Recent Posts

1
Comments

SQL 2005 Security - Revoke EXECUTE rights for PUBLIC on (potentially) unsafe extended stored procedures by jnelson

Where I work, we have an amazing crew of security architects and analysts who have decades of experience in all things security. Sure, at times they may seem paranoid, but that's just because they've...
1
Comments

SMS/SCCM & Batch Files - Important notes on running .BAT files from UNC in SMS/SCCM by jnelson

THE PROBLEM When you run a .BAT file from a UNC path, the first thing you might notice is the warning about "UNC paths are not supported. Defaulting to the Windows Directory" All this really...
0
Comments

Troubleshooting 301 - Finding a needle (bad program) in a haystack (list of 150 programs) in 7 tries. by jnelson

THE PROBLEM Stay with me on this one, I think it's a concept that every techie should understand and use at some point in their careers. The problem goes like this: There's one program somewhere...
1
Comments

SMS Web Report (SQL 2005+) - Show SMS program execution chaining hierarchy visually using CTE (Common Table Expressions) in SQL 2005+ by jnelson

In response to a request on the forums, here's a SQL query that uses common table expressions (CTE) to visually return the program execution chain hierarchy. (something like this) 00000000 - ProgramA...
1
Comments

SMS 2003 - Verify WMI Stability Backport on Windows XP/Server 2003 with this report SQL (deploy to them with this collection query WQL) by jnelson

BACKGROUND (click HERE to skip to the summary) I've been looking into our client health a lot deeper recently and something that I keep coming back to is how fragile WMI seems. After some great conversations...
Filed under: , , ,
1
Comments

SCCM 2007 - SCCM Permissions Matrix by jnelson

This SQL query pulls all SCCM permissions for each user and displays them in a matrix. Put this into an SCCM Web report. This should work for SQL 2000, SQL 2005 and higher. SELECT UCP.UserName, SO.ObjectName...
1
Comments

SMS 2003 - SMS Permissions Matrix by jnelson

This SQL query pulls all SMS permissions for each user and displays them in a matrix. Put this into an SMS Web report. This should work for SQL 2000, SQL 2005 and higher. SELECT UCP.UserName, SO.ObjectName...
2
Comments

M@d Skillz - SMS Status Messages - ASP to show all MessageIDs and their meanings by jnelson

THE PROBLEM So I'm digging through the SMS status message views (v_StatusMessage, v_StatMsgAttributes, v_StatMsgInsStrings, v_StatMsgModuleNames) to find some pretty specific data to do my job, but...
0
Comments

M@d Skillz - Use data outside the SMS DB in your SMS Web Reports by jnelson

OVERVIEW (note: this is written with SMS 2003 & SQL 2005 in mind because that's the environment I'm in right now, but I believe if the equivalent work was done in SCCM or in SQL 2000, the outcome...
0
Comments

VBScript - (UPDATED) Script to export SMS Web report results to an Excel spreadsheet by jnelson

BACKGROUND In a previous post I created a VBScript in response to a discussion in the forums where somebody wanted to automatically run a report once per month and was looking for ideas. I wrote a first...
0
Comments

SMS 2003 Performance - The performance benefits of an x64 DP in a busy SMS 2003 hierarchy by jnelson

QUICK BACKGROUND Although x64 is officially unsupported in SMS 2003 for any site components, the reality is that you CAN put the Distribution Point role on an x64 server in SMS 2003. Now, I'm sure...
1
Comments

Perfmon - Common counters to find bottlenecks on a server with SQL (SMS/SCCM/SCOM) by jnelson

I'm seriously busy right now at my day job so I don't have time to get cr@zy with the det@ilz, but I would like to quickly post the Perfmon counters I use if I want to determine if a server has...
0
Comments

WinBatch - Script to add boundaries to SMS by jnelson

This is a VERY old script I wrote in 2000 for SMS 2.0, that I've used for SMS 2003 too. I have no idea how well it works anymore, but I know it worked for SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 RTM. The purpose of it...
5
Comments

VBScript - Script to export SMS Web report results to a CSV file by jnelson

THE PROBLEM You want to automatically run a set of SMS Web reports, but you don't have something like SQL Server Reporting Services installed (which would give you the ability to have people subscribe...
0
Comments

Windows Shell Script - Better way to run CMD as System by jnelson

Most people are familiar with using AT to open a command prompt as SYSTEM (LOCAL SYSTEM) at 11:05 /interactive cmd.exe This will open a command prompt as system (or actually, as whatever account the task...
0
Comments

SMS 2003 Database - Where can I find things? by jnelson

Here is a list of common items that people want to query for and some locations they're found in the SMS database I'm basing this on SMS 2003, we have SP3+ Depending on your setup, you may not...
1
Comments

M@d Skillz - SMS Web Reports - Passing a delimited list to SMS Web Reports like a table - (also convert list to rows in SQL) by jnelson

BACKGROUND Pass multiple items into a single parameter? With SMS Web reports, there's a lot of power in being able to pass parameters to your report query and have it substitute those values into the...
0
Comments

SQL Function - Convert Bytes to KB, MB, GB, TB, PB or EB and format the output to human readable format by jnelson

When you query a bunch of SMS/SCCM data that has it's output in bytes or KB or MB, often times you want that expressed in a more human readable format. This function takes 2 parameters: a number, and...
0
Comments

UPDATE - SMS 2003 - Selecting from v_Add_Remove_Programs still slow, even after applying 939872 by jnelson

I previously wrote an article talking about the slowness we were having even after applying 939872 --> HERE There are some additional things I'd like to mention: We have reorganized the data in...
2
Comments

SMS 2003 - Selecting from v_Add_Remove_Programs still slow, even after applying 939872 by jnelson

!!!! UPDATE !!!! WHEN YOU'RE DONE, THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED --> HERE PROBLEM I don't know if this is a function of the massive size of our SMS environment (100-200K clients) or if others...
1
Comments

SMS - #2's #1 suggestion - Learn to read/write WQL/SQL by hand by jnelson

My #1 suggestion after years of working with SMS/SQL/WQL and then coaching/mentoring/training people is that it REEEALLLY pays to know how to read/write SQL/WQL by hand. I know, there are those people...
0
Comments

SMS 2003 - ITMU Patch Data - Service Packs and other low severity patches show up multiple times by jnelson

SYMPTOMS You're trying to determine your patch compliance for the latest round of Microsoft patches, but you notice that if you include low severity patches or service packs in the report, the numbers...
0
Comments

Update - Rewritten for SQL 2000 - SMS 2003 - Getting information about advertisements when package or ad has been deleted by jnelson

Apparently there are enough people that still have SQL 2000 that I get hounded with questions whenever I post something that only works on SQL 2005, which in my case has really only been PIVOT related...
0
Comments

SQL 101 - What's the difference between tables and views? (or views and tables) by jnelson

A common theme I seem to be getting from people in the SMS/SCCM forums is possibly a misunderstanding of the difference between tables and views. I don't wish to project in any way like I'm talking...
Filed under: , , ,
1
Comments

SMS 2003 - Getting information about advertisements when package or ad has been deleted by jnelson

THE PROBLEM There are canned reports that come with SMS that let you see advertisements and the machines that were targeted and the package that was sent, but they don't work so well when someone has...
0
Comments

SMS 2003 - SQL Error: (SMS Message ID 620, SQL Message 2801) The definition of object 'sp_GetPublicKeySMSUID' has changed since it was compiled... by jnelson

PROBLEM Recently, we started seeing a TON of errors in SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER, SMS_INVENTORY_DATA_LOADER and SMS_SOFTWARE_INVENTORY_PROCESSOR (click on graphic to see better if it's too small)...
9
Comments

POLL - SQL for SMS/SCCM - Please Respond by jnelson

Over 1000 people visited this post, but nobody responded the first time. I'm assuming that's because it's not anonymous posting??? Anyway, I've set up an email box so you can respond in...
0
Comments

Number2 Links - Links/Aliases to everything Number2 by jnelson

FYI, I've set up some aliases/shortcuts to all my Number2 stuff so I can get to it quickly from anywhere on the web. In case anyone else wants this info too, here it is: NUMBER2's MAIN BLOG - ...
0
Comments

SQL for SMS - Concatenate MAC addresses and IP Addresses into their own columns by jnelson

If you've ever written a report that also selects IP addresses or MAC addresses, you've noticed that there can be multiple addresses per machine and it will throw off your counts. So I've whipped...
1
Comments

M@d Skillz Update - Revised for SQL 2000 - Manual PIVOT by jnelson

You know, I got to thinking about yesterday's first-ever M@d Skillz article after Tom Watson lamented the fact that he's got SQL 2000 and it could be a while before they get SQL 2005. I've...
More Posts Next page »
Copyright - www.myITforum.com, Inc. - 2007 All Rights reserved.
Powered by Community Server (Commercial Edition), by Telligent Systems