Tot januari 2013 kan je in plaats van 70-247 ook het examen 70-659 doen. Mensen die dit examen dus al hebben gedaan en Enterprise Admin zijn, zijn dus nog maar één examen van MCSE verwijderd. Juich echter niet te vroeg, want ik zal even aangeven waar de examens overgaan:

Het examen 70-247 beslaat de volgende onderdelen:

• Design and Deploy System Center (19%)
  
• Configure System Center Infrastructure (21%)
  
• Configure the Fabric (27%)
  
• Configure System Center Integration (16%)
  
• Configure and Deploy Virtual Machines and Services (18%)
  

Kortom je moet diepgaande kennis hebben van de volgende producten:

• System Center Operations Manager
  
• System Center Service Manager
  
• System Center Orchestrator
  
• System Center Data Protection Manager
  
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager
  
• System Center Adviser
  
• CSPP (Cloud Service Process Pack)
  
• IT GRC MP (Dit is een Management Pack voor Service Manager en Configuration manager op basis van IT governance, risk and compliance)
  

 Met andere woorden alles behalve SCCM. Maar kennis van SCCM is ook noodzakelijk, alleen niet diepgaand. Om dit allemaal te leren heeft MS ook cursus materiaal vrijgegeven. Het materiaal is vandaag beschikbaar gekomen. Zowel de 247 als de 246 vereisen beide min of meer dezelfde diepgaande kennis. 70-247 gaat echter vooral in op design en installatie. 70-246 gaat vooral in op monitoring. Voor beide examens is er een cursus van 5 dagen. Voor de eerste geslaagde MCSE-ers is er weer een charter member programma. Dit is een extra eer die je ontvangt omdat je bij de eerste 2000 MCSE-ers wereldwijd hoort.

Je MCSE titel is ook niet meer onbeperkt geldig. Je zal voortaan elke drie jaar een update of refresh examen moeten gaan doen om MCSE-er te blijven.

The steps i need to take are:

1. I have to make sure that both the new gateway server and the SCOM 2012 server can resolve each others FQDN.
2. I need to make sure port 5723 is not blocked by any fiewall and that the SCOM management server is listening on this port. This can be tested with setting up a telnet connection from the gateway server to the SCOM server: telnet <FQDN scom server> 5723 (you might need to install the telnet client feature first).
3. In the domain rheenen i have setup a Certificate Authority (CA). Install the root certificate on the gateway server and make sure it exists Trusted Root Certification Authorities. Check this certificate is also present on the SCOM 2012 management server.
4. Create a custom template on the CA for SCOM:
   1. Open run and type MMC
   2. Click on file, add/remove snap-in
   3. Click on Add and select Certificate Templates and Certification Authority, and click on add again. And finish
      1. Select Certificate Templates
      2. In the Certificate Templates Console right click IPSec (Offline request) and then select duplicate template
   4. On the General Tab type a name like SCOM Template
   5. On the Request Handling:
      1. select Allow private key to be exported
      2. Click on CSPs…
      3. select Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic provider for windows 2003 and Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic provider 1.0 for windows 2000
   6. On the Extensions Tab:
      1. select the Applications Policies and click on edit:
         1. remove IP security IKE intermediate
         2. Add Client Authentication and Server Authentication
   7. On the Security Tab:
      1. Verify that Users should have read rights
      2. Add the server where the CA resides and give it the read and eroll rights. (this is needed for step 7 in this procedure)
5. Add the new template to the CA. Right click Cetificate Templates – New – certificate template to issue and choose the template you just created.
6. Install the template on the SCOM management server. Because this is a server in the domain where the CA resides and this is about a computer certificate use the mmc snap for the local computer and request it from the personal certificates. (enrollment rights are needed on the template for the user account.
7. Install the gateway role on the new gateway server. At this point you will get many events: 20057; 21016 and 21001. These are all because there is no proper authentication and we need to install the certificates first.
8. Install the template on the gateway server:
   1. Create an .inf file:[NewRequest]
      Subject=”CN=<FQDN of the gateway server>”
      Exportable=TRUEKeyLength=2048KeySpec=1
      KeyUsage=0xf0
      MachineKeySet=TRUE

      [EnhancedKeyUsageExtension]
      OID=1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1
      OID=1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2

   2. Open a command prompt with elevated rights and execute a certificate request from the inf file you just created:certreq –new –f <filename>.inf GatewayRequest.req The name for the req file can be whatever you want.
   3. Open the req file with notepad and copy the key to the clipboard.
   4. Log on the the server where the CA resides and do an advanced certificate request.
   5. Paste in the key in the saved request and select the custom template you created in step 4
   6. Export the certificate and import it on the gateway server using the mmc for the local computer. Put it in the Personal certificates.
9. Now on the gateway server run the MOMcertimport tool as an administrator. (right click, run as) and it wil find the imported certificate. For a shot while a cmd box will open and will close afterwards. Now SCOM knows it needs to use the certificate for authentication.
10. Do the same thing on the SCOM management server. (if there are more management servers, import the certificates there too)
11. The gateway server will now probably show up under pending management on the management server. Delete it form here. (so that means do NOT approve it!)
12. Now you need to run the gateway approval tool to inform the SCOM management server about his new friend:
    1. First you need to copy two files: Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe AND Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe.config to C:\program files\System Center Operations Manager 2012\server
    2. Then run the approval tool from a CMD (elevated): Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe /managementservername=<FQDN for the MS> /gatewayname=<FQDN for the gateway> /action=create
13. The last thing you should do is to let this server act as a proxy. So other servers on that network can connect through this gateway.

If you have any questions about this blog or other design questions feel free to ask them!

mvanrheenen@bpmi.nl

Thanks!

Interested in the latest Windows operating system? Windows Developer Preview gives you a sneak peak of Windows 8, which Microsoft will release approximately mid-end 2012. The license for the developer preview will expire 8 March 2012. If you are inexperienced with the registry editor (regedit.exe) don’t change anything but use the following tool instead: Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle by Solo-Dev (direct download link)

To enable the Metro User Interface, simply reverse the change by setting RPEnabled to 1, or toggle the provided program. You need to restart the pc before changes take effect.But before changing the metro UI take a quick tour to the new features and programs this version has to offer.

Windows 8 Metro UI in Windows 7


Do you want to try the Metro UI, but rather stay with Windows 7? Download the project Metro7. This 3th party tool simulates the Windows 8 Metro UI. There are other vendors who simulate the windows 8 Metro UI as well (Newgen) but the Metro7 has the least bugs.

Before you start

Think of the programs you might want to use. Some will work (using compatibility mode), some won’t, resulting in a (permanent) system crash. Especially virus scanners causes instability. I have tried several security programs, only a few were able to run properly:

• IObit Advanced System Care (supports Windows 8);
• IObit Malware Fighter (supports Windows 8);
• AVG Internet Security 2012 (unsupported, but works);
• Spybot Search and destroy (unsupported, but works);
• HiJackThis (unsupported, but works).

Programs that work properly:

• Microsoft Office Suite 2010;
• Visual Studio 2010 products;
• Adobe Products (Except Flash)*;
• FileZilla;
• All most recent browser versions of Chrome, Firefox and IE10;
• WYSIWYG;
• Daemon Tools;
• …

Don’t use:

• PC tools Spyware Doctor (permanent crash).

*Hardware acceleration not fully supported

Adobe Flash Player causes problems when playing movies on the web. Instead of the movie a green screen will appear, after 5 seconds the browser (IE10, Chrome or Firefox) crashes and tries to recover the page. Yes, I have tried to bypass this error using another browser, but unfortunately the problems seems to be the hardware acceleration. So the question rests, were to disable this feature…

Navigate to http://get.adobe.com/nl/flashplayer/, if requested download the latest version of Flash. After the installation right click any flash element and select settings, on the first tab uncheck Enable hardware acceleration. Restart your browser.

IE10 won’t recognize keystrokes

The only website I found having problems with IE10 is Facebook. When posting a message (in chat) the keystrokes are not recognized or have a delay when typing. The solution for this is Chrome.

Hardware/ system overheat

Don’t expect all the hardware to work (without changing the configuration), for example the Ati Radion HD 5650. Windows update recognize this hardware and even find the drivers. Unfortunately these drivers don’t support the full usage of the graphical card like it did in Windows 7. I have tried to play the game “The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim” without configuring the settings of my graphical card. After the character selection the computer crashed (overheated). I have changed all the settings to minimum usage to prevent my computer to overheat.

USB Headset

Will it work? My Plantronics headset didn’t, because Windows 8 is unable to find the correct drivers. Plantronics provides enough software, only just the driver seems to be harsh to provide (solo). If you have problems with your headset try to install the driver in compatibility mode. Unfortunately Plantronics won’t let me…

Windows 8 Violations DPCs

Yes they occur… at least a smiley will soften the pain.

What causes this DPC(s):

• Your pc wants to get out of hibernation;
• Your pc has been turned on for more than 8 hours;

  (memory leakage, -overloaded)

• Very busy or poorly-written device drivers;
• Unsupported software (Spyware Doctor);
• Reattach cable external screen;
• Open/ closing lid of laptop

  (when connected to external screen);

• Multiple hyper-V machines running;
• ….

To analyze the DPCs Microsoft has released the WPT (Windows Performance Tool). Unfortunately the installation causes an error, because one of the .msi files is missing…

Solution

I have tried to search Msdn for a solution for this standard error and it seems that the solutions may vary. Therefore it is hard to say which solution fits the best. Advise, use WPT or Reboot….

These errors occur maybe once a week; since this is a beta version I have accepted these errors. Try to keep your drivers up to date and install the Windows updates. Save your work often and make the best of Window 8!

If you have any questions or want to share your experience don’t hesitate to contact me.

Robin Slot: rslot@bpmi.nl

Many organizations have a wide range of computers and users, for us system administrators it is difficult to get an overview. Yes, SCCM provides a list of all users who logged on previously, but can we rely on these log files? My manager asked me to retrieve a complete list of all computers and users and SCCM was the first option. The list SCCM provided was incomplete and 60% of all entries didn’t have a NetworkLoginProfile or outdated user profile. 60% of 1000+ computers is much…

Well how to tackle this issue:

The PowerShell command below retrieves every ip-address per user, mac-address, the user account and there computer and creates a .csv file of the result.

1. Open PowerShell on the DC.
2. Paste the following code in the command prompt:

PowerShell

import-module activedirectory

Get-ADComputer -Filter ‘Name -like “*”‘ | Select-Object Name | epcsv Allcomputers.txt
gc Allcomputers.txt | % {$_ -replace ‘”‘ , “”} | Set-Content computers.txt
gc computers.txt | ? {test-connection $_ -quiet -Count 1 -ea 0} | % {
$Networks = gwmi Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -ComputerName $_ | ? {$_.IPEnabled}
gwmi Win32_NetworkLoginProfile -ComputerName $_ | Sort -Descending LastLogon |
Select | ? {$_.LastLogon -like “20120317*”} | % {
Foreach ($Network in $Networks) {
$IPAddress = $Network.IpAddress[0]
$MACAddress = $Network.MACAddress
}

New-Object PSObject -Property @{
ComputerName = $_.__Server
UserName = $_.Name
LastLogon = $LastLogon
IpAddress = $IPAddress
MACAddress = $MACAddress
}
} | Select IpAddress,MACAddress,UserName,ComputerName | ConvertTo-Csv | Select -Last 1 | ac CompleteList.csv
}
Filter

* Don’t retrieve every pc: Domain Controllers and other servers are included as well if you filter with * only. Use the computer naming convention of your company for example: -like “NLABC-*” to retrieve the client computers only.

Conclusion

This PowerShell command gives you approximately 90% results, run the script a couple of times and compare the list with each other. Of course there is 10% that will never be retrieved, (hardware damage and network related issues etc.). Keep that in mind. Despite my programming background I love to reduce code using aliases. Sorry for the unreadable code but get-alias in PowerShell will help you sort out the Davinci Code J.

If you have any questions or want to share your experience don’t hesitate to contact me.

Robin Slot: rslot@bpmi.nl

Here is the post: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/operationsmanagergeneral/thread/2f0c9862-dcd9-44fc-a345-8e7517d5be9c/#c98abd98-0702-41e7-b72c-9294d26fbe89

Maybe sinds i am here writing this blog i need to mention that when this options works you will only be able to connect the SCOM management groups with the same build. So no connecting to SCOM 2007!

If you would like to know what options you will have in connecting SCOM environments please contact me at: mvanrheenen@bpmi.nl

Have a good one!

One thing to keep in mind is that the SCOM 2007 R2 agent will not be able to communicate with the SCOM 2012 MP but the other way arround it works fine.

The SCOM 2007 R2 agent is already installed on the client:

From the scom 2012 administration console you can deploy the 2012 agent to this client. During the installation the client will nog be able to report to the SCOM 2007 R2 management group because the old agent will be uninstalled. You might want to put the clients in maintenance mode to prevent incorrect reporting.
The new agent is installed:

The agent is now automaticly connected to two management groups:

In just a few minutes it will show up as Agent managed in the SCOM 2012 MG as well and you are ready to go!

The first steps in the installation is the same as with the primary SCSM2012 server. We need to install:

• .Net features
• SQL Native Client
• SQL server 2008 Analyses Management Objects

If you want to know how to install these features and options see my previous article. After installing the prerequisites we can start the installation of the Datawarehouse server.

1. Install the SCSM Datawarehouse

Start setup.exe from the installation folder and choose Install the Data Warehouse Server

After this choose the option to install as an evaluation edition.

After this, choose to install the software on the secondary disc or volume (D)

You will now see if the server meets the optimum system requirements. Since this is a test server this server will not meet all the recommendations.

In the next screen we need to give the name from the SQL server. Since we will use one SQL Server for all the SCSM databases we will enter again the SQL01 server with the default instance.

After entering the database server name (SQL01) and the default instance you will see this screen:

Rename the database again by starting the name with SCSM in front. And select Repository. Change the Database name again.

Select Data Mart, enter the SQL name (SQL01) with the default instance, if you see this message the SQL Server is installed in the wrong Collation.

You can ignore this error, but it is much beter to install the SQL Server in the correct collation

Change the name of the database to SCSM_DWStagingAndConfig after that select Repository. Change the name of the database to SCSM_DWRepository

Select Next to enter the SQL database again

Select CM Data Mart

Rename the database name and press next

Make sure that the installation account is Local Admin on the Reporting Server. The reporting server is again the SQL01.

1. Backup the encryption key

Save the encryption key in the D:\encryptionkey folder with the password: mscs_llatsn1_CVS

System Center Service Manager 2012 is the upgrade from System Center 2010. It is the helpdesk tool from Microsoft. What makes it so an outstanding product is the default integration with other System Center products and the worklow automation possibilities that are default in the product.

SCSM2012 also has a Self Service Portal for the end users. With the help of the self service portal users can by themselves request new software or request articles from a service catalog. This will help in releasing the work pressure on your IT department. The default installation of SCSM 2012 is based on an scenario of two, three, four or even more servers. In those scenario’s SCSM2012 will have different SQL servers for the console and the Datawarehouse. In most companies the number of SQL servers will be minimized and therefore we will install all the SCSM databases on one external SQL Server.

SCSM2012 doesn’t require specific security patches or service packs for the installation. So just use the latest security patches if you like. If you want to be able to use the SQL database with SCCM2012 later in this article you will have to take specific steps because the current release of SCCM2012 only accepts SQL Server 2008 SP2 with Cumulative Update 7 or SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and Cumulative Update 4 we will use SQL2008R2 with SP1 and Cumulative update 4. That way we can install the SCCM database on the same SQL Server later on.

For the IIS installation we also need a webserver certificate. Make sure that the SQL Server has the right to read and enroll the webserver certificate and request the webcertificate. Make sure that you request the certificate using a SAN certificate with the full domain name and the Netbios name.

Install SQL2008R2

To install SQL we must first install .Net. Do this by add/remove roles in server manager also install the WebServices roles.

After this we can install SQL. Start the installation and choose simply to install all features with defaults. SCSM wishes to be installed with a different Localized version

Install SQL2008R2 SP1

Download SP1 from this location: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26727

Run the installation. After the installation download Cumulative Update 4 from this location: http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2633146&kbln=en-us Update 5 is a hotfix, so you have to request the hotfix and you can download the hotfix after you have received the download location by e-mail.

Install the hotfix and the SQL installation is finished.

Create the SCSM accounts

To install SCSM2012 we must first create a number of accounts that we will need during the installation.

Next we must give the SVC_SCSM_Install Account local Admin rights on the SCSM01 Server, we must give the SVC_SCSM_Service Account local admin rights on the SQL Server and we must give the SVC_SCSM_Service Account Create DB rights on the SQL Server.

SVC_SCSM_Service Account

On the SQL Server start SQL Admin Studio and select security and then right click on logins. Click search, select entiry directory and search for SVC_SCSM_Install. Select OK.

Select Server Roles and select SysAdmin

Select User Mapping and select master, msdb, ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB

Select OK.

Now give the SVC_SCSM_Install account local admin rights on the SQL Server.

Install the first SCSM2012 server

To install the first SCSM2012 server we must first Install .Net 3.5

Install .Net 3.5

Start service manager, select new feature and select .Net Framework 3.5.1 Features

After we have installed .Net we must install the Analyses Management Objects.

Install the SQL Server 2008 Analyses Management Objects

Install the SQL Server 2008 Analyses Management Objects

Download from: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/D/0/AD021EF1-9CBC-4D11-AB51-6A65019D4706/SQLSERVER2008_ASAMO10.msi

Install the SQL Server 2008 Native Client

Install the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client

Download from: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/D/0/AD021EF1-9CBC-4D11-AB51-6A65019D4706/sqlncli.msi

Install the SQL Report Viewer

Install SQL Report viewer from the SCSM2012 install source\prerequisites

Setup SCSM 2012 Management Server (SCSM01)

Start the 64bits setup and choose install a Service Manager management Server

Install as an evaluation version

Change the location to the secondary disk (D:\)

Say yes to create directory

Click Next

Fill in the name of the SQL Server (SQL01). You will get an error message

This error message is because we installed SQL Server in the default SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation. This collation is the only one that is supported by SCOM2012 and so this is necessary when we want to install SCOM2012 and want to connect SCSM with SCOM2012.

Because we are going to install multiple databases and we want to separate the different databases we will rename the database to SCSM_ServiceManager

The management Group must be unique, it can’t even be the same for the Datawarehouse. So we will name this management group SCSM and the DW will be DW_SCSM.

We will also create a Group for the SCSM administrators and name that group SCSM_Admin

Make sure that the SVC_SCSM_Service account is a local admin on the SCSM server!!

After that we need to select the workflow account. This the account that we created earlier.

Check to see if the open the Encryption Backup is checked. You must backup the key to be able to restore a SCSM configuration.

Backup the Encryption Key

After this the SCSM2012 installation is complete. In the next article we will install the SCSM2012 datawarehouse server.