LAZY ADMIN 101:WINDOWS, SQL & SYSTEM CENTER

Brad Watts, Timothy McAliley, Dmitri Brown, Phillip Bracher & Chris Maiden

WINDOWS ADMINISTRATION

September 21, 2013TechGate 2013 – Reston, VA

Brad Watts

DEMOServer 2012 Server Manager

Tips, Tricks & Items to know

PowerShellTips, Tricks & Items to know

USEFUL LINKS

• 94 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets

• 60 Windows 8 tips, tricks and secrets

• 57 Tips Every Admin Should Know

• Tips and tricks for remotely administering workstations

• PowerShell Tips and Tricks

• PowerShell Book (Windows PowerShell in Action)

• E-Books • Windows Server 2012 and its hardware requirements  • Microsoft's evolving app strategy  • Windows Server 2012 boosts IT capabilities  • View All E-Books 

• E-Zines • Modern Infrastructure  • View All E-Zines 

• E-Handbooks • Windows Server 2012 migration station  • Identity management in the era of cloud and mobility  • Evaluating hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2  • View All E-Handbooks 

USEFUL LINKS

SQL ADMINISTRATION

September 21, 2013TechGate 2013 – Reston, VA

Timothy McAliley

KEY DBA TASKS

• Maintain Your SQL SERVER

• Know What is Running On Your Server

• How is Your Server Performing

• Backup Strategy

GREAT RESOURCES TO MAKE A DBA’S LIFE EASIER

• Ola Hallagren• http://ola.hallengren.com

• Brent Ozar• www.brentozar.com

• Both Are Great Sites for Awesome scripts

• Twitter HashTag #sqlhelp• Pose a question/ask help on Twitter with #sqlhelp and get feedback in

minutes

OLA HALLAGREN

• Maintenance.sql• Free Download (or download by job type)• Community vetted• Configures Jobs • Backups• Updates Statistics• Index Maintenance

• DEMO• Review Ola Hallagren’s Site• Download, Review and Execute the Maintenance.sql script

BRENT OZAR

• Both Free, Community vetted downlodn

• Sp_Blitz.sql• Windows App or SQL script• Does a through server instance configuration, performance, and health check

• Sp_BlitzIndex.sql• Does a through check of your database indexes

• DEMO• Review Brent Ozar’s script site• Download, Review and Execute the sp_blitz.sql and sp_blitzindex.sql scripts

TWITTER HASHTAG #SQLHELP

• Pose a question/ask help on Twitter with #sqlhelp and get feedback in minutes

• Community monitored

• DEMO• The #sqlhelp twitter feed

SYSTEM CENTER CONFIGURATION MANAGER

ADMINISTRATION

September 21, 2013TechGate 2013 – Reston, VA

Dmitri Brown

DAILY, WEEKLY & MONTHLY TASKS

Administrator's Guide for Reliability WorkbooksWord document and spreadsheet which assists with the “how to” implement the tasks within your environment. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=189220

SCCM daily weekly monthly Maintenance Task.xlsx

Compiled from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632564.aspx

ADD ON TOOLS TO ASSIST WITH CLIENTS

SCCM Client Actions Tool PowerShell Edition aka PoshCAT (CM2007 & CM2012)http://blog.coretech.dk/kaj/sccm-client-actions-tool-powershell-edition-aka-poshcat/

Client Actions Tool is a practical and simple HTA application for performing most common day-to-day administrative tasks on System Center Configuration Manager clients. The tool allows running actions remotely on one or more computers. A list of computers can be provided either from a file (XLS, XLSX, CSV, TXT), loaded from SCCM collection or simply entered as a text into a text area. The main goal for creating this tool was to have something simple that doesn’t have any prerequisites and doesn’t require installation.

Client Center by Roger Zanderhttp://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr/

COMMON CLIENT INSTALLATION METHODS

• Client Push Installation • Software update Point Based • Group Policy Installation • Logon Script Installation • Manual Installation

DEMO• Download, Review and Execute the SCCM client installation (Rmtclient.cmd)

CLIENT INSTALLATION CHALLENGES

• The client is behind a firewall

• MP not working as a result of which the policies are not getting downloaded

• Clients going to NO after it had reported

• Unable to get the site code

• Incorrect discovery scan settings

Why clients fail to install

WHY CLIENTS FAIL TO INSTALL

• The client is behind a firewall

• MP not working as a result of which the policies are not getting downloaded

• Clients going to NO after it had reported

• Unable to get the site code

• Incorrect discovery scan settings

FAILED VS SUCCESS CLIENT INSTALLS

EXCELLENT SOURCE OF RESOURCES

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632742.aspx

• http://www.bing.com/search?q=sccm+tips+and+tricks+for+administration&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=sccm+tips+and+tricks+for+administration&sc=0-38&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=b1347f8e30194f31afdc73a31d4a9bc6

SYSTEM CENTER OPERATIONS MANAGERADMINISTRATION

September 21, 2013TechGate 2013 – Reston, VA

Phil BracherChris Maiden

KEY TASKS

• Maintain System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Database Backups

• Maintain SCOM Management Pack Backups

• Ensure that all Management Servers are in a Healthy State

• How are your Management Servers Performing?

• Check SCOM Agent Health State

• Checks• Daily• Weekly

DAILY CHECKS

• Review all Active Alerts in the Console.

• Verify that there are no agents stuck in Pending Management.

• Verify that there are no agents in a grey state in Health Explorer.

• Verify Management Servers are agent Load Balanced.

• Review the Health Explorer for Agents listed as Critical/Not Monitored.

• Review the Alerts for the Management Group.• Investigate any alerts related to the SCOM Infrastructure.

For Example:• Management Servers• SCOM SQL Servers• SCOM Reporting server

DAILY CHECKS (cont.)

• Ensure that all SCOM related custom SQL jobs ran successfully.

• Ensure that Reporting is working.

• Check the State of the SCOM Backups.

• Verify healthy status of Web Console.

WEEKLY CHECKS

• Review the Most Common Alerts Report and Most Common Events Report.

• Team Meeting Weekly

• Review SCOM Operational Database (DB) and Datawarehouse (DW) Backup Schedule. Verify successful backup of DB and DW.

• Review backup of Management Packs and Override Management Packs.

• Review database free space report for DB and DW in SQL. Ensure free space is >40% for both databases.

• Review Management Pack Life Cycle.

REFERENCES

• Getting Started with Operations Manager 2012• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh509025.aspx

• System Center Team Blog• http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/

• Kevin Holman’s System Center Blog• http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/

• System Center Central• http://www.systemcentercentral.com/

Thank You

An email will be sent to all attendees on Monday, September 21 announcing location of slides received

from presenters.

techgate@hotmail.com