Windows 7 Deployment training – Course 6294: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments

2011-04-19 Leave a comment

Windows 7 deployment seems to the the hot topic these days. If you are responsible for planning and rolling out Windows 7, then this is a course you really should consider taking. This five-day instructor-led course is intended for desktop administrators who specialize in desktop deployment, configuration, and management . It is a great course for those interested in OS deployment.

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Windows 7 Deployment Using MDT . . . But Were Afraid To Ask

2011-04-19 Leave a comment

I find that one the the most common areas where clients tend to have questions – both in the classroom and when working at client sites – is related to automating the deployment of Windows 7. Everyone has questions about WAIK, MDT, and SCCM integration. Read more of this post

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6451B in Edmonton, then MMS

2011-03-06 Leave a comment

I’ll be in Edmonton the week of March 14, 2011 running a 6451B Planning, Deploying and Managing Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 course, then to Vegas for Microsoft Management Summit. I expect to have lots of interesting tidbits to post following MMS. I’ll be focusing on SCCM 2012, SCSM 2010, and Opalis Integration Server at MMS this year.

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Microsoft Security Compliance Manager

2011-01-08 4 Comments

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators team has a great product – the “Microsoft Security Compliance Manager”. One of the problems many of us face is evaluating which systems do, and which do not comply with our corporate expectations. For instance, which systems have invalid firewall configurations, which systems do not have a valid antivirus product installed, or which systems have administrator accounts with non-expiring passwords. Performing compliance audits of workstations or servers has been a bit challenging and Security Compliance Manager (SCM) can help.

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Desired Configuration Management in SCCM

2011-01-08 5 Comments

Configuration Manager’s Desired Configuration Management (DCM) functionality can be a bit confusing at first look, but really it’s a simple and powerful feature. DCM allows you to define corporate system configuration expectations, and then have Configuration Manager Client test for compliance and report back to your Configuration Manager site.

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Ports Used by Configuration Manager

2010-11-21 Leave a comment

I’m frequently asked which ports are used by Configuration Manager.

Configuration Manager distributes services between the Site Server, Site Systems and Clients. Some of the ports used by Configuration Manager are configurable while others are not. When planning your firewall configurations, you will need to determine which services will require which ports. Microsoft documents all of the ports used on their Ports Used by Configuration Manager page.

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Don’t forget the log files!

2010-08-26 Leave a comment

Configuration Manager provides remarkable troubleshooting log files. Both Configuration Manager servers and Configuration Manager clients log pretty much everything they do, and these log files are a wealth of troubleshooting information. Microsoft maintains a complete List of Log File in Configuration Manager at their technet site. I’ll be posting more about log files soon.

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OSD Imaging from a Web Page

2010-08-23 Leave a comment

Was reading a great how-to article today on Steve Rachui’s Manageability blog.  It’s a sample proof of concept only, you would have to tweak it to work the way you want it to, but it has some great potential. Why would you want to drive imaging from the command line? One compelling reason – you don’t want the team responsible for delivering image to have access to the SCCM Console. Users could visit a web page to have an OSD image delivered. Very cool!

You’ll find the whole article at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/steverac/archive/2010/08/23/os-imaging-via-web-page.aspx.

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