I already wrote something about the Hydration Kit for Beta 2, but now Johan Arwidmark just released his Hydration Kit for the System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC2. He claims that a functional lab environment can now be built in under 2 hours. (it usually works! ) Download it at http://www.deploymentresearch.com/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/49/The-Hydration-Kit-for-ConfigMgr-2012-RC2-is-available-for-download.aspx and start testing it!
Hydration Kit for SC Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 available
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012–unattended installation of Sites
Microsoft ConfigMgr 2012 – Client Log Files
App-DNA AppTitude–Self Provisioning
AppDNA AppTitude–which path will you take? Project planning made easy 
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012–unattended installation of Sites
There’s a lot that changed in ConfigMgr2012 (e.g. Client Log Files ), but also inter-site communication. Most of it is now done via SQL replication and not only via inbox/outbox replication. According to Microsoft, also the way we now have to install ConfigMgr sites has changed. In SCCM 2007 one could use an ini file to install primary and secondary sites (earlier article: Install Secondary Site unattended). I asked a
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Microsoft ConfigMgr 2012 – Client Log Files
A lot of things changed with the coming of ConfigMgr2012 (for now it’s in the state of RC1). Loads of people already wrote articles about what cool new features and goodies came with ConfigMgr2012, I instead want to have a closer look on troubleshooting, as I am in the middle of a RC1 deployment at a customer’s site. Log Files If you’ve already worked with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)
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App-DNA AppTitude–Self Provisioning
I just came from a customer project with AppTitude where I faced the requirement that the department that was responsible for the AppTitude environment didn’t want to give the other departments the right to log on to the AppTitude console. Why? Well, various reasons, all quite understandable! Number one reason was that they wanted to let every department to the work they were supposed to do, not more. The software
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AppDNA AppTitude–which path will you take? Project planning made easy
Are you on the edge of a migration project and have to decide how to deploy your applications to your customers? (And by users I mainly mean users, because I see myself more as a service provider.) Or do you have to chose between a number of applications and don’t know which one fits best into your deployment system? Apptitude can help you plan your deployment strategy and shorten your
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AppDNA Apptitude & Microsoft SCCM – can it get any easier?
Usually the biggest problem when executing a Launchpad or an AppTitude deployment is getting all the apps into AppTitude. What I mean is, and what I already said in an earlier blog post, no customer has MSIs ONLY! If that were so, then we wouldn’t have any problem importing these apps. But most of the times we do have these kinds of problems: what Apps do I have? where are
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Am I compatible to my future plans? How App-DNA’s AppTitude helps along the way (part 3) – Reports
The last article about AppTitude covered the import of an application. This one will be a bit less technical but more about report generation, remediation and what AppTitude tells you about your applications. Where am I going? In order to generate reports and have a look at any issues your application has to be analysed against a set of rules. These rules already come in a defined default state
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local to anywhere–Profile Migrator cloud migration
Citrix Synergy is just about to start and I thought I could talk a bit about Profile Migrator, as it’s part of Citrix’s Desktop Transformation Model. In this scenario I am going to show you in a quick demonstration how fast and easy you can actually migrate a local Windows XP user to a XenDesktop based Windows 7 user. Your clients will thank you if you know about this Have
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Am I compatible to my future plans? How App-DNA’s AppTitude helps along the way… (part 2)
In my last article about AppTitude I gave you a short overview of what AppTitude is and where it can help you save time and such save you money. This article will all be about how you can actually go and import your applications and let them be analysed by AppTitude. DIY or let someone else work? IT nowadays is all about automation. Nobody really wants to go and
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Am I compatible to my future plans? How APP-DNA ’s AppTitude helps along the way…(Part 1)
What are the future plans for your environment? I believe most customers/companies are going to update to Win7 and might also change their architecture from x86 to x64. Or maybe you’re not upgrading your clients but your servers. Server 2003 to 2008 R2? Would you like to join the Citrix XenApp world? How many applications do you have in your environment? Even the smallest company will have a lot more
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How to install Windows 8 on XenServer 5.6
New blog article on XenServer and Windows 8 on my sepago blog: http://www.sepago.de/d/david/2011/09/22/how-to-install-windows-8-on-xenserver-56
PoC Deployment of SCCM 2012 – Hydration Kit
Yesterday, a colleague of mine told me about a new hydration kit for SCCM 2012 Beta 2, which is available here: Hydration Kit for SCCM 2012 It has been designed to quickly deploy a standalone SCCM 2012 Beta 2 environment based on Hyper-V. The kit basically consists of some Powershell scripts which automatically create your machines and install the SCCM environment, so that you’re ready to go as soon as
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XenServer – XS Management Suite by DoubleRev
Just came across a nice tool for all the XenServer admins which will let you complete some tasks faster and easier. “XS-Management Suite” by DoubleRev is a Management tool which integrates into your XenCenter and can be downloaded at DoubleRev’s website as a 15-day trial. This suite has some nice features like Eject all mounted virtual CD/DVDs network topology VM inventory VM Manager quick designation of new Pool Master Personally,
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Citrix personal vDisk – a personalized static Desktop
As most of you will have heard by now, Ringcube is now part of Citrix, who integrated Ringcube’s “vDesk for VDI” into XenDesktop 5.5 as their new “personal vDisk” technology. Personally, I haven’t heard from them before, so I was kind of curious about what this “new” technology might hold for us. Installation is pretty easy and straightforward, not that much to do wrong actually. I installed a new Windows
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XenDesktop – Updating to version 5.5
As XenDesktop 5.5 just got released the other day I planned to upgrade the lab environment I usually do my tests in. My environment looks like this: 1 XenDesktop Controller 1 XenServer Pool containing of 2 XenServer 5.6 SP2 with attached iSCSI storage 1 Windows 7 Master VM I usually work with the MCS, due to the fact that it’s easier to maintain in a lab than PVS. After downloading
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