Azure Policies for Restricting Cross-Subscription Private Endpoints
Some SaaS products provide the ability to privately connect the service to your Azure environment using Azure Private Endpoints. In this scenario, often the ...
Posts by Year
- 2024 7
- 2023 17
- 2022 15
- 2021 8
- 2020 16
- 2019 21
- 2018 25
- 2017 29
- 2016 51
- 2015 78
- 2014 62
- 2013 36
- 2012 46
- 2011 32
- 2010 21
2024
Azure Resource Graph Query for Subscription Owner Role Assignments
In the current customer engagement, we wanted to replace the Microsoft Defender for Cloud recommendation A maximum of 3 owners should be designated for subsc...
Azure Policy for Allowed Service Tags in Network Security Groups
Previously, I have published a blog post about Azure Policies for Restricting Service Tag in Network Security Groups. In that post, I shared the policy defin...
Azure Policies for Restricting Service Tag in Network Security Groups
Recently Tenable has reported a vulnerability on Azure Network Security Groups (NSG) related to the use of service tags in NSG rules You can read more about ...
PowerShell Module AzPolicyTest V2.0 Released
Introduction I created the PowerShell module AzPolicyTest (GitHub, PowerShellGallery) back in 2019. This module provides a list of Pester tests can be used t...
Azure Bicep Module for Network Security Groups
Introduction
2023
Managing Azure Private Endpoints using Azure Policy
Using Azure policies to manage the configuration of resources has become a very common practice and there are already many articles covering this topic. When...
AzureTar YouTube Video Series - Infra as Code with CARML Bicep Modules
Over the last few months, I teamed up with my good friend Jorge Arteiro (@JorgeArteiro) and Ahmad Abdalla(@ahmadkabdalla) from Microsoft Australia and record...
Generate Unique GUID in PowerShell
In Azure ARM / Bicep templates, there is a function called guid() which allows you to generate a unique GUID. You can use this function as many times as you ...
Azure Data Factory Global Parameters and Azure Bicep Templates
Few weeks ago, a colleague made me aware of an issue with the Bicep Template I have developed which creates an Azure Data Factory (ADF). After the ADF was cr...
Script to Create Azure Purview Integration Runtimes
I needed to create Azure Purview with a Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) as part of a Infrastructure as Code (IaC) pipeline. Having previously created ...
Generating README for Bicep Files
Introduction
Using Policy Metadata in Azure Policy Initiatives
When checking the Policy Compliance status on Azure Portal, if you click on an policy assignment for a Initiative, you may have noticed some of the policy in...
Using Azure Artifacts As Python Pip Package Repository
In a recent engagement, we had to provision several Linux VMs in customer’s Azure environment. The customer has blocked access to all public package reposito...
Using Azure Policy to Create DNS Records for Private Endpoints
Azure Private Link allows you to access Azure PaaS services over a private endpoint in in your virtual network. To make your Azure PaaS resources accessible ...
How To Restrict Event Hub Public Network Access via Azure Policy
Yesterday I published a policy definition to restrict Event Hub public network access. After reading my blog post, my friend and colleague Ahmad Abdalla told...
Bicep Template for VNet Isolated CloudShell
Introduction
Azure Policy Definitions for Event Hub Minimum TLS Version and Public Network Access
Azure Event Hub Namespace has added support for 2 additional properties in the latest API version 2022-01-01-preview:
Azure Private Endpoints with Static IP Addresses
In my current project, we have a requirement that all Private Endpoint (PE) connections must use static IP addresses. All Private Endpoint IP addresses must ...
2022
Minimum Permissions for Azure Policy Template Deployment
When comes into security, a general rule of thumb is to ALWAYS use the least privilege principle when assigning permissions. I rarely come across customers t...
Azure Bicep Modules for Azure Policy Resources
Although I’m a big fan of Microsoft CARML Bicep module repo, and have used many of their modules in my projects, Sometimes I still prefer using the modules I...
Azure policy to Audit Storage Account without Lifecycle Management Rule
I created a new Azure Policy definition today to audit storage accounts that do not have lifecycle management rules.
Programmatically Generate Cloud Resource Names - Part 2
This is the part 2 of the 2-part series on Programmatically Generate Cloud Resource Names.
Programmatically Generate Cloud Resource Names - Part 1
Many organizations have naming standard for cloud resources just like server naming conventions for on-premises data centers.
Azure Policy Definitions for Controlling ARM API versions
In a previous engagement, we had requirements to control ARM API versions used to create / update Azure resources. To address these requirements, I have deve...
March 2022 Major Update for Azure Diagnostic Settings Policy Definitions
I haven’t revisited the Resource Diagnostics Settings policy definitions since October 2020. A lot has changed since then. An update is long-overdue.
Azure Policy for Virtual Machine Customer-Managed Boot Diagnostic Storage Accounts
I wrote an Azure Policy definition today to audit or deny VMs that are not using customer-managed storage accounts for Boot Diagnostics. The default policy e...
Testing Bicep Code Using PSRule in Azure Pipeline
PSRule is a test and validation tool that can be used to test your Infrastructure as Code (IaC). It works with various supplement modules for different platf...
Using Azure DevOps Branch Policy To Restrict PR Source Branch
Today I had a requirement to protect a Git branch in an Azure DevOps repo that only allow merging from a specific source branch. i.e. An archive branch must ...
Updated PowerShell Modules - PSPesterTest and TestJsonSchema
Few years ago, I published 2 PowerShell modules:
Azure Bicep Module for Management Group Hierarchy
Few years ago, I published a solution to create Azure Management Group hierarchy using a PowerShell script and Azure Pipeline. Back then, I couldn’t configur...
2021
Azure Resource Graph Query For Network Security Group Rules
Few months ago, I had a requirement to produce a process to document Network Security Group (NSG) rules. Using Azure Resource Graph seemed like a logical cho...
Azure Policy for Deploy Anti-malware VM Extension for SQL VMs
I have just finished a very lengthy engagement, where I had been working exclusively on Terraform. The customer uses only Terraform to deploy resources to Az...
Azure Bicep, Deployment Script and Static Private IP Allocation
My blog has been very quiet lately. Other than the obvious reason that I have been really busy at work, It’s also because over the last 14 months, I have bee...
YouTube Video - My Version of Fried Rice with Pork Lard
Well, it’s the long Easter weekend and I have done something different today - I created my first cooking video! In this video I demonstrated how to cook my ...
Azure Bicep, Deployment Script and Role Definition Code Example
Firstly, apologies for not been too active in writing blog posts lately because I have been really busy with my current project.
YouTube Video - Azure Bicep Vs Terraform Overview
AzureTar is a YouTube Channel focuses on all aspect of Azure. It’s hosted by Jorge Arteiro (@JorgeArteiro) and Fernando Rolnik (@FernandoRolnik).
Moved My Blog to GitHub Pages
You might wonder why does my blog look different now. This is because I have just moved it from a self-hosted WordPress site to GitHub Pages (running Jekyll)...
2020
November 2020 Update for Azure Diagnostic Settings Policy Definitions
Last month, I released some updates to the Azure Policy definitions for Diagnostics Settings. After that update, there was a requirement for me to revisit an...
October 2020 Update for Azure Diagnostic Settings Policy Definitions
Over the last couple years, I’ve been maintaining a set of custom Azure Policy Definitions for deploying Diagnostic Settings for applicable Azure services. Y...
Moving My Data to Azure and Office 365 Using Synology Cloud Sync
Syncing data between on-prem locations and public cloud has become a very common practice for many organisations, and sometimes even for home users. I have s...
Video on AzureTar YouTube Channel: Integrating Terraform Enterprise with CI/CD Pipeline
Last weekend, I was invited to record a video on my friend Jorge Arteiro’s YouTube Channel AzureTar. In this video, I have demonstrated some POC code I was w...
Recording for Inside Azure Management Virtual Summit Now Available
This week, on July 23rd (US time), we had a one-day 17-hour free online event Inside Azure Management Virtual Summit. I have teamed up with my buddy Alex Ver...
Inside Azure Management book V4 and Free Online Summit
The Inside Azure Management book v4 has been officially released few weeks ago. In case you haven’t got it, you can either download for free, or purchase a k...
Use GitHub Super Linter in Azure Pipelines
Recently, GitHub has released an open-sourced tool called Super Linter (Blog, Repo). It’s basically a swiss army knife of linters for a collection of languag...
OMSDataInjection PowerShell Module Updated
I’ve just pushed a small update to my old OMSDataInection PowerShell module. This module is designed to send custom logs to a Log Analytics workspace via its...
Using Raspberry Pi for Displaying Ubiquiti CCTV Cameras in Kiosk Mode
I recently blogged my home office setup. When we bought the house, there is a TV wall mount already installed in my office, right above where I put the ellip...
Validating ARM Templates with ARM What-if Operations
The ARM template deployment What-if API was firstly announced to the general public at Ignite last year. It has finally been made available for public previe...
Inside Azure Management Book v4 Is Being Released for Preview
Few years ago, few of us started a book authoring project for then-called Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS). Since the technology is constantly evo...
My Home Office Setup
Introduction
Managing Azure Resource Tags using Azure Policy Modify Effect
The new Modify effect for Azure Policy was introduced few months ago. I was really excited about this new addition, but unfortunately I haven’t had time to w...
Puppet Facts Detecting Cloud Providers for Windows VMs
I’m currently working on a Puppet Module for Windows Server. This module needs to detect which public cloud platform is the Windows server running on. More s...
Presenting in Microsoft Ignite the Tour Sydney 2020
Next week, I will attend the Microsoft Ignite the Tour in Sydney and present a session on Azure Monitor and Azure Pipelines with fellow Azure MVP Alex Verkin...
2019
Updated Azure Policy Definitions for Azure Diagnostics Settings Again
I firstly published a set of policy definitions for configuring Azure resource diagnostics settings last year. You can find the original post here: https://b...
100 Days of Infrastructure as Code in Azure
I have been asked to contribute to the 100 Days of IaC in Azure project started by Ryan Irujo (@reirujo) and Pete Zerger (@pzerger). I accepted the invitatio...
SCOM Self Maintenance Management Pack for SCOM 2019 now available
Good news! OpsMgr Self Maintenance MP v3.1 is now available from cookdown.com https://cookdown.com/scom-essentials/self-maintenance/
Configuring Azure Management Group Hierarchy Using Azure DevOps
Previously, I have published a 3-part blog series on deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). It covered one aspect of i...
Cross-Blog: How to Create Azure Monitor Alerts for Non-Compliant Azure Policies
Recently, I have been asked to contribute to Microsoft’s ITOps Talk blog. My first article “How to Create Azure Monitor Alerts for Non-Compliant Azure Polici...
Deploying Management Group Level Custom RBAC Role Using ARM Templates
Although custom RBAC roles can be deployed using subscription-level ARM templates, they are actually tenant level resources. When you deploy a custom RBAC ro...
Azure Automation Runbook to Export Data From Multiple Log Analytics Workspaces
I wrote a runbook a while back to export data from Azure Log Analytics workspaces using it’s search API https://dev.loganalytics.io/documentation/Using-the-A...
Updated Azure Policy for Azure Diagnostic Settings
Few months ago, I published a set of Azure Policy definitions to configure Azure resources diagnostic settings. You can find the original post here: https://...
New Azure Policy Definition: Deploy Microsoft IaaSAntimalware extension with custom configurations
Microsoft provides a built-in Azure Policy definition for deploying Windows Defender VM Extension. The name of this policy definition is Deploy default Micro...
New Azure Policy Definition: Deploy VM Shutdown Schedule
I wrote an Azure Policy definition few days ago, it deploys VM shutdown schedule together with VMs using deployIfNotExists effect. You can find it at my Azur...
Deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 3)
This is the 3rd and final installment of the 3-part blog series. You can find the other parts here:
Deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 2)
This is the 2nd installment of the 3-part blog series. You can find the other parts here:
PowerShell Module For JSON Schema Validation
Background
Sharing My Azure Resource Graph Resources
I have created a public GitHub repo to store and share resources I created around Azure Resource Graph:
New SCOM Management Pack: Easy Tune from Cookdown
Squared Up should not be a stranger for any seasoned SCOM administrators. For me, it is absolutely my favourite ISV when it comes to SCOM. Recently, at Exper...
New Book Release: Inside Azure Management
I have been pretty busy over the last few months, largely because I was working on the new book titled Inside Azure Management with few MVP friends. We have ...
Extracting High Resolution Icons from the Azure Portal
I found myself and friends are constantly looking for high resolution icons for various Azure products when working on design documents, presentation slide d...
NiCE Active Office 365 Management Pack for SCOM
If you are monitoring your Office 365 services in SCOM, you probably already know how bad the Microsoft Office 365 MP is. In my opinion, it is one of the wor...
Upcoming Conferences and Book Release
It’s been a while since my last post. Other than the 2-week holiday I had in China around Christmas and New Year period, I spent most of my December and Janu...
2018
Configuring Azure Resources Diagnostic Log Settings Using Azure Policy
In an Azure Policy definition, the “effect” section defines the behaviour of the policy if defined conditions are met. For example, the “Deny” effect will bl...
My Journey to a Smarter Home (Part 3)
This is the 3rd part of the blog series. I have covered my home network setup using Ubiquiti Unifi devices in part 1, and Xiaomi home automation products in ...
Sneak Peak of Azure Blueprints
Azure Blueprints have been announced and made available for public preview last month at Microsoft Ignite 2018. I have been on the private preview for few mo...
My Journey to a Smarter Home (Part 2)
This is the 2nd part of the blog series. I have covered my home network setup using Ubiquiti Unifi devices in part 1, you can find it here. In this part, I w...
My Journey to a Smarter Home (Part 1)
Over the last month, I have published 8 blog posts. Right now, although I still have few more on my to-do list, I’m just a bit over it. I want to write somet...
Azure Policy to Restrict Storage Account Firewall Rules
Back in the Jan 2018, I posted a custom Azure Policy definition that restricts the creation of public-facing storage account – in another word, if the storag...
My Views on the Native Source Control Option in Azure Automation
Few weeks ago, I saw a two separate discussions in different closed community channels regarding to the Source Control option in Azure Automation accounts, m...
Deploying PowerShell Modules to NuGet Feeds (Version 2) Using VSTS CI/CD Pipelines
It’s been 2 weeks since my last post, I was half way through my list (of blogs to be written), then Melbourne was hit by a big cold wave, I got sick for over...
Enforcing Code Signing for Azure Automation Runbooks on Hybrid Workers
Towards the end of last year, in order to solve a specific issue, we were planning to introduce Azure Automation Hybrid Workers to the customer I was working...
PowerShell Module: PSPesterTest
Few weeks ago, the customer I was working for has a requirement that all the PowerShell scripts and in-house written modules must be validated against PSScri...
Azure Policy–Restrict NICs From Connecting to Particular Subnets
I wrote this policy definition for a customer few weeks ago – to restrict VMs from connecting to particular subnets. The customer has several subnets that sh...
Azure Policy Definition – Restricting Public IP for NIC
It has been a while since my last blog post. There were a lot going on outside of work, I couldn’t find time to write, and my blog to-do list is getting long...
Using ARM Templates to Deploying Azure Policy Definitions That Requires Input Parameters
Recently, Kristian Nese from Microsoft published a sample subscription level ARM template that deploys Azure Policy definition and assignment on his GitHub r...
When Squared Up meets Windows Admin Center
I have been in the private preview for Project Honolulu (now called Windows Admin Center) for quite long time before it became GA and I am a big fan of it. I...
OpsMgrExtended PowerShell module is now on GitHub and PSGallery
I developed the OpsMgrExnteded module back in 2015 and it was freely available from my company’s website. I also wrote a 18-post blog series on Automating Op...
Managing Azure VM Hybrid Use Benefit Configuration Using Azure Policy
The Azure Policy is a great tool to manage your standards and policies within your Azure subscriptions. In addition to the built-in policies from the Azure P...
Creating Azure Monitor Alerts using Azure Log Analytics Query Language Based On Azure Automation Runbook Job Output
Well, this post has such a long title – but I’ve tried my best. It is based on an idea I had – We all have many “Health Check” PowerShell scripts in our coll...
Log-In to AzureRM PowerShell module using oAuth Tokens
In my last post, I demonstrated how to generate Azure AD oAuth tokens using my AzureServicePrincipalAccount PowerShell module.
Generating Azure AD oAuth Token in PowerShell
Recently in a project that I’m currently working on, myself and other colleagues have been spending a lot of time dealing with Azure AD oAuth tokens when dev...
Bulk Register Azure Resource Providers Using PowerShell
Azure Resource Providers registration dictates what types of resources you allow users to provision within your Azure subscription. Although by default, some...
Generating Unique GUIDs in Azure Resource Manager Templates
If you have worked on ARM templates, you have probably already faced challenges when you need to use GUIDs within the templates. Currently there are several ...
Getting Azure AD Tenant Common Configuration Such as Tenant ID Using PowerShell
It has been a long time since my last post. I was very busy right until the Christmas eve, and it my to-be-blogged list is getting longer and longer. I had a...
2017
SCOM Webinar for Office 365 Monitoring and Dashboards
Savision and NiCE are getting together and delivering a webinar on Office 365 monitoring and dashboard next week. The webinar is taking place on Wednesday 13...
Squared Up OpsMgr Community MP Catalog
One of the big challenges when working with OpsMgr is finding all the good community management packs. Although Microsoft has provided a “Partner Solutions” ...
Searching OMS Using the New Search Language (Kusto) REST API in PowerShell
Currently Microsoft is in the process of upgrading all OMS Log Analytics workspaces to the new query language (named Kusto). Once your workspace has been upg...
Azure Resource Policy to Restrict ALL ASM Resources
I needed to find a way to restrict ALL Azure Service Manager (ASM, aka Classic) resources on the subscription level. Azure Resource Policy seems to be a logi...
New PowerShell Module For Azure Automation: AzureServicePrincipalAccount
I’m currently working on a project where there has been a lot of discussion on how to use Azure AD Service Principals in Azure Automation and other solutions...
AzureTableEntity PowerShell Module Updated
I have updated the AzureTableEntity PowerShell module few days ago. The latest version is 1.0.3.0 and it is published at:
Deploying PowerShell Module from GitHub to a MyGet Feed using VSTS CI/CD Pipeline
Introduction Lately I have been playing with VSTS and its CI/CD capabilities. Since I have been writing a lot of PowerShell modules and I’m using GitHub and ...
Inside OMS Book V2 Released
Few days ago, the Inside OMS Book version 2 has been released as a free ebook to the TechNet Gallery: http://bit.ly/InsideOMS
OpsMgr 2016 Agent Crashes SharePoint 2016 Site
Today I pushed the SCOM 2016 agent to my newly installed SharePoint 2016 server via the SCOM console. My SCOM management group is on 2016 RTM UR 3.
Free PowerShell OpsMgr Management Pack from Squared Up
Squared Up is releasing a new free management pack that provides several PowerShell related templates that allows SCOM administrators to create the following...
Azure Functions Demo: Voting App
Back in April this year, Pete Zerger (@pzerger) and I delivered two sessions in Experts Live Australia. One of which is titled “Cloud Automation Overview”. D...
Preventing Azure Automation Concurrent Jobs In the Runbook
Recently when I was writing an Azure Automation PowerShell runbook, I had an requirement that I need to make sure there should be only one job running at any...
Programmatically Creating Azure Automation Runbook Webhooks Targeting Hybrid Worker Groups
In Azure Automation, you can create a webhook for a runbook and target it to a Hybrid Worker group (as opposed to run on Azure). In the Azure portal, it is p...
PowerShell Function to Get Azure AD Token
When making Azure Resource Manager REST API calls, you will firstly need to obtain an Azure AD authorization token and use it to construct the authorization ...
This Blog Gets another Facelift
It has been 7 years since I started blogging here. As the technology progresses, I have changed the theme and the blog title few times to make sure it is sti...
SharePointSDK Module Updated to v2.1.5
I’ve just released SharePointSDK module version 2.1.5 with a minor bug fix within the New-SPListDateTimeField function. In the old versions, the New-SPListDa...
Using Postman Invoking Azure Resource Management APIs
When working with REST APIs, Postman (https://getpostman.com) is a popular tool that needs no further introductions. This week, I’ve been pretty busy working...
Programmatically Performing OMS Log Search Against a Large Result Set
When performing OMS log search programmatically, you will encounter an API limitation that will prevent you from getting all the logs from the result set. Cu...
Inside OMS book v2 Preview Chapters Release
Over the last few months, Stan, Pete, Anders and I have been very busy with writing the version 2 of the Inside Microsoft Operations Management Suite book. A...
Be Cautious When Designing Your Automation Solution that Involves Azure Automation Azure Runbook Workers
Over the last few weeks, it occurred to me twice that I had to change my original design of the automation solutions I was working on because of the limitati...
PowerShell Script to Import and Update Modules from PowerShell Repositories to Azure Automation
PowerShell Gallery has a very cool feature that allows you to import modules directly to your Azure Automation Account using the “Deploy to Azure Automation”...
Command Launching Microsoft Monitoring Agent Control Panel Applet
I have been refreshing my lab servers to Windows Server 2016. I’m using the Non GUI version (Server Core) wherever is possible.
New Blogger in the Family
I have been blogging for six and half years and to this moment, I’m still enjoying it. Few months ago my better half has decided to start blogging as well. A...
2016
cPowerShellPackageManagement DSC Resource Updated to Version 1.0.1.0
Few days ago I found a bug in the cPowerShellPackageManagement DSC resource module that was caused by the previous update v1.0.0.1.
PowerShell Script to Create OMS Saved Searches that Maps OpsMgr ACS Reports
Microsoft’s PFE Wei Hao Lim has published an awesome blog post that maps OpsMgr ACS reports to OMS search queries (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wei_out_t...
OMSDataInjection Updated to Version 1.2.0
The OMSDataInjection module was only updated to v1.1.1 less than 2 weeks ago. I had to update it again to reflect the cater for the changes in the OMS HTTP ...
DSC Resource cPowerShellPackageManagement Module Updated to Version 1.0.0.1
Back in September this year, I published a PowerShell DSC resource called cPowerSHellPackageManagement. This DSC resource allows you to manage PowerShell rep...
OMS Search Queries to Extract Rules from Various Assessment Solutions
Currently in OMS, there are 3 assessment solutions for various Microsoft products. They are:
Injecting Event Log Export from .evtx Files to OMS Log Analytics
Over the last few days, I had an requirement injecting events from .evtx files into OMS Log Analytics. A typical .evtx file that I need to process contains o...
OMSDataInjection PowerShell Module Updated
I’ve updated the OMSDataInjection PowerShell module to version 1.1.1. I have added support for bulk insert into OMS.
My Meetup Recording–Developing Your OWN OMS Solutions
Last month, I presented at the Melbourne Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter Meetup on the topic “Developing Your OWN OMS Solutions” (https://www.meetup.com/Melbo...
Making PowerShell Based Azure Functions to Produce HTML Outputs
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working with my MVP buddy Alex Verkinderen (@AlexVerkinderen) on some Azure Function related stuff. We have both written f...
Securing Passwords in Azure Functions
09/10/2016 - Note: This post has been updated as per David O’Brien’s suggestion .
Using Custom PowerShell Modules in Azure Functions
Like many other fellow MVPs, I have started playing with Azure Functions over the last few weeks. Although Azure Functions are primarily designed for develop...
Squared Up Upcoming V3 Dashboard with Distributed Application Discovery Feature
Squared Up is set to release the version 3 of their dashboard next week at Ignite North America. One of the key features in the v3 release is called the "Vis...
Scripting Azure Automation Module Imports Directly from MyGet or PowerShell Gallery
There are few ways to add PowerShell modules to Azure Automation accounts:
OMS Network Performance Monitor Power BI Report
I’ve been playing with the OMS Network Performance Monitor (NPM) today. Earlier today, I’ve released an OpsMgr MP that contains tasks to configure MMA agent ...
OpsMgr Agent Task to Configure OMS Network Performance Monitor Agents
OMS Network Performance Monitor (NPM) has made to public preview few weeks ago. Unlike other OMS solutions, for NPM, additional configuration is required on ...
Visualising OMS Agent Heartbeat Data in Power BI
Introduction
OMS Near Real Time Performance Data Aggregation Removed
Few weeks ago, the OMS product team has made a very nice change for the Near Real Time (NRT) Performance data – the data aggregation has been removed! I’ve b...
ConfigMgr OMS Connector
Earlier this week, Microsoft has release a new feature in System Center Configuration Manager 1606 called OMS Connector:
Scoping OMS Performance Data in Power BI
when working on a dashboard or a portal, sometimes it is good that the portal is more interactive. I often found it’s more useful then just a static widget. ...
Calculating SQL Database DTU for Azure SQL DB Using PowerShell
over the last few weeks, I have been working on a project related to Azure SQL Database. One of the requirements was to be able to programmatically calculate...
SharePointSDK PowerShell Module Updated to Version 2.1.0
OK, this blog has been very quiet recently. Due to some work related requirements, I had to pass few Microsoft exams. so I have spent most of my time over th...
Blog Site Recovered–Finally
If you are a regular visitor of this blog, you may have noticed that this blog has been down since last Thursday, and I’ve only been able to get it back onli...
Upcoming SCOM Bootcamp-Melbourne Australia
I’m teaming up with Infront Consulting, Australia and will deliver a 4-day in-person instructor-led SCOM 2012 bootcamp at Melbourne, Australia. The content o...
Recordings Available for the VSAE MP Authoring Webinar with Squared Up
Last night, I conducted 2 webinars with Richard Benwell of Squared Up on MP Authoring. I recorded both sessions from my computer using Camtasia, and now the ...
HybridWorkerToolkit PowerShell Module Updated to Version 1.0.3
Few days ago, I published a PowerShell Module to be used on Azure Automation Hybrid Workers called HybridWorkerToolkit. You can find my blog article HERE.
Gadget Show Off: My Presentation and Recording Equipment for Surface Pro 4
OK, it’s Friday night, I feel like writing something on this blog. But after couple of glasses of wine, and I don’t really want to write anything technical t...
Upcoming Webinar on MP Authoring Using VSAE
Last week, I have conducted a workshop with Richard Benwell from Squared Up to a group of Squared Up’s customers at an internal company event. In the worksho...
New PowerShell Module HybridWorkerToolkit
23/04/2016 Update: released version 1.0.3 to GitHub and PowerShell gallery. New additions documented in this blog post.
My Global Azure Boot Camp 2016 Presentation Recording
Last Saturday, I presented the topic of “What’s New in OMS” at the Global Azure Boot Camp 2016 Melbourne event. I have recorded it using Camtasia and uploade...
Inside the Microsoft Operations Management Suite Book Landed on Amazon
Some time last year, when my good friend and fellow CDM MVP Pete Zerger (@pzerger) asked myself and another good friend & fellow CDM MVP Stanislav Zhely...
OMS Log Analytics Forwarder (aka OMS Gateway) Preview
Over the last few days, I had the privilege to review and test a new component of the OMS family called “OMS Log Analytics Forwarder”. Since this component h...
OpsLogix Capacity Report Management Pack Overview
Just over a month ago, I have blogged and presented a webcast comparing the OpsLogix Capacity Report Management Pack and the OMS Capacity solution. Since the...
OMS Alerting Webhook Support
Introduction
Demo – Creating an OpsLogix ProView Dashboard for an Existing OpsMgr Distributed App
Over the last couple of days, I have spent sometime with OpsLogix ProView. The OpsLogix ProView is a product that could be a good alternative for the old Op...
OpsLogix VMware Management Pack Quick Overview
Recently, I have had chance to evaluate the OpsLogix VMware management pack. In this post, I will discuss my experience with this MP so far.
A Major Update for the SharePointSDK PS Module
Introduction
Upcoming Webinar – Capacity Planning using OMS and OpsLogix Capacity Report MP
As a follow up to my recent blog post Capacity Planning – OMS Vs. OpsLogix Capacity Reports MP, I will be teaming up with the OpsLogix team and deliver a web...
Automating OpsLogix Oracle MP Configuration
Introduction
The Recording for My WMUG NL Webinar on OMS Alerting is Available Online
Earlier this week, I have presented for a webinar hosted by WMUG NL (Windows Management User Group Netherlands). The topic is Introduction to OMS Alerting. T...
Upcoming Community Speaking Events for January 2016
I am going to speak at 2 community events in January 2016.
Free E-book: Inside the Microsoft Operations Management Suite
This is my first post in 2016, so happy new year everyone! Over the last few months, I have been a bit quiet on this blog, because I was involved in a book p...
2015
Azure Automation Runbook: Test-OMSAlertRemediation
Couple of weeks ago, I published a post titled OMS Alerting Walkthrough. I mentioned in the post that I have written a test runbook called Test-OMSAlertRemed...
Squared Up Released version 2.3
Few weeks ago, the Squared Up folks sent me the preview bits for version 2.3. I haven’t had time to play with it until today.
OMS Alerting Walkthrough
Introduction
TY Consulting Update
Things have been pretty busy for me recently. Over the last month, I have attended Microsoft Ignite Australia and co-presented a session on Azure Automation,...
Azure Automation Runbook: New-FakeVirus
Often when you are playing with security related products, you would need to create dummy/fake viruses on your computers. The most common way to do this is t...
Start A Child Runbook From Azure Automation Hybrid Worker on the Same Hybrid Worker Group
Today I was writing a PowerShell runbook (let’s call it Runbook A) that’s designed to run on on-prem hybrid workers. At the end of Runbook A, I needed to kic...
New Activity-Level Tracing Options for Azure Automation Graphical Runbooks
Nowadays, OMS / Azure Automation is full of surprises. almost every time I visit the OMS and Azure Automation portals, I’d notice new features being made ava...
Our Azure Automation Session Recording at Microsoft Ignite Australia
Last week, I had an opportunity teamed up with the legendary CDM MVP Pete Zerger (@pzerger) and delivered a session on Azure Automation at Microsoft Ignite A...
Free OMS Workshops in Sydney and Melbourne
Next week, I will team up with my fellow Cloud and Datacenter MVP Daniel Mar from Infront Consulting Australia and deliver 2 free Microsoft Operations Manage...
Azure Automation Webhooks Now Support Hybrid Workers
My friend and fellow CDM MVP Pete Zerger just pinged me and told me he just spotted that Azure Automation webhooks now support targeting Hybrid Workers.
SharePointSDK and SendEmail PS Modules Published in GitHub and PowerShell Gallery
I have recently published 2 PowerShell modules that I’ve written around a year ago on GitHub and PowerShell Gallery:
Presenting in Microsoft Ignite Australia
Microsoft Ignite Australia is going to take place in Gold Coast, QLD between 17 – 20 November 2015. I am really honoured to co-present a session with the leg...
A Sneak Peek at Squared Up’s Upcoming OMS Plugin
Introduction
Top Community Resources for SCOM and OMS Webinar
Few weeks ago, I presented a session on Top Community Resources for SCOM and OMS for Squared Up’s UK community workshop (https://blog.tyang.org/2015/10/05/to...
Top Community Resources for SCOM and OMS
Last Friday, as part of the Squared Up UK community workshop, I have presented my recommended resources for SCOM and OMS. I have covered may blogs, sites, ma...
Displaying OpsMgr Events Data in Squared Up Dashboards
For those who’s been using Squared Up dashboards for your OpsMgr environments, you’d probably know that currently Squared Up does not have a plug-in for OpsM...
Using Exchange Online (Office 365) For OpsMgr Email Notification
I haven’t been able to use OpsMgr email notifications in my lab since the beginning, because I do not have an on-prem Exchange server (nor that I want to). I...
Small Bug Fix in OpsMgr Self Maintenance MP V2.5.0.0
Last night, someone left a comment on the my post for the OpsMgr Self Maintenance MP V2.5.0.0 and advised a configuration in the Data Warehouse staging table...
OpsMgr Self Maintenance Management Pack 2.5.0.0
26/10/2015 Update: It has been identified the unsealed override MP was not included in the download, and also there was a small error in “Known Issue” sectio...
OpsMgr Performance Collection Rules for OMS Near Real-Time Performance Data Collection
Update: 09/09/2015: I found a small error in the demo MP provided at the end of this post, where one of the perf collection rules had an extra condition dete...
OpsMgr Alert Console Task For Squared Up
I have just created 2 alert console tasks in OpsMgr for Squared Up:
Updating Connection Fields in SMA and Azure Automation Modules
Recently when I was working with Stanislav Zhelyazkov on the OMSSearch module, Stan discovered an issue where the module connection type does not get updated...
Geo-Location Squared Up Bing Map Dashboard
Before I started working for Squared Up, the very first project we talked about was producing Bing Maps dashboard in Squared Up.
OMSSearch Module Sample Runbook: Invoke-OMSSavedSearch
Over the last few days, I’ve been playing with the OMSSearch PowerShell / SMA / Azure Automation Module my friend and fellow SCCDM MVP Stanislav Zhelyazkov h...
World and Country Maps for Squared Up Visio Dashboard
In the recently released Inside System Center Podcast Episode 2: Dashboarding, I have demonstrated few Visio map dashboards in Squared Up.
Inside System Center Podcast Episode 2: Dashboarding
Last week, Pete Zerger, Lee Berg, Cameron Fuller and myself got together and recorded the second episode for the new Inside System Center Podcast series. The...
MVP Renewed For the 2nd Year
Time flies. It has been one year since I firstly became a MVP in System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management. Last night, I have received the most importan...
OpsMgr 2012 Data Warehouse Health Check Script Updated
Since I published the OpsMgr 2012 Data Warehouse Health Check Script last week, the responses I have received from the community have been overwhelming!
OpsMgr 2012 Data Warehouse Health Check Script
Note (19/06/2015): This script has been updated to version 1.1. You can find the details of version 1.1 here: https://blog.tyang.org/2015/06/19/opsmgr-2012-d...
2015 Global Azure Bootcamp – Melbourne Event
For those who are actively engaged in Microsoft System Center and Azure community may already aware that there is a global Azure Bootcamp event taking place ...
Consolidate Multiple Squared Up Instances into Single Dashboard
Recently, I have been involved in many conversations in regards to managing multiple SCOM management groups with other SCCDM MVP colleagues. I am planning to...
Various Ways to Find the ID of a Monitoring Object in OpsMgr
Often when working in OpsMgr, we need to find the ID of a monitoring object. For example, in the recent Squared Up Dashboard version 2.0 Customer Preview we...
My Experience of Using Silect MP Studio During Management Pack Update Process
Thanks to Silect’s generosity, I have been given a NFR (Not For Resell) license for the MP Studio to be used in my lab last November. When I received the lic...
Writing PowerShell Modules That Interact With Various SDK Assemblies
Over the last few months, there have been few occasions that I needed to develop PowerShell scripts needed to leverage SDK DLLs from various products such as...
Microsoft MVP Community Camp 2015 and My Session for SMA Integration Module: OpsMgrExtended
On next Friday (30th Jan, 2015), I will be speaking at the Microsoft MVP Community Camp Day in Melbourne. I am pretty excited about this event as this is go...
Creating OpsMgr Instance Group for All Computers Running an Application and Their Health Service Watchers
OK, the title of this blog is pretty long, but please let me explain what I’m trying to do here. In OpsMgr, it’s quite common to create an instance group whi...
Detecting Windows License Activation Status Using ConfigMgr DCM and OpsMgr
Hello and Happy New year. You are reading my first post in 2015! This is going to a quick post, something I did this week.
2014
This Concludes My Year 2014
It is one day away from the holiday season of the year. And I have worked HARD over the last few days so I can post my last technical post for the year 2014 ...
A Free Management Pack Catalog for Everyone
In the 2 most recent post, I have blogged my experience setting up a Microsoft OpsMgr MP catalog using SharePoint and SMA. I managed to produce 2 versions: ...
Using Azure Automation to Build Your Own Microsoft OpsMgr MP Catalog on SharePoint Online
Background
Using SMA to Building Your Own Microsoft OpsMgr Management Pack Catalog On SharePoint 2013
Background
Using the SendEmail SMA Integration Module in Azure Automation
Over the last couple of days, I’ve spent sometime on Azure Automation (SMA in Azure). The first thing I did was imported and configured the SendEmail and Sen...
Installing VMM 2012 R2 Cluster in My Lab
I needed to build a 2-node VMM 2012 R2 cluster in my lab in order to test an OpsMgr management pack that I’m working on. I was having difficulties getting it...
Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition
Nowadays, Visual Studio is definitely one of my top 5 most-used applications. I have also started using Visual Studio Online to store source codes few months...
Using PowerShell and OpsMgr SDK to Get and Set Management Group Default settings
Over the last couple of days, I have written few additional functions in the OpsMgrSDK PowerShell / SMA module that I’ve been working on over the last few mo...
PowerShell Script to Add MP References to Unsealed Management Packs
Background [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Common”) Out-Null ...
SMA Management Pack Could Not Connect To Database Alerts – My Troubleshooting Experience
I’ve setup 2 servers for the SMA environment in my lab a while back. Yesterday, I loaded the SMA MP (version 7.2.89.0) into my OpsMgr management group. Needl...
ConfigMgr 2012 (R2) Client Management Pack Updated to Version 1.1.0.0
4th October, 2014: This MP has been updated to Version 1.2.0.0. Please download the latest version from this page: https://blog.tyang.org/2014/10/04/updated-...
What Have I Been Up To
This blog has been a bit quiet lately. This is because I have been very busy, and it’s just all the things I’ve been working on have not been eventuated yet....
OpsMgr Dashboard Fun: Server Details Using SquaredUp
After my previous post on how to create a performance view using SquaredUp, the founder of SquaredUp, Richard Benwell told me that I can also use “&embed...
OpsMgr Dashboard Fun: Performance Widget Using SquaredUp
I’m a big fan of SquaredUp Dashboard. I have implemented it for my current “day-time” employer Coles over a year ago on their OpsMgr 2007 environments and we...
How to Create a PowerShell Console Profile Baseline for the Entire Environment
Background Often when I’m working in my lab, I get frustrated because the code in PowerShell profiles varies between different computers and user accounts. A...
This Blog Gets A Major Facelift
I have kept the same theme on this WordPress blog since day 1. It has been 4 years and I started getting sick of it. Especially that picture of an old iPhone...
An Alternative for Surface Pro Docking Stations
I bought my Surface Pro 2 last November – third week after it was released in Australia. I only got it on the third week because I was on holidays in China w...
OpsMgr 2012: A Trick to Drive Another Contextual Widget From PowerShell Grid Widget
PowerShell Grid widget and PowerShell Web Browser Widget were released as part of OpsMgr 2012 SP1 UR6 and R2 UR2. To me, these two widgets have opened a wind...
New OpsMgr 2012 Dashboards Repository in TechNet Gallery
With the recent release of OpsMgr 2012 SP1 UR6 and R2 UR2, number of new dashboard widgets have been made available. The PowerShell Grid Widget and PowerShel...
Setting up OpsMgr Knowledge Base on SharePoint 2010 Wiki
Previously, I blogged my opinion on using external knowledge base for OpsMgr. In that article, I mentioned a SharePoint 2013 Wiki solution developed by Stefa...
Using an External Knowledge Base for OpsMgr
Summary I’ve been wanting to write a post on this topic for a while. Using an external knowledge base for OpsMgr is not something new. Many people have alrea...
MVP Award
Last night, I got an email from Microsoft and I have received the MVP Award for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management. I’m so excited and honoured th...
OpsMgr 2012 Self Maintenance Management Pack 2.4.0.0
This blog has been a bit quiet lately because of 2 reasons: FIFA World Cup and I’ve been updating the OpsMgr 2012 Self Maintenance MP. 
SCOM 2012 Maintenance Mode Scheduler V3 from Tim McFadden
Tim McFadden has just released the SCOM 2012 Maintenance Mode Scheduler Version 3.
Controlling OpsMgr 2012 PowerShell Contextual Script Widgets Behaviour
Few days ago I posted an OpsMgr 2012 dashboard using Google Maps. After it’s been posted, I noticed there is a minor issue with the dashboard.
Updated OpsMgr 2012 Alert Update Connector Management Pack
I recently implemented OpsMgr 2012 Alert Update Connector in the new OpsMgr 2012 environments that I’m building. I have previously blogged my way of generati...
Lookout for the IE Version in the OpsMgr PowerShell Web Browser Widget
Last night, while I was working on my newly created Google Map Dashboard in OpsMgr, I kept getting script errors from the PowerShell Web Browser widget used ...
OpsMgr Dashboard Fun: Google Maps
I am really excited about the 2 new PowerShell dashboard widget released in OpsMgr 2012 R2 UR2. PowerShell has always been my favourite scripting language, s...
Management Pack for the SCOM 2012 Maintenance Mode Scheduler
I’ve been working on a SCOM management pack during my spare time over the last couple of weeks. This management pack provides some basic monitoring for the S...
Microsoft Surface Has Been Discovered as Virtual Machine in OpsMgr
I have my Surface Pro 2 being monitored by the OpsMgr management group in my lab. Today I noticed it has been discovered as a virtual machine in OpsMgr:
System Center 2012 R2 Icons
A while ago I extracted the icons from each System Center 2012 R2 products so I can use them in various Visio diagrams, PowerPoint presentations and Word doc...
System.Management.Automation.IncompleteParseException for a PowerShell script from my Management Pack
I’m currently working on a management pack that I’m hoping to be released to public very soon. In one of the workflows in the MP, I got an error logged in th...
Use of Disable Operations Manager alerts option in ConfigMgr
In System Center Configuration Manager, there is an option “Disable Operations manager alerts while this program runs” in the program within a package:
Using Computers And Health Service Watchers Groups in a Management Group containing Clusters
It’s very common for OpsMgr administrators to create instance groups contain windows computer objects and the health service watcher objects for these comput...
My Experience Migrating Hyper-V Clusters Using System Center Orchestrator 2012
Back in August / September last year, I spent sometime designed a set of Orchestrator runbooks to migrate Window Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V clusters to Windows S...
PowerShell Functions: Get OpsMgr Alert Generating Rules and Monitors
This is my second post today. Bad weather, both wife and daughter have got flu. So I’m sitting home catching up with blogs… [System.Reflectio...
Remotely Powering On and Off My Entire Home Lab
My home lab consists of 3 PCs running Hyper-V and a HP Proliant Microserver N54L running SCVMM. I have previously blogged the lab setup in a 2-part blog post...
PowerShell Module to resize console – Updated
Few days ago I wrote a PowerShell module that contains 1 cmdlet / function to resize the PowerShell console windows.
PowerShell Module: Resize-Console
I’m currently working on a solution that relies on PowerShell Web Access (Hopefully I can finish tonight and blog it in next couple of days).
SQL DB Engines Not Discovered in SCOM and My Troubleshooting Experiences
Few days ago while I was in the OpsMgr 2012 console, I realised that all 3 SQL clusters hosting my OpsMgr Ops DBs are not discovered by MS SQL management pac...
VMware Windows Guest Management Pack
This Monday, I was configuring monitoring for all our System Center 2012 servers as per our Windows support team’s requirement. Since all the virtual machine...
Discovery for MS Clusters of Any Kind
Often when developing an OpsMgr management pack for server class applications, we need to be cluster-aware. Sometimes workflows don’t need to run on a cluste...
Discoveries in Fujitsu PRIMERGY Server Management Pack
I have been dealing this the Fujitsu PRIMERGY Server MP from Fujitsu ever since I started working for my current employer about 2.5 years ago. We found many ...
ConfigMgr 2012 (R2) Clients Management Pack Released
Time flies, I can’t believe it’s been over 7 months since I posted the beta version of the ConfigMgr 2012 client MP for testing. I haven’t forgotten about th...
How To Configure OpsMgr 2012 Web Console Single Sign-On
I was trying to configure single sign-on for the OpsMgr 2012 Web Consoles so dashboard users don’t need to enter credentials on shared display screens. I spe...
OpsMgr 2012 Self Maintenance Management Pack Update (Version 2.3.0.0)
I have been extremely busy lately. Although I had few new ideas for the OpsMgr 2012 Self Maintenance MP for a while, I couldn’t find time to update it. This ...
Configuring System Center Update Publisher 2011 (SCUP) for Multiple Users
One thing I really don’t like about SCUP 2011 is, the settings are user specific, which means different users will have to manually configure SCUP settings o...
2013
Event 18054 Logged by SQL After OpsMgr Data Warehouse DB Move/Restore
Couple of weeks ago, we had to completely rebuild a SQL server hosting OpsMgr 2012 R2 Data Warehouse DB (reinstall OS, SQL, etc). After I restored the Operat...
Creating a Data Source for the Operational DB on OpsMgr 2012 R2 Reporting Server
Creating a data source to for the OpsMgr Operational DB is a very common practice. This is required for many 3rd party OpsMgr reports. Kevin Holman blogged t...
Deploying OpsMgr 2012 R2 Agents Using ConfigMgr - Part 2
This is the 2nd part of 2-part blog series. Part 1 can be found HERE.
Deploying OpsMgr 2012 R2 Agents Using ConfigMgr - Part 1
By reading the title of this article, you may think, this practice is so common, is it worth blogging? Before I started this task, I thought it should be a q...
Issues with OpsMgr 2012 R2 Upgrade When Management Servers are Load-Balanced
27/01/2014 Update:
Few PowerShell One-Liners To Check WinRM Settings on Remote Machines
To Check if WinRM has been enabled on a Remote machine: [system.convert]::ToBoolean(((winrm get winrm/config/winrs -r:$remotemachine ?{...
Adding Images to OpsMgr 2012 Management Packs in VSAE
While I was working on the recently published ConfigMgr 2012 Client MP in VSAE, I needed to add few images as icons for the ConfigMgr 2012 Client class that ...
Management Pack for ConfigMgr 2012 Clients – Testers Wanted!!
I’ve written a OpsMgr management pack to monitor ConfigMgr 2007 clients in the past. The MP was published in this blog. Over the last month or so, as part of...
Using OpsMgr to Detect SMB (Shared Folders) Connections to Windows Computers
I wrote this simple management pack couple of weeks ago to detect new SMB (Shared Folders) connection as well as disconnection events on OpsMgr agents.
Applying OpsMgr 2012 SP1 UR3 Console Update via ConfigMgr Software Update
OpsMgr 2012 Sp1 Update Rollup 3 has been released for about a month now. Today I had some time after dinner so I thought it’s time for me to get my lab envir...
ConfigMgr Report: Total Number of Packages Per Distribution Point
Today I had to create a report in ConfigMgr to list total number of packages that have been assigned to each Distribution Point. The SQL query is rather simp...
OpsMgr Self Maintenance Management Pack Updated to Version 2.1.0.0
I’ve updated the OpsMgr Self Maintenance MP for OpsMgr 2012 again this weekend. the latest version is now 2.1.0.0.
OpsMgr Self Maintenance Management Pack Version 2.0.0.0
I have published the OpsMgr Self Maintenance Management Pack Version 1.0 on this blog few months ago. Over the last couple of month, I’ve been working on the...
Creating a VBScript file Within a VSAE Project
Not sure if this issue has been blogged before. Yesterday, while I was working on a management pack project, I noticed that if I created a new VBScript file ...
My 2 Cents to the TechNet Subscription
If you have been to my blog before, you probably own or at least know what a TechNet subscription is. And you probably have heard about that Microsoft recent...
Creating a VSAE Project (Solution) Including Multiple Management Packs
When writing management packs for an application / system, it is very common to have multiple management packs included in the end monitoring solution. i.e. ...
Bulk Creating Overrides in VSAE
At work, in one of the OpsMgr 2007 management groups, we have 3 sets of Australian state / territory based computer groups. Let’s say they are App-A, App-B, ...
Finding OpsMgr Management Group Installation Date Using PowerShell
As part of what I’m working on at the moment, I need to find out when the OpsMgr 2012 management group was initially installed using PowerShell (the installa...
I’m Now a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Private Cloud
Yesterday, I completed the last exam: 70-247: Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012. With all the previous exams that I took over...
Unable to Launch SCVMM 2012 Console
I was planning to continue on my 70-247 exam preparation tonight, but I couldn’t launch VMM 2012 console from any computers in my lab. So things didn’t turn ...
Missing Virtual Machines After An Unexpected Shutdown of Hyper-V Host
I’m not having any luck with computers lately. This is why all my recent posts are related to my troubleshooting experience.
Unable to Select VMM Server in Assign Cloud Resources Wizard in Service Manager
In the last few days, I’ve been going through the labs from Microsoft’s course 10750A: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012. As p...
Failed to Connect to VMM 2012 via Service Manager Connector and Orchestrator VMM Integration Pack
I was thinking about how I can make my study room quieter and cooler as I had 4 desktop machines under my desks. The VMM server in my lab was running on a ve...
OpsMgr Alerts Push Notification to iOS (And Android, And Windows Phone) Devices
Last week, I’ve posted a solution for OpsMgr alerts push notification to Android devices, which was inspired by Stefan Stranger’s post for push notification ...
Duplicate OpsMgr Alert Notifications Caused by Service Manager’s OpsMgr Alert Connector And Ways Around It.
Background Few days ago, I posted an article: OpsMgr Alerts Push Notification to Android Devices. In my lab, I have created a subscription to notify me all n...
OpsMgr Alerts Push Notification to Android Devices
Update 07 April 2013: I’ve updated this script again to support iOS devices and removed the requirements for PowerShell version 3. The updated script can be ...
OpsMgr Weather Monitoring MP Updated
I got an email from someone up in Sweden the other day in regards to the Weather Monitoring MP that I released few months ago. I’ve been made aware that a ne...
“Data Aggregation” field became empty in OpsMgr 2007 linked Performance Report
Today I needed to change some parameters in a linked performance report in one of the OpsMgr 2007 R2 management groups at work. When I opened the report prop...
OpsMgr 2012 App Advisor Web Console Failed To Run Reports After DW Database Move
Previously I’ve blogged my experience in migrating from OpsMgr 2012 RTM to SP1 which involved moving all databases to a new database server running SQL 2012....
System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed ebook
We’ve all been waited for so long for this book:
“PowerShell Script failed to run” alert in OpsMgr 2012
Don’t you hate it when you’ve just released a piece of work to public and you found an issue with it? Well, this is what happened to me today. Yesterday and ...
Using SCOM 2012 SDK to Retrieve Resource Pools Information
Today I needed to retrieve information about SCOM 2012 resource pools in a PowerShell script, I needed to do this directly via SDK, rather than using the Ope...
EventID 28001 and 29112 on SCOM 2012 Management Server after Operational Database Move
Recently I’ve moved databases for my lab SCOM 2012 management group to a new SQL 2012 server as part of of my RTM to SP1 migration.
Installing SCCM 2012 SP1 Secondary Site with a Pre-Configured SQL 2012 Instance
Over the last week, I’ve been re-installing my SCCM lab environment to SCCM 2012 SP1. I’m using Windows Server 2012 as the base OS for all site system roles ...
Migrating OpsMgr 2012 RTM to OpsMgr 2012 SP1
Over the Christmas / New Year break, I spent some time to upgrade the OpsMgr 2012 RTM environment in my test lab to SP1. Since System Center 2012 SP1 fully s...
2012
Bug Fixes for the Group Maintenance Mode Script
I got a message from a LinkedIn Powershell group in regards to the SCOM Group Maintenance Mode PowerShell script that I’ve posted couple of weeks ago in this...
Passed MCTS for SCCM 2012 Exam today
Around 8-9 months ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of beta version of trainer’s handbooks for Microsoft course 10747A (Administering SCCM 2012) and 10748...
Group Maintenance Mode PowerShell Script Updated
Update - 07, Dec, 2012: the script in this post has been updated to address 2 bugs explained here: Bug Fixes for the Group Maintenance Mode Script ...
My First Impression on PowerShell Web Access
I ran up an instance of Windows Server 2012 in my test lab last night so I can play with various new features such as IPAM and PowerShell Web Access, etc.
“Cannot initialize report” Error When Running SCOM Reports
Yesterday, I noticed I get this error when I tried to run some reports in the System Center Central Health Check Reports MP in my home SCOM 2007 R2 environme...
My Home Test Lab – Part 2
This is the part 2 of my 2-part series on how my home test lab is configured.
My Home Test Lab – Part 1
Background
Bug Fixes for SCOM Enhanced Email Notification Script V2
Since I released the version 2 of the SCOM Enhanced Email Notification Script last month, I’ve been made aware there are few bugs in the script.
PowerShell Script To Enable SCOM Agent Proxy in a More Efficient Way
if you search on how to enable SCOM agent proxy for all your SCOM agents using PowerShell, you’ll get lots of posts and scripts that shows you how to do it i...
MP Authoring: Targeting RMS or MS?
I’m writing a write action module for a management pack that I’m currently working on. This module contains a PowerShell script that connects to SCOM SDK ser...
PowerShell Function: Get-WeekDayInMonth
Often, IT admins need to workout the first/second/third/fourth Mon/Tue/Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat/Sun of any given month. some good examples are: Prepare themselves ...
Visual Studio 2012 on Microsoft App Store
Just noticed that on my Windows 8 laptop, the Visual Studio 2012 Express is available in the Microsoft App Store:
SCOM Enhanced Email Notification Script Version 2
Few years ago, I posted the SCOM Enhanced Email Notification Script in this blog and became well adopted by the community. Over the last week or so, I have s...
Find out who is connected to your SCOM 2007 management group
As we all know, we can see how many concurrent SDK connections have been established on the RMS by looking at the Client Connections counter in OpsMgr SDK Se...
SCCM 2007 Client Management Pack Updated
I received an email this morning regarding to the SCCM 2007 Client Management Pack that I wrote few months ago. Someone pointed out it had some issues in the...
Scripting 101 For George
Yesterday at work, we were having a chat with George, the team leader of our infrastructure 3rd level support team. George told me since he’s a team leader, ...
SCOM Alert Notification–Using Skype
Recently I’ve been wanting to setup SCOM notifications in my test environment that can reach me even when I’m not home.. However, I had two problem: I don’t ...
Hyper-V Cluster Virtual Machines Current Cluster Node SCOM Monitor
First of all, apologies for not updating this blog for over a months. Life has been pretty busy outside of work. My wife gave birth to our first child a mont...
Using PowerShell Remote Sessions in a large SCOM environment
I have previously blogged using SCOM PowerShell snap-in and SDK client in a PowerShell remote session to avoid maintain a consistent SDK connection to RMS se...
Few PowerShell Functions Around Windows Security
As parts of the PowerShell project that I’m currently working on, with the help with other people’s contribution in various forums and blogs, I have produced...
Powershell: Prevent Users To View and Change Input or Config Files That Are Used by a Script
Often, I use .xml or .ini files to store settings that a PowerShell script uses. When I distribute my scripts to end users, sometimes, I want to make sure us...
Using SCOM PowerShell Snap-in and SDK client with a PowerShell Remote Session
Recently, I’ve been working on a utility based on PowerShell scripts using WinForms GUI to perform some SCOM tasks (i.e. create maintenance window, approve m...
My Observation on SCCM Clients BITS Settings
Yesterday, while we were reviewing the SCCM (2007 R3) client BITS settings at work, we (my team) have some interesting findings with SCCM client’s BITS setti...
Using SCOM To Count Logs and Produce Reports
Recently, I’ve been asked twice to produce daily reports involves counting some kind of logs:
Changing Display Language on Windows 7 Home and Professional Editions
I bought a laptop for other family members yesterday, it comes with Windows 7 Home Premium. I needed to change the display language from English to Chinese b...
SCCM 2012 Log Parser: cmtrace.exe
In my opinion, THE most used utility (other than SCCM console) for any SCCM administrators / engineers would have to be trace32.exe. Back in SMS and SCCM 200...
Installing SCCM 2012 RTM Secondary Site using A Pre-Installed SQL Express 2008 R2 Instance
Since System Center 2012 was RTM’d few days ago, I have started updating / migrating my home environment. After I migrated my 2 Hyper-V servers from VMM 2008...
Reports not updated in SCOM SQL Reporting Service When the Management Pack was Updated
I ran into an issue today. I have updated a report in a management pack. After I updated the version number, sealed it and imported the updated management pa...
Disabling Auto Discovery in SCDPM 2010
System Center Data Protection Manager is not something I normally play with. Recently, I’ve been dobbed in to troubleshoot an issue with remote sites network...
SCCM Site Systems and Components Summarizer Reports
I received an email today from someone who downloaded my SCCM Health Check Script 3.5. He asked me if I can help to modify the script to only display Site Sy...
PowerShell Script: Remove All Packages From A SCCM Distribution Point
Often, SCCM administrators found packages still assigned to distribution points that no longer exist. There are scripts available to remove these “orphaned” ...
PowerShell Script: Get SCCM Management Point server name from AD
I wrote this function as a part of a script that I’m working on. it searches AD for the management point server name for a particular SCCM site:
PowerShell Script: Calculate First and Last IP of a Subnet
I just wrote this script to calculate the first and last IP of a subnet based on any given IP (within the subnet) and it’s subnet mask:
SCCM Report: Site Boundaries
I wrote this simple report yesterday to list and search site boundaries:
SCCM Health Check Script Updated: Version 3.5
I have just updated the SCCM Health Check Script to from version 3.3 to 3.5
Command Line Parameters for SCOM Command Notification Channel
Few years ago, I wrote the Enhanced SCOM Alert Notification script and I blogged it here.
SCOM: Monitoring an Interactive Process and The Recovery Task
Recently I’m working on a management pack for a series of apps for a business unit of my employer. There is a large number of processes that I need to monito...
SCOM: Process Performance Collection Rule for Services
Setting up Performance Collection rules for a particular process is pretty straightforward in SCOM. However, the it has it’s limitations.
SCOM: Powershell Property Bag Trigger Only Probe VS Windows Script Property Bag Probe
When writing a Probe Action Module to run a trigger only PowerShell script and return property bags, Microsoft.Windows.PowerShellPropertyBagTriggerOnlyProbe ...
Run Batch File for SCOM Monitor’s Recovery Task
This is how I configured recovery task to run a batch file:
PowerShell Script: Convert To Local Time From UTC
I wrote this function in the script from my previous post “SCOM MP Authoring Example: Generate alerts based on entries from SQL Database (Part 2 of 2)”. It c...
SCOM MP Authoring Example: Generate alerts based on entries from SQL Database (Part 2 of 2)
This is the 2nd part of the 2-part series. Part 1 can be found here.
SCOM MP Authoring Example: Generate alerts based on entries from SQL Database (Part 1 of 2)
This is probably going to be a bit too long for one single blog post. I’ll separate this topic into 2 articles: Part 1 includes the background and overview...
2011
SCOM: Using PowerShell to update SMTP server address in SMTP notification Channels
I’ve been asked a question on how to bulk update SMTP server addresses in SMTP notification channels using PowerShell.
Run 64-bit PowerShell via SCCM 2007 Advertisement
A colleague came across a problem today. He could run a SCDPM PowerShell script from PowerShell console successfully but could not run it when packaged it in...
SCOM Management Pack: Detecting USB Storage Device Connect and Disconnect Events
There was a requirement at work that people need to be notified when a USB storage device (USB key or portable USB hard disks) is connected or disconnected f...
Extend ConfigMgr Hardware Inventory to capture OpsMgr configurations
Download: MOF Extension for OpsMgr Configurations
Clean Up Old Hardware Inventory Data
In SCCM, after removing WMI classes that are no longer required from configuration.mof and sms_def.mof, the inventory data still exists in few places.
Error 80041001 in InventoryAgent.log after mof files modifications
I’ve been playing with SCCM mof files this weekend. After I’ve extended configuration.mof and sms_def.mof files to inventory a registry key during hardware i...
Adding New Network Devices to SCOM Using PowerShell
Last week, I needed to write a PowerShell script to add iSCSI SAN devices into SCOM 2007 as network devices. I thought the script would be very straight forw...
Event ID 29104 on SCOM RMS cluster
First of all, apologies for not been able to blog for over a month. I changed jobs. I started my new job 4 weeks ago, with all the things going on, I couldn’...
PowerShell script to backup unsealed SCOM MPs
Not sure if anyone has written this before. I have written this simple script to backup all unsealed management packs.
“Orphaned” Maintenance Windows for SCCM clients
Last week, in my SCCM test environment, I noticed there are several maintenance windows applied to clients that I had no idea where were they come from.
Powershell Function: Get-AllDomains (in a forest)
I wrote this Powershell function today as part of a script I’m working on. It is to get a list of Active Directory domains within an Active Directory forest ...
SCCM Package stuck at “Install Pending” state
Last week, someone power cycled one of our secondary site server (also a DP) via the remote management card without shutting down the OS first. At that time,...
SCCM Report: “System Boot Time for Computers in a Specific Collection
This is a report I wrote last week:
SCCM 2012 Beta 2 Installation error “Failed to write string -T8295 to registry on SQL Server”
Today I started installing SCCM 2012 Beta 2 in my test environment. while I was installing the Central Admin Site, the installation wizard got stuck at “Eval...
What’s New in SCCM 2012
Found this article from Technet today:
ConfigMgr 2007 Inbox (Outbox) Monitor: Could not complete polling cycle within configured period
Starting few weeks ago, In the SCCM environment which I support, all site servers located in one country started generating status messages similar to below ...
Unresponsive SCOM 2007 R2 Console
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been configuring a brand new SCOM environment at work to monitor the SCCM infrastructure.
SCCM Health Check PowerShell Script Updated to Version 3.3
I have updated the SCCM Health Check Script again. The latest version is now 3.3.
PowerShell Script to locate SCCM objects in SCCM console
There are many object types in SCCM that supports folders in the console. Even though the object can be easily located using the search function, often we ne...
Creating a collection in SCCM for “all SCOM 2007 R2 agents without Cumulative Update 4 installed”
Recently I’ve been working on deploying a SCOM environment to monitor SCCM infrastructure.
Listening to episodes from SystemCenterPodcast.com on Android devices
An old colleague of mine, Dan Kregor has started a new site systemcenterpodcast.com
Setting SMS_INSTALL_DIR_PATH Environment variable on SCCM site servers for SCOM SCCM management pack
According to the Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack User’s Guide for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Operations Manager 2007 SP1(for MP version 6....
PowerShell Functions: Get IPV4 Network Start and End Address
I wrote 2 PowerShell functions today: Get-IPV4NetworkStartIP and Get-IPV4NetworkEndIP. Input: Network IP address in CIDR notation Format Output: The start or...
Updated: SCCM Health Check PowerShell Script
I have updated the SCCM Health Check Script that I have originally posted here. Download Version 3.1 Here. Changes: 1. The script can now utilise Powershel...
Problem with DNS name resolution when using System.Net.DNS class
I recently ran into a problem when writing a PowerShell script to perform DNS Name resolution using .NET class System.Net.DNS (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-u...
PowerShell Script: SCCM Health Check
30/01/2012: This script has been updated to version 3.5. Details can be found HERE. The download link on this article has also been updated to version 3.5.
How to read SQL Agent logs using Windows PowerShell
Prerequisite: SQL Management Studio needs to be installed. [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(‘Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo’) ...
Powershell Functions do not return single element arrays
I came across an interesting problem today that a function I wrote to return all SCCM primary sites worked at work but did not work at home. the difference b...
How to locate SCCM Collection Object based on the Collection ID
Often, I found it’s hard to locate the Collection object in the SCCM console if you only know the Collection ID. Couple of weeks ago I ran into a situation w...
Hyper-V virtual machines with “Missing” status
I’m currently running Hyper-V R2 on a machine with 24GB of memory at home. It hosts most of my test machines such as SCCM, SCOM, Exchange, etc. System Center...
Incorrect description in SCCM Report License 03B – Computers with a specific license status (Report ID 350)
On the SCCM Report “License 03B – Computers with a specific license status” (Report ID 350, category Asset Intelligence), the description states there are 5 ...
2010
Failed to run PowerShell script via Task Scheduler on a 64 bit Windows
I came across a situation the other day that on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box, when I created a Scheduled Task to run a Powershell script, it runs OK using “C...
Get SCCM site roles using Powershell
You can run the following on the site server to find out the servers holding each SCCM role:
Haven’t been able to blog lately
I haven’t been able to blog lately. I have started my new job as a SCCM specialist. I know this blog is mainly focusing SCCM, SCOM and Powershell and so far ...
Updated: Enhanced SCOM Alerts Notification Emails script
I have previously posted the Enhanced SCOM Alerts Notification email scripts back in July 2010.
PowerShell Function: Validate Subnet Mask
This is a function I wrote couple of days ago for the Windows Build Scripts which I blogged yesterday. I think it is pretty cool so I’d like to blog this fun...
Mailbox Archive Tool for Microsoft Exchange Servers
This is another GUI tool based on PowerShell I’ve written in the past.
Balancing Number of SCOM Agent Per Management Server using PowerShell
I came across a situation yesterday in one of the clients SCOM environment:
Passed MCTS SCCM exam yesterday
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been refreshing my memory on SCCM since I haven’t worked on it for almost 4 month… Yesterday, I passed Microsoft 70-401 (S...
Get Powershell Execution Policy on remote machines
Today I’ve been asked how to inventory PowerShell execution policies on all servers in a domain. I originally thought I can ultilise RemoteIn as PowerShell V...
Passed MCTS SCOM Exam (70-400) today!
Today I passed Microsoft exam “70-400 Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring” with a score of 975/1000.
ENHANCED SCOM Alerts Notification Emails!
17/08/2012: The version 2 of this script has just been released: https://blog.tyang.org/2012/08/16/scom-enhanced-email-notification-script-version-2/
PowerShell Script: Mass-Mailer
Today a colleague asked me to write a script to send out a email to a large group of people but have the phrase “Dear <person’s name”>” in the beginnin...
How To Write to SCOM Operations Manager Event Log Using PowerShell and MOM.ScriptAPI
The following commands can be executed using the normal PowerShell console. SCOM PowerShell snapin is not required.
Broken SCOM Web Console URLs?
I come across a situation where when i click on the web console URL from a SCOM notification email such as this one: http://<SCOM Web Server>/default.a...
SCOM Console Crashes
When I connect SCOM console to one of my clients SCOM 2007 R2 environment, under Authoring Pane, if I change the display scope of Monitors or Rules to “View ...
PowerShell Script: Test-SMTP
I wrote this simple script last week to test SMTP server by sending a testing email.
PowerShell Script: Setting NTFS Permissions in Bulk
Today I wrote this PowerShell script to apply a same set of NTFS permission for a particular user or group to a list of folders. It reads the list of folders...
Using SCOM to Automatically Stop MOM Agent Service
I’m currently working on a MOM 2005-to-SCOM 2007 migration project for a client. after months of work, we are finally ready to stop MOM service.
Windows Scheduled Tasks inventory – Using PowerShell
I originally posted this script here. It is to audit and inventory all scheduled tasks created for all windows computers under a specific OU in AD.
Morning Check SCOM Alerts – Automated using PowerShell Script
A Powershell script to assist server BAU team to perform morning check using SCOM…