Tag: System Center

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 – RTM

A couple of hours ago, Microsoft released MDT 2012

In contains numerous bug fixes as well as support for SCCM 2007 and SCCM 2012.

Improvements for All MDT Technologies

The MDT improvements that affect all MDT technologies, which are discussed in a subsequent section, are as follows:

  • Support for upgrading from previous versions of MDT
  • Integration with security and compliance templates generated by Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) version 2.0
  • Run Windows PowerShell™ scripts within an MDT task sequence
  • Create partitions to support best practice recommendations for deployment of BitLocker® Drive Encryption
  • Automatically configure participation in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Windows Error Reporting (WER)
  • Guidance that describes how to use Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) for all database needs within MDT
Improvements for LTI Deployments

MDT includes the following improvements for LTI deployments:

  • Support for Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Server 8 Beta. Note: The deployment of Windows Server 8 Beta roles and features using the Install Roles and Features task sequence action is not supported.
  • Support for the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK). Note: Currently, the Windows ADK is only supported for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview or Windows 7 in lab environments, not in production environments.

Windows ADK requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0. If not already installed, the Windows ADK installation installs the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0. For more information, see Introduction to the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit.

  • Monitoring of LTI deployment process. MDT includes the new LTI monitoring feature that allows you to perform centralized monitoring of LTI deployments in the Monitoring node in the Deployment Workbench.
  • Deployment of Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE). Windows RE helps users troubleshoot and recover from startup-related problems on their computers.
  • Deployment of Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT).
  • Deployment to computers that use the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).
  • Deployment to computers that require the new globally unique identifier (GUID) Partition Table (GPT) format.
  • Deployment to virtual hard disks (VHDs) for native boot.
  • Support for Windows Thin PC.
  • Support for Windows Embedded POSReady 7.
  • Add local administrator accounts.
  • Deployment Wizard user experience improvements.
Improvements for Configuration Manager Deployments

MDT includes the following improvements for MDT deployments with Configuration Manager 2012 or Configuration Manager 2007 R3:

  • Support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. MDT includes support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager for ZTI and UDI deployments
  • Support for new application model in Configuration Manager 2012.
  • Support for the user device affinity feature in Configuration Manager 2012.
  • Support for prestart command files.
  • Support for automatically starting a specific task sequence.
  • UDI Wizard user experience improvements.
  • The UDI Wizard has been completely revised to improve user experience.
  • UDI Wizard Designer user experience improvements.
  • The UDI Wizard Designer UI has been improved to make configuring the UDI Wizard even easier than previous versions.
  • Support for enabling BitLocker in UDI.
  • Support for MDT Replace Computer deployment scenario.
  • Localization of UDI Wizard.
  • Guidance for customizing UDI.
  • Upgrade tasks sequences created in Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012.
  • Guidance for Configuration Manager 2007 R3.

Read more and download it from here 

Special thanks to Mikael Nystrom

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 RC1

The Solution Accelerators team released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 RC1 is available for download on Connect now.

Download the MDT 2012 RC1 release now

New features and enhancements:

Support for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2: This update provides support for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 releases. MDT 2012 fully leverages the capabilities provided by Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. The latest version of MDT offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012. Users now also have the ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012.

Customize deployment questions: For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions.

Ease Lite Touch installation: The Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) is now integrated with Lite Touch Installation, providing remote control and diagnostics. New monitoring capabilities are available to check on the status of currently running deployments. LTI now has an improved deployment wizard user experience. Enhanced partitioning support ensures that deployments work regardless of the current structure.

Secure Deployments: MDT 2012 offers integration with the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows deployment from the start.

Reliability and flexibility: Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

Support for Windows 8: The RC1 release of MDT 2012 provides support for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a lab environment.

Key Benefits:

  • Full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

New Features:

For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

  • Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
  • New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012
    • Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
  • Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

For Lite Touch Installation:

  • Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
  • New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
  • Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFIAbility to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, "Deploy to VHD"
  • Improved deployment wizard user experience

For all customers:

  • Integration with configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager Solution Accelerator, ensuring Windows is secure from the start
  • A simple mechanism for running Windows PowerShell scripts during a deployment, with task sequence environment and logging integration
  • Better partitioning support, creating the recommended partitioning structures on new computers and ensuring deployments work regardless of the current structure
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users
  • Many small enhancements and bug fixes

MDT 2012 Beta 2 Released

The latest version of MDT is now available on Connect (Join the MDT 2012 Beta 2 Connect program here!)

MDT 2012 Beta 2 offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012 as well as integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics.

Key benefits include:

  • Full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

New features For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

  • Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
  • New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012
    • Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
  • Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

New features For Lite Touch Installation:

  • Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
  • New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
  • Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFI
  • Ability to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, “Deploy to VHD”
  • Improved deployment wizard user experience

MDT 2012 the final release will be available download through to January 2012 I think.

The Microsoft TechNet Gallery

The Microsoft Technet Gallery is the place where not only just scripts but many other technical resources for Microsoft products including App-V, Exchange, and System Center.

If you like scripts, management packs, utilities, and extensions are important for your success, you’ll definitely want to bookmark this one.

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Windows Anti-Virus Exclusion List

 

One place on the web where you can find an updated list of ALL the AV exclusions you might want to configure for Windows Server.

Enterprise Configuration Recommendations:

Windows:

  • KB822158 Virus scanning recommendations for Enterprise computers that are running currently supported versions of Windows

Windows / Active Directory:

Cluster:

Forefront: Considerations when using antivirus software on FF Edge Products

FRS:

SQL:

IIS:

DHCP:

SCOM / MOM:

Config Manager 2007:

Hyper-V:

Exchange:

SharePoint:

SMS:

ISA:

Windows Update:

SBS:

MED-V

System Center:

Data Protection Manager:

App-V

Source: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/953.aspx

System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta is released

Overview

System Center Operations Manager 2012 provides the monitoring component of cloud and datacenter solutions, to help you manage your datacenter and cloud environments by:

  • Delivering flexible and cost effective enterprise-class monitoring and diagnostics while reducing the total cost of ownership by leveraging commodity hardware, with standard configurations to monitor heterogeneous environments.
  • Helping to ensure the availability of business-critical applications and services through market-leading .NET application performance monitoring and diagnostics plus JEE application health monitoring.
  • Providing a comprehensive view of datacenters, and private and public clouds.

Feature Summary

  • Predictable performance and availability of critical applications
    • End-to-end views of application health and topology
    • Establishment of application service-level delivery (SLAs)
    • Precise identification of application errors
  • Flexible and cost-effective infrastructure monitoring
    • In-depth monitoring, diagnostics, and reporting for heterogeneous environments
    • Integrated network device monitoring and alerts
    • Simplified management infrastructure
  • Comprehensive monitoring for your datacenter and cloud—on your terms
    • Integrated physical, virtual, and cloud management
    • Common console across datacenter and clouds
    • Rich reporting

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

  • Other Software:
    • Any server role
      • .NET 3.5 or 4.0
    • Management Server, Reporting Server, Web Console, Gateway Server
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit)
    • Operational & Data Warehouse
      • SQL 2008 SP1 and above
      • SQL Collation – SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
    • Agent
      • Windows Server 2003 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows XP Professional SP3 and above
      • Windows Vista SP2 and above
      • Windows 7

    Supported Hardware Configuration:

    • Operations Manager Operations database: 4 GB of RAM or higher, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Operations console: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting data warehouse: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting server: 2 GB or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • gateway server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Web console server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Audit database: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with audit collector: 2 GB of RAM or more, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with Agentless Exception Monitoring file share: 2 GB of RAM or more, 30 GB of available hard disk space
    • Agent: Please refer to the recommended hardware requirement required by the operating system.

Download the beta HERE

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Beta 1 Available

Microsoft has just released as a public beta the newest version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 with a few important updates:

  • Supporting System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012.
  • Using Lite Touch Installation (LTI), great improvements in the client side look-n-feel.
  • Also for LTI, behind-the-scenes enhancements for partitioning, UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), and user state migration.
  • Some minor bugs fixed.

MDT 2012 Requirements

Same as MDT 2010:

  • Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) 2.0. You can download it from here.
    Note: The download page indicates that the WAIK version is “1”; but don’t worry, the actual version is 2.0.
  • MSXML 6.0
  • PowerShell.
  • .Net Framework 3.5 SP1. Available for download here.
    Note: Even though .Net Framework 2.5 SP1 is not a requirement for MDT 2010 installation; one of its features, User-Driven Installation (UDI), does requires the latest Microsoft Framework installed.

MDT 2012 Look-n-Feel

For what I’ve seen so far, the user experience of the Deployment Workbench console is pretty much the same.

mdt2012a01

mdt2012a02

MDT 2012 Beta 1 Download

The beta is available in this link from Microsoft Connect,

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Doesn’t Detect Tape Drives In Library

I’ve used System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) since the 2007 beta, primarily for SharePoint and SQL backups & Exchange Backups.  At a customer they have one  DPM server which backs up to disk and additionally to a HP MSL2024 Tape Library for long term protection. The runs Windows Server 2008 R2 with DPM 2010 since its release.

After updating de DPM Server with SP1 for Windows 2008 R2 en updated the drivers. I had some issues with DPM. What I found was that although DPM installed correctly it couldn’t see  all the tape drives in the VTL. All the tape drives were visible in Device Manager and none were showing errors. I use the RECOMMENDED * HP StorageWorks Tape Drivers for Windows

In the DPM console under Management -> Libraries, the library was listed, but Total Drives was 0, rather than the expected 2. The DPM console showed the following error:

image

I followed the instructions to remap the drives here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795782.aspx. The DPMLA.xml file produced by the tool was correct, showing the correct SCSI IDs, serial numbers etc. but DPM still couldn’t see the drives.

I found the solution to the problem on the DPM forum here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dpmtapebackuprecovery/thread/1d599443-7bf6-437a-bf12-52847fa7c8e5/ What I did is update the tape drive driver to the Inbox LTO driver as described on the forum and below:

1) Open device manager
2) Locate the tape drive
3) Right-click and look at the properties.
3) Under the DRIVER tab, select UPDATE DRIVER
a) Select the Install from list or specific location (Advanvced) – next.
b) Select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install. – next.
c) Uncheck the Show comtabile hardware checkbox.
d) Highlight LTO under the manufacturer.
e) Highlight the LTO tape drive under model – then next.
f) This should install the Microsoft ltotape.sys driver.
4) Rescan the tape library in the DPM console – try to take another backup.

After following the above steps, all the two tape drives were visible in the DPM console.

DPM 2010 Fix: Disk based recovery points are not deleted as per retention goals

When using System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 or 2010 (DPM) to backup your production servers, you might encounter a situation where the recovery point volumes for your protected data source keep running out of space and the number of days that DPM has recovery points for exceeds the desired retention range. If you run vssadmin list shadows, or run diskshadow.exe followed by list shadows all command, you can see that there are more shadow copies than there should be based on the desired retention goal. Also, if you manually run the DPM Power Shell pruneshadowcopies2010.ps1 script, no recovery points are removed, but there are no errors.

So what’s going on here? Most likely this is happening because the NetBIOS name of the DPM server is longer than 15 characters.

Resolution

To resolve the problem perform the following to truncate the name to the 15 character limit.

1) Using notepad, open C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\pruneshadowcopiesDpm2010.ps1 (For DPM2010) or pruneshadowcopies.ps1 (For DPM 2007).

2) Locate the following entry:

$dpmservername = &"hostname"

3) Replace the &"hostname" with the truncated 15 character NetBIOS name of the DPM server. For example, if the DPM Server’s host name is "Long-DPM-server-name" then modify the entry as follows:

$dpmservername = "ward-dpm01.wardvissers.local"

4) Save the modified script.

5) Either run the script manually, or wait for it to run at midnight – then verify the shadow copies are being pruned as expected.

Now I have nice Green Protection Groups
image

Special Thanks to J.C. Hornbeck

Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start

The “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” Jump Start is specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. This cutting-edge course features expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V, many components of the System Center Suite, including VMM 2012, and a myriad of VDI solutions. This course is designed for Data Center Managers, IT Professionals, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects. Expert IT infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes, and Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Symon Perriman, leveraged an engaging "team teaching" approach which makes the class as entertaining as it is educational Smile

Virtualization Jump Start (01): Virtualization Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (02): Differentiating Microsoft & VMware
Virtualization Jump Start (03a): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (03b): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (04): High-Availability & Clustering
Virtualization Jump Start (05): System Center Suite Overview with focus on DPM
Virtualization Jump Start (06): Automation with Opalis, Service Manager & PowerShell
Virtualization Jump Start (07): System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Virtualization Jump Start (08): Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0
Virtualization Jump Start (09): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (10): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (11): v-Alliance Solution Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (12): Application Delivery for VDI

Download all the Video’s:
Video: WMV | WMV (ZIP) | PSP
Audio: WMA | MP3

Now only finding some spare time to watch’s these video’s Winking smile

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