July 2009 - Posts
If you had to maintain a SCCM server in an offline environment you know it's not a simple task. One of the steps you have to carry out is to download all the updates from the Internet or to copy them from another WSUS/SCCM SUP server that is connected to Internet and had already downloaded all the updates.
For the first method you can use this great post:
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2008/10/28/getting-required-updates-on-non-internet-connected-sups-part-1.aspx
and part 2:
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2008/10/28/getting-required-updates-on-non-internet-connected-sups-part-2.aspx
If you have another WSUS/SCCM SUP server that is online, the easiest way to get those updates is to copy them from the server. This is where it gets a little bit tricky:
Continue reading at our new blog - SCCM SUP in an offline environment
If Your RMS had failed prior to Service Pack 1, and you didn't have a backup of your encryption key, You were in trouble. Your only option was to rebuild from scratch.
Now with SP1, we have a new CREATE_NEWKEY command line switch that can make recovering from a situation like this potentially much easier. We also made running the encryption key backup process a mandatory process of setup, just so you'll have a friendly reminder.
Continue reading at our new blog - OpsMgr 2007: What if I lose my RMS encryption key!?
The Search Folders that come with the software update point role in SCCM, provide an easy and comfortable way to keep track of you're update deployment status.
I personally use 3 folders to keep track of my updates status "All Updates", "Deployed Updates" and "New Updates" , In this post I'll show you how you can create them yourself.
Continue reading at our new blog - SCCM: Organize your software updates deployment
Exchange 2007 is supported on Windows 2008 SP2. This will be also true for the upcoming Exchange 2007 SP2, when it releases.
Hardware ecosystem support and enhancements
- SP2 adds support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies, which adds the ID and vendor strings for the new VIA 64-bit CPU.
- SP2 integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology.
- SP2 improves performance for Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode.
- SP2 includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar for improved performance and responsiveness.
- SP2 includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.
Continue reading at our new blog - Windows Server 2008 SP2 has been released and is supported for Exchange 2007
In previous versions of Exchange a number of mailbox management settings where handled by the RUS (recipient update service). Exchange 2007 has changed the way the users mailboxes are managed and Microsoft has taken more time to work Email Life Cycle (ELC) into Exchange 2007.
In this article I am going to deploy some default folder management (inbox,deleted items, etc) and add some new custom folder management policies for my users.
As with most features with Exchange 2007 this can be deployed via EMS (command line) or EMC (GUI). I will attempt to move back and forth between these methods to show their capabilities.
Continue reading at our new blog - How-To: Exchange 2007 Managed Folder Policies
Exchange 2007's Messaging Records Management (MRM) feature is designed to help your organization manage messages for compliance purposes. By using Managed Content Settings, users can have their messages moved to different folders or deleted automatically, based on age. You also have the option to Journal these messages to any SMTP address, which is ideal for many third-party archiving systems.
One thing I've been finding in my cases is that many customers don't understand the Retention Period settings and how they are applied by the Managed Folder Assistant. Let's take a look at a simple example to try and make this point. Here is a typical mistake that many people make:
Continue reading at our new blog - Understanding the Move Date in Messaging Records Management (MRM)
If you tried uninstalling OPS 2007 agent and got an error, You should try the following:
1. Run "cleanMOM.exe /cleanagents" on the client. This will not completely uninstall the agent but it will let you reinstall it so you can then uninstall it
2. Install OPS 2007 agent with a different management group name (the name doesn't really matter).
Continue reading at our new blog - Force Remove OPS 2007 Agent
If you’re using Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), there may come a day when you need to move the updates to another drive. Once WSUS has been installed, the WSUS Administration tool doesn’t let you do this, but you can do it using a command line tool called wsusutil found in C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools. I’m running version 3.0 SP1.
The command is:
wsusutil movecontent logfile.log x:\WSUS
(where x: is the new destination)
If you have already copied the content (make sure you’ve set the correct permissions), you can run:
wsusutil movecontent logfile.log f:\WSUS -skipcopy
Continue reading at our new blog - Moving WSUS Server Updates Folder
SCCM uses a lot of log files, it could be quite confusing finding what you need. I gathered a list of all the log files and a description of their content to make life easy.
The client logs are located in the %WINDIR%\System32\CCM\Logs folder or %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs (for x64 OS).
The SCCM server log files are located in the <INSTALL_PATH>\Logs or SMS_CCM\Logs folder.
IIS logs can be found in %WINDIR%\System32\logfiles\W3SVC1 folder.
NOTE: Use the Trace tool included in the SCCM Toolkit or MS Log Parser to easily view log files.
Client Log Files
- CAS - Content Access Service. Maintains the local package cache.
- Ccmexec.log - Records activities of the client and the SMS Agent Host service.
Continue reading at our new blog - The full and complete list of SCCM Log Files
By default when a new mailbox access the OWA after the first logon the following screen appears, and we should choose the language and time zone settings:
How can we remove this screen? It's easy just set up the DefaultClientLanguage parameter in the OWA virtual directory, using the following cmdlet:
Continue reading at our new blog - Setting language and time zone settings in Exchange 2007