We are Wiggle and Waggling on Sept 12, http://www.ohsre.ca/ehood, Are you?

Well this morning I did it. I became a MCITP: Windows 7 MCITP Enterprise Desktop Support Technician. I wrote the upgrade exam (70-682) which is based on 70-680 MCTS: Windows 7, Configuring and 70-685: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician

This is an exam that I have be “working” on for a while, it all started with the Ottawa Windows 7 Study group. I got the MS Press book before the group even started and I finished reading the book long before the group has its first meeting. Needless to say I never really join the study group. Not too long ago I saw that there was an upgrade exam and I decided then that it made more sense to write one exam to get two certifications. So that is what I did.

Yes, I have already decide what my next exam is going to be and it will be 70-432 : Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance. Although the SQL 2005 version of this exam was the “hardest” exam ever. It still make sense for me to write this exam since I’m always working with SQL.

And yes it has been ~20 months since I wrote my last exam. (70-647)

There is a poll on myITforum that talks about Certification and System Center. Basically what it wants to know is What SC certs do you hold and if you have any Windows 2008 MCITPs

http://www.myitforum.com/absolutenm/templates/site.aspx?articleid=19149&zoneid=120

We are looking to hit 100 votes, Will it be you?

So, my test lab has been running lean and mean for a while. A few weeks back I decided that in order to test ConfigMgr v.Next. I needed to update my lab. In the past I had a few discussion about Hyper-v and getting more performance out of it.

The summary of the tips are:

·        Separate the OS drive from the VMs

·        Separate the page file from the OS and VMs

·        More drives are better

·        Faster RPM is better

·        More memory is better

·        Keep at least 25% free HD space on all drives

·        Defrag your HDs

One of the debates is about RAID setup vs performance, and how to get the most out of it.

Back in Feb 2010, I had the opportunity to use one of the MS Labs, I was surprised at how “fast” everything was. Here are the specs:

HP ProLiant DL380 G5

16GB of RAM

Intel Xeon 5150 (2.66 GHz on a 1333 MHz bus) x 2 socket x 2 core each

HP Smart Array RAID Controllers P400 with 512MB BBWC (Cache)

Hard Drive Configuration:

    C: 2 x 72GB 2.5 inch SAS drives in a RAID 1+0 configuration (68GB of space)

    E: Either 3x146GB or 6x72GB 2.5 inch SAS drives in a RAID 5 configuration (273GB of space)

This lead to a few debates on what is the best setup for Hyper-v.

Everyone agreed that you want: 

·        RAID 1 for OS

·        RAID 1 or RAID 0 for the Page file

The real debate happened when we talked about what RAID should one use for VMs. Should it be RAID 1, 5, 10, 50, or 60?, What size should your sectors be? Should you use caching controller? etc.

On most of my lab servers, I have being using RAID 5 for everything including the OS and page file, as HD space was at a premium.

So when I needed a new lab for v.Next, I decide put some of these tips into practice.

I purchased:

·        Dell R610 (New to me J)

o   24GB of Ram.

o   2 * 147 GB SAS drives 15k RPM

o   4 * 500 GB SAS drives 7.2k RPM

·        Habey DS-1220N 12-bay 3U Rackmount Storage Enclosure

·        HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCI-e x4

·        12 * Western Digital 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s drives 7.2k RPM

Then I setup up the server as:

·        C:\ RAID 1 147 GB  - OS

·        D:\ RAID 1 500 GB – Page file

·        E:\ RAID 1 2TB – ConfigMgr 2k7 VMs

·        F:\ RAID 10 10TB – All other VMs.

·        Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter

·        Two of the 500 GB SAS are un-used right now, as there is an issue with the Dell R610 only allowing 2 RAID setups in a 6 Drive server and only RAID 0 and 1 are allowed. I’m working on getting this fixed.

Generally what do I think of this setup? I notice a big different between this setup and my RAID 5 setup. but I’m un-happy with the HighPoint controller, and I will replace it soon. The reason is simple, there is no management software to speak of and the support is well, let’s just says it’s not good either.

Pro:

·        Tons of HD space

·        Cost

·        Heating cost are reduced in Winter. J

Cons:

·        eSata control has no management tools, yes there is a web page but what good is it? It will not proactively tell you that there is something wrong? It ridiculous.

·        AC costs are higher in the summer. J

Would I do this again?

Yes, I would purchase another Dell R610 Server but only with 4 drives!

Yes, I would consider purchasing another Habey 12 bay case, but it would be nice to have the case HDs down when all the eSata connections are inactive.

No, I would NOT purchase another HighPoint card. Their support is terrible, it is ludicrous that there is no management software (website software does not count as it not proactive) or OpsMgr Management Pack.

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    and FileName = 'iexplore.exe'

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    * 
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    inner join SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGURATION on SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGURATION.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId
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    SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGURATION.IPAddress like "192.168.1.%"

select
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    SYS.Netbios_Name0,
    fcm.SiteCode,
    ROUND(CONVERT (FLOAT ,LDISK.FreeSpace0) / 1024, 2) AS FreeSpace0,
    ROUND (CONVERT (FLOAT, PROC1.MaxClockSpeed0), -2)/ 1000 AS 'Processor (GHz)',
    ROUND (ROUND(CONVERT (FLOAT ,MEM.TotalPhysicalMemory0) / 1048576, 2) * 1024, 0) AS C083, OPSYS.Caption0 AS 'Operating System',
    CONVERT(FLOAT, LEFT(OPSYS.Version0, 3)) Version
FROM
    v_FullCollectionMembership fcm
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    JOIN v_GS_PROCESSOR PROC1 ON SYS.ResourceID = PROC1.ResourceID
    JOIN v_GS_X86_PC_MEMORY MEM ON SYS.ResourceID = MEM.ResourceID
    JOIN v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM OPSYS ON SYS.ResourceID = OPSYS.ResourceID
    JOIN v_GS_LOGICAL_DISK LDISK ON SYS.ResourceID = LDISK.ResourceID AND LDISK.DeviceID0=SUBSTRING(OPSYS.WindowsDirectory0,1,2)
WHERE
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    and fcm.CollectionID=@ID
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    LDISK.FreeSpace0,
    PROC1.MaxClockSpeed0,
    MEM.TotalPhysicalMemory0,
    OPSYS.Caption0,
    OPSYS.Version0,
    fcm.SiteCode

I know that I will! I get to watch our puppy go to the cottage for the first time and see how she like the lake!

I have decided that the forums on www.SMSUG.ca are not being used and due to some SPAMMER populating the membership list, I have closed them down. This is a good thing as it means I will arrange for the site to be convert to a blog only site. With the new site will come a new look a feel. (wait for it)

If you are looking for ConfigMgr , SCCM , SMS, v.Next Forums then I suggest:

www.faqshop.com/forums/

www.myitforum.com/forums

social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager

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I was troubling shooting a WSUS issue and I need to connect to the db to edit some settings. This turns out to be harder than you think when you using Windows Internal db. So how do you connect to the db? Well this post will answer that for you.

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1577

Today I was trying to use the Remote Assistance from ConfigMgr, I keep getting a error message Your Offer to help could not be sent see screen shot below

Of course I did the normal troubleshooting stuff.

·        Check the GPO to ensure it was enabled

·        Pinged the server

·        Mapped a drive to the server

·        Etc.

Eventually I checked the server itself and notice RA was not enabled, so I tried to enabled it. and got a new error message Unable to locate remote assistance. The remote assistance feature may not be installed on this machine. I quickly learned that on Windows 2008 that Remote Assistance is a feature that is NOT installed by default! Once I add it to the server, all was good.

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    ARP.DisplayName0 = 'Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB923845)'