Friday, August 9, 2013

Vacation time! (2013)

Today my vacation is starting for the next coming weeks. During my vacation there will be no new blogposts as you can guess :) So enjoy yourself (I will do also) and expect a lot of new information and knowledge later this year. There will be lot to write and share about upcoming and already available Microsoft products:

-System Center 2012 R2
-Windows Intune 5.0 (Wave E)
-Windows Server 2012 R2
-SQL Server 2014
-Windows 8.1 (with Outlook RT)
-Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013
-Windows Phone 8.1

Thanks for visiting my blog and see you later!

It's vacation time now!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Improved SMP for Virtual Center with additional rules and version support

Sponsor Post

The Xian NM 2012 Smart Management Pack for Virtual Center has been improved and updated for Xian NM 2012 SP2, by using the latest VMware SDK v2.5 for communication that lets Xian NM add support for the latest Virtual Center versions and create new additional rules to monitor more aspects of the associated ESX hosts and virtual machines. 
 
Supported Virtual Center versions:
-2.0.0 / 2.0.1 / 2.0.2 / 2.5.0
-4.0.0 / 4.1.0
-5.0.0 / 5.1.0

New Virtual Center rules:
Below you’ll find a list of the new Virtual Center rules available in Xian NM 2012 SP2. Notice that each of these rules can be configured to generate alerts and/or collect performance counters and they also come with related reports in OpsMgr. 
-ESX disk latency time
-ESX disk total SCSI-bus reset
-ESX free memory state
-ESX kernel latency time
-ESX total aborted SCCI commands
-ESX total executed SCSI commands
-ESX total latency time
-VM disk latency time
-VM disk total SCSI-bus reset
-VM kernel latency time
-VM memory swap in rate
-VM memory swap out rate
-VM total latency time
-VM CPU idle time
-ESX Incoming Dropped Packets
-ESX Incoming Packets
-ESX Outgoing Dropped Packets
-ESX Outgoing Packets
-ESX PcNet Incoming Traffic
-ESX PcNet Outgoing Traffic
-VM Incoming Dropped Packets
-VM Incoming Packets
-VM Outgoing Dropped Packets
-VM Outgoing Packets


Availability
The new VMWare VCenter Management Pack will be available starting from Q3/2013 in SP2 for Xian Network Manager 2012. For more information, please contact our sales department at sales(at)jalasoft.com.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Visit Veeam booth #1629 at VMworld US 2013 in San Francisco

Sponsor post
 
If you’re attending VMworld US 2013 on Aug. 25 – Aug. 29 in San Francisco, stop by Veeam® booth #1629. We’re a Gold Sponsor at this event with everything you DON’T want to miss!

Come see how we’re taking Modern Data Protection to the next level with Veeam Backup & Replication v7! Stop by the booth for product demos, great giveaways and an entry to the Veeam Around VMworld Scavenger Hunt, 7 Ways to $7K where you could win a $7,000 tech-shopping spree!

Want to know more? Attend our breakout session and our Solutions Exchange Theater presentation for a closer look at the features in the upcoming Veeam Backup & Replication™ v7 release!
 


Not registered for VMworld 2013? Don’t miss out! Register now!

See you soon!
Veeam Team

Monday, August 5, 2013

Enable ConfigMgr integration in RES Workspace Manager

Last time I wrote a blogpost about ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 with App-V 5.0 integration. This time I installed RES Workspace Manager (WM) in my LAB environment. RES WM is a lightweight platform that allows you to manage every user’s workspace from a single console by separating it from the underlying infrastructure. As a result, changes to the infrastructure will not impact the user’s workspace.

With RES WM 2012 SR3 it's possible to publish packages (!) which are created in ConfigMgr also. Because the application model is not supported yet, App-V packages (integrated in ConfigMgr) cannot be used. Hope this is supported in a next release, because this will be a great feature! In this blogpost I will explain how to setup RES WM (for ConfigMgr usage) and how results are!
 
Before starting a few packages are needed in ConfigMgr, I created 5 of them. In RES WM it's needed to have ConfigMgr integration. Just follow these steps to do this:

-Start the RES WM console, under the Setup menu select "Microsoft System Center";
-Select the check box "Enable Microsoft System Center ConfigMgr Integration";
-You will need to enter the the ConfigMgr server that has the Management Point role installed;
-The credentials you supply will need to have sufficient privileges to the ConfigMgr environment;

-When you click the "Test Now" button, you see all the packages which are available in ConfigMgr.
 
Within the RES WM console create a new application and choose for ConfigMgr integration, just follow the steps given:
-In the RES WM console, under the Composition tab select Applications;
-Choose "New Application" and select Configuration and Add, select "Microsoft ConfigMgr";
-Select a program and package to install, and select OK;
-Select Properties and choose a title and default icon, and select OK;
-Choose Access Control, select type: "users and groups" Add user/group;
-That way only members of the group receive the application!

 
After that install a RES WM agent on all systems which you want to manage. I installed the agent on 2 LAB systems and restarted them. After restart shortcuts were published on my desktop immediately. When starting a shortcut, installation will be done by ConfigMgr.

In the ConfigMgr console you will see a temporary collection created with the system(s) in it, which will get the application. The temporary collection will be deleted afterwards automatically.

When choosing collection properties (you must be quick for that one) you will see that RES created the collection and put an deployment on it. In this case it will be a required (mandatory) installation.

On the client you will see that ConfigMgr is installing the application. Just fill in the "Custom status message" in application properties for this. Nice to see that Microsoft and RES doing things together here.

After deployment the application can be started and logfile can be shown in the "Setup - Microsoft System Center" tab. During a session new applications can be delivered when choosing "Refresh Workspace".
 
Hope that RES is supporting the application model in ConfigMgr soon, so App-V 5.0 packages (integrated in ConfigMgr) can be used also! Expect more on this topic when new releases are available.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Unlock GodMode in Windows 7 and 8

In Windows 7 & 8 (and before) it's possible to unlock GodMode. This is a hidden control option, which gives you access to ALL the options on your computer. GodMode is a folder that brings together a long list of customization settings allowing you to change ALL your settings from one place. Handy huh?


To activate it, just create a folder and rename it to a specific filename with a code. This folder can be created anywhere on disk or desktop. Just create a new one, and rename it to: 
"GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}"
and press enter.

After that the folder changes form to look like the Control Panel. This will work on Windows XP also. Enjoy it!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Henk's blog statistics

After posting blogs for almost 3 years now, I thought it would be nice to enter some statistics for Henk's blog. This because the amount of visitors and pageviews is still increasing. Hope you like my posts on Microsoft Configuration Manager and other topics. Here we go!

First post: 13 October 2010
Number of posts: 254 (included this one)
Posts a year: 12 (2010) 69 (2011) 70 (2012) 103 (2013)

Most viewed: Guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
Most comments: Multicast error 0x80091007 during deployment
Most likes (+1): Updates and New Features in ConfigMgr 2012 R2

Most pageviews 'all time'

Pageviews a day: ± 1.200 - 1.300
Pageviews last month: ± 28.000
Pageviews all time: ± 427.000

Visitors a day: ± 500 - 600
Visitors last month: ± 11.000
Visitors all time: 92.505 (since 13 November 2012)

Country pageviews 'all time'

Most search keywords: system center 2012
Most traffic sources: www.google.com
Most audience: United States

From today Google Analytics is installed, so expect more statistics next year! Hope to reach 500.000 pageviews later this year :)