar. I use myITforums Forums search quite a bit when finding answers to problems to I created my own search provider for searching their forums.

To do this go to this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx#

On the right hand side their will be instructions for creating your own search provider. In step 3, past the following URL:

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/searchpro.asp?phrase=TEST&author=&forumid=ALL&topicreply=both&message=body&timeframe=%3E&timefilter=0&language=single&top=300&criteria=AND&minRank=0&sortMethod=r&submitbutton=+OK+

In step 4, name it something like myITForum Forums and then click on Install in Step 5.

Now you have a new search provider listed in the drop down box that will search the myITforum's Forums!

Rod and Ron, you all should download this XML file and put it on your site!

Tim

Group Policy in Windows Vista Webcast

tmintner — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:07:32 GMT

I will be posting over the next few months about all of the new management features in Vista. It is easy to say that Vista will be the most "management" friendly OS that we have released to date.

To get you started you should really watch the webcast on some of the new Group Policy features in Vista available here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032292773&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

There are over 700 new policy settings in Vista and it can be a little overwhelming when you first load up the GPMC and look through all the settings. You can download the settings reference guide here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=41dc179b-3328-4350-ade1-c0d9289f09ef&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f5%2fa%2f9%2f5a97f495-51b1-433a-b5c4-976a61391f71%2fVistaGPSettings.xls

If you are new to managing the new ADMX format with Vista you should really read through the Step by Step Guide to Vista Group Policy. You can download and read through it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=311f4be8-9983-4ab0-9685-f1bfec1e7d62&DisplayLang=en

Download the Windows AIK

tmintner — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:00:33 GMT

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) is now available for download. This download includes the much anticipated Windows PE 2.0 which is the primary installation delivery method of Windows Vista.

I have been using the WAIK for several months now and it is a huge improvement over the days of the sysprep.inf, unattend.txt, etc. Now you just have to configure one file, the unattend.xml.

The install for WAIk includes the Windows System Image Manager which allows you to create the unattend.xml. You can use the unattend.xml to customize not only your Windows Vista installation but also customize your Windows PE 2.0 boot process.

Other great tools that are included are imagex, our new imaging tool with that allows you to create a WIM file. You can easily create WIM files with both Windows XP or Vista so you don't have to wait until deploying Vista to take advantage of the new tools.

The Windows Deployment Service (WDS), is also included in the WAIK. WDS is a replacement for RIS and allows PXE booting to a Windows 2003 server. You can take your custom WIM file created with imagex and deploy it with WDS.

The help files are outstanding and the Windows System Image Manager has competely integrated help so you can click on any item and hit the F1 key and find great reference information.

Download and start playing with WAIK today at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7e5752f7-4e64-474f-9069-d2694eff2245&DisplayLang=en

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Shell

tmintner — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:38:55 GMT

In case you are not aware, you can use Powershell to manage many aspects of Operations Manager 2007. The Shell team for OM 2007 has started a blog and has a nice introduction to the new tool(s) here: http://blogs.msdn.com/scshell/

Adminpak on Vista RTM

tmintner — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:55:00 GMT

Wow it has been a long time since I've posted anything. I have been heads down getting my customers ready to deploy Vista in their environments. There was so much information to keep track of on what we could and could not share, I just decided to keep quiet until everything had been made public. Well now that we have RTM'd Vista I am free to talk!

So one of the most challenging items for my customers during the Vista Beta was running the Windows 2003 Administration tools on Windows Vista. There were many "hacks" out there that seemed to work by modifying the MSI using Orca or another tool, however with Vista RTM our story is much better.

Vista RTM includes an application compatibility shim that will allow the Windows 2003 Admin Tools (Adminpak) to install on Vista! This requires no modification of the MSI.

One thing to note after testing is that Active Directory snap-ins do not seem function immediately after the install. However, this is easily rectified by registering the following DLL's. , ADprop.dll and DSadmin.dll So once you install the Adminpak go to a command prompt and type

regsvr32 adprop.dll

and

regsvr32 dsadmin.dll

Once you register those DLL's the adminpak seems to work fine. Please leave a comment if you find any more issues using the Adminpak.

This solution probably isn't entirely supported but seems to work.

Thanks for reading!

*UPDATE*

The official supported method of getting the Adminpak working can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056

Exciting Times

tmintner — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:53:05 GMT

Wow what a week this has been. In the past week we have released Windows Vista RC1 including the new WAIK tools, and USMT 3.0 RC1. You can download both from connect.microsoft.com if you have access. You should also be able to download Vista RC1 from MSDN.

This next few weeks promises to be even more exciting as we are expecting to release the Beta 2 TR of the Office 2007 system, and the next build of BDD 2007 and an update to the Application Compatibility Toolkit.

So if you haven't already started testing these products now is the time to do it! The builds are stable enough to use in a production environment. Feel free to share your experiences with these tools and Vista in the comments.

Motorola Q Update

tmintner — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:46:00 GMT

I'm not sure how I missed this one but the update for the Motorola Q is now available. This update includes the much anticipated Security Update which allows True Exchange 2003 push. Motorola has also included easier support for tethering your Q to your laptop or PC.

You can download the update from here:

http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motosupport/source/SoftwareUpdateSummary.asp?country=&language=&web_page_name=SUPPORT&strCarrierId=Verizon&strPhone=Q&strCable=Mini%20USB%20Data%20Cable#

You can read about the update here:

http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motosupport/s...

I also came across this very cool website that has a lot of great discussion and software for the Q:

http://www.everythingq.com

Enjoy and happy upgrading!

Great stuff coming in the System Center family

tmintner — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:43:00 GMT

Well I am back after having a week at Techready 3 in Seattle and a week of vacation. I have caught up with the over 400+ email messages and am back to blogging.

Techready 3 was awesome. We have SOO many great products coming out in the System Center Family. I spent a lot of time at the System Center Operations Manager 2007 sessions. I will be blogging quite a bit about the changes coming in SCOM 2007 over the next couple of months.

Over the next year we will be releasing the following products:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SMS V4)
System Center Operations Manager 2007
System Center Virtual Machine Manager
System Center Capacity Planner
Syscem Center Service Desk
Softricity!! (Title to be announced later)

I haven't been this excited about the management space in years. We are really going leaps and bounds above our competition and we are really pulling everything togehter.

For those who want to try System Center Virtual Machine Manager, you can now download Beta 1 on Connect (http://connect.microsoft.com)

One of the most exciting technlogies that I saw was the Softricity demo. This technology is really going to change the IT world. Softricity will all but eliminate the need for application repacking due to registry or DLL conflicts as well as allowing users to run applications as Administrator but still be standard users. Start reading up on Softricity now at http://www.softricity.com. We haven't officially re-released the software yet but it will be coming in the next few months probably with a new name.

I have a lot to blog about so stay tuned!

Tim

Nice "blogcast" on ImageX

tmintner — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 09:22:00 GMT

Chris Haaker over at the Blogcastrepository has created a great "blogcast" (screencast for some) on how to use ImageX. http://blogcastrepository.com/blogcasts/37/windows_workstation/entry1586.aspx

For those of you who aren't familiar with ImageX, it is the new imaging tool that will be released with Windows Vista for creating images of workstations using Microsoft's WIM file format.

I've been asked numerous times what the difference is between the WIM file format and the Ghost file format. Other than the obvious file extension, the WIM format does a file based image as opposed to a sector based image as with other imaging tools. This allows you to easily apply offline patches and make modifications to files inside of an image without having to apply the image, make the change, and re-apply the image.

There is a great overview of ImageX here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/expert/imagex.mspx

If you would like to try it for yourself, sign up for the open beta of BDD 2007 on http://connect.microsoft.com

Great Video on Bitlocker on Channel9

tmintner — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:20:00 GMT

In case you haven't already seen this, Channel9 has posted a great video discussing Bitlocker encryption with Vista. Since I am primarily working on Vista TAP engagements right now this topic is very near and dear to my heart.

Here is the link to the video:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=214558

As a follow up make sure to read all of the technical details on Bitlocker here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/bitlockr.mspx

Powershell to see what Updates have been installed

tmintner — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 04:48:00 GMT

I was playing around in Powershell today and ran into this nice set of commands that will show you what Updates have been installed as known by the Windows Update Agent:

First create a variable and bind it to the "Microsoft.Update.Searcher" Com Object:

$wu = new-object -com "Microsoft.Update.Searcher"

A quick list of the members returns:

Name                                MemberType Definition
----                                ---------- ----------
BeginSearch                         Method     ISearchJob BeginSearch (string, IUnknown, Variant)
EndSearch                           Method     ISearchResult EndSearch (ISearchJob)
EscapeString                        Method     string EscapeString (string)
GetTotalHistoryCount                Method     int GetTotalHistoryCount ()
QueryHistory                        Method     IUpdateHistoryEntryCollection QueryHistory (int, ...
Search                              Method     ISearchResult Search (string)
CanAutomaticallyUpgradeService      Property   bool CanAutomaticallyUpgradeService () {get} {set}
ClientApplicationID                 Property   string ClientApplicationID () {get} {set}
IgnoreDownloadPriority              Property   bool IgnoreDownloadPriority () {get} {set}
IncludePotentiallySupersededUpdates Property   bool IncludePotentiallySupersededUpdates () {get}...
Online                              Property   bool Online () {get} {set}
ServerSelection                     Property   ServerSelection ServerSelection () {get} {set}
ServiceID                           Property   string ServiceID () {get} {set}

So it looks like I can do a QueryHistory to see what has been installed. Before doing so I need to know how many updates have been installed.

$totalupdates = $wu.GetTotalHistoryCount()

Now I can run this command to see my update history:

$wu.QueryHistory(0,$totalupdates)

This will list all of the updates along with the following properties:

Name
----
Categories
ClientApplicationID
Date
Description
HResult
Operation
ResultCode
ServerSelection
ServiceID
SupportUrl
Title
UninstallationNotes
UninstallationSteps
UnmappedResultCode
UpdateIdentity

Day in the life of

tmintner — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 09:07:00 GMT

I often get asked, "What is it that you actually do for Microsoft?" Well the short answer is that I am a consultant in the Managment, Operations, and Deployment space. Unless they are IT savvy that usually generates a deer in the headlights look. For the rest of you here is a sample of what my day consisted of today:

Morning:

Conference call with one of my Vista TAP customers to discuss detailed testing plans and schedules for the different departments to start detailed testing of Vista
Answered numerous customer questions on Vista
Worked on debugging/modifying a VPN network quarantine script so that the checks are compatible with Vista and UAC
Scheduled a meeting with another consultant to discuss Vista TAP engagements
Answered Virtual Server questions from a co-worker

Lunch:

Lunch with my wife (most important event of the day)

Afternoon:

Ran into an old colleague and discussed new jobs and User Group information
Met with another consultant to talk about how to start a Vista TAP engagement
Received and responded to numerous email requests from an account rep regarding the status of a local client and their involvement with the SCCM 2007 TAP
Sent an email to the SCCM product team to find out the information
Had a brief phone call with a consultant who is starting a MOM engagement at a former client of mine
Received information back from the SCCM product team and shared it with all of the account reps for that client
Continued to debug/modify the VPN quarantine script
Sent proposed changes to my client on the VPN quarantine script
Tested new video drivers for Vista on my laptop...didn't work...had to roll back to a previous version of the driver
Responded to numerous internal "community" email lists on BDD, SMS, and MOM questions

Well that is a sample of the type of work I do on a daily basis. My time can be pretty hectic but I have to say that I still love my job and I wouldn't trade it for a standard corporate IT job any day. :)

Powershell and Active Directory

tmintner — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:55:00 GMT

Mow posted another great blog entry on how to access User properties in Active Directory with Powershell. This guy's blog is just awesome. You should definitely start to grab his feeds:

http://mow001.blogspot.com/2006/07/powershell-and-active-directory-part-3.html

Thanks Rod for all of the Links!

tmintner — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:47:00 GMT

Thank you Rod for all of the links to my blog posts. Rod stated here (http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rtrent/archive/2006/07/03/21768.aspx) that I "was" a great community person. Well I hope to continue to be a great community person. I feel like I am just now starting to keep my head above water here at Microsoft so you should start to see me ramping up my blog posts and other community efforts.

I believe strongly in the idea of IT community. Before joining Microsoft I was a MVP. That passion for sharing information did not end after joining MS. I think now I will be able to share more information than I ever had the opportunity to do before.