A couple of weeks ago I was thinking that I should blog that it’s a pity that Windows Management Framework (including PowerShell) could be not distributed through WSUS anymore. In the past it was available on through WSUS, but it was removed (expired) at some point due to some issues.
This meant to deploy PowerShell you could not deploy it through regular WSUS, but you had to either:
- Include it in your base image
- Install it manually
- Install it using scripting
- Install it using GPO
- Install it using WSUS add-on solutions to deploy 3rd party packages. Example solutions include, but are not limited to Local Update Publisher (LUP), WSUS package publisher, SolarWinds patch manager.
- Install it using enterprise systems management software. Example solutions include, but are not limited to System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Altiris, Landesk Management Suite, Tivoli Endpoint Manager (BigFix)
- Install it using Intune
At many customers of ours this meant that PowerShell was left at version 2.0 for older operating systems unfortunately. For newer operating systems luckily version 3.0 was shipped by default. Still the version would never be updated in most cases.
Apparently the PowerShell team also thought something had to be done about that, because they made the Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 RTM available via the Microsoft Update Catalog. Since it is published to the Microsoft Update Catalog, you have to manually import it to your WSUS environment. Also as the blog post states, before installing ensure you have reviewed known product incompatibilities (Exchange, SharePoint and System Center Virtual Machine Manager) and that the prerequisites are met.
I hope this will mean I will be seeing more up-to-date versions of PowerShell on systems of customers from now on.
One of the disadvantages however is that for operating systems before Windows 8.1/2012, a prerequisite is that WMF4 is installed, which cannot easily be deployed using WSUS unfortunately.
Tags: Powershell, Windows, Windows Management Framework, WMF, WSUS
As some of you might know already, the Microsoft Ignite 2015 conference has started where Microsoft talks about where they’re going and what they’re doing. I watched the keynote, took many notes and added other relevant information which I’m sharing with you. Since so much was told and shown it’s certain I’ve missed stuff. As time goes by I will update the information in this post so it can be used as a reference.
I hope it’s useful. If you find any errors or have other useful resources or feedback, please leave a comment.
Update log:
-05-05-2015: Created Initial version including the keynote and additional information.
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General information:
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Enterprise Mobility Suite
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SQL Server 2016
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Windows Server 2016
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System Center 2016
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Operations Management Suite
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Windows 10
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Enterprise
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Trustworthy
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Security is #1 concern
- Balance between empowerment and security must be the goal
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Modern architecture high level:
- Key security principles: Apply defense in depth and assume you have been breached
- Mobile device management and Mobile Apllication Management can help increase security, simplify management and improve the end-user experience.
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Secure in an integrated way: Devices, Apps, Files, Identities
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Windows 10
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Many applications have been enhanced with:
- Mobile Application Management through Intune
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Conditional Access
- Data Leakage Protection (DLP) on iPad: Not being able to copy/paste corporate data from a corporate app to a non-corporate/peronal app (by example Twitter), while allowing it between corporate apps like Outlook (version with these capabilities coming in Q2) and Word.
- Policy in Windows 10 can be configured to warn about copying data from corporate app to non-corporate app, but still allow it and logging the event.
- Supports multiple identities while still enforcing security and not allowing to copy corporate data between them.
- For more info: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn818907.aspx
- Azure RemoteApp can be used to easily enable people to use apps
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Outlook : Protect a file that you share by email by using the Rights Management sharing application
- Uses Azure AD RMS
- Access (attempts) can be tracked including showing times and geographic locations using Azure RMS Document Tracking Public Preview
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For more info:
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Azure AD/EMS Cloud App Discovery
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Insights available regarding access
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Microsoft Azure Stack
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Nano Server
- Nano Server is a remotely administered server operating system optimized for hosting in private clouds and datacenters. It is similar to Windows Server in Server Core mode, but markedly smaller. Also, there is no local logon capability, nor does it support Terminal Services. It takes up far less disk space, sets up significantly faster, and requires far fewer restarts than Windows Server.
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More info:
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Containers
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Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud will become increasingly important
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Content (co-)creation and sharing using Office, Skype For Business, HoloLens, etc
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Azure
Tags: "Microsoft Ignite", #MSIgnite, Active Directory, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure AD RMS, Azure Stack, Cloud, Conditional Access, Cortana, Delve, device guard, EMS, Enterprise Mobility Suite, HoloLens, hybrid cloud, Hyper-V, Ignite, Intune, MAM, Microsoft Azure Stack, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Hello, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Passport, Mobile Application Management, MS Ignite, multi cloud, Nano, Nano Server, nested virtualisation, nested virtualization, Office 365, Office Delve, Office Sway, OMS, Operations Management Suite, Power BI, Project Spartan, RemoteApp, RMS, SCCM, Secure boot, SharePoint Server 2016, Spartan, SQL Server 2016, Sway, System Center 2016, Technical Preview 2, universal app, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Windows Update, Windows Update For Business
Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is hosting 2 PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) training classes on February 25th and February 26th:
- Getting Started with PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)
- Advanced PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and Custom Resources
The links above provide include a course outline and a link to register for the Jump Start. And even if you can’t join live, the recordings will always be made available at a later time so you can watch whenever it suits you better.
PowerShell DSC is becoming increasingly important and I personally also still need to learn more about it and look forward to it.
I hope it’s useful to you as well.
Tags: Advanced PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and Custom Resources, Desired State Configuration, DSC, Free, Getting Started with PowerShell Desired State Configuration, ICT, jump start, Learning, Microsoft Virtual Academy, MVA, networking, Powershell, Training, Windows
Last week I completed PowerShell Deep Dives which got me excited again to read more about PowerShell. As such, I continued reading the next book on my reading list: Windows PowerShell Best Practices by Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson.
The book was released late January 2014 and is the most recent book about PowerShell that has been released to my knowledge. This means it includes PowerShell 4.0, Desired State Configuration DSC and references to Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
In my opinion the book was very well written and contains a good mix of theory, sample scripts and “notes from the field” from many PowerShell specialists. The sample scripts are available for download at Technet Script Center.
The best practices that are described in the book are very recognizable and I had already adopted many of them based on the many great blog posts by the community. In the book they are all bundled and well explained including examples. Where the book really shines though in my opinion is that it describes how PowerShell is used in real-life, how it relates to many other processes within a company and what you need to consider.
I think this book is a must-have for anyone working with PowerShell. For those starting with PowerShell, I recommend first reading the books “Learn Windows PowerShell In A Month Of Lunches” and “Learn PowerShell Toolmaking In A Month Of Lunches” and then read this book.
Notes:
Tags: best practices, Book, Powershell, powershell best practices, review, windows powershell best practices
I’ve had the book PowerShell Deep Dives laying around since August 2013. I had read some parts of it because I follow many of the great PowerShell community members that contributed to it. But I hadn’t gotten to reading it completely yet until now.
The title of the book includes “deep dives” implies very deep technical content and I can assure you, this type of content is present in the book. some of the stuff I still need to wrap my head around to understand properly. On the other hand, other parts of the book are more simplistic which you might not expect from a deep dives book.
The book covers a very broad number of topics and technologies. What I liked is that the articles were written by professionals and community members that are specialized in or are very knowledgeable about this specific topic/technology.
As a result of having the broad number of topics and technologies, not all parts of the book might be relevant to you (especially as a deep dive). I found myself skimming over some parts later in the book since it is very unlikely it is or will become useful for me. This will differ from person to person though, so take a good look at the topics being covered in the table at the end of the article.
All in all it was a good read and I think I’ll use the book mainly as a reference for those times that I need the deep dive insights. The book can be ordered from by example Manning.com and all royalties go to charity: Save the Children
| Part 1 PowerShell administration |
| 1 Diagnosing and troubleshooting PowerShell remoting (Don Jones) |
| 2 CIM sessions (Richard Siddaway) |
| 3 Collecting and analyzing performance counter data (Arnaud Petitjean) |
| 4 TCP port communications with PowerShell (Boe Prox) |
| 5 Managing systems through a keyhole (Bartosz Bielawski) |
| 6 Using PowerShell to audit user logon events (Mike F. Robbins) |
| 7 Managing and administering a certification authority database with PowerShell (Cadims Podans) |
| 8 Using PowerShell to reduce Active Directory token bloat (Ashley McGlone) |
| Part 2 PowerShell scripting |
| 9 The 10 PowerShell scripting commandments (James O’Neill) |
| 10 Avoiding the pipeline (Jeff Wouters) |
| 11 A template for handling and reporting errors (Will Steele) |
| 12 Tips and tricks for creating complex or advanced HTML reports with PowerShell (Jonathan Medd) |
| 13 Using and “abusing” dynamic parameters (Bartosz Bielawski) |
| 14 PowerShell type formatting (Adam Driscoll) |
| 15 Scalable scripting for large data sets: pipeline and database techniques (Matthew Reynolds) |
| 16 Building your own WMI-based cmdlets (Richard Siddaway) |
| 17 Turning command-line tools into PowerShell tools (Jefferey Hicks) |
| Part 3 PowerShell for developers |
| 18 Using Source Control Software with PowerShell (Trevor Sullivan) |
| 19 Inline .NET code (Richard Siddaway) |
| 20 PowerShell and XML: better together (Josh Gavant) |
| 21 Adding automatic remoting to advanced functions and cmdlets (Karl Prosser) |
| 22 Taming software builds (and other complicated processes) with psake (Jim Cristopher) |
| Part 4 PowerShell platforms |
| 23 PowerShell and the SQL Server provider (Ben Miller) |
| 24 Creating flexible subscriptions in SSRS (Donabel Santos) |
| 25 Inventory database table statistics using PowerShell and SQL Server Management Objects (Robert C. Cain) |
| 26 WSUS and PowerShell (Boe Prox) |
| 27 Provisioning IIS web servers and sites with PowerShell (Jason Helmick) |
| 28 Active Directory Group Management application (Chris Bellee) |
Tags: Book, Deep Dives, Powershell, PowerShell Deep Dives, review
As an IT professional I tend to work on multiple systems (tablets, laptops, desktops) and I use OneDrive (SkyDrive) extensively to always have access to the latest versions of my documents.
I love OneDrive, but today when I wanted to continue working on my desktop I got an error : “onedrive sync engine host stopped working”. So first thing I tried was just restarting OneDrive, which didn’t work. Then I figured … ah well let’s just reboot and see what happens.
When this also didn’t work I looked online and saw I wasn’t the only one experiencing this. I also came across the OneDrive Troubleshooter tool. After I ran this, followed the instructions and waited about 5-10 minutes, it worked properly again.
I hope this helps you to resolve similar issues.
Notes:
- In processes the process shows as OneDrive Sync Engine Host , but the process is still SkyDrive.exe
- In the application log, an event 1000 was generated with the following information:Faulting application name: skydrive.exe, version: 6.3.9600.17055, time stamp: 0x53291a62
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0x00000000
Fault offset: 0x0000000000000000
Faulting process id: 0x1050
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf78c9a55d1428
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\System32\skydrive.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 43b283ee-e4bd-11e3-826f-bc5ff4e873f4
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Tags: Faulting application name: skydrive.exe, not working, OneDrive, onedrive sync engine host stopped working, Skydrive, skydrive sync engine host stopped working, sync
As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft is offering free exam vouchers for the new exam “74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center”. For more information, take a look here.
I took the exam today and passed after having studied very hard for over a week (including pulling an all nighter today). I’m happy to have my first certification for the year 2014 already though 🙂
In my opinion the exam contained too many repeating (easy) questions on specific subjects, but there were also some very difficult questions about really specific situations. I personally would’ve preferred more “medium difficulty” questions.
All in all I learned a lot from preparing for the exam and I’m very happy with all the new things Microsoft has added to their new products.
If you are looking to take the exam as well, take a look at my previous post that contains the resources I used for preparation.
Good luck and enjoy. I’ll be going for some well earned sleep now 🙂
Tags: 074-409, 074-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, 74-409, 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, Exam, free exam, free exam voucher, Microsoft, Microsoft Virtual Academy, Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center
Microsoft is offering free exam vouchers for the new exam “74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center” to attendees of the Jump Start. The amount of free exams is limited, so be sure to register for the “Server Virtualization w/ Windows Server Hyper-V & System Center Jump Start” as soon as possible.
Also for those interested in free VMware Certified Associate (VCA) exams, time is running out. For more info, take a look at my previous post.
Tags: 074-409, 074-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, 74-409, 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, Exam, free exam, free exam voucher, jump start, jumpstart, Microsoft, Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft Virtual Academy Jump Start, Microsoft Virtual Academy JumpStart, MVA, MVA Jump Start, MVA Jumpstart, Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, VCA, VMware, VMware Certified Associate
Today I helped a colleague troubleshoot a couple of systems were unable to activate using Key Management Service (KMS). Basically for this situation it boiled down to this:
Determine for the KMS service
- Which server is hosting the KMS service.If an SRV record has been added for KMS DNS auto discovery, run from CMD: nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
- If the server hosting the KMS is functioning correctly:
- Check if the server is up and running.
- Check if the “Software Protection” service (sppsvc) is running.
- Verify if the KMS service is listening on port 1688: telnet localhost 1688
- Verify the KMS status. Run from CMD: slmgr.vbs /dli
- Verify if a KMS key is installed and activated.
- Verify if the minimum threshold for activation is being met.
- Verify if other clients are able to activate using KMS. Even though the output of “slmgr.vbs /dli” gives you an indication, you can use the “Volume Activation Management Tool” (VAMT) for more insight and functionality.
- Verify that a VLK key is being used.
For clients that are not able to activate
- Verify if the correct KMS server can be resolved correctly:
nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
- Verify if the KMS can be contacted:
telnet <KMS FQDN or IP> 1688
- If this is not the case, perform a traceroute to determine potential causes. Reasons could include:
- No default gateway configured on the client to reach the KMS.
- No route configured on the client to reach the KMS.
- Firewall on the client is blocking the traffic.
- Firewall on the server is blocking the traffic.
- If it is a VM, the virtual network might be misconfigured.
- Routing on the network is not correct.
- Firewall on the network is blocking traffic.
- Clear any previous (mis)configuration: slmgr.vbs /ckms
- Attempt activation: slmgr.vbs /ckms
NOTE: If you have lots of systems where you need to clear configuration and then attempt activation, you can also perform slmgr.vbs on remote computers using:
slmgr.vbs TargetComputerName [username] [password] /parameter [options]
Additional information
If you haven’t been able to resolve the issue, you might want to take a look here:
Tags: 1688, CMD, command, command prompt, DNS, ICT, Key Management Server, Key Management Service, Key Management Services, KMS, Microsoft, nslookup, Office, slmgr, slmgr.vbs, VAMT, Volume Activation Management Tool, Windows, _vlmcs, _vlmcs._tcp
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