Chris Stauffer at myITForum.com

Here is a corny  attempt at humor

http://www.froggyville.com/links.htm

Hey we only get this day once every 4 years so why not take advantage of it.

We have been seeing a problem crop up at several agencies that affected the SMS Web Console (originally authored by Ron Crumbaker)

The problem was that the console (Left side) would start to load and then it would disapear or it would just freak out and loop when trying to load. 

The fix for the SMS console problem people are experiencing.  The problem is due to Proventia Desktop and traffic that is being dropped.  Below is the information you need to add in order for your machines to be able to access SMS successfully.

Add this rule to your Proventia policy server

Hope this helps someone else.

Chris Stauffer <><

If you are still burning though your battery after the latest update try this. 

This is from the Zune community board.

*******************************************************
How are you turning it off?
When many people are done listening to their Zune they hold the play button thinking they are turning their device off. WRONG, holding play puts your device into a suspended sleep mode. This sleep mode is good for people who use their Zune off and on a lot throughout the day, but if you are going to shut off your Zune and keep it off for longer than 10-15 minutes a complete power off is a good idea.

Turn Off Your Zune
To turn off your Zune, you hold ‘down‘ and ‘back‘ simultaneously for about 5 seconds. This will completely turn off your Zune. The only downside to turning it completely off is that when you choose to turn it back on (hold ‘play‘) it has to boot up, which takes 5-10 seconds.

Rod just posted this!

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/myitforum/archive/2008/02/26/official-myitforum-com-mms-2008-booth-news.aspx

After I recieved a large request group for the install directions that I have created, I decided to alter my internal doc so that they can be released to the public.

Please enjoy and let me know if you find anything that needs fixed or updated as these where originally created in November. 

Chris Stauffer <><

 PS: I am also working on docs for Patch management and OS deployment but it will be a few months till those are completed.

From MMS News

 *******************************************************

The MMS 2008 Communications Network (CommNet) will open for access to Alumni attendees on Friday, February 29th.  This is two weeks before the CommNet site opens to registered attendees on March 14th, allowing Alumni to review the currently scheduled breakouts and labs and build their personal schedule before all registered attendees have access to the session booking system.

As Alumni probably remember from previous years, the Instructor Led Hands-on Labs at MMS are always popular and many sessions are fully booked long before the event opens.  This is especially true for the lab topics hosted on the opening day, Monday, April 28th.  

We therefore strongly recommend that registered Alumni who plan to attend any Instructor-led Lab sessions during the event should use this opportunity from Friday to book slots in the labs that interest them most.

BOOKING RULES
All registered attendees may initially reserve a place in up to 3 Instructor-led Lab (ILL) sessions.  Two weeks before the event opens, attendees may book an additional 3 ILL sessions for a total of 6 sessions.  Once the event opens any number of slots may be reserved, space permitting.  Only one ILL topic can be reserved in each event session timeslot.

This was just posted in the Forums

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/07/UtilitySpotlight/

although limited here www.tondtware.com/downloads.html

Interesting read about why Server 2008 is actually called Server 2008 SP1.

http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald/archive/2008/02/15/windows-server-2008-is-called-sp1-adventures-in-doing-things-right.aspx

 http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUST35829920080219\

 Well i guess i know what thewife can get me for fathers day now

Pdf is was 11 pages. It is now 18 pages

******************

The Hands-on Lab topics being hosted at MMS 2008 have now been added to the MMS 2008 Session Catalog. The majority of the topics listed will be offered in the self-paced hands on lab area which is available throughout each day of the event.  In addition 25 of these topics will be offered as scheduled Instructor-led lab sessions during the week.

To view the lab topics in the sessions catalog:

1. Navigate to the Sessions page of the MMS 2008 Web Site
2. Set the Session Type filter to Hands-on Lab
3. Press the Filter button to display the lab topics
4. Refine the filter settings to select topics by Track, Product, Level or Speaker

A PDF file with a complete list of all currently planned MMS 2008 sessions, including the Hands-on Lab topics, is available by clicking here: MMS 2008 Session Details.

Please note that the list of lab topics is still preliminary and subject to change.  Details of he Instructor-led Session Schedule will be published to all attendees in early March.

 Several people have asked repetedly how to make a report focus on a collection. Well the secret is the  v_FullCollectionMembership view.

 Here is how to add it. 

The best way to do it is this:

SELECT     v_GS_SYSTEM.Name0

FROM         v_GS_SYSTEM INNER JOIN

                      v_FullCollectionMembership ON v_GS_SYSTEM.ResourceID = v_FullCollectionMembership.ResourceID

WHERE     (v_FullCollectionMembership.CollectionID = @collid )

Start with this as your base report and add your other tables/joins and selects to it. 

Collection ID code (@collid)

SELECT  CollectionID, Name  FROM v_Collection order by Name

 See it pays off to share your knowledge

 *******************************************************

Chris submitted a TON of mof files for queries, reports, etc.

With his submission, he has one a free pass to the myITforum party.

Congrats Chris.

We (myITforum) will be uploading all the mofs to a website so you can download the ones you want.

Thanks again Chris!!


Ron Crumbaker
Microsoft MVP - SMS
Manager of Applications and Networking
Bremner, Inc.

***********************************************

Thanks Ron and Rod for the recognition it is appreciated.

Chris Stauffer <>< 

Ok i have spent the last 3 weeks trying to get the PXEFILTER.VBS working. I finally got it working today. First i would recomend turning on logging. It is very helpful. Please see my previous blog post for how to do that.

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/cstauffer/archive/2008/02/13/turning-on-logging-for-the-pxefilter-though-wds.aspx

Once  you have logging turned on you will need to do one of the following to the script.:

1. If you are running your WDS server on a seporate server from the SCCM server you will need to add credentials to access the system.

2. If you are like me and running everything on the same server then you do  NOT need credentials to connect to the server. This is because the script is accessing WMI with the local system account. So if you are having an issue with your PXEFilter.vbs script and WDS is on the same box as your SCCM and MDT server make sure that the username and password are blank.

 You will still need the sitecode, sccm server and the Collection but that is it. 

So the begining of your script should look like this

**********************************************************

sProviderServer = "LABCONFIGMGR01"
sSiteCode = "CM1"
sNamespace = "root\sms\site_" & sSiteCode
sUsername = ""
sPassword = ""
sCollection = "CM100010"

********************************************************** 

This problem was discovered after turning on logging and  getting this error.

 2280] 11:38:14: [WDSPXE] [Microsoft.BDD.PXEFilter] Error occurred at line 45 position 1: User credentials cannot be used for local connections

So if you are getting this error try removing the username and password.

special thanks once again to Michael Niehaus for pointing this out to me.

Chris Stauffer <><

Thanks to Mike Baiano for this info.

I have been trying to get the PXEFilter to work but have been unable to get it to work and have not been able to trace any logs for troubleshooting the problem untill now.

In order to see the PXEfilter log you will need to turn on logging in WDS. here is how to do it

 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936625 

Hope this helps someone.

I'm sill having an issue with the script but atleast now i know it is running  

Chris Stauffer <><