Six Months In …

It’s six months since I started this blog.  Six months ago I decided to get back into the contracting market and launch myself as an independent consultant.  I left a great company (4sol Ltd) but I felt it was the right thing for me at the time.

This blog was launched with the intention of using it as an extension for my CV/resume.  It’s become way more than that.  I think I’m learning more and more and becoming more aware of the marketplace because of my desire to keep the blog up to date.  For that, I’ve got to thank you, the regular readers and RSS subscribers.  I’ve been keeping an eye on my hit rates which have gone up from a few hits a day to thousands in a week.  That has driven me to keep up with how things are developing.

I truly thank each of you for checking out my blog on a regular basis.  I pledge to keep it up to date as much as I can and I’ll keep adding my own appreciation of how things are going rather than just simply regurgitating RSS and news feeds.

By the way, you may have noticed that my other passion in life is photography.  If you’re interested, I recently started a blog of my photographic efforts and knowledge.  I can’t say I’ll ever be able to keep the updates on that blog coming as frequently but I will add the 2 cents that I have … Windows IT Pro’s surveys do indicate that a significant number of IT pros are into photography!

Microsoft Support: Windows Server 2003 SP2 Compatibility

Microsoft has released a listing of applications that they have tested against Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2.  Obviously they cannot test everything so you should check with your ISV’s before deploying SP2 onto your Windows 2003 Servers, test, backup and then deploy following a change control process with a rollback plan in place.  I’d recommend pilot machines being selected before you go about deploying on a widespread basis.

And a lesson learned from SP1.  I haven’t checked if MS have released an SMS package definition file yet (PDF).  If they have, make sure you disable the installation time limit.  SP1 had a deadline that was too short for slower servers and would leave them inoperable, i.e. stop the installation half way through.  I’m glad to say I found that one in a test lab.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and Automatic Updates

The Microsoft Server team posted a quick article informing us that although SP2 will be available immediately as a high priority update on AU, it will not be forced onto machines for the first 3 months.  If you wish to prevent this installation then you can deploy and manage a blocker tool for SP2.  The toolkit contains an executable, script and a Group Policy ADM template.  You can use either of the 3 methods to create and edit a registry key that blocks or enables SP2 installation.

The key is HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Update.  The value controlling the installation is DoNotAllowSP.  Setting this to "1" will block installation of SP2 indefinitely via Automatic Update or Windows Update.  The best solution to control this in an AD environment will of course be to use the ADM template and Group Policy.

Quick Look at CM 2007 Beta 2

A lot has changed since Beta 1 of Configuration Manager 2007.  I had a quick look yesterday and some quick things I noticed:

  • The user interface has started to be updated.  SMS is more frequently being referred to as ConfigMgr.
  • After a quick look, boundaries are simplified to just "fast" and "slow and unreliable".
  • When defining a boundary, you can browse for an available AD site or even define an IPv6 prefix.
  • Software update management used WSUS 3.0 for update synchronisation.  The GUI of the role configuration is lifted right from WSUS.
  • OS Deployment now uses WDS as a PXE engine.  It feature a new role for PXE.
  • There is a mixed mode (supporting SMS 2003 in the hierarchy) and mixed mode.
  • Mixed mode requires a PKI.  It also allows for Internet based clients.
  • A management point can be made available to Internet clients.
  • The mixed mode PKI requires a lot of work before you even start installing CM 2007.  The documentation available for beta 2 is flawed.  You need to create 2 new templates and issue certs to your ConfigMgr site role hosts.
  • You can jump from native back to mixed mode.
  • Beta 2 does not support SMS 2003 R2 upgrades.
  • Additional functionality includes desired configuration management.
  • There’s no more mention of legacy clients.

I’ll post some more as I come across it.  I plan to work through the product ASAP.

Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 RTM

Microsoft has just released Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003.  Note that this also upgrades Windows XP x64 to Service Pack 2.  As usual, it’s a cumulative update, i.e. if you build Windows 2003 with no service pack then you can bring it up to date by applying this service pack and any post SP2 updates.

There’s a whole bunch of releases:

There’s also some deployment preparation tools available:

  • KB Analyser Tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Deployment: After you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack (SP2), the system does not trust binaries that are installed by out-of-band updates. (An out-of-band update is an update that Microsoft makes available outside the regular product shipment cycle.) The Oobmig.exe tool restores trust to these out-of-band updates.  There is also an Itanium version.
  • Hotfix Scan Tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2: You can use this tool to scan for hotfixes that will potentially regress after you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2.
  • System Preparation Tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2:  This is an updated version of Sysprep.  There is an x86 and x64 version.

The Support Tools have also been updated:

Have a read of the document that I wrote on Windows 2003/Windows XP x64 SP2 while it was still in beta if you want to know what is included and how to deploy it.