System Center Updates Publisher 2011

While at MMS 2011 I attended a session on the new release of SCUP - System Center Updates Publisher 2011. If you are not familiar with SCUP, SCUP is an application that indirectly interfaces with ConfigMgr and allows you to create, manage and publish third party updates by using the WSUS engine. Currently only Adobe, Dell and HP are publishing their update catalogues for use with SCUP but interest is high so hopefully we’ll see more major vendors follow suit. Microsoft has pretty much completely rewritten the product which makes it much more user friendly. Some key features include:


• No database required
• The ability to set automatic publishing rules
• Support for ConfigMgr 2007 & 2012
• Software update cleanup wizard which help with any unreferenced updates

An important component that is still required by SCUP 2011 is a self-signed certificate. When an update is approved it is then made available to WSUS, once the update has been imported into WSUS it can be made available to ConfigMgr clients using your normal software update process. Watch for SCUP 2011 to drop sometime in Q2 of this year.

Unable to Delete Management Object in ConfigMgr

Recently I was having problem with one of my branch distribution points. I could no longer replicate packages to it and after some investigation I found that it had two machine records. (one was marked obsolete) The problem is that you can't delete the obsolete record until remove the Distribution Point role from the site system. After I removed the Distribution Point role from the server I was still unable to delete the record and this time the console gave me this error:

"Failure deleteing management object"

and if I expanded the details I got:

ConfigMgr Error Object:
instance of SMS_ExtendedStatus
{
 CauseInfo = "9";
 Description = "Error deleting discovery data in SQL";
 ErrorCode = 2168655109;
 File = "e:\\nts_sms_fre\\sms\\siteserver\\sdk_provider\\smsprov\\sspresource.cpp";
 Line = 388;
 Operation = "DeleteInstance";
 ParameterInfo = "SMS_R_System.ResourceId=3090";
 ProviderName = "WinMgmt";
 StatusCode = 2147749889;
};

I found the following post on myitforum.com and I ran the four SQL queries that were posted (about half way down the page) in the forum and I was then able to delete the record.

SELECT *
FROM PkgServers
WHERE NALPath='["Display=\\DP Name\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=Site Code"]\\DP Name\'

DELETE
FROM PkgServers
WHERE NALPath='["Display=\\DP Name\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=Site Code"]\\DP Name\'

SELECT *
FROM PkgStatus
WHERE PkgServer='["Display=\\DP Name\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=Site Code"]\\DP Name\'

DELETE
FROM PkgStatus
WHERE PkgServer='["Display=\\DP Name\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=Site Code"]\\DP Name\'

Windows boot error NTOSKRNL.exe is Missing or Corrupt

If you have every spent any time supporting Windows boxes this error will be very familuar to you. Every once in while when you reboot a workstation or server you'll get the famous NTOSKRNL.exe is Missing or Corrupt error  Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
         C:\Windows\System32\Ntoskrnl.exe
It's fairly straight forward to resolve this problem. Start by booting your machine from the install media when prompted follow these steps
- Boot to the recovery console (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326215)
- Select your Windows installation that you want to recover
- When prompted provide the local administrator password
- Once you are into the recovery console you will probably be sitting at a C:\WINDOWS prompt
- Change the directory to the i386 folder on your CD / DVD drive (If you only have one partition it will most likely be D:\)
- Copy the following files to the C:\ drive
        copy ntldr C:
        copy ntdetect.com C:
- Change your source directory back to C:\Windows
- Next you will need to fix your boot record
       fixboot C:
- Most likely you will also have to fix the boot .ini using the bootcfg command
 bootcfg /rebuild
- Add the required Windows installation to your boot list
- Add the Load Identifier (Custom description)
- Add the OS Load Options (/fastdetect)
- Type exit to reboot the machine
Your machine should now be recovered from the NTOSKRNL.exe is Missing or Corrupt" error. If you are looking for a little more detail here is a pretty good post. Use this information at your own risk.

Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 released for public consumption

Today Microsoft made available Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 via its Windows Update and download center sites. SP1 includes the new RemoteFX feature which delivers Direct3D acceleration and on the server side SP1 includes Dynamic Memory. This essentially allows on-the-fly adjustment of memory allocation for virtual machines being hosted on Hyper-V.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows/downloads/service-packs

Internet Explorer 9 Preview

I’ve been running IE 9 since the early beta versions were released and I must say it's pretty solid. IE 9 offers a cleaned up interface which by default removes the status bar, favourites bar an many of the command buttons. Microsoft still gives you the option to add these features back on but I like the fact that they are trying to make the interface as clean as possible.  Some of the nicest features includes a download bar that allows you to manage your downloads independently from your browsing session, the "new tab" window now includes a list of your most popular sites and the ability to reopen closed tabs but I think that the nicest feature is that Microsoft has finally integrated the address bar and the search bar – much like Google’s Chrome. However, if you're still running Windows XP you're out of luck as IE 9 is currently only available for Windows Vista or Windows 7 and it doesn't look like Microsoft is going to change their stance. Try it today…

http://windows.microsoft.com/ie9