TheScarfedOne

Thanks @ZeroHour - Ive been waiting ages for autosave too!Generally liking the new version. Good work mate :-)

So, yet again I find myself starting my blog with "Ive not written in ages, and here's why..."...! Well, first off - Ive moved workplaces. A number of you will already know that - but this blog is going to concentrate on essentially the setup of a new network on the side of the old one! Why did I move on? Well, after 5 years, all that could be achieved had been - and the system which Id written from scratch (ably assisted by my senior) was in a good state ready for someone else to take on and do the next phase. I also wanted to move closer to home, although it was only a 30 min compute each way - that pales into insignificance when I can now walk to work :-) Onto the nitty gritty of my "new" old system! 5 Servers - mostly 2008 R2, a juicy SAN for data storage and thats about it. The usual suspects of Exchange and the XP / 7 (to a lesser extent) combo. Remote installs by FOG. ISA for filtering and access to Webmail. Frog (underused) for a VLE and thats it on that score. Workstations - lots of them, over 600! Mix of IBM, RM Ones, Acer Veritons and some custom SCL things. None of it too shabby, but in need of some TLC. Laptops is a bit more of a problem. So, the plan... Everyone knows Im an SCCM fanboy - and it was no surprise that it was one of the first things to come in. Handy that Id recently finished doing 7 - so Id already got all the bits I needed :-). New this time though was playing with AppV. With it being built into R2 SP2 - and there being big job on to repackage lots of apps (or put them into a single central "runtime from server" share) - it made sense to look at sequencing. Guides for doing this by the way... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.10.appv.aspx http://caloni.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/app-v-integration-with-sccm/ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/steverac/archive/2008/12/22/deploying-virtual-apps-with-sccm.aspx Read and follow those to the letter (and Id strongly advise having a VMWARE Player SCCM 7 Build to hand for it) and you will have it basically working in about 20mins :-) Its seriously powerful, and the bonus is that you deploy the virtual apps in the same way as the physical ones. No faffing required! Just think... rather than a 10-15min Office 2010 install as part of your task sequence... use one of the Accelerators (some useful ones here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=RootCategory&f%5B0%5D.Value=App-V&f%5B0%5D.Text=App-V&f%5B1%5D.Type=SubCategory&f%5B1%5D.Value=PackageAccelerators&f%5B1%5D.Text=Package%20Accelerators&pageIndex=2) and you can cut that right down by virtualizing it! So, once SCCM is in, and building machines to a new OU on the domain - what next... Intranet time! Sharepoint makes sense (I know Frog is here, but word has it that it wont be here for long) - and we are in desparate need of an intranet for collaboration and external access. Even just to do electronic forms... Next... workstations. Well, the RM Ones are the original version, the Celeron 2.6 ones. Not too bad - will run 7...slowly, but idea for use as thick "thin clients". As soon as I can get my mits on Windows Thin PC (replacement for Win FLP) - its getting put on them by.... you guessed it SCCM! Some grunt of new Virtualization Server Hardware (3 x R710s and 1 x MD3200i) will do the trick on that front. Looking at getting some proper thin clients too for admin, to cut costs and make best use of the hardware we have. Intel Core2Duo for admin is a little over, when Ive got one ICT suite I need to replace (Cel 2.6)... On the servers front.... some to server hardware (as above) to be used for... Hyper V with some Terminal Servers (for thin client, maybe MultiPoint [for the classroom] which has my interest), Exchange 2010 (upgrade the current 2007 version), Software Servers and leave the two current physical servers which are connected to the SAN (doing User Data and DC work [eeek!]) to do just DC. Laptops... will come back to those later - but if youve seen my previous posts on Windows 7 and Bitlocker, I think you get the picture. I think that gives a good overview of whats going on - the main thing being playing with AppV with SCCM :-) Any questions on SCCM, AppV...PM or email :-)

Wouldnt this be a GP like used on "normal" machines? Computer Configuration Policies > Windows Settings > Local Policies > Security Options Interactive logon: Do not display last user name Enabled

There is an ini file which you can change so that you can point the temp runtime location anywhere. I found it kept changing the name of the gm... folder - so I made it use C:\GMTEMP and set the SRP on that. Too many malware programs use \Local Settings\...

Ive got a working MSI for the version 8 (free) if its of use to anyone?

+1 for Ruckus here. Superb kit and support from the NetCTRL guys is great (no im not a supplier)...

Discover is a separate product, licenced and installed completly separately from SIMS. I think it is released down here - at least some schools are using it I think. They may be partner or LA partners though.

Cheers @GrumbleDook - got the tweet from them today as well! They have done some very nifty stuff over there, and it would be worth mentioning Salamander in here too as they have done a lot of work with Richard.

There is also a Secondary Schools one on 13th June (which Im going to) link is also over on the MS Education Blog.

I got this warning at the SCOMIS event down our way, as well as a load of "academy" related updates. Liked the twitter update about the accredition push. Agree though - if you could give us some more info what is changing it would be nice

Speak very very nicely to your Acer Rep/Reseller- and if you have "lots" of Acer kit, they "may" be able to do something for you. It is rebadged NetSchool - and very pleased with it too.

Hi Gemma I think the problem is that the event has been moved from its old central location of Torquay, it would be interesting to know why there has been a change? There used to be two run I think, the Bristol one for the Chelt/Glos to Somerset area, and the Torquay one for everyone further down! Its Primary Schools that will be worst hit I expect. That being said, I am hoping to attend still, and I will bring it up with Plymouth Schools.

I would suggest heading over to windows-noob.com. Used heavily for my SCCM setups which is very similar.

Im fairly sure this is ok - it is just taking a while to get all the documentation updated. @tbush can you confirm?

@John... you know what Im gonna say dont you :-p Im looking forward to maybe getting a smoothie box down here too - and you arent pinching my referal hehehe!

Good shout @john. Useful for me as at the moment I have some selective rules to forward to my BB (and no mocking from the regulars please!) One note though which Ive found... on 2007 and 2010 - make sure that the EWS website is accessible. You can check this by trying servername/EWS/exchange.asmx and you should get an XML page. Particularly relevant if you are using ISA/TMG to publish your OWA. Look out for the auth method too - your OWA may be on basic, but what is EWS using :-p It caught me out...

Hi Brickwall So long as the folder is shared, you can add a GPO preference. User Config > Prefs > Windows Settings > Drive Maps and User Config > Prefs > Control Panel Settings > Printers Set the options in there and job done :-)

Indeed he did @john! Me and @ZeroHour needed the drink back at the hotel :-p

What we did was use the XP Wireless Network Wizard (yes it works on 7), create the settings; create a msi package to dump it at the root of C: and then run the setupsnk as part of our laptop build. You could autoit the OK to add wireless network - but I quite like seeing the prompt to know the build has completed ok EDIT: See my blog for the scripts used to autorun at first boot after build. Applies to SCCM, but will equally work under MDT

Hahaha - look on my FB or Twitter at @ZeroHour 's destruction event lol

We did - at 4am, and it was going light! Epic... but as said, we managed to loose members and smoothwall along the way! Cheers to all the organisers :-)

lol.... is that from personal experience like @john

seconded for moving to vbs. did that with all may scripts a while back. print drivers, particuarly HP recently are the bane of my life.

lol isnt it @Ric_ usually gives people problems sleeping...? His snoring is legendary

Sounds good Chris. Well, posted this on other thread too... Me and EduTech have arrived and just having a coffee in station. If anyone is arriving around now ish (4pm)then pm one of us and we can all taxi it.