SCVMM

Blog: TechEd Berlin: Using Microsoft System Center to Manage Beyond the Trusted Domain

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:22:03 GMT

Rory McCaw and myself will be in Berlin at TechEd next week and hope to see you there!

We will be co-presenting in a level 300 breakout session on Monday, November 9th titled "Using System Center to Manage Beyond the Trusted Domain". We'll be discussing how to leverage PKI in Windows 2008 R2 to extend the reach of System Center to systems outside the Active Directory trust boundary. I've included a preview agenda below. We hope to see you there!

Preview Agenda

Windows 2008 PKI Drill Down
Using PKI to Extend the Reach of System Center
Changes in Provisioning Certificates in Windows 2008
Bulk Certificate Provisioning for System Center
Managing Internet-Based Clients with ConfigMgr 2007
Troubleshooting Certificate Issues
Monitoring CA and Certificate Validity

Blog: Powershell: OpsMgr Alert-to-Speech (cool idea from Gary Broadwater at Quest)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:48:32 GMT

A customer request had me looking around the support community of one of our community sponsors - Quest. (The site is management-extensions.org). While I was there, I ran across something that raises some interesting possibilities for audible alarms using the OpsMgr Command Notification Channel. This would be especially with remoting in Powershell 2.0 so we could execute the audible alarm on a system that is NOT the RMS.

Gary Broadwater (eXc-turned-Quest architect) posted the most simple Powershell snippet HERE.

If you save this as a text_to_speech.ps1 file and pass a text string to it, your computer will recite the words. Text-to-speech in 3 lines. They don't call it Powershell for nothing.

################################
# Company: Quest Software
# Author: Gary Broadwater
################################

$q = new-object -com SAPI.SpVoice
$q.speak($args)
$q = $null

Sample Run

I ran exactly this on my computer, and I could make the words out very clearly!

.\text_to_speech.ps1 Quest extends system center to the non-windows world!

Calling the script remotely from the RMS

Then, from your OpsMgr RMS, you could use the notification command channel to call the remote script. I have Powershell 2.0 running on an OpsMgr lab server, so I would expect this should be okay, but you'd want to test carefully I think. I don't think I'd do this without Powershell 2.0, because you need it for remoting to avoid running this on the RMS. Here's PoSh 2.0 syntax to do it.

invoke-command -computername RemoteAlertComputer -filepath c:\Scripts\text_to_speech.ps1

NOTE: You could work out how to pass the OpsMgr alert description with the standard XPath as a script argument, but I think this would work best with a short message hard-coded in the script.

And a Personal Comment on Quest

I have talked with the technical folks at Quest about what they're doing with PRO and virtualization, application virtualization, extending Configuration Manager to support non-Windows systems, and they are working on some pretty cool answers for difficult technology and business problems. I have to say I am genuinely excited to see what develops. And I want to add this personal note about the tech support I've received from these guys. In short, the best of any ISV I have worked with. Gary, Tony and gang have delivered for me whenever I needed an assist.

Take a look at the ways Quest extends System Center at http://www.quest.com/system-center/

Visit the Quest Heterogeniuses Blog

Articles: SCVMM 2008 R2 w/ Windows Server 2008 R2 and LiveMigration

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:48:26 GMT

Presentation at AtlSMUG during our October 2009 meeting.

Blog: The Springboard Series Community Partei @ Microsoft TechEd Berlin

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:53:39 GMT

Cool party announced for TechEd Europe on the TechNet Plus Blog.

If you plan to attend Microsoft TechEd in Berlin, join us for a special celebration!

Party Details and Registration URL

On Tuesday, 10 November, at 21:00, get ready to rub shoulders with some of the world’s most powerful IT Professionals and community influencers.
Exclusively for Springboard Series Technical Expert Panelists (STEP), Microsoft MVPs, TechNet Plus Subscribers, and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs), the Springboard Series Community Partei held the week of TechEd Europe in Berlin, Germany, is your opportunity to network with industry peers and key Microsoft executives, learn about other communities and special offerings, and enjoy an evening full of music (DJ’d by our very own Joey Snow and David Lowe), food, drinks, and fun—all compliments of Microsoft.
Party attendance is limited, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot at TechEd Europe’s only community party!

Brought to you by Springboard Series, TechNet+ Subscriptions and Microsoft Server

Registration Site: https://microsoft.crgevents.com/CommunityPartei/

Registration Code: TE-TN

Blog: Microsoft Management Summit 2010 Content Survey Now Available

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:34:24 GMT

The Microsoft Management Summit 2010 Content Survey is now available. The objective to the survey is to get an idea of the content desires and expectations of the attendees. If you participate in the survey, you have a chance at a prize as well according to this excerpt from the MMS site:

"When the survey closes on Monday, Dec 22nd 2009 we will draw two entries from amongst the responses and will send a Portable Media Player to those respondents".

Where to take the survey

Click the URL below to go to the survey page

http://www.mms-2010.com/wizard/content_survey/wp1.aspx

Blog: Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool now available for download

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:11:46 GMT

A few days ago, Microsoft released their own version of a "virtualization readiness" tool for checking your server for hardware virtualization support. We actually had incorrect information from the Intel version of such a tool when looking at a Dell Server. It took the Dell OMSA to tell us the BIOS was not at the minimum required level. Will be interesting to see the differences between the tools.

Overview

Windows Virtual PC requires processors capable of hardware-assisted virtualization with AMD-V™, Intel® VT or VIA® VT turned on in the BIOS.
The HAV detection tool helps you check if the computer processor supports hardware virtualization. The tool also checks if this feature is enabled on the processor.
For more information about Windows Virtual PC, please visit the Windows Virtual PC website.

Where to get it
Download the tool from the Microsoft site at the URL below

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0ee2a17f-8538-4619-8d1c-05d27e11adb2&displaylang=en

Blog: Hyper-V Management and Delegated Administration for non-Administrators when using SCVMM

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:54:11 GMT

This is something I was trying to work out a few months ago, but couldn't. Ben explains to how to configure this scenario

Ben Armstrong writes:

A while ago I blogged about how to allow non-administrators to control Hyper-V. You do this by editing the Hyper-V authorization store. What I failed to mention at that time was that this method does not work if you are using SCVMM to manage your Hyper-V servers.

When you start using SCVMM to manage a Hyper-V server, SCVMM creates their own authorization store to be used by Hyper-V. As long as you only use SCVMM to manage your environment – this is fine. But if you want to continue to use the Hyper-V management tools, and want to allow a non-administrator to control Hyper-V – you can do this.
All you need to do is to is follow the directions in my original post – but instead of editing “\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\InitialStore.xml” on the system partition edit “\ProgramData\Microsoft\Virtual Machine Manager\HyperVAuthStore.xml” on the system partition.

Then everything will work correctly.

Read the complete story at the source

Blog: Too good to be true…..well it usually is but is QMX the exception to the rule?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:56:22 GMT

Monitoring Wintel platforms from SCOM is straight forward enough. It’s the extra 3, 5, 10, 20 (ok, i’m going OTT there!!) other plasma’s on the wall with monitoring systems for HP, Cisco, Oracle, Linux etc that causes a support nightmare. For a start, how are you supposed to watch, manage and understand so many different [...]

Blog: Collection of Virtualization Keyboard Shortcuts

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:44:19 GMT

Here are some virtualization Keyboard shortcuts I have collected over time from product documentation, newsgroups and blogs.

Hyper-V Shortcuts
VMware Shortcuts
Virtual PC Shortcuts

Hyper-V Shortcuts

Key combination	Description
CTRL + ALT + END	Displays the Task Manager or Windows Security dialog box on Windows (or logs in).
ALT + PAGE UP	Switches between programs from left to right.
ALT + PAGE DOWN	Switches between programs from right to left.
ALT + INSERT	Cycles through the programs in the order they were started.
ALT + HOME	Displays the Windows Start menu.
CTRL + ALT + PAUSE	Changes the Virtual Machine Connection window to / from full screen mode.
CTRL + ALT + LEFT ARROW	Releases mouse and keyboard focus from the Virtual Machine Connection window.

VMware Keyboard Shortcuts

Key combination	Description
Ctrl-Alt-Insert	Restores Virtual PC Console from a minimized state. Moves Virtual PC Console to the foreground.
Ctrl-Alt	is also used for - exiting full screen mode
Ctrl-Alt-Enter	Expands the current VM into full-screen. If you have a number of VMs, this sequence will also move you between virtual machines
Ctrl-Alt-Tab	switch between VMs when the mouse is grabbed
Ctrl-Tab	switch between VMs when the mouse is not grabbed but VMware is the active window
Ctrl-Alt	is used to exit a Virtual machine from having control of your mouse and return your mouse control to the host machine
Ctrl-Alt-Space	will allow you to send a keyboard sequence usually used with VMware server to the VMware guest without VMware Server recognizing it

Virtual PC

Key combination	Description
Host key+L	Restores Virtual PC Console from a minimized state. Moves Virtual PC Console to the foreground.
Host key+I	Installs Virtual Machine Additions.
Host key+ENTER	Toggles a virtual machine between full-screen mode and window mode.
Host key+DELETE	Sends CTRL+ALT+DELETE to the virtual machine operating system.
Host key+P	Pauses or resumes the virtual machine, depending upon its current state.
Host key+R	Resets the virtual machine.
Host key+F4	Closes the virtual machine.
Host key+C	Copies the selected items.
Host key+V	Pastes a copied item.
Host key+A	Selects all.
Host key+E	Opens the virtual machine settings.
Host key+DOWN ARROW	Minimizes the virtual machine.
Host key+LEFT ARROW	Switches to the previous virtual machine when running multiple virtual machines, unless you are using full-screen mode.
Host key+RIGHT ARROW	Switches to the next virtual machine when running multiple virtual machines, unless you are using full-screen mode.

Blog: TIP: How to disable IPv6 in Windows 2008 Server Core

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:37 GMT

Here is a tip I wanted to post for reference since it took a bit of time to track down... I was experiencing odd network behavior in a Server Core install install recently and wanted to disable IPv6.

reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip6\parameters /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d 0xFF

To verify results, run the following command

netsh interface ipv6 show interfaces

As a note of warning, be careful disabling IPv6 after network services are installed. This can cause timeouts with DNS lookups when performed on a DNS server amongst other things.

Blog: SQL Query: How to identify largest tables by rowcount in System Center SQL databases

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:36:54 GMT

Identifying large tables in Operations Manager 2007 and other SQL databases can be useful when you are trying to determine if a particular table is not being groomed as expected, or otherwise growing out of control.

This query uses an undocumented stored procedure called sp_MSforeachtable to return all tables in the OperationsManager database in descending order by rowcount. I set it to return the top 1000 tables, which more than covered my database. You can of course use this to identify large tables in any MS SQL database.

Use OperationsManager
create table #rowcount (tablename varchar(128), rowcnt int)
exec sp_MSforeachtable 
   'insert into #rowcount select ''?'', count(*) from ?'
select top 1000 * from #rowcount
    order by rowcnt DESC
drop table #rowcount

I'll post a few other queries that are useful in identifying the incoming load to your OpsMgr databases as well as time allows.

Blog: Rescheduled: System Center Virtual User Group meeting #8

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:09:59 GMT

Due to a last minute schedule conflict, the System Center Virtual User Group meeting #8 will be rescheduled for November...Details will be posted as soon as we have them, but agenda is expected to be the same...

Agenda (Central Time Zone)

Presenter	Topic
Scott Moss	Introductions	12:00 - 12:05
Simon Skinner	AVICode	12:10 - 12:40
Jeremiah Beckett	Security Auditing SP2 for ACS, Technical Overview	12:45 - 1:20
Pete Zerger	Creating Linked Reports in the R2 Authoring Console	1:25 - 1:55
Scott Moss	SWAG Drawing Closing Open for Questions	1:55 - 2:10

Registration

We have an excellent line up for this meeting so join us by registering here.

PC Audio only for Attendees

Audio will only be available through Live Meeting

Presenter Bios

Simon Skinner

Simon Skinner is the principal engineer for SecQuorum in France. SecQuorum is a System Center specialist hosting Ops Mgr R2, AVIcode Intercept studio and SCCM (education only). He is a regular blogger on System Center Central as well as a technical planner for a large global Public Relations company. Simon in the past has done Microsoft Technical pre sales for a large Microsoft Gold Partner as well many implementations of Ops Mgr and SCCM.

Jeremiah Beckett

Jeremiah Beckett is the founder and president of Secure Vantage Technologies, Inc. (SVT) a Microsoft Gold partner that specialized in security and compliance auditing software for System Center technologies. Jeremiah is a recognized industry expert in IT security and compliance bringing over 10 years expertise in enterprise management. Jeremiah is a regular guest speaker at Microsoft events and author of the ACS Master Class Series, ACS Wiki on System Center Central plus contributing author in SCOM R2 Unleashed ebook.

Pete Zerger (MVP)

Pete Zerger is a consulting partner with AKOS Technology Services and has nine years of experience in the IT industry. He focuses on design and deployment of enterprise operations management, directory services, and messaging solutions. Pete holds an MCSE for Messaging, an MCTS for SQL Server 2005, and he is a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Operations Manager. He is founder of System Center Forum, a popular community site covering Operations Manager 2007, Essentials 2007 and the System Center Suite.

Thank you for your continued support!

Scott Moss

president - System Center Virtual User Group

vice president - Atlanta Systems Management User Group

Blog: Monitor 10 times the nodes out of the box during your Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) for Operations Manager and Configuration Manager trial.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:33:06 GMT

Monitor 10 times the nodes out of the box during your Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) for Operations Manager and Configuration Manager trial. Effective 5:00 PT 10/12/2009, the out of the box node counts have increased from 2 nodes to 20 nodes. This will make it easier for you to see firsthand how convenient it is to [...]

Blog: New sudo command use option for QMX - Operations Manager extensions for Unix and Linux

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:17 GMT

Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) - Operations Manager 2007 Edition (and MOM) for the most popular Unix and Linux extensions are now enabled for sudo command option. Here is a list of extensions upgraded with this feature: AIX, HPUX, Solaris, RedHat, CentOS, Oracle Enterprise, SuSe, Debian, Fedora & Ubuntu. Downloads can be found here: http://management-extensions.org/monitorextensions.jspa

Blog: New sudo command use option for QMX - Configuration Manager extensions for Unix and Linux

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:15 GMT

Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) - Configuration Manager 2007 Edition (and MOM) for the most popular Unix and Linux extensions are now enabled for sudo command option. Here is a list of extensions upgraded with this feature: AIX, HPUX, Solaris, RedHat, CentOS, Oracle Enterprise, SuSe, Debian, Fedora & Ubuntu. Downloads available here: http://management-extensions.org/configagentless.jspa

Blog: LeftHand Networks extension for System Center Operations Manager updated w/ new mibs.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:14 GMT

The LeftHand Networks extension for System Center Operations Manager has been updated with the latest mibs. Check out the new monitoring description and/or get the new download here. While you are there, take a look at over 250 available Quest Management Xtension (QMX) - Operation Manager extensions. If you don’t see what you need - let us know and we [...]

Blog: Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) base framework v4.0.0.509 for Operations Manager Release

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:12 GMT

The latest base framework release is scheduled for early next week. Links to the release notes…etc. will be published right here on the Heterogeniuses blog. The new base framework will support the following products: Quest Management Xtensions - Operations Manager Quest Management Pack for AS400 - Operations Manager Quest Management Pack for z/OS - Operations Manager Quest Management [...]

Blog: QMX Base Framework v 4.0.0.509 Release scheduled for early next week

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:11 GMT

The latest base framework release is scheduled for early next week. Links to the release notes…etc. will be published right here on the Heterogeniuses blog. The new base framework will support the following agent-less products: Quest Management Xtensions for Device Management - Configuration Manager 2007 Edition Quest Management Xtensions for Device Managment - SMS 2003 Edition Note that [...]

Blog: QMX - Operations Manager Cisco extension - IOS Screen Shots

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:10 GMT

We have had a lot of requests lately for screen shots of the Quest Management Xtension - Operations Manager 2007 Edition (QMX - OM) extension for Cisco. The link below will take you to two different sets of screen shots. The first is a collection of views of the tabs associated with the QMX configuration tool and the [...]

Blog: Managing Mac’s with SCCM - Getting Started

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:17:08 GMT

In this post I wanted to give a brief, high-level overview of how I would set up a Mac to be a client for an existing SCCM 2007 infrastructure. The benefits of having Macs managed by SCCM are fairly obvious but worth re-iterating. First, I get the ability to have a central repository for reporting against inventory on my Mac computers. So...