Inventorying Environmental Variables with SCCM

I needed to get Configuration Manager to collect information about environmental variables on client PCs (as we add a unique system variable to identify the version of the image that has been applied).  Out of the box Configuration Manager doesn’t do this, but after posting the question on one of the Configuration Manager TechNet forums I was directed to this.  Everything I needed was there (so I won’t bother repeating it here, but it served as a reminder on something that I had simply forgotten!), so big thanks to Sherry Kissinger and myITforum.com.

He ain’t a ‘Heavy’…

Have been quiet on the blogging front of late for a number of reasons.  Work has been particularly manic, as being a HE institution students are now returning coupled with the fact that quite a chunk of my time has had to dedicated to preparing and conducting technical interviews as part of my departments restructuring exercise.  In some ways it has been useful, in others not so much as it has highlighted some ‘areas of concern’.  What’s that you say? Skills gap….?

The other distraction of late has been Team Fortress 2.  I used to play TF back in the day but then moved over to the dark (console) side.  Well now I’m back and as a result have many many hours unaccounted for.  Happy days….!

Presenting…Config Manager!

This morning I had to do a 50 minute presentation to nearly forty colleagues on Configuration Manager, the idea being to provide an overview of the product and then follow it with how it has been implemented here.  Biggest problem was that the audience was so mixed (the Director of IT along with his senior management colleagues (no pressure there then!), 2nd & 3rd line tech support staff, admin staff and a few others) which meant that I had to make sure that the level of any technical content was pitched at the right level ie: lowest common denominator.  And to add to that, it was also filmed so that it could be made available on our intranet for those colleagues unable to attend. Despite not having done as much prep as I’d have liked the presentation ran to time, the live demos worked without a hitch, and there were a number of questions at the end (which meant that the audience hadn’t fallen asleep).

Next I’ll be doing a session on PowerShell, the best thing about that being that it will be less PowerPoint (other presentation production applications are available…) and more command-line.  I’m really looking forward to doing that one as there are loads of really cool things to cover although I fear that I may have my work cut out keeping senior management interested…

Ich gehe nach Berlin…!

Yay, finally got approval for myself and a colleague to attend TechEd Europe 2009 in Berlin this November!  Anyone who has previously attended TechEd will know that without a doubt it is the best deep-dive tech training you can get on MS stuff.  Plus you get to here people like Mark Russinovich speak, now your not going to get that at your local training provider are you?  Downside is that Steve Riley won’t be speaking as he’s now working for Amazon Web Services.  I know that in the current financial climate I’m really lucky to be able to go, and given the current atmosphere at work it may cause some raised eyebrows, but one of the benefits out of attending last year meant that I was able to get Configuration Manager implemented in less than two weeks which I guess helped justify to those signing off the budget the benefits of attending.

A five day MS geek-fest, can’t wait!

Management pies…

I’m feeling pretty chuffed at the moment as the Configuration Manager implementation at work has gone really well. This is without doubt due to (warning: shameless self-promotion imminent) my technical leadership of a really good team of colleagues, and to be honest it wouldn’t have gone anywhere near as well as it did without them.

Okay, so we now have a system that can provide more data than you could ever need, and on the off-chance that there isn’t a report already present that you may need, you just knock one up, or maybe get your geek on with SQL Management Studio. Anyway, as expected there is a requirement to make some information available to members of senior management to aid with ‘planning & strategy’. As such, you need to make these sort of reports as FP as possible, ie: pictures (graphs). Now we have built our Config Manager infrastructure on Windows Server 2008 x64 (yes, I know that Config Manager is 32-bit only…) and everything works fine except after installing the Office Web Components on the server running as the Reporting Point I still wasn’t getting any graphs displayed on any reports, just the useful message:

This report has a chart, but the Microsoft Office Web Components required to view charts are not installed on the Reporting Point. Please contact your administrator.

Bit of digging and the solution was found here. You need to configure IIS to run 32-bit apps on x64. Ran the script, restarted IIS and I can now make easily digestible pie-charts available for consumption.

Update:

Would appear that since making the above change despite being able to view graphs through the SCCM Report Viewer, there are now errors being generated (one an hour) against the server acting as the reporting point, although on the face of it everything else seems to be working fine. Reverting the setting stops the errors so some further investigation is required, or I could get some wax crayons and draw the graphs by hand for them....

 

Update #2:

Sorted!  Found a box running 32-bit server 2003, added it as a new site system with just the Reporting Point role, installed Office Web components and as a certain potty-mouthed chef might say..‘Done!’.

It also now means that I am now free to revel in whatever adrenaline-fuelled activity that HE IT may throw at me this week….

So you work in IT…?

Once again the unwritten rule of ‘you work in IT therefore you are expected to know everything about any device that is powered by elastic-trickery and has some sort of user-input (normally buttons)’ came into play today.  Was it a case of “how would I list all installed MS updates on my PC using PowerShell?” or something similar?  Errr, no.  It was “how do I create contact groups on my Nokia mobile?”  Guess it goes with the territory of my chosen career path…

Anyway, today wasn’t all bad.  My copy of Windows Internals 5th Edition was waiting at home for me.

Oh, and if you did want to list the installed MS updates using PS…

Check out the (MS) research…

As you may have noticed, there tends to be a theme throughout my posts where I highlight things to do to help fill those moments of work boredom with some geek/tech-related stuff that could, if caught by your line manager, probably just about be classed as legitimate work-related research.  You’ll be glad to know that the same pattern will continue…

Today’s recommended time-filler is a trip to Microsoft Research Labs.  Now I’m guessing that there are some people out there who have the opinion that whenever Microsoft need some new tech/product they simply go out, find someone who is already doing it, buy the company, rebrand the product.  The number of projects being carried out at the various MS research centres and labs across the globe does a pretty good job of highlighting how much R&D they’re actually doing.  They’ve also got some pretty cool stuff to download.  Some of it could be classed as work-related such as the Microsoft Research TCP Analyzer, others less so such as Songsmith but worth having a play with for the entertainment value alone.  Auto Collage is another that falls into the not-completely-work-related category but is also worth a look.