• App-V 4.6 step by step installation guide: Part 3

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Mohammed Saad MEA}

     

     

    3 App-V Server Deployment

    3.1 Pre-installation

    3.1.1 Create AD groups

    Create the following groups in AD

    App-V Admins

    App-V Users

    3.1.2 Create content share

    Create shared folder on the management servers and share them with the below permissions for NTFS and share permissions

    App-V_admins: Full control

    App-V_users: read only

    Msappv: read only

    Network Service: Read permission

    3.1.3 install management server prerequisites

    Install IIS 7 and make sure the below are selected

    · ASP.NET (and all its required role services and features)

    · Windows Authentication

    · IIS Management Scripts and Tools

    · IIS 6 Management Compatibility

     

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    Install and wait for the installation to complete and click close

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    Install .Net framework from features from add new feature wizard

     

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    3.1.4 install management server

    open the application virtualization splash and choose to install management server role

     

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    Accept the license agreement and click next

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    Choose Use Microsoft updates when I check for updates and click next

     

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    Enter the registration information and click next

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    Choose the Typical installation to install Management Web Service, Management Console and Management services.

     

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    In the configuration database page, please scroll till you see the SQL cluster name created for this implementation and click next.

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    Choose to create a new database and click next

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    Click next in the certificate page

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    (Note: You can choose to use RTSPS only when you install the certificate. In this case, I’m only using RTSP)

    Leave the default RTSP port selected and click next

     

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    In the administrators group page, please choose the previously created group (App-V Admins) and click next

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    In the app-v users page, please select the previously created group (App-V Users) and click next

     

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    In the content path page, please enter the content path

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    Be sure to select the network path where the content share will be. If you select by mistake another path, please follow the steps in the below KB to relocate to new location

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930868

    How to relocate the content directory for Microsoft app-v

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    Click finish. Restart your server.

     

    Note:

    When you try to connect to your server for the first time, you may get the below error

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    The resolution to that is to add the user you’re logging in with to the app-v admins group and it should open as below.

    Follow the same steps to install the second management server, and be sure to select the same content path you provided in the first server deployment.

    The final step is to go to the services console and change the app-v service logon name to the App-V service account if you want to use service account instead of Network Service. Once this service account is change, please follow the steps in this guide to create the required SPN

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2008/08/21/how-to-configure-the-app-v-management-server-service-to-run-as-a-service-account.aspx

     

    To be continued..

  • Operations Manager 2007 R2 Installation and Configuration (step by step) – Part 4 “Configure GPO for SCOM”

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Maged Ezzat}

    In this post series I will go through detailed step by step (with screenshots) related to System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Installation and Configuration that IT Administrator or technical consultant will need to build Operations Manager 2007 R2,

    In 1st part here I started with “Pre-Build”,

    In 2nd part here I continued with “Installing Operations Manager Database”,

    In 3nd part here I continued with “Installing Root Management Server”,

    And in this post I will continue with “Configure GPO for SCOM”,

    Table below include step by step showing you how to Configure GPO for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2:

    Step

    Description

    Screenshot
     

    Log on as a Domain Administrator on a computer with Administrative Tools such as a Domain controller or your Administrative Workstation

    		  

    1.

    From Administrative Tools, Select Group Policy Management.

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    2.

    Navigate down to Group Policy Objects, Right Click on Group Policy Objects and Select New from the popup menu.

    		  

    3.

    Provide a Name for the GPO and Click OK.

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    4.

    Right Click on the newly created GPO and Select Edit from the popup menu.

    		  

    5.

    On the Group Policy Management Editor window, Expand the Computer Configuration tree and navigate to Windows Firewall as shown in the figure below and Click to highlight Domain Profile. Double Click on Allow inbound file and printer sharing exception.

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    6.

    On Enabled and provide the IP addresses of the Root (and Secondary if there is any & separated by a comma ",") Management Server, Then Click OK.

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    7.

    On the Group Policy Management Editor window, Expand the Computer Configuration tree and navigate to Windows Firewall as shown in the figure below and Click to highlight Domain Profile. Double Click on Allow inbound remote administration exception.

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    8.

    Click on Enabled and provide the IP addresses of the Root (and Secondary if any & separated by a comma ",") Management Server, Then Click OK.

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    9.

    On the Group Policy Management Editor window, Expand the Computer Configuration tree and navigate to Windows Firewall as shown in the figure below and Click to highlight Domain Profile. Double Click on Define inbound port exceptions.

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    10.

    Click on Enabled and Click on Show to define the port extensions. On the Show Contents dialog box, click Add.

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    11.

    On the Add Item dialog box, do the following:

    · Enter the following text: 5723:TCP:#.#.#.#:enabled:SCOMAgent

    · Click OK.

    Note:

    IP Addresses should be the IP Addresses of Management Servers.

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    12.

    On the Show Contents dialog box, Click OK.

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    13.

    Click OK and close the GPO Editor.

    		  

    In the coming post I will continue step by step for Operations Manager 2007 R2 Installation with screenshots.

     

    Related Posts:

     

  • System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Delta Discovery

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Maged Ezzat}

    In the past discovering new objects from Active Directory and to start managing any new object was taking long time, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 introduce a new good feature called Delta Discovery.

    In this post I will go through a new System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 feature which is Delta Discovery that enhances the discovery capabilities of Configuration Manager by discovering only new or changed resources in Active Directory instead of performing a full discovery cycle. The interval by which delta discovery searches for new resources can be configured by the user to a short interval as only discovering new resources does not affect the performance of the site server as much as a full cycle. Delta discovery can detect the following new resource types:

    · Computer objects

    · User objects

    · Security group objects

    · System group objects

    Delta discovery only reads Active Directory attribute changes which are replicated. Non-replicated attributes, which are changed, such as the memberof attribute, are not collected by delta discovery unless a change to a replicated attribute is made at the same time. For example, adding a user or machine account to a particular group or Organizational Unit (OU) does not force the object to be replicated at the next delta discovery cycle. The value that we look at in Active Directory is the USNChanged value.

    USNChanged value is an incrementing value that is specific to a particular Domain Controller (DC). This is how the DC does sequencing of changes. Every time an object is updated, that object is tagged with the current USNChanged value for that DC, then the DC increments its USNChanged value. When we do a Delta Discovery, we write to the database the current USNChanged value for that DC. Therefore, the next time we kick off a Delta Discovery we check all objects that have a USNChanged value greater than the value that we stored from the last Delta Discovery. Since this value is unique to a particular DC, we will always try to go back to that DC to complete the Delta Discovery process so that we pull only changed values. If for some reason, that DC is offline or inaccessible, then we will fall over to another DC. However, this will force a full Discovery as the USNChanged value will be different on this device and we cannot accurately tell what objects are changed.

    Delta discovery is not enabled by default in Configuration Manager 2007 R3. When enabled, it will run, by default every 5 minutes.

    To Configure Delta Discovery

    1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Site Management / <site code> – <site name> / Site Settings / Discovery Methods.

    2. Right-click one of the following discovery methods and then click Properties:

    · Active Directory System Group Discovery

    · Active Directory Security Group Discovery

    · Active Directory System Discovery

    · Active Directory User Discovery

    3. In the Polling Schedule tab for the selected discovery method, enable the option Enable delta discovery.

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    4. In the Delta discovery interval (minutes) field, specify the interval in minutes at which delta discovery will run.

    5. Click OK to close the Discovery Method dialog box.

    It is really good feature that will make different with System Center IT Administrators.

     

    Related Posts:

    System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Dynamic Collection: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/23/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-dynamic-collection.aspx 

    "Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Power Management Overview" Part 1 can found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/09/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-power-management-part1-overview.aspx

    "Update Client for Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Power Management" Part 2 can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/11/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-power-management-part-2-update-clients-for-power-management.aspx 

    Step-by-Step how to Audit Configuration Manager 2007 Activities:  http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/17/step-by-step-how-to-audit-configuration-manager-2007-activities.aspx

  • Unstable connectivity behaviour on Hyper-V guests

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by zarafeh}

    Environment:

    Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V Role

    Symptopms:

     VMs on a certain Hyper-V host were having bizzare connectivity patterns, when I tried to ping other machines, I would get three types of ICMP reponses for the same ICMP request. below is a snapshot

     

    The network configuration is shown below, with the stable and the unstable communication paths

     

     

    Resolution:

    1- disable netDMA on the Host NIC (check this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037)

    2- Disable Large Send Offload on the Host NIC (in the advanced properties of the NIC)

     

  • System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Dynamic Collection

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Maged Ezzat}

    In this post I will go through a new System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 feature which is Dynamic Collection that can increase collection speed and decrease load on Configuration Manager Database,

    Query-based collections in Configuration Manager 2007 are periodically evaluated, based on a schedule you specify to update their membership from the site database. Even if there are no changes in the collection being evaluated, the entire collection is still processed. The default period between collection evaluations is 1 day. You can decrease this period, but evaluating collections with many members might cause a high load on your site database.

    Dynamic collection evaluation in Configuration Manager 2007 R3 allows you to scan only certain resources that have been newly added to the site database. Because this improves the speed at which you can evaluate collections and also lessens the processing load on the database, it is possible to increase the frequency at which you evaluate collections and therefore keep the data shown in the administrator console more up to date.

    The following resources can be evaluated by dynamic collection evaluation:

    · Resources that have been initially discovered.

    · Resources that have been provisioned with operating system deployment.

    · Resources that have reported initial hardware inventory.

    · Resources that have been upgraded to a newer version of the Configuration Manager 2007 client.

    To configure dynamic collection evaluation

    1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Collections.

    2. Right-click the collection that you want to configure for dynamic collection evaluation, and then click Properties.

    3. In the Membership Rules tab of the <Collection Name> Properties dialog box, enable the checkbox” Dynamically add new resources”.

    4. Click OK to exit the <Collection Name> Properties dialog box.

    · Computer objects

    · User objects

    · Security group objects

    · System group objects

    It is really another good feature that in general enhance Configuration Manager Performance.

     

    Related Posts:

    System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Delta Discovery: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/23/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-delta-discovery.aspx

    "Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Power Management Overview" Part 1 can found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/09/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-power-management-part1-overview.aspx

    "Update Client for Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Power Management" Part 2 can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/11/system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3-power-management-part-2-update-clients-for-power-management.aspx

    Step-by-Step how to Audit Configuration Manager 2007 Activities:  http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/17/step-by-step-how-to-audit-configuration-manager-2007-activities.aspx