SystemCenterForums: SystemCenterForum.net

Here is an example PowerShell script to demonstrate how to properly remove items (Packages, Software Updates, etc) from  the ConfigMgr Client Cache that have not been referenced in the past 60 days:

   1: #Connect to Resource Manager COM Object

   2: $resman = new-object -com "UIResource.UIResourceMgr"

   3: $cacheInfo = $resman.GetCacheInfo()

   4: #Enum Cache elements, compare date, and delete older than 60 days

   5: $cacheinfo.GetCacheElements()  | 

   6:     where-object {$_.LastReferenceTime -lt (get-date).AddDays(-60)} | 

   7:     foreach {$cacheInfo.DeleteCacheElement($_.CacheElementID)}

   8:     

The following is an example VBScript to delete all items in the local cache:

   1: on error resume next

   2: dim oUIResManager

   3: dim oCache

   4: dim oCacheElement

   5: dim oCacheElements

   6: set oUIResManager = createobject("UIResource.UIResourceMgr")

   7:   if oUIResManager is nothing then      

   8:     wscript.echo "Couldn't create Resource Manager - quitting"

   9:     wscript.quit

  10:   end if

  11: set oCache=oUIResManager.GetCacheInfo()

  12:   if oCache is nothing then

  13:     set oUIResManager=nothing

  14:         wscript.echo "Couldn't get cache info - quitting"

  15:         wscript.quit

  16:   end if

  17: set oCacheElements=oCache.GetCacheElements

  18:     for each oCacheElement in oCacheElements

  19:         oCache.DeleteCacheElement(oCacheElement.CacheElementID)

  20:     next

  21: set oCacheElements=nothing

  22: set oUIResManager=nothing

  23: set oCache=nothing

Either of these scripts can be distributed using normal ConfigMgr software distribution – You must have PowerShell installed on the client to successfully execute the PowerShell script.

Review more information about the CacheElement Class for ConfigMgr 2007.

Greg Ramsey |  DELL

ConfigMgr MVP | DellTechCenter | @ramseyg | greg_ramsey@dell.com

Today, Microsoft is announcing a shift in philosophy on how we approach the topic of vulnerability disclosure, reframing the practice of "Responsible Disclosure" to "Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure."  In recognition of the endless debate between responsible disclosure and full disclosure proponents and its ability to detract from meaningful and productive industry collaboration and customer defense, we believe that the community mindset needs to shift, framing a key point - that coordination and collaboration are required to resolve issues in a way that minimizes risk and disruption for customers.

Announcing Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure - The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Until you install this update, you can attach a Windows Phone to your PC, but Windows won’t be able to find the drivers. Install Zune 4.7+ and you’re good to go.

Zune 4.7 « Windows Phone Secrets

Hey there everyone, believe it or not we are already thinking about TechEd Europe in Berlin!

We are currently talking about session allocation, topics, speakers, and event support.  Something we hope you know about is that as an added benefit to registering for Tech∙Ed Europe 2010, attendees will receive a Microsoft TechNet Subscription, at no additional cost. This subscription gives you access to the most current releases of Enterprise wide software, so you can evaluate and prepare for the needs of your organization before you deploy.

Tech∙Ed Europe Attendees Receive a TechNet Subscription - Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

With the words like VDI catching up real fast in IT world, Curosity among customers and partners about this new way of deploying Windows has increased. About 40 percent of the time whenever I am in a conversation with customer and partners that relates to Virtualization, we talk about VDI and what are the best use case for VDI.

Microsoft VDI : Whitepapers and FAQs - Virtually Yours.. - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

The core MP’s have been updated on their regular schedule.  If you are running OpsMgr 2007 R2 – you should update these as soon as possible.

OpsMgr 2007 R2 Core MP’s updated 6.1.7672.0 - Kevin Holman's OpsMgr Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

As some of you may have already seen on our Service Manager blog, two new releases are now available for our Service Manager customers:

• Authoring Tool v1.0 Release Candidate
• Cumulative Update 1 (KB983572)

Service Manager Authoring Tool RC and Cumulative Update 1 Now Available - Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Made by Sebastien Paquet,
                                     I've never found any procedure on how to install the Scom paging system on a FULL Virtual environment (ESX).  Here is a great Step-by-step procedure that I have created for you ...  Click the Download buton!

Overview

Data Protection Manager 2010 is part of the System Center family of management products from Microsoft. It delivers unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers -- as well as Windows desktops and laptops. DPM is designed as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution for Windows environments from Microsoft. DPM provides the best protection and most supportable restore scenarios of your Windows environment from disk, tape and cloud. Windows customers of all sizes can rely on Microsoft to provide a scalable and manageable protection solution that is cost-effective, secure and reliable.

 

Feature Summary

• Protection for Windows clients, while they are online or offline, with easy-to-use wizards for establishing protection, retention and alert schedules. A single DPM server can protect over 1,000 Windows clients, while end users are able to restore their own data using Windows Explorer or Microsoft Office.
• Protection of Microsoft Virtualization platforms, including Hyper-V R2 Live Migration / Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) configurations. DPM can also restore single-file items from host-based VM backups.
• Enhanced Protection for SQL Server, scaling to over 2,000 databases per DPM server, and offering auto-protection of new databases per SQL instance. DBA’s can now restore their own databases, through a self-service restore utility for SQL Server.
• Enhanced Protection of Exchange Server, scaling to over 40TB of email and support for Exchange 2010 Database Availability Groups (DAG), as well as CCR/SCR in Exchange 2007.
• Enhanced Protection for SharePoint, without the requirement for a recovery farm with SharePoint 2010, and scaling up to 25TB farms with over 1M items. New content databases are now auto-protected without administrator interaction.
• DPM 2010 is truly enterprise-ready, scaling to over 100 servers with over 80TB per DPM server, and includes new Auto-grow, Auto-heal, Auto-protect features for a lights-out reliable protection and recovery solution.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2

.NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package
Windows PowerShell 2.0
DPM 2010 must be installed on a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit computer that is located in an Active Directory domain that is running in 2003-mode or better.
DPM 2010 can protect machines running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Server 2003, 2003 R2, 2008 or 2008 R2, as well Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
If you are protecting data over a wide area network (WAN), there is a minimum network bandwidth requirement of 512 kilobits per second (Kbps).

Try Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 RTM free for 180 days

 Management pack authoring templates are a useful way to add additional monitoring on an as-needed basis. A great example is the TCP port wizard – it would make no sense to monitor every TCP port out of the box, so OpsMgr provides a wizard for adding ports on a case by case basis.

So what if you would like to modify how one of the existing templates works or create your own? There is no documentation available that I have found that describes how to do this so that is what I’m setting out to do in this article.

Creating a custom template involves two main components:

• The template elements in a management pack. I’ve attached a working sample and added lots of comments so please have a look through.
  
•  A compiled UI screen written in managed code (c# in this case).

A word of warning: the authoring console will not help with either of these.

Here are the steps you can use to create your custom UI screen:

1. Using Visual Studio, create a new class library
   
2. Delete the class1.cs file that gets created by default
3. Add references to the necessary OpsMgr DLLs. You can find these in C:Program FilesSystem Center Operations Manager 2007 as well as the SDKBinaries folder within that folder.
4. Add a new User Control to the project named EventDetailsPage
5. Double click on the user control to open the designer screen. Add your UI widgets from the toolbox. I’ve added two text boxes named txtEventID and txtEventSource.
6. Open the code view of your user control and make the following changes by copying and pasting from the code that I’ve attached to the article:
   1. Add all the “using” statements
   2. Change the class to inherit from UIPage
   3. Add the SavePageConfig() method
7. Build the project
8. Copy the DLL that you’ve just compiled to the OpsMgr program files folder.

Now you are ready to run your new template!

Import your management pack and go to the authoring templates. Your new template will show up in the list. When you run the wizard, your UI screen will allow the user to input values.

A note on how OpsMgr processes templates when you’re done with the wizard:

• OpsMgr replaces $TemplateConfig/ConfigValue$ variables in the implementation section of the template with the user-provided values.
  
  
• Merges the implementation section into the management pack that you specified on the first wizard screen.
  
  
• Creates a for the template and puts every generated element in the folder using s. When you click on your template after running the wizard, OpsMgr uses this folder system to display previous output of the template. This is also how it knows what to delete if you delete template output. A side effect of this is that it is assumed that you will create elements with unique IDs for each run of the template. If you create non-unique elements, OpsMgr will effectively delete all runs of the template when any single run is deleted.

The sample UIPage I’ve attached barely scratches the surface of what is possible. Some fodder for future articles or your own exploration:

·         There is a built-in SDK connection available in the UIPage so you can populate drop-down lists with monitored computers for example

·         The UIPage has various properties that give you the context in which it is running such as a reference to the template itself

·         You can handle the user editing your template as well as just creating new ones

·         You can create custom UI for other workflows such as rules, monitors ,etc

Great step-by-step article from Jonathan Almquist [MSFT] on how to create a computer group and configure groupcalc in the MP authoring console.

Great step-by-step article from Jonathan Almquist [MSFT] on how to create an instance group and configure groupcalc in the MP authoring console.