SCUG.dk

Restoring single files within Hyper-V Guests protected with Data Protection Manager 2010

Flemming Riis — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:21:11 GMT

Data Protection Manager 2010 can protect Hyper-V guests with backup from either the guests or from the Hyper-V Cluster.

We have a protection group for this server in the cluster so we don’t have to worry about what hosts the guest is running on DPM will protect the the guest no matter what cluster node its running on.

In our recovery mode we can see the protected guests we able to restore

We are able to recover the whole machine or drill down one level and recovery a vhd to a network folder

If we drill down further than the vhd file we are able to recovery single items , however this requires that the DPM host is able to run Hyper-V

So we will make a quick jump to role services and installer Hyper-V so when planning for a new backup setup keep in mind that the hardware will need to run Hyper-V but then again if it’s a new setup its very hard not to buy a server that will run Hyper-V

No network bindings are required to keep the ability to restore single files.

and its time to reboot.

and we should be ready for our single file restore from Hyper-V guests

and with Hyper-V role installed we can drill down to a single file

and we are ready to restore the file

Single files can only be recovered to a network share when backed up though the Hyper-V integration , hopefully in the future we will be able to restore to source directly.

We can however restore over the network to our original source , but a “restore to original path” option would be nice

and we ready to restore

and after a short wait the job is complete and we should be able to see data on our source

and we got our data back.

Hyper-V and Data Protection Manager is a very powerfull combination fast safe backup with VSS and easy restore of whole machines and even single items.

Integrating 3rd. party updates with Configuration Manager – Shavlik vs Secenuia

Kent Agerlund — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:18:21 GMT

In my recent posts I have described how you can use Secunia and Shavlik to distribute 3rd. party updates with Configuration Manager 2007. Both vendors are doing a great job and I won’t be the judge of what you should install. My advice is; try both and decide what’s best for your organization. Below is a comparison of the two products.

	Shavlik - SCUPdates	Secunia - CSI
3^rd. party updates supported	A full list is frequently updated here - http://forum.shavlik.com/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=15901	Depends on the result returned from scanning clients.
Installation	You must have System Center Custom Update publisher installed and configured.	You must download and install the CSI application.
Ease of integration	When you create an update, the update can be published to WSUS.	When you create an update, the update can be published to WSUS.
Client agent	No agent required.	Online scanning or install the Secunia agent to perform the scanning.
Approve Updates	Updates must be approved in the Custom Updates publisher.	Updates must be approved in the Secunia CSI console.
Download Updates	Updates are published with full content from the SCUP console.	Updates are downloaded as part of publishing process.
Reporting	Rely on the integrated Configuration Manager compliance reports.	Can use the Secunia console and the integrated Configuration Manager compliance reports.
Get started	http://shavlik.com/scupdates.aspx	http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/corporate/trial/

Test drive Configuration Manager v.Next Beta1 today

Kent Agerlund — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:50:17 GMT

Microsoft has just released a fully configured VHD (Windows 2008 R2 with v.Next installed) ready to download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b23c540-9b9f-4d41-a05d-d4b216061957&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+(Microsoft+Download+Center)

Software Updates – Waiting for another installation to complete (updated)

Kent Agerlund — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:27:51 GMT

Looking at the compliance reports I see that most of updates are installing ok but some are constantly saying “Waiting for another installation to complete”

The updates won’t install and end-users are constantly getting an error saying the another installation process is already running. It’s not another running process causing the problem, so restarting services won’t help. Information is stored in WMI and most likely is caused by an earlier installation that failed.

To fix the problem – two solutions

The drastic one – Repair WMI

Log on to the client and stop the Windows Management Instrumentation Service – WMI
Rename the Repository folder to RepositoryOLD. The folder is found in %systemroot%\system32\WBEM
Restart the Windows Management Instrumentation Service. This will create a new Repository folder and the software update installation will be able to start.

Recreating WMI will delete all history information about previous software advertisements and other Configmgr. history.

The solution I prefer

Remove the affected computer for all software update deployments
Update the machine policy and wait a little while (Coffee time)
Add the computer back to the Update deployments

Integrate 3rd. party updates with Configuration Manager and Shavlik SCUPdates Part II

Kent Agerlund — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:05:06 GMT

In this post I will explain how you can integrate SCUPdates from Shavlik from A to Z. I’ll focus the post on these topics.

Installation of the product
Richness of the update catalog
Configuration Manager integration
- Approving Updates
- Deploying Updates
- Reporting
How to get started

Installation of the product

SCUPdates requires that you have installed and configured Microsoft System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP). In my test lab I already use SCUP to monitor and deploy updates from different hardware vendors like HP and Dell. For those of you who hasn’t yet played with SCUP I strongly advise you to have a look at the SCUP screencasts starting with the installation screencast

There are no other installation requirements, which I find really cool. No speciel agent is required, no new management console – everything is well integrated into the existing Configuration Manager and SCUP consoles.

Richness of the update catalog

I have been doing several installations for various customers the last 3-4 months and I’m pretty impressed by the richness of the catalog and also how quickly Shavlik reacts on new updates being released. You can check out the latest catalog on the SCUPdates websites

As a customer you will receive a mail each time there is a change made to the catalog. In the mail is a link to the secure site from where the latest cab files are available for download. The latest catalog change I received was yesterday containing the latest Java 6 v 21 update(s).

After I have logged on with my account I have easy access to the different cab files.

Configuration Manager Integration

Once I have downloaded the updates it’s time to import the cab files into SCUP. It’s a fairly straight forward process. Click Import Updates in the Action pane and select the cab file(s) containing the latest updates.

During the import any previously imported catalogs will be overwritten.

Approving the updates

Importing the catalog files takes a few minutes. After that it’s time to approve or deploy the updates. Right click the update, select Set Publish Flag, Full Content. In my test I published the latest version from each vendor. Only exception was with Adobe Reader were I published both version 9.32 and 9.33. In my test environment most Adobe Reader installation are still running 9.30 and there is no direct upgrade from 9.30 to 9.33.

To download and publish updates, click Publish Updates in the Action Pane. This will trigger the download of all updates (selected with full content) and import the information into WSUS. The updates will be added to Configuration Manager during the next synchronization schedule. The entire process can easily take 5-15 minutes depending on the number of updates you download.

Deploying Updates

There is no difference in deploying 3rd. party updates compared to normal Windows Updates. Having said that; I prefer to create an Update list with all the 3rd. party updates. Having a separate update list makes it easy to monitor the compliance state for all my clients.

Ready to install the update(S) exactly 20 minutes after I started to download the catalog.

How to get started

To get yourself started you’ll need to invest a little time in installing and getting to know SCUP. You can download a trial catalog from http://shavlik.com/scupdates.aspx. All in all I am pretty impressed by the ease of the installation and the richness of the catalog. As I see it, Shavlik provides me organization with two major benefits:

1) More secure environment.

2) Saves me a lot of time since I don’t have find, download and repackage the updates my self.

In my test I deployed updates to Itunes, Java, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player and Skype.

SQL Server 2008 R2 is now supported on ConfigMg 2007

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:12:31 GMT

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 and SP2 now support Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 as a Configuration Manager 2007 site database. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 now supports Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.

No software updates are required.

Source and more Configuration Manager Support Announcements for June 2010 here.

Citrix Connector for System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:48:25 GMT

Hi everyone, in case you had not seen anything on this, we have recently jointly released the Citrix connector for ConfigMgr 2007. Through this release, the ConfigMgr SDK has been used to extend and support the management of application services through XenApp. Very cool indeed.

Some resources for you:

Jointly authored whitepaper is available here
A Video Demo can be viewed here

Read the full story here.

Rewarded 2010 Microsoft MVP!‏

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:44:49 GMT

Seems that Microsoft thought that I did good last year, so they rewarded me as MVP again…

My sincere thanks goes to my wife and son and the other people responsible for this (you know who you are!).

Thanks.

SQL reporting services allow null values in the prompt

Kent Agerlund — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:09:00 GMT

Like most of you I have been converting classic Configuration Manager reports to SQL reporting services. For most reports it works right out of the box. But for some reports you need to do a little tweaking in the SQL statement or in the report properties. An example of this is the Client Status report. When you run the report as a classic ConfigMgr. report, you don’t have to select a value in the prompt. If you run the same report with SQL reporting Services you are forced to select a value in order to run the report:

If you don’t select a value you won’t be able to run the report

To allow Null values

In the reporting Services website open the report Properties. Click on the Parameters link, select Null and click Apply.

Next time you run the report you are not required to select a value.

Integrate 3rd. party software update with Configuration Manager 2007 and Secunia Part I

Kent Agerlund — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:19:15 GMT

In the following weeks I will blog about the some of the different 3rd. party software update solution we can integrate with Configuration Manager. I will focus my articles on:

Installation of the product
Richness of the update catalog
Configuration Manager integration
- Approving Updates
- Deploying Updates
- Reporting
How to get started

First I will test drive Secunia, a world-leading provider of Vulnerability Intelligence. Secunia has been around since 2002 and is most known for its award winning product CSI - Corporate Software Inspector.

The installation

Secunia requires a few components that are all easy to install and configure:

The CSI console requirement
- https : // * . secunia.com must be added to trusted sites in your browser
- Adobe Flash plugin is need to display charts
- TCP port 443 open to the Internet
Agent requirements
- Port 443/TCP open outbound
- Windows Update Agent
- Agentless monitoring or Secunia scan agent

The installation process is fairly simple, a few steps and you are presented with the main console.

Richness of the catalog

The catalog is built based on the data returned by scanning clients. You can perform an online scanning or download and install the Secunia agent. In my test I performed the online scan which revealed that I missed the latest Adobe Flash Player update. Using the technique requires that you can perform a scan of all clients on the network to ensure that all missing updates will be part of your future deployment. It’s not a big problem; but still something you must have as part of your software update planning.

The first process of scanning a system is to collect specific META data from primarily .EXE, .DLL, and .OCX files. This data is collected and then sent to Secunia's Secure Data Processing Cloud (DPRC) where it is processed and parsed. After being processed, the data is matched against the Secunia File Signatures, which are the rules that matches the raw META data to an actual program installation.

Part of this matching process also results in an exact version being extracted from the META data. This means that after the initial parsing the Secunia CSI knows exactly which programs are on the system and their exact version. The inventory of software is then compared against the unique Secunia Advisory & Vulnerability Database, which contains the most accurate Vulnerability Intelligence. The result is a precise inventory of programs, their versions, and the exact security state of each of the programs, along with a direct reference to the corresponding Secunia Advisory, detailing the exact vulnerabilities and their Secunia assessed criticality and impact. Since the scan process works by looking at the actual files on the system being scanned, the result is extremely reliable as a program obviously cannot be installed on a system without the actual files being present.

Above is taken from the Secunia installation and configuration guide

Configuration Manager integration

Once missing updates are found they will listed in the Secunia console. Creating the patch is a straight forward proces and requires a few clicks.

Double-click on the update to start the patch creation wizard

Select the Update and click Next

Before you publish the update you have the option to change the name. Click Finish to publish the Update to WSUS

Above is the wsyncmgr.log file on the site server. The Adobe Update will automatically be imported into Configuration Manager during the next WSUS synchronization process.

My Adobe update is available in the Configuration Manager console. The software update process is now the exact same as deploying a normal Windows Update.

How to get started

To get yourself started you’ll need to invest a little time in installing and getting to know the Secunia Management Console. You can download a trial version from http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/corporate/trial/ – and then use the reference code BS It took me 10 minutes to get the console downloaded and installed. After 10 more minutes I was ready to deploy my first software update with Configuration Manager – pretty impressive :-)

Upgrading Data Protection Manager 2010 from Trial to Retail

Flemming Riis — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:16:22 GMT

download the retail kit and use “Install Data Protection Manager” on the DPM server

the installer detects the running trial and start the wizard for upgrading to retail

Runs a quick verify of prerequsites if it passed in trial it will pass again during the upgrade

This trial was installed with the internal database so it will be selected pr default for upgrade

The installer will need to create a user for running the SQL server.

Select if you want to use Microsoft Updates

Select if you want to upload CEIP info to Microsoft

and the installer is doing its work

and the trial product is now upgraded to retail

the installer dont clean up the old trial instances of SQL and SQL Reporting so they need to be removed manually after verification that everything works

and after the upgrade is final it is now possible to use “update dpm licenses” to enter purchased licenses

Very smooth upgrade from trial to retail this is a great asset to products for a fast step up to licensed products.

WSUS Sync error in ConfigMgr.

Kent Agerlund — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:54:19 GMT

Installing and configuring a WSUS Software Update Point in ConfigMgr. is a straight forward process. However from time to time I do run into some synchronization issues. Yesterday at a customer site I had this error in the wsyncmgr.log file.

$<SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER><Wed May 26 04:41:55.555 2010 Romance Daylight Time><thread=15844 (0x3DE4)>
Failed to sync update 4fac5b5f-19c1-467c-a26d-5ca7712d3494. Error: License agreement not ready. This is a transient state while WSUS is downloading the agreement. Source: Microsoft.SystemsManagementServer.SoftwareUpdatesManagement.WSyncAction.WSyncAction.ProcessEulas $$<SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER><Wed May 26 04:41:55.555 2010 Romance Daylight Time><thread=15844 (0x3DE4)>
Sync failed: Failed to sync some of the updates. Source: Microsoft.SystemsManagementServer.SoftwareUpdatesManagement.WSyncAction.WSyncAction.SyncUpdates $$<SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER><Wed May 26 04:41:55.643 2010 Romance Daylight Time><thread=4016 (0xFB0)>

This error can be caused by a proxy server or in my case permission issues on the WSUS install partition.

The root cause

During the WSUS installation the setup process permissions will be configured on the different WSUS folders. But WSUS also requires that the Network Service account has Read permissions to the root of the partition.

The Solution

Assign the Netwrok Service User account read permission on the WSUS install partition and rerun the synchronization process.

V.Next Beta 1 finally released

Kent Agerlund — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:22:10 GMT

Beta 1 finally released on Microsoft Connect - https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext If you can’t find the download link, just have a little patience….

Coming Soon! Configuration Manager v.Next Beta

Ronni Pedersen — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:07:40 GMT

The Configuration Manager v.Next Beta is planned to release in May 2010 and will be available to download on Connect. You can now join the Open Beta. As a member of the Open Beta, you will receive an announcement informing you of when the download package is available for your review.

System Center Configuration Manager v.Next gives IT a powerful, user-centric way to provide seamless work experiences for people – from anywhere, on the devices they choose – while helping to reduce cost and complexity of delivering those services through a unified management infrastructure.

Please use the following link to access this connection and sign up for the Beta: https://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=4346&InvitationID= VNXO-DFPW-G6HD&SiteID=892

Don’t forget to sign-up for the next SCUG Event, where we’ll talk about and show demos of some of the great new features in ConfigMgr v.Next, including User-Centric Administration, Role Based Access Control (RBAC), the new Application Model and lots of other cool features.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1 Beta - ready for download‏

Ronni Pedersen — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:05:49 GMT

The Beta version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1 is now available for download on connect. MDT 2010 Update 1 includes Office 2010 support, the ability for users to initiate and customize their own deployments using Configuration Manager (codename Modena), key enhancements in Windows 7 driver support, and much more.

Download the beta here: https://connect.microsoft.com/site14

Enjoy.

Software Update for ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 Setup Wizard ended prematurely

Ronni Pedersen — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:55:30 GMT

Today I got a call from a customer that wanted me to add a new network driver for a Lenovo ThinkPad T410, to the boot image in ConfigMgr. The driver was a Windows 7 only driver, so I needed to apply the KB978754 hotfix first.

When I first tried to apply the hotfix I got the following error: Software Update for ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 (KB978754) Setup Wizard ended prematurely.

The hotfix is a standard MSI, so I added the log switch (SCCM2007-SP2-KB978754-X86-ENU.msi /l d:\kb978754.log), and tried again. The setup was unable to stop the “tmlisten” service (Trend Micro OfficeScan NT Listener), so it was unable to continue.

I didn’t have permissions to stop the service, so I killed the process in Windows Task Manager.

After that I was able to install the hotfix, and the TmListen.exe started automatically again after a few minutes.

Getting started with System Center Data Protetion Manager 2010 (Setup)

Flemming Riis — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:11:05 GMT

Microsoft released DPM 2010 at MMS in Las Vegas this post will be a short introduction on how to get started with a test lab for DPM.

This will be a start in a series with short demos of DPM and its features first one is just to get started and can be skipped if you have used DPM before

First off is to get hands on the trial

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=cba30567-6ef0-4450-93f8-e433897cb093

Currently download bits are seperated into 4 files so they need to be downloaded , please note that DPM server is required to run on Server 2008 x64 bit or R2 x64 bit , Itanium is not supported for DPM server

Running the setup program will assemble the 4 parts to a install directory

before installing its always a good idea to look at system requirement , personally i would if possible always deploy on R2 and as we can see from the notes , no hotfixes is needed on the OS level before install DPM if its running on R2

time to accept the license , note that its a trial aggrement so production use is not permitted pr default

a very nice feature of the DPM installer is that it will handle installing all requirement that are needed (exept for OS level hotfixes) hopefully Microsoft will keep this trend in future products.

time to start the product installation

DPM uses SIS and will install it when you proceed and it checks for memory

Memory requirement is 4GB but since memory is so cheap these days i wouldnt go below 8gb (thats also recomended size) to save disk i/o for swapping to much , espically if the local SQL is used

Time to reboot and continue installation

Start setup manually after logon to continue where we left off.

Enter user information

I prefeer to move install off the system drive

and the same goes for the database , its possible to use a remote sql server , i prefeer to use a local sql server to avoid having any requiremet exept for AD and it makes it easier for trouble shooting.

Create a password for the local users , no managed service accounts yet

Patching for this test lab will be handled though Windows Update

The installer will do its magic for you.

and verify that the install completes without erors.

After install make sure there are some available disks to make the backup to , Data Protection Manager require dymanic disks will convert basic diske when they are selected

Data Protection Manager protects data with moving it to disk and then optionally can copy the data to tape or 3rd parts providers for long time storage.

select the disks you want to use for protection

If its a basic disk DPM will convert the disk to dymanic

and we have a storage pool available for protection

its time to protect the first server , go to management agents and install agent

DPM have several ways to either install agents or attach agents installed allready , for testing purpose we push the agent to a remote server with Install Agents , the DPM server needs to be able to access the remote server so there need to be access though the target firewall

If the server is visible you can select and install on it , or type in the computer inthe computer name field

use a account that have admin access on the remote machine , DPM runs as localsystem so this is only needed for installing the agent

DPM can reboot the remote host after agent install but its not needed for 2008/R2

And the agent installer will do its magic

and verify that the agent is installed with success.

On the remote host the Windows Backup feature needs to be installed to fully protect the host

the server will show up in the agents view as unprotected when we have no protections jobs assigned

Goto protection and create protection group

Time to start the wizard to protect hosts

We will just protect the system drive to start with

And we create a Protection Group for system drives with disk allocation (no tape drive yet)

For testing we do a changed backup every 15 minutes and a full recovery point 3 times a day , this will ensure that we can loose more than 15 minutes of data for a system failure

DPM will look at disk usuage and try to calculate whats needed on the DPM server , DPM can grow the volume so if there are free space on the DPM server it will allocate as needed

First backup can be scheduled default is replicate after the job have created , if protection is needed over slow or high cost WAN links first backup can be created on the remote host and later imported on the DPM server , the bandwith of the UPS delivery is very high just latency isnt that impressive

If a repica for some reason becomes inconsistent DPM can autocorrect the replica instead of the administrator having to do it manually every day.

Summary before protection group is being created

DPM will prepare the volumes for backup

and the initial replication is running.

and our protection is up and running

and we can restore the files we want from the protection drive

and we can see what are being sheduled.

This was the first intro to setup a DPM lab for testing before we see the full license.

Online Configuration Manager training

Kent Agerlund — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:51:33 GMT

Microsoft has just released an online training site for Configuration Manager, lots of hands-on labs, videos and technical documents - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/cm/ff597934.aspx

Import Microsoft License information in Asset Intelligence

Kent Agerlund — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:49:58 GMT

One of the less used features in Configuration Manager is AI (Asset Intelligence). Once configured; the feature will provide very useful information. Today Aurélien Bonnin just released a great step-by-step guide on how to download and import the license information into Configuration Manager - http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/abonnin/archive/2010/05/03/whitepaper-how-to-import-microsoft-software-licenses-data-in-asset-intelligence-catalog.aspx

New version of the ConfigMgr 2007 toolkit

Kent Agerlund — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:41:52 GMT

I was just informed that a new version of the ConfigMgr. 2007 toolkit is available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5a47b972-95d2-46b1-ab14-5d0cbce54eb8&displaylang=en

A few new tools have been added to the toolkit. One of the new “old” tools is the MP troubleshooter. Those of you who worked with SMS 2003 know this. The tool has been “upgraded” and now also has a check for WEBDAV – :-)

The MP pre test

The MP post test

First look at ConfigMgr. R3

Kent Agerlund — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:36:22 GMT

The new feature pack has finally been released in first public beta. I have installed the beta in my test environment and will the next couple of weeks post a few blogs on my experience with release. First a few notes on the installation:

Configmgr 2007 R3 beta requirements:

R3 beta can only be installed on a ConfigMgr SP2
R3 beta can only be installed on an evaluation copy of ConfigMgr. 2007

ConfigMgr 2007 R3 features

Power Management
Collection/discovery improvements
New OEM task sequence media
Support for 300.000 clients in a hierarchy

The Installation

The installation process is straight forward, the usual License terms and Next, Next, Finish. Once the installation is complete you do need to upgrade the existing clients with a new patch. The client upgrade package will be created as part of the installation.

The new client version number is 4.00.6487.2119

The new reports

The new reports come as a cab file containing RDL files. RDL files are used in SQL Reporting Services (the only supported reporting platform for vNext). To install the reports you can:

Navigate to Computer Management, Reporting
Right click the SQL Reporting Server and select Copy Reports to Reporting Services
In the wizard click next twice until the Select Reports is shown. Select Import Report Definition Language file from a Microsoft signed cabinet file and click Browse.
The cab file is placed in .\Program files (x86)\Configuration Manager\Reports\Power Management
Click Next a few times to import the reports
The new power management reports are now imported and ready to be used

New Client agent

Before you can start using the Power Management feature you need to enable the new Power Management Agent. Power Management can be controlled on each Collection; but not until the Power Management client has been enbaled.

MMS 2010 – Thursday

Kent Agerlund — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:08:25 GMT

Today started without a keynote instead I headed to my first session on Desired Configuration Management VS Hardware Inventory. The session was presented by a fellow MVP, Sherry Kissinger aka the “MOF master”. She did a great job revealing the power of DCM. The presentation went thru some very good examples where DCM can replace the normal hardware inventory. Some of the benefits of using DCM are:

You can create a simple CI and run it against a collection. With hardware inventory you have to make the changes globally in the sms_def.mof file.
DCM only returns True or False which often is what we are looking for.
We can run the checks often for testing purposes like every 15 minute – which is not something you want to do with hardware inventory :-)
Hardware inventory is limited to query for information in WMI or HKLM where DCM can do the same plus HKCU, VB scripts, SQL scripts, file and folder permissions and much more.

ConfigMgr vNext

One of the most awesome parts of this week, has been the “hands on labs” and self-paced lab. For the first time we have been allowed to play around with most of the features in vNext. Public beta will be available for download in May this year. I really encourage all of you to download the beta and start working with the product. You can expect to see some major changes in:

The Admin UI – forget most of what you know today. The Admin UI has been changed completely and now looks like the other system center products.
The entire Application feature has been changed. We can now create much more complex installations that allow you to tailor-made the installation to end-users. This feature will be described in much more details once the public beta is available.
The role based security – it’s brand new feature and will make life easier for most of us.

Upgrade from ConfigMgr. 2007 to vNext

There will be no in place upgrade from ConfigMgr. 2007 only a side by side migration is supported. I went thru the migration lab and must say it looks very promising. The migration feature will allow us to migrate objects like collections, packages, computer/user objects and much more. A very cool feature is that the migration wizard will keep track of how the different objects are related. So if you select one object the wizard will tell you that this object is related to different packages, collections etc. Furthermore you can schedule the migration job to occur on a schedule.

MMS SWAG

Thursday is also the last day where the Expo Hall is open. Just like kids in a candy store I went Swag hunting. The Swag will all be used in the next SCUG DK meeting and hopefully it will bring a little “MMS 2010 feeling” for those of you who didn’t make it all the way to Vegas.

Swag collected this year, System center caps, t-shirts, tons of badges (I Love Wally, I love ConfigMgr and all the other products), cool stickers for your laptop and much more. In total I have at least 10 kg of swag to carry with me home = overweight. I guess I have to; either drop bying presents for my family or pay a huge amount of money to the Airline company :-)

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 is now RTM

Ronni Pedersen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:46:24 GMT

Overview

Data Protection Manager 2010 is part of the System Center family of management products from Microsoft. It delivers unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers — as well as Windows desktops and laptops. DPM is designed as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution for Windows environments from Microsoft. DPM provides the best protection and most supportable restore scenarios of your Windows environment from disk, tape and cloud. Windows customers of all sizes can rely on Microsoft to provide a scalable and manageable protection solution that is cost-effective, secure and reliable.

Feature Summary

Protection for Windows clients, while they are online or offline, with easy-to-use wizards for establishing protection, retention and alert schedules. A single DPM server can protect over 1,000 Windows clients, while end users are able to restore their own data using Windows Explorer or Microsoft Office.
Protection of Microsoft Virtualization platforms, including Hyper-V R2 Live Migration / Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) configurations. DPM can also restore single-file items from host-based VM backups.
Enhanced Protection for SQL Server, scaling to over 2,000 databases per DPM server, and offering auto-protection of new databases per SQL instance. DBA’s can now restore their own databases, through a self-service restore utility for SQL Server.
Enhanced Protection of Exchange Server, scaling to over 40TB of email and support for Exchange 2010 Database Availability Groups (DAG), as well as CCR/SCR in Exchange 2007.
Enhanced Protection for SharePoint, without the requirement for a recovery farm with SharePoint 2010, and scaling up to 25TB farms with over 1M items. New content databases are now auto-protected without administrator interaction.
DPM 2010 is truly enterprise-ready, scaling to over 100 servers with over 80TB per DPM server, and includes new Auto-grow, Auto-heal, Auto-protect features for a lights-out reliable protection and recovery solution

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2
.NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package
Windows PowerShell 2.0
DPM 2010 must be installed on a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit computer that is located in an Active Directory domain that is running in 2003-mode or better.
DPM 2010 can protect machines running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Server 2003, 2003 R2, 2008 or 2008 R2, as well Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
If you are protecting data over a wide area network (WAN), there is a minimum network bandwidth requirement of 512 kilobits per second (Kbps).

Download

You download the 80-day trial of Data Protection Manager 2010 RTM here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb727240.aspx

Virtual Labs

It's simple: no complex setup or installation is required to try out System Center running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks any time.

Blogs on DPM

Jason Buffington – All Backed Up: http://blogs.technet.com/jbuff/
The Official DPM Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/

Enjoy.

Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Beta

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:13:58 GMT

Yesterday at the Microsoft Management Summit, Brad Anderson announced during his keynote the release of ConfigMgr07 R3 Beta. Power management is at the core of the R3 release, it addresses the need that many organizations have to monitor and reduce the power consumption of their computers. ConfigMgr07 R3 Power Management leverages the power management features built into Windows to apply relevant and consistent settings to computers in the organization. There are three major components to power management in ConfigMgr07 R3:

1. Monitoring and Planning: Power Management collects information about computer usage and power settings for computers in the origination. Reports are provided to allow the administrator to analyze this data and determine optimal power management settings for computers.

2. Enforcement: Power management allows the administrator to create power plans which can be applied to collections of computers. These power plans configure Windows power management settings on computers, and different power plans can be configured for peak and non-peak working hours.

3. Compliance: After applying power plans to computers in the organization, the administrator can run reports to validate that power settings were correctly applied and to calculate power and carbon footprint savings across collections of computers.

In addition to power management, ConfigMgr07 R3 will provide customers with enhanced scale and performance support (scale to 300K managed clients per hierarchy, delta AD discovery, dynamic collection updates), as well as enablement of further capabilities for operating system deployment. A full list of the R3 features can be found on Microsoft Connect at the “What’s new in R3” post.

Navigate to Microsoft Connect today and download the ConfigMgr07 R3 Beta.

Download: https://connect.microsoft.com/site16

MMS 2011

Kent Agerlund — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:22:56 GMT

It’s never to early to start planning :-) MMS 2011 will be at Mandalay Bay March 21-25. Hopefully the European Airspace will be open by then :-)