Microsoft System Center Product Blog

Extend DPM Schema manually

2009-06-22T12:56:00.002+08:00

In one of the project, somehow or rather, not be able to use DPM management console to extend the schema. Lots of people is looking for the manual way to extend DPM schema. There is also a time why you need to do so, to extend this feature to other trusted domain users to have end user recovery.

Steps:

Copy the following file in DPM server \Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\End User Recovery\DPMADSchemaExtension.exe. Run it in your forest. (Note: you will need to have schema admin and domain admin on the forest)

In the Enter Data Protection Manager Computer Name dialog box, type the name of the computer for which you want end-user recovery data in Active Directory Domain Services, and then click OK.

Type the DNS domain name of the DPM computer for which you want end-user recovery data in Active Directory Domain Services, and then click OK.

In the Active Directory Configuration for Data Protection Manager dialog box, click OK.

Wait for a while, it will then show you the result.

Once extended, you can then enable the end user recovery by:

In DPM Administrator Console, on the Action menu, click Options.

In the Options dialog box, on the End-user Recovery tab, select the check box for the Enable end-user recovery option, and then click OK.

Not be able to see SQL interface in DPM protection group

2009-06-05T22:35:00.004+08:00

In one of the recent deployment, when to protect a SQL server 2005, we are not be able to see the SQL interface.

All the pre-req is met. With few hours of checking, noticed that there is one DB, which is the root cause of the problem. This DB ends with "blank".

After bringing the DB offline, we can then see the SQL interface and protect other DB.

A good experience. We are in DPM SP1, running on Windows 2008.

Multiple protection group to one tape (Data Colocation)

2009-05-25T21:45:00.002+08:00

In DPM 2007, one protection group to allocate in one tape.

However, DPM 2007 allows to collocate protection groups on a tape. Then, you can group recovery points of multiple protection groups on a single tape. This will save the tape if you have lots of protection group. This feature, called Data Colocation.

To enable and disable this feature, please download and install KB 949779 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122329).

After install the update, you can then enable or disable data colocation using DPM Management Shell.

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DPMServerName -OptimizeTapeUsage $True

DPM and SAN

2009-05-19T13:53:00.002+08:00

Is there any benefits if you have your data in SAN and use a DPM to protect it? For sure it has.

Lets say you have Exchange data stored in a SAN, and you would like to protect using DPM. If your Exchange is running on CCR (Cluster Continuous Replication), you will be able to backup DPM from a passive node.

Few things for you to start with if you have a SAN:
(NOTE: you will want to ask from your SAN vendor about the features that you can use/supported using DPM)

1) Replica. As the first replica of your DB/Data, you can make use of the "clone", this will save your time and performance from getting the data from the original server through a network.

2) Recovery. You can make use of SAN based recovery in DPM. What this will do is, instead of recover through network, you make use of SAN based recovery, this will save your network bandwidth as well as time to recover.

DPM - data recovery

2009-05-19T13:47:00.002+08:00

In one of our DPM deployment, there are some questions on the data recovery side of DPM. Just to share:

DPM created "point-in-time" copy of the replica during the set schedule (can be 15 mins, can be an hour, depending on your data type - files and folder is one hour and supported applications like Exchange and SQL is about 15 minutes). DPM will be able to maintains up to 64 recovery points for files/folders and 448 express full with 96 incremental backups!

So, if you calculate in detail, you have more than 300,000 recovery points in a year if you put your short term recovery to disk, or mix of disk and tape.

Control the location for SMSPKG$ share

2009-05-15T12:40:00.003+08:00

SMS & SCCM distribution point by default will always look for the most free disk space drive and create the SMSPKG$ share resided on the drive. If you did not manage it properly, the SMSPKG$ share may exist on multiple drive and those shared content might content different package source and it is very hard for you to consolidate those content into single location.

Some of you may asking is that possible to dedicate a specific location and prevent the distribution point from creating the shared everywhere? Answer is Yes, we can do that. Below are the simple steps to accomplish the task:

On the target drive (where you would like to store the distribution package), create a shared folder and grant permission for SCCM service account & machine account.
In ConfigMgr console, browse to site system, then create a server share.
Specify the server share as distribution point, and then remove the default distribution point (If you perform this in production envinronment, make sure you backup all your distribution packages first).

After the above action been done, you will notice that the SMSPKG$ will only create under the shared folder you specified.

AD schema is not extended or SLP is not present. Cannot continue site assignment

2009-04-09T14:35:00.002+08:00

You may received the error - "AD schema is not extended or SLP is not present. Cannot continue site assignment." log in LocationServices.log when the SCCM client is successfully installed on the machine, but the SCCM client failed to discover primary site.

If the above entry is log, there are few things you may need to look into before you proceed with further action:

Is the Management Point publish in Active Directory?
Is the Management Point publish in DNS?
If you are using WINS for name resolution, you may need SLP registered in WINS.

How if the above components are already in-place but the SCCM client is still failed to discover primary site?

Another simple trick, try to verify your network DNS & WINS settings, the SCCM client may failed to assign to primary site due to incorrect assignment of DNS & WINS address.

SCCM Client Push Installation failed

2009-03-18T10:26:00.002+08:00

I believed most of you guys may facing this problem when try to push SCCM client to the workstations using Client Push Installation. When you failed to push the client from SCCM server, first thing come to your mind maybe is Windows Firewall blocking that. But somehow, after you enable necessary ports for SCCM Client Push Installation at Windows Firewall, it still doesnt work. After that you might try to stop the Windows Firewall service at the workstation, but still no luck...

Recently during we work on one large SCCM deployment, we found one interesting stuff. Here begin the story, we suspected one of the workstation is infected by virus, because the users is complaining the machine is slow and very difficult for the user to perform daily work. Unfortunately, that machine haven't installed with SCCM client yet. Therefore, we went down to the machine and perform a virus scan, we also tried to extract the local machine antivirus program logs file to understand the machine condition. After we gather all the necessary logs files, we found few interesting entries from the log:

C:\Windows\system32\ccmsetup.exe
Prevent remote creation/modification/deletion of anything in the Windows folder and subfolders. Action: Blocked

C:\Windows\SMSClientInstall
Prevent remote creation/modification/deletion of anything in the Windows folder and subfolders. Action: Blocked

I hope the above information can give you guys a hint when you hit such a problem in the future. Do share this with your customer if you facing this problem.

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-31T21:52:00.001+08:00

Dear System Center Fans,

Good day and thanks for the support in year 2008. Please continue to support us in year 2009.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Poo, Paul and the rest of the team.

System Center Presentation Video

2008-12-24T13:10:00.003+08:00

Guys, good day.

Just presented a session in System Center Solution Summit 2008 in Malaysia.

Attched the video file:

There are:

1) How to add ESX to SCVMM 2008
2) How to perform VMotion in SCVMM 2008
3) Powershell with SCVMM2008

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/SCUG

Cheers

DPM 2007 SP1 - What you want to know to install it today

2008-12-21T19:12:00.004+08:00

Its being a while, playing with DPM 2007. Knowing that this is a great product - yet still get some feedback about it, eg: Only be able to backup data within a forest.

Now, with DPM 2007 SP1 launch, not long ago. One of the features that impress me - be able to backup Windows servers that supported acorss different forest with a trust!

For sure in an environment, there are reasons for different forest - this is now, a solution.

Another that make me install immediately - you can also make DPM your file server! Yes, it is not recommended - but for branch offices, for sure it will lower down TCO. However, you will need to run some commands in the powershell to activate it.

Set-DPMGlobalProperty –AllowLocalDataProtection $true [-DPMServerName]

For Exchange, it is now be able to backup SCR! Do visit my Exchange blog for more information.

To know more before you install? visit this URL:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd347836.aspx

Just installed it and works smoothly. What are you waiting for?

Verify SQL connection from your machine

2008-11-15T10:13:00.005+08:00

Everyone know System Center products are heavily rely on SQL server, we must prepare the SQL server first in order to proceed with the System Center products installation. Sometimes we would like to verify the connectivity between System Center servers and SQL servers, since we are not SQL server expert, how we gonna achieve that by using tools or is there any other primitive way (such as ping, or telnet command in command prompt) to troubleshoot that?

Here, I would like to share with everyone a good tip.

Create a blank text file on your desktop using Notepad, and then rename the text file extension from 'txt' to 'udl'. Double click the udl file, a Data Link Properties windows will prompt out. Here we go! Now we are able to test out the SQL connectivity by using this small interface! Is that cool?

Although this is not a big news, I doubt a lot of developers knew about this, and I got this tip from my best friend Koh Nyap Hong. He is a great developer and thanks for him to share this tip with me. Now, I would like to share this tool with all IT Professionals, this will be a very useful tool for you to troubleshoot some basic SQL errors.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 RTM is now Available!

2008-11-04T23:47:00.006+08:00

MAP 3.2 RTM is now available!! This RTM released has expanded its assessment capabilities to SQL Server 2008, ForeFront/NAP, Microsoft Online Services migration, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment.

MAP 3.2 assessment areas now include:

SQL Server 2008 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW)
Forefront/NAP Readiness Proposals (NEW)
Microsoft Online Services Migration Surveys, Proposals, and Reports (NEW)
Power Savings Proposals (NEW)
Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008 and "virtualized guests by hosts" reporting) (NEW)
Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V)
Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed and up-to-date, or if the Windows Firewall is turned on
Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposals

If you are interested to download or if you would like to know more about it, please visit the website below:
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

SRS Server Validation Error while installing Operation Manager Reporting

2008-08-19T16:59:00.002+08:00

We tried to install Operation Manager Reporting on Windows 2008, but during the installation, the wizard showed the error "SRS Server Validation Error". We spent quite sometimes to do troubleshooting and verify the step-by-step installation procedures (inclusive SQL 2005 & SQL 2005 SP2 installation), but we found nothing wrong with those procedures. Furthermore, the SQL Reporting Service Configuration did not return any error and every components are showing healthy status.

After hours of troubleshooting, I found that the IIS 7.0 does not allow executable script and program to run on the SQL reporting virtual directory. After we make some permissions changes on the SQL reporting virtual directory, the installation then can be completed with no error.

Below are the steps for editting the virtual directory permissions:

In IIS Manager, open the Sites folder, and then open the folder of the Web site that contains the report server virtual directory.
Select the report server virtual directory.
In the IIS area, double-click HTTP Handlers.
In the Actions pane, click Edit Handler Permissions.
Click Script, and then click OK.

If the above matter cannot help you, try to verify your SQL reporting service status by using Reporting Service Configuration, make sure all components and services are in healthy status.

Managing Open Source in Operation Manager x64 Environment

2008-08-09T13:33:00.005+08:00

In enterprise data center environment, some of the customer might interested on managing Open Source servers using Operation Manager.

Microsoft Connect introduced a Cross Platform Extensions for Operation Manager, which provide open source dll runtime to Operation Manager for querying the open source systems and as well as various open source system's Management Pack.

Previously this Cross Platform Extensions can only be able to run on 32-bit Operation Manager, but Microsoft Connect one again introduced a new Cross Platform Extensions Beta Update Yesterday!! Now, Operation Manager that run on 64-bit platform will also be able to manage open source system with this new update!

Currently, the Cross Platform Extensions only be able to manage the following open source platform:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Suse 10.1
HP UX 11.31
Solaris 10
AIX 5.3 (New in Beta Update)

If you guys are interested on managing open source using Operation Manager 2007, register yourself and downlaod the installer from Microsoft Connect site!

Paul's Sys-Center Shared

2008-08-08T13:30:00.009+08:00

Dear all,

Thanks for visiting and supporting System Center Product Blog. I will share out my video & files at SkyDrive in the future. Feel free to grab those video & files for your kind perusal.

Paul's Sys-Center Shared

If you guys are interested on contributing to community, feel free to contact us. Cheers.

Managing SCVMM 2008 using SCOM 2007

2008-08-05T15:12:00.008+08:00

Since System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is still in beta stage, is there a way for Operation Manager 2007 to manage it? We are trying to sort it out and try to make it become possible...

Finally, we've found the VMM 2008 Management Pack for Operation Manger is actually resided in the VMM's bits itself, this is amazing!

By the way, before you can install the VMM 2008 management pack into Ops Manager, below are few prerequisites management pack you need to load:

Windows Server Internet Information Services Library
Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003
SQL Server Core Library
SQL Server 2005 (Discovery)
SQL Server 2005 (Monitoring)

Below is the video for installing SCVMM 2008 management pack into SCOM 2007. For those virtualization fans, share this with your friends.

DPM - Virtual Tape

2008-07-07T10:21:00.002+08:00

One of our participants on the DPM class is asking if we can test out the Tape functionality in DPM without installing a real Tape Library? Yes you can.

Thanks to FireSteamer.

You can download and use it for 30 days trial from:

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/Tools/VirtualTape

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator Installation Prerequisites

2008-07-05T15:08:00.003+08:00

I just tried to install MAP on virtual machine. I found that there are few components you need to install before installing MAP on your system.

Below are the list of required components:

.Net Framework 2.0
Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2003 with SP2
SQL Express or SQL Server

The installation steps is pretty straight forward. Just you need to specified the database (there is a wizard provided by MAP to help you go through this process) if you run an assessment project.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator Available NOW!

2008-07-01T00:24:00.006+08:00

A Great news for SCCM & Virtualization Fans!

Since Windows Server 2008 & Windows Vista SP1 are hot topic right now, you might think of migrating your current environment to this new technology. But how well you know about your current environment if you do not have proper IT Assessment process in place?

With the release of Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator, you may now make use of this tool to gather and organizes system resources and device information from a single computer. Another good news, you do not need to worry about deploying the agent to every system on your network (because most of the assessment tool need a agent on remote system to gather device information), and it is AGENTLESS!!

If you are interested, just visit the sites below and gather the information needed:

Download MAP 3.1: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111000

Read more about MAP: http://www.microsoft.com/MAP

View demos on Team Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/MAPBLOG/

If you guys got any comment on this tool, feel free to feedback to us!

Malaysia Community Launch in KL

2008-06-30T08:48:00.002+08:00

Hi guys,

Thanks for coming to the launch. It reaches ~100 participants. As promised, this is the slide that I used in the presentation - Managing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/Malaysia%20Community%20Launch

Long live community.

Cheers.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Pre req

2008-06-27T15:17:00.003+08:00

As announced System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is in BETA.

Something to share on the pre-req:

1) SCVMM 2008 to install in Windows Server 2008 only

2) To install self service portal; For IIS, you will need:
a) Web Server (IIS) Role with Common HTTP features, Static Content, Default Document, Directory Browsing, HTTP Errors, Application Development, ASP.NET, .NET Extensibility, ISAPI Extensions, ISAPI Filters, Security, Request Filtering.
b) You will also need to add role service: IIS 6 Management Compatibility

You can install VMM Server, VMM Console as well as Self Service Portal in the same machine. However, if managing a big virtual infrastructure, you might want to split them.

Malaysia Partner Technical Community - CDP for Exchange

2008-06-20T13:40:00.002+08:00

Dear Microsoft Malaysia partners,

Thanks for joining the session. As promised, the slide and video be able to download from:

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/PTC

Hope you enjoy. Do send me a private e-mail if you to join our SystemCenter group.

Cheers

DPM and SCVMM how-to Video

2008-06-07T14:19:00.001+08:00

Lots of our readers comments on how to get the video we posted in this blog.

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public

Thanks to SkyDrive, which we can now post it to the web.

Branch DP connections limitation

2008-06-07T14:17:00.003+08:00

There are a lot of ppl questioning, what is the actual limit for SCCM branch distribution point? how should i design it to fit into my customer environment?

For your information, if you run Branch DP on Windows XP or Windows Vista client, you will only have concurrent limit of 10 users. But if you run Branch DP on Windows Server, you will not have the limitation for 10 users and the server's license model will apply on it, such as CALs, Per Server, Per Seat etc.

Hope the above information can give you some hints on SCCM design.

SMSMap & SCCM 2007 Capacity Planner

2008-06-02T09:21:00.003+08:00

Recently I've found one interesting website called SMSMap. This website basically provide tools called SMSMap and SCCM 2007 Capacity Planner.

SMSMap is a tool similar like Active Directory Topology Diagrammer, it allows you to simplified the process of drawing the Visio diagram for your SCCM structure. Whereas SCCM 2007 Capacity Planner is a tool for you to plan out your SCCM structure for your organization (This tool is very useful, so far there is no official release from Microsoft regarding capacity planning for SCCM).

Below is the link for the website I mentioned above:
http://www.tondtware.com/downloads.html

Lastly, many thanks to Jeff Tondt for giving me permission to allow me to post his site link in my blog. Currently, Jeff Tondt is a Senior Consultant II for Microsoft Consulting Services. He focused on the System Management solution and he is SMS & SCCM expert.

Install DPM Agent manually

2008-05-29T13:30:00.002+08:00

In the recent class and projects, lots of the students and customers would like to install DPM once they implement a server - this is a good news.

However, how can we do so? There are two things here: Install DPM Agent manually and associate it with DPM Server.

To install DPM Agent manually, there are few ways - install it with SCCM/SMS, distribute via Active Directory group policy or even install it manually.

1) In a DPM source CD, locate Microsoft DPM\DPM\Agents\RA\2.0.5820.0\i386 (use AM64 if install in a 64 bit machine)

2) run DpmAgentInstaller.exe /q .

Now, the agent is installed. To enable firewall exeption,

1) type :\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\bin\ SetDpmServer.exe – dpmServerName .

To associate the DPMA with DPM server,

2) On the DPM server, from the DPM Management Shell prompt, type Attach-ProductionServer.ps1 .

DPM Error 324

2008-05-28T08:10:00.008+08:00

Recently, we are doing a DPM Proof of Concept with Microsoft.

Everything works fine with DPM Server installation, DPM Agent push. However, the second day, the agent is not be able to communicate with DPM Server with an error 324.

The detail of the error sounds like:

The agent operation failed because the DPM Agent Coordinator service did not respond.
To troubleshoot this, according to Microsoft website, you will need to:

1) Check the recent DPMAC source records in the application event log on .

2) Verify that the DPM server is remotely accessible from.

3) If a firewall is enabled on the DPM server, verify that it is not blocking requests from .

4) Verify that the time on the DPM server and the selected computer is synchronized with the domain controller. At a command prompt, type "net time /set" to synchronize the time with the domain controller.

However, it is not the case of ours, what we found out:
It is because of Windows 2003 SP2...

We will need to verify that the DPM server is a member of the Distributed COM Users group and that the group has DCOM Launch and Access permissions.

1) In Computer Management, expand System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups, and then click Groups.

2) In the Details pane, double-click the Distributed COM Users group.

3) Verify that the computer account for the DPM server is a member of the group.

For DCOM Launch and Access permission:

1) In Administrative Tools, open Component Services, Expand Component Services, expand Computers, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

2) On the COM Security tab, under Access Permissions, click Edit Limits. Verify that the Distributed COM Users group is allowed both Local Access and Remote Access permissions.

3) On the COM Security tab, under Launch and Activation Permissions, click Edit Limits. Verify that the Distributed COM Users groups is allowed the following permissions:

Local Launch
Remote Launch
Local Activation
Remote Activation

Wait for sometime, the DPMA now be able to communicate with DPM Server.

It tooks us about 1-2 hours to solve it together with the customer.

Backup SCCM Site

2008-05-02T11:40:00.007+08:00

If you want to backup your SCCM site, you may make use of SCCM Site Server Maintenance Task to accomplish this. Below is the steps to configure the SCCM Backup job:

In the SCCM console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Site Management / <site name> / Site Settings / Site Maintenance / Tasks.
Right-click the Backup Site Server task, and click Properties.
Specify how frequent you would like to backup your site in the the backup task properties, and click OK. Ensure that you schedule the backup task to run at an appropriate time.

Try to make use of SCCM native backup method. My 2 cents... :)

Windows Firewall exceptions for SCCM Client Push Installation

2008-04-29T14:35:00.003+08:00

After you had enable Client Push Installation in SCCM, you found all the client machines failed to receive and install the SCCM agent. After you verify the log files, you may found out the Windows Firewall in client machine is blocking the Client Push Installation. Due to company policy, it is impossible for you to turn off the Windows Firewall on client machines...

Here we provide one good solution for IT Administrators to encounter issue above.

In order to successfully use SCCM Client Push Installation, you must add the following as exceptions to the Windows Firewall on every client machines:

File & Printer Sharing
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

After all things is done, lets rocks with SCCM Client Push Installation!

DPM - Installing DPM Agent

2008-03-23T22:50:00.005+08:00

Before you protect your data/application on certain server, like other backup application, you will need to install its client agent. In DPM 2007, you will need to install DPM 2007 client.

For mass deployment, you can either deploy using AD GPO, SCCM 2007, install using DPM 2007 console or install manually.

In the following video, we will share on how to install using DPM 2007 console.

Video: How to install DPM 2007 agent.
Desc: This video will show on how to install DPM 2007 agent using DPM 2007 console.

DPM 2007 - Adding disk

2008-03-23T22:42:00.005+08:00

Guys,

After successfully installed DPM 2007, you will need to add disk to allow DPM to protect data to store.

You wont be able to use removable storage for this usage, however, you can use ISCSI, the new technology as its disk spool, additional hdd, or SAN of course.

After you installed the nessasary hardware, you will need to add the disk to DPM.

Below the video on how to add disk

Video : How to install disk to DPM 2007.
Desc: After adding disk hardware, you will need to add the disk to allow DPM to store its protected data.

DPM 2007 - Intro with Video

2008-03-23T21:53:00.006+08:00

Guys,

Long time never post any articles here. Recently, prepared a training for Microsoft Malaysia's customer. Managed to come out some video about DPM 2007.

Why DPM 2007? Yes this is Microsoft version of backup. Simple answer, because this is developed by Microsoft and it works well with Microsoft products! Windows, Files and Folders, Applications like SQL, Exchange +++. We will share the top reasons why DPM 2007 in our next posts.

Attached some video to share with you guys. We are producing more video. Come back to this blog for more stuff.

Video 1: Installing DPM 2007.
Desc: You will see the steps to install DPM 2007 here. Please search for another post on installing SQL for DPM manually.

Cheers

How to customize SCCM 2007 Software Metering data collection timing

2007-11-04T14:21:00.001+08:00

If Software Metering Client Agent is enable in your desktop management environment, some of the administrators may wonder where to customize the schedule for software metering data collection timing? and how frequent the software metering run for data collection?

Well, in SMS 2003 and SCCM 2007, there is a Predefined Maintenance Task for data collection and database maintenance. In this predefined maintenance task, you can specific the schedule for Software Metering data collection time. There are under:

Summarize Software Metering File Usage Data
Default Schedule: Runs daily, between midnight and 5:00 A.M.
Function of this task: Software metering collect the daily usage for the metered applications and store it inside the database.

Summarize Software Metering Monthly Usage Data
Default Schedule: Runs daily, between midnight and 5:00 A.M.
Function of this task: Software metering summarized the data's more than one month old.

System Center Partner Airlift - Seattle (23-26 Oct 2007)

2007-10-26T02:34:00.000+08:00

Microsoft is preapring a partner readiness for System Center Product.

We are lucky to be the only one to travel here from Malaysia. Be able to listen to the presentation from the product team and the development team is rewarding. We will share more on this blog.

New Server Role in SCCM 2007 - Branch Distribution Point

2007-08-07T22:01:00.002+08:00

In SCCM 2007, a new role called branch distribution point (Branch DP) is introduced. Branch distribution point is function in the same manner as standard distribution point. The fantastic for branch dp is, it can be install on a workstation!

If your network got a branch office which only got few machines, branch distribution point will be your option for efficient package distribution to a small office with limited bandwidth by using a workstation.

Below is the steps how to enable Branch DP role on a workstation:

1. In the Configuration Manager console, expand System CenterConfiguration Manager > [site database] > Site Management > [site name] > Site Settings.
2. Right-click Site Systems, point to New, and then click Server.
3. In the New Site System Server Wizard first page, type in the workstation name, click Next. (Ensure the user account have right to install the site system on remote system)
4. On the System Role Selection page, check on Distribution point. Click Next
5. On the Distribution Point page, select option Enable as a branch distribution point. Click Next. (The package files store partition and limitation on target workstation can be specific over here)
6. Verify the settings, click Next and confirm the installation status.

Is done! Pretty straight forward. But in order to setup a workstation as a branch distribution point, make sure the workstation local hard drive got enough disk space to store the package files for deployment.

Manually create System Management Container in Active Directory Domain Services

2007-07-25T10:42:00.001+08:00

SMS 2003 and SCCM 2007 does not create the System Management container in Active Directory Domain Services when the schema is extended. The container need to be prepared for each domain that includes SMS 2003 or SCCM 2007 site server that will publish site information to Active Directory Domain Services. There are two method to prepare the System Management container inside Active Directory Domain Services.

Method 1:

Grant the Site Server computer account full control permission on the System container in Active Directory Domain Services. (This method is not recommended. It is more secure to create the System Management Container manually)

Method 2:

Manually create the System Management container in Active Directory Domain Services using ADSIEdit. ADSIEdit is part of Windows Server Support Tools. Windows Server Support Tools can be found in Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Server CD.

1. Install Windows Server Support Tools.
2. Open ADSIEdit snap-in using MMC, and connect to domain which you would like to create the System Management Container.
3. In the console pane, expand Domain [computer fully qualified domain name], expand , and right-click CN=System. On the context menu, click New and then click Object.
4. In the Create Object dialog box, select Container and click Next.
5. In the Value field, type System Management and click Next, and then click Finish.

Now, your Site Server is able to publish site information in the Active Directory once the System Management container is created.

SMS 2003 & SCCM 2007 Security Mode

2007-07-22T12:56:00.001+08:00

Everyone know there is 2 security modes in SMS 2003, which is Standard Security mode and Advanced Security mode. But what is the different between this 2 security mode? Let us share on this.

Standard security uses user accounts to run services, configure computers, and connect between computers. Advanced security make use of Active Directory. It uses the Local System Account (which is computer account) to run services, configure computers, and connect between computers. It is more secure, but it requires Active Directory and it does not require the schema to be extended.

You can switch from standard security mode to advanced security mode, but it cannot change back to standard security mode once the security mode is switch over to advanced security mode.

How about SCCM 2007, what is the different between SCCM 2007 and SMS 2003 on security mode? well, SCCM 2007 also provided 2 types of security modes, which is SMS 2003 compatibility security mode (Mixed Mode) and another is SCCM 2007 security mode (Native Mode).

Native mode is a higher level of security mode by integrating with a public key infrastructure (PKI) to help protect client-to-server communication. With this security mode enable, you are able to manage Internet-based client, which the client computer connect to your site server through public WAN connection. Thus, extra security is needed in order to implement this and you need to get a valid Certificate from certificate authority in order to accomplish this task.

Mixed mode provides backwards compatibility for hierarchies that have both SMS 2003 sites and Configuration Manager 2007 sites. With this security mode, you are unable to manage Internet-based client. You are allow to switch from Mixed mode to Native mode once all your site servers is migrated to SCCM 2007 and it is also possible to revert back to Mixed mode from Native mode. This is really a good fall back feature if you would like to perform a migration for your SMS 2003 to SCCM 2007.

How to Remove SMS Advanced Client using Msiexec /x

2007-07-17T10:55:00.001+08:00

We had meet one scenario from one of the customer, we are trying to remove SMS Advanced Client from one of the Windows XP machine using Ccmclean tool (Ccmclean tool can be found in SMS toolkit). But unfortunately, it failed to remove the client by using Ccmclean.

There is another method to remove the SMS Advanced Client from the machine which is msiexec /x command.

Before executing that command, you must know what is the GUID for the SMS Advanced Client, the GUID value can be found inside the Registry editor under following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

The correct GUID has SMS Advanced Client as the Display Name value.

After you get the SMS Advanced Client GUID value, execute the msiexec /x command at command prompt.

Msiexec /x {D8EF2D11-47CF-45E5-B423-47B29706DE12}
(the value behind Msiexec /x indicate the GUID of SMS Advanced Client)

After you execute the Msiexec /x on the machine, you may need to manually remove the VPCache folder for SMS Advanced Client. Below is the step by step how to complete the task:

1. Locate the following registry key in registry editor:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\VPCache

2. The Path value for VPCache is the location of the VPCache folder on the system drive. For example, %Windir%\System32\VPCache.

3. Locate the VPCache folder and then delete it from the hard drive.

4. Lastly, delete VPCache registry key from the registry editor.

Although this method need to spend more time to complete it, but it is a alternative for you to remove the SMS Advanced Client from the machine, no harm to have a try. :)

P/S: Please use Registry Editor with extra careful, or else it may crash your system. :)

valuable benefits that System Center Essentials 2007 can provide

2007-06-14T11:12:00.000+08:00

Guys, SC2007 now released. wondering what it can provide?

Recently we grab this info from Microsoft Website:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sce/evaluation/topten.mspx?wt.svl=globalheadline

Here are the ten most valuable benefits that System Center Essentials 2007 can provide to your organization.

Unify your IT management experience
Essentials 2007 provides a single console for your core management needs. That means a single product to purchase, deploy and learn. Server, Desktop and Network monitoring, software and update management and asset inventory under a single, easy to use, unified experience.

Keep your applications and your network up and running
Essentials provides multiple views of the application data in your network. Track database growth in SQL Server™ databases or connectivity to Exchange servers using some of the many provided charts, tables and reports. Essentials also tracks the status of all the SNMP 2.0 devices in your network , allowing you to receive alerts when something important goes down.

Troubleshoot problems more quickly
Accidents happen, systems go down. That is why Essentials provides a rich knowledge base out of the box to help you diagnose and fix critical alerts for key products like Exchange Server and SQL Server™. These management packs are optimized so you only focus on those alerts that matter. Not only do you get in-depth explanations of problems, but more importantly, Essentials often provides simple in-line tasks to click and “fix it now.” Additional management packs are available from Microsoft and 3rd party providers for both Windows and non-windows environments.

Simplify your Patch Management
Essentials 2007 provides integrated patch management for Microsoft products in the Microsoft Update catalog. Additionally we’ve worked with key industry vendors to integrate their updates into Essentials providing a single point of control for patch Management. You can choose to automatically deploy critical updates or have them be subject for approval, and track compliance across your network. Want the patch deployed now? No problem, just click a button to initiate deployment real time.

Deploy Applications easily
Deploying applications has never been so easy. Using a simple 3 step wizard you can deploy applications to a target set of computers without worrying about having to deal with packaging or other complex processes. Ready for Office 2007? Essentials can help you deploy Office 2007 with your custom settings in a snap. Additionally Essentials uses Background Intelligent Transfer Service 2.0 (BITS) to optimize traffic over your network. Changed your mind? Don’t worry, it’s even easier to un-install a previously deployed application.

Keep track of hardware and software assets
No more spreadsheets to maintain - Essentials 2007 gathers more than 60 hardware attributes and a complete inventory of the applications running on each machine. A summary inventory is available for quick troubleshooting or in the detailed report by machine groups.

Improve your users up-time
Reduce the time you spend dealing with end-user issues with features like Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) which allows you to collect application and OS errors that would otherwise remain anonymous. Use built in tasks to remotely execute important tasks on user’s computers, from performing a simple ipconfig to a remote desktop session, all without leaving the management console.

Get up and running fast
Deploying Essentials 2007 couldn’t be easier; the smart setup will check for prerequisites to ensure you have a smooth and successful installation. Post-installation configuration is quickly completed using three simple wizards. The built-in integration with Active Directory will allow you to manage a computer automatically the moment it’s added to your environment without any intervention.

Gain visibility into your IT environment
Start your day with a Daily Health Report, providing a quick status of your IT environment and any action items required. For more detail, go to the Essentials console and consult the more than 180 reports out of the box that help you gain better insight into how your IT environment is performing. Get an affordable comprehensive IT Management solution designed for you
Essentials is priced for the budgets of midsize businesses, allowing you to purchase only what you need and then grow as your business requires it, with flexible licenses for up to 30 servers and 500 clients at a fraction of what typical management solutions cost.