Adding Microsoft TTS Voice to HTA Applictions

HTA sub routine

Sub Speak (text) 'V3.20 'Dim objVoice 'Enabling this section will slow down the HTA program 'Set objVoice = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice") 'Set objVoice.Voice = objVoice.GetVoices("Name=microsoft sam").Item(0) 'objVoice.Speak Replace (text, "'d", "ed") 'objVoice.Speak text 'msgbox Text 'Running VBS script allows HTA to continue while message is played. cmdVoice = "voice.vbs " & chr(34) & text & chr(34) Objshell.run CmdVoice,0,0 End Sub Voice.vbs Script 'V3.20 on error resume next If wscript.arguments.Item(0) <> "" Then Text = wscript.arguments.Item(0) Set objVoice = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice") 'Set objVoice.Voice = objVoice.GetVoices("Name=microsoft sam").Item(0) 'objVoice.Speak Replace (text, "'d", "ed") objVoice.Speak Text end if

Cisco CME and Lync Simultaneous Ringing using Cisco SNR Feature

Cisco has a Single number reach feature that allows calls to ring more than one number. Think of it as a parallel hunt group but with the option to turn it off and on from the user's phone.

With this setup, the end user's Lync client and Cisco phone will ring a the same time.

Lync (Skype for Business) setup

Create PSTN Gateways
 - use the IP address of the CME

Create the Trunks
- Listening on port 5060 and Mediation port 5068.

Enable Enterprise Voice for user's account.

Assign a fake number to the Line URI in the user's account setup
(Example of user with extension 4025 would be Tel:+13065554025)

* You can also create a CME Dial Plan and a CME Voice Policy to allow Lync users to call out on the CME's phone lines from their Lync client.

Cisco CME setup

- If you are using Voice and Data Vlans on your CME, bind it to the CME same Vlan used by the Lync server.

interface GigabitEthernet0/0.1

 description Voice 

 encapsulation dot1Q 1

 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

!

interface GigabitEthernet0/0.134

 description Data

 encapsulation dot1Q 2

 ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0

voice service voip

 sip

  bind control source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0.1

  bind media source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0.1

Create voice translation-rules (these will add the +1306 in front of the number)

voice translation-rule 8000
 rule 1 /^81306/ /+\11306/
 rule 2 /^810101306/ /+\11306/
 rule 3 /^8306/ /+\11306/
 rule 4 /^8/ /+\11306/

voice translation-profile Lync
 translate called 8000

Create dial-peer for Lync server, 8 followed by the 7 digit phone number. 

dial-peer voice 8000 voip 

description ** SIP 7 digit to Lync13-01 ** 

translation-profile outgoing Lync 

destination-pattern 8....... 

notify redirect ip2pots 

session protocol sipv2 

session target ipv4:192.168.2.10:5068 

voice-class sip bind control source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0.2

voice-class sip bind media source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0.2

session transport tcp 

dtmf-relay rtp-nte 

codec g711ulaw 

fax rate disable 

fax protocol pass-through g711ulaw 

no vad

SNR on SIP Phones  (Add these commands to the basic DN and Pool settings)

voice register dn 1 

number 4025 

mobility snr 85554025 

delay 0 timeout 12 cfwd-noan 1200 

snr ring-stop 

snr answer-too-soon 1

voice register pool 1

number 1 dn 1

session-transport tcp

dtmf-relay rtp-nte sip-notify

SNR on SCCP phones (Add these commands to the basis Ephone-dn and ephone settings)

ephone-dn 300 octo-line 

mobility 

snr calling-number local 

snr 85554025 delay 0 timeout 12 cfwd-noan 1200 

snr ring-stop 

snr answer-too-soon 1

ephone 1

button 1:300
See also - Cisco's Single Number Reach article

Find SCCM Device Variables Using Powershell

Sometimes you want a report of all the variables that computer/device will have when it runs the task sequence.

Here's a script that will report ...
a) device name
b) device assigned variables
c) Collection name with the assigned variables of which the device is a member.

It requires the SCCM console installed and you must provide the computer name in the command line.

The script will report back if the computer name is not valid and kill the powershell process.
For testing, run the script from a command prompt. i.e. powershell .\variables.ps1 computername

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, HelpMessage="Computer Name",ValueFromPipeline=$true)] $strComputer
)
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic')
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
cls
import-module ($Env:SMS_ADMIN_UI_PATH.Substring(0,$Env:SMS_ADMIN_UI_PATH.Length-5) + '\ConfigurationManager.psd1')
CD SITENAME:\
$nl = [Environment]::NewLine
$tab = "`t" #tab
$count = -1 # Allows for Null
write-host Checking Computer Name
If(!$strComputer){
    [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show("Error! - No Source Computer Entered")
    stop-process $pid -Force #End Powershell task
}
#Verify Names
$Verify =  Get-CMDevice -Name $strComputer | forEach{$_.name}
If(!$Verify){
    [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show("No Record for "+ $strComputer)
    stop-process $pid -Force #End Powershell task
}
#Get-CMDeviceVariable -DeviceName <String>
# Find System Variables
write-host Checking System Variables
$Result = Get-CMDeviceVariable -DeviceName $strComputer
If(!$Result){
    #write-host $strComputer Not Found
    $strOutput = $strComputer
}
else{
    $Result = Get-CMDeviceVariable -DeviceName $strComputer | forEach{$_.Name + $tab + $_.Value} |Out-String
    $strOutput = $strComputer.toUpper() + " Assigned Device Variables"+ $nl + "Variable Name" +$tab +"Variable Value" +$nl + $Result
}
If($ErrCount -ge 1){
    [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show("Error" + $ErrCount)
    stop-process $pid -Force #End Powershell task
}
$strOutput = $strOutput + $nl + $strComputer.toUpper() + " Assigned Collection Variables"
write-host Checking Collection Variables
#Find Collection Variables
$ResID = Get-CMDevice -Name $strComputer | forEach{$_.ResourceID}
$Collections = (Get-WmiObject -ComputerName "SCCM SERVER NAME" -Class sms_fullcollectionmembership -Namespace root\sms\site_SITENAME -Filter "ResourceID = '$($ResID)'").CollectionID
foreach($collection in $Collections){
    $CollName = Get-CMDeviceCollection -CollectionId $Collection | forEach{$_.name}
    write-host $CollName
    $CollVar = Get-CMDeviceCollectionVariable -CollectionName $CollName | forEach{$CollName + $tab + $_.Name + $tab + $_.Value} |Out-String
    If ($CollVar){
        $CollOutput = "Collection Name" +$tab + "Variable Name" + $tab + "Variable Value"
        $CollOutput = $CollOutPut + $nl + $CollVar
    }
}
$strOutput = $strOutput + $nl + $CollOutput
#[System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show($strOutput)
[IO.File]::WriteAllText('variables.txt', $strOutput)

More SCCM related posts

SCCM Boot Image with UltraVNC remote access

In preparing for a Universal Imaging Task sequence, the thought came across my mind, what if I want to see what's going on and the computer is 2 hours away?

Once the task sequence installs Windows, we have it install UltraVNC so after that point it is possible to remotely connect.  However what about before when the computer has booted from our PXE server and is running Windows PE.

Here is the quick and dirty version of how we can now VNC into a computer that has started up in Windows PE.

1) Create Standard WIM file using the Windows ADK and then before committing the changes...
1a) Created an 'xtras' folder on the root of the mount folder (I called it 'xtras' because it's always drive x: in our PE environment)

2) UltraVNC program with password protection
2a) Installed on test system running Windows 7 with any settings (i.e. password)
2b) Copied the UltraVNC found in Program Files to mount\xtras

3) Create Computername.vbs and copy into mount\xtras
3a) Basic script that extracts the IP address of the computer using WMI
3b) Disables the WinPE firewall - "wpeutil disablefirewall"
3c) Installs UltraVNC
3d) Popup message with IP address - only on screen for 90secs so that it does not prevent the task sequence from running.

4) Create startup.cmd file in mount\xtras
4a) In that file, it runs wscript.exe %systemdrive%\xtras\computername.vbs

5) Once files have been copied to the mount\xtras folder, you can commit the changes to the WIM and proceed with importing it into SCCM.

6) Create at 'winpeshl.ini' file (See below)
6a) Save to... C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\OSD\bin\x64 or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\OSD\bin\i386

7) Add Drivers and any extra components that you require

8) Distribute/update boot images.

'winpeshl.ini' file contents

[LaunchApps]
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\wpeinit.exe
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\wpeutil.exe, "initializenetwork"
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\xtras\startup.cmd
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\sms\bin\x64\TsBootShell.exe

computername.vbs example.

 'Extract Computer Details
'Version 3.01 WMI Query
'May 1, 2015
on error resume next
Dim oTaskSequence
'Create Objects
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2") 'Local computer WMI
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strQuery = "SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WHERE MACAddress > ''"
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( strQuery, "WQL", 48 )
For Each objItem In colItems
for each IP in ObjItem.IPAddress
If left(IP,4) = "192." then
strIP = IP & vbCRLF & strIP
end if
next
Next
StrInfo = "If you require any assistance..." & vbCRLF &_
"Please send this information to the IP department." & vbCRLF &_
vbCRLF & "IP Address: " & strIP
cmdFirewall = "wpeutil disablefirewall"
objShell.run cmdFirewall,0,1
cmdUltra = "%systemdrive%\xtras\UltraVnc\winvnc.exe -install"
'msgbox cmdUltra
ObjShell.run cmdUltra
objShell.Popup strInfo, 90, "Message Box Title"

References...

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/systemcenter/en-US/ab47fc6d-1369-4bf1-83b2-b0889ec35662/when-creating-sccm-bootwim-what-modifies-the-winpeshlini-file

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/8e338e8c-1962-4287-80f8-36c2c5dcd72f/mounting-network-resources-with-winpeshlini?forum=w8itproinstall

More SCCM related posts

Blocking Cyber Attacks on Windows Servers using CyberArms software and PowerShell scripts

Recently the number of audit failures on our Remote Desktop and IIS servers has increased drastically in the last month.
List of IP addresses found here.
Found this program for our 2012 servers (or any RDP using TLS)

CyberArms Intrusion Detection and Defence System

Default config...
After 3 failed login attempts, it would temporarily block the IP for 20 minutes. (Soft Lock)
After 10 login attempts, it would block the IP for 24 hours. (Hard lock)
-There is the option to hard lock the IP address forever.

Issues
1) No option to customized notification emails. -wanted to include
2) Cannot white-list a service provider only IP addresses.
3) No Response to inquiry about their products and licensing.

Since the program creates an event log for when it blocks the IP address, a PowerShell script was created to add firewall rules (permanent rules) and send email notifications out with detailed information.

The original PowerShell script just sent out emails with the server name when an event log with 4001 or 9001 is created in the "CyberArms" event log.

It worked great on our 2012 servers, however 2008 stored the Event log data with extra returns and spaces in the IP addresses.  In testing it caused the local network to be blocked via firewall.  Good thing it was a virtual machine and could still be access through Virtual Center.

Updated the PowerShell script to distinguish between 2008 and 2012 servers.

Another VBscript was created to manually delete any firewalls from 'trusted' IP addresses using netsh from another computer.

After the first weekend having to check each IP address and manually delete the rules got old and time consuming.

The next revision of the script added NSlookup to a ProviderLookup function in the script.

The ProviderLookup function was created to allow certain IP addresses or provider names (provided by NSLookup) to be unblocked automatically.

Example if NSlookup returned a provider name with "Domain.ca" in it, then we trusted it and the firewall was deleted.

Emails now include the IP address, the provider information and if the rule was deleted.

Steps...
Install CyberArms software
Enable any security agents in CyberArms
Download PowerShell Script "CyberArms Eventlog Script.txt"
- Rename to .PS1 and change "DOMAIN.CA" and email settings.
Create Task Sequence to run the script when event 4001 or 9001 is logged.

Update - April 21, 2015

The ProviderLookup function will now include Country and ISP information extracted from http://ipaddress.com if it cannot find a DNS name for the IP address.

Future options
1) Create the same firewall rule on more that one server via PowerShell Array variable.
2) Create a pause between rule creation and rule deletion, just in case there was malicious intentions.
- probably use a ping command to 127.0.0.1 for 10 minutes then have it delete the rule.

3) Working on cleaning up the ProviderLookup function so that certain ISP names will be allowed.

Removing a Lync Contact using Powershell and XML

Back in February I posted about adding contacts to Lync Groups.
However, what happens when you spell the contact address wrong and you just imported that into your 1000+ clients contact list...

Well, you need to find a way to remove the contact from the XML file.
I could have restored the backup files to the user accounts... but didn't think of that until I got this solution working. *

After trying to create an XML script tath use the same script in the previous post, but this time we will replace the offending string with blanks.

Add this to the Configurable Variables section
#Delete this line from XML
$Variable = @'
<Contact Buddy="contact@domain.com" SubscribePresence="1" Groups="1 20" />
'@
$CommonContact = "contact@domain.com" # The one that is spelled wrong.

In the Process-Contacts Function,

Change If ($ContactsToAdd) to If ($ContactsToAdd) 

Remove the $ContactsToAdd section and replace it with.

$DeleteRecord = (Get-Content "$WorkingFolder\DocItemSet.xml") |
    ForEach-Object {$_ -replace $Variable, ""} |
    Set-Content "$WorkingFolder\DocItemSet.xml"

* This does remove the contact from the user's visual list of contacts.  However, when the user's contact info is exported, the old contact is still there just not listed in any groups which is why it doesn't appear in the client.

In short, double check spelling and try it on a test account.

To change the script from all users to 1 users change...
$AllSipAddresses = Get-CsUser -Identity lyncroom@domain.com -Filter {Enabled -eq $True} | Select SipAddress | %{$_.SipAddress.Replace('sip:','')}

Original Post about adding groups found here on Roland Paix's IT Blog

More on the custom Lync rooms found here.

SCCM Task Sequence User Verification

We know that Config Manager's Task Sequences run with a system account and can only be advertised to Device collections.

What if we wanted only certain people to have permission to re-image their computer?

This script will record the logged in username via wmi as a Task Variable.
If that account is a member of a specific domain group then the 'ValidUser' Task Variable will be set as True.

You can then use that 'ValidUser' Task Variable to allow groups or other commands/applications to run.

To test the sequence with the msgbox dialogs you will need the ServiceUI.exe file from the Microsoft Development kit.

'Find Logged in user
'Version 1.60
on error resume next
Dim objNetwork, objDomain, oTaskSequence
'msgbox "Testing"
'Create Objects
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network")
Set objDomain = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
Set oTaskSequence = CreateObject ("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")

' Obtain user information.
'strUserName = objNetwork.UserName
strcomputer = "."

Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") 
Set colSessions = objWMI.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem",,48) 
For Each objItem in colSessions 
if objItem.Username <> "" then
strUserName = Replace(Lcase(objItem.UserName),"prairiesouth","")
oTaskSequence("UserName") = replace(strUserName,chr(92),"")
'msgbox strUserName
else
strUserName = objNetwork.UserName
end if
next

If not lcase(strUserName) = "system" then
'Verifies not the System account.
strDomain = objDomain.Get("dnsHostName")
Set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://" & strDomain & "/" & strUserName)
For Each strGroup in objUser.Groups
If Lcase(strGroup.Name) = "help desk end users" or Lcase(strGroup.Name) = "information technology department" then
strValid = 1
oTaskSequence("UserGroup") = strGroup.Name
'msgbox strGroup.Name
exit for
end if
Next
else
strValid = 0
end if

If strValid = 1 then
oTaskSequence("ValidUser") = "True"
'msgbox strValid
Else
oTaskSequence("ValidUser") = "False"
'msgbox strValid
end if

More SCCM related posts

Bulk Import Custom Contact Groups into Lync User accounts

Was looking for a way to Populate our Lync Room systems into end users Lync Contacts as a group rather than a bunch of individual accounts.  (More on Lync Room Systems here http://bit.ly/netadmlr)

Based on the PowerShell script found below, a new section was created for the Contact Groups.
http://rp-it.blogspot.ca/2014/02/automatically-populate-contacts-for-all-lync-2013-users.html

Rather than repost the entire code, here's the updated sections...
For each Lync group that you want to create I would suggest creating new scripts.

For Individual account testing...

#Old version Enable for All users Disable for individual testing

$AllSipAddresses = Get-CsUser -Filter {Enabled -eq $True} | Select SipAddress | %{$_.SipAddress.Replace('sip:','')}

#GM Added - Enable for individual testing

#$AllSipAddresses = Get-CsUser -Identity lastname.first@domain.com -Filter {Enabled -eq $True} | Select SipAddress | %{$_.SipAddress.Replace('sip:','')}

# Common Contacts - Enable and populate this variable with a set of Lync contacts to distribute to all users instead of distributing all users to all users. Overrides $DontAddUsers.

#$CommonContacts = "lrs1@domain.com","lrs2@domain.com"

To add /verify the Group exists.

$AllContacts = @($SipAddressesToAdd | ?{$_ -ne $User})

    [xml]$XMLFile = Get-Content "$WorkingFolder\DocItemSet.xml"

    $XMLPart = $XMLFile.DocItemSet.DocItem | ?{$_.Name -like "urn:lcd:*"}

    $XMLNode = $XMLPart.Data.HomedResource.Contacts

$XMLNodeGroup = $XMLPart.Data.HomedResource.ContactGroups #GM

    $ExistingContacts = @($XMLNode.Contact | Select -ExpandProperty Buddy)

$ExistingContactGroups = @($XMLNodeGroup.ContactGroup | Select -ExpandProperty DisplayName) #GM

#GM Lync Rooms Contact Group Add

If($ExistingContactGroups){

If($ExistingContactGroups -eq "THluYyBSb29tcw=="){

write-host "`r`nLync Room Group Exists. Nothing changed.`r`n"

}

Else{

write-host "`r`nLync Room Group will be added.`r`n"

[System.XML.XMLLinkedNode]$NewContactGroup = $XMLFile.CreateElement('ContactGroup','http://schemas.microsoft.com/RtcServer/2002/11/dbimpexp')

            $NewContactGroup.SetAttribute('Number','20') #High number so as to not overwrite existing groups.

            $NewContactGroup.SetAttribute('DisplayName','CodeFromXML')

            #Display name in ContactGroups found in XMl file in test account

            #Export-CsUserData -PoolFqdn "lyncserver.domain.com" -UserFilter name@domain.com -FileName "c:\scripts\test.zip"

            $XMLNodeGroup.AppendChild($NewContactGroup)

        }

}

Else{

write-host "`r`nNo existing contact groups found.`r`n"

write-host "`r`nAdding New Contact Group XML Element.`r`n"

[System.XML.XMLLinkedNode]$NewNodeGroup = $XMLFile.CreateElement('ContactGroups','http://schemas.microsoft.com/RtcServer/2002/11/dbimpexp')

            [System.XML.XMLLinkedNode]$NewContactGroup = $XMLFile.CreateElement('ContactGroup','http://schemas.microsoft.com/RtcServer/2002/11/dbimpexp')

            $NewContactGroup.SetAttribute('Number','20') #High number so as to not overwrite existing groups.

            $NewContactGroup.SetAttribute('DisplayName','CodeFromXML')

            $NewNodeGroup.AppendChild($NewContactGroup)

            $XMLCGroup = $XMLPart.Data.HomedResource.Containers

            $XMLPart.Data.HomedResource.InsertBefore($NewNodeGroup,$XMLCGroup)

            $XMLFile.Save("$WorkingFolder\DocItemSet.xml")

            [xml]$XMLFile = Get-Content "$WorkingFolder\DocItemSet.xml"

            $XMLPart = $XMLFile.DocItemSet.DocItem | ?{$_.Name -like "urn:lcd:*"}

            $XMLNode = $XMLPart.Data.HomedResource.Contacts

}

#Back to original code

    Write-Host "`r`nExisting contacts:`r`n" 

Change these lines to include 1 and the group number in the $ContactstoAdd | foreach{} section

$NewContact.SetAttribute('Groups','1 20') 

If you have a large organization, you will need to create a new policy or edit the Global Presence policy.  Once all the Lync users had the Lync Rooms in the list, the "Maximum Followers Reached" error showed up on the Lync Room systems.

A new Presence Policy was created and applied to the Lync Room accounts. The MaxCategorySubcriptions was to 3000 and the error went away.

 Since it was only applied to the Lync Room systems it should not drastically increase the server traffic as compared to applying to all our Lync users.

http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/drowe/archive/2013/01/15/too-popular-for-lync-maximum-followers-reached.aspx

SCCM 2012 Hard Drive with Bad Blocks Baseline

This PowerShell script will detect systems where the main hard drive is developing bad blocks.
Or as I call it, the "Click of Death".

Continuing with my previous posts on SCCM 2012 baselines items...
http://gmnetadmin.blogspot.ca/2015/01/using-sccm-2012-compliance-settings-to.html

Same steps as Option 2 in the above mentioned post but using the discovery script below...
Changes...

1. You can add more If statements or expand it use ElseIf to record bad blocks from other hard drives.
2. Or change the text in the If statement to just '*bad block*' to count all bad blocks event entries.

#Version 1.00 Feb 2, 2015
#SCCM Baseline for Bad Block on C Drive
$AllEvents = 0

#Default Event Logs
$Provider = "Disk"
$HourChange = 24 
$TimeNow = [DateTime]::Now
$TimeChange = [DateTime]::Now.AddHours(-$HourChange)

#Check Event Log for errors
$EventLogNames = "System"

ForEach ($log in $EventLogNames){
    $entry = " " 
    #Search Event Logs
    
    $LogEntry = Get-WinEvent -LogName $log | Where-Object {$_.timeCreated -ge $TimeChange -and $_.ProviderName -eq $Provider}
        ForEach ($entry in $LogEntry){
            $EvLevel = "Level: `t" + $entry.LevelDisplayName + $nl
            $EvEventID = "EventID: `t" + $entry.ID + $nl
            $EvMessage = "Message: `t" + $entry.Message
            $EvSource = "Source: `t" + $entry.ProviderName + $nl
            $EvTime = "Time Created: `t" + $entry.TimeCreated + $nl
            #write-host $EvLevel + $EvEventID + $EvMessage + $EvSource +$EvTime + $nl

           If ($EvMessage -like '*The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block*'){
                $AllEvents += 1
            }
                        
        }

}
write-host $AllEvents


More SCCM related posts

SCCM 2012 Task Sequence for Failing Hard Drive

Now that you have collections created based S.M.A.R.T diagnostics or Disk event log entries baselines for failing hard drives... (See previous post)

We can create a custom Task Sequence to notify the user of the problem, when they log onto the computer.

Optionally, you could also deploy this as an available task sequence, for end users to manually check hard drive status.

Here are my suggestions for the task sequence...

Name: Hard Drive Diagnostic
Progress notification text: "Please submit a help desk ticket if the hard drive reports as failing."  (or use the standard "Running: <Task sequence name>")
Suppress task sequence notifications - Optional
Maximum run time: 5 minutes
Run on any platform.

Sequence of Tasks... (Keep in mind that the "Name" is what the end user will see on the screen)

1. Set Task Sequence Variable
1. Name: Testing hard drive health. Please wait.
2. Variable: HD Failure
3. Value: True
4. Options:Add a WMI query Condition
1. WMI Namespace: root\wmi
2. WQL Query: select * from MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus Where PredictFailure = True
2. Group 1:
1. Name: Hard Drive Diagnostic Finished
2. Options: Add a Task Sequence Variable
1. Variable: HD Failure
2. Condition: Equals
3. Value: True
3. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: The hard drive is failing
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30
1. Should last about 30 seconds on the screen
4. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: We recommend replacing the hard drive.
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30
1. Should last about 30 seconds on the screen
3. Group 2:
1. Name: Hard drive Diagnostics Finished
2. Options: Add a Task Sequence Variable
1. Variable: HD Failure
2. Condition: Not Exists
3. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: Hard drive passed diagnostics
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 10
1. Should last about 10 seconds on the screen.

More SCCM related posts

Using SCCM 2012 Compliance Settings to Determine Hard Drive Health

As long as your computer has S.M.A.R.T hard drive diagnostic capabilities, the following can be used to track hard drive failures.

Configuration Item(s) in SCCM 2012.

Option 1 - Using WQL query

Name - Hard Drive Predictive Failure

Platforms - All (Although, if they are virtual machines this will not work.)

Settings -

• Name: Storage Driver Failure Prediction
• Type: WQL Query
• Data: String
• Namespace: root\wmi
• Class: MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus
• Property:PredictFailure

Compliance Rules

• Name: Possible Hard Drive Failure is True
• I named it this to remind me that "False" is the result we want.
• Rule: Storage Driver Failure Prediction Equals False
• Noncompliance severity: Critical

 Option 2 - Using PowerShell script to read system event log

This option will read the System event log and count any 'disk' source logs that are not Information level. 
Note: This will include issues with temporarily attached external hard drives or USB drives.

Name - Event Log Disk Errors
Platforms - All (This will work for servers and virtual machines)
Settings

• Name: Report disk errors found in Event Log
• Type: Script
• Discovery script (See end of post)
• Counts the events and writes that value.

Compliance Rules

• Name: Disk error count
• Rule: Less than 1 (That's a number one)
• Noncompliance severity: Critical

Now that you have created the Configuration Items, you can add (one or both) to a Configuration Baseline and deploy them to your collections.

Once deployed create collections for the non compliant systems and then use that information in reports for your help desk or create a Task sequence that alerts the end user that the hard drive is may be failing.

Here's the PowerShell script...
- Updated Feb 3, 2015 to exclude '*Device\Harddisk1\DR1*' event logs.

#Version 2.30 Feb 3, 2015
#Designed for SCCM Baseline
$AllEvents = 0
#Default Event Logs
$Provider = "disk"
$HourChange = 24 #Up to you how far back you want to go
$TimeNow = [DateTime]::Now
$TimeChange = [DateTime]::Now.AddHours(-$HourChange)
#Check Event Log for errors
$EventLogNames = "System"
ForEach ($log in $EventLogNames){
    $entry = " "
    #Search Event Logs
   
    $LogEntry = Get-WinEvent -LogName $log | Where-Object {$_.timeCreated -ge $TimeChange -and $_.ProviderName -contains $Provider -and ($_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Warning' -or $_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Error' -or $_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Critical')}
        ForEach ($entry in $LogEntry){
            $EvLevel = "Level: `t" + $entry.LevelDisplayName + $nl
            $EvEventID = "EventID: `t" + $entry.ID + $nl
            $EvMessage = "Message: `t" + $entry.Message + $nl
            $EvSource = "Source: `t" + $entry.ProviderName + $nl
            $EvTime = "Time Created: `t" + $entry.TimeCreated + $nl
            #write-host $EvLevel + $EvEventID + $EvMessage + $EvSource +$EvTime + $nl

            #If ($entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Critical" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Warning" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Error"){
            If ($EvMessage.tostring() -like '*Device\Harddisk1\DR1*'){
                #nothing
            }
            ElseIf ($entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Critical" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Warning" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Error"){
             $AllEvents += 1
            }
                       
        }
}
write-host $AllEvents


More SCCM related posts

Recovering Laptop Harddrive with Sync Toy and USB Dock Master

Needed to recover data off of a laptop and moving the files just wasn't working...

 

 

Decided to try Microsoft's SyncToy. We use it on some of our laptops to backup data from the laptop user's documents folder to a server which has it's own backup.

 

Created folder pairs for syncing between the failed harddrive and new folder on my desktop.

Since the harddrive was failing (faint click sound), paging errors and the odd bad block error showed up in the event log and SyncToy would stall, but not stop responding.  (Unlike Windows explorer)

 

To get it to start copying again, simply unplugged the USB cable from my desktop and plug it in again.

 

Now most copy jobs would stop completely when you do this, but not SyncToy. It moved on to the next file and try to copy that one.  

 

Granted there would be some files that would be missed based on how long Windows took to re connect the drive however, that is better than no files at all or manually copying over file by file and trying to find out which one was failing.

 

Once that was done, reran the Windows Chkdsk program on the drive and then ran the SyncToy folder pairs again to recover more files. 

 

Since SyncToy catalogs and compares file changes, this time the Sync took less time.  The harddrive still had that faint click of death and still required unplugging and plugging the USB cable.  When SyncToy stalled on a bad file, wrote down the file name(s) and then went back into the Folder pair settings and excluded the file(s).  This helped recover as much as 90% of the folders contents in some cases.

 

 

 

SCCM 2012 Clients with Random Software Update Install Failures

Yesterday (Aug. 7, 2014) our SCCM clients started randomly failing to install locally published software updates.  Then even the new RDS servers started failing to install Windows updates via SCCM.  Yet for some reason other clients would install updates

First thought was WSUS certificate issues or Group Policy settings...  Strike one and two.

Try again in the morning...

Of course they didn't magically fix themselves over night (when does that ever happen).

This morning no clients would install any updates.

Looking at the windows update logs on the client machines found error about communication with the endpoint at http .... /clientwebservice/client.asmx.

So the WSUS server was the problem...

Sure enough Windows Update Server Service errors - Event ID in the Application log 12002,12012,12032,12042,12052,12072.

Started with restarting the WSUS service and Window Internal database service... Strike three.

Still not out... maybe I'll just stop using baseball references...

Started looking at the System event log and found that WAS or WsusPool had failed, so onto an IIS investigation. 

Restarting the WSUSPool, it look promising... Wsus was starting... no errors, but then failed after maxing out the CPU for about 5 minutes.

Found one website that said there was no solution, had to rebuild the server from scratch.  That would be bad... very bad... At that point I thought of restoring the system from the day before it failed.

Kept searching the internet for nearly 2 hours and then finally came up with this process...

1) IIsreset /noforce

2) Restarted the Windows Internal database service

3) Deleted the preferences in %appdata%\Microsoft\MMC for WSUS

4) Opened WSUS management console and waited...

Everything was back to normal and actually the final solution is not that complicated.

As with all solutions... there is no guarantee.  It worked for me, it may not work for you.


More SCCM related posts

Custom Lync Room System Startup

Keep update on this project by following this link... http://bit.ly/netadmlr

To create the Domain joined custom Lync Room System...

1. Group Policy to change these Registry Entries using Preferences
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (Applied to Computer Settings)
1. DefaultUserName - LyncRoomAccount
2. DefaultPassword - LyncRoomAccount Password
3. DefaultDomainName - Domain.ca
4. AutoLogonCount - Deleted
5. AutoLogonChecked - Deleted
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell to wscript.exe //NoLogo /I "C:\Program Files\Lync Room System\Lync Room Computer Startup.vbs"  (Applied to Lync Room User Account Preferences)
3. By using Preferences you can apply the settings based on Computer Name or Account name.  This allows the computer to still be used as a regular Windows system when logged off.
2. Lync Room Computer Startup.vbs 
1. Uses these Sysinternals programs BGInfo, PSKill
1. Copy the BGinfo program over to "Program Files\Background"
2. Edit LRS.bgi to change the desktop text and jpg images.
2. Starts Rainmeter program with "Lync Room System" skin
1. Once you install the program and installed Lync Room Skin, you must copy the "Lync Room System" folder from your documents\Rainmeter folder to the "Lync Room System" folder.
3. Runs Office 2013 Lync

The Source files can be found here.  Copy them over to "C:\Program Files\Lync Room System" once the programs have been installed.  Includes a MS Word document with Group Policy information for creating your own GPO.

Rainmeter Custom Desktop Skin

Keep update on this project by following this link... http://bit.ly/netadmlr

April 30, 2014
Changed from Images to Buttons (Changes Icon based on mouse action - hover/click)
 - Includes Paint.Net PDN files for you to change
Battery Skin
 - Changed "Charging" to "AC Power"

Future versions will include the option to disable Right mouse button by adding
RightMouseUpAction=[] at the top of each skin in the [Rainmeter] section.

April 29, 2014

Shutdown/Restart/Log Off Bug - You will have to change the Logoff.cmd and Restart.cmd commands to say shutdown.exe other wise it will run the shutdown.cmd file before the shutdown.exe file. 

April 28, 2014
Uploaded the Rainmeter skin for the Custom Lync Room system to DeviantArt

Requires Rainmeter 3.1 - http://rainmeter.net/

Latest version of the Lync Room System Rainmeter Skin
http://gmpentaxfan.deviantart.com/art/Lync-Room-System-Custom-Desktop-Rainmeter-Skin-450762970

This allows for desktop icons, date, time, battery level, speaker levels and custom application launching without "explorer.exe" running.

Added the Rainmeter.exe with custom rainmeter.ini to load this skin via the computer startup script.

See previous article... http://gmnetadmin.blogspot.ca/2014/04/custom-lync-room-system.html

Custom Lync Room System

Keep update on this project by following this link... http://bit.ly/netadmlr

This past month (April 2014) has been spent working on a custom Lync Room System solution that doesn't involve purchasing a Lync Room System.

Followed the Lync Room System deployment guide for the LRS account setup, but instead of the LRS special software/hardware...

It uses the Lync 2013 client and can be deployed to any Windows 7 computer.

Update - April 30, 2014 - Now using Rainmeter software to add Desktop icons, clock, volume control and battery level. http://gmnetadmin.blogspot.com/2014/04/rainmeter-custom-desktop-skin.html

Setting up the computer to Autologin with LRS account.


Custom Lync Room Startup Video

Detailed Setup for the Custom Lync Room System

Resource Links
Lync LRS Deployment guide - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39274

Automatic Login Windows 7 - http://superuser.com/questions/28647/how-do-i-enable-automatic-logon-in-windows-7-when-im-on-a-domain

Sysinternals - BGInfo program for custom wallpaper background - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897557

Sysinternals - Suite - Used PSkill and PSExec programs - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062

Encode a Script - http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/16439c02-3296-4ec8-9134-6eb6fb599880/view/Reviews

Lync Custom Commands - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj945535(v=office.15).aspx