Source: Microsoft Technet “Memory is often the source of performance problems, and you should always rule out memory problems before examining other areas of the system. Systems use both physical and virtual memory. To rule out memory problems with a system, you should configure application performance, memory usage, and data throughput settings, and then monitor the server’s memory usage to check for problems. Application performance and memory usage settings determine how system resources are allocated. In most cases you want to give the operating system and background applications the lion’s share of resources. This is especially true for Active Directory, file, print, and network and communications servers. On the other hand, for application, database, and streaming media servers, you’ll want to give the programs the server is running the most resources. Here’s an overview of counters that you’ll want to track to uncover memory, caching, and virtual memory (paging) bottlenecks.” Read more on source.

Source: Microsoft Technet “Memory is often the source of performance problems, and you should always rule out memory problems before examining other areas of the system. Systems use both physical and virtual memory. To rule out memory problems with a system, you should configure application performance, memory usage, and data throughput settings, and then monitor the server’s memory usage to check for problems. Application performance and memory usage settings determine how system resources are allocated. In most cases you want to give the operating system and background applications the lion’s share of resources. This is especially true for Active Directory, file, print, and network and communications servers. On the other hand, for application, database, and streaming media servers, you’ll want to give the programs the server is running the most resources. Here’s an overview of counters that you’ll want to track to uncover memory, caching, and virtual memory (paging) bottlenecks.” Read more on source.

Source: The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog Visio MVP David Parker recently developed visViewer as a shareware program to encourage the use of the Visio document format with non-Visio users. Key Benefits Stand alone application for viewing Visio files without Visio Advanced search of shape data (custom properties) Create lists of data from diagrams and export to other applications Copy or print of any part of a diagram simply Purchasing visViewer is free for personal, non-commercial use.  If you should like the product, then we invite you to donate just $19 / copy.  This will ensure that the product is developed further, and encourage us to provide more tools to you. The following prerequisites are required: Windows Installer 3.1 .NET Framework 3.0 (x86) Microsoft Visual Basic PowerPack 1.2 Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Report Viewer If you do not have Microsoft Outlook 2007, then you will need these: Microsoft Office Visio Viewer 2007 Microsoft Office Visio Viewer 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

MMS 2009 is very close now and I’m getting ready to leave on Sunday for Las Vegas. More and more people are getting exited including me for this great event to learn about the latest IT Management Solutions from Microsoft. As you may know there is something new that’s called Twitter. If you still not know what Twitter is you are working too much ;-) Ok, I’ll explain once more. Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "tweets"  of 140 characters or fewer.  These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search. Quite some people in working in IT Management are already using Twitter and some of them will also go to MMS 2009. To name some: Rod Trent (http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rtrent/default.aspx) Rikard Ronnkvist (http://www.snowland.se/) Pontus Blomqvist (http://blopon.blogspot.com/) Michael Niehaus (http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/) MMS 2009 Team (http://www.mms-2009.com/) Ed Aldrich (http://www.1e.com) SC Service Manager (http://blogs.technet.com/umeno/) ramseygAtDell Jalasoft (http://www.jalasoft.com) [your name here?] just contact me at Twitter I also created a Twibe for MMS09. What is a Twibe? A Twibe is a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic who would like to be able to communicate with each other.  On each twibe's page, there is a list of twibe members.  There is also a tweet stream that lists tweets from Twibe members which contain key word tags. Tags are set by the Twibe founder and are listed just above the tweet stream. So if you are going to MMS 2009 join the Twibe and use the hashtag #mms209 for all tweets about MMS 2009. Hope to see you all at MMS 2009 in Las Vegas.

The last couple of weeks I’m trying to be the fastest on @twitbrain. Twitbrain is a challenge to answer calculation questions like How much is? 713 – 63 * 3 Example:

But the more people following @twitbrain on Twitter the more difficult it becomes to be the first who answers the question correct. So I thought of a way to cheat on Twitbrain. Call me evil, but I only cheated 3 times, and it was just for the PowerShell learning experience. I won’t do it again. I hope you all can forgive me ;-) So how did I cheat? I used PowerShell to do the math for me and post the result on Twitter as soon as there was a new challenge on the Twitbrain website. For those interested you can find the PowerShell script on Poshcode. But please don’t use it anymore because that would spoil Twitbrain for all those who want to play it fair! You could easily use the example for other websites where you want to find info and post it on Twitter.

Source: TechNet Flash Newsletter In case you missed it in your TechNet Flash Newsletter. Create Visio Network Diagrams in a Snap – Download the Free LANsurveyor Express Plug-in As an IT professional, you need an up-to-date network map to help you diagnose connectivity issues and maintain workplace productivity. Now LANsurveyor Express can automatically create network diagrams for you within Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007. It’s valued at US$499, but for a limited time only, it’s free. Not subscribed yet to the TechNet Flash Newsletter? Go to the registration here.

Are you listening to Podcasts? Then you could take a look at some System Center Podcasts on our Podcast Home website. Here is a list but there are many more to be found. Successfully Monitor UNIX and Linux Alongside Your Windows Infrastructure with Operations Manager 2007 R2 Duration: 00:51:44 IT Professional Microsoft System Center January 22, 2009 Introducing Operations Manager 2007 R2 Duration: 01:01:55 IT Professional Microsoft System Center January 15, 2009 TechNet Radio: System Center Virtual Machine Manager Duration: 00:36:38 IT Professional Microsoft System Center December 30, 2008 Green Enterprise: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and Intel vPro/AMT Technologies Duration: 01:16:12 IT Professional Microsoft System Center December 19, 2008 TechNet Radio: How Microsoft IT Developed a Business Case for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Duration: 00:29:14 IT Professional Microsoft System Center December 16, 2008 Protect SQL Server 2008 with Data Protection Manager 2007 Duration: 01:07:10 IT Professional Microsoft System Center September 26, 2008 TechNet Radio: What to look for at the PASS Community Summit 2008 Duration: 00:19:14 IT Professional Microsoft System Center September 2, 2008 TechNet Radio: Performance Improvements in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Duration: 00:25:38 IT Professional Microsoft System Center August 19, 2008 TechNet Radio: How Microsoft IT upgraded a multi-terabyte database from Yukon to Katmai Duration: 00:28:49 IT Professional Microsoft System Center August 12, 2008 TechNet Radio: How Microsoft Does IT: Operations Dashboard

Pete Zerger wrote an article about creating a Console Task to launch a Remote Interactive CmdPrompt for MOM 2005 using PSExec. A customer asked if this also could be done for OpsMgr 2007, this was not as easy as I thought. It turned out that an extra space is added before the servername where psexec wants to connect if you create a Command Line  Console Task. I don’t know why this extra space is added after saving the Console Task yet.   To solve this issue I created a Vbscript which has the servername as argument and can be used to start psexec from within a vbscript. ‘start startpsexec.vbs Option Explicit On error resume next Dim strServer strServer = CStr(WScript.Arguments(0)) Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") ObjShell.Run ("%comspec% /C psexec.exe \" & strServer & " cmd.exe /S, 4, true") ‘End startpsexec.vbs Prerequisites SysInternals PSTools (these need to be installed on all machines where the OpsMgr Console is being used) Add the PSTools directory to the PATH System variable Startpsexec.vbs script (this vbscript needs to be installed on all machines where the OpsMgr Console is being used) Steps: Save above Vbscript on a location where all OpsMgr Console have access to. (like d:\scripts\startpsexec.vbs) Create a new Console Command Line Task Give the Task a Name like “Remote Interactive CmdPrompt” Target the Task to Windows Server Enter at Application: %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\cscript.exe Enter at Parameters: D:\Scripts\startpsexec.vbs $Target/Property[Type="MicrosoftWindowsLibrary6062780!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/DNSName$ Disable Display output when this task is run. Save Task Result:

Source: System Center Operations Manager Microsoft and the Operations Manager 2007 product team would like to know what you think about the quality of Microsoft management packs for Operations Manager 2007. This community survey is your chance to rate the quality and features of several management packs to help Microsoft understand where they need to focus their time and effort to improve management pack quality.  This is a short survey (only 9 questions) allowing you to rate the individual quality of several management packs, and communicate your thoughts on monitoring features, tuning effort required - everything that makes for a good MP. The survey should only take about 5 minutes. We’d like to get your feedback by Monday, February 16th if possible. However, we’ll leave the survey open longer if responses are still coming in sufficient numbers. Click Here to take the survey

Did you know there is a Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog? I didn’t knew that when I used to be a MVP for MOM before starting at Microsoft a little more than a year ago. Being awarded as MVP was one of the best things that happened in my professional career. I got access to information which before was impossible to get to. I still have contact with many MVP’s and they sometimes have more info than I have! Through our MVP Award Program blog we now share some of the amazing and inspiring activities of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professionals across the world, helping technical community watchers like you to find information and insight to share with your audiences. The blog is in English but they do feature non-English content. They will add a new story every working day. You might also like their Twitter site and Official Facebook Fan Page. 

Source: System Center Forum Today I was watching the latest recording of the January 2009 SCUG Meeting and to my surprise I was seeing some info about Debugging Scripts which I blogged about some time ago.    So if you didn’t had time to join the livemeeting go download the recording. Below are the starting times in the video for each speaker so you can fast forward to whatever you like. 1:05 - Savision Live Maps v3 Demo (Dennis Rietvink) 51:46 - Custom Scripting and Script Debugging in OpsMgr 2007 (Pete Zerger) 1:19:45 - Top MS Support Issues for Operations Manager 2007 (Steve Rachui) 

Yesterday I got my new Twitter Background created by Dan Kregor. I follow Dan and when I visited his Twitter page I loved his background. So I asked him how he created his beautiful background and before I new he suggested to create one for me! How awesome is this?   Dan thanks for creating this beautiful Twitter background for me! I’m loving it!

Source: Mindre.net Tore has listened to my request :-) Thanks Tore!     Go and download this great Sidebar Gadget!

Today I took my MOFv4 exam and passed with a score of 90%. I made 4 mistakes from the 40 questions. Not bad I believe ;-) If I’ve some time in the future I want to blog some stuff on how to use MOF with OpsMgr 2007. But I don’t think that’s soon because I’m quite busy at the moment. Looking for more info? Go to http://www.microsoft.com/mof

Source: gvenkdaily Among the technologies Microsoft is highlighting in its booth at CES this year is a hardware and software platform for the next generation of more useful and flexible household objects, appliances and accessories. The Windows-based platform is the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and a recently formed company called Fugoo. Two of the concept designs featured in a video at the booth are a “net” clock that, in addition to giving the time, can also download and display a stock ticker and local traffic and weather reports, and a digital photo frame that can not only download your latest holiday photos, but can also be programmed to display anything else available on the Internet, from current news headlines and sports scores to full-length movies. How cool is this? Read more on Microsoft PressPass and the Fugoo website.

I got a question about Windows Live Writer from Rod Trent and when investigating this question I found that you can easily create blog posts when you are in Internet Explorer. How? Just go to Tools and click on Blog This in Windows Live Writer. This should also work in IE7.

Source: System Center Forum System Center Forum had upgraded their website yesterday and it looks great. They are running on Wordpress. Not sure if they were already running on Wordpress but you can see on here what’s new. One of the new features they are offering is MPNotifier RSS feed. Curious how this one differs from the one I created. Or you can use the MPNotifier on Twitter ;-) Check out their new website.

Source: internal A colleague of mine (André) likes to have simple clean Desktop Wallpapers and he just found a System Center Desktop Wallpaper. And I like it. Maybe you like it too. You can download it from my SkyDrive.

Yesterday I reinstalled my personal website and deleted my old weblog (http://weblog.stranger.nl).  I used to run my old weblog on Drupal but after starting a new weblog on Technet I didn’t update my personal weblog anymore. Now I created a Lifestream, a real-time flow of my activity across various websites, with the occasional blog post on http://www.stranger.nl with Sweetcron. So now you can follow everything about me on one single place ;-) If  you are looking for articles I stored on my old weblog, you can contact me and I’ll try to find them. I’ve created a backup from my old weblog and if I’ve time I will try to install this as an archive somewhere.

I’m currently building a new demo/test environment on my Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V server. And I wanted to have a Virtual Router running on Hyper-V which should handle the routing between the virtual networks on Hyper-V. First some background info on my network at home.

So I looked for a software router which could be installed as a guest on my Hyper-V host. I started with BrazilFW, but I had trouble to get the Gateway and DNS running (failed) although a colleague was able to get BrazilFW running on Hyper-V by upgrading the SYSLINUX (bootloader for Linux). Then I tried Freesco and m0n0wall, but both would not start on Hyper-V. So I finally found Vyatta via SourceForge. Vyatta is a Linux-based, open network operating system that integrates advanced enterprise-class routing, security, bandwidth management and more. Vyatta runs on standard x86 hardware, VMWare & Xen and offers config via Linux-shell, CLI and web GUI. It runs on VMWare & Xen so why would not it run on Hyper-V? And I was correct it runs great on Hyper-V ;-) These are steps I’ve taken to get it running on Hyper-V.

Downloading ISO image from Vyatta’s website Vyatta Community Edition 4.0 (VC4) Create a new Virtual Machine in Hyper-V Manager Attach the ISO downloaded in step 1 to the new Vyatta Virtual Machine so it can boot from the ISO. Configure the Vyatta Virtual Machine Add the Network Adapters for the Internet, and the needed subnets to Vyatta Virtual Machine. Remark: Use Legacy Network Adapters! I added a 1 GB harddisk and gave it 128 MB RAM. Installing Vyatta You can boot from the ISO you downloaded in step 1.  because it’s also a “Live CD” You’ll first need to login to Vyatta once it’s booted up. The default logins are (user: root pass: Vyatta) To install to the drive you will issue the command:

install-systemDuring the install you will be asked how much diskspace to allot to the different partitions. I went with the default. Once that’s complete, pop the CD out, and reboot to your installed Vyatta. Now we can start configuring the system. Configuring Ethernet Interfaces Log on the system. Configure the first NIC (eth0) which is going to be used for Internet access. eht0:

vyatta@vyatta> configure [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set interfaces ethernet eth0 address 192.168.1.254/24 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# exit exit vyatta@vyatta>eth1:

vyatta@vyatta> configure [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set interfaces ethernet eth1 address 192.168.2.254/24 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# exit exit vyatta@vyatta>eth2:

vyatta@vyatta> configure [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set interfaces ethernet eth2 address 192.168.3.254/24 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# exit exit vyatta@vyatta>Check interfaces configuration:

vyatta@vyatta:~$ configure [edit] vyatta@vyatta# show interfaces ethernet eth0 {      address 192.168.1.254/24      description Internet      hw-id 00:15:5d:00:01:22 } eth1 {      address 192.168.2.254/24      description "subnet1:MOM 2005"       hw-id 00:15:5d:00:01:23 } eth2 {      address 192.168.3.254/24      description "subnet2:OPSMGR 2007" } Save Configuration

vyatta@vyatta# save Saving configuration to '/opt/vyatta/etc/config/config.boot'... Done [edit] Configuring Access to a DNS Server

vyatta@vyatta# set system name-server 192.168.1.1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# Specifying the Default Gateway

vyatta@vyatta# set system gateway-address 192.168.1.1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# Configuring the Firewall We want to block the traffic from subnet1 to subnet2 and visa-versa. Firewall block-subnet1 rules:

vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 rule 1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 rule 1 source address 192.168.2.0/24 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 rule 1 action drop [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 rule 2 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet1 rule 2 action accept vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta#Do the same for subnet2.

vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 rule 1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 rule 1 source address 192.168.3.0/24 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 rule 1 action drop [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 rule 2 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set firewall name block-subnet2 rule 2 action accept vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# Apply the rule set to an interfaces

vyatta@vyatta# set interfaces ethernet eth1 firewall out name block-subnet2 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# set interfaces ethernet eth2 firewall out name block-subnet1 [edit] vyatta@vyatta# commit [edit] vyatta@vyatta# Final configuration:

vyatta@vyatta:~$ show configuration firewall {     name block-subnet1 {         rule 1 {             action drop             source {                 address 192.168.2.0/24             }         }         rule 2 {             action accept         }     }     name block-subnet2 {         rule 1 {             action drop             source {                 address 192.168.3.0/24             }         }         rule 2 {             action accept         }     }     name block-subnet3 {         rule 1 {             action drop             source {                 address 192.168.2.0/24             }         }         rule 2 {             action accept         }         rule 3 {             action drop             source {                 address 192.168.3.0/24             }         }     } } interfaces {     ethernet eth0 {         address 192.168.1.254/24         description Internet         hw-id 00:15:5d:00:01:22     }     ethernet eth1 {         address 192.168.2.254/24         description "subnet1:MOM 2005"         firewall {             out {                 name block-subnet2             }         }         hw-id 00:15:5d:00:01:23     }     ethernet eth2 {         address 192.168.3.254/24         description "subnet2:OPSMGR 2007"         firewall {             out {                 name block-subnet1             }         }         hw-id 00:15:5d:00:01:24     }     loopback lo {     } } service {     nat {         rule 1 {             outbound-interface eth0             source {                 address 192.168.2.0/24             }             type masquerade         }         rule 2 {             outbound-interface eth0             source {                 address 192.168.3.0/24             }             type masquerade         }     }     ssh {     } } system {     gateway-address 192.168.1.1     login {         user root {             authentication {                 encrypted-password ****************             }         }         user vyatta {             authentication {                 encrypted-password ****************             }         }     }     name-server 192.168.1.1     ntp-server 69.59.150.135     package {         repository community {             components main             distribution stable             url http://packages.vyatta.com/vyatta         }     } } vyatta@vyatta:~$ Don’t forget to save your configuration! Now you are done! Check out the documentation for Vyatta before starting. I used the QuickStart and the Command Reference.