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Top Ten Events in Systems Management During 2007

First of all, Happy New Year, and may everyone find that in 2008 that your glass is more than half full, you and your loved ones are all very healthy and overly happy, that your careers are very prosperous, and that you gain all that you desire and more. As we welcome another year and reflect on the year ending it is always nice to note what was the highlights of the year. So below is my personal top ten of 2007 when it comes to Systems Management. 10. Thursday, October 23rd, System Center Partner...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, et. all, System Center, Vista, News, TechNet, Microsoft, myITforum, SCOM, MMS 2007, Blog, OSD, SoftGrid, ConfigMgr

Troubleshooting WMI With WMIDiag

If you have never worked with Microsoft PSS, PFE, QFE, MCS, RRE, or any other arm of their professional support staff you may not be aware of the tools that these army of men and women come equipped with to resolve issues. These are often home grown, field developed, custom tools that these same folks have written to help customers and the support staff at Microsoft quickly resolve issues and the WMIDiag tool is a prime example of this. Often these tools are used only by the Microsoft staff and are...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, SMS Tools, Scripting, Tools, System Center, TechNet, Microsoft, WMI, VB Script

WMI Stability Improvements Fix For Windows XP

Back in May Microsoft released the same type of fix for Windows 2003 and now it is ready for XP clients. SMS admins understand the pain of WMI corruption as well as anyone, and probably better than most. Getting permission denied errors when it has nothing to do with permissions, trying to diagnose client issues remotely when WMI is not reporting the correct or latest data, the painful memories return so quickly... With this update applied you should get better stability from WMI, integrated into...  ... Read the full post or  the 6 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, Patching, News, Microsoft, WMI

SMS 2003 SP3 Due Out Friday

Thanks Paul! SMS 2003 SP3: Friday Yes, SMS 2003 SP3 is due to be posted this Friday April 27th (yes, 2007). The most reliable of sources has confirmed it. I don't know any other details. For example, will Premier customers get the first hit at it? Or what time of day. But at least some peole will get their hands on it this Friday. Of course there's the usual disclaimers. Maybe the product team will release it on Friday but the microsoft.com guys won't actually get it publicly available...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, News, Microsoft

The SMS Connector for SoftGrid

I can’t say enough about this product, if you have not seen the demos on this visit the site and look at them here . If you have plans to package and send out and software this year with SMS I would encourage you to look at this as an alternative to the traditional ways of packaging and deploying with SMS. The cost is ~$10 for SA members, yes that’s ten dollars. Regards, Anthony Anthony Clendenen | Technical Consultant |Microsoft Practices | 909-379-8934 | Dimension Data “ Dimension...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Packaging, Microsoft, SaaS

AZ SMS User Group Meeting Notes - October

Arizona System Management User Group (AZSMUG) Meeting Minutes Meeting Date: October 26, 2006 Next meeting: TBD Location: Microsoft Corporation 2929 North Central Avenue Suite 1400 Phoenix, AZ 85012 Announcements The Microsoft's Windows Vista Launch Blitz will take place in Phoenix, Arizona January the 17 th . If you plan to attend make sure you register for this event when it becomes available. The next meeting of the AZSMUG is under discussion contingent on Harold Wong's (our sponsor) availability...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Microsoft, myITforum, AZSMUG

Microsoft Announces Desktop Optimization Pack

Today it was officially announced that Microsoft will combine the recently acquired tools from Softricity, Winternals, and Desktop Standard into a single package that you can purchase for ~$50 per client. What this package gets you is SoftGrid application virtualization, group policy management/enhancement tools from DesktopStandard, and the remote repair tools from Wintenals. For this price you could not get even the tools from DesktopStandard, the backend for the SoftGrid used to run about $15...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, Group Policy, Tools, Vista, News, Microsoft

SoftGrid + Folder Redirection + Group Policy = No More Down Time? No More App Installs?

Think back to the dumb terminal days, back when you only had to worry about your servers staying up. If an end user had a problem, they moved to a different terminal or you replaced it. Okay I wasn’t really working in IT back then but I have heard stories. Well imagine this…You give a user a computer with only an OS installed, their computer is in an OU that through group policy locks it down as kiosk, they can’t write to the system at all, they can’t open control panel,...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Group Policy, Microsoft

Software as a Service - Kevin Explains it

Where do I sign up? I saw this at MMS but Kevin makes it a little more clear. Original source: Playing with SoftGrid... As you may or may not know, MSFT acquired a company named Softricity over the summer (www.softricity.com). The acquisition is now complete and we will be announcing the roadmap and integration of this killer technology in the coming months. I feel that this 'app vitalization stuff' is going to be VERY huge in the next few years at least... Anyway, so I have been playing around with...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, Microsoft, SCCM 2007

Microsoft Changes the WSUSScan.cab File

To make the WSUSScan file smaller they are getting rid of unsupported products. “… Microsoft is reducing the size of the WSUSScan.cab file by removing security updates for unsupported platforms, superseded security updates, and tools that are no longer needed.” Read it here . Changes to the WSUSScan.cab file View products that this article applies to. function loadTOCNode(){} Article ID : 924513 Last Review : August 24, 2006 Revision : 2.0 INTRODUCTION loadTOCNode(1, 'summary'...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, News, Microsoft

MMS 2006 - Keynote Videos

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mgmtsummit/material.mspx Press Releases • Microsoft Announces Industry-Leading ISV Support for Management Technologies (April 26, 2006) • Microsoft’s Bob Muglia Details Progress in Delivering Self-Managing Dynamic Systems (April 25, 2006) Feature Stories • Kirill Tatarinov Discusses Innovations in Microsoft's System Center Family of Products (April 25, 2006) Executive Keynotes • Bob Muglia Keynote Webcast (April 25, 2006, Windows Media file, 1 hr., 16 mins...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, MOM, System Center, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

MMS 2006 - Day 3 - SMSv4 (SCCM 2007) Beta 1 and Beta 1 Refresh Features

Presented by Josh Pointer and Michael Kelley IF YOU MISSED THIS SESSION MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND IT - THE SLIDES DO NOT DO IT JUSTICE YOU MUST SEE THE DEMOS!!! Included in Beta 1: (You may want to skip this section and get to the good stuff in Demo 1 below) Operating System Deployment (OSD) Software Updates Management (SUM) New UI Based on MMC 3.0 Filter Drag and Drop for patch and folders!!! Branch DP's What's new in the Beta 1 Refresh? - Matches Vista Beta 2 release time Deployment of Vista and Longhorn...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Packaging, Patching, Beta, Vista, Longhorn, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

MMS 2006 - Day 3 - What's New in SMS 2003 R2?

Bryan Keller Program Manager SMS eXtreme Team and Quincy Milton Group Manager SMS eXtreme Team. What is it? New point release. Available for purchase if you are not an SA customer, if you are an SA customer then its free Built on SMS 2003 SP2 (SP2 is a pre-req) Available in Q2 - end of May or early June Enhancements: Deprecated AC support for Windows 200 SP3 Systems and XP RTM Added FQDN support AD Security Groups Discovery Multi threaded SWINV Integrated ITMU Features: Scan Tool for Vulnerability...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Patching, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

MMS 2006 - Day 2 - SMS 2003 Files Session

This session’s presenter was Rodney Jackson, this session is where they review common support issues and their solutions followed by a Q&A sessions where customers can ask support related questions. I will cover some of the tools he talked about since myITforum.com has most of the areas he discussed covered in the forums. (You can get these tools from your TAM or Microsoft Support) SMS Client Health Collections – If you have not seen or used this tool it will build collections based...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

MMS 2006 - Day 2 - SMS State of the Union

This was a session by Dustin Ingalls the SMS (SCCM) Product Manager and Bill Anderson the Lead Program Manager for SMS. This is always a very popular session at MMS and it started by them coming on stage with a SMS 2.0 box and putting it to rest, both of them dressed in brown monk robes with the hoods covering their faces. They covered the fact that 2.0 went EOL in March, some of the enhancements in SP2, the “Take Control Campaign,” the Device Management Feature Pack Road Map, R2, and...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

Day 2 - MMS 2006 - Keynote - Announcements

Very briefly before I have to run off to the SMS State of the Union… Some major announcements at the Keynote: SMS is being renamed to System Center Configuration Management MOM will also adopt the new “System Center” branding System Center Service Desk was announced WS-Management ratification by DMTF Monad is now known as PowerShell More info on Service Desk: ERP solution for IT, ITIL -based workflow, SDM-based CMDB, Process and Knowledge embedded Displays alert with MOM monitored...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Scripting, MOM, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

Day 1 - MMS 2006 - Part 2

This was a long day, I managed to get into four sessions and spend some time at SMS Expert booth talking with Dave. If you have not seen the new version of ESD make sure you stop by and check it out, they have done some great things with it. I was not able to make it to the get together at the Marriott, I was tired and had not eaten since lunch so I got back to my room about 9:30, ate, and went to sleep. Hopefully I will be meet up with some of the myITforum people today. My wife and daughter arrive...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Scripting, Group Policy, Vista, Longhorn, News, Microsoft, MMS 2006

In San Diego Now

I can see the convention center from my room, I am about five blocks from the Marriott and SDCC. Hopefully I will meet a bunch of you in person. Above is a recent photo of me from my work, feel free to stop me in the halls! Regards.  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, et. all, Microsoft

Its Raining in Southern California - Bring Your Jackets

I woke up this morning to that wonderful sound of Chinese water torture. My gutters need to be cleaned so when it rains the water doesn’t just flow down the spout, it actually thuds on the bottom. So I get up and wander into the living room, look out on to the patio and it is covered. It has been raining here since the beginning of March, while I know that is normal for most of the US, I live in a desert, deserts are not defined by temperature, but annual rainfall. But it has been cold too! So looking...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, et. all, News, Microsoft