Observations and stuff I find interesting – mostly about System Center
2013-10-10 Leave a comment
Just noticed this on one of my favourite ConfigMgr blogs (too bad he now has a pop-up every time you visit). Microsoft Press has released an excellent eBook covering everything from Windows Management Instrumentation, OSD Troubleshooting, SSRS, and much more. Head over to Anoop’s blog, where he has download links and more information, or pick it up from the Microsoft Press blog. There’s plenty of great tips and tricks!
2013-06-26 Leave a comment
I don’t very often see people doing a good job of describing the integration of Configuration Manager and Intune. If you are interested in how Configuration Manager and Intune will help you managing your iOS, Android and Windows phone devices, check out these 5 articles http://www.nomizo.fr/2013/03/sccm-2012-intune-mobile-management-part.html. Great posts!
2013-06-21 Leave a comment
Just a quick note, I notice that CU2 is available for download. Check it out and see if it addresses any issues you have been encountering. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2854009
2013-04-11 Leave a comment
I’m missing it too. I’m wishing I could be there to take in all the amazing sessions, meet some gurus, and of course take in all those famous after hours parties and events. All is not lost. Read more of this post
2013-04-08 Leave a comment
There are only 365 days left until the end of extended support for Windows XP. That means that after April 8, 2014 Microsoft will no longer provide extended support for commercial customers using Windows XP, and will no longer provide new Windows Updates for Windows XP. You will be on your own. As of next April, XP will have been around for nearly 12 years. It’s time to upgrade.
See this great article for details on what Extended Support means, and the implications of deciding to stay with Windows XP beyond next April. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/04/08/365-days-remaining-until-xp-end-of-support-the-countdown-begins.aspx
2013-03-24 Leave a comment
If you are running SP 1 of Configuration Manager 2012, Microsoft released an update Friday that you should definitely evaluate. Plenty of fixes for ConfigMgr issues including MicrosoftPolicyPlatformSetup.msi file now being correctly signed and a lot of new PowerShell cmdlets.
Head over to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817245 to download the update.
2013-03-20 8 Comments
Ever get this message when PXE booting? I did again today. The PXE Server was running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, and PXE boot had been working perfectly until I applied some updates to the server last week. Following the server update, clients were unable to PXE boot, and the above error was displayed.
The fix? In my case I stumbled upon it in an online forum. Read more of this post
2013-03-14 Leave a comment
I’m no PowerShell ninja. But like most Configuration Manager administrators, the writing is on the wall. With PowerShell now natively supported in SP1, it’s time to become comfortable with it.
On the Configuration Manager Team’s blog they are just kicking off a weekly post on PowerShell integration in Configuration Manager. If you are a seasoned PowerShell guru, you will probably not be interested in their first post – it assumes you have no experience with PowerShell and covers the very basics. But I think this could be a blog to watch in the coming weeks if you want to get more in-depth knowledge of PS and CM integration. You’ll find the blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2013/03/13/powershell-basics.aspx.
Why would you want to use PowerShell in ConfigMgr? Well, I came across an excellent post from Peter Daalmans a couple of weeks ago which included a short little script that will delete objects from Configuration Manager when they are deleted in Active Directory. Clean up your ConfigMgr database without having to wait for objects to age out. Brilliant example of the power of PowerShell cmdlets!
2013-03-01 28 Comments
I ran into a strange Configuration Manager 2012 issue today on a client site. The “Configuration Manager Client” package for some reason was failing to be processed by Distribution Manager. The status of the Distribution Manager component was critical, and the distmgr.log file was repeatedly displaying the following errors;
~Failed to start DP health monitoring task for package ‘xxx00003’. Error code: -1
. . . and~Failed to process package xxx00003 after 35 retries, will retry 65 more times
All of the other packages were healthy.
2013-02-18 Leave a comment
If you have not already discovered his blog, Anoop Nair is someone you should check out. I have found his blog to be immensely useful. His SCCM 2012 Starter Kit http://anoopcnair.com/2011/08/10/configmgr-sccm-2012-starter-kit-very-useful-links/ is a page full of links to other cool and sometimes hard to find stuff – all CM 2012 related. Spend some time browsing through his blog, it’s well worth your time.
Configuration Manager Team Blog
Yet Another System Center Blog 