PWStrain

NetMon 3.2 released

2008-09-18T16:37:54Z

Technorati Tags: Network , Monitor , Packet , Trace The great new Network Monitor from Microsoft that I blogged about in Beta is now out for official release. If you have not yet downloaded and played with this, hit the link below. It's a vast improvement over the network monitor that shipped of old with the OS, but not quite up to Wireshark standards. I've been using it since beta and it's ability to flag packets based on originating program is very helpful. Externally Network Monitor...(read more)

The DVD’s have arrived…

2008-07-22T17:50:01Z

and the “State of the Nation” presentation video is not there. The one thing I missed due to scheduling that I was absolutely counting on the DVD to see. I guess I’ll be re-arranging my scheduling priorities for next year....(read more)

Yum ate my Cacti!

2008-07-07T17:51:35Z

Jumping off the Microsoft train for a post. We use Cacti for circuit / router / switch monitoring. It's free, it does everything we need it to do, and it's easy to get going if you use the CactiEZ bootable distro. So after some minor hiccups involving an ill-advised upgrade and other technician - induced error, Cacti has been humming happily along for months. It had drive space issues for a while, but that was easily resolved by adding another volume to the VM, mounting it, and moving over...(read more)

Reporting on Workstations in AD Group

2008-07-03T21:43:47Z

So I last posted about creating a collection based on a user's membership in an AD Group , and tying that to a workstation based on the TopConsoleUser field. Of course as soon as I let it loose that we now had that functionality, our group wanted to be able to run reports against it. "No problem!", I thought. Just translate the WQL to SQL and everything will be fabulous. Long story short, after several hours spread over a couple of days I threw in the towel. The WQL just does not line...(read more)

At long last...

2008-06-19T19:23:01Z

Having a collection based on Active Directory User Group membership has been a holy grail since we installed SMS. It seemed to make sense to everyone that since we have the user ID of the last logged in user and can pull user ID's from AD groups we should be able to marry the two into a collection of computers. Not so much. After investing significant time under SMS 2k3 SP2, I gave up. There are a couple of Third-Party add ons that can accomplish the task, but we weren't buying. Today I saw...(read more)

NetMon 3.2b is out

2008-06-13T13:22:32Z

... and it rocks. Some quick initial testing shows that this tool finally has real value on a Windows system. What's New since Network Monitor 3.1 Process Tracking: View all the processes on your machine generating network traffic (process name and PID). Use the conversation tree to view frames associated with each process. Find conversations: Quickly isolate frames in the same network conversation. Isolate TCP streams, HTTP flows etc. PCAP capture file support* Capture engine re-architecture...(read more)

Microsoft Application Virtualization

2008-06-12T04:33:46Z

One of the most compelling technologies to come down the pipe from Microsoft is Application Virtualization , formerly known as SoftGrid. One of the main holdbacks for us and the product was that applications that needed to interact had to be 'bubbled' together. Since most of our major laptops apps interact with each other and Office and Adobe, this posed a big problem. Who wants to roll all of that into one bubble? Well, word came down in a meeting I was at on Monday with the fine folks at...(read more)

Moving the Ops Mgr DB

2008-06-12T04:25:48Z

After much delay, uncertainty, fear and paranoia, I've finally moved our Ops Manager 2007 (SP1) DB to a new 64-bit HP behemoth server. I can say that it went exactly as advertised. I chose not to delete the original DB, but merely backed it up and than took it offline. Once I'm sure things are happy, healthy and stable I'll delete it. Paranoia can be a pain, but I'll take it in cases like this. The only surprise was the length of time it took to restore the DB. After copying it over...(read more)

It can't be far off...

2008-05-07T20:30:52Z

They've invented the Flux Capacitor. Ok, so they call it a Memristor , but read what it does: The memristor is formally defined as a two-terminal element in which the magnetic flux Φ m between the terminals is a function of the amount of electric charge q that has passed through the device. Each memristor is characterized by its memristance function describing the charge-dependent rate of change of flux with charge. That, to me, is a flux capacitor. And others think so as well . Flying Deloreans...(read more)

Geek Flowchart

2008-05-06T15:35:47Z

I knew it all started with D&D. If I had seen this at the age of thirteen, who knows where I'd be today? The chart is sadly accurate. About the only thing missing is the entire BBS era. And there should be a progression of modem speeds in there, from 300 baud pulse to 56k. Click the picture for more detail....(read more)

MMS : WrapUp

2008-05-04T21:00:00Z

You know that old saying about a butterfly flapping it's wings causing a hurricane a thousand miles away? Well, a thunderstorm in Chicago causes repercussions around the world. I finally landed at O'Hare at around 10:45, which was well after my connecting flight to scenic Champaign - Urbana has left the tarmac. And of course that was the last flight of the night. I had already decided I would just rent a car and drive home. Unfortunately, there were several hundred people that had made similar...(read more)

MMS : Stuck

2008-05-02T23:10:03Z

Weather in Chicago delays my flight out of Vegas. Making me miss my connecting flight from O'Hare to Champaign. And since it's the last flight of the night to Champaign, looks like I get to drive home. I should have caught the 6:00AM flight with the Richard from PS*Soft . If all goes well I'll be home by 2:00am. How was your flight out?...(read more)

MMS : 2009

2008-05-02T04:05:30Z

Mark your calendars. MMS 2009 April 27 - May 1, Las Vegas. See you there!...(read more)

MMS : Misc

2008-05-01T19:07:46Z

Some miscellaneous thoughts around MMS and the Venetian hotel. Venetian Coffee - Good. Better than average, and kept stocked throughout the venue. I'd like to see the pots they use to make coffee for 4000 people. More like vats, I'd guess. Venetian Food - When feeding 4000+, it's OK. At any particular restaurant throughout the casino, it's very good. If you're here on a budget, I recommend the food court which is somewhere in the Grand Canal shops. They have a Panda Express and...(read more)

MMS Day Four : Keynote

2008-05-01T16:39:21Z

The Reality of the Cloud Ok, I missed some of this due to working some last night (a new Ops Manager RMS Server!), excess sleep and work to catch up on this morning. But I did get there in time to hear internal Microsoft talk about number that are beyond comprehension : 5000 servers per server admin, hundreds of thousands of total servers, trillions of row updates per day in Ops Manager. Yikes. They piloted Ops Mgr SP1 on a small 1000 servers. Once that's complete they'll extend it to 39...(read more)

MMS Day Three : Afternoon Sessions

2008-05-01T05:19:19Z

OS Deployment with SCCM : Part 1 This session was pretty well full. Given the capabilities of SCCM and OSD, I'm not surprised. This slide deck is going to be a must have if you deploy OS's with SCCM, and the video should be first-watch on the DVD if you get a chance. OS Deployment with SCCM is as complex or as simple as you want to make it, and this session does a great job giving us an overview of the process, including some custom scripting and task sequences. There is very little you can't...(read more)

MMS Day Three : Sessions

2008-04-30T18:29:02Z

SCCM 2007 Scripting and Console Extensions : Greg Ramsey For those of us that live and die by the community written console extensions for SMS 2003, this session is a must. Where would we be without the ability to right - click on a collection or computer and force a hardware or software inventory, or restart CCM exec, or open the logs? Off the bat, Greg makes a reference to the great MyItForum.com as the place to go for more info and downloads. I think the only session that MyItForum.com has not...(read more)

MMS Day Three : Keynote

2008-04-30T16:52:47Z

Managing The Dynamic Desktop Microsoft Funny Guy : Still not so much. User - Centric Computing : Delivering an application to a user in a seamless fashion regardless of the device they use to connect. The user is the device. Deliver an app either virtualized, hosted, or 'standard' depending on bandwidth and device. Give the user the opportunity to be productive across all of their devices. Key components in the delivery of this vision are cached and offline folders, application virtualization...(read more)

MMS Day Two : Sessions

2008-04-29T22:19:32Z

Extending Operations Manager Cameron Fuller's session was well attended and well done. He went through a slew of Community and Third - Party extensions to SCOM, including (but not limited to): Override Explorer ReSearch This! Savision - Live Maps Command Shell: Alert Close Set Action Account Export Alerts Usability Extensions MPViewer Maintenance Mode Proxycfg Scheduling MP Process Monitoring Alert Forward Eventid.net Lookup The post - session Q&A was great. I was able to remind everyone...(read more)

MMS Day Two : Keynote

2008-04-29T17:06:53Z

Some awesome announcements in the keynote address. First off, the comedian guy at the beginning : the "show of hands" line of jokes was funny last year. Not so much this year. Won't be at all funny next year. His strength is in the 'man on the street' interviews. Those are golden. VMM 2008: Beta announced today. Allows management and migration of VMWare ESX and Virtual Center servers from within the Microsoft VM Console. You can migrate VMWare to VMWare live, VMWare to Windows...(read more)

MMS Day One : Expo

2008-04-29T02:48:18Z

What a zoo! I think all four thousand attendees were lined up trying to get in the doors. The line went back nearly to the casino (if not all the way there by the time the doors opened) and that wasn't single file, but three or four wide the entire way down. Here's a really bad picture from my cell phone camera that does the crowd no justice . My apologies to the guys in front, who probably didn't want to end up on the Internet. As usual, the MyItForum.com booth was swamped, and by the...(read more)

MMS Day One : Labs

2008-04-28T23:32:15Z

Advice : Start the VM's as soon as you sit down! Be careful when closing items in the VM that you don't close the VM itself! You don't want to have to start the lab over. Not that I did that or anything. Yo03 - Advanced Ops Manager 2007 First of all, the VM sessions rocked. Finally, something that can keep up. I think that the OpsMgr SP1 Console had a lot to due with my perception here, but it was quick and very useable. The lab itself was a disappointment. I don't think any topic...(read more)

MMS Day One - Alumni

2008-04-28T16:15:09Z

If you are an MMS Alumni, make sure you stop by the Alumni room, if only to pick up your official polo shirt....(read more)

MMS Day One

2008-04-28T15:03:00Z

Ok, I get it. The Venetian is gargantuan. I think it's as far from my room to the conference center as it was last year in San Diego. I exaggerate a bit, but not much. I'm finally learning the lay of the land here - to get anywhere, you must go through the casino. Nice swag bag with registration. A nice Ogio backpack, again this year sponsored by Intel. The most interesting thing in it was a copy of the Powershell book, which tells you something about what Microsoft is emphasizing lately...(read more)

Arrived in Vegas

2008-04-28T05:13:33Z

Here and cranked up to start MMS tomorrow. Congratulations to the fine folks at American Airlines for getting both me and my checked bag to the same place at the same time. This time....(read more)

Packing for MMS

2008-04-27T00:28:00Z

Heading out to MMS tomorrow. Given past experience, I'm packing two days worth of clothes in my carry on and praying for the bag I'll check. I'll blog things of interest while I'm there. Really looking forward to meeting folks in the community, and renewing acquaintences. Hope to see you there!...(read more)

KB948496 Ate My Network

2008-03-27T21:32:46Z

We started having weird issues today with users in a particular site not being able to log in, not mapping drives, etc. We were getting odd DNS and KCC errors in the logs. We finally traced it down to KB948496, which was applied early this morning. Once we removed that patch, all was well. It appears there is a conflict between that patch and the Broadcomm NIC drivers in our HP server. There's some general chatter about the patch here. I'd say avoid this one until fully vetted in your environment...(read more)

A Grand Master is gone

2008-03-19T15:19:20Z

Arthur C. Clark has died. 2001. Rama. Childhood's End The Fountains of Paradise I could go on, and on. Clarke is the writer who really expanded my horizons, who made me think big impossible things. Who made me understand, finally, that we are living on this tiny little ball in a backwater section of the galaxy in a small corner of a vast universe. He realized the importance of satellites in communication before there were satellites. There is apparently one more Clark book forthcoming, a collaboration...(read more)

Vegas - Bound

2008-03-05T19:03:30Z

Finally got approval to attend MMS! Immediately went and signed up for initial 3 sessions, which are open for alumni now. The session schedule is also available here. If you've not been to MMS, it's an unparalleled chance to dig deep into the latest products in the Microsoft Management space. I learned more there in a week last year than I think I knew up to that point. The chance to talk with developers and peers in the industry is well worth the price. When you think of what the price of...(read more)

The Zune A Day Giveaway

2008-02-24T20:31:56Z

Win a Zune! Hotmail or Windows Live account required. The Zune A Day Giveaway...(read more)