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  • Blog

    Firewall Exceptions to allow SCCM Remote Control for DirectAccess clients

    Managing DirectAccess computers with SCCM is a great way to keep your mobile workforce up to date and in compliance with the corporation. Because everything is done on a “pull” basis, meaning the client computer pulls updates from the corpnet, things “just work” as normal. However, many people find that they are unable to use…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Site-to-Azure VPN using Windows Server 2012 RRAS

    UPDATE: Less than 2 weeks after I posted this, Microsoft Azure now officially supports Windows Server 2012 RRAS to establish the Site-to-Site VPN and Point-to-Site VPN using IEKv2!  So don’t follow the steps in this guide anymore, and check out Sandrino Di Mattia’s guide instead. After you create a new Network Site in Azure to host your Virtual Machines, you can establish a Site-to-Site VPN…

    Concurrency, Inc.
  • Blog

    How to Refresh the IntelliSense Cache in SQL Server Management Studio

    As I read more and more through the Service Manager Forum questions, I’ve come to realize that many folks out there have little to no knowledge of SQL and how to actually use it to build out some of the custom reports they require.  Most of the comments I read from people state they are…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Configure Cluster-Aware Updating for Windows Server 2012 Failover Clusters

    Keeping the members of a failover cluster up-to-date with hotfixes and patches has traditionally been an arduous and daunting task, but Windows Server 2012 introduces a new feature called Cluster-Aware Updating or “CAU” (pronounced “cow”), that will take care of patching your cluster members automatically.  This is a really easy way to keep your Hyper-V…

    Concurrency, Inc.
  • Blog

    Sync Domain Clock with Internet NTP Sources

    When deploying a new Active Directory Domain Controller, it can be important to consider where your domain will get its official time from.  By default, the Domain Controller will be its own time authority, but that means it simply says what time it is and all domain members blindly obey it’s decree.  Chances are that…

    Concurrency, Inc.
  • Blog

    Disabling System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP), Chicken and Egg

    I find that most companies as a component of their SCCM deployments are looking to also push out System Center Endpoint Protection vs. retaining their existing antivirus tools.  I’ve had a very good experience with SCEP as a principal antimalware tool as both a user and a consultant.  That said, I was working on a deployment where…

    Nathan Lasnoski
  • Blog

    SCCM Inventoried Software Empty: Quick Tip!

    A frequent question with System Center Configuration Manager is “where are my inventoried software items”?  In many of these cases people are seeing the software detected and visible through resource explorer, but the software isn’t showing up in “Software Items”.   In this case you can see populated data in the software items area: The solution is actually quite simple.…

    Nathan Lasnoski
  • Blog

    Change User Principal Names to Match Email Addresses for Office 365 Migration

    Office 365 customers of a sufficient size will need to use Directory Synchronization and Active Directory Federation Services to make Office 365 both manageable and convenient for the end users.  When AD FS is used users will access Office 365 resources using their User Principal Names.  Microsoft recommends that User Principal names match users’ email…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Export Management Pack Rules and Monitors from SCOM 2012

    While working on a recent System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1 deployment (this method also works with SCOM 2012 RTM) I needed to export all of the Rules and Monitors from a specific management pack. This can be very useful when deciding what thresholds and overrides should be enabled for a particular environment. The process is similar…

    Concurrency