Cisco UCS Management Pack troubleshooting

We are running SCOM 2012 R2 and we recently tried to set up monitoring for our Cisco UCS environment. We had some difficulty, after importing the management pack and setting up the config we were seeing these alerts within SCOM:

(https://fqdn:443) [Cisco.Ucsm.Proxy.LoadCache.ProbeAction.ps1] Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Windows\TEMP\e1jdhj04.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

After extensive research and much banging of heads we discovered that the resolution was to allow the Operations Management Action Account (svc_OMAA in our case) read/write permissions to C:\Windows\Temp on the SCOM management server!

Powershell Tip: Search for users with an Active Sync device

The script below will search through a mailbox database and list the users that have Active Sync devices attached and list the type of device.

ForEach ($mb in (Get-Mailbox -database DATABASENAME)) { Get-ActiveSyncDeviceStatistics -Mailbox $mb | Select @{Label="Name";Expression={$mb.Name}},DeviceType,DeviceOS,LastSuccessSync}

Replace DATABASENAME with the name of the database you wish to query

This script has been test on Exchange 2010 SP1 and Exchange 2010 SP3.

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Powershell Tip: How many DIMMs are in a machine and utilised

The following Powershell command will tell you the total amount of DIMM slots within a machine and what is currently installed within those slots, if anything.

Just save it as a .PS1 file and when you run it you will be asked for the name of the machine you wish to query. If you wish to query your own PC just enter "localhost" as the name.

$strComputer = Read-Host "Enter Computer Name"
$colSlots = Get-WmiObject -Class "win32_PhysicalMemoryArray" -namespace "root\CIMV2" `
-computerName $strComputer
$colRAM = Get-WmiObject -Class "win32_PhysicalMemory" -namespace "root\CIMV2" `
-computerName $strComputer

Foreach ($objSlot In $colSlots){
"Total Number of DIMM Slots: " + $objSlot.MemoryDevices
}
Foreach ($objRAM In $colRAM) {
"Memory Installed: " + $objRAM.DeviceLocator
"Memory Size: " + ($objRAM.Capacity / 1GB) + " GB"
}

Shrink the SQL Server Reporting Services log database used by ConfigMgr 2012

So today I came across an issue with my SCCM database server running low on disk space. On investigation I found the ReportServer_log.ldf file had grown to over 320GB in size!

It would appear this is a known issue and some simple configuration changes to your database setup can resolve this.

Change the recovery model
1. Log onto SQL Management Studio and connect to the SCCM instance
2. Expand Databases and right click on ReportServer (your name may vary depending on your installation)
3. Go to Options
4. Change the recovery model from Full to Simple
5. Click OK to save the changes

Shrink the file
1. Log onto SQL Management Studio and connect to the SCCM instance
2. Expand Databases and right click on ReportServer (your name may vary depending on your installation)
3. Select Tasks > Shrink > Files
4. Under File type select Log and click OK
5. This should reduce the size of the LDF file to a more modest size, you may have to repeat the shrink step two or three times for it to complete successfully

Change the Maximum File Size
1. Log onto SQL Management Studio and connect to the SCCM instance
2. Expand Databases and right click on ReportServer (your name may vary depending on your installation)
3. Select Properties
4. Select Files
5. In the Database files field, scroll until you see the Autogrowth column.
6. Click on the ellipsis button (…) for ReportServer_log (again this name may vary slightly depending on your installation)
7. Change the value of the Restrict File Growth (MB) field to a suitable amount for your environment.
8. Click OK to save the changes

This should now resolve your issue and not see it reoccur.

Investing in your own career

As we all know IT is a rapidly progressing market and for us IT professionals that means we're constantly trying to learn and update our core skills to keep up with the changes. And as we're all aware it's not always possible for our employers to provide the necessary time or money to help keep up these skills leaving us in the dilemma to having to invest our own time and money into staying current.

I've spent my own money on a home lab and given up nights and weekends studying and learning new products. And for me self study and self investment is worth it. The achievement you feel when you pass an exam and gain that qualification is a buzz. There is even more of a buzz when you the skills you have self taught become useful in your day to day job.

There are lot of resources out there to help you along the way when trying to learn at home. I invested in an HP Microserver a few years ago and it didn't break the bank, and it provides a very nice wee home lab that I've built, broke, re-designed and re-build many a time. The capacity of it provides enough grunt that I can emulate a small Microsoft lab similar to what you would use while on a Microsoft training course in a classroom.

Home Labs or Virtual Labs
HP regularly run cashback offers on their Microservers, the current cashback deal runs until the 30th June 2015. I've found the cheapeast deals to be had over at ServersPlus.com - http://www.serversplus.com/microserver_cashback

You can find free evaluation copies of Microsoft's software here https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter The trial licenses last 180 days which should be adequate enough to have a good understanding of the software.

Microsoft also offer a large selection of free Virtual Labs. Many are targetted towards learning a certain skill within their products so you don't have the free rein you do with your own home lab however they can be useful and I have used in them while at work when I need to understand something or have been travelling and don't have access to my home lab. You can find them over at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb467605.aspx


Training resources
Microsoft have a free Virtual Academy open to all that. It can help you plan what certification track you wish to persue, and offers you training materials that can help you achieve those certifications. I've not seen anyone use this resources solely as a method of passing a Microsoft exam however it is a useful resource.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/

Videos from previous MS Ignite and TechEd Europe events are available online at Channel9 which can be helpful in getting an overview on certain products or learning some hints and tips from the field. There are also a lot of videos from behind the scenes. The videos can also be downloaded as MP4s so you an store them on your device of choice and watch while
commutting etc.

https://channel9.msdn.com/

There are a lot of other useful resources out there than can help you invest in your career when your employer can't help. Learning in your own time can can hinder your family/social life however if you show willing to invest in yourself and your career it could lead to great things!

vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2e - Build 2646482 Download

In April VMware released vCentre Server 5.5 Update 2e Build 2646482, I had some issues installing it within my environment which I documented here
vCentre Server 5.5 Update 2e Build 2646482 Install

For those of you wishing to download and install the update within your environment it can be found here:
Download VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2e

Abseil complete!

Today I abseiled off the Forth Rail Bridge in order to raise some money for Macmillan Cancer Support. A completely terrifying experience but totally exhilarating at the same time!! :) A HUGE big thank you to everyone who sponsored me and helped raise a whooping £220, thank you!!! :) Now I'm off to get my sharpie and scratch "abseil off the Forth Rail bridge" from my bucket list. :) :) :)

PXE Boot Dell Venue 11

I recently had to image a Dell Venue 11 7130 vPro tablet using SCCM 2012. The BIOS version the table had installed (A10) wouldn't allow PXE boot, I had to upgrade the tablet to use the A13 BIOS version before it would PXE boot.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/dell-venue-11i-pro/drivers

Patch ConfigMgr 2012 x64 clients during a task sequence using the PATCH property

We recently updated our SCCM version to the latest cumulative update and I wanted to update our task sequence so that new clients were deployed with the latest SCCM agent version.

In order to do this I completed these steps (please note we only deploy 64 bit clients so this tutorial only deals with these):

1. Open your task sequence

2. Within your Partition Disk 0 - BIOS/Partition Disk 0 - UEFI steps ensure the main partition has the following variable set OSDTargeSystemDrive

3. Create a command line step directly before the "Setup Windows and ConfigMgr" step

4. Within the command line enter the following text: cmd /c xcopy *.* %OSDTargetSystemDrive%\windows\CCMHotfixes /E /H /C /I /Q /Y and select the package that your patch resides in

This step copies the file from your SCCM server to the machine being imaged

5. Within your "Setup Windows and ConfigMgr" step enter the following within Installation properties: PATCH="C:\windows\CCMHotfixes\configmgr2012ac-r2-kb3054451-x64.msp"
You will need to change the filename as appropriate based on the update you are applying.