Enterprise Microsoft Q&A: Hello for Buttprint

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Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

FISHMANPET posted:

So what the gently caress Java. I'm trying to install 32 bit Java on a 64 bit Win 7 machine, because of course we still have 32 bit browsers. It looks like Java is making GBS threads itself because the MSI basically drops a zip file into the JRE directory, and then extracts it. But it just sits spinning its wheels forever, because I think it's looking in C:\Program Files, and not C:\Program Files (x86) for its Zip file.

gently caress man, I don't even know.

Jesus, I've slipped so far into the rabbit whole. Apparently there's a packing committee on campus, just for packaging software?

Packaging software is the single most difficult part of creating zero touch images. Most common apps already have silent install options, but some stuff, including most internal apps I've come across are an absolute nightmare.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2010 01:27

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 02:15

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

Sorry, I think I missed this, but why aren't you guys just installing 64 bit Java?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2010 00:07

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

TheRife posted:

We might actually, I had no idea it was that cheap.

Imaging is the least important, we have a pretty basic Ghost/Pxe/WinPE setup that works well for our XP clients, but I do like SCCM for its Windows 7 capabilities.

The big thing we used from DS6.9 was instant control of the users active session. I liked being able to hop in, see what they're seeing, and fix it under their logon.

Inventory was really good too. I also want to setup wake on lan and other power management features so we can shutdown the labs and such from our office. Once I get the hang of it, software deployment will be be as well.

We're a Windows only shop, running about 600 XP clients and 10~ windows 7.

SCCM has remote control capabilities and inventory as well. A lot of people in this thread seem to use SCCM for deployment and package management, but I'd be interested to know how many people are using the software metering/remote control/inventory control features.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2011 02:57

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

If you're just using it for OS deployment then no, it's not worth it. But SCCM is quite a powerful tool if you use all of it. Here's what you can use it for:

Operating system deployment
Application deployment/maintenance
License control
Inventory control
Update control
Version control
Remote administration
Reporting

The reporting is incredibly robust too. You can report on drat near anything in your environment. If WMI or the SCCM client can access an atribute, you can report on it. Need to know how many PCs in your environment have a certain processor type? Or what software is installed? How many licenses of a specific product are in use? Versions? You can look like a star to management with that much information readily available.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2011 17:51

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

lol internet. posted:

How do you use SCCM to manage licenses?

This is totally off topic, but does anyone know how I'll be able to pull part numbers from HP laptops? (Elitebook series.) I'm able to pull model/serial through WMI but having issues with part number. I need this so I can do warranty checks on the whole company inventory.

Here's the Technet section that outlines how to do it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431362.aspx

Essentially you plug the license details for any product into a template then import it. You can then control how many times each package is allowed to be installed.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 04:01

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

lazer_chicken posted:

2k8 woes

Is there any errors or warnings in the event log during login?

# ¿ Mar 25, 2011 14:22

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

Ifan posted:

The MSI the Adobe tool spits out is a bit retarded. Youre only allowed to install it silently. To get a progress bar going you need to open up the MSI/create a transform and change the UILevel property to 3. This allows you to use switches like /passive.

And a heads up if youre planning to deploy it to computers in use:
I was deploying CS5 through SCCM and got really confused when installation on 60% of the clients failed. It always worked fine in my test-environment.
After a bit of research and fidgeting i found out that running a browser on the computer during installation will break it. The original attended Adobe installer lets you know about this, but the generated MSI file doesnt care at all.

That's an interesting bug. I think the easiest way around it would be to write a batch file to taskkill any active browsers and then launch the MSI.

code:

taskkill /IM iexplore.exe
taskkill /IM firefox.exe
taskkill /IM chrome.exe
msiexec /i package.msi /qb-

If you want to warn users you can add:

code:

echo This installer will close any open browsers. Please save your work and press any key to continue.
pause

Then set the package to allow user interaction. If you do warn users you also need to set it to only install when someone is logged in.

Nomex fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Apr 3, 2011

# ¿ Apr 3, 2011 19:08

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

Using batch files in packages works perfectly. I do it all the time.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2011 01:31

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

TheRife posted:

Hey Windows Sysadmins, any of you familiar with APC Smart-UPS units? I have 5 of them in my rack that up until now were unmanaged. I want to manage them all from my network monitoring server, but the stupid Powerchute Agent will only manage one of the 5 that I have connected. Is there any way to manage them all through one server? If not, I'll just put an agent on each server but I'm trying to avoid that.

You need to get Powerchute business edition to manage multiple UPSes.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2011 16:27

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

ghostinmyshell posted:

What do you guys think about Server Core?

I took another stab at it today after finding out .net 4 was finally worked on it, but my application took a crap and died horribly for unknown reasons. The vendor isn't really sure if they support Server Core so they are looking into it.

I like the approach of a minimal Windows installation and R2 does a better job of letting people manage it who are terrified of CLI.

Full blown Windows runs pretty lean by today's standards. You can pile dozens of Windows machines on a single 2 processor server with enough ram. Ram is dirt loving cheap now as well. You can jam 128GB in a server for chump change. With modern storage tech you can de-duplicate your virtual machines down to nothing too. There's almost no point to running server core anymore.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 23:31

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

You should run the math on your rule of thumb. 2 CPUs, 8-16 cores per CPU, 4-6 VMs per core. Even on the low end you're still getting 64 VMs per 2 CPU server. One of my clusters is running 6 blades x 2 CPUs x 4 cores and it's supporting about 160 VMs right now. Memory is still the limiting factor. Even at it's worst it's only using about 40% of the available CPU power. You can get 4 GB DIMMs of HP memory for less than 300 bucks a stick. When you're dealing with the quantity of VMs you can stack, that's pretty cheap. I'll give you the security, core is more secure than regular Windows. I still don't think it's a real factor though, as most server level exploits are hitting services provided by the server, rather than Windows itself.

Nomex fucked around with this message at 03:04 on May 18, 2011

# ¿ May 18, 2011 02:28

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 02:15

Nomex: Jul 17, 2002; Flame retarded.

mindphlux posted:

what software/devices, if anything, do you guys use to proactively monitor, maintain, and support your networks? particularly interested in multi-site companies.

I've been trying to find a cost effective solution to support all the small businesses I deal with - so I've been looking at kaseya, logmein central, zenoss, spiceworks (lol what a joke), etc. any big ones I'm missing out on?

I worked for a company that provided remote support to a lot of small clients. All we did was create a firewall rule at each company to allow RDP sessions from the IP address of our company. This allowed us to just use RDP without exposing RDP to the whole internet. We had an RSA secured Citrix site at my office, so if I needed to access any client from somewhere other than my desk I could just log in to Citrix and access them that way.

For monitoring I'd recommend looking at Whats Up Gold. I currently use it to monitor a 9 site, 4 data center company. It's pretty good at active monitoring and gathering performance metrics.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2011 15:30

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