Sponsor Me Please

In aid of MacMillan Cancer Care I will be abseiling off the Forth Rail Bridge on the 7th June with several friends.

This event is run in conjunction with the Rotary Club of South Queensferry. The abseil is 165ft from the bridge onto the beach below. Not sure whether I'll be doing the abseil crying, screaming or laughing - no matter what way I complete the abseil it is sure to be a great experience while raising money for a great charity.

If you could spare a few pennies or pounds to sponsor me and this great cause it would be much appreciated.

My JustGiving page is located at https://www.justgiving.com/SazLean

vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2e - Build 2646482

Am working on a VMware 5.5 environment at the moment and am trying to get it up to date as it's been lying dormant for about 6 months.  So one of the first tasks I had on my to-do list was to update the vCenter server to the latest version so I could update the ESXi hosts.

Stumbled across a problem, one being the vCenter server was running the appliance version of the product which is Linux/web based (never seen before) and second when I tried to apply the update it hung and killed the server.

After much reading about how the vCenter server appliance worked, familiarising myself with the console layout/settings and how to update it's version I duely starting the update process.

So I took a snapshot of the VM so that I had a rollback plan.  Logged into the vCenter web console, went to the Update tab and hit Install updates.

At this point it started to install vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2e - Build 2646482... I could see from the vSphere performance tab the server was downloading content and working away, unfortunately there was no progress bar to indicate completion status etc.

So I left it be, got on with some other tasks and went for my lunch. Nearly an hour and a half had passed and the install hadn't completed, I started to get suspicious and did some digging round the forums.

I opened a SSH console and logged in and typed the command:

tail -f /opt/vmware/var/log/vami/updatecli.log

Which showed the current state of the log files and the Log Browser service was stopping....  It was stuck in that state.  I tried to restart the server to resolve the issue but that completely broke the install so I had to revert to the snapshot that I had taken earlier.

On investigation I found this article in relation to server times - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-9FD3A5E3-6C2D-4161-9270-4BF57FADCE6D.html

When I checked the time of my vCenter server and the ESXi hosts they were all out.  The vCenter server was out by two hours and the ESXi hosts were out by 16 hours!!!  I corrected all those settings so they were as they were supposed to be and the upgrade to 5.5 Update 2e - Build 2646482 completed successfully.

Ensure your servers are all at the correct/same time. It's the simple things that can catch you out.


References
vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2e - Build 2646482 - Release Notes: https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-vcenter-server-55u2e-release-notes.html

WMI Filters

More often than not when deploying Group Policy you need to target specific types of machine, or OS, or architecture and do this you need to use WMI filters.

Here are some helpful tips on what the numbers you are using mean:

WMI Win32_OperatingSystem ProductType:

ProductType 1 = Desktop OS
ProductType 2 = Server OS - Domain Controller
ProductType 3= Server OS - Non domain controller

WMI Win32_OperatingSystem Version:

5.1 - Windows XP

5.2 - Windows Server 2003

5.2.3 - Windows Server 2003 R2

6.0 - Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

6.1 - Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

6.2 - Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

6.3 - Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2


In my case today I had to target servers that weren't domain controllers and were running Windows Server 2012 R2 so I used the following WMI filter:

select * from Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.3%" AND ProductType="3"

The following filter is also useful, it will select all Windows Server 2012 R2 objects, normal servers and domain controllers:

select * from Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.3%" AND (ProductType="2" or ProductType="3")


IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: 
Always test your Group Policies and WMI filters before deploying.

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Lync changing to Skype

As I'm sure some of you are aware Lync is being re-branded "Skype for Business".  Those using Lync Online with Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business Premium or Office 2013 will see the new Skype for Business client replace the Lync client, this is due to roll out within the April patching updates.  *Note today is Patch Tuesday*

This update will change the UI experience for the end user, if you are concerned about the change to your users I would suggest watching and reading this following Microsoft blog post - http://blogs.office.com/2015/04/01/whats-new-in-skype-for-business-and-how-you-can-take-control-of-updates/

They give some helpful hints in out to manage the roll out and help you understand what to expect.

Microsoft say that the backend of the service, which is currently called Lync Online Service will be rebranded as Skype for Business Online by the end of May.

I believe the new Skype for Business server product will be available for download from Microsoft's Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) on the 1st May 2015.

As well as giving a new UI experience, Skype for Business promises to keep all the good features about Skype and Lync and combine them both.

Despite the name change the product will still continue to run on the Lync backbone so us fellow techies shouldn't have to suffer to much pain.

SCOM 2012 R2 Autogrowth settings are static!

After using SCOM 2012 R2 for a few weeks we started to get "Free Space Low" alerts for it's own databases.

On investigation the default SQL instance has been setup with Autogrowth set to None.  So remember to change this to something more appropriate after installation or you'll soon run into some issues.

As a minimum I changed the settings to be:

MOM Data 
Initial size: 5000MB
Autogrowth: 1000MB, unlimited


MOM Log
Initial size: 1000MB
Autogrowth: 100MB, unlimited

Deploying Windows Update (.msu) with SCCM

I was recently packaging up an application for SCCM and one of the pre-requisites of this application was that a Windows Update (.msu) had to be installed.

In order to package up this Windows Update and deploy it as an application I did the following:

• To silently install the update I ran the following command within the application deployment -wusa.exe KBxxxxxx.msu /quiet /norestart
• In the detection method tab, set the option to "Use a custom script to detect the presence of this deployment type" and select Edit
• Change the script so that it is set to Powershell and enter in the following command -
  get-hotfix | Where-Object {$_.HotFixID -match "KBxxxxxx"}

The deployment ran fine after that.  If you have any execution errors from the script you can change the PowerShell Execution Policy to bypass on the SCCM agent client settings. 

Check out my blog post on setting the PowerShell Execution Policy for all SCCM agents - http://www.techielass.com/2015/03/powershell-execution-settings-sccm-agent.html

Sponsor Me Please

In aid of MacMillan Cancer Care I will be abseiling off the Forth Rail Bridge on the 7th June with several friends.

This event is run in conjunction with the Rotary Club of South Queensferry. The abseil is 165ft from the bridge onto the beach below. Not sure whether I'll be doing the abseil crying, screaming or laughing - no matter what way I complete the abseil it is sure to be a great experience while raising money for a great charity.

If you could spare a few pennies or pounds to sponsor me and this great cause it would be much appreciated.

My JustGiving page is located at https://www.justgiving.com/SazLean

Where has the System Centre Management service gone?

Have been doing some work with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012 R2 this week and after some changes I had to restart the SCOM agent service to make them take effect.  Only I couldn't find the "System Center Management" service to do this however, it appears Microsoft has rebranded the service and it's now called the "Microsoft Monitoring Agent" service.

Along with the rebranding of the service, Microsoft have added functionality to the agent.  It now has standalone features.

To get more information about MMA and it’s new functionalities here are some useful links:

• How to enable MMA for standalone functionality
• Download location of MMA as a separate product
• Monitoring with MMA explained (TechNet)

PowerShell Execution Settings SCCM Agent

If you are using any kind of PowerShell commands within your SCCM application deployments you and are having issues getting the commands to run because of the the PowerShell Execution Policy level then a way around it is to do the following:

• Within the SCCM console go to Administration > Client Settings > Open Default Client Settings
• Click on Computer Agent
• Set the PowerShell Execution Policy to Bypass
• Click OK

This setting will take a while to roll out to all your clients but should fix any errors you've been having with PowerShell running.