Brian S. Tucker

If you are running Windows 7 and are on a MCS engagement, you know you need to enter your time and or expenses each week. While for the first few weeks IE in 7 worked fine, this week did not. If you experience this, use the RDP string to connect to the Terminal Server.

cpts.partners.extranet.microsoft.com

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All versions of Windows 7 were released 10 minutes ago... Have fun!

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·         4/30  - RC Availability to managed Beta programs including MSDN and TechNet subscribers, Connect Beta testers, and TAP customers

·         5/5 – Availability through the Customer Preview Program. Anyone can download the RC build through this program.

·         TBD – RTM availability has not been set yet. See timing guidance below.

As with the Beta, customers will be able to download Windows 7 RC online from Windows.com, TechNet and MSDN.  There will be no limits on the number of keys provided or the number of Windows 7 downloads supported.  RC downloads will be available at least through June 2009. 

Windows 7 Release Timeline, including RTM guidance?

In talking about the delivery of Windows 7 and when we expect to achieve the next milestones in the product release, it’s important to talk about the key milestones, and the goals and principles that we plan to achieve at each stage; then you as the partner can be the judge as to whether we achieved the goal of each milestone, the quality of the product, and when you believe we will release the product.

• PDC (Professional Developers Conference). The first major milestone was the release at PDC of the Milestone 3 (M3) build of Windows 7.  The goal at this point was to provide a product that was platform complete and reliable to release to the developer (ISV) and IHV ecosystem and enable them to start preparing their applications and hardware for Windows 7.   The feedback was very positive.

• Beta.  In the January timeframe, the goal was to provide a product that performed well, was reliable and was feature complete, so that we could share it with a broad set of end users and IT professionals, providing them with a first look at the upcoming OS and allowing them to factor Windows 7 into their deployment and migration planning.  It is estimated that 2.8M customers installed and used Windows 7 Beta. The customer reception has been very positive.   Customer feedback and beta testing results are the key factor in defining the timing of the next milestone. 

• RC (Release Candidate).  Our next release, Windows 7 RC, will be available beginning April 30th.  The goal for the RC is to deliver a very high quality product that demonstrates our aspiration on the quality of the final RTM version.   With RC our goal is to get broad evaluation from IT Professionals and businesses testing it in their environments. 

• RTM.  The final engineering milestone is the release to manufacturing (RTM).  This release is typically 3-5 months after the RC.  We believe the product is very high quality and to date have received very positive feedback.  This might result in RTM delivery before the 3-5 months timeframe.  But ultimately you'll decide the quality and assess the delivery once you download and use the RC.  Customer and partner feedback will determine how quickly we release after RC. The released version of Windows 7 will typically be made available to our Windows Volume Licensing customers 2-3 weeks after RTM.

Why should partners and customers upgrade to Windows 7 RC?

·         First, to experience the latest that Windows 7 has to offer.  Several new features, including XP VPC, are available in the RC build of Windows 7.  Also, users will experience continued improvements in overall system performance and polish.

·         Second, for those using a Beta version of Windows 7, it is important to migrate to Windows 7 RC to avoid the timebomb that is build into Windows 7 Beta.  That timebomb will activate on 7/1/2009.   Two weeks before the timebomb activates (on 6/17), users will begin receiving frequent notifications about the timebomb.  When the timebomb activates, users will experience frequent notifications and forced reboots. 

Please advise your customers who are using the Windows 7 Beta to migrate to Windows 7 RC to avoid the timebomb.  It is imperative that everyone running Windows 7 Beta move to RC, when available.  Note that all Beta customers who registered for a key will receive several e-mails notifying them of the timebomb and encouraging them to move to Windows 7 RC.  (Windows 7 RC also has a built-in timebomb, but this will not activate until 3/1/2010.)

What is the recommended path to migrate to Windows 7 RC?

The recommended path to migrate to Windows 7 RC depends on what operating system you are currently running:

In all of these scenarios, the Windows Easy Transfer tool can be used make it easier to restore files and settings after a clean install.

 How will Microsoft collect and use feedback from Windows 7 RC?

The “Send Feedback” feature isn’t in Windows 7 RC, because we’re at a later stage of the software development process. With this release, we’re focused on verifying that all the changes and fixes we made based on the Beta tests and feedback are working correctly. We do that by gathering the automatically generated information (called telemetry) that your PC sends us when you use Windows 7 RC.  Telemetry provides information about when your computer hangs, crashes or has performance issues, and it lets us know what applications or devices you were using when you experienced problems.  It is important that we get this data from thousands of different hardware configurations in order to complete Windows 7.  This will help us confirm that the fixes we included based on Beta feedback work on a wide range of hardware, and identify any new problems. 

Where can I get Windows 7 materials?

-          Windows 7 MSPP Site

-          Windows 7 Customer Site

-          Windows 7 Shop

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It's been a while since Microsoft made some SCCM videos and I'm very interested in the one for deploying Windows 7 with OSD! Follow the links to register.

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Microsoft and others are pulling out all the stops to get you the information you need about this years summit. Here are just a few links that will help you get the pulse of the conference.

http://twitter.com/mms09 - TWITTER?

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Adaptiva^TM, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is inviting participation in the beta test for its Configuration Manager 2007 and SMS 2003 client health product.

Adaptiva Client Health^TM performs scheduled and instant health checks, on either a PC or on collections, helping you to maximize the success of your computer management services. Proactively identify issues, remedy them and view detailed reports. Extend health checks and remediation mechanisms to ensure an available and updated desktop environment.

·         Independent Monitoring Framework: No use of ConfigMgr/SMS client side infrastructure as the purpose is to detect defective client side infrastructure.

·          Tests End-to-End Functionality: Test end-to-end functionality rather than construe the lack of known errors to imply health. E.g. A hardware inventory ping proves that hardware inventory is sent from the client and received at the server.

·         Extensible and Exportable: Extend the client health framework as per your needs. Custom scripts are treated as in-built ones. Scripts can be exported and shared.

o   ConfigMgr/SMS agent checks

o   Operating system checks: WMI, BITS, WSUS

o   System performance checks

o   Security checks

·         Health check failure based collections, machines removed on successful remediation

Adaptiva, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, extends Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager and Systems Management Server to provide PC power and configuration management solutions. Our solutions help organizations reduce the impact of desktop computing on the environment, improve manageability of distributed Windows environments and increase end-user productivity. Adaptiva is trusted by over 80 customers in 11 countries. Learn more at http://www.adaptiva.com.

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WHO:                Peter Burnham, Co-founder of Adaptiva, a Microsoft Gold Partner focused on lowering the TCO of Windows desktops, will present “Extending ConfigMgr: Go Green and Save Money”.

WHAT:             Peter will demonstrate real-world experiences on saving PC energy and reducing carbon emissions while increasing productivity.  Adaptiva’s Green Planet and OneSite products will feature:

Power Management

·         Power policy governance: Administrator vs. end-user control

·         Granular user profiles: custom work and vacation schedules

·         Consolidating your ConfigMgr/SMS hierarchy into one site

·         Wake-on-LAN for ConfigMgr/SMS actions

·         Energy savings and Wake-on-LAN reporting

WHEN:             Wednesday, April 29, 2009

2:15pm – 3:30pm

                           WHERE:          MMS 2009

                                                      Veronese 2405, Venetian Hotel
                           Las Vegas, Nevada

WHY:                Peter has 24 years of experience in bringing ideas to profitability. He specializes in software that improves operational effectiveness for systems administrators and end-users.

                          Adaptiva™, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, extends Microsoft's Configuration Manager and Systems Management Server to provide PC power and configuration management solutions that help you

                           ·         Increase desktop manageability and end-user productivity

                           ·         Save IT operations cost

For more information, visit www.adaptiva.com

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There have been a few really good posts about how to do a side by side migration, but I ran across a bit of a different scenario recently and wanted to share the process with you if it fits into what you are looking to do. It's actually quite painless and you keep everything you have including collections, packages, advertisements, reports and queries.

Requirement: Perform a Side by Side upgrade from SMS 2003 with SQL 2000 on a X86 2003 server to Server 2003 Enterprise X64 & SQL 2005 X64

Problem: SMS 2003 is not only unsupported, but will NOT install on a X64 server. So, how do we accomplish this task?

While I had a few ideas, I finally came up with the following scenario that has worked 100% and will for you if this is your intended goal.

1. Backup your current SMS 2003 server 100%.
2. Build a standard Server 2003 box and load SQL 2005 SP2 (or SQL 2008 with the supported hotfix). Install all the IIS requirements that SMS 2003 requires.
3. Install SMS 2003 SP(X) as a new primary server to match what you currently have as a SMS 2003 Central Primary. Configure all the settings. Create an address from the new server to the old and one on the old to the new. Add the Server$ name to the local admin group on each server and give the new server permission as required on the System container in AD. Change the settings on the new SMS server not to be a Central Primary and have it report to the old (current) Central Primary site code. Now you have your current Central Primary and a new child primary in the hierarchy. Allow the collections, packages and advertisements to transfer to the new child. Once all has been replicated, you can proceed.
4. On the child primary, run the SCCM prerequisite checker and fix ALL warnings and or errors. Once you have all the prerequisites resolved, extend the AD schema for SCCM. Once SCCM is installed, configure the server as required. Make sure you don't have ANY overlapping boundaries between both sites.
5. Delete the address you created on the SCCM and SMS boxes to break the hierarchy. Change the SCCM server from being a child primary to be a central primary. Wait for all the padlocks to remove on all the replicated objects. The collections, advertisements and packages will NOT be orphaned by this process. They will still hold all the ID's from the old SMS server.
6. Now you have a Central Primary SCCM server with a new site code. At this stage, you have 2 central primary servers in your environment. Now we want to do the same process, but on the final X64 server with SQL X64 (optional, but suggested). On the X64 server, install SCCM the same way you did before and give it a unique site code. During the install process, make it a primary server... Once you have SCCM installed, do the same process you did on your last server by making it a child primary of the SCCM Central Primary. Allow time for the replication of all the objects, just like before. Once they are all there and padlocked, remove the addresses and make the X64 SCCM server a central primary again. That's the basics of the process, but here are a few more things you should know.

Note:

• As stated, all your collections, adverts and packages will be migrated with the SAME old ID's. This is actually good to keep things working. This entire process can almost be considered an "in-place" upgrade!
• Queries and Reports do not migrate. You will have to export them from the old SMS server into .mof files and import them on the SCCM server. Queries seem to import well, but if you have a lot of reports, you might want to export them in multiple files. If you had 1,000, they would export ok, but the import would hang forever. Watch out for duplicates from what was in SMS and what''s in reports and queries in SCCM.
• Another key thing to note is that for all objects: collections, packages, advertisements, reports and queries... if they are in a folder that you have made, they will not replicate or able to be exported. All replicated objects and imported objects will go direct to the root folder for that given object.
• Package source directories will remain as they were. If you package source was NOT on the SMS server, then you don't have to worry about anything. However, if they were on the old server, then you have to do a little fix. Copy the entire package source folder over to the new SCCM server. I have attached a script written by Francisco Merizalde (with his permission) which will simply change the server name for all packages. The command line is included in the attached text file.
• You can delete all collections for the ITMU if you had it installed with SMS as this will not be an option in this scenario. To continue patching, you will need to install WSUS 3.0 SP1 (current release at the time of this post) and setup your SUP role.
• Of course you will have to remove all the boundaries of your old SMS server and add them to your SCCM server.
• Since all your clients are still SMS 2003, they may not get the new site code until you decommission your SMS server. If the SMS server is still up and running, you can use one of the 3rd party tools to change the site code.

This was an interesting upgrade and I don't think that it's been documented this way, but it's easy and works 100%. If you have any questions, just post a comment. If I think of anything I missed in the process, I will update this post.

If the attachment is not listed, below are the instructions for the script.

Throw this in a .vbs file and run from the command line using cscript. Make sure and put the servername that should be the source for the packages after the script name on the commanline.Cscript <Script Name> <SERVER Name>i.e.cscript packagemodify.vbs SERVER123 (where SERVER123 is the new server you have copied the source to)