The never ending ET for Atari that is describing creating an image using MSFT tools

Ok so moving on to installing Win 10 on our 28 machines, started here,
Windows Deployment Services to do this. WDS is a powerful tool and we need to install the role on our server (I think I might be able to do this through
the MSFT lab environments Ill try and see how long the click through lasts) Im little nervous that my instructions may be less than accurate as I dont have
a test environ but ill do the best that I can.

Configuring WDS

We are going to do this through PowerShell rather than the GUI cause its easier to type out PowerShell instructions without the images a click
through WMCSM would require but in case your interested here’s a YouTube video that I that watched with an excellent narrator.

So, moving on from that bit of information I guess a good place to start might be some TechNet white pages no?

WDS TechNet

Lots of info there. So clearly we are going to have to work out what Steve B’s internal address ranges are and figure out what kind of a subnet
situation our machines are on. Not so fun, not good with that but given that this is super basic I should be able to handle calculating an address range.
Im thinking Stevie B’s is probably a class B range size company so we will work out a meaningful (lol) address in that range that’s probably all ready assigned
to some one. I guess I could take the time to find one that’s available. We will see how that goes as this progresses and I’ll leave it up to you
to check that out. I think that looking up hosts and things is actually interesting, hopefully you do to.

Oh is now a good time to tell you my trainer at my first tech jobs name was Steve Fritz and he was like my BFF cause any question I had was directed toward
him until I learned how to use a website database? Could be where the name came from. He honestly kind of looked and acted, and basically was Mr. Rodgers. Unless he
hadn’t had any candy that day then he was more like this:

I guess I can relate on some level. Any way back to the topic at hand. Going through this white paper, trying to grab some screen shots and figuring out
a plan for deployment! Obviously it would be really complicated to try and configure the DHCP/IP ranges through PowerShell, it may be possible but
Im going to go ahead and assume using a GUI is better for this situation. However, as noted in the TechNet article:

WDSUTIL command-line tool – enables you to manage the full functionality of the server. WDSUTIL also enables you to script common tasks.
We also have a Technet article with basic set boot image and so forth then another
more indepth article that has screenshots
of the fabulous blue screen of success (PowerShell)
So we are figuring out there are multiple ways to pre-stage a machine if you’ve been checking & following the links, through DHCP and/or MAC address (saying and/or due to MAC adddy being
tied into DHCP config) so here is a TechNet article about that
And before we get too far ahead of our selves we also need to talk about Sysprep in order to create the image we are going to push machines. There are alot of
YouTube videos about this but this is the only one with sound. I enjoy silence
as much as the next guy but verbal explications are helpful some times. The video is aimed specifically at Windows 10 (its also a little hard to follow but maybe if you where capturing the
image at the same time it would be easier) but that’s what we are installing & the only problem is he doesnt actually use sysprep to make a WIM. He does configure an answer file though, I suppose we will have to figure out if we need one of those.
This video starts to prove the existance og Sysprep but hes booting into an enviroment
then he launches some tool and we never see an actual .wim file created.

Ok, so given that there are lots of ways to create an image we are just going to say “create an image” using what ever technology is avalible &
tomarrow we will figure out how we are going to push out our wim files to a machine and how an answer file works. Im starting to see why im in the
sub 600s on the test, this seems so imple yet there are so many angles and ways to configure!

Hopefully the formatting is not too aweful, im really pushing the limits of tumblrs text editor, possibly, and the amount of text my machine is happy with navigating. Sorry, writing from a netbook (better than nothing).

Update: So Thanks to the help of a google group I found that Sysprep is indeed real and it works. Heres a video and a link to screen shots. The video is older but Im assuming the process should be the same!

Microsoft Deployment Tool Kit

Edit 2/11: I may drop this topic for the fore seeable future as its kind of a personal interest into how this tech works. Its not really covered that extensively on the test and I suppose rationally I should start to focus on the things that may help me to pass. Im kind of into this whole robotically retyping test Q’s as its kind of like going through flash cards.

Edit 2/15: Heres a hangout from the google group and of course some how my mug became the starting frame on youtube. Thank goodness my web cam works : |. Well its the starting frame on the group page, not sure if that loads the same every time or not?

01-30-2016 0

Ghastly ghost is missing a few outward facing spacely sprockets

So while doing research for Stevie B’s Chicken a’la King a’la Carte you realized that there wasn’t much material covering this Norton product
as an individual and not a corporate owner of the product. So you came to the conclusion that it must be a really easy product to use
or they have some phenomenal customer service if they ever plan on selling it. Any way here some links discussing the product since we cant
actually develop two action plans for implementation we will only make one, thats hopefully correct, using native Windows Server products.
In spite of that we still collected a few links (though we could probably pick up some links on what perspective to narrate from to ensure
that we use the correct pronouns while writing)

British guy talking in depth Mostly about backing up a pc
how to create an image
“going to Ghost a machine____shameless self promotion.”
Interestingly enough some official support documentation can be downloaded here
not sure why this site is hosting it or how good it is. I found an 80 page document on the Symantech site and it disappeared while writing this. Turns out this is not the driod im looking for. Poke around here for some blues clues or perhaps scooby snaks that may lead to answer for where that went.

01-28-2016 0

A case study in business class upgrades

Ok so lets make a fake scenario that I previously called a user story but thats not really correct nomenclature as that has to do with software dev
so I supposed we will call this a case study. Since im really new to HTML im going to be annoying with formatting for the sake of fun so please excuse.

Your company Stevie B’s Chicken A’la King A’la Carte (considering building a real website or possibly FB page for this fake business) has 60 machines all need to be upgraded to windows 10 pro (none of which are laptops because they are all being replaced in one
purchase order next year). Your domain is currently set at the Server 2012 R2 functional level as your company attempts to keep up with the latest technology.

basic requirement’s:

Min of 500 gig’s of harddrive space
Min 5 gigs of ram

So given that you have

32 vista total upgrades
Machine vendor of choice Dell
machine price per @ rec’d specs: $679 = $21,728

7 windows 7 machines need only 2 gigs of ram and an extra 250 gig hard drive
lics $199 X 7 = 1393

240 pin ddr3 2 gig (seemed to be the most common ram type currently in prod) $16 per unit for corsair value ram (showing brand preference here and inferring a problem with calculating exact shipping totals due to lack of current stock from our vendor of choice)
, a little better than the bottom of the line) x 7 = 111.93

For some reason management ok’d testing SSD drive durability in response to planning future laptop purchases
7 @ 87.59 per = 613.87

Assuming shipping to be $20.00 after creating a Newegg premiere account, current lack of information on savings due to current stock issues.

Here is the ram and harddrives that we chose to use

Total = $2,138.8

21 machines only require a new Windows license’s
license’s $199 x 21 = $4,179

Norton ghost license cost/efficiency (is still a thing, its been a while since I did an upgrade at the one that I did was through
a company that spent in a lavish manor when technology was involved) close to a 1k per 20 machines http://buy.symantec.com/estore/clp/productdetails/pk/ghost-solution-suite

Total cost using native imaging solutions and machine upgrades for all machines:

60 machines = $28,045.80 + ~1k if we use Norton Ghost

I realize that the organizational structure isnt perfect but its the best I can do given my current limitational understandings of HTML formatting.
So im doing my best to make it look nice and organized. Perhaps we could insert a table here but not sure how tumblr will respond to that slice of code

So next we need to figure out exactly how we propose to implement all this.

Edit: so after trying to make the formatting better and drinking a few cups of coffee Stevie B’s Chickin A’la King A’la Carte decided that It would be a good idea (to switch to a wordpress site) to go a head and purchase the the 20 licenses from Symantec because we’ve been around a while and Norton was good to us back in the day but they really faced some stiff competition from other anti-virus products. So we decided to go ahead and buy the licenses because as a respectable company/organization we like to show respect to other respectable company’s. We may or may not use this softwear depending upon how well we are able to roll out in a test envroment using native Windows tools.

01-22-2016 0

On to the Azure situation….

Ok so we have established that I use the word “also” when conjoining two major ideas but this whole post kind of feels like an
“also” running in tandem with the last set of ideas concerning Hyper-V. After doing some reading it would seem that the way you connect/setup
Azure servers and the way that you connect and set-up Hyper-V servers are similar. Not exactly the same as the interfaces are vastly
different but conceptually it seems like the same idea and in my naive state of understanding the depths of both technologies
I can only assume that the two would share the same concerns and growing pains. I feel confident that there is an attitude that one is
a superior technology among those who have been following a long for a while in spite of the fact that they both appear to be very similar.
Other than the obvious fact of Azure being hosted off site providing more of a “terminal” solution or interface for end users.

I feel like the long term goal, as I’ve said before is to remove physical hardware from offices and have a mostly off site based
solution. I dont disagree with this concept of having basic walmart style server farms that work with small business (under 60 users) any thing
larger than that might cause a problem resulting in a hybrid solution. Any way this is all math thats well outside my gustimation
of cost and band width support mentality. Regardless of my current notion of the big picture its still an interesting thing
to muse on.

I suppose we should move on with assumptions and start with some links so you perhaps have a frame of reference to work from? I am generally writing with the
assumption that you, the reader, are as ignorant on these subjects as I and that maybe together we can come up with an understanding
of these technologies by way of conversational dialogue. Boy that fact sure took a long time to establish didnt it? Any way, here are
some links

Step by step installation of Windows Azure pack for Windows Server

I got really excited about this cause I was like Yeah I love that kid

Then I was all like dang that’s Boy Meets World not Step By Step but if it was a 90s version of an H.G. Wells novel (certainly not above the musings of television writers) its possible that Ben Savage looks like
a young Patrick Duffy.

Am I getting off topic here? Possibly. I’m easily distracted by these sorts of things and its good to keep your “pop culture quotient” high, as “they” (whoever “they” is) say.

Any way this guy goes through a basic install that left me kind of confused as to the whole process. Some one more
experienced than I might understand this picture a little better. He starts to discuss setting up DNS records for off site servers?

Actually its pretty straight forward until this point, right here I start getting confused, before that its the typical screen shot
fodder that makes tech books seem overly elongated.

“7. On the Database Server Setup page, enter the name of the database server or instance of Microsoft SQL Server. For single machine express deployments, this is the same machine you’re currently installing to (WAPPortal, for example”

FML, when did we start having to have a SQL database to login to instances of servers or what ever the hell we are doing here
This doesnt seem like it should more complicated than Hyper-V from a logical standpoint now my world has been set a doom.
Shouldn’t we be able to build a machine, have a web portal or a desktop icon, have a user login to it then have the environment
displayed? Im assuming we could have an in house DHCP server and then connect to a cloud DC for authentication and application of
GP? Establish a connection via some sort of secure channel, im assuming there would have to be some sort of in house DNS solution for this.
Obviously this puts effort on maintenance to a much a smaller level which may or may not be a good thing. Any way, some thing seems
wrong or missing about this. I think the point made here is Azure is not for low level nerds, such as my self, to understand.

Ok so moving on past that heart-breakingly disappointing article we have to check TechNet and see if there is any thing better.
I realize this a completely new technology but its on the 70-410 and I would like to pass that test at some point. Any way here’s the
TechNet series of articles on the situation, links at the top take you through the series (you get the general idea)

Installing and configuring Azure

I like this series a lot but I think conceptually “contoso” is a little straining. They go into great detail about organizational structure in
test questions but there is no organizational information listed in this which makes it a little hard to “visualize” if you will. Also the disclaimer on that
page is a nice touch. There really isnt much else for me to possibly explain or muse upon here that isnt listed in that article series.
So until I learn some more, the pluralsite videos where slightly helpful from an introductory series stand point and paired with this
it makes a nice vague base platform to work from, im going to leave it at this point. We may revisit this in the future but as we venture
once more into the breach, dear friends, I fear it may be a while before you see another post from me. Hopefully Ill get some more books and continue to learn, Network + seems like
a really good idea as im not every strong in that section
and get yet another 70-410 book
(the lab manual situation seems like a waste of money in my case) if there is any degree of cooperation hopefully they will be obtainable. If not uha, I guess ill memorize the ones I have?
Until next time friends. Hopefully there will be a “next time” where I get to be a social person again. My life’s out of my hands though
and honestly wouldnt have it any other way. I realize im being vague but I have to move to a rural site without an internet connection
while on the brink of becoming an employed person in an urban area. Its rather exciting tail, I know, we cant all live the high life. Some
of us have to go to work every day 😉

As a side note tumblr is getting more accepting of the OL html situation. Its still hard to do lists within lists but it feels a little more reponsive to the code? Maybe im on html “tire kicker” at a used car lot too “would you look at that” haha

01-18-2016 0

Whats this Azure situation and where are we going with this?

Im not even really sure what Windows Azure is capable of or exactly where Microsoft is headed with this product.
It seems like it has the capability to completely remove the concept of the in house domain controller on physical
hardware at any location given that internet connectivity is fast enough. I suppose in house DHCP could always be a factor though.
Im sure that too, with time, will pass. So given that we arent exactly sure what this product is and we need at least a basic
understanding of it because there are a few questions on the test about this product perhaps we should start with the basics like
this wikipedia page. So if im understanding it right its an advanced
terminal server type of situation with the option to back up your in house servers. They seem to be pushing the idea of using
azure in dev environments for VMs however the price point seems a little lacking when considering that you could just use in house hosted
VMs. The only way that I can see this product not being somewhat less than cost effective in the current market would be as a backup
solution for complete in house severs. For example if you have an in house machine with an instance of sql or hyper V it would be amazing
to be completely revive the machine by connecting to your azure subscription from a rebuilt machine. I feel almost certain that MSFT
would have this solution available it just comes with the question of security (more trust than security) and price point. Ok so now given that
in the future we may navigate our servers in an fashion that was forecasted by Jurassic Park.

oh look there’s my PDC for my corp.corp.kandinsky.com domain that I use to replicate

or:

Oh look theres my machine that houses all my Hyper V instances.

I think this is very interesting but as far as actual implementation ive got a ways to go before I understand much of the current build
of this product. Well as far as the parts of that im concerned about learning such as the connection to the cloud and building/implementing
cloud VM solutions. I did start to watch a Pluralsite video series about this situation and found it to be somewhat less than helpful
as most of the technology displayed is way over my head involving really long powershell scripts. Perhaps youtube videos and technet articles
will get my connection chops up to speed. Ill dig around this week and see what I come with and perhaps post a part two of this situation.

Edit: Powershell is such an awesomely powerful and beautiful interface. It has the look and feel of playing a vintage guitar for all the right reasons unfortunatly im not overly skilled at this particular style at this time beyond just basic chords and I still struggle with landing a C shape

Edit: note to self, never directly link images from Google to a PhotoBucket, as it can be hazardous in the display/loading process

01-11-2016 0

Retake Failure

I took my test again after a month of studying, most on IPv4 configurations and subnetting. I suppose I could post some of the links
of sites that I used as study resources however they might not all be here as I had computer failure not long after taking the test.
I found a great video series on youtube that helped me to mostly memorize an IPv4 subnetting table and after watching it I felt like
I understood the basics. DHCP is real killer though. I had a really tuff and involved DHCP question that basically involved a screen with a
block of ip configurations and subnet blocks as sort of a multi question what goes where type of thing. I dont think I did too well on that
section. However I did do fairly well in a couple areas (scoring in the 90s)over all I failed. As you hopefully can see in the picture (also shown
some upcoming concerts im excited about haha)I got a 563 this time.

Ignore the pall Mall coupons, im really trying to quit. To be quite honest im not sure why im including it other than I need to straighten out those
tickets if im going to save them!

ok so here you can actually see what my score was. Without all the irrelevant information. Clearly IPv4 configuration and DHCP
is a struggle for me. Im going to continue to study but it might be good to seek a Network + certification so I have a little better
background in what im doing here (studying things that are way over my head at this point it time but giving it my best. I would have assumed
that I would have done better on the GP and AD sections. Not sure how those got so low but either way its some thing to study.

IPv4 links

clearly my studies didnt help all that much in terms of on paper test scores as I spent most of the month between exams studying this topic
alone but these resources are very helpful. Im not sure if any one is less excited about how much IPv6 we will see in the next version of server
than I am. I dont see IPv4 very clearly yet but as a guitar player I could understand that after you fully understood it you could begin
to see ip address ranges and almost the entire internet as a guitar fret board with intent behind the theory. That is very exciting to me.
However coming into it after not having learned to play an easy guitar fully and then being handed an 8 string is quite a scary proposition.

so here is the recommended video series, there’s lots of stuff out there about subnetting and most of it is helpful. However this is
guys is from Nashville and I lived there for a while so maybe im just partial. Also its honestly worth it to watch the whole thing and take notes the entire time and do
the exercises while pausing. It may not get you extra points on the 70-410 but at least you will have a better understanding of subnetting.

Ok, thats all for now. Theres also a few questions Ive seen centered around integrating Azure with an in house AD solution so up next
I suppose Ill muse on that for a while. Oh yeah and also attempt to figure out how and why the technology actually works.

And in case the youtube video doesnt frame in correctly here is the direct link:

Subnetting Demystified

01-08-2016 0