Steve Rachui's Manageability blog - ConfigMgr/OpsMgr
Premier Field Engineer/Microsoft Dedicated Support Engineering
SCCM: Forcing a Task Sequence to Rerun
There are well known methods to force an advertisement to rerun – including several add-on tools...
Author: steverac Date: 11/06/2009
BING 411
Completely unrelated to anything SCCM or OpsMgr but still worth a post – do you find yourself...
Author: steverac Date: 10/22/2009
Understanding Monitors in OpsMgr 2007 part III – Dependency Monitors
This is part 3 (and last) of my series of posts describing monitors. The first post, found...
Author: steverac Date: 10/05/2009
Categories Filter Missing in OpsMgr R2 Notifications
In OpsMgr SP1, the option to filter notifications by category was available in the UI. In R2,...
Author: steverac Date: 09/14/2009
SCCM R3 is announced!
R3 will be heavy on power management. A good read on R3 is at...
Author: steverac Date: 09/09/2009
Understanding Monitors in Opsmgr 2007 part II Aggregate Monitors
This is part 2 of my a series of posts describing monitors. The first post discussed unit...
Author: steverac Date: 09/06/2009
SCCM AMT Provisioning Flowcharts
Support for AMT provisioning through SCCM was introduced in SCCM SP1. Being able to manage systems...
Author: steverac Date: 09/02/2009
Monitoring File Size with Custom WMI Performance Counter
Have you ever needed to monitor the size of a file to ensure you were alerted when it’s size changed...
Author: steverac Date: 08/30/2009
What ports REALLY need to be open for AMT in SCCM?
The question came up recently about what ports are really needed for AMT in SCCM. The...
Author: steverac Date: 08/28/2009
SCCM Unleashed is Unleashed
A bit of a self-servng post I suppose and I know I'm a bit late in posting this (couldn't decide if...
Author: steverac Date: 08/21/2009
Update SQL Management Pack posted to catalog!
If you haven’t seen it, the update SQL Management Pack which resolves issues monitoring clustered...
Author: steverac Date: 07/24/2009
Understanding the R2 Process Monitoring Management Pack Templates
Management pack templates have been around since RTM of OpsMgr 2007 and R2 introduced a new one...
Author: steverac Date: 07/17/2009
Will you PROVISION already?!
Have you tried your hand at vPRO yet? If so, you know how cool it is. f not, you...
Author: steverac Date: 07/10/2009
Adding certificates to the local certificates store and setting local policy using a command line – System Center Updates Publisher example
Certificates are becoming more and more the rage for both SCCM and OpsMgr. The documentation...
Author: steverac Date: 07/09/2009
Using System Center Update Publisher with Verisign Certificates - Updated
I previously posted a blog entry detailing how to configure System Center Update Publisher to work...
Author: steverac Date: 07/01/2009
Unable to import WIM into SCCM console
Ran across an interesting issue today. When trying to import an OSD WIM image into the...
Author: steverac Date: 06/26/2009
Monitoring for Heartbeat Failures on non-Server Agents
Monitoring for agent heartbeat failures is a built in function in OpsMgr. Heartbeats ensure...
Author: steverac Date: 06/21/2009
Standard operators and subscriptions
Do you like the idea of spending several hours creating all of the notification subscriptions your...
Author: steverac Date: 06/18/2009
SCCM features NOT supported through IBCM
I was looking for this information recently and had a hard time locating it – probably my poor...
Author: steverac Date: 06/11/2009
Is your RMS updating configuration too frequently?
The RMS is responsible for maintaining a master list of agent configurations for the management...
Author: steverac Date: 06/09/2009
Understanding ‘nested’ management pack discoveries and how they impact total discovery time?
Most management packs require discoveries be run to figure out which systems are hosting the objects...
Author: steverac Date: 06/09/2009
Using a variable to query TOP N entries from SQL
I was recently building a SQL query for use in a report and was looking for a way to return the...
Author: steverac Date: 06/08/2009
LocalizedText issues gone in R2?
Routine maintenance to keep the LocalizedText table trim has been a part of the OpsMgr...
Author: steverac Date: 06/08/2009
OpsMgr DB Grooming – How it works
A while back I wrote up a blog post on how grooming works for the OpsMgr DB and the warehouse...
Author: steverac Date: 05/31/2009
Large table query, with rowcount
Kevin has a number of very helpful queries on his blog – posted here. One of the most commonly...
Author: steverac Date: 05/24/2009
OpsMgr R2 RTM!
It’s been a long time coming but OpsMgr R2 has finally released – with general availability...
Author: steverac Date: 05/23/2009
Tool to verify AMT certificates
One of the challenges that some customers face when configuring AMT support in SCCM is certificates....
Author: steverac Date: 05/18/2009
Modifying SMS_DEF.MOF and Configuration.MOF to pull information from a 64-bit registry
Recently had the occasion to modify the SMS_DEF.MOF and Configuration.MOF files to pull information...
Author: steverac Date: 05/10/2009
Custom MOF additions in SCCM – Simplified
I was working recently on extending the SMS_DEF.MOF and Configuration.MOF files in SCCM to pull...
Author: steverac Date: 05/10/2009
So long MMS 2009
MMS 2009 is just about over, only a 1/2 day left as of this post. MMS has been good this year...
Author: steverac Date: 04/30/2009
ITMU/SCCM/Patchinstall command line switches
A question came up the other day about how to set the patchinstall command line switches for ITMU in...
Author: steverac Date: 04/20/2009
Checking Management Packs for Best Practice Adherence
If you work with OpsMgr you work with management packs in some form - either using ones available...
Author: steverac Date: 03/09/2009
Installation Failure of OEM Deployment Tools
OEMs (currently Dell and IBM) provide deployment packs that plug into the OSD feature of SCCM to...
Author: steverac Date: 03/08/2009
Backing up Hyper-V Virtual Machines
Like I'm sure many of you, I have a lab full of virtual machines. I can't imagine what would...
Author: steverac Date: 03/08/2009
Configuring Connected Management Groups in OpsMgr 2007 - how it works
My previous post covered configuring a connected management group - but how does it really...
Author: steverac Date: 03/04/2009
Configuring Connected Management Groups in OpsMgr 2007
I've set this up a couple of times - but it's been a while. I had an occasion to set this up...
Author: steverac Date: 02/10/2009
Presenting at MMS 2009
Just an FYI that I will be presenting two sessions on OpsMgr 2007 at MMS this year. The first is...
Author: steverac Date: 01/31/2009
Bulk Resetting the Health State
This has been a common request. Suppose you have an opsmgr environment and you have a variety...
Author: steverac Date: 01/17/2009
How to install SCCM patches manually on Vista/Server 2008
Prior to Windows 2008 and Vista software updates delivered through SMS/SCCM would come down in the...
Author: steverac Date: 01/17/2009
Creating OpsMgr 2007 Groups Programmatically
I've recently given a couple of examples of how to create groups that will dynamically include the...
Author: steverac Date: 01/17/2009
Discovering AD Security Groups in OpsMgr 2007
A common method of identifying machines for deploying overrides, etc is to place unique registry...
Author: steverac Date: 01/12/2009
Deploying Virtual Apps with SCCM
My last post discussed the benefits of virtual apps, the components of App-V and briefly discussed...
Author: steverac Date: 12/22/2008
App-V - Introduction, Components and SCCM Integration
Virtualization is a hot topic in IT circles. When you think of virtualization it is often is...
Author: steverac Date: 12/22/2008
Maintenance Mode by Config File
Derek Harkin did some good work with his management pack that allows agents to be placed in...
Author: steverac Date: 12/09/2008
TelAlert and OpsMgr
Was working recently trying to setup email paging through TelAlert in OpsMgr 2007. Setting up...
Author: steverac Date: 12/02/2008
SCCM 2007 new features flowcharts
When SCCM 2007 was going through beta I put together some flowcharts providing detail into how the...
Author: steverac Date: 12/01/2008
Updated ADMP and DHCP MP Released!
ADMP Its been a long time coming but the updated Active Directory MP has been released! Highlights...
Author: steverac Date: 11/07/2008
Maintenance Mode in the Console
I recently posted a web based utility that I created to allow administrators and even non-OpsMgr...
Author: steverac Date: 11/07/2008