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System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 CTP2 – DPM 2012

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System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 CTP2 is available for download. It makes System Center 2012 compatible with Windows Server 2012 and more. New enhancements to DPM 2012 include: Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0 Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes Uninterrupted protection for VM … Read more

Central Admin – Unavailable HTTP Error 503

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Recently after installing a new SharePoint 2010 farm I tried to access Central Admin. The site was giving me “Service Unavailable  HTTP Error 503”. I checked in IIS and the Central Admin application pool in IIS  was stopped. I started it and waited for a little bit it was still running. When I went to … Read more

Set SCEP Client to Update from Microsoft

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There may be a need for System Center Endpoint Protection clients to update definitions directly from Microsoft Update vs. updating from your SCCM server. An example would be when you have remote users that are constantly moving around in the field.  Here are the settings to configure this: You would go into client settings and … Read more

Add Change Password Web Part to SCSM 2012 Self Service Portal

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I needed a way for users to change their own password. I know this can be done on a domain computer or in OWA. However I needed a centralized location for the end users to do this and this solution needed to work in System Center Service Manager (SCSM) 2012’s Self-Service Portal. SCSM’s Self Service Portal runs on top of SharePoint 2010. So I went on the hunt for a password reset SharePoint web part.

There are a ton of these type of web parts out there but most of them are paid. I did find a free one. It is called ITaCS Change Password web part. (A Big thanks to the developers for making this and making it free!).

This web part enables users to change their local or Active Directory password from within a SharePoint Site Collection. Another cool feature of this web part is that it will show you how long you have before your password will expire. In this post I am going to show how to deploy this on a SharePoint 2010 farm and expose it through SCSM’s Self Service Portal.

Steps to Deploy the ITaCS Change Password Web Part

  • Download the web part from:

http://changepassword.codeplex.com

  • Extract Web Part from .zip file.

NOTE: This is only for SharePoint 2007. It will work on SharePoint 2010 but you have to install it manually from the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell not the install wizard or it will fail.

This is what you will see if you install from Wizard:

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To install from SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

  • Launch the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell using administrative privileges.

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  • We need to add the web part to the solution store in our farm. To do this run the following:
    • Navigate to “(PathOFTHEWEBPART)\ITaCS Change Password 2.5\ITaCS Change Password 2.5\Resources\”
    • Run Add-SPSolution it will need the Literal path with the name of the WSP. “(PathOFTHEWEBPART) ITaCS Change Password 2.5\ITaCS Change Password 2.5\Resources\ItacsChangePassword.wsp”
    • When it finishes you will see this notice it is not Deployed yet:

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New from Backup Academy – Basic Principles of Backup Policies

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Backup Academy has a NEW training video: “Basic Principles of Backup Policies,” by Andrea Mauro, VMware vExpert, MCITP, VCDX. The following is covered In this video: What a backup policy is, and how to design a backup plan Defining a backup policy: what, where and how Why it’s so important to design a good backup … Read more

Service Manager 2012 Self Service Portal Blank

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When you deploy Service Manager 2012 Self Service Portal by default it should look like this: If you deploy SCSM 2012 Self Service portal and it looks like this: Chances are your SSL certificate is not properly setup. Here is a great blog post on how to fix this: http://www.code4ward.net/main/Blog/tabid/70/EntryId/139/Service-Manager-2012-Self-Service-Portal-not-working-blank.aspx

All Day Event – MN System Center User Group

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On June 15th from 9am – 5pm at Microsoft’s Edina HQ the MN System Center User Group will be hosting an all day event with guest speaker Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft! Lunch will be provided! For more information visit: http://www.mnscug.org/meetings/180-mnscug-welcomes-wally-mead-all-day-june-15th-2012

Configure and Use Remote Control in SCCM 2012

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As with SCCM 2007 SCCM 2012 offers a Remote Control feature to connect to client computers. This is helpful for administrators or a help desk team so they can use the SCCM 2012 console to remote control client computers and troubleshoot problems. I wanted to put together this step by step post on getting this setup. To configure the Remote Control feature in System Center Configuration Manager 2012 you need to.

  1. Enable the Remote Control Settings in your client policy

To do this follow these steps:

    • In SCCM 2012, click Administration.
    • In the Administration workspace, click Client Settings.
    • Right click on Default Client Settings and chose properties.
    • In the Default dialog box, click Remote Tools.
    • Configure the required remote control client settings.

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    • Click OK to close the Default Settings dialog box.

2. Sync the SCCM policy on your clients

The next time your client computers sync up to SCCM 2012 automatically they will have Remote Control enabled. You can force this now on a client to test. Do this by going through the following steps:

    • On the client go into Control Panel.
    • Click on System and Security.
    • Click on Configuration Manager.

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    • Click on the Actions tab.
    • Select Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle and click the Run Now button.

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That will sync the policy with SCCM 2012 right away.

3. Ensure traffic can flow through

Now in order for Remote Control to work the following ports need to be allowed through the firewall if one is running on the client.

    • TCP port 2701
    • TCP port 2702 (This is listed as required but I have been able to get this to work without this port.)
    • TCP port 135

It is also good to check that your client is actually listening for the ports. To check this run this in a command prompt:

netstat -a

Again this will list the ports the computer is listening on.

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DPM How to Videos

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Are you new to System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM)? Here is a list of some videos from myITforums.com that will help you get up to speed on DPM: Overview of System Center Data Protection Manager http://www.myitforum.com/absolutevc/avc-view.aspx?videoid=922&categoryid= DPM 2007 SP1 — How does DPM really work http://www.myitforum.com/absolutevc/avc-view.aspx?videoid=1324&categoryid= TechNet Webcast: Protecting Microsoft SharePoint with Data Protection … Read more