https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/feed.xml A collection of things I have learned along the way.....and whatever else I can think of. Tue, 16 Apr 2019 06:07:16 GMT en-US hourly 1 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/error-during-sccm-1702-baseline-media-upgrade-from-sccm-2012-r2-sharedmanagementobjects-msi-installation-process-returned-1603-failed-to-create-process-of-setupwpf-exe Wed, 09 Aug 2017 13:58:59 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/evanmills/?p=346   I initially ruled out the common items like running the splash as an admin, installing off a fresh reboot, and verifiying that the version of SQL is supported (sql 2012 sp3). From there, I moved on to rule out any custom DB entries and custom hardware classes. Eventually I was able to narrow down the culprit to this: INFO: D:\Install\SharedManagementObjects.msi installation process returned 1603. I've done quite a few upgrades and have never ran across this error before. A Bing search doesn't reveal much either. (So much for silky smooth) Next, we should probably take a look at what is installed. Jumping into Programs and Features I can see that the site has two versions of  ShareManagementObjects (SMO) installed. SMO 2012 is installed and for some unknown reason, SMO 2014 is also installed: Interesting..... so let's take a glance at the version of SMO that the upgrade is attempting to install. If you drill down into the mounted .iso to SMSSETUP\BIN\x64 we find sharedmanagementobjects.msi. Glancing at the properties we can see that this is the 2012 version: Out of curiosity, I ran the installer and it revealed an error: Next lets examine the updated installation files. If you drill down through the files from the download location that is selected during the wizard we also find sharemanagementobjects.msi. Again, glancing at the properties we now see that this is the 2014 version: Again, running the installer we are prompted to repair or remove SMO 2014. I compared the dates of the installed SMO versions in the lab environment with the production environment and noticed that the install date of SMO 2014 in the lab was the same date as the upgrade. Looking at the production server, the installed date of SMO 2014 was almost a year ago. Seeing as the evidence is pointing to SMO 2014 possibly being the culprit, we uninstall the 2014 version on the production server. Once SMO 2014 is completely uninstalled, we kick off the 1702 Upgrade once more. This time the upgrade continued and completed successfully. Programs and features shows the newly installed SMO 2014 with today's date. Oddly, this wasn't caught in the pre-requisite check and there is a hard stop on the return code for a previously detected version.  Since there wasn't a lot of helpful content online, I decided to share this in the hopes that we can save someone a couple of hours worth of troubleshooting and have a more silky smooth experience.   Happy Upgrading!   Evan Mills - MSFT Disclaimer: This posting is provided 'AS-IS' with no warranties and confers no rights.      ]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/sccm-1610-in-the-lab-in-place-os-upgrade Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:18:53 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/evanmills/?p=165 "To Lab, or not to Lab.....that is the question." - Mr. Best Practice     A customer recently asked if I would assist them with their in-place OS upgrade on their SCCM Primary Site server. The caveat was, they did not have a lab environment and the statement "test in prod" was thrown around frequently. I'm not cavalier enough to attempt such a feat, so I offered up my Azure lab. It was similarly configured to the customer environment so it made a viable/wise option. Here is the configuration of the lab environment: -Flat Primary - all roles co-located on the server -OS=Server 2012 R2 -SCCM version= 1610 -SQL version= 2012 sp3 (latest cu)   In-Place Upgrade Walkthrough: 1.Obtain the Server 2016 .iso and license keys from your VLSC site (or MSDN if testing). 2.Mount the .iso and run setup.exe. 3.Choose an option: Download and install updates or Not right now. 4.Enter your product key. Note: Double check the license key and make sure if matches the version of your server (Standard/Datacenter). If you enter the wrong key, you will not have the option to keep your files and apps and will have to go back and enter the correct key. 5.Select an image: Standard (No GUI) or Standard w/Desktop Experience (GUI) Note: If you are not familiar with the GUI-less option, use the Desktop Experience version 6.Accept the License Terms 7.Choose what to keep: Keep personal files and apps or Nothing (wipe and load). Since I am testing the in-place upgrade, I am choosing to keep files and apps. 8.Checking for updates again and making sure we are ready to install 9.Confirm your actions. (In a perfect world, we would always perform a wipe and load. That being said, the warning here is that there may be other apps installed on the server that may not be compatible and/or not supported on Server 2016) 10.Setup now performs a check against all of the installed applications. I received a warning regarding System Center Endpoint Protection not being compatible with Server 2016 and had to uninstall it before moving on. 11.Once that was completed, setup moved on and performed a check for disk space. 12.Lastly, review what version you selected and what to keep and install. 13. Once the upgrade was finished a quick sanity check to verify the version.     That was too easy, right? Nothing ever goes as planned. Sure enough, I did find that the SMS Exec service did not auto start nor did SSRS. I started those manually and opened the SCCM Console. I noticed that the Software Update Point was reporting errors. A quick check of WSUS revealed that I had to re-run the initial configuration. I then removed the SUP and re-added it and it began syncing and working correctly. Lastly, the Reporting Point was not working correctly. To remedy that issue, I had to remove the RP and re-add. In all, the in-place upgrade went smoothly with a few bumps but in the end I have a healthy SCCM site running on Server 2016.   Moral of the story, always attempt such an upgrade in a lab environment first. If your organization does not have a lab, (insert shameless plug here) Hyper V and Azure are great options. Maybe 2017 will be the year of the lab.   Happy upgrading!   Evan Mills – MSFT Disclaimer: This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no rights.    ]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/sccm-1610-quick-look-usage-and-diagnostic-data Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:09:11 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/evanmills/?p=135 Usage Data , you may have noticed they disappeared.  Fear not!  They actually were relocated. As of 1610, these settings are now accessed by navigating to Administration > Overview > Sites Open Hierarchy Settings navigate to the Usage and Diagnostic Data tab and then select the level of data you want to leverage. Voila! Order has been restored.   Screenshot pre-1610: Screenshot post-1610:   For more information on Telemetry data in 1610, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/plan-design/diagnostics/levels-of-diagnostic-usage-data-collection-1610   Evan Mills – MSFT Disclaimer: This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no rights.]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/sccm-1610-quick-look-improved-remote-control-feature Wed, 04 Jan 2017 19:56:46 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/evanmills/?p=87 here.) Here is a breakdown of the enhancements:

1. Color Depth
   • Now you have a choice between 16 bits or 32 bits
2. Optimize for low bandwidth connection
   • Enable this feature to provide a better remote experience over slow connections
3. Enable Keyboard Translation

  Screenshots:   And there you have it. Just a quick glance at a feature update that should provide better Remote Control capabilities. Happy Remote Controlling!   Evan Mills - MSFT Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.  ]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/evanmills/fun-with-acs-part-1 Thu, 19 May 2016 19:43:16 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/evanmills/?p=65 ALL event data from the enabled forwarders will begin flowing into the Collector and stored in the database so the first task post-implementation was to apply a good filter. If you have searched the internet, like me, you have found that there are not many resources regarding ACS filters. I came across this filter from a post by Kevin Holman and is a great place to start.   Here is the syntax: adtadmin /setquery /collector:"collector server" /query:"SELECT * FROM AdtsEvent WHERE NOT (((EventId=528 AND String01=’5′) OR (EventId=576 AND (String01=’SeChangeNotifyPrivilege’ OR HeaderDomain=’NT Authority’)) OR (EventId=538 OR EventId=566 OR EventId=672 OR EventId=680)))"   This filter will eliminate a lot of unnecessary events. However, the customer requested we filter out events for deleted files of a certain file type (.tmp and .pst), as they had no need to report on these, which was not excluded by the above filter. I reached out to a colleague (Thanks Chris Maiden!) and he was able to tweak and extend the filter to exclude events with that file type.   Here is the syntax: adtadmin /setquery /collector:"collector server" /query:"SELECT * FROM AdtsEvent WHERE NOT ((HeaderUser='SYSTEM' OR HeaderUser='LOCAL SERVICE' OR HeaderUser='NETWORK SERVICE') OR (EventId=538 OR EventId=566 OR EventId=672 OR EventId=680) OR (EventId>=541 AND EventId<=547) OR (String02 LIKE '%.TMP') OR (String02 LIKE '%.PST'))"   The results validated that we were excluding the file types, per the customer request, and we saw a significant reduction in collected events. Unfortunately we began seeing some performance and timeout issues with reporting. Tune in to Part 2 to discover how this was resolved!   For additional information on ACS and applying filters for ACS, refer to the following articles: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb309436.aspx https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh212908(v=sc.12).aspx          

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