I just uploaded a major revision to the project (download here) that includes more Active Directory integration and adding computers to multiple collections at once. Still a work in progress. If you installed the first release, make sure you backup your "_settings.asp" file to avoid overwriting your custom configurations. Keep the feedback coming. Thanks!
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
I mentioned this earlier and I have an update to share. I've been working on several projects that involve SCCM 2007 automation, using scripts, web apps, SQL tasks and so on. I extrapolated a somewhat generic approach to see if it could be of use to anyone else.
The ASP project files are contained in a .ZIP file. It's self-contained with all the necessary stuff and in the correct folder structure. There's a __README.txt file inside the .ZIP that you should read for help with pre-requisites, setup, known issues and so on. I'm curious to see if anyone finds this useful. I don't have any plans to sell it, so it will likely be an open source project per se.
Everything you need to configure is found within the "_settings.asp" file, and needs to be edited to suit your test environment. Use Notepad or some sort of ASCII text editor to update that file. Do not ever use Microsoft Word or anything like that. Please.
There is no warranty provided. No support provided either. I assume no liability for any damages or loss of data or productivity for any direct or indirect use of this application. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. If you have questions you can e-mail me at the address provided inside the project documents.
I have tested it on Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2005, 2008, and with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2. I have not tested it with SCCM 2007 R2, nor have I tested with the pre-release versions of SCCM 2012.
If this turns into something with legs, I may post more documentation and breath more life into it with additional features and capabilities. I do not have any plans at this time to port the code to ASP.NET or PHP or anything else. I'm just seeing if it's of any use to anyone else before I decide whether to keep it on life support or pull the plug.
I've had a few people ask me about how to run a sequence of programs in a particular order via a single SCCM advertisement. There are a few ways to do this:
- Using program dependencies (ie. "run another program first")
- Using a Task Sequence
- Using a script as a packaged program entity
The issue with the first option is that once you've installed the package, and it comes back with "failed" and you make an adjustment and try to re-run it, it won't. SCCM won't allow a dependency-based advertisement to re-run, not even with SCCM Console Tools or SCCM Admin Tools or any of the custom add-on utilities out there. It's a known feature of SCCM. An advertisement that targets a Collection with a program that uses a "run another program first" sequence can only be run once per client, regardless of the outcome (e.g. "succeeded" or "failed").
Option 2 is possible, but messy at times.
Option 3 is easiest, and best. Make a .CMD or .BAT script (almost the same thing actually) that runs the individual program commands in the desired order. Then target that program entity via an Advertisement so that it runs only one program (the .CMD or .BAT script file). Also, read up on the "%~dps" and "%~dps0" path expansion variables. Use them to avoid hard-coding path locations unless absolutely necessary.
Also - Remember that with Autodesk network deployments, the deployment .INI file forces a hard-coded UNC path reference. Even if you load that deployment into SCCM and assign a Distribution Point, you will be wasting a lot of time and disk space for nothing. When the advertisement runs from the hidden package deployment shares, it will read the installation location setting in the deployment .INI file and proceed to pull everything from that path location, not the Distribution Point. And, no, you cannot enter a variable inside the .INI file to make it referential. It's always explicit.
Cheers!
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Reunions are so sweet. Today I turned 47. For my birthday, my wife got me a new Western Digital, Caviar Black 1 TB SATA hard drive. I opened the box and went into a dream state. All the new space to fill just makes me smile and sigh. After a few minutes of that daze, I snapped out of it and got to work. I powered down my server, disconnected everything, and opened the case. That was it. Apparently, the motherboard decided it was time to join the afterlife.
I huddled with one of my friends who happens to be pretty damn good with server hardware. He and I poked at it for a few hours, scratching our heads (our own, not each others, thank you), and saying things like "hmmmm" and "Hmmmmmm" a lot. I swapped power supplies, video cards, RAM chips, cooling fans, cables and hard drives. Nothing. Just a benign blinking power light and nothing behind the wheel. The patient was dead. So plan "C" was to swap out the motherboard. Bingo! That worked.
Nice thing was that the server is running 2008 R2 and while it took a bit longer to wake up with the new hardware, it recalibrated and awoke with a smile. I'm good. It's funny how a domain behaves when your only domain controller is offline for several days. Yes, I know that violates my "best practice" advice (and Microsoft's) to have more than one domain controller, but budgets are tight, so I have to work with what I have. The important thing is that it's back and I'm back and things are much better now. Cheers!
Monday, 7 March 2011
I've lived in the South most of my life. We can't pronounce shit correctly here. In fact, we can't pronounce the word "shit" properly. We say "sheeeit" and usually follow it up with something cerebral like "f-ing A" or "dang rat" (that's "dang right" with a special twang on it).
This effort is both falsely constructed and stupid as shit in its aim. Let me explain why.
First off, what is "made"? Does that mean the rare Earth minerals, timber, gasses and fossil fuels are mined or extracted here? In a bonafide "state" or a protectorate? Or does it mean the raw materials are imported (most likely, since U.S. mining is in a state of near comatose stupor now) and are then processed into wholesale commodities for downstream manufacturing? Or does it mean the wholesale materials are imported and the final products are assembled here? Is it the diamond coat paint, or the pigment and vehicle in the can or the can itself? Does that include the paper label? What about the brushes, handles and fibers? How about the air brush kit, the compressor, the electric motor, the conductors, brushes, bearings and windings?
Yes. It's "D" or "All the above".
Retarded, I know. But that's what they call "fine print" reading. That covers the falsely constructed aspect I mentioned above. If you do some research, you will find that the current state of raw mineral mining in the continental United States is dramatically lower than it was in the 1970's. As of 2010 and into 2011, the vast majority of many raw materials like Copper, Iron, Zinc, Paladium, Tin and Nickel are imported from countries with abundant supplies and vastly cheaper labor. When I say "vastly" I mean "VASTLY" cheaper.
A representative from Rio Tinto, one of the largest, if not THE largest of, mining companies on Earth said recently that it would take the United States roughly five years to restore mining output to what it was in the 1970's and the net result would be materials that cost five or ten times as much as they do now. Have you priced Copper lately? Are you familiar with what a spool of 200 feet of Copper wire cost in 2000 and what it costs today? Imagine that increasing again by 5x or 10x. Not a very practical goal. Sound familiar? Ever heard oil company executives talk about domestic drilling costs? (no, I don't count politicians talking shit about it. I only count the official sources).
I haven't lost you yet, have I? Good. Stay with me…
So, this "Made in America" crap is dangerously misleading. It's a twisted, fine-print riddled mess designed to spin up the emotions (and viewer ratings) of people who think NASCAR and competitive eating should be awarded Nobel prizes. But that's not all. Now on to the stupid as shit in its aim aspect…
If you can add numbers, just basic numbers, you should be able to pull up some official numbers from government and industry web sites and add them up and realize, eventually, that if we only bought domestically produced products, it would make things worse. Why? Because we, as Americans, cannot consume enough goods to keep all our current factories running. We have to sell some of our goods to other customers: Translation = foreign consumers. That's right: we do in fact, regardless of what you've been told, still export things for sale in other countries. Amazing. I know.
Without the ability to spread our sales across America, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East, a lot of our manufacturing would simply die out. Any Economics 101 student knows this, but if you don't believe school is any good I suppose that's a meaningless claim.
The story from here on gets more and more complicated obviously. In order to convince another country to sell your products, they also want an agreement that you sell theirs in your country. Then it progresses from this to the trend of establishing manufacturing and distribution channels around the world to improve distribution and delivery to all customers, so you build factories and warehouses in other countries, and they build in yours. That's why there are Toyota and Honda plants in America and we have Nike, Ford and GM plants in Germany and China.
So, when you decide to only buy American products, you may feel good. But if everyone does that, sales of foreign goods drop in America and foreign trade partners cancel agreements and then American products don't sell outside of America. Guess who bought most Harley-Davidson motorcycles last year? Guess who buys most Levi denims and Apple iPad devices? Here's a hint: "taint 'merica!"
Conclusion
Instead of buying something because it has a label, buy it because of its quality. Buy the best made products and force the competition to step up. Pandering to sub-standard shit only keeps them making, and you paying for, shit. Don't reward shit.
Mondays.
Meetings. Project Status Updates. Estimates. More status updates. More meetings. Phone calls. E-mails. Portals. Catching up. In the end, very little productive work is done, at least not until late in the day and into the next morning. Printers die. Applications lock up. Services stop. Processes spin-out and eat the CPU. Users get frustrated. It can push anyone to frustration.
Then I tune into TED. And I see this, and I forget the irritations of technology and remember the wonder of it all. The hope that it brings through hard work and imagination. Ultimately for the purpose of helping each other.
Updated: The TED video link appears to be hosed. Here's the direct URL...
http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html
Meetings. Project Status Updates. Estimates. More status updates. More meetings. Phone calls. E-mails. Portals. Catching up. In the end, very little productive work is done, at least not until late in the day and into the next morning. Printers die. Applications lock up. Services stop. Processes spin-out and eat the CPU. Users get frustrated. It can push anyone to frustration.
Then I tune into TED. And I see this, and I forget the irritations of technology and remember the wonder of it all. The hope that it brings through hard work and imagination. Ultimately for the purpose of helping each other.
Updated: The TED video link appears to be hosed. Here's the direct URL...
http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html
Sunday, 6 March 2011
So I was curious about how gas prices have impacted things like groceries, and decided to save some receipts and packages from just two weeks ago. I shop at Sam's Club, Food Lion and Farm Fresh (depending what I need and where I'm driving)
Factoring in shrinking quantities for some packages like lunch meats, snack bars, snack bags, shredded cheese, pet food, cereal, as well as items with relatively fixed quantity packaging (eggs, milk, bread, etc) I estimate that on a per unit comparison prices have risen somewhere between 15 and 25 percent. Lunch meat prices are particularly insane. Even frozen foods are getting smaller yet more expensive. But that's not new. What seems new is a sharper increase since late February when gas was around $2.95 per gallon for regular. Its now averaging $3.35 per gallon.
We have slightly cheaper gas prices here than the national average for a variety of reasons (one of which I used to work at). But shipments come from other places, where gas prices are a bit higher. This sucks! At this rate, gas will again hit $4 per gallon by Summer, but there's no logical way to forecast it because it's a stupid speculative market.
I just got home from weekly grocery shopping. So that's why I thought of mentioning this.
Factoring in shrinking quantities for some packages like lunch meats, snack bars, snack bags, shredded cheese, pet food, cereal, as well as items with relatively fixed quantity packaging (eggs, milk, bread, etc) I estimate that on a per unit comparison prices have risen somewhere between 15 and 25 percent. Lunch meat prices are particularly insane. Even frozen foods are getting smaller yet more expensive. But that's not new. What seems new is a sharper increase since late February when gas was around $2.95 per gallon for regular. Its now averaging $3.35 per gallon.
We have slightly cheaper gas prices here than the national average for a variety of reasons (one of which I used to work at). But shipments come from other places, where gas prices are a bit higher. This sucks! At this rate, gas will again hit $4 per gallon by Summer, but there's no logical way to forecast it because it's a stupid speculative market.
I just got home from weekly grocery shopping. So that's why I thought of mentioning this.
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