SCCMNAP

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/configmgrsum/thread/2b5b33d0-3a6d-4175-9cc8-0d51fe993643/

http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Software-Updates-Replication-Issues-m219703.aspx

"With the help of Microsoft Support I have resolved this problem.
This issue was caused by incomplete entries in configuration item tables on the child site.
The fix was a three step process:
- Remove all bad .CID files from <\SMS\inboxes\objmgr.box\Incoming\Retry>
- Run a query on the child databases to remove CI data
- Force software updates object replication by placing a <sitecode>.SHA file in the central site <\SMS\inboxes\objmgr.box> folder"

 

It worked for me.

Thanks to: Hayes Jupe http://hayesjupe.wordpress.com/sccm-osd-task-sequence-variables-a-beginners-guide/

Task sequence variables can be leveraged within an SCCM task sequence to perform conditional branching and execution on SCCM Task Sequence Tasks and Groups, allowing us to execute tasks only on specific computers based on something identifiable about that computer. For example, install VPN software only on laptops or specific drivers only on their corresponding models. This type of functionality minimizes the amount of duplication of Task Sequences required and, in many cases, results in only requiring one task sequence for clients and one for servers being required.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll break Task Sequence variables down into 3 types:

• SCCM OSD variables
• MDT 2010 variables
• User Defined variables

SCCM OSD variables are built in Task Sequence variables that are available in any SCCM OSD deployment – most of these are set by SCCM and need not be changed (a lot of them are also read-only) – but, its handy to know what they are – in case, one day, you do need to manipulate one in order to get your task sequence working the way you want.

A full list of these variables can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632442.aspx

MDT 2010 Variables are SCCM Task Sequence the variables that are by MDT’s ZTIGather process and are documented in “Toolkit Reference.doc” that comes with the MDT 2010 install. The easiest way to get the additional variables offered by MDT 2010 is to configure MDT integration for SCCM, and use the MDT Task Sequence Wizard in the SCCM console to create a task sequence based on one of the MDT template task sequences (which I recommend to use anyway)

User defined variables are passed to the Task Sequence when the Task Sequence starts execution, and can be stored either in an SCCM Resource, or an SCCM collection, and are anything you wish to define. An example of usage here would be to define a variable called “Department”, and based on its value, install software specific to that department.

How do you find out what a specific variable you want to use is?

You want to perform a task sequence step based on the model of a machine, you know the model is a HP DC7900, but, what does SCCM see it as?

There are a number of ways to achieve this goal, you can:

• On the client, after a gather task has completed, check the OSD logs
• On the client, in a full OS, use WMIC or vbscript WMI to get the values your after
• Dump the variable values using a script, such as http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/archive/2008/08/29/outputting-all-the-configuration-manager-task-sequence-variables.aspx

SCCM/MDT TS Variable Examples

Issue:

You have a large number of hardware make/models and instead of using driver categories, you prefer to apply driver packages based on model.

How to obtain the model information:

From your full OS (XP/Vista/Win7) run the following command: WMIC CSProduct Get Name

From this you will get the model name as WMI sees it. Unfortunately, some hardware manufacturers decide to be, what can only be described as, absolutely fucking stupid. Some models will have

“Latitude D500”, nice and simple, a lot HP’s have “DC 7900 FRGHU89m” – we like the DC 7900 part, but the addition letters represent nothing to us and are just pain. Then we have the worst of the lot, the Lenovo’s….. where a M55e is a “9645-AM2” – naturally!

How to use this:

This is where it can get a little tricky – as there are 3 different scenarios:

1) If you are using MDT integration and the model name is nicely formatted, you can use the task sequence variable “Model”

Example: Model equals Latitude D500

2) If you are using MDT integration and the model name is badly formatted, the “Task Sequence variable” doesn’t support “like”, therefore, you must use WMI, instead, which does support the “like” statement and will allow us to use the wildcard “%”

Example: Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE model like “9645%”

3) If you are not using MDT integration, you must use WMI

Example: Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE model like “9645%”

You can also leverage the “Make” of a PC in the same manner, the WMIC command line for returning the make is WMIC CSProduct Get Vendor

Issue:

You want to identify laptops, so you can install laptop specific software

How to obtain the chassis information:

This one can sometimes be a little tricky. You can use WMI to detect the chassis type, or detect if there is a battery in a machine, but every now and again, some laptops will not correctly report this information.

How to use this:

1) If you are using MDT integration, the variables “ISLaptop”, “ISDesktop” and “ISServer” are available and provide a very quick and simple method of implementing this scenario.

Example: ISLaptop equals TRUE

2) If you’re not using MDT integration, you can use another WMI query.

Example: Select * from Win32_Battery where availability > 0

Issue:

You want to the use site the build is occurring in to determine the time zone, OU, software to be installed etc

How to obtain the site information:

You should probably know which AD site or subnets relate to which to which clients – so you don’t need to really “obtain” this.

How to use this:

MDT does not provide us any cool methods using site variables in the GUI, so I’ll go through a different method a bit later, however, we can use WMI for this

Example1: Select * from Win32_NTDomain WHERE ClientSiteName LIKE ‘%Adelaide%

Example2: Select * FROM Win32_IP4RouteTable WHERE ((Mask=’255.255.255.255′ AND NextHop=’127.0.0.1′) AND (Destination Like ’10.93.3%’ OR Destination Like ’10.93.4%’)

Another option here is to customize your customsettings.ini, which will be available for those of you using MDT integration. This method is a bit more old-school, but for those of you coming from MDT backgrounds it may be more comfortable:

Example section CustomSettings.ini

[Settings]
Priority=DefaultGateway,Default

[DefaultGateway]

192.168.0.1=Adelaide

192.168.10.1=Melbourne

192.168.20.1=Perth

[Adelaide]

TimeZone=255

MachineObjectOU=”OU=Adelaide,OU=Comps…. “

User defined Task Sequence variables examples

So you have your reference and prod task sequences all done, but you find that there are a set of applications for each department that need to be deployed – and at the moment you are assigning them post deployment, which works, but takes additional time and manual effort.

So, let’s add as variable to each SCCM resource record as we import it.

1) Make up your CSV which contains MAC, ComputerName, Variable Value

2) Right click on OSD | Computer association

3) Select “import computers from a file”

4) Select your file and assign the PC name, the MAC and the variable field… and give the variable a name

5) Import your records

6) In your task sequence, ad a TS Variable condition as per the entered values

So, I hope that helps someone out there with how to use TS variables…. If anyone has any issues on how to better use TS variables, by all means, post a comment and I’ll try and help with a specific example in this article.

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On May 16, 2012 Enhansoft and Phoenixtekk formalized their partnership agreement.

This agreement comes as the result of a successful meeting at the Microsoft® Management Summit (MMS) held in Las Vegas in April.

“I look forward to working with Phoenixtekk and their team of experts,” said Enhansoft’s Chief Architect and President Garth Jones. “Richard Dixon is a great person to work with and I’m sure that we’ll see much success in this partnership.”

Richard Dixon, CEO of Phoenixtekk, said: “I am also looking forward to working with Enhansoft and their team. Our companies complement each other and are a good fit.”

Enhansoft, founded in 2006, specializes in providing software solutions, custom reports, and consulting services for retrieving IT asset inventory within the system management area focusing on Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) by extending its asset information and reporting capabilities. Software solutions found in the Enhanced Asset Management Suite quickly and accurately report on PC (laptop, notebook, desktop & server) warranties, PC monitor information, and enable the use of over 100 different SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports to keep track of and effectively display even more detailed information about IT assets.

Phoenixtekk, founded in 2002, is a service provider and systems integrator specializing in implementation, configuration, and building enterprise solutions based on the System Center suite of applications and technologies. Phoenixtekk is comprised of a team of System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Architects and Project Managers who successfully assess, analyze, and recommend industry best practices to help customers improve the over-all manageability of their Configuration Manager environment. We’re True I.T. We Implement and Train.

More details about Enhansoft and Phoenixtekk can be found at:

http://www.Enhansoft.com and http://www.Phoenixtekk.com

For more information, please contact info@enhansoft.com or info@phoenixtekk.net.

Content provided by myITforum. Read the rest: http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/groups/phoenixtekk/

Phoenixtekk has pulled 4 new opportunities from the event this year and so far have partnered with 2 companies. We always new Phoenixtekk had potential with the business model we have decided to run with. Stay tuned for more information on a New initiative called The Phoenixtekk Cannel. Thank you all for participating and creating the myITforum community.

 

Richard Dixon CEO
Phoenixtekk, SCCM Architects

Trackback: http://blog.sharepointsite.co.uk/2010/11/could-not-load-webconfig-configuration.html

Problem: I can’t debug my SharePoint projects using Visual Studio 2010 (VS). I get the error "Could not load the Web.config configuration file. Check the file for any malformed XML elements, and try again. The following error occurred: Cannot connect to the SharePoint site. If you moved this project to a new computer or if the Url of the SharePoint site has changed since you created the project, update the Site Url property of the project." in VS when I try debug.

When Configuration Manager and WSUS use the same SQL Server, one should use a named instance and one should use the default instance of SQL Server.

When the Configuration Manager 2007 and WSUS databases use the same SQL Server and share the same instance of SQL, it is difficult to determine the resource usage between the two applications. Using a different SQL instance for Configuration Manager 2007 and WSUS provides the ability to better troubleshoot and diagnose resource usage issues that might occur for each application.

Follow these steps :

1. Go to  "Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Template\DocumentTemplates" .
   
2. Open "wkpstd.aspx" file.
3. Search for tag "SharePoint:RecentChangesMenu".
4. Add visible="false"  at the end of this tag.
5. Save this file & refresh SharePoint site .

Trackback: http://sharepointgauravgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/04/hide-recently-modified-items.html

.NET Memory management is an impressive and comprehensive system, but it’s not flawless, and can be anti-intuitive. As a result, there are a few common misconceptions which need to be dispelled before you can really get the most out of the .NET framework.

.NET Memory management is an impressively complex process, and most of the time it works pretty well. However, it’s not flawless, and neither are we developers, so memory management problems are still something that a skilled developer should be prepared for. And while it’s possible to have useful information about .NET memory management and write better code without fully understanding the black box inside the framework, there are a few common misconceptions which need to be dispelled before you can really get started:

1. A garbage collector collects garbage
2. Doing lots of gen₀ collections is bad
3. Performance counters are great for understanding what is happening
4. .NET doesn’t leak memory
5. All objects are treated the same

Trackback:http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/performance/the-top-5-.net-memory-management-misconceptions/?utm_source=simpletalk&utm_medium=email-main&utm_content=rickyleeks-20110808&utm_campaign=.NET

MDOP 2011 R2 is generally available and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Volume Licensing website, MSDN and TechNet. This version of MDOP includes Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) which is brand new to MDOP, and updates to the Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) 7.0, and Microsoft Asset Inventory Service 2.0.

Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM):

Building on BitLocker in Windows 7, MBAM will help simplify BitLocker provisioning and deployments, improve compliance and reporting, and reduce support costs. To simplify provisioning and deployment, MBAM integrates into your existing Windows 7 deployment process to help automate the encryption process. If you have already deployed Windows 7 but have not enabled BitLocker, you can now have your end users with standard user permissions can start the encryption process. You can also target BitLocker encryption by targeting hardware by make and model, making sure that only machines capable of meeting the encryption policy are encrypted.

 

Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit 7.0 (DaRT):

Building on our previous version to help drive the cost to support Windows based PCs even lower. DaRT 7.0 will speed up recovery and provide IT organizations with more flexible ways to deploy it. In this version we provide flexible deployment options like network boot (PXE), USB, or via the local recovery partition, on top of the CD and DVD method we already have. Just think, you can now walk an end user through the network boot process over the phone and help them troubleshoot their machine without leaving your desk. To make it even easier to not have to visit the user’s desk, DaRT also now includes software based remote control so can securely diagnose and recover PCs. DaRT also now gives you the ability to restrict end-user access to DaRT tools while making these same tools available to you. This is achieved using the remote control feature so end users cannot use the tools without the remote session being active.

 

Trackback: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mdop/archive/2011/08/01/mdop-2011-r2-generally-available-get-mbam-and-dart-7-0-today.aspx

Today was a significant day in the development of IPv6. Today is IPv6′s Bar Mitzvah, Baha’i, Shinbyu ceremony, Genpuku ceremony and Quinceañera all rolled into one. It was a day where IPv6 could prove to the world that it was ready for duty as the Internet Protocol successor to IPv4. Those are pretty big shoes to fill and IPv6 has had some stumbles in the past decade. This article covers what was learned by this big Internet experiment.

IPv6 has been stuck in this "Chicken and the Egg" problem for years where the ISPs and content providers are pointing fingers at each other. The ISPs didn’t want to deploy IPv6 if their customers weren’t asking for it because there wasn’t any content on the Internet reachable over IPv6. Content providers couldn’t connect their content to the Internet with IPv6 because they lacked IPv6 connectivity options. Additional complications have been added with the discovery of some "IPv6 Brokenness" that exists on the Internet. This has caused many content providers to separate their IPv4-only and their IPv6-only web presence with two URLs. World IPv6 Day was a single 24-hour period where content providers would bravely have their primary web site handle both IPv4 and IPv6 connections. The web site operators published an authoritative A record and AAAA record for their primary FQDN hostname and learn about what problems they encounter.

Read the full story: http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/world-ipv6-day-results

Back in July 2007, Amith Krishnan, senior product manager for NAP at Microsoft, appeared on my podcast (StillSecure After All These Years podcast) to talk about Microsoft’s announced support for the Trusted Computing Group’s TNC standard, Trusted Network Connect.

As part of that announcement, Microsoft claimed they would open up the NAP agent to other platforms. But rather than develop Linux and Mac NAP clients, Microsoft would make the technology available for third parties who could create NAP agents for non-Microsoft operating systems. True to Amith’s word, UNETsystem announced NAP compatible versions of their AnyClick product for Linux and Macintosh OS X operating systems. Microsoft NAP and network access control (NAC) are technologies I’m very familiar with, having created a product in this space with my former company, StillSecure.

Read the full story: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21928

Good Points are collection articles that has helped me out in one way or another. I consider these articles or blogs as having a real answer or a solution that really works in a given situation. I decided to aggregate articles and blogs that I have either used or assisted me in some solution or project. If you run across a Good Point, know that it has a solution or answer to it if the issue matches your current problem.

I decided to aggregate and group these types of articles together due to the fact that I build solutions many times over and as we all know we can now remember everything in IT even though memory is a BIG part this type of career. Not all of us leaves a comment when we find a solution or answer that helps us. So I decided to start grouping any solution or answer that has helped me under the Good Point Category which is another way of spreading the posters answer in the community.

Help Spread the word of good solutions or answers by labeling articles that has help you as a Good Point.

Phoenixtekk Good Point

I decided to do some research and see if I can learn the market and currency exchange. So I opened up what they call a practice account with $10,000 dollars. This is a way to play with the market and get use to the trader program without really using your money first. Now learning the trader application was easy to catch on to. Making the right sell and buys is the important part along with understanding the charts and how news and events affects the market. Well I put together a strategy, using Expert Advisors, expert advisors are little custom scripts that run against the numbers and help tell you when to buy or not, or auto buy or sell. Learning the code for the MQ4 language will take some time, but I got the basic working. I also used an Indicator a friend from Russia gave me, It showed a downward trend with a bit upwards trend near the end of the period I planned to use. So I trusted my learning and the education I gave myself over the weekend and left the program running overnight. With the market closing at 5PM in New York, the $10,000.00 i started with was $12,057.65 by morning. I think I got the hang of this so I’m trying the real thing next week giving myself sometime to read up on this currency exchange a bit more just to ensure I did what I think did. .

Richard Dixon

The computing industry is embracing cloud computing with astounding speed. For any company to remain relevant, they must develop tools that work in and with the cloud computing eco-system. We (Microsoft) are no different. If you have not seen the following System Center products that are in development, I encourage you…..no…..I implore you to check them out and provide us feedback.

System Center 2012 beta products available