Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

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Remotely Reboot a Bunch of XP Workstations…

April 5th, 2012 by Jeremy Pavlov | 2 Comments | Filed in Computer Support, Desktop Management, Desktop OS, Microsoft, Windows 7

I got an interesting question from a co-worker today (we’ll call him “Ray” to protect his identity).  Ray wanted to know if it’s possible for his customer to reboot a bunch of workstations at once, in a way other than the customer’s workstation management system. 

The customer is in the midst of a major migration from XP to Windows 7, and simultaneously from Novell ZENworks 7 to Novell ZCM 11.  Ray’s team has put together an amazing set of automatic deployment steps that take the ZENworks-controlled XP machine all the way to a completely-deployed, domain-managed, ZCM-controlled Win 7 machine with all needed applications installed, via a method called “Zero Touch Deployment”.   And it all kicks off with a reboot — but the only problem is that the bundled reboot in the old ZENworks is not always reliable.

Note: This particular customer’s machines are XP, all in one domain, all are resolvable (either via WINS or DNS), and can all be managed by a single set of credentials; allowing remote administrative execution and permitting the following to work.

So when Ray asked the question, I said, “Absolutely!”  I can do that, and not even break out PowerShell (or bash, for that matter).  Ray had nothing more than a list of computer names, but that is all we need.  Let’s do it old-school, with a DOS batch “for” loop.  Man, I love my job… 

First, the input file; it is just a single list of computer names or IP addresses, one-per-line, in a TXT file.  We put them in a file called C:\TEMP\RemoteRebooter-Input.txt, and here’s a varied example of how it might look:

pc1
10.2.1.3
wks22.domain.local
192.168.33.44
amyscomputer

The script is a bit on the simple side, but does the job.  I call this RemoteRebooter.bat, and notice that it calls the other input file by name:

@ECHO OFF
@Echo Process RemoteRebooter...
@For /F "tokens=*" %%Q in (c:\temp\RemoteRebooter-Input.txt) Do @(
1>&2 ECHO Rebooting: %%Q
shutdown -m \\%%Q -r -f -t 20 -c "Rebooting in 20 seconds via %0 -- please save your work quickly."
)
1>&2 type nul
@ECHO Complete!

If you need details on the shutdown flags, type shutdown /? into a command prompt.  And I’m not sure if I should mention it here, but if you want this to work on Windows 7, you have to change the syntax a bit, flipping hyphens (-) to slashes (/).  And of course, this is only one way of doing it, and I know you all have others. 

Make sure to drop a comment and tell us how *you* do it!

 

 

 

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Finding Rogue KMS Servers in the Enterprise…

February 9th, 2012 by Jeremy Pavlov | No Comments | Filed in Desktop OS, Linux, Microsoft, Microsoft Infrastructure, Windows 7

In larger Enterprises with Microsoft-based infrastructure, it’s highly likely that the licensing for the Windows 7 workstations will be based on the Microsoft KMS model.  If you don’t already know, this means you run servers in-house that register themselves into DNS as license providers, and Windows clients will learn of them (and become affiliated with them) to get a license, rather than contacting Microsoft themselves across the Internet.

Unfortunately, one problem that can occur is that someone who has access to the Microsoft license codes (like an I.T. worker, developer, etc.) might accidentally install a KMS license on a server that is not intended to be a KMS server.  And when a KMS license is installed, the server doesn’t know any better; and dutifully registers its KMS capability with the internal Active Directory based DNS as a VLMCS SRV record. 

Recently, I ran into a situation where I needed to hunt down and eliminate some accidentally rogue KMS servers that had cropped up across a large infrastructure, and be able to re-check at regular intervals.  While I originally wrote the script as a bash shell script for Linux, I re-wrote it into PowerShell recently for someone who asked, and I thought I’d post the new version here.

Mind you, this is a stripped-down version of the script, but it includes all that is needed to run the check manually for a hierarchical DNS infrastructure (although you may wish to strip out components if you just want to check the parent domain). 

Copy the contents below, paste them into a PowerShell script file (*.ps1), change the variables at the top… and have fun!

 

# Change the following 3 variables as needed.
# This script will loop through the subdomains, checking for KMS servers in each
# subdomain, and then at the parent domain.
$subs = @("subdomain1", "subdomain2", "etcetera")
$parentdomain = mydomain.local
$outfile = "checkKMS-Results.txt"
write "KMS check report..." | Out-File $outfile
write " " | Out-File $outfile -append
write "The only valid KMS servers are at the $parentdomain, as follows:" | Out-File $outfile -append
write "KMS1, KMS2, KMS3" | Out-File $outfile -append
write " " | Out-File $outfile -append
write "There should not be a KMS server at any of these locations:" | Out-File $outfile -append
foreach ($item in $subs)
{
  write "Checking subdomain: $item"
  $result = nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.$item.$parentdomain. |findstr /C:"_vlmcs" /C:"svr hostname"
  if ("X$result" -eq "X")
  {
    write "No registered KMS server in $item" | Out-File $outfile -append
  }
  else
  {
    write "***KMS FOUND at this location: ***" | Out-File $outfile -append
    write $result | Out-File $outfile -append
  }
}
write " "  | Out-File $outfile -append
write "On the contrary, the following should be valid KMS servers:" | Out-File $outfile -append
$result = nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.$parentdomain. |findstr /C:"_vlmcs" /C:"svr hostname"
$result | Out-File $outfile -append
write "...Done!" | Out-File $outfile -append

Enjoy!

:)

 

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Setting up Windows Service Dependency…

December 8th, 2011 by Rob Pankau | No Comments | Filed in Microsoft, Services

Sometimes, when a Windows server starts up, there are system services that can start up out-of-sequence — or perhaps just before they should — in the boot process.  Or, it might be that one service is dependent on the availability/functionality of another service on the same server in order to start successfully. 

Usually this service dependency is configured during installation; but if it becomes broken, it can be fixed by setting the original service to delay its start. 

Below is a very terse — but also very easy — way to set the original service to verify that the service upon which it depends is running, before attempting to start itself.

Warning: Before you make the changes described in this article, remember that you edit the registry at your own risk.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, just put down the mouse and step back…

First, you need to know the name of the service for which you are configuring a dependency.  The service name can be found by right-clicking on the specific service in the service console, and selecting Properties.  The service name will be under the General tab at the top.

 Now, to set it all up…

  1. Click Start, click Run, and enter regedit.
  2. Expand to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
  3. Right-click the service that you are trying to set a dependency for and select New -> Multi-string Value.
  4. Rename the new value to DependOnService.
  5. Double-click the DependOnService value and enter the dependent service name (from above) into the Value Data: field and click OK.
  6. Close the registry editor.
  7. Restart the server.
  8. Enjoy.

For more information, see the Microsoft Article ID: 193888, “How to delay loading of specific services“.

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How To Force Windows 7 To Open Excel Spreadsheets in Separate Windows…

December 1st, 2011 by Chris Shalda | 9 Comments | Filed in Microsoft, Office 2010, Windows 7

As IT consultants, we occasionally find ourselves with large spreadsheets that need to be reviewed with human eyes (rather than by filters or scripts) for inspection or comparison, etc.

The other day I was quite frustrated while comparing a large amount of data between two Excel spreadsheets.  I had to constantly switch between each spreadsheet, or set them up side by side in the same window.  Since I have two monitors (of course), I wanted to be able to take advantage of ALL my screen real estate for my spreadsheet needs.  I searched a bit, and found a cool tip on the WhiteSites Blog from author Paul White (thanks Paul!) for my conundrum; and since Paul’s original post is mostly for Office 2003 (with updates for 2007/2010), I thought I should share a “readers digest” version of only the 2007/2010 version of it here.

Again, please note that these instructions are specifically for Excel 2007/2010. 

WARNING: Always backup your registry before making any changes. Do not attempt to perform these tasks if you are not comfortable with editing the registry.  Seriously.  Don’t.

  • Open Regedit
  • Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command
  • The “(default)” value will be something like this:
"C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14EXCEL.EXE" /e
  • Append a “%1″ to the end of the “(default)” value, making it:
"C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
  • Rename the “command” value, which is right below the “(Default)” value, to “command2″ or something else.
  • Rename the “ddeexec” key to “ddeexec2″ or something else.

After you have done this, your Registry should like similar to this:

 

 …and with that, your Excel spreadsheets should now open in separate windows. 

Enjoy!

 

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SharePoint 2010 – How to move a subsite to a different location

October 20th, 2011 by Chris Shalda | 15 Comments | Filed in Microsoft, Microsoft Infrastructure, SharePoint

I had been tasked to reorganize a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 site recently.  One of the things that I needed to do was to move a couple subsites to be under a different parent site within the same site collection.  I researched and was able to find some options, but they all entailed exporting and then importing — or backing up then restoring — the site via command line.

So, I decided to try the export/import method via the command line right on the SharePoint web front end server.  To export the site, these are the steps I tried:

  1. Fire up the command line
  2. CD \”Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN”
  3. Export the old URL using the following Command:

stsadm -o export -url http://intranet/website -filename c:\test\backup.cmp

However, when I tried this under my domain and SharePoint administrator account, I got this error:

“The Web application at http://intranet/website could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL
correctly.  If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a
new request URL mapping to the intended application.“

After searching a bit on this, it seemed like the problem may have been a permissions issue.  So, I confirmed that the administrator account I used had SharePoint Farm Administrative rights, as well as site collection administrative rights.  I then tried to run this same command with a designated “SharePoint Administrator” account which also had SharePoint Farm Administrative rights and Site Collection Administrative rights, but then got an Access Denied error.

After spending some time adding and removing rights for both of those accounts to see if I could get this working, I table the issue and moved on to other tasks.  One of those tasks was to delete some old subsites from our SharePoint.  I ended up stumbling upon the Content and Structure link under Site Administration:

And to my surprise, I found that it is possible to select any site and copy or move it:

  1. Select the parent site of the subsite you want to move in the left navigation pane
  2. Check the box next to the subsite that you want to move in the right pane, click the Actions drop-down and click Move…
  3. Then select the destination of the subsite selected in the next dialog box

This method ended up being a lot more straight forward and quicker than the command line option.

I’m glad I found it!

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TAKE FIVE: Why I Like Citrix

August 10th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Citrix, Citrix Solutions, Microsoft, VMware

Here’s a situation where the nice guy finishes as President and CEO.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a profile of Citrix. I’ve really enjoyed the research — because I felt like there was a good story lurking under the covers — and the writing, which has been made easier by the great interviews I had with Citrix CTO Simon Crosby, and Citrix President and CEO Mark Templeton. Here’s what I discovered.

Take 1
Mark Templeton. I can’t help it, I just like the guy. He was running late for our phone interview, so I had some time to chat with Julie Geer, the helpful PR person who had lined up the interview, and she was telling me how much everybody likes Mark — I know, I know, it’s not as though she’s going to say what a dirtball he is, even if he was, which he isn’t. When Templeton gets on the line, he apologizes left and right about keeping me waiting. My reaction: Wow, he’s totally unpretentious for a guy in his position. There was no “slick” in him. On a more professional level, you’ve got to admire somebody who has been president and CEO of a high-tech company for 11 years and has not only hung onto his job, but has navigated Citrix through a lot of turbulent waters. Mark Templeton = good guy.

Take 2
Simon Crosby. When I think of Simon, I harken back to Eric Clapton (E.C.) talking about Stevie Ray Vaughan. E.C. said Stevie Ray was like an “open channel,” meaning that he never had to stop and regroup before taking off on another fabulous sonic blast. Simon is a great interview because he can talk on and on — in detail — about whatever he’s asked to discuss. The only downside to that is trying to figure out what to use and what to edit out, which is a small price to pay for all that good content.

Take 3
The Microsoft deal. When you take the time to look at this long-standing agreement (it goes back at least to the late ’90s), you can see how good it is for both companies, which are complementary as opposed to being competitive. As long as Citrix can remain the company that best exemplifies what Microsoft is looking for in an OEM partner — which Microsoft says is the case — they can continue to earn big bucks by delivering Windows apps to that huge market. Adding to the luster for Citrix: Microsoft makes no bones about saying VMware is a competitor.

Take 4
XenDesktop. The buck stops at XenDesktop, which is the real deal for Citrix as a competitor to VMware, and which is now available as part of a suite with XenApp, which has been making Citrix a lot of money for a long time. Yes, VMware has excelled in the server virtualization market — which seems not to bother Citrix because the company still has big plans for XenServer as the hypervisor of choice for XenDesktop, XenApp and NetScaler — but Citrix is at least VMware’s equal in the VDI/desktop virtualization space, which has huge potential. XenDesktop’s use of HDX adaptive technology (which includes the ICA protocol) looks to have an advantage over PCoIP, which VMware uses with its View VDI product. Bottom line: the future looks legitimately bright.

Take 5
The Citrix image. Citrix has been taking it on the chin from bloggers, reporters and pundits of all kinds for quite a while now, mostly around two topics: the possible demise of XenServer as a result of its perceived poor performance in the server virtualization market, and the possibility of Microsoft abrogating its cooperative agreement with Citrix and then blowing the company out of the virtualization market. To which I reply: Citrix has announced that the next full version of XenServer will be available by mid-year, and Microsoft loves dealing with Citrix, as I noted in my third take. All of which goes to prove: indeed, image is not everything.

Source: Redmondmag.com

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Coming This Fall: Windows Azure Cloud Appliances

July 20th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Microsoft, Microsoft Infrastructure

Addressing one of the key objectives of cloud computing, Microsoft today said its Windows Azure platform will be available as an appliance that can run on customer and partner premises.

The company revealed plans to offer the Windows Azure Appliance at its Worldwide Partner Conference, which began today in Washington, D.C. The appliance, which Microsoft has talked up conceptually for several months, will be offered later this year by key partners — initially Dell, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard Co. The appliance will enable private clouds based on huge turnkey systems equipped with the Windows Azure platform, server, storage and network infrastructure. eBay said it too will use the appliance.

“The Windows Azure appliance fundamentally takes the Windows Azure service and extends it,” said Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business, speaking in the opening keynote of WPC. “It extends it to our service providers, allowing you to have exactly the same capabilities within your data center, providing that capability to your customers, and it can be extended to our larger customers that want to provide IT services within their own organizations.”

Details of the new appliance were vague, including cost, configuration and how they will be rolled out to customers. Muglia did say the new appliance is based on Windows Azure and SQL Azure with hardware specified by Microsoft, allowing service providers to either offer their own hosted Azure-based services or provision the appliances initially to large data center customers on-premise. The availability of such private cloud implementations addresses issues of control and compliance that have made cloud computing unfeasible to many corporate and government customers.

“The benefits are associated with control, compliance and keeping the data locally, data sovereignty. These are important benefits that allow for much more extensive solutions being built around this cloud environment,” Muglia said.

For eBay, the appliance will ease deployment without moving its huge auction and PayPal payment processing service off premises. “If I want to deploy an application today for eBay.com within my data centers I need to secure the hardware, provision a network, hook up the load balancer and make it part of the infrastructure,” said James Barrese, eBay’s VP of Technology, speaking at a press conference following the keynote.

Dell, Fujitsu and HP will all offer the appliances later this year, based on pre-defined hardware specifications by Microsoft. The hardware vendors said they see opportunities for both offering hosting services to customers as well as selling systems to very large enterprises such as government agencies and large corporations.

Though the companies are not discussing the configurations, the initial implementations will house just shy of 1,000 servers, Muglia said. One partner that appeared totally surprised by the launch of the appliance was Harry Zarek, CEO of Compugen in Toronto. When confronted on camera by Jon Roskill, the new Corporate VP for Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group said, “We have been a Microsoft partner for 20 years, having gone through the traditional product resale and service support. We had a fear that this business was going to trickle through our hands and move into the data center. We had a big question what we would be left with. This is the missing link, this is the piece we need to give us the destination over the next few years, in the cloud, and we have an important role to play.”

Muglia said the cloud has forced Microsoft to reinvent itself and will require its partners to do the same. It’s a change that is inevitable, it is a change that allows us all to deliver new value, it’s a change that thankfully is not happening overnight, and it is a change we will embrace together,” he said.

Source: Redmondmag.com, By: Jeffrey Schwartz

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Virtual Servers, Real Growth

July 12th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Citrix, Citrix Solutions, Microsoft, Microsoft Infrastructure, Server Virtualization, Virtual Clinical Workstation, Virtual Desktop Management, Virtual Desktop Technology, Virtual Infrastructure, Virtual Workstation, Virtualization, VMware

 

If you follow tech industry trends, you’ve probably heard of cloud computing, an increasingly popular approach of delivering technology resources over the Internet rather than from on-site computer systems.

Chances are, you’re less familiar with virtualization — the obscure software that makes it all possible.

The concept is simple: rather than having computers run a single business application — and sit idle most of the time — virtualization software divides a system into several “virtual” machines, all running software in parallel.

The technology not only squeezes more work out of each computer, but makes large systems much more flexible, letting data-center techies easily deploy computing horsepower where it’s needed at a moment’s notice.

The approach cuts costs, reducing the amount of hardware, space and energy needed to power up large data centers. Maintaining these flexible systems is easier, too, because managing software and hardware centrally requires less tech support.

The benefits of virtualization have made cloud computing an economical alternative to traditional data centers.

“Without virtualization, there is no cloud,” said Charles King, principal analyst of Pund-IT.

That’s transforming the technology industry and boosting the fortunes of virtualization pioneers such as VMware (NYSE:VMW – News), Citrix Systems (NMS:CTXS), two of the best-performing stocks in IBD’s specialty enterprise software group. As of Friday, the group ranked No. 24 among IBD’s 197 Industry Groups, up from No. 121 three months ago.

1. Business

Specialty enterprise software represents a small but fast-growing segment of the overall software enterprise market, which according to market research firm Gartner is set to hit $229 billion this year.

As with most software, the segment is a high-margin business. With high upfront development costs but negligible manufacturing and distribution expenses, specialty software companies strive for mass-market appeal. Once developers recoup their initial development costs, additional sales represent pure profit.

Software developers also make money helping customers install and run their software, another high-margin business.

But competition is fierce. Unlike capital-intensive businesses, software companies require no factory, heavy equipment, storefront or inventory to launch. Low barriers to entry mean a constant stream of new competitors looking to out-innovate incumbents.

In addition to the virtualization firms, notable names in the group include CA Technologies (NMS:CA) and Compuware (NMS:CPWR).

All offer infrastructure software to manage data centers.

“Big-iron” mainframe computers began using virtualization in the 1970s, around the time when CA and Compuware were founded.

In the late 1990s, VMware brought the technology to low-cost systems running ordinary Intel (NMS:INTC) chips. VMware has since emerged as the dominant player in virtualization.

Citrix has added a twist to the concept, virtualizing desktop computers. Rather than installing workers’ operating system and applications on hundreds of PCs spread across the globe, companies can use the technology to run PCs from a bank of central servers. Workers, who access their virtual PCs over the Internet, don’t know the difference.

Microsoft (NMS:MSFT) has jumped in with its own virtualization product, HyperV, which it bundles free into Windows Server software packages. Oracle (NMS:ORCL) and Red Hat (NYSE:RHT – News) have launched virtualization products as well.

Meanwhile, CA and Compuware are racing to move beyond their mainframe roots to support virtualization and cloud-computing-enabled data centers. In February, CA said it would buy 3Tera to build services and deploy applications aimed at the cloud-computing market.

And Compuware bought privately held Gomez, Inc. last fall to manage cloud application performance.

Name Of The Game: Innovate. With a fast-moving market and steady influx of new competitors, keeping customers happy with good service and money-saving breakthroughs is vital.

2. Market

Nearly everyone who runs a corporate computer system is a potential buyer of virtualization software. Companies ramping up their information-technology purchases use the software to manage their sprawling infrastructure; others with limited budgets use it to squeeze more out of their existing systems.

Sales of server-virtualization software are set to grow 14% this year to $1.28 billion, according to a report by Lazard Capital Markets. Sales of software to manage virtual environments will grow 44% in 2010 to $1.88 billion.

Desktop virtualization revenue will rise 184% this year to $847.8 million. Citrix has the edge in this budding market with its XenDesktop product.

VMware is dominant among large enterprises, controlling about 85% of the server virtualization market. Microsoft is favored by small and midsize companies.

Virtualization is seen as “a strategic asset” for enabling cloud computing, and continues to gain momentum, says Lazard analyst Joel Fishbein.

VMware has the early-mover advantage in this market with its vSphere platform and has stayed ahead by adding new features such as data security and disaster recovery, analysts say.

But Citrix is partnering closely with Microsoft to take on VMware in virtualization.

3. Climate

Competition is heating up as companies scramble to adopt virtualization. Before 2009, just 30% of companies used virtualization, says analyst Fishbein. This year, that will double to 60%. Most of the gain is coming from small and midsize customers.

In addition, virtual servers are soon expected to more than double as a percentage of the overall server workload, from 18% today to 48% by 2012.

VMware says it can stay a step ahead of the pack by building new features into its products, says Dan Chu, VMware’s vice president of cloud infrastructure and services.

“We have a large technology lead with what we enable for our customers,” Chu said. “We are several years ahead of what the others are doing.”

Citrix CEO Mark Templeton says his firm’s broadening strategy — offering a variety of products with multiple licensing options and distribution channels — will grow sales.

“What’s going on is a massive shift in how computing gets delivered,” Templeton said. “In an environment that’s changing so dramatically, the highest-risk thing you can do is not act.”

4. Technology

The first virtualization boom stemmed from a shift over the last decade away from big expensive mainframes and minicomputers to massive banks of cheap Intel-powered machines. Virtualization gave these low-cost systems some of the high-end features of their pricier counterparts.

Virtualization software makers are betting on a second wave of growth fueled by the industrywide shift to cloud computing.

Technology managers use virtualization to run cloud computing in their own data centers. And large tech vendors such as Microsoft use the technology for cloud-computing services they sell to customers.

Dividing computers into isolated virtual machines gives cloud service providers the benefits of shared computing resources without the security downsides.

VMware has the early lead in virtualization. But the technology is quickly becoming a commodity as Microsoft and others bundle it into their broader platforms.

“VMware is known as a virtualization company, and Microsoft is a platform company,” said David Greschler, who heads up Microsoft’s virtualization efforts. “Their strategy is to sell virtualization, but our strategy is to make virtualization available as part of a larger platform at no extra cost.”

At the same time, a shift toward a world of cloud-computing services hosted by the likes of Microsoft, Amazon.com (NMS:AMZN) and Google (NMS:GOOG) could lead to fewer companies purchasing virtualization software themselves.

Source: Investor’s Business Daily

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