Richard Got NAPd

Stay home, authorities tell drivers in northern U.S.

2008-12-21T01:13:15Z

Drivers across the country were warned Saturday to stay off roads and hunker down indoors as more heavy snow and blizzard conditions are forecast for much of the northern part of the U.S. At least one death has been attributed to the storms, which have delayed air traffic, caused havoc on the nation's roads and left thousands without power. full story...(read more)

Virtual Machines found stuck with status "Starting" in Hyper-V- / workaround

2008-12-20T10:54:15Z

Recently I found some of my virtual machines stuck in a starting state. When I right click on the VMs that's stuck in the starting state, I only receive the following options: Connect...; Settings...; Rename... and Help. (screen shot below). I was unable to force Shut down the VM or Stop the VM using the context menus. Even after stopping and restarting all three of the Hyper-V services, Hyper-V Image Management Service Hyper-V Networking Management Service Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management...(read more)

Protect against Virtual Machines with Network Access Protection

2008-11-29T18:57:15Z

It's up on us again, MMS 2009 and I'm going to try and be there to talk about how you can enable and configure your environment to protect your network with Network Access Protection against virtual machines on virtual private networks that have connectivity to the physical network. The presentation I plan to give will show how to enabled a protected network from virtual environments. I will show you how to automate a complete solution, enabling you to deploy virtual machines with WDS using...(read more)

Best Practice for SHV placement

2008-08-23T22:07:45Z

System Health Validator Placement System Health Validator Placement I'm writing this post in response to some Configuration Manager 2007 Network Access Protection questions I received during the MMS 2008 conference. " Where to place the System Health Validator Point Role (SHV) be in the ConfigMgr 2007 hierarchy? " The quick simple answer is at the Central Site in the hierarchy, or at the Site where your ConfigMgr administrators will perform daily administrative duties on. Some companies...(read more)

Download R2 Beta for ConfigMgr 2007

2008-07-15T14:24:13Z

If you have access to Microsoft Connect , get R2 for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. Its out and you and get a hand on preview of some of the feature R2 will bring. Download not from Microsoft Connect ....(read more)

The Official System Center Configuration Manager Home Page

2008-07-15T14:12:40Z

Some how I stumbled on a web page I never seen been for, which is cool. The official home page for System Center Configuration Manager. As you'll notice on the front page that it does not say 2007. most likely because the site is not dedicated to that specific version. It looks to me that its focused on system management in general. I believe as the growing demand increases around desktop management, there will always be a need for a product to manage desktops remotely and in a unified way. Check...(read more)

How to Configure ISA SSL Bridging for System Center Configuration Manager Internet-Based Client Management – the real story…

2008-07-03T16:11:55Z

I see links all over about this new piece of documentation released. But, there’s a really good story here that I think a lot of us are missing. This is a great story about how Microsoft listens and reacts to community feedback – at least the documentation team for System Center Configuration Manager does. As a community, we’ve worked with this team for a long, long while. The lines of communication have always been two-way and the partnership has always been fruitful and valuable. For example…here...(read more)

Microsoft migrates MSDN and TechNet on Hyper-V virtual machines

2008-06-27T16:07:20Z

Friday, May 23, 2008 | 5 Comments | For a prospect customer there's nothing better than a real-world implementation to realize the potential or a certain technology. And this is very true in an almost unexplored technology like virtualization. Microsoft, which eats its own dog food since the Virtual Server 2005 era, just announced the complete migration of both MSDN and TechNet, two of the most popular web sites in the world, on virtual machines. Microsoft kept the back-end database on physical...(read more)

Some MMS 2007 Pictures.

2008-06-26T03:54:00Z

Here's some pictures from my visit to MMS 2007 in San Diego. Click the picture to see more....(read more)

System Health Validator Placement

2008-06-22T17:20:18Z

System Health Validator Placement I'm writing this post in response to some Configuration Manager 2007 Network Access Protection questions I received during the MMS 2008 conference. " Where to place the System Health Validator Point Role (SHV) be in the ConfigMgr 2007 hierarchy? " The quick simple answer is at the Central Site in the hierarchy, or at the Site where your ConfigMgr administrators will perform daily administrative duties on. Some companies may have a Site or Reporting...(read more)

How to Add domain accounts to Local Administrators Group using GPO

2008-06-17T21:55:55Z

There are a lot of questions in newsgroups, forums etc. about how to use Restricted Groups in the right way so I wanted to post a how-to for people to read. Finding Restricted Groups is easy but it only works in a domain with Active Directory so trying to find it within your local GPO on your computer isn’t possible. At first you right click on Restricted Groups and select “Add Group”. What you get is the default window to choose a group, either from your domain or maybe from your local computer...(read more)

Inside Microsoft's $550 Million Mega Data Centers

2008-06-17T16:07:14Z

Though the building alone covers a whopping 11 acres, you can't even see Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT )'s new $550 million data center in the hills west of San Antonio until you're practically on top of it. But by that point, you can hardly see anything else. Read more here....(read more)

Microsoft touts Longhorn security

2008-06-17T15:40:00Z

The company says that a better firewall, IPv6 support, better onboard encryption, and network access protection make Windows Server 2008's security a primary selling point. Microsoft is pushing the improved security of its Windows Server 2008 software package as one of the primary reasons why business customers should upgrade to the long-awaited product refresh as quickly as possible. Free IT resource Virtualization TCO Calculator Sponsored by BEA Related Stories Google CEO prefers an independent...(read more)

Microsoft Unveils OS For Portable Navigation Devices

2008-06-17T07:58:58Z

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT ) on Monday introduced its first operating system designed for manufacturers of handheld portable navigation devices. Windows Embedded NavReady 2009, which is based on Windows Embedded CE, includes technologies for connecting PNDs to online services, mobile phones using Bluetooth, and Windows-based PCs. The OS includes online search through Microsoft's Live Search and also includes the software maker's Live Search Map service. Read More here. Technorati Tags: CE , Embedded...(read more)

Using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to Extend Network Health

2008-06-16T23:56:49Z

New customer/partner-ready content from Microsoft IT Microsoft IT Showcase is pleased to announce the publication of Using Configuration Manager 2007 to Extend Software Update Compliance Across Networks , which discusses how Microsoft IT uses Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and Windows Server® 2008 Network Access Protection (NAP) to enforce software update compliance for client computers in the corporate network. Many thanks to Richard Dixon and Michael Kelley for their expertise...(read more)