Trying to give something back to the Community...
Following on from my previous post, I thought it would help if I gave you links to send me an email if you're able to help in any of the areas needed, so here goes:
All you need to do is click on the relevant link, complete the body text of the email and click the "Send" button - easy peasey.
In case you’re wondering why there has been a lack of activity on FAQShop of late it’s not because I’ve been on holiday or some other jolly – far from it.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been wanting to develop the new version of FAQShop based on a Content Management System (CMS or database driven), because of the numerous advantages such sites offer. But each time I think I’ve found a suitable piece of software, when I invest the time to “play” with it the end result is I find it’s unsuitable primarily because it doesn’t support the hierarchical structure currently employed on FAQShop (a key feature that sets the site apart from others and which is something I want to maintain going forward).
That was until Rod tipped me off about Drupal which from early on seemed to fit the bill. Anyway, to cut a long story short I’ve started developing the new version of FAQShop using Drupal and so far so good.
I am planning to continue to update the current FAQShop site on a more regular basis than of late, but for now I don’t plan on developing it any further including launching the Newsletter – apologies to those that have signed up, it is coming I promise and you’ll be the first to know about it.
I may add the “SCCM” and “SCOM” sections although I may save adding these until the new version of the site launches – nothing is set in stone and obviously the time taken to develop the new version of the site will somewhat dictate this decision.
How can you help?
Well if you want to help shape the future of the Microsoft Systems Management Community and see your name in lights then read on.
But many others will help right?
Please don’t think “Oh I don’t need to help as plenty of others will volunteer” as you’d probably be surprised to hear that I think I’ll struggle to get any volunteers to help me with this, which for me personally is very disheartening bearing in mind I provide FAQShop at my own expense, in my own time, and I don’t get paid for doing it – yes I do it primarily for love and to help a community that has helped me countless times in the past and I’ve no doubt will continue to do so in the future (okay enough of the violins – I’m not looking for any medals, just telling you how things are this side of the fence).
So in closing (and apologies this is a humungous Blog post), there are exciting times ahead for all of us. I hope as many of you as possible grab this opportunity with both hands to help shape the future of and ultimately strengthen the Microsoft Systems Management Community.
As always any thoughts, comments, questions, feedback, etc. you know who to call.
OK so I was feeling rather unloved and unappreciated earlier in terms of FAQShop and wondering whether providing the site and everything I do in the Microsoft Community is really appreciated.
I don’t think some people understand all that goes into providing and running a website trying to help people – it’s not just about researching and writing articles, answering forum posts, etc. Trust me there is a hell of a lot that goes on behind the scenes that isn’t always visible.
Anyway, this got me thinking that we maybe all take things and people in our lives for granted and ASSUME they know how much we appreciate them and all they do for us, but because we don’t ACTUALLY tell them they don’t know and feel unloved/ unappreciated.
So please if you’re reading this, make a point of actually TELLING those that make a difference to your life in whatever way (big or small), how much you appreciate them and what they do for you whether it be via an email, instant message, phonecall, email, etc. just take those few seconds to say “Thankyou”.
I’d like to say a big thankyou to Necy, my family and friends both those I’ve made in the past (many of whom are amongst the Systems Management community and of course the UK Garrison), and those I’ve yet to meet.
For sometime now I have been conscious of the need to re-write FAQShop to not only address issues (such as the fact the site uses frames which I know some of you find frustrating but it seemed a good idea at the time OR posting new articles to the site is a time consuming process, amongst others).
But I also want to be able to add new features such as RSS feeds so you guys get to know about updated content on the site as soon as it is published amongst others.
Ideally I want the new version of the site to use some sort of database backend which will make it easy to search and hopefully much easier to use and maintain all of which = more content for YOU.
I have been looking at several possible packages to develop the new version but they a) either don’t allow me to replicate the current hierarchical structure of the site (i.e. topic, sub-topic, article) which I know from your feedback you love or b) involve some weird and whacky programming language I’d need to learn to even try to attempt to use the software.
So how can YOU help?
Well if you know of other sites you like the “look and feel” of, have cool features, etc. then post here – they don’t have to be IT-related.
Also let me know of:
We’re well into organising our next meeting for the Windows Management User Group (WMUG), here in the UK.
One idea that came to mind is I thought it would be really cool if all of the various User Groups “out there” that look at Microsoft’s Management products were to share presentations from previous meetings.
This would not only save everyone re-inventing the wheel, but would also give groups a chance to give presentations that had already been delivered to other groups.
If you run such a group (or if you are a member of a group I’d be grateful if you could pass this onto the folks that run your group), and are interested in creating a library of presentations then please get in touch.
If you ever need to perform any sort of disk maintenance on your Site Servers it’s always a good idea to stop the SMS Services BEFORE doing so as demonstrated by one user who decided to extend the drive on their SAN containing the Site Database of their Central without doing so first.
My understanding is that for some reason SMS decided it wanted to move the existing CAP that existed on a different drive onto the newly extended drive.
As soon as SMS “saw” the newly created disk it attempted to create the CAP which it couldn’t as the drive wasn’t fully operational at the time. As a result the Central ground to a standstill and none of it’s Child Primaries could communicate with it.
To resolve the issue the new CAP was removed and the Site Server rebooted.
I’ve asked if possible for more details so i can formulate this into a proper article but in the mean time here is the error they were seeing:
Possible cause: The destination drive is full.
Solution: Make more space available on that drive.
Possible cause: The destination site system is turned off, not connected to the network, or not functioning properly.
Solution: Verify that the site system is turned on, connected to the network, and functioning properly.
Possible cause: SMS In box Manager does not have sufficient access rights to remotely administer the site system.
Solution: Verify that the Site System Connection accounts are properly configured to allow SMS to remotely administer the site system.
Possible cause: Network problems are preventing SMS In box Manager from properly accessing the site system.
Solution: Investigate and correct any problems with your network.
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I’m delighted to announce that David Scambler has agreed to join the WMUG team. Welcome aboard David you’re a great asset to the team.
If any other UK-based users of Microsoft Systems Management technologies want to find out more about the Windows Management User Group checkout our website http://wmug.co.uk
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-may.mspx
The makers of Monopoly are planning to release a "Here & Now" UK edition of this popular board game featuring the Top 22 locations as voted for by the British public.
If you fancy voting for my city (Milton Keynes) then I'd be grateful.
To vote goto:
http://www.monopoly.co.uk/index.aspx
A recent report published by Quicirca found that IT departments are wasting large amounts of time and money (up to 80%) on maintaining their infrastructure. It's hardly surprising that a key finding of the report is that this figure can be drastically reduced through the use of Systems Management tools, which according to the report should offer the ability to create and deploy OS images. Now doesn't a certain tool we all know and love offer this amongst many other features?
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]If when you load the SMS Administrator Console it fails to connect to the SMS Site Database a problem with the "MSSQLSERVER" service is probably the cause... [Go to article]
Many thanks to all of you who took the time to attend the inaugural meeting of the Windows Management User Group. We hope you found it useful and look forward to getting this off the ground and working with you to make as best a group as we can.
For anyone that was unable to attend the meeting we will be publishing a copy of the presentation we gave on the WMUG website:
http://wmug.co.uk
Look out for further announcements on the site which of course I'll blog about.
If anyone has any questions about any aspect of the group or input on what you'd like to get from the group then get in touch.
SMS 2003Multi-Threaded Software Inventory Processing in SMS 2003 SP2Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]Software Inventory processing in SMS 2003 SP2 has now been changed to be multi-threaded. What does this mean?..
How do I enable Multi-Threaded Software Inventory Processing in SMS 2003 SP2?Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]As detailed in the "Multi-Threaded Software Inventory Processing in SMS 2003 SP2" article, Software Inventory processing in SMS 2003 SP2 has now been changed to be multi-threaded. But how do you enable it?..
MOM 2005Where is the "Test Email Notification" button?Contributed By: Peter Zerger [MVP MOM]Wondering how you can test email notifications are working in MOM 2005? Well it’s possibly quite simple…