June 2009 - Posts

New use for Twitter
Saturday, June 27, 2009 2:17 PM

It summer! Last night I was sitting on a patio talking with some friends. The subject came up what things we like to do during a teen years. Well the drive-in was tops on everyone list. This reminded me that there is a drive-in about 45 minutes away from my place.

So today, While working on a MDT/OSD issue, (I’m starting to dislike MDT and OSD!) I need to hurry up a wait, so I when searching for the drive-in web site. I found it. http://www.portelmsleydrivein.com/

When you check out their web site you will see that they create a Twitter account to announce what movie will be on each week. www.twitter.com/ptelmsleydrivin. Well I’m signed up, so now I will know which movie will be at the drive-in this year! Does you drive-in do this?


by Garth Jones
Filed under:
TechDays 2009 Discount Code
Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:33 PM

This fall, TechDays returns with more deep technical training on the very latest Microsoft technologies, and I’m excited to be able to offer you a special VIP price of just $249 until July 1. After July 1st the early bird price will be $299.

Don’t miss this chance to build your skills and share — Reference this code TDUGVIP and you can buy your tickets now and please share the code with whom you think would enjoy this year’s event.  Please just pass on the promo code and they’ll receive the same exclusive price!

I know this is a busy time for everyone and I commend each of you for the time you give back to the community and that why we wanted to get this out early to you as our hope is that this offer at some level can help you show more value with your user group, community and help support technical readiness across Canada.

TechDays 2009

As budgets get tighter, TechDays is the perfect way to get the Tech-Ed experience without the travel expense , with two days of skill-strengthening education to help you position yourself for success by:

· Learning the technology—with a customizable agenda from over forty skill-strengthening sessions across five technical tracks you can get the exact knowledge you want on the hottest new products.  Get the knowledge you’re looking for on both current technologies and new products, like Windows® 7, and Microsoft® Exchange 2010;

· Connecting with Experts and Peers—with Birds-of-a-Feather lunches and the new Windows 7 Lounge , you’ll have lots of opportunities to share your ideas with those who know the products best; and

· Applying what you learn—with a Learning Kit packed with products and resources so, you can continue to grow your skills long after the event has finished.

 

Dates

The final TechDays dates and cities are as follows:

• Vancouver – September 14 & 15, 2009

• Toronto – September 29 & 30, 2009

• Halifax – November 2 & 3, 2009

• Calgary – November 17 & 18, 2009

• Montreal – December 2 & 3, 2009

• Ottawa – December 9 & 10, 2009

• Winnipeg – December 15 & 16, 2009

Prices

The pricing for TechDays is as follows:

· VIP pricing – now until July 1st - $249.99

o This pricing is by invite code (TDUGVIP) 

· Early Bird pricing – July 1st until 6 weeks prior to event date - $299.99

· Full Conference price - $599.99

MS is still working on the learning kit and hope to send that information out as I get it.  MS already have a good start and right now I know that every guest of TechDays 2009 will get a Tech·Ed Online subscription with access to premium learning content worth over $250.00....nice start!


What is Your biggest pain point?
Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:42 AM

What is Your biggest pain point?

  • Monitor power options
  • Monitor serial number accuracy
  • Native monitor resolution information
  • Automatic documenting your environment (Servers, SQL, SCCM, etc)
  • Printer Information (Local vs network, who is connected to which network printer)
  • USB device data
  • Other

To vote please visit: (Only one vote per IP address)

http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=9


by Garth Jones
Filed under:
OWSUG invitation to the Ottawa IT Community Awards Night
Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:09 AM

Register to attend!

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Presents

The Ottawa IT Community Awards Night

Tue June 30th 2009 on Elgin Street

Free food • Prizes • Awards Presentation • Celebration

Hosted by

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With summer almost officially upon us, these 4 IT community organisations are teaming up to host the Ottawa IT Community Awards Night, honouring the partners and members that helped to make 2008/2009 another great season for developers, IT pros and DBAs.  The celebrations will include free food and some great competition and draw prizes.

Space is limited so check your calendar and register early for a great lead into Canada Day.

Follow this link to registration and event details - you must register to attend and qualify for prizes:

https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=139081

Funding and/or prizes for the event provided in part by the following generous event sponsors

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ConfigMgr / SCCM / SMS site server documentation Script v1.14
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:00 PM

The ConfigMgr / SCCM / SMS site server documentation script has been updated, for more details see Enhansoft blog post.

 

http://support.enhansoft.com/Blogs/post/2009/06/16/ConfigMgr-Documentation-script-v114.aspx

 

Remember that the command line is cscript sydi-sms114.vbs


by Garth Jones
Filed under: ,
List PCs with Dup Serial Numbers
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 8:40 AM

Select
    CS.Name0,
    Bios.SerialNumber0
From
    dbo.v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM CS
    join dbo.v_GS_PC_BIOS Bios on CS.ResourceID = Bios.Resourceid
Where
    Bios.SerialNumber0 in (Select
                                Bios.SerialNumber0
                            From
                                dbo.v_GS_PC_BIOS Bios
                            Group by
                                Bios.SerialNumber0
                            Having
                                count(Bios.SerialNumber0) > 1 )


by Garth Jones
Filed under: , ,
TechDays 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 8:20 AM

Last year with your help we launched TechDays as a Canada-wide program to drive technical readiness across the ICT ecosystem.  The feedback was very positive and it turned out to be our largest ever technical education conference series for IT Professionals and Developers in Canada.   While the customers feedback was positive there was still more we could do to support you.  As user group members and key industry influencers it’s important that we give you early notice, get you involved and I have many emails which highlight that we needed to provide a special offer for you to share. 

So, here’s your early notice, as well we’ve included a “stimulus” offer for you to share and please connect with Damir, Rodney or John to get involved with the event, online portal, content and sessions. 

This fall, TechDays returns with more deep technical training on the very latest Microsoft technologies, and I’m excited to be able to offer you a special VIP price of just $249 until July 1. After July 1st the early bird price will be $299.

Don’t miss this chance to build your skills and share — Reference this code TDUGVIP and you can buy your tickets now and please share the code with whom you think would enjoy this year’s event.  Please just pass on the promo code and they’ll receive the same exclusive price!

I know this is a busy time for everyone and I commend each of you for the time you give back to the community and that why we wanted to get this out early to you as our hope is that this offer at some level can help you show more value with your user group, community and help support technical readiness across Canada.

TechDays 2009

As budgets get tighter, TechDays is the perfect way to get the Tech-Ed experience without the travel expense , with two days of skill-strengthening education to help you position yourself for success by:

· Learning the technology—with a customizable agenda from over forty skill-strengthening sessions across five technical tracks you can get the exact knowledge you want on the hottest new products.  Get the knowledge you’re looking for on both current technologies and new products, like Windows® 7, and Microsoft® Exchange 2010;

· Connecting with Experts and Peers—with Birds-of-a-Feather lunches and the new Windows 7 Lounge , you’ll have lots of opportunities to share your ideas with those who know the products best; and

· Applying what you learn—with a Learning Kit packed with products and resources so, you can continue to grow your skills long after the event has finished.

Dates

The final TechDays dates and cities are as follows:

• Vancouver – September 14 & 15, 2009

• Toronto – September 29 & 30, 2009

• Halifax – November 2 & 3, 2009

• Calgary – November 17 & 18, 2009

• Montreal – December 2 & 3, 2009

• Ottawa – December 9 & 10, 2009

• Winnipeg – December 15 & 16, 2009

Prices

The pricing for TechDays is as follows:

· VIP pricing – now until July 1st - $249.99

o This pricing is by invite code (TDUGVIP) 

· Early Bird pricing – July 1st until 6 weeks prior to event date - $299.99

· Full Conference price - $599.99

We are still working on the learning kit and hope to send that information out as we get it.  We already have a good start and right now we know that every guest of TechDays 2009 will get a Tech·Ed Online subscription with access to premium learning content worth over $250.00....nice start!


Newsletter June 2009 - Update
Tuesday, June 09, 2009 9:38 AM

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June 18th 2009 User Group Meeting

Topic: Introduction to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 SP1 (DPM).

Description:

Through discussions and demonstrations, we will be covering installation and configuration in DPM . We will talk about common situations and look at how DPM can meet these needs.

Presenter Bio:

Islam Gomaa is a Senior Systems Administrator at e-academy. He has over eight years of experience in IT in a Windows Server environment.  Additionally, he has 3 years of experience deploying and implementing System Center Data Protection Manager in several sites. Islam is a member of the Ottawa Windows Server User Group executive committee and the Team Lead of the SharePoint study group.

Agenda:
5:00 p.m.  Event registration
5:30 p.m.  Presentation
7:30 p.m.  Q & A
8:00 p.m.  Door Prizes

Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J9

Notes:  Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both. Please note that no one will be admitted after 5:55 p.m.!

RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=138745

 

Ottawa IT Community Awards Night

Summer is around the corner and the Ottawa Windows Server User Group is teaming up with the Ottawa .NET and the SQL Database User group for an Awards Night to honour the organizations and individuals that helped make 2008/2009 another great season for Developers, IT Pros, and DBA’s. The event will be taking place on Tuesday evening (June 30th) on Elgin street. Pencil this date into your calendar and get ready to kick off the Canada Day celebrations with a BANG! More details to follow shortly.

Links

OWSUG.ca Web Site          http://owsug.ca/

OWSUG.ca Mailing list     http://lists.owsug.ca

OWSUG.ca Blog                  http://owsug.ca/blogs/MainFeed.aspx

OWSUG.ca Forums            http://owsug.ca/forums/default.aspx


Enhansoft re-launches website with new look and services.
Saturday, June 06, 2009 11:21 AM

Come visit the newly redesigned Enhansoft web site. Visitors to the revamped Enhansoft website will find a new look, content, graphics and design.

The redesigned site also features a wiki and blog to keep clients up-to-date.


by Garth Jones
Filed under:
How many certified System Center people are there? (April 2009)
Friday, June 05, 2009 9:04 AM

Here is something interesting that last time (July 2008), I did this blog post there were more OpsMgr certified people than ConfigMgr. Well as of April 9, 2009 there are more Certified ConfigMgr People than Opsmgr.

 

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Configuration      2,166

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007: Configuration      1,545

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuration      400

 

BTW, here are the number from April 8 2008


More System Center Training
Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:38 AM

I’m a little behind in reading some of my RSS feeds, anyways here are few more “free” training / “On Demand Web Seminar” that might interest you.

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Using Virtualization with Hyper-V to Deploy System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Level 300) On Demand Web Seminar

 

TechNet Webcast: Developing Custom Reports and Operational Dashboards with Operations Manager 2007 R2 (Level 400) On Demand Web Seminar

 

TechNet Webcast: Operations Manager 2007 R2 Deployment and Upgrade Best Practices (Level 300) On Demand Web Seminar

 

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization, WS2008, and Hyper-V vs. VMware On Demand Web Seminar


Training : How Microsoft does IT: Using Local Policies to Solve Complex System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Client Challenges
Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:32 AM

 

I saw this note come from “Microsoft Canada Technology Partner Training” RSS Feed. Since I have not seen anyone else post a not about this training I thought that I would.

 

“Any organization can have special-case scenarios where some clients must be managed differently. For example, software distributions or agent cycles may require special scheduling options. You might not want to use a separate site for large-scale client settings testing. Some clients may have special inventory reporting requirements. All of this, and more, is enabled by using local policies on designated clients. The solutions are often complex, and require scripting skills.  However, solutions for complex special-case scenarios are possible.”

Click here to access the training

 

For more information see Airlee blog post.

http://blogs.msdn.com/mscantraining/archive/2009/06/01/9678358.aspx

 

And remember anyone can apply to be a MS Partner.


Forum / Mailing list / Newsgroup Etiquette
Monday, June 01, 2009 10:40 AM

Since I have not seen anyone else post this to their blog I will. There is some good advices listed within these links for everyone.

How to ask a question

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

How to answer a question

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/freebsd-questions/x218.html

 

I will also add to this:

  • Don’t “Bump”, if you need to bring the message to people’s attention again then try re-writing the subject and provide more details. People are willing to help if they think they understand the issue. But WAIT more than 1 business day before reposting!

 

  • Don’t post the same question to multiply forums! It is annoying to see the exact same post in multiply places and ONLY posted a few second apart. Pick one place an post there, if you don’t get an answer within a reasonable time frame (more than 1 business day) post to another forum. (This is one of my new pet peeves)

 

  • Forums and Mailing lists list are NOT for urgent issues, if this is the case contact the vendor and seek support from them, that is what they are there for. If you don’t have a support contract in place then management has decided that they can live with the downtime and you should not worry about it. The problem will get fixed when it gets fixed, if it is that urgent then management will gladly pay for support.

 

  • Read the Docs! RTFM, etc.. Recently there has been allot of I need “bla” or does ConfigMgr do bla. However if this same person enter “bla” into the help file or Live / Bing / Google / Yahoo / Ask / etc. They would have found the answer. Instead they are just too lazy to RTFM. I will gladly help out anyone you says “I looked at the docs but I can’t find bla” or “The docs say bla, but does that mean bla bla?” (BTW it is nice to include the link or topic heading, so that we can see what you are talking about”)

 

  • Don’t call out a particular person and say “Hi Garth, I need your help to …”. Understand that some of the other people that might answer a post and will overlook it because you have called out person X. (I do it all the time when someone say “Hey Sherry” or “Hey Mark” or “Hey Michael”, to me it mean that they only want to hear from that person). Remember that everyone has their own lives and job, this means that person X might not get to your post ever! This could be due to holidays, business tasks, personal issues, new PC, etc., particularly don’t get mad if they don’t answer you. (This has happened to be back in the day, I got a phone call (my phone number was listed within my sig) from someone on the mailing list that got mad at me for not replying to them within 20 minutes. They needed an answer to give to their boss so that they would not look bad. The funny part was I was in a meeting and never saw the message until after their phone call! Needless to say I don’t help that person anymore! They don’t pay me therefore I’m not at their beck and call.)


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