April 2005 - Posts
The following FREE tool for Windows XP allows image files to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM devices. This tool is provided here for your convenience, and is unsupported by Microsoft Product Support Services.
Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe
UPDATE!
I've produced a five minute webcast on how to use this free utility. You can view the webcast at:
http://www.blogcastrepository.com/WINXP/Contrib/DMcAlynn/VirtualCDDA.htm
Roger Porter (MOM Test Manager) posted this as a reply to a thread that originated on 4/1/2005 in the Microsoft.public.mom.setup_upgrade newsgroup titled, “MOM 2004 Administrator Console fails on W2K3sp1 and MOM ……”
Here is Roger's Post:
As you know MOM currently has an issue on W2K3 Server SP1 where you may
experience error warnings in remote MOM Admin Consoles which will prevent
the maintenance of the 'Computer Groups' in your MOM system. Specifically
clicking on the Computer Groups node displays an error message "0x800706be:
The remote procedure call failed" and the computer groups are not displayed
and the console crashes.
The MOM Product Group is actively working on the fix for this issue and will
be making this available as soon as possible. The issue seems to be in the
way we are freeing allocated memory when a computer group properties field
is set to NULL and that computer group, because of its name, is the first to
show in the query we run to enumerate those names in the right pane of MMC.
This is most commonly seen when Configuration Group names are alphabetically
before any other computer groups that have been created. For example: If
during installation on a W2K3 SP1 machine I create a configuration group
named 'Config_1' and then try and connect via a remote administrator console
I would possibly see this issue. This is because the MOM MP is the only one
imported and the 8 computer groups which are currently there start with
'Microsoft Operations Manager'.
For the time being there is a possible workaround you could use to help
mitigate this issue until a fix is available. You can go to the MOM Server
you are trying to remotely connect through and using a MOM Admin account and
the local MOM Administrators Console on that server (if one is not there you
will need to install one) you can create a Computer Group with a name
starting with an '_' character. This will reorder the offending
Configuration group name out of first position and should allow you to
conduct business as usual.
--
Roger Porter
MOM Test Manager
More on this shortly, but Microsoft is asking that you not to install SP1 on Windows Server 2003 systems that are MOM servers. There is a workaround but more to follow on that when Microsoft pushes the information down to the MVPs.
MP Studio Express enhances the value of Microsoft Operation Manager within your environment by giving IT administrators the ability to more effectively leverage Management Packs throughout their life cycle. From initial analysis to testing to implementation to ongoing maintenance, MP Studio Express works together with MOM to help you manage MPs through these stages. The result is a finely tuned MOM infrastructure that accurately and efficiently monitors your critical enterprise IT services.
Benefits of effective MP Lifecycle Management:
- Ensures your service level management objectives are effectively met
- Efficiently review and test key features of a Management Pack before implementation without the need of a test lab
- Reduce alert “noise” by ensuring only situations that require operator intervention are raised as alerts
- Profile your Windows severs and applications so MOM can detect any variance in the level of service being provided to your users
- Reduce overall cost of ownership by efficient maintenance of all Management Packs
Feature Summary:
- View, compare, export and report on any Management Pack
- Create a single view of all processing rules associated with an MP
- View vendor or company knowledge associated with any rule
- Sort and group information in any way you like
- View all possible alerts (and their severity) that can be generated by an MP
- Test key features of an MP against a server to determine which alerts would get generated
- Profile a server to determine appropriate threshold values and event rules
- Export profiled information for additional analysis
- Compare MPs
- … and much more
Today marks a milestone for MOM 2005 with the release of a new set of MOM 2005 Management Packs – the ten “Wave 2 MPs”.
* This release almost doubles the number of MOM 2005 enhanced Management Packs available for Microsoft products.
* It greatly enhances MOM’s capability to manage these crucial applications by adding state monitoring, tasks and new reports.
This release contains the following Management Packs:
1. Microsoft Virtual Server
2. Microsoft Windows Distributed File Services
3. Microsoft Windows Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Services
4. Microsoft Windows File Replication Services
5. Microsoft Windows Print Services
6. Microsoft Windows Terminal Services
7. Microsoft Windows Application Center
8. Microsoft Windows Desktop Base Operating System
9. Microsoft Availability Reporting
10. Microsoft Web Sites and Web Services (Already shipped on 03/09/2005)
Highlights in this list include the much requested Virtual Server Management Pack, a Desktop Management Pack for monitoring mission critical desktop machines, a management pack designed to provide state-of-the-art availability reporting based on the Reliability Analysis Service technology, and the Web Sites and Web Services Management Pack.
This release also marks another first for MOM in terms of localization: these Management Packs are sim-shipping in all three additional languages!
Want to learn more? The full set of 168 Management Packs and connectors available for MOM – including 108 from our ecosystem of partners – can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/catalog.aspx.
Breaking away from the normal Windows-hating Linux mantra, Jon Walker - Contributing Editor, Linux World Magazine, wrote a very flattering entry on his blog (http://http://jon.linuxworld.com/) last Friday. In the entry he states that “Microsoft has been agressive in adding features to it to make it competitive with the other System Management products”.
I'm pleased to see other open minded folks out there that realize that there's more out there than just Windows or just Linux. Thanks, Jon!
You can use Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 or SMS 2003 to distribute Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) from a shared distribution folder on a network. This article assumes that you have an understanding of SMS and that you have a working knowledge of software distribution. Additionally, this article assumes that your SMS infrastructure is established or that you will establish an SMS infrastructure before you deploy Windows Server 2003 SP1.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=894712
After several weeks of negotiations, I've finally signed contracts with Wiley for an upcoming SMS 2003 title in their “Professional” computer book series.
This book will be cleaverly broken down into sections that pair with SMS features and administrative tasks. Each section will include a brief description of the feature or cause for the administrative task and where SMS has holes in each regard. The true value of the book is how each item then presents a ‘field tried and trued’ method of resolve. Some of these operational improvements may require site reconfiguration, utilization of scripts, SMS admin console extension or anything else that does not glaringly stand out to the common administrator. Afterwards they’ll get that overwhelming sense of accomplishment and want to show it off to their peers and managers. The phrase “Look what I can do now!” will echo the hallways of SMS companies worldwide. J
The timing of this book could not be better. As SMS 2003 has just received its first service pack and is being overwhelmingly adopted as a defacto standard for enterprise management, customers are now discovering that they need greater level of flexibility, control and change to the SMS product. This book is designed to showcase the best practices, tips and tricks of each portion of the SMS product and how to take it beyond the out-of-the-box experience.
The current schedule has it queued for completion in August. You'll be able to preorder from Amazon using ISBN: 0471749508.
That's all for now.
-DUNCAN