April 2009 - Posts
Today MMS begins… "State of the Union" is THE session, and MMS doesn't start until this session…
My schedule for Tuesday was the following:
- 08:30 - 10:00 Opening Keynote
- 10:15 – 11.30 System Center Configuration Manager: "State of the Union"
- 11:45 - 13:00 How Microsoft IT Uses OSD for Deploying Windows 7
- 14:15 - 15:30 Easing the pain: Techniques for managing drivers with SCCM and MDT
- 16:00 – 17:15 Configuration Manager Hardware Inventory Customization
- 17:30 – 19:00 Configuration Manager MVP Reception
- 19:00 – 21:00 The myITforum.com Party
Opening Keynote
The opening keynote was like always a great "show" including a few announcements. The Keynote was presented by Corporate Vice President Bob Kelly and he talked a lot about Datacenter Management and "Cloud Computing". Something that we will hear a lot about in the coming years. He also talked about the importance of Dynamic IT, something Microsoft has talked about for last 4 or 5 years.
With Windows Server 2008 R2 almost being ready to be released, Microsoft Hyper-V 2.0 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 is something everyone talks about. Edwin showed some really cool demos on the integration between Hyper-V, SCVMM and SCOM 2007 R2. There is no doubt that Microsoft will win some key customers that uses VMware today, with these upcoming releases.
System Center Configuration Manager: "State of the Union"
Bill and Josh on stage together is just awesome. Nothing at MMS beats this session…
One of the main reasons many people wants to see this session every year, is that we always get a sneak peak on what will happen in v.next and what great features they plan to add. This year was no exception.
They showed a great live demo on real code of ConfigMgr v.next. I don't want to go through all the new features in this post, but I'll promise to blog about most of the features when I get back to Europe.
The most important information right now, that might help you prepare for this upcoming release is the system requirements. All site roles requires 64-bit Windows. The only exception is the Standard DP that will run on Windows Server 2003 32-bit as well.
How Microsoft IT Uses OSD for Deploying Windows 7
Windows 7 is everywhere, and many of our customers is already asking about when we expect that they'll be able to deploy Windows 7 using ConfigMgr, so I went to this session to hear something about what Microsoft IT has learned during the beta.
This session was awesome… The main speaker was Chris Adams, and I've never heard this guy do a talk before. He is truly a great speaker… This session is one of the best sessions I've ever seen (I'm not sure it'll be as fun, if you could only hear him. Watching him on stage was amazing).
Microsoft's users required significant enhancement of the OSD end-user interface, driver management, and USMT. These tools and "add-ons" was developed for internal use only, but they will all be shared on his blog within a week or so… Check it out at http://blogs.technet.com/osd.
Easing the pain: Techniques for managing drivers with SCCM and MDT
Managing drivers is always a pain, and there's no perfect solution today to this problem. Michael Niehaus walked through different ways of managing drivers in WDS, MDT and ConfigMgr. As many of you already know I'm a "control freak", so this session will not change the way I manage drivers, but he showed some pretty cool PowerShell stuff that gave me some ideas to work with (yet another reason to get started with PowerShell J).
Configuration Manager Hardware Inventory Customization
My last session today was about hardware inventory customization. This session was presented by a friend and fellow MVP Sherry Kissinger. This was Sherry's first talk a MMS, and she did a great job. She showed how to customize the information reported ConfigMgr clients to increase the scalability and relevance of data reported by Hardware Inventory. Most of this session was live demo, and she showed how to modify the files used to enable or disable inventory items step by step. Great Session!
If you want to read more about Sherry's inventory optimization, don’t forget to visit her blog:
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/skissinger/
Configuration Manager MVP Reception
It's not easy to get time to talk to everyone during the conference, so the ConfigMgr MVP Reception was a great opportunity to get to talk to some of the other MVP's and the product team.
The myITforum Party
I was really looking forward to this party, but I got hit by jetlag, so unfortunately I had to leave early.
I was completely wasted…
This year, the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) has a 10th year anniversary, and like last year this great event is located at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. The first day at a conference is always very special. You can fell the excitement in the air from the attendees, Microsoft employees and the guest speakers that’s just can't wait to get started.
My schedule for the first day was the following:
- 10:30 – 11.45 Introduction to Windows PowerShell for Absolute Beginners
- 12:00 - 13:15 Windows 7 Deployment: Introduction to Microsoft Deployment Tools
- 13:30 - 14:45 SQL Performance Tips for SMS and ConfigMgr Reporting Gurus
- 15:00 – 16:15 Roadmap and Introduction to Windows 7 for Enterprise Customers
- 16:30 – 17:45 Windows 7 Networking Overview
- 17:45 – 18:45 Welcome Reception
- 19:00 – 22.00 The Danish Welcome Reception
Introduction to Windows PowerShell for Absolute Beginners
I don't have much experience using PowerShell, but I think it's clear to everyone, that PowerShell will be around for a while, so I thought that I might as well get started.
This session was a hands-on Lab that gave the basic knowledge on how to perform simple tasks IT management tasks, but more important it gave me a solid foundation to learn advanced PowerShell topics.
The speaker in this session was James McCaffrey, and I think he did an awesome job making this scripting lab both funny and exciting. This hands-on lab runs several times during this week, so if you have the time, and want to get started with PowerShell, this is the lab you don't want to miss.
Windows 7 Deployment: Introduction to Microsoft Deployment Tools
With Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 coming, Microsoft is also releasing a new version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2010). This lab was a basic introduction to the updated Deployment Workbench. If you've previously worked with MDT LiteTouch scenarios, you might find this session a bit boring. The Speaker/Instructor was Jeremy Chapman, and I thing he did a great job.
SQL Performance Tips for SMS and ConfigMgr Reporting Gurus
This session was at a very high technical level, and was presented by ConfigMgr MVPs Brian Mason and Steve Thompson, that showed how speed up SQL Queries and Web reports. They also shared how they would and would not configure the ConfigMgr SQL Server. Great session, with some nice demos.
Roadmap and Introduction to Windows 7 for Enterprise Customers
This session was a basic "what's new" session, on Windows 7, but with a high technical level. We got some great info on the Windows client roadmap and what will be changed in fundamentals and deployment. There was some nice demos I can use for inspiration for our upcoming event later in May, where I get to speak about Windows 7 on the Keynote.
I think Jeremy Chapman, did a good job pointing out some of the main reasons to upgrade to Windows 7 when you're an administrator. But I think that he covered too many subjects. You can’t make a techical session in 75 mins. that covers all the new features in Windows 7.
Windows 7 Networking Overview
This session was dedicated to two subjects. DirectAccess and BranchCache. To me there's no doubt. DirectAccess is THE feature in Windows 7, that everyone wants to implement frist if they could. DirectAccess enables the Information Worker to work anywhere as long as they have access to the Internet. This feature is really hard to demo in a "TechSexy" way, but I'm sure that everyone in the room was convinced that this feature will solve many problem, that most of us are facing today.
The Welcome Reception, was… hmm…. Well, we got free beers and free food (And my badge for the myITforum.com party). What else can you ask for :-)
The Danish Welcome Reception is always something I look forward to. This is a great opportunity to meet with costumers and "colleagues" from other Danish consulting companies. This year was no exception, but there is no doubt that the global economy has reached MMS as well… This year there in less than 90 Danish attendees compared with more than 200 last year.
This completes my first day at MMS, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week here in Las Vegas.
Event Overview
Microsoft is the first enterprise organization to use Windows 7 on a large scale, and that includes deployments using the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Operating System Deployment (OSD) feature. OSD provides administrators with a tool to create images that can be deployed to managed and unmanaged computers. The OSD user interface, and features such as driver management and the User State Migration Tool (USMT), have been significantly enhanced. Join subject matter experts from Microsoft IT as they share best practices. These include complex scenarios such as using OSD with Network Access Protection (NAP).
Language(s): English.
Product(s): Microsoft System Center Operations Manager.
Audience(s): IT Professional.
Duration: 60 Minutes
Start Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Presenter: Chris Adams, Microsoft IT Program Manager II, Microsoft Corporation
Registration:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032412442&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US
Saturday I'm leaving for the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas. This is one of the biggest Management events in world for for IT Pro's. This year my main focus will be on Configuration Manager 2007, Microsoft Deployment (MDT 2010) and Windows 7 Deployment. Hopefully I’ll also get time to see some of the great sessions about Microsoft Hyper-V 2.0 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.
One of the great things about MMS is opportunity to meet with colleagues, customers, partners, fellow MVP’s and friends. If you want to have a chat, coffee or a beer during the event just give me a call +45 2085 9452 and I'll arrange something.
So expect either blog silence or multiple blog posts about my week in Las Vegas. Either way I will enjoy the week…
Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 comes with allot of new great features. One of them is BranchCache that is designed to reduce WAN link utilization and improve application responsiveness for branch office workers who access content from servers in remote locations. Branch office client computers use a locally maintained cache of data to reduce traffic over a WAN link. The cache can be distributed across client computers or can be housed on a server in the branch.
Download the BranchCache Early Adopter’s Guide here, and be ready to adopt this cool new technology, when the product ships.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9a1ed8a-71ab-468e-a7e0-470fd46e46b3&DisplayLang=en
Enjoy.
A lot of questions that often pops up in various newsgroups and on the Microsoft TechNet forums are related to importing drivers in the Windows PE boot image. This article will walk you through this process step-by-step.
This guide assumes that the following steps have been completed:
- The PXE Service Point are installed and configured.
- Command line support have been enabled for both the x86 and x64 boot image.
- The boot image is distributed to the PXE Service Point and a Distribution Point.
- A Task Sequence has been created and is advertised to the client.
Identifying that a driver is missing in the Boot Image
If you boot a client computer using network boot and the Windows PE image is loaded, but just before the ”Welcome to the Task Sequence Wizard” appears Windows PE restarts, you might need a network driver in the boot image. To verify this, hit F8 while Windows PE is loaded (just before the restart). In the Command Prompt use the IPCONFIG command to check if a driver has not been loaded for the network adapter.
Verifying that you have the correct driver for Windows PE
The next step is to get the driver. Windows PE 2.5 is using the same drivers that should be used for Windows Vista. So even if you’re deploying Windows XP, you should always download the drivers for Windows Vista. When Service Pack 2 for System Center Configuration Manager is released, Windows PE will be upgraded to version 3.0, which is based on Windows 7. All your drivers for Windows Vista will most likely still work with Windows 7, but you should always go for the supported versions.
The first question that pops up when you need to find the driver is, do I need the x86 or x64 version of the driver? The answer is that you need the driver that matches the OS version are you deploying. So if you're deploying Windows XP x86, you need an x86 driver for your boot image. Some people gets confused when they see that x64 is the initial NBP that in turn downloads the boot image via TFTP but an x86 Windows can only be deployed using the x86 boot image and x64 Windows can only be deployed using the x64 boot image.
If you're having trouble identifying the driver, you can test the driver using the drvload tool. The drvload tool adds out-of-box drivers to a booted Windows PE image. To verify that you have the correct driver, simply put the driver on a USB key and try loading them using drvload util.
Drvload Command-Line Options:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766390.aspx.
Importing the network driver to the driver catalog
All drivers that should be added to the Windows PE boot image must be added to the driver catalog. I always create a folder structure for my drivers that look like this:
D: \Source$\Drivers\%OSVersion%\%Driver name and version%
OS Versions is created like this:
- Windows PE x64 2.5 - WINPEX6425
- Windows PE x86 2.5 - WINPEX8625
- Windows PE x86 3.0 - WINPEX8630
- Windows XP x86 - WINXPX86
- Windows Vista x86 - WINVISTAX86
- Windows 7 x64 - WIN7X64
This folder structure is inspired by Johan Arwidmark’s post on managing drivers.
So in this case the folder name would be:
D: \Source$\Drivers\WINPEX8625\VMWare AMD PCNet Adapter 2.0.0.5
When the driver is downloaded and copied to the correct folder, the next step is to import the driver in Configuration Manager. Before importing the driver I also create a folder structure that reflects the folder structure. Some people might disagree with me on create this folder structure. The reason for this is that Configuration Manager does not honor this folder structure, while browsing for drivers. But I still like my folders :o)
Windows PE folder structure in the ConfigMgr console:
1. Right-click the “WINPEX8625” folder and select Import.
2. Make sure that Import all drivers in the following network path (UNC) is selected. Click Browse or type in the UNC path to the share that contains the driver, and click Next.
3. Verify that the correct driver is selected, and click Next.
4. Drivers for boot images do not need to be distributed to a Distribution Point. Leave the defaults and click Next.
5. Select the boot image with the correct architecture, select Update distribution point when finished, and click Next.
6. Verify the summary page, and click Next.
This might take a few minutes while the boot image in rebuild and copied to the distribution point.
7. Click Close.
This completes this step, an the new driver should be ready for use.
To list all drivers that have been added to a boot image, simply right-click the boot image in the Configuration Manager Console, and select Properties.
Select the Windows PE tab to list the drivers added to the boot image.
Verifying that that new driver is working as expected
Turn on the client computer and boot using network boot (F12) and hit F8 when Windows PE is loaded. In the Command Prompt use the IPCONFIG command to check if a driver has now been loaded for the network adapter.
Enjoy.