Done and dusted!

I hope you have enjoyed the posts, Colin and I enjoyed writing them as it 'locks' in what you are learning so much better.


(We did also complain it was an additional 5 hours on our day each day, so you better like them ;-) )


If you have any comments/questions let us know. I'm more than happy to present further at any meetings if something was particularly of interest.


If you have any tips for how we could improve our posts for you for next time, please let us know too!


So its goodbye from him -










And its goodbye from me!

Server Quarium

I said I'd try to get some pics of the Server Quarium that was running the labs so you could see some of the plasma screens. Some of these are examples of Configuration Manager Dashboards too. I think you can click through to see them larger.

Not sure how well these have come out -

Centralising and managing user data

Just after 8am on the morning after the attendee party and as you can guess this session was not well attended. That was a shame as it was very good.

The two presenters are part of the Windows File team and had done some work internally at MS to centralise and manage data of users on this pilot.

Aims:

1. 99.99% availability (less than 5 mins a year downtime in their environment)
2. Near local access times, regardless of the location of user/data
3. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero data loss for the central location
4. Single backup server
5. Selective file/folder restore by end user.
6. Same view of files wherever the user logs on

Technologies leveraged:

• 10Gb quota per user
• Folder redirection and offline file cache
• Backups via SCDPM
• Windows 7 - when user logs on first time, files are moved to local offline cache then synced with server transparently. This is better than previous versions of Windows which blocked access to desktop until files copied up to server and then back to local offline cache.
• Slowlink mode in Windows 7 - detects when link is slow and makes user work locally then syncs when Lan/Wan is better
• SMB 2.1 - better Oplock model so client can sleep (Office uses oplocks and would stop computers sleeping unnecessarily.
• File System Resource Manager (FSRM) - quotas, allowed file types, periodic or on demand reporting to see storage trends etc
• File Classification Infrastructure - assesses how files are used long term, can choose to compress, or tie into Hierarchial Storage Management (HSM)
• Shadow copy for shared folders - allows users to be self sufficient in restoring previous file versions (they have to be online to recover).
• Policies/GPO

All the demos worked smoothly to prove it. We are doing some similar things with our solution, such as shadow copy, backups in data centre. Here is a great example of how we can take this forward, particularly for roaming users - why should my data be tied to ISB, if MTO can provide a much better service in every location; rather than good service in ISB but shocking elsewhere?

Again one to consider for the roadmap.

Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

The Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DART), is another great tool in the MDOP suite.

The MDOP suite typically saves $70-80 net per pc per year (WIPRO reseach). DART can be $10 dollars of that.

DART is basically a bootable CD/DVD (USB and WIM work but are not supported) that runs on WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) and is used to troubleshoot/repair a client machine before just rebuilding.
It Can:

1. Recover an unbootable PC
2. Detect and remove malware (whilst the PC is booted in WinRE)
3. Delete, recover, save off files
4. Reset local Admin password
5. Manipulate services
6. etc

Benefits:

- Accelerates TCO savings by minimising recovery time and preventing data loss.

- Recover instead of rebuild - saves user time and allows root cause analysis

Rebuilding a unbootable PC guarantees data loss, this tool gives you the option to do data recovery at worst case and full system recovery at best. This way the user does not lose data or their time waiting on a rebuild and then their time setting things up just right.

Case study of a company called Ultrasonic Precision Inc they saw Help desk costs decrease 27% and end user downtime decrease between 50-60%.

Demo's were very effective is providing the crash analysis of a blue screen, and restoring data that had been accidentally deleted.

Tools included in DART:

• ERD Regedit - similar to normal one
• Locksmith - local admin PW reset
• Crash analysis - assesses BSOD and gives reasons/help
• File restore - will scan for all deleted files and give you a likelihood of recovery
• Disk commander - repair MBR, recover volumes/partition table
• Disk wipe - secure DoD level wipe to prevent data recovery
• Computer management - similar to normal
• Explorer - Gui based, not command prompt as normal WinRE, USB active to save files off or copy them back to restore service
• Solution Wizard - Wizard to help you choose the right tool to fix the problem (I would think if you need the wizard, you maybe are not the right person to be doing the work - ironically the presenter just said that too)
• TCP/IP config - if you want to get onto LAN or ensure you can get to internet for System sweeper toget updates.
• Hotfix uninstall
• System sweeper - malware/rootkit detection tool,
• SFC Scan - system file check can be used in Windows (assuming it boots), great to see it here at WinRE level (I have used SFC successfully a few times - correctly restore corrupt system files).

You can add DART tools to a hidden system partition of your builds to ensure they are a F8 option for troubleshooting (probably should not include locksmith).

Whilst it is a MDOP feature, once you are licensed for MDOP on your desktops, you can use it on servers too.

You can create a DART cd/dvd from within a virtual machine - very cool.

Find out more here

Desktop Error Reporting

I was also in this session and agree with what Colin has written, Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack, is a great tool. DEM is a great feature of it and the presenter demonstrated these well.

Something we should definitely look further into to understand the cost impact of getting MDOP into our environment and using these tools.

Find out more about it here (Pdf will open)

MMS 2010

Done!

Desktop Error Monitoring

This was an excellent session which covered a component of the MDOP suite called Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM). I was extremely impressed with this product demonstration and can see immediate use for it in both our current and future environments. The tool would assist primarily the tier 3 teams (EUT), in strategic problem solving, but would also be useful to tier 2 teams in terms of published problem management, and statistical information. I understand that the tool itself is free, however because we don't have desktop OS enterprise licensing, there will be some commercial issues which would need to be ironed out prior to us deploying - I certainly intend to pursue this investigation, and if necessary raise a business case to implement MDOP as the benefits are clear and immediate.

In order to describe the product, the speakers first talked about why the product exists - this was mainly user need driven:

• Provide an immediate ROI
• Deliver end to end solutions
• Better TCO on desktops/laptops
• Requirement for low cost monitoring for knowledge and productivity issues
• Requirement for better visibility of desktop issues (users automatically reboot, often overwriting error data in the process)

DEM offers the following to help with the above:

• Crash monitoring
• Application and System crash/hang data captured and stored centrally
• Direct access to troubleshooting & solutions
• Agentless deployment (via group policy)
• Lower helpdesk volume calls
• Engagement with support partners
• Internal 'Watson' back-end
• Patch and update tracking
• Easy analysis of captured data reports

The requirements for a DEM deployment are pretty standard:

• A management server
• A reporting server
• An SQL server
• Active Directory
• Global Policies in use in the environment

It's worth noting that DEM is a separate product to SCCM, although SCCM does effectively do the same job albeit on a much bigger scale. DEM is focussed directly on the desktop/laptop environment.

DEM also offered such features as customisable web pages displayed on the desktop when a crash occurs - which means that if we have a solution or workaround already, the user is notified straightaway. This has an obvious effect of reducing helpdesk calls. DEM can also suppress the "Send details to Microsoft" dialog, which users as often as not will click "No" on - once deployed, DEM automatically sends the error data to the central server, and then can display the kind of web page as described above.

Along with application issues, DEM also records system errors such as the dreaded BSOD. One of the issues EUT has faced recently is the issue of collecting BSOD error data - our environment is such that this is not easy on all devices and the user was usually forced to reboot prior to the full error log completing - this could be negated with the DEM system. It is often essential for our vendors that we provide complete error logging so that they can quickly resolve these types of issues, so anything that can help with this will be invaluable to us.

In addition to error data, DEM also captures the CAB file associated with application issues and bundles this in with the reporting - this would help Satyam with issues in packaging and us with patching and update problems. When use in conjunction with crash analysis tools, this is a very powerful way of identifying issues in applications.

In terms of UI, DEM looks very much like SCCM. It has facilities groups similar issues together, but in granular detail (ie by revision/version of individual DLLs) so things like video driver errors etc are clearly visible, even on a cursory glance at the logs.


As I said in the beginning of this article, I intend to follow this up with a serious intent to raising a business case to implement this technology in our environment as soon as possible. It can be used very soon - as soon as the new AD is in production to be exact, and I think the support teams will see the practical benefits immediately. Management should also see benefits from this too - apart from the obvious potential to improve our problem management, quicker and more proactive issue resolution and the potential for ticket reduction; they will also enjoy both the high level reporting available, with the options to produce highly granular reporting if required as well.