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More MMS Goodness

This is from the 1E site, but down towards the bottom you can see the schedule for demos at the 1E stand. I will be presenting at least a couple times. Brian Tucker and Neil Kimberly will also be presenting at the stand on other topics. If you think I know SMS/ConfigMgr then you haven't spent much time talking to Brian and Neil these guys are AMZAZING! 1E MMS Focus 1E will be exhibiting as a Gold Sponsor at the Microsoft Management Summit at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas from April 28 to May...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, OSD, MMS 2008, BDD, NightWatchman, OSD Plus Pack, ConfigMgr, SCCM, 1E, Power Management

Auto Site Assignment and Multiple IP's

Carol posted this over the the TechNet blogs site a couple of hours ago. I commented that I didn't think it was a huge change because the odds are pretty low that this would really happen in today. Essentially the rule that an SMS or ConfigMgr client will use first bound NIC for auto assignment is no longer true. If you think this is a significant technical change leave a comment and let her know. Auto-site assignment and multiple IP addresses It happens to all of us. Just when you think you...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, News, ConfigMgr, SCCM

Attending MMS 2008? Yes I Am - We Are

I have gotten a ton of emails asking me if I am going to be at MMS this year and when and up until now I have held off because I was waiting for some things to finalize. But today 1E sent out an email to customer letting them know the booth number, and when Sumir, one of the founders of 1E, was going to speak. Which is right after the State of the Union, and also at the same time as Paul Thomsen is presenting his session on ConfigMgr Client Health. So yes , I will be there from Sunday to Friday afternoon...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, et. all, myITforum, Blog, OSD, MMS 2008, NightWatchman, OSD Plus Pack, ConfigMgr, SCCM, 1E

Nomad Enterprise Webcast - March 5

It is not often I blog about 1E, I think it has only happened once before actually. Even before I got an offer from them they told me they didn't want me to blog about them or their products because they didn't want my blog to turn into PR for 1E. And over the last year I have not talked about the products at all. But as you may have noticed the number of posts I put up have also dropped dramatically. Well I spend most of my time working with the 1E products, back when I was at ESRI I spent...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, SMS Tools, Packaging, OSD, Webcast, SMSNomad Branch, ConfigMgr, SCCM, 1E

WAIK for Vista SP1 and Server 2008 and XP SP3 Dates

Hopefully you have heard by now that Vista SP1 and Server 2008 went RTM on Monday . But can you use these with OSD or MD? Well of course you can with the new version of WAIK. Also it is being reported that Vista SP1 goes live on Feb 18th or 19th and Windows XP SP3 goes live on March 23rd or 24th. Download details here direct download here (1.1 GB). Overview The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Windows Vista and...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Vista, News, OSD, WAIK, Windows PE, BDD, OSD Plus Pack, ConfigMgr, Server 2008, Microsoft Deployment, Downloads, PXELite

SMS 2003 Asset Intelligence Catalog Updated

This is only for SMS 2003 SP3 not ConfigMgr, ConfigMgr will be updated when SP1 is released in the not too distant future. Direct Download or Source . Brief Description This package will update the Asset Intelligence catalog and bring the knowledge base to the level of SCCM 2007 RTM. It contains additional software titles and several additional updates that make the content more accurate and relevant. Overview Asset Intelligence enhances the inventory capabilities of SMS 2003 SP3 by extending hardware...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, SMS Reporting

Defrag Your Hard Drive

How often do you defrag your hard drives? Do you think it is often enough? Defragging your drives can make a substantial difference in performance, seek times as well as the health of your drive can be improved if you defrag your drives on a regular basis. Keep in mind that hard drives are mechanical devices and eventually one of those moving parts is going to fail and you can extend the life of your drives by making them work less when you try to get a file. Don't believe me? How about ExtremeTech...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, Hack, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools

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

Systems Management Support WebCasts...And ConfigMgr Too

Merry Christmas... This is a whole list of Systems Management WebCasts that go back as far as 2000 with some SMS 2.0 stuff, here is some newer SMS 2003 WebCasts, and here is a search string for ConfigMgr WebCasts, I couldn't find a page that just listed all of them. Past Support WebCasts Support WebCast: Microsoft Security Intelligence Report: Latest trends in vulnerabilities, malware, and potentially unwanted software - Level 300 - Wednesday, 07 November 2007 The Microsoft Exchange Server 2003...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, System Center, TechNet, Webcast, SoftGrid, SUP, ConfigMgr

How To Upgrade SMS 2003 to ConfigMgr

Back at the end of September I was preparing my home lab for ConfigMgr testing. Since then I have been trying to get back to this article to proof it and tidy it up for publishing. After a number of requests and a light amount of work after 15 hour day today I am sitting in my hotel room, eating mediocre room service, while the Bears are beating the Vikings on MNF, so what better time to do it. Here are the basic software prerequisites for upgrading from SMS 2003 to ConfigMgr: MMC 3.0 .NET Framework...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, ConfigMgr, Configuration Manager

KB 942212:The SMS_Executive service process for Systems Management Server 2003 stops repeatedly

The SMS_Executive service process for Systems Management Server 2003 stops repeatedly Article ID:942212 Last Review:November 29, 2007 Revision:1.0 SYMPTOMS The SMS_Executive service (Smsexec.exe) process for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 stops repeatedly. Additionally, a Crash.log file is generated in the following folder: %SystemDrive%\SMS\Logs The Crash.log file contains a message that resembles the following: Time = Date_Time Service name = SMS_EXECUTIVE Thread name = SMS_COLLECTION_EVALUATOR...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, KB Articles

Tired Of Your Job? How about $105-120k for an SMS 2003 to SCCM Job?

If you are interested send me a copy of your resume and I will forward it on to the recruiter, the requirements are listed below. This is with a federal agency located on the east coast. Skill set and experience: Experience with managing SMS in a multi-site environment including the ability to troubleshoot all aspects of SMS via analyzing log files on both server and clients Job Duties: Require consultant with extensive experience with SMS to perform the following tasks: (1) Advise the Agency on...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, ConfigMgr, SCCM, Jobs

Why Patch Tuesday Turns Into Patch Thursday or Friday or Monday

I used to hate the second Tuesday of every month. I honestly liked it better when patches were released as they were ready. What happens with the scheduled updates is that everyone knows that it is coming and that means that everyone expects their SMS Engineers to have the patches deployed that night, no matter how late, no matter how many people, no matter what! And on Wednesday morning, usually around nine, everyone wants to know the status of the deployments. For me I had some advantages, one...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, et. all, Security, KB Articles, Rants, Packaging, Patching, Reports, SCCM 2007, Funny, SUP, ConfigMgr, Configuration Manager, SCCM

SoftGrid SMS Connector Discontinued

The SoftGrid connector will be deprecated in the near future and replaced with Windows Installer Application Virtualization Extension or WIAV. The reasons they are moving away from the SMS Connector is due to future plans and interoperability with old and new products. What is it? Yes, you in the back, you have a question? Ah, yes what is it he asked. It is essentially a tool to take your sequenced applications and turn them into Windows Installer packages (MSI's). Another question? Go ahead...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, SMS Tools, Packaging, News, SCCM 2007, SaaS, SoftGrid, Application Virtualization, 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 SMS_DEF.mof Demystified

As you already know with the release of SP3 for SMS 2003 the Asset Intelligence integration is now included. This means that you will get better data for software inventories, no more Visio v 3.445.3452134.4634.a and Microsoft Visio v 3.445.3452134.4634.b, it will just be Microsoft Visio v 3.445.3452134.4634...I kid...You reports should be much more readable and all those executables that have sat dormant in your software inventory database will now come to life because of the correlation between...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Documentation

Business Desktop Deployment 2007 v 1.1

Did you miss it? If so you can catch up . This includes a number of fixes and in case you don't want to download and install BDD again you can wait for the KB ( 937191 ) to come out and install it instead. Download details: Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Regards, Anthony Anthony Clendenen | Systems Engineer | 1E Inc. We are considered a premier SMS Solution Provider by Microsoft. See us at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/partners "1E's tools add significant value to SMS in particular...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, OSD, BDD

Error message in the WUSSyncXML.log file when the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates tries to synchronize and to download software updates: Error retrieving object PackageID

Error message in the WUSSyncXML.log file when the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates tries to synchronize and to download software updates: "Error retrieving object PackageID" View products that this article applies to. Article ID:936906 Last Review:May 14, 2007 Revision:1.0 On This Page SYMPTOMS CAUSE RESOLUTION Method 1 Method 2 SYMPTOMS The Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) is installed on a Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 site server. The SMS site server synchronizes...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, KB Articles, Patching

SMS Hardware Inventory Causes Client CPU To Hit 100%

Update : Garth has reported this same problem with browser objects on his blog . "Take a look at your browse objects, do they have the same language setting as your PC? If not there have been reports of the PC hit 100% CPU if the language of a browser object is not the same as the local PC." Just when you thought it was okay to use SMS during the day again a new CPU taxing problem pops up. This one only impacts SMS sites with SP3 and clients that reference a file in the Run (auto start...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, KB Articles, News

SMS 2003 SP3 Upgrade Checklist

I did not write this it is a blatant copy of someone else's work from the document team! You can get your own copy from here . SMS 2003 SP3 Upgrade Checklist This document outlines the steps you should take to upgrade from Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 to Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3). This document is intended to provide a high-level checklist of items to consider when upgrading to SMS 2003 SP3. This document is not intended to provide support...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Documentation

SMS 2003 SP3 Download Links

For the upgrade go here , for the eval go here . Sorry I haven't posted anything, we were out in AZ house hunting and tomorrow I leave for the UK for three weeks so time has been a little crazy! ( emphasis mine) Overview Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) brings full Vista support to your organization beyond just OS Deployment, which is already available through the OS Deployment Feature Pack. Now, full lifecycle support of Microsoft’s latest platform including...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003

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

ITMU v2 No Longer Works

Late last year a flood of calls came into Microsoft Premier Support Services (PSS) regarding the SMS patch scan causing computers to lock up or freeze for a long period of time while the patches were installed. This problem got immediate attention by the product teams and a new version of ITMU was released to help resolve the issues being reported. The issues actually lie in the WUA agent that is installed on each computer not really with SMS itself, the problem was also complicated by the Wsusscan...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, KB Articles, Patching

Preventing The SMS Client From Installing

Yesterday Kevin C. asked a question on the SMS email list that I get several times a year. "I have a group of servers that a vendor has banned the SMS client from being installed on. We are auto-pushing the client to all servers that are discovered. I do not have the ability to change the OU the servers are in to prevent AD discovery. " There were several responses and if you have thought about doing this or think you might want to do this here is a summary of the options available to accomplish...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Security, KB Articles, myITforum

SoftGrid and SMS 2003 Together

Chad Jones session Friday 11:30 - 1. 3 components of SG the sequencer, server, and client sequencer - wizard based, creates sft file, sprj (project file), osd (tells client how to run the app - XML file), and ico files policy based management through AD groups or OU's. SG server streams virtualized apps, can do pre-caching or load entire app on first use, actual video file is what is streamed to the client SG client version 4.2 will work on Vista If the namespace is not virtualized you can still...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Packaging, MMS 2007, SoftGrid

MMS 2007 - Day 2 - Keynote Speech

Rodney Sherwood starts off the keynote again this year with this comedy and a video of interviewing the stars at MMS. Senior VP Server and Tools, Bob Muglia was the keynote speaker. He started out with the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). One part of the DSI is Virtualized infrastructure which consists of Virtual Server 2005 R2 and SoftGrid. Virtualization, OS virtualization "Viridian" Longhorn or Windows Server 2007, VPC, VS 2005 RS. Application virtualization is SoftGrid, focus now is on the client...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, System Center, Vista, News, SCCM 2007, SCOM, MMS 2007, Virtual Server, SoftGrid, SUP

kbAlertz: Systems Management Server 2003 Knowledge Base Articles

Four new KB articles for SMS 2003. 1) 3/15/2007 933553 You cannot deploy an operating system image to a computer that has a hidden partition when you use Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 2) 3/15/2007 933461 Error message after you enable the "Systems Management Server Advanced Client Updates" option in the Sms_def.mof file: "Unknown error encountered processing an instance of class Win32Reg_AdvCliUpdates: 80041001" 3) 3/15/2007 926030 How to use Systems Management Server to deploy Windows Server...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, KB Articles

SMS Remote Roaming Boundaries Explained

The diagrams below explain local and remote roaming boundaries. Our main character is Terry, he is sales person in the LA office, which is a remote office. Terry is going to the headquarters office with his laptop for a sales meeting and I demonstrate what happens with his SMS client once he ventures into a SMS site that he is not assigned to, and what happens when he goes to his hotel room and connects over VPN. If you have any questions feel free to email me or just ask on the myITforum SMS list...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Documentation

SMS 2003 SP3 - Initial Impressions

A coworker of mine in Australia, Brian T., has taken a look at the beta of SP3 and his hopes were not met. Below you will find his review. Thanks again Brian! The open beta only has the following: · A snapshot of the AssetMetrix database · Extended WMI classes for improved inventory · Additional reports What it doesn’t have is more important: · No method of inputting license information into the system · No automatic reconciliation of license information · No hardware lease tracking capability You...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Beta

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