17 October, 2014

Change RDS Work Spaces name


You can change the Workspace name "Work Resources" by using PowerShell:
First import the module RemoteDesktop and then use the following command:
SYNTAX
   Set-RDWorkspace [-Name] [-ConnectionBroker ]  []

09 September, 2014

Manage Server 2008 from 2012 Server Manager

One of the biggest improvements to Windows Server 2012 is the (almost) all encompassing Server Manager. From any 2012 server you can now manage any other 2012 server through WinRM - but if you add a 2008 or 2008 R2 server to Server Manager, you will get a manageability warning of “Online – Verify WinRM 3.0 service is installed, running, and required firewall ports are open“.

To get this working, there are 3 main steps to perform:
Install Windows Management Framework 3.0, Allow remote server management through WinRM (preferred method is via Group Policy), Create firewall rules.

 1. Install Windows Management Framework 3.0 Go and get the appropriate .msu from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 WINDOWS6.1-KB2506143-x64.MSU Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit versions: WINDOWS6.0-KB2506146-x64.MSU 32-bit versions: WINDOWS6.0-KB2506146-x86.MSU As you can see, there are some slight caveats. 2008 R2 requires SP1 while 2008 requires SP2 to be installed.

2. Allow remote server management through WinRM There are 2 ways you can do this. I would recommend use Group Policy wherever possible, so go to: Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Remote Management (WinRM) > WinRM Service > Allow remote server management through WinRM Set it to enabled and if you want it to listen on all addresses, put a * in IPv4 and IPv6 filter boxes. Alternatively, you can run the command “winrm quickconfig” to enable remote access

3. Create firewall rules Do this again through Group Policy, allowing port 5985.

Configure PXE in SCCM 2012 (R2) failing with error 0x80041001

When configuring a DP as a PXE point you might see this line in the distmgr.log file stating SCCM failed to configure PXE. “CDistributionManager::ConfigurePXE failed; 0x80041001″

 Now, in SCCM 2012, config manager itself will usually want to do all the configuring of WDS and creating the RemoteInstall folder on the DP, but may not in all cases be successful.
If you see WDS is being installed, but no RemoteInstall folder and the error above in the log, try the following:

1. Deactivate PXE on DP from the Management Server and choose to not automatically uninstall WDS
2. Uninstall WDS from DP and restart
3. Install WDS from Server Manager and restart
4. Activate PXE on DP.

You should now soon see the RemoteInstall folder being created and boot images that you have specified as PXE bootable will be populated in the SMSImages folder.