Contact us today|info@ctglobalservices.com
FacebookXLinkedIn

Automating SSRS favorites with REST API

This information applies to SQL Server Reporting Services 2017 and later. As more and more organizations rely on visualization and reporting to get the information they need, more and more reports come into play. With Configuration Manager 1710 you get almost 500 reports where only a subset are relevant to you and your team. This blog post will show you how you can automate the use of favorites in SQL Reporting Services 2017. Prior to SSRS 2017 you had to find the report and mark it as a favorite. Beginning from SSRS 2017 we can now use a combination of [...]

By |2018-01-10T20:49:33+01:00januar 10th, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)|7 Comments
Læs mere

Sometimes I think there is not enough fear in the World!

Kind of a catchy title and perhaps a bit scary but nevertheless this is often what I think when looking at the number of legacy Windows operating systems and Management systems “out there”. Let’s get it straight, Windows 7 is end of extended support in 2020 or a little more than 400 working days. For many organizations that is simply not enough time to migrate all clients to Windows 10 unless the project is already begun.Client operating systems Latest update or service pack End of mainstream support End of extended supportWindows Vista  Service Pack 210-Apr-1211-Apr-17Windows 7 * Service Pack 113-Jan-15January [...]

By |2017-12-22T11:18:47+01:00december 22nd, 2017|Uncategorized|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

Q&A from the We Speak Geek webinar

First a huge thanks to the many that tuned in to our 3 webinars on ConfigMgr Challenges in 2017. As promised here are answers to the many questions we had. For more questions, please reach out to Jason Sandys @JasonSandys or Kent Agerlund @Agerlund. For those who didn’t have a chance to attend, recordings are available here: https://info.flexerasoftware.com/SVM-WBNR-We-Speak-Geek-SCCM-Admin-PrioritiesQ &A From the North America webinarWith Windows 10 Servicing - how have you found keeping these up to date? I have 10k workstations, and with resources i can't keep up with 6 monthly releases. With the products i have to get updated/tested/confirmed [...]

By |2017-12-21T18:57:27+01:00december 21st, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket til Q&A from the We Speak Geek webinar
Læs mere

Managing and deploying Web links in Android the modern way, a quick tip

Last year I wrote a blog about how the experience of deploying web clips or web links on Android devices looked like and how you were able to force them to be opened in the Intune Managed Browser. If we look back at this experience with the Company Portal Widget and the links, this is not a really nice solution and we don’t want to talk about updating or removing a web link in this scenario. (which is not possible) Yesterday I was at a customer in Denmark discussing this solution, and while discussing this I remembered the new options [...]

By |2017-12-20T21:12:18+01:00december 21st, 2017|Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS)|Kommentarer lukket til Managing and deploying Web links in Android the modern way, a quick tip
Læs mere

Taking advantage of Run Script in ConfigMgr 1710

As most of you already know, Microsoft has released a new function in ConfigMgr to run scripts directly on computers and/or servers in your environment. With this new function, scripts can be run in real time on a single computer or an entire collection. How cool is that? This was initially released in the 1706 Tech Preview, but since then Microsoft has put a lot of effort into the functionality of the latest builds and have really made it shine! If you’re like me, you might get stuck in the “this is awesome but how do I move forward with [...]

By |2017-12-20T09:12:22+01:00december 20th, 2017|Powershell|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

Androids in the Enterprise, a blessing or nightmare? – part 2

In my last blog we looked at managing the legacy Android devices, like mentioned Google is investing in making Android safer and more enterprise ready. Today Google announced the deprecation of the legacy management of Android devices as of Android Q, like explained here in the blog of Chris Baldwin. One of the ways in making Android enterprise ready is by using Android Enterprise AKA Android for Work. Android for Work is available since the beginning of 2015, in Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and higher. What is Android for Work? (Android Enterprise) With Android for Work you are able to completely [...]

By |2017-12-19T20:53:17+01:00december 19th, 2017|Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS)|3 Comments
Læs mere

Create ConfigurationItems and Baselines without killing your mouse

This information applies to ConfigMgr version 1710 and later. One of the things I really love about working in IT is that you can learn new stuff all the time, and when new stuff turns into boring repetitive stuff you can apply automation and add yet another new piece of learning to your skillset. Over the last few releases of Configuration Manager, the product team has added some new cmdlets for managing Configuration Items and Baselines, and I started to look into these when I was given the task to create a lot of very similar CIs and Baselines for [...]

By |2017-12-18T07:32:48+01:00december 18th, 2017|Automation, Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, Uncategorized|6 Comments
Læs mere

Create User collections based on AD department attribute with Powershell

If you are an organization who uses the Department attribute in Active directory and want to target users withing those departments for different deployments but you have a lot of departments and you don't know where to start, well then this post might be useful for you.   The script in this post retrieves all the departments that gets collected by the Users AD attribute by ConfigMgr (Not turned on by default needs to get added. See guide below) and from those departments it creates a user collection with a query that populates the collection with all users who are [...]

By |2017-12-14T19:41:24+01:00december 14th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, Scripting|13 Comments
Læs mere

Continuous Delivery WebApps with ARM Templates, Part 2

Previous: Continuous Delivery WebApps with ARM Templates, Part 1 Cross-posting from personal blog https://cloudmechanic.net So it has been some busy months and therefor a bit delayed with this second post, but now I finally got a moment to finish it, so here we go! In the previous post we created and tested the continuous delivery pipeline for the Azure resources using a ARM template, and with the pipeline for deploying the Azure resources we are now ready to create the pipeline to deploy the application. First you should go and grab the latest version of the ARM template and the [...]

By |2017-12-12T15:15:53+01:00december 12th, 2017|Azure|Kommentarer lukket til Continuous Delivery WebApps with ARM Templates, Part 2
Læs mere

Using Office 365 Portal Security Token for Authentication with custom website

When creating a lot of different web front-ends, it is always rather complex to get started with single sign-on or integrated login. The simple way to not maintain a credential database or passwords is to validate against a 3. party website. This is where the Office 365 Portal comes in handy, especially because many companies are already validating against or with it. I created this code as part of another solution, the example here has been cut down for demonstration purposes and easy integration. You will be able to validate against Portal.microsoftonline.com as long as the login is allowed for [...]

By |2017-12-11T08:59:07+01:00december 11th, 2017|Office 365, Scripting & Development, Security|4 Comments
Læs mere

ConfigMgr PowerShell and WMI Excel spreadsheet

I just posted on Github updated version of Excel spreadsheet where you can find all the ConfigMgr PowerShell cmdlets, Primary Site WMI namespace methods, ConfigMgr Client WMI methods and COM object methods as well. You can download the Excel spreadsheet from here - https://github.com/Kaidja/ConfigMgrSDK/blob/master/ConfigMgr_cmdlets.xlsx

By |2017-12-08T09:48:01+01:00december 7th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, Scripting|Kommentarer lukket til ConfigMgr PowerShell and WMI Excel spreadsheet
Læs mere

Intune: Use PowerShell management extension to enable BitLocker on a modern managed Win10 device

I wrote a blog post back in April on "how to manage BitLocker on a Azure AD Joined Windows 10 Device managed by Intune", where I also wrote a PowerShell script to automate the encryption process for the day that we would get PowerShell support in Intune. Well Microsoft announced in September the Management extension for Intune which basically lets you deploy PowerShell scripts via. Intune to Windows 10 devices. My co-worker Peter Daalmans wrote a great blog post about it right after, where he explained in more detail about the extension. I have a link for that post at [...]

By |2017-12-06T12:59:51+01:00december 6th, 2017|Automation, Powershell, Scripting, Uncategorized, Windows Client|4 Comments
Læs mere

PowerShell Script for updating Runbook Steps in a Task Sequence!

The MDT Toolkit is great! One very useful feature is the “Execute Runbook” Step, which can execute a runbook in Orchestrator. Unfortunately Orchestrator has a little quirk, when moving to new environment, such as moving from Test to Prod. All runbooks get a new GUID, and runbook parameters might get a new GUID.  Besides this, the Server names usually needs to be changed too! This can be a trivial task, which an automation guy like me hate to do! Everytime Server name is updated, all parameters has to be setup again. This also makes the task prone to errors! So [...]

By |2017-12-05T13:20:06+01:00december 5th, 2017|Automation, Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, Scripting|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

Androids in the Enterprise, a blessing or nightmare? – part 1

Many people who know me know that I am not the fan boy of Android devices. It can be a nightmare when managing those devices, but is that still a valid statement or is it getting better? In this series of blogs, I want to try to get a clear view if Android devices in an Enterprise are a blessing or a nightmare. That there are Android devices connecting to most environments to get access to corporate data is a fact. When looking at Microsoft Intune we can block the ability that Android devices can be enrolled into Intune, but [...]

By |2017-12-01T15:57:46+01:00december 4th, 2017|Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), Security|4 Comments
Læs mere

Adjust Your Mirrors to Avoid Blind Spots

…and why the Enterprise needs IT visualization Two months ago, we launched the latest version of our cloud based visualization service CTGlobal Insight & Analytics and looking back at the last two years where we have been working with customers visualizing various IT KPI’s this post will answer the question I get from all customers “How do other companies avoid big blind spots in their enterprise IT?” We all know the depressing facts about the damage caused by Wanacry, Patya and Adylkuzz ransomware and we also know that the impact of these attacks could have been avoided if only security [...]

By |2017-12-01T16:16:23+01:00december 1st, 2017|Uncategorized|Kommentarer lukket til Adjust Your Mirrors to Avoid Blind Spots
Læs mere

How to use SCCM SDK in C# with a WQL Query that contains joins

Sometimes you just stop and wonder: how DO you make a WQL query with joins and use it with the SCCM SDK in C#? It's that gnawing thought we all have right? So after spending an hour reading through people saying: "It's NOT supported!" and some people who said it was (without any examples whatsoever), I managed to get a small sample working. So if any of you should come across this challenge (which is of course the most of the world), then here is a code-example on how to do it: It's a small console application that output all [...]

By |2017-11-21T14:28:57+01:00november 21st, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Scripting & Development|3 Comments
Læs mere

The Big Bang and how it changed my life as an IT Pro

Maybe a misleading headline for my blog post, as it’s really the opposite message I’m trying to deliver. The Big Bang I’m referring to in the title is the change to a Cloud world from our “good old” on-premises infrastructure. For many organizations the Big Bang still hasn’t happened, not that organizations are not embracing new Cloud opportunities, most just can’t change everything overnight. Starting 5-6 years ago, I heard and read many stories that the “Cloud era” would be the end of life as we know it for IT Pros. Personally, I claim this statement to be false.For this [...]

By |2017-11-14T16:10:52+01:00november 14th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Security, Windows Client|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

Windows 10: Modern Management – Automate OSD with a USB drive and a Provisioning Package

First of all this is not a blog post on how you create an provisioning package or how that works. However I will link a few other post from Microsoft to get you started if that is something you are looking for. So jump to the end of this post for a select few great posts on the topic. If you are using Autopilot, then you are using Autopilot, good for you! :) There may be situations where you want to combine provisioning packages and Autopilot. I will explain this further in an upcoming blogpost about Autopilot. Now, in this [...]

By |2017-11-15T15:30:53+01:00november 12th, 2017|Uncategorized|Kommentarer lukket til Windows 10: Modern Management – Automate OSD with a USB drive and a Provisioning Package
Læs mere

Intune: Reporting Part 1 – create basic inventory report directly from Intune Console

I am a ConfigMgr consultant by heart where I have spent most of my IT-career designing and building ConfigMgr Solutions for customers. And everyone that has worked with ConfigMgr knows that you can report on basically anything from the clients managed by ConfigMgr. If you don't see the data, the reason is probable that the the Agent is not configured to harvest it. Well for the past 3-4 years I have also been working with Intune where the reporting capabilities has been a bit limited, especially devices managed through mdm, however the reporting has capabilities been greatly improved over the [...]

By |2017-11-13T00:23:52+01:00oktober 31st, 2017|Azure, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS)|4 Comments
Læs mere

ConfigMgr: Issues setting up new MP’s? Check your SPN’s!

An old topic, revisited; This is just a quick blog post to inform any in the same situation as myself where a customer had some issues setting up 5 MP's at a customer. Now we all know that when setting up an new MP, or over time we may get some errors returned to us in one of the many log files monitoring the Management Point service in ConfigMgr. This is because MPs has quite a few prerequisites that either needs to be in place before it functions properly or needs TLC over time. The other day I was at [...]

By |2017-11-13T00:22:16+01:00oktober 30th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|5 Comments
Læs mere

Continuous Delivery WebApps with ARM Templates, Part 1

Cross-posting from personal blog https://cloudmechanic.netThe boss words these days is all about DevOps, Everything as Code, Continuous Delivery, but how do you actually do it? And why should you do it? Hopefully this post will help you getting started, and by the end of the post provide you with a complete working scenario. So lets get started!First let me describe the scenario. This case will deploy a simple To-do List .NET WebApp using a Azure SQL Database and monitored with Application Insight.All code needed for this is provided doing the article, so don't worry you don't need to know anything [...]

By |2017-10-26T19:42:46+01:00oktober 26th, 2017|Azure|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

Manage your Windows 10 devices via PowerShell and Microsoft Intune

A big wish of the community and companies using Microsoft Intune was the ability to manage Windows 10 devices that are managed with Microsoft Intune via PowerShell. Since the MDM channel is not supporting deployment and the execution of PowerShell scripts, Microsoft announced today at Ignite the Microsoft Intune Management Extension. Meet the Microsoft Intune Management Extension The Microsoft Intune Management Extension is an addition to the current Windows 10 MDM capabilities and allows us now to deploy and execute PowerShell scripts. The Microsoft Intune Management Extension is automatically deployed and installed on Azure AD joined devices. The Microsoft Intune [...]

By |2017-09-26T02:35:29+01:00september 26th, 2017|Automation, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), Powershell|19 Comments
Læs mere

Enhanced Sync-VSTSGit runbook that support Pull Requests

My colleague Andreas and me was preparing demos for our Azure Automation – Advanced runbook design session at Experts Live EU More info on the session hereUse thís runbook to support automatic synchronization from visual studio git repositories! (See the session recording for WHY!)It is based on the script provided by MSFT at https://github.com/azureautomation/runbooks/blob/master/Utility/ARM/Sync-VSTS.ps1We will make sure to submit a pull request to get the enchanced code implemented in that version.This version add’s support for multiple branches and pull requests, while the original runbook only supports synchronizing direct commits.To setup the solution, follow the guide described here:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/automation-scenario-source-control-integration-with-vstsGood luck! <#PSScriptInfo .VERSION [...]

By |2017-08-25T14:11:40+01:00august 24th, 2017|Powershell|Kommentarer lukket til Enhanced Sync-VSTSGit runbook that support Pull Requests
Læs mere

Azure Automation Runbook Template 1.0

This is a base runbook template developed by CT Global. This version was first presented at Experts Live EU 2017. [CmdletBinding()] [OutputType([Object])] #Set to specific object type if possible (fx. if script gets a ADUser, set output type to ADUser) Param ( [Parameter (Mandatory = $true)] [String] $ResourceGroupName ) $ErrorActionPreference = "stop" $VerbosePreference = "silentlycontinue" #//---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #// #// Global constant and variable declarations #// Shared Resource retrieval (Assets) #// #//---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Constants $Prefix = "CT-" #Assets $Credential = Get-AutomationCredential -Name "Admin" #//---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #// Procedures (Logging etc.) #//---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #region Procedures Function Add-Tracelog { param($Message, $TraceLog) $Message = "$(get-date) - $Message`n" Write-Verbose $Message [...]

By |2017-08-23T14:34:56+01:00august 24th, 2017|Powershell|2 Comments
Læs mere