Greg Ramsey

Dell on Twitter

gramsey — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:40:43 GMT

Looking for a deal on a Dell? Follow the outlet, home offers, or small biz offers. You'll find some deals, and coupons there. . .

You may have seen our popular IdeaStorm and IdeaStorm Action.

Check out some of the new cool stuff like ReGeneration and DigitalNomads too!

Here's a listing of all Dell on Twitter.

You can also find me there too. . although so far you won't find much excitement yet. . hopefully that will become a little more active soon. . :)

What are you following?

Greg

greg_ramsey@dell.com

Dell to Use Twitter for Global Mobility Event

gramsey — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:13:00 GMT

Dell is unveiling our new generation of mobility products today - you can watch Q & A on twitter here:

http://twitter.com/Digital_Nomads

You can also register for the event here, and watch it via streaming media.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_08_11_rr_000?c=us&l=en&s=gen

Check out the new Dell Studio Hybrid

gramsey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:44:44 GMT

"More flexible than a typical PC, the Dell Studio Hybrid is an anywhere-you-want-it-desktop. Our smallest desktop, it looks great in the living room, on the desk, or anywhere else space is at a premium. And because sleeves are available in 6 colors or Bamboo, you know it’ll match your sense of style. Plus, it uses energy-efficient Intel^® Core^TM 2 Duo Mobile Processors, so you can enjoy its power while helping to preserve the planet."

And talk about power savings - only 1 watt of power in hibernate or off, 26 watts when idle, and 44 watts under heavy load. Read the review from PC Magazine.

more info from www.dell.com

Hotfix Watch - KB 947773

gramsey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:59:20 GMT

My friend Cliff posted a reference to this KB back in February - Of course it's not until you experience the problem that you really start to look at it. . We've seen a few slow "run from distribution points" as well as some slow OSD distributions, where HTTP wasn't available. If you have also, you may want to take a look at this KB:

A Windows Server 2003-based computer responds slowly to RDP connections or to SMB connections that are made from a Windows Vista-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947773

Nice PowerShell Screencast Intro

gramsey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:51:03 GMT

In this Screencast I go through the basics to get you started. I'll also post the sample files I've used at my blog which is http://blogs.technet.com/jeffa36
Enjoy!
jeffa

Screencast: Windows PowerShell introduction

DellTechCenter - Hyper-V Management tech chats

gramsey — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:14:00 GMT

FYI - If you're diving into Hyper-V (or looking at diving into Hyper-V), check out the following Chats:

07-22-08 - Hyper-V Management Chat 3PM Central Time Microsoft's Hyper-V is released. Come join us for a discussion around management topics with Hyper-V. In this first chat we will discuss general managment with Hyper-V. In the upcoming weeks we will focus on using Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager and OpenManage on Hyper-V.

07-29-08 - Microsoft SCVMM Chat 3PM Central Time
Microsoft's Hyper-V is released. Come join us for a discussion around using Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

08-05-08 - OpenManage on Hyper-V 3PM Central Time
Join us for a discussion around using Dell OpenManage with Microsoft's Hyper-V.

Stay tuned for more DellTechCenter Coolness!

www.delltechcenter.com

Greg

Dell Deployment Toolkit for ConfigMgr - in Beta!

gramsey — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:38:00 GMT

**We're looking for beta testers for the Dell Deployment Toolkit for ConfigMgr. If you're interested in testing this (and giving us some valuable feedback), send me an email (greg_ramsey@dell.com).

With this free toolkit, you'll be able to leverage Dell-specific task sequences within the ConfigMgr Task Sequence Editor to configure Array Controllers, BIOS, and more! Read more about the DTK.

"The integration of Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and the
Dell OpenManage™ Deployment Toolkit helps simplify this process by providing easy-to-use graphical tools for the deployment of Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers."

Michael Kelley demonstrated the DTK at the Tuesday Keynote of MMS 2008 - Watch the keynote now.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mgmtsummit/materials.mspx

Greg

Configuration Manager Branch Distribution Points - Hot Tips

gramsey — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:10:00 GMT

Branch Distribution Points use BITS to transfer DP content from its parent. Since you're using a BDP, you may be crossing low bandwidth WAN links to get that content. You can use BITS throttling to prevent saturation over the WAN.

Provided you don't have group policy configured to manage the settings, an admin can change the settings on the BDP. Navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WINDOWS\BITS - here's an example configuration:

View Example

EnableBitsMaxBandwidth - this is telling BITS to use the settings configured here.

MaxBandwidthValidFrom - 7:00 am local time

MaxBandwidthValidTo - 6:00 pm local time

MaxTransferRateOffSchedule - 1024 KB/s

MaxTransferRateOnSchedule - 128 KB/s

So you can see from my settings, I'm limiting the transfer rate to 128 KB/s during working hours (7:00 am - 6:00 pm), and allowing 1024 KB/s durring off-hours.

** FYI - for changes to take effect, just cycle the BITS service on the BDP

(and obviously, settings EnableBitsMaxBandwidth=0 removes all BITS throttling)

More information about BITS Throttling (Thanks Tim!): http://blogs.technet.com/tmintner/archive/2006/04/12/425112.aspx

Something else to watch for:

The task sequence does not run on the protected branch distribution points in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (FYI - fixed in SP1)

Systems Management Server 2003 clients cannot download a software package from a BITS-enabled Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 distribution point on a Windows Server 2008-based computer (not fixed in SP1)

Additional Info:

http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2007/10/26/branch-dp-internals-sccm-2007.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/08/BranchDP/default.aspx

Greg

(greg_ramsey@dell.com)

Kickin' it Old School - RunDll and RunDll32

gramsey — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:11:11 GMT

Ran into a situation today where I needed to "lock workstation" over Remote Desktop. . . couldn't remember the command - a quick live search brought me here:

http://www.robvanderwoude.com

Here are links to a few of the nuggets you'll find there:

rundll	http://www.robvanderwoude.com/rundll.html
hta	http://www.robvanderwoude.com/htaexamples.html
vbscript	http://www.robvanderwoude.com/wsh.html

Greg

How To: Remotely Show Machine Advertisement Information for a ConfigMgr Client using PowerShell

gramsey — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:43:20 GMT

Here's a quick example for how to query advertisements from a remote (or local) system. Just replace "myComputerName" with the computer name to query. Provided you have proper rights to that system, advertisement information will be exported to "ClientAdverts.csv"

gwmi ccm_softwaredistribution -namespace `
root\ccm\policy\machine\actualconfig -computer `
myComputerName | export-csv `
ClientAdverts.csv -notypeinformation

You can then import the .csv into Excel. The information in this .csv could prove to be very valuable when troubleshooting client issues. Here are a few of my favorite properties: ADV_MandatoryAssignments, ADV_ExpirationTime, ADV_RCF_InstallFromLocalDPOptions, ADV_RCF_InstallFromRemoteDPOptions, PRG_PRF_AfterRunning, and many others. Refer to the ConfigMgr SDK for more information about the CCM_SoftwareDistribution Client WMI Class.

Greg

ConfigMgr and PowerShell - the RepairClient Method

gramsey — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:58:41 GMT

Here's an example of a handy function to initiate a client repair remotely using PowerShell:

function repairclient([String] $strComputer)
{
$SMSCli = [wmiclass] "\\$strComputer\root\ccm:sms_client"
$SMSCli.RepairClient()
}

Launch PowerShell, paste this function at the prompt (you may have to hit return once or twice to get back to your command prompt), and as long as you're in this PowerShell session, you can run the command as follows:

repairclient COMPTUER1

(where COMPUTER1 is the remote computer to repair).

** This will run with the same rights as your PowerShell session, which must have proper rights to remotely call this WMI method.

Hotfix Watch: Operations Manager and Dell Management Pack 3.1

gramsey — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:44:48 GMT

If you've seen these errors:

Health service host process has stopped working

Health service Host process encountered a problem and need to close

Take a look at MS KB 951526:

The Root Management Server (RMS) in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 becomes unstable or unusable after you import Dell Management Pack 3.1

There is now a Microsoft hotfix available to fix this error.

ConfigMgr HotFix Watch - Disjoint Namespace and AD Discovery

gramsey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Do you have a disjoint namespace? If so, take a look at this article (KB 948303),and consider installing the hotfix:

Active Directory System Discovery does not resolve the IP address of a computer that is discovered by System Center Configuration Manager 2007

SYMPTOMS

Active Directory System Discovery does not resolve the IP address of a computer that is discovered by Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 when the computer is operating in a disjoint namespace. This behavior prevents the Data Discovery Records (DDRs) from being generated.

Error message: GetIPAddr - getaddrinfo() for <FQDN> failed with error code 11001.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948303

Where are my ConfigMgr PerfMon Counters?

gramsey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:34:19 GMT

If you're running ConfigMgr on Windows Server x64, and you launch "perfmon" from the command line, you won't see ConfigMgr (SMS) PerfMon information. As mentioned here, on x64 you have two versions of PerfMon. To launch the 32-bit version, run the following:

%SystemRoot%\SysWow64\PerfMon.exe

Greg

How to Compare two ConfigMgr Distribution Points Using PowerShell

gramsey — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:52:58 GMT

One of the nice features for ConfigMgr is the Copy Packages Wizard. Using the wizard, you're able to select packages to copy to a distribution point based on packages at an existing distribution point. While this is a great feature, there is some room (or at least suggestions) for improvement. Depending on what you want on that distribution point, you may need to use the wizard up to six times (Packages, Software Updates, Boot Images, Operating System Images, Operating System Install Packages, Driver Packages). In a future article, we'll discuss a PowerShell function I've been working on to help make that process easier--it's not quite production-ready yet :). So for now, let's focus on comparing two Distribution Points, and displaying their differences.

Use the SMS_DistributionPoint Class from the ConfigMgr SDK to show Packages that have been deployed to distribution points:

get-wmiobject sms_distributionpoint -namespace root\sms\site_007 -computer SCCMVHD

Running the command above will display distribution point info for all packages, for the current site, and for all child sites. If we run that same command and append | get-member, we can see all properties for the SMS_DistributionPoint class. You can also format output a little better, as mentioned in a previous article. For this example, we're only interested in looking at the PackageID for now. So our main command will look like this:

get-wmiobject sms_distributionpoint -namespace root\sms\site_007 -computer SCCMVHD |
select-object PackageID

For this example, assume we have a central site (SCCMVHD) and two child sites (SCCMCHILD1 and SCCMCHILD2), each with a distribution point. Here is the code to generate our compare:

$CentralSite = "SCCMVHD"
$SiteCode = "007"
$DP1 = "SCCMCHILD1"
$DP2 = "SCCMCHILD2"
$a = get-wmiobject sms_distributionpoint -namespace `
    root\sms\site_$SiteCode -computer $CentralSite |
    where{$_.ServerNALPath -like "*$DP1*"} |
    select-object PackageID
$b = get-wmiobject sms_distributionpoint -namespace `
    root\sms\site_$SiteCode -computer $CentralSite |
    where{$_.ServerNALPath -like "*$DP2*"} |
    select-object PackageID
$c = compare-object $a $b -property PackageID
$c

The first four lines are used to set our required variables. $a will contain all PackageIDs assigned to the distribution point on SCCMCHILD1. $b will contain all PackageIDs assigned to the distribution point on SCCMCHILD2. We then use the Compare-Object cmdlet to compare the two, and then display the result in $c. Notice the -property PackageID - this is how to specify the PackageID property for comparison. Here are the results from my test environment:

Notice the SideIndicator column -- the arrow pointing left indicates that the PackageID was found in the left comparison object. So LAB0009D is in $a, but not in $b. Now that we have this data, we could programmatically add these packages to the desired distribution points (we'll save that for a later article).

Note: If you have a multi-tiered hierarchy, you may need to perform this procedure at different levels, depending on which site(s) you use to deploy packages packages. For "complete" results, you may need to query the SMS_DistributionPoint class on the child site directly.

Greg

greg_ramsey@dell.com

How to Trigger ConfigMgr Hardware Inventory using PowerShell

gramsey — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Here's a brief "How To" for initiating hardware inventory on a remote system using Windows PowerShell. Here it is in simple form:

$SMSCli = [wmiclass] "\\myComputerName\root\ccm:SMS_Client"
$SMSCli.TriggerSchedule("{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}")

As you can see, in the first line of code we're connecting to the SMS_Client class, in the root\ccm namespace, on the computer named MyComputerName. In the second line of code, we're calling the method TriggerSchedule, with the ScheduleID = {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}. Review the InventoryAgent.log file on the remote computer to verify hardware inventory ran successfully.

As you may know, there are many other ScheduleIDs that can be triggered using this process. Review the ConfigMgr SDK under the section titled TriggerSchedule Method in Class SMS_Client for more information. Here is a table of the most common ScheduleIDs:

Name	ScheduleID
HW Inventory	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}
SW Inventory	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002}
Discovery Data Record	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000003}
Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000021}
File Collection	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000010}
SW Metering Usage Report	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000022}
Windows Installer Source List	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000032}
Software Updates Scan	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000113}
Software Updates Store	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000114}
Software Updates Deployment	{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000108}

You can use this command extract a few more ScheduleIDs available to you (yes, four lines for this one command - you should be able to paste into a PowerShell prompt without issue):

get-wmiobject CCM_Scheduler_ScheduledMessage `
    -namespace root\ccm\policy\machine\actualconfig |
    select-object ScheduledMessageID, TargetEndPoint |
    where-object {$_.TargetEndPoint -ne "direct:execmgr"}

Stay tuned for how to write a function to make the process of initiating these actions on multiple systems a little easier for you.

Greg

ramseyg@hotmail.com

Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides for IT Professionals

gramsey — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:42:44 GMT

Ran into this today looking at Vista MUI stuff. . . Looks like I need to get a new version of the MUI's for SP1 . . which kind-of stinks. . . I understand, but it still stinks..

Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides for IT Professionals

Here's a list of the guides you will find there.

And if you're looking to download some SP1 MUI Packs, thank my friend Christophe for this link.

more handy than a shirt pocket

gramsey — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:14:27 GMT

Anyone reading this live near Evansville, Indiana? If so, and you happen to run into the owners of www.cruto.com, do me a favor and shake their hands.

I stumbled across their Vbscript-Examples page today. Very nice. You'll find some other interesting pages there too, like Code Generators, Menu Generators, and even an HTML reference Sheet.

Greg

How To: List Task Sequence Environment Variables and Values

gramsey — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:11:00 GMT

From the TechNet forums, this is an example for how to display Task Sequence Environment Variables and Values using VBScript:

Set oTSEnv = CreateObject("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")
For Each oVar In oTSEnv.GetVariables
WScript.Echo oVar & "=" & oTSEnv(oVar)
Next

ramseyg@hotmail.com

Introducing - the ConfigMgr Client Troubleshooter!

gramsey — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:07:05 GMT

If you attended Angie Stahl's presentation at MMS, you caught a sneak peak of the ConfigMgr Client Troubleshooter. The troubleshooter is an html application, which makes it fairly portable, and all the code can be viewed using your favorite text editor. Use the troubleshooter to help you diagnose ConfigMgr client issues. This tool has become priceless at my company, where it is used by the Service Desk and OnSite teams (as well as my team on a daily basis). There are two modes currently avaible for the troubleshooter, Single System mode and Batch Mode.

Take a look at the following figure for single system mode:

When you launch the troubleshooter, the local computer name appears in the first textbox - to query a remote computer, simply enter the desired computer name, and then click Analyze. When you click Analyze, the troubleshooter will perform several remote WMI queries to the desired system (so if you're Analyzing a system over the WAN, please be patient). ** Keep in mind that this is running in your user context, so you will only be able to query the information that you have the proper rights to query. (for example, a "standard user" does not have the rights to see the value for "Last Scan Pkg Version (WSUS)".

The following table describes the colors used in the troubleshooter:

Color	Description
Black	Not Checked - Verify information manually
Green	Good - passed checks. No issue found.
Yellow	Good, but non-standard. (e.g., Automatic updates set to "automatic" - everything will still work, but the setting is non standard.)
Red	Bad - Check Failed - Something is wrong and needs to be addressed.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Be sure to customize the troubleshooter (info below), and install the latest SysInternals Tools to your %windir% directory (the troubleshooter requires psservice and pskill.) Make sure you run the tools manually one time - you need to review and accept the license agreements.

To Customize the troubleshooter, edit the .hta file with your favorite text editor, and locate and modify the following lines near the beginning of the file:

Const intMaxDays =60 'display 60 days of advert history
Const intMinDiskSpace = 2 '2 gb is used as the minimum disk space requirement
Const strCCMSetupSource = "\\MYSCCMServer\sccmclient" 'path to ccmsetup.exe - ccmsetup.exe will be copied to the local system for install.
Const strCCMSetupArgs = "SMSSLP=mySLP FSP=myFSP" 'add proper command-line argument info for client installation
Const strClientVersion = "4.00.5931.0001" ' use your "corporate standard" version number here
Const strDefaultAdvertID = "LAB20083" ' this is just a default advertisement ID, used for re-running mandatory advertisements

Additional information for some of the buttons you see on troubleshooter:

Button Name	Comments
Fix	The Fix button for each service listed in the troubleshooter will ensure that the service startup type is configured properly to run. It will also
AutoDiscover Site	Modifies WMI for the SMS Agent Host to autodiscover its assigned site, then restarts SMS Agent Host Service.
Force Site Assignment	Used to force a site assignment on a client.
Show Current Adverts	Shows advertisements currently assigned to the computer - You can see both mandatory installations, and Run Advertised Programs installations. You cannot see user-targeted advertisements.
ReRun Advertisement	Use this to re-run an existing mandatory advertisement on a client - you must specify the ADVERTISEMENTID.
Show Client Logs	Allows you to view client logs - **Note, this feature does not work properly when you' have launched the troubleshooter under alternate credentials, as this feature uses Windows Explorer.
Display Advert History	Displays advert history according to registry on target system.
Install Client	Uses the command-lines and source you specified in the .hta file to install the SCCM client.
Applicable Patches	Displays applicable patches according to most recent sw update scan.

And now, we move on to my personal favorite, Batch Mode. When you launch the troubleshooter, you'll notice a scroll bar on the right-hand side of the window. Scroll down to view the following Batch Mode options:

You probably feel by now that you're being buttoned-to-death. :) I agree - and that's one of the features that will be improved in the next version. Fortunately, depending on your role in your company, you may find that you use a lot of these buttons on a regular basis. Batch Mode is simple - add computer names to the text box - one per line, and then click the action that you would like to perform on each of those systems.

**Remember, you're actively querying each system in your list, which may take some time, and also required additional administrative privileges.

The following table provides a brief description of most of the actions currently available in batch mode scan:

Button	Action
Batch Mode Scan	Performs a scan very similar to the single-mode scan, but for each system in the batch mode textbox.
Batch Policy Refresh	Performs a Machine Policy and Evaluation cycle on each system.
Batch Force DDR	Forces each system to initiate a discovery data record.
Batch Re-Discover Site	Forces the client to initiate a rediscover (requires psservice.exe, and pskill.exe).
Batch Query for Advert	Allows you to enter an AdvertisementID, then searches each system to see if that advert exists.
Rem Uninstasll Files	Deletes setup files in the %windir%\system32 directory that that's over 180 days old.

For most of the actions in Batch Mode, the information will be available to be copy/pasted into Excel. The file c:\temp\clip.txt will also be created (if c:\temp\ exists), containing the same information copied to the clipboard - this is very helpful when you're in a terminal services session (I frequently have issues with copy/paste in Terminal Services), or when the system you run the troubleshooter from does not have Excel installed.

Download 2003 Troubleshooter and the SCCM 2007 Troubleshooter now.

I hope to get a more permanent place for the .html application, so that you can help improve it!

Hot Tips!

I often use Batch Scan Mode and paste the info into Excel, and use Auto Filters to divide and conquer based on trends.
Notice that some of the SMS/SCCM properties are different for SCCM - For example, the last security patch scan date/time is a different WMI class than the one used for SMS 2003. So if you use the SMS troubleshooter on a client that has been upgraded from SMS to SCCM, you will see incorrect data for "Last Scan Package Version", as the SMS version of the tool queries a different space in WMI than the SCCM version.

Please submit bugs and feature requests to ramseyg@hotmail.com.

Happy Scripting!

Greg

SCCM and PowerShell - for starters...

gramsey — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:04:00 GMT

This is the start of several examples for leveraging PowerShell with Systems Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr). We'll start slow, and work our way up to more complex tasks. A few important notes before we get started:

All examples will be based on the SCCM 2007 VHD, using the Server Name SCCMVHD, and the Site code 007.
I recommend you test your PowerShell scripts using a test environment also. Scripting and SCCM are great together, but can also be very dangerous. Test, Test, Test!
Most of these scripts will also work with SMS 2003 but be sure to test!
All examples are based on the current version of PowerShell (v 1.0)
Most scripts will require admin rights to the SCCM server, as well as admin rights inside of SCCM.

Here's an example of using PowerShell to access SCCM information.

get-wmiobject -Class SMS_SystemResourceList -NameSpace `

root\sms\site_007 -ComputerName sccmvhd

As you can see from the command-line, we're querying WMI on the SCCMVHD server, to the namespace root\sms\site_007, and the class SMS_SystemResourceList. Notice the tick mark ` This is a line continuation character. You will find that many of the sample commands in this article use the line continuation character to improve readability. When running in PowerShell, you can keep this continuation character, or delete it and move subsequent lines of code to be on one line to execute. We can abbreviate the previous code a bit, as follows:

gwmi -Cl SMS_SystemResourceList -Name root\sms\site_007 `

-comp sccmvhd

When you run this, you will receive a lot of output on the screen - (and if you run this on a central site from a multi-site environment, you will see the information for the central site, and all child sites). First, let's look at the properties and methods for this class - add the | get-member cmdlet to the end of the command line, as follows:

gwmi -Cl SMS_SystemResourceList -Name root\sms\site_007 `

-comp sccmvhd | get-member

As you can see, the output from the previous line displays the properties for SMS_SystemResourceList (NalPath, ResourceType, RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, and SiteCode). You also see some standard methods that we'll discuss in detail in future articles. For ease of use, assign the variable $ResList to the data obtained from SMS_SystemResourceList:

$ResList = gwmi -Cl SMS_SystemResourceList -Name `

root\sms\site_007 -comp sccmvhd

Notice that nothing is returned when running the previous command. It's actually returned to $ResList, it just doesn't display the details to the console. Run the following to display the objects in $ResList.

$Reslist

Now let's focus on displaying the output. Here are a few examples:

$ResList | ft RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, SiteCode

ft = "Format-Table" - and then specify the properties to display in the table. To squeeze the columns a little closer together, add -autosize to the end of the command line.

At first glance, this command line:

$ResList | select-object RoleName, ServerName, `

ServerRemoteName, SiteCode

Performs the same operation as the format-table cmdlet. But by using select-object, we're then able to perform additional operations, such as sort, where, etc.

$ResList | select-object RoleName, ServerName, `

ServerRemoteName, SiteCode | sort-object ServerName, RoleName

This command sorts the output by ServerName, then by RoleName.

$ResList | where-object {$_.RoleName -eq "SMS Distribution Point"}

This command displays all distribution points. Notice the $_.RoleName variable. $_ is a special variable that represents the individual items in the pipeline. As we do a few more examples, this will begin to make more sense. Also, to be clear, we didn't have to actually make a $ResList variable - this command line performs the same operation:

gwmi -Cl SMS_SystemResourceList -Name root\sms\site_007 `

-comp sccmvhd | where-object {$_.RoleName -eq "SMS Distribution Point"}

But as you can see, the command line is starting to get pretty long, so you may find it easier at times to work with a variable if you're going to be manipulating the same objects multiple times.

Here are a few more formatting commands, to help make your day a little easier:

$reslist | select-object RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, `

SiteCode | export-csv c:\temp\ResList.csv -noTypeInformation

This command exports the data to a CSV file, which can easily be read using Microsoft Excel.

$reslist | select-object RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, `

SiteCode | export-clixml c:\temp\ResList.xml

Use export-clixml to export the data to an XML file.

$reslist | select-object RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, `

SiteCode | ConvertTo-HTML

Convert to an HTML file, and display in the console. To export to an HTML file, use the following:

$reslist | select-object RoleName, ServerName, ServerRemoteName, `

SiteCode | ConvertTo-HTML >c:\temp\ResList.html

That's a pretty good start! Spend some time running the commands in this article - get comfortable with piping, sorting, and selecting objects. If you get the hang of it, change the class to SMS_Package, or SMS_Advertisement, and experiment a bit. Please post questions/comments or send me your feedback (ramseyg@hotmail.com) as far as the usefulness (or lack thereof).

Stay tuned for more PowerShell and SCCM fun!

Greg

ramseyg@hotmail.com

MMS 2008 - Friday

gramsey — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:50:31 GMT

All kinds of great things happen on the Friday after the closing party. If you're a Friday skipper, or a late sleeper, or an early flyer, definitely work things out for next year so you don't miss valuable sessions. Here's a small sample of what you missed:

Troubleshooting MDT.
Troubleshooting Common Issues with Ops Mgr 2007
SCCM 2007 client troubleshooting - Our very own Angie Stahl presented this session in the 8:30 time slot - It may be tough enough to get up to make the 8:30 session - just imagine having to PRESENT at the 8:30 time slot on Friday! She did a great job - if you didn't attend you also missed a quick demo of the SCCM Unhealthy Client Troubleshooter!
PowerShell for Scripting Wizards! - I attended this session - and I must say, it was definitely for wizards (I don't exactly fit into that category, but it was well worth my time). I managed to keep up through 2/3rds of it. .. .but then Bruce Payette took it to a whole new level - very interesting stuff - very powerful! Jeffrey Snover, Bruce Payette, and Don Jones presented during this session. Here are a few of the things I learned:

CTP2 is available.
Don Jones has some great example code from his book.
Sapien Forms Designer - currently in Beta - it's a free download for registered owners of PrimalScript. Forms Designer gives you an IDE that you can create forms visually, then copy the code into your PowerShell script, making it much easier to build forms for PowerShell.

Paul Thomsen's "Going Big With SCCM 2007" - I'm sorry I missed this one - but I hope to see a .wmv available for it soon!
Tools and Best Practices for Authoring Ops Mgr Management Packs.
SCCM and NAP
SCCM and Asset Intelligence 1.5
SCMDM 2008
and many many more!

And don't forget Lab Time! Labs were open! You could spend the morning catching up on those labs that you didn't have time to attend to during the week.

Greg

ramseyg@hotmail.com

Having trouble downloading .pptx and .wmv from mms-2008.com?

gramsey — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:20:08 GMT

If you attended MMS 2008, you have the ability to go back into the session scheduler, and print the PowerPoint presentation AND the audio (with .PPT, in video format). You may find some "broken links" between today and Tuesday - the MMS team is in the process of copying the files to the production site. This process should be completed by Wednesday.

Greg

SCCM 2007 Console Extensions GUID Locator

gramsey — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:39:00 GMT

If you're building or moving console extensions to SCCM 2007, you may find that it can be difficult to identify the proper GUID to enable the extension in the desired location. For starters, be sure to download and review the documentation in the SCCM 2007 SDK. Search the SDK for the section titled How to Find a Configuration Manager Console Node GUID. As you can see from reviewing that document, search AdminConsole.xml located in the *SCCMInstallDir*\AdminUI\XmlStorage\ConsoleRoot\AdminConsole.xml file to identify the proper GUID.

Here's an alternative method that may help you identify the GUID much faster than described in the SDK. Perform the following steps on a test SCCM site server.

Download GUID.Zip from myITforum.com.
Extract GUID.Zip to C:\GUID.
Copy all the subfolders located in C:\GUID\ to *SCCMInstallDir*\adminui\xmlstorage\extensions\actions\
Restart your SCCM Console.

After the SCCM Console has been restarted, Right-click a Programs node, and look for the additional info (FYI - you can right-click on just about anything, and find associated GUIDs).

Notice the action labeled GUID - 96d5b2a5-174c-46eb-b1cb-840c4d8c55e0 - The .xml file that created this entry is located here:

*SCCMInstallDir*\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions\96d5b2a5-174c-46eb-b1cb-840c4d8c55e0\96d5b2a5-174c-46eb-b1cb-840c4d8c55e0.xml

If you view that .xml, you'll see that it's launching C:\TEMP\Test.VBS - This was an example code that simply captures the GUID, and writes it to C:\temp\GUID.txt.

Const ForAppending = 8
strGUID = Wscript.Arguments(0)
strMSG = inputbox("Enter Description for this GUID")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\temp\GUIDInfo.txt", ForAppending, True)
ts.Write strGUID & vbTAB & strMSG & vbCRLF
ts.close

Questions? ramseyg@hotmail.com

Third-party Custom Catalogs for Configuration Manager 2007 and Essentials 2007

gramsey — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:38:02 GMT

I know that in the Dell booth at MMS we've talked about the Dell Server Updates Catalog for SCCM 2007 for driver updates. I wanted to make sure everyone had a link!

You'll find both the Dell and Intel catalog here.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/configmgr/bb892875.aspx

We'll be posting more detail on the Dell Server Updates Catalog soon - stay tuned!

Microsoft System Center Content Search Gadget!

gramsey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:19 GMT

Steve Kaczmarek mentioned this gadget yesterday -

"This gadget makes it easier to find help for Microsoft System Center products because it uses Live Search macros to search specific sites instead of the entire web."

http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=49e26ad0-113d-4f3d-a711-57f6530c75d9

Intel Premier IT Professional - Virtualization and Security Best Practices Events

gramsey — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:45:00 GMT

If you're in or near Pittsburgh, Columbus, Baltimore, Tampa, Austin, or Denver, this may be worth checking out:

http://ipip.intel.com

If you're in Austin, I'll see you on June 24th!

Greg

Installing Vista SP1 using SCCM - a Work in Progress

gramsey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:35:49 GMT

So, I was hoping to write a "How to: Install Vista SP1 using SCCM 2007", but I'm not quite there yet. . . so for now, I'll blog about my issues, and maybe someone else will offer assistance, or confirm my issues (at least my issues related to SCCM with Vista SP1). I have two distinct issues in this post....

**Check the end of this post for additional links to SP1 info.

This process should be as easy as following the steps in KB 947939.

Here are the basics of KB 947939 (with a few SCCM-specifics added):

On your Central Site Software Update Point, apply KB 938759 and reboot the server. This is an update to theWinVerifyTrust function.
Follow the steps in KB 947939 to import KB 936330 (Vista SP1). You'll see a few entries for KB 936330.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Standalone for x64-based Systems (KB936330) - All Languages (call it "x64_All" for this post)
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Standalone (KB936330) - All Languages (call it "x86_All" for this post)
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Standalone (KB936330) - English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish (call it "x86_EFJS" for this post)
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Standalone for x64-based Systems (KB936330) - English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish (call it x64_EFJS for this post)

From your Central Site, force a Synchronization - after the synch and refresh, you should be able to find the following:
Perform "usual" software updates process to create a Deployment Package, and create a Deployment.

And now for a little more detail on the issues I've encountered using the process above:

(issue 1) I began testing at the beginning of April, and only the last two downloads were available (x64_EFJS and x86_EFJS). On my pilot sites, SCCM identified x86_EFJS as Required on all 671 Vista RTM (x86) Enterprise systems. I then tested on approximately 10 workstations (both notebooks and desktops, one at a time). All clients "failed" the SP1 upgrade according to SCCM. All clients successfully downloaded the SP into the SCCM cache, and started the installation. Between 1-2 hours, the installation completed (three or four reboots required). When I logged in the SCCM client showed the SP as still required. After a couple more reboots, SCCM client showed this as successful. . . . I'm still testing. . not exactly sure what happened here. It looks like it installed, but isn't reporting properly - at least not for a while (or the next scan) - still testing.

(issue 2) Earlier this week, performed the same steps above to be able to synch and detect x86_All and x64_All (all languages are included in the recently released - I'm trying to simplify things :). Unfortunately, only 16 of the 671 vista systems on my pilot sites have reported it as applicable. . . . So for some reason, I have a lot of Vista RTM systems that see x86_EFJS as "Required", but those same systems don't see x86_All as "Required". (Side Note: - I'm certain that 95+% are English language). . .So before I continue testing, I'm going to try to figure out why most of my Vista x86 RTM systems do not show x86_All as "Required".

Side Note 2: I have also manually downloaded KB 936330, created a traditional package, Program, and Advertisement to test, and it has run successfully on every system I've tested (8 or 9 so far). This is how I have the package/advert configured:

Command line: Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe /unattend /forcerestart
Reboot Property: Program Restarts Computer.
Requirements: x86 Windows Vista Original Release
Environment: Whether or not a user is logged on, Run with Admin Rights, and enable Allow users to interact with this program.
Advertisement: I have configured the advert to download from DP. I have also set a mandatory assignment on the advert to July of 2009, so that it forces the bits to download as soon as possible (trying to reduce the amount of time required for the user to run from Run Advertised Programs).

Installation using this method takes 1-2 hours (and 3-4 reboots) for the installation to complete. I will say it does a very good job of notifying the user of what's going on . . ("this can take more than one hour to complete" "stage 1 of three...", "configuring updates. . do not turn off your computer").

I'll post a "how to" article after I get the kinks worked out - please post your success (or failures) too!

Greg

Deployment Guide for Windows Vista SP1

Overview of Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Notable Changes in Windows Vista SP1

Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows Vista SP1

Release Notes for Windows Vista SP1

Windows Vista SP1: Frequently Asked Questions

Fix Your Windows Installation Source Paths!

gramsey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:16:00 GMT

I was attempting to install the Windows Server 2003 Administration Pack on a server today, and unfortunately it failed with the following error:

The Windows Installer Service cannot update one or more protected files

After a bit of search on the web I learned that the source path was wrong on my server. Once I fixed the source path, I was able to successfully install the admin pack.

Use the following command-lines to update your source path to a network share:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup /v SourcePath /t REG_SZ /d \\ServerName\Share\W2k3SP1 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /v SourcePath /t REG_SZ /d \\ServerName\Share\W2k3SP1 /f

Leveraging Existing SMS 2003 Console Extensions with Configuration Manger 2007 - Collections

gramsey — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:56:00 GMT

Some of you have taken the time to create console extensions and share them with the community. And many more of you are leveraging the extensions that you have on a daily basis to make your job easier.

In ConfigMgr, you will find the console extensions for SMS 2003 do not work. Fortunately, with a few tweaks, many of your existing extensions will work!. Here is an example for how to take a SMS 2003 console extension for the Collections node, and get it working in ConfigMgr. I will use one my personal favorites, Right-Click, add machines to a collection (direct membership rule).

Download the source for Right-Click, add machines to a collection
Extract files from the .zip, and copy AddCollhta.txt to C:\smsadmin\adminUI\SCCMTools\AddColl.hta (*this specific path isn't required, but will be used in this example).
Create the following directory structure: C:\smsadmin\adminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions (where "c:\smsadmin\" is the installation path for your SCCM 2007 console)
Under the Actions folder created in step 3, create two subfolders that are named the following GUIDs:

fa922e1a-6add-477f-b70e-9a164f3b11a2 - this GUID is for first-level collections
dbb315c3-1d8b-4e6a-a7b1-db8246890f59 - this GUID is for all subcollections

In each of the folders created in step 4, create a file called AddColl.xml with the following contents:

<ActionDescription Class="Executable" DisplayName="Add Systems to this Collection" MnemonicDisplayName="Note" Description = "Add Systems to this collection">
       <Executable>
          <FilePath>C:\smsadmin\AdminUI\SCCMTools\AddColl.hta</FilePath>
           <Parameters>/ss:##SUB:__SERVER## /sn:##SUB:__Namespace## /coll:##SUB:COLLECTIONID## /CollName:##SUB:Name##</Parameters>
     </Executable>
</ActionDescription>

You can see that AddColl.xml is customized for this specific right-click tool, so for any tool you want to convert, spend some time in the .xml file to get it working.

After making the modifications described above, restart your ConfigMgr console (yes, close and re-open - that's required for extensions to appear). You should now have the extension "Add Systems to this Collection" when you right-click a collection.