Rod Trent at myITforum.com

Coping with Windows 7 Migrations | CTO Edge

rodtrent — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:30:28 GMT

When it comes to migrating an enterprise to Windows 7, IT managers fall into one of two groups. Group number one views Windows 7 as an opportunity to improve operations, offer improved desktop services, advance security, and solve many of the problems associated with earlier OSes. They see Windows 7 as evidence that Microsoft can make their lives better and deliver on the promises of the past. They understand that Windows 7 delivers a new and improved experience and Microsoft has created the tools and procedures to make a migration as easy as possible.

Coping with Windows 7 Migrations | CTO Edge

Exciting news from me on Monday…

rodtrent — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:38:56 GMT

If you’ve been following my tweets and traveling habits over the past month or so, you might realize that there’s “something up”. So, Monday is the day when all can be revealed.

Look for an industry press release to hit the wires early Monday morning, and then you can all join a press conference about the news on Tuesday.

Press conference information (link won’t be live until the day of the press conference):

March 23, 2010 at 1 pm EDT for an online press conference and Q&A with Rod Trent

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/144357850

US dial in number: 800-444-2801

Outside of US: 310-765-4820
Access Code: 1095840

MyOTRadio Goes to MMS - Need Interviewees, Cohost/Engineer

rodtrent — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:50:26 GMT

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/m.asp?m=215657

Win A Pass To MMS 2010 Compliments of Secure Vantage Technologies

rodtrent — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:47:31 GMT

Secure Vantage Technologies (SVT) is pleased to announce its continued support for the myITforum community and the Microsoft Management Summit(MMS) by awarding an MMS Conference Attendance Badge valued at $1,970 USD to a lucky winner! MMS is an invaluable tool for anyone supporting Microsoft systems management technologies. Don't miss out! Enter today for your chance to attend MMS this year, compliments of Secure Vantage Technologies.

To enter, simply send an email to mms2010-contest@securevantage.com. That’s all there is to it! Once we’ve received your email you will be entered to win. We’re sorry, but for content integrity emails from Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail and similar online email services are not valid for entry. The deadline for entry is 5:00PM on March 24, 2010. The winner will be notified by 5:00PM CT Friday, March 26, 2010. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE TRAVEL OR HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS! Please do not enter unless your able to attend and provide for your own travel. This contest is for the conference fee only.

About Secure Vantage

Founded in 2005, Secure Vantage Technologies delivers expert security reporting and auditing solutions for Microsoft System Center. Using existing Microsoft infrastructure makes Secure Vantage Technology solutions simple to deploy and increases the value of the investment customers have made in Microsoft management solutions. Take advantage of hundreds of auditing scenarios, advanced forensics and unmatched offline archiving capabilities for Windows security events, group policy, service and application configurations -- even your Unix/Linux syslogs. For more information, please visit www.securevantage.com

Contest Rules:

Must be able to attend the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 in Las Vegas, NV USA - April 19-23. Winner to be notified by March 26, 2010. Travel and accommodations are NOT included. Open to citizens of the United States only. SVT is not responsible for content entries not received. Must be 21 or older to enter. One entry per person.

Systems and Privilege Management | “Cloud-y” Economics: Aging Workforce with No Recovery?

rodtrent — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:31:43 GMT

Over the past 30 years, IT workers have built and maintained a pretty significant part of human history that really tends to get overlooked and underappreciated. Wifi connections have become commonplace. “Always on” Internet connections are now as much a daily requirement as eating food. And, as we Google over lunch, there’s a huge force working in the background to provide as close to 100% availability as possible.

While each single IT worker is just a speck in the crowd, together, over time, the mass of IT has been very industrious. The Chinese has their Great Wall, and when it comes right down to it, IT’s accomplishments over the past 30 years are just as significant. Maybe you can’t see our IT infrastructure from space (a misnomer about the Great Wall, btw), but it is a substantial part of human history and a huge accomplishment that has taken decades to build.

So…the Great Wall is now just a monument, showing how industrious the Chinese people were. There’s a lot about the Great Wall that we could go into, but this blog post isn’t really about the Great Wall. It’s really about how management of our IT infrastructure is changing. Some stats show that the IT workforce in the U.S. is aging, with no recovery in sight from the younger generations. In short, the youth are not interested in IT anymore. Their interests are elsewhere. If it turns out that there is no recovery for IT, then the IT infrastructure may someday become our monument – our testimony to a most industrious time in human history.

I ask you: is it technology to the rescue once again? And if yes, what is likely to be the technology that can help IT continue to deliver 100% availability in the face of an aging IT workforce? And, then, what will our technology infrastructure look like in 5 years? 10 years?

Our friends over at myITforum.com are hosting a poll about this topic for the next month or so. We’d appreciate it if you would participate in it, giving us your feedback on this topic. Once the poll is over, we’ll circle back here for recap and a follow-up blog post.

The poll: http://www.myitforum.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=15991&z=120

Systems and Privilege Management | “Cloud-y” Economics: Aging Workforce with No Recovery?

SCCM and Deployment week in New York

rodtrent — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:15:48 GMT

TrueSec offers a deployment and SCCM fest in New York City the week of April 13-15. Three of the most prominent deployment masters are in New York to each run their highly rated lab’s:

Johan Arwidmark: Deploy Windows 7 using MDT 2010 and SCCM 2007 SP2
Mike Nyström: Deploying Windows 7 using MDT 2010 Lite Touch
Kent Agerlund: Mastering SCCM 2007 SP2 R2

There are still a few seats available to all three of these top rated trainings.

MDOP Documentation Feedback program on Microsoft Connect

rodtrent — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:07:43 GMT

Hello all,

I just wanted to send a quick note to tell you about a pilot program that I have created on Microsoft Connect to enable customers to more actively participate in the documentation process for the MDOP docs (currently only App-V and MED-V). The program is called MDOP Documentation Review and if you’d like to participate in the program, you can sign up for it on the Connect site at https://connect.microsoft.com.

By signing up for this connection, you will have the opportunity to learn about, and contribute to, the documentation process in several ways, such as downloading the latest help files, taking surveys, exchanging ideas, and, most importantly, providing and reviewing feedback about the current and future documentation for both App-V and MED-V. Your feedback enables the documentation to be the best that it can be, and you can also learn about, and contribute to, exciting documentation projects.

This connection can best be thought of as a place to come and join in with others who are passionate about documentation and share your ideas and feedback with the product and documentation teams for App-V and MED-V.

Note: The purpose of this connection is not to report or file bugs on the existing documentation as those should always be sent to the respective documentation teams directly at appvdocs@microsoft.com or medvdocs@microsoft.com. However, there will be opportunities for you to file content request idea bugs and also to provide feedback that helps shape future documentation efforts—including community authored content possibilities.

You can always reach me, or a member of my MDOP Documentation Feedback connection team, by e-mailing mdopdocs@microsoft.com. I look forward to hearing your feedback and partnering with you to shape the future information experience for App-V and MED-V.

Thanks,

Jeff Gilbert MCSE, MCSA
Content Publishing Manager: App-V & MED-V
Management and Services Division, information eXperience, Microsoft Corporation
Partnering with the right people to provide the right information at the right time.

New myITforum forums to get involved in…

rodtrent — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:03:20 GMT

Privilege Management/Escalation:

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Privelege_Management%2FEscalation/forumid_188/tt.htm

Windows 7 Migrations:

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Windows_7_Migrations/forumid_189/tt.htm

Cloud (SaaS) Computing area:

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/forumid_190/tt.htm

Systems Management (in the Cloud):

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Systems_Management/forumid_191/tt.htm

New SCCM Training! - Configuration Manager 2007 for the Helpdesk staff

rodtrent — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:17:32 GMT

This new 2 day lab is aimed at the Service desk personnel working with SCCM and need to cover most of the day to day tasks. It fills a hole in the training market as there is currently no official Microsoft training focusing on this audience. The lab is developed by Kent Agerlund, Microsoft MVP and MCT.

This lab covers the features typically used by service desk staff. After this lab the student will have a very solid understanding of System Center Configuration Manager and be able to use and troubleshoot the main areas like:

· Client installation
· Software Distribution
· Software Updates
· Image installation
· Working with inventory data

Working with reports
Creating custom reports
Creating basic and advanced queries

App-V 4.6 RTM and MED-V 1.0 SP1 RC are here!!

rodtrent — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:20:19 GMT

As announced on the Windows for your Business blog, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6, including App-V for RDS, is now publicly available as part of MDOP 2010!!! In addition, MED-V 1.0 SP1 RC for Windows 7 is now available!

The Official MDOP Blog

Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010: a credible challenger in the Service Management software market?

rodtrent — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:48:35 GMT

All things considered, can Microsoft convince potential customers that the multi-tier sales and service model is better, and will it win the market by selling cheaper? It is hard to believe the Service Management savvies will be easily convinced – Service Management software is a big investment not only cost-wise but especially because it is the heart of the support process, which it orchestrates. In such a peculiar market, where quality, reliability and ease of adoption are more important than price, Microsoft will have to work hard to win any form of trust, let alone take control of the market.

Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010: a credible challenger in the Service Management software market? « Plan-net's Blog

The MMS 2010 Facebook Event Page

rodtrent — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:17:42 GMT

Add yourself to the MMS 2010 Facebook Event Page if you are attending!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=305110736103

Download details: HPC Pack 2008 SP1 Fix for excessively large boot.wim

rodtrent — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:31:02 GMT

After installing HPC Pack 2008 Service Pack 1 the "boot.wim" file on the headnode may slowly grow to an excessive size. Apply this update to the headnode to prevent this issue from occuring.
If the "boot.wim" file (in the %CCP_HOME%\data\ directory) has already become large (over 200 megabytes) the following additional steps are necessary:
1) Locate the media, or file share, that you used to capture the deployment image
2) Copy the boot.wim file from the original location, and replace the boot.wim file located in %CCP_HOME%\data\...
3) Open the HPC Cluster Manager
4) On the 'Configuration' tab, select the 'Configure your network' To-do List entry
5) Change your network topology (to something other than what you actually have, such as 'public only') and complete the wizard.
6) Select the 'Configure your network' entry, and set your network topology back to the appropriate selection and complete the wizard.
7) Your boot.wim file will now be repaired. Ensure that you have applied this update so that it does not grow excessively again.

Download details: HPC Pack 2008 SP1 Fix for excessively large boot.wim

Confirmed. MS10-015 blue screens caused by computers already being compromised or backdoored with rootkit.

rodtrent — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:39:33 GMT

If MS10-015 causes you a bluescreen - its time to check to see if data about you or your organization has been stolen. Best to rebuild the machine from scratch instead of try to repair it.

Importing knowledge into Service Manager 2010

rodtrent — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:57:41 GMT

This week I have tested to import knowledge into Service Manager. Knowledge can be used for example as guides in the self service portal for end-users, system documentation for engineers or troubleshooting guides for service desk personnel. One of the ways to get knowledge into Service Manager is to use the CSV import feature. The CSV import feature allows you to bulk-import instances of any class type or projection type defined in the Service Manager Configuration Management Database (SMCMDB).

www.contoso.se » Blog Archive » Importing knowledge into Service Manager 2010