Posts by Year

2024

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2023

Generate Unique GUID in PowerShell

less than 1 minute read

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 ...

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2022

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2021

Moved My Blog to GitHub Pages

3 minute read

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)...

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2020

Use GitHub Super Linter in Azure Pipelines

1 minute read

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

less than 1 minute read

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...

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2019

100 Days of Infrastructure as Code in Azure

less than 1 minute read

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...

New Book Release: Inside Azure Management

1 minute read

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 ...

Upcoming Conferences and Book Release

1 minute read

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...

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2018

My Journey to a Smarter Home (Part 3)

10 minute read

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

3 minute read

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)

12 minute read

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)

13 minute read

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...

PowerShell Module: PSPesterTest

1 minute read

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...

When Squared Up meets Windows Admin Center

2 minute read

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...

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2017

Squared Up OpsMgr Community MP Catalog

less than 1 minute read

One of the big challenges when working with OpsMgr is finding all the good community management packs. Although Microsoft has provided a “Partner Solutions” ...

Inside OMS Book V2 Released

less than 1 minute read

Few days ago, the Inside OMS Book version 2 has been released as a free ebook to the TechNet Gallery: http://bit.ly/InsideOMS

Azure Functions Demo: Voting App

2 minute read

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...

PowerShell Function to Get Azure AD Token

2 minute read

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

2 minute read

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

less than 1 minute read

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...

Inside OMS book v2 Preview Chapters Release

1 minute read

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...

New Blogger in the Family

1 minute read

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...

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2016

OMSDataInjection Updated to Version 1.2.0

less than 1 minute read

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 ...

ConfigMgr OMS Connector

2 minute read

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

5 minute read

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. ...

Blog Site Recovered–Finally

1 minute read

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

1 minute read

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...

Upcoming Webinar on MP Authoring Using VSAE

1 minute read

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...

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2015

Squared Up Released version 2.3

1 minute read

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.

TY Consulting Update

1 minute read

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

2 minute read

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...

Free OMS Workshops in Sydney and Melbourne

less than 1 minute read

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...

Presenting in Microsoft Ignite Australia

less than 1 minute read

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...

Top Community Resources for SCOM and OMS

less than 1 minute read

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...

MVP Renewed For the 2nd Year

less than 1 minute read

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...

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2014

This Concludes My Year 2014

3 minute read

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 ...

Installing VMM 2012 R2 Cluster in My Lab

2 minute read

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

2 minute read

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...

What Have I Been Up To

1 minute read

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....

This Blog Gets A Major Facelift

less than 1 minute read

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...

Using an External Knowledge Base for OpsMgr

10 minute read

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

1 minute read

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 Dashboard Fun: Google Maps

7 minute read

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...

System Center 2012 R2 Icons

less than 1 minute read

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...

PowerShell Module: Resize-Console

2 minute read

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).

VMware Windows Guest Management Pack

1 minute read

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

6 minute read

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...

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2013

My 2 Cents to the TechNet Subscription

5 minute read

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...

Bulk Creating Overrides in VSAE

2 minute read

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, ...

Unable to Launch SCVMM 2012 Console

2 minute read

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 ...

OpsMgr Weather Monitoring MP Updated

1 minute read

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...

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2012

Passed MCTS for SCCM 2012 Exam today

1 minute read

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...

MP Authoring: Targeting RMS or MS?

2 minute read

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

1 minute read

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 ...

SCCM 2007 Client Management Pack Updated

less than 1 minute read

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

1 minute read

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

2 minute read

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 ...

SCCM 2012 Log Parser: cmtrace.exe

1 minute read

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...

Disabling Auto Discovery in SCDPM 2010

2 minute read

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...

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2011

Clean Up Old Hardware Inventory Data

1 minute read

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.

Event ID 29104 on SCOM RMS cluster

1 minute read

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’...

Unresponsive SCOM 2007 R2 Console

2 minute read

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been configuring a brand new SCOM environment at work to monitor the SCCM infrastructure.

PowerShell Script: SCCM Health Check

4 minute read

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.

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2010

Haven’t been able to blog lately

less than 1 minute read

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 ...

PowerShell Function: Validate Subnet Mask

less than 1 minute read

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...

Passed MCTS SCCM exam yesterday

less than 1 minute read

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...

Passed MCTS SCOM Exam (70-400) today!

less than 1 minute read

Today I passed Microsoft exam “70-400 Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring” with a score of 975/1000.

PowerShell Script: Mass-Mailer

less than 1 minute read

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...

Broken SCOM Web Console URLs?

less than 1 minute read

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

less than 1 minute read

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 ...

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