Upgrade Network Performance Monitor 10.2 to 10.5

Task: Boss need me to upgrade Network Performance Monitor 10.2 to 10.5


Solution:
1) Login http://www.solarwinds.com/ => Customer Portal=> Login with your CustomerID & PW => Look for download and download NPM 10.4.0 to do upgrade 1st then NPM 10.5 (So DL 2 version NPM 10.4 & NPM 10.5 if you're upgrading from 10.2)

2) Extract the NPM 10.4 Zip file to a folder in your C:\.... => Right click Run As Administrator SolarWinds-Orion-NPM-v10.4-Full.exe  => Make sure to use the existing settings & just Next everything & Finish.

3) Extract the SolarWinds-NPM-v10.5.0.zip file to a folder in your C:\.... => Right click Run As Administrator SolarWinds-NPM-v10.5-Full.exe => Next

4) Type "YES" then Next

 

5) Tick "Accept the terms" then Next

 

6) Next and wait for the installation process.

7) Finish

 8)  Next on Welcome to SolarWinds Configuration

9) Keep Next-ing until the updating take place and wait for it to finish. (this will keep the existing settings)

10)  Click Finish

 



 

 

SCCM 2012 Failed to install distribution point

Error: Distribution Manager failed to install distribution point ["Display=\\server.domain.com\"]

            Possible cause: Distribution Manager does not have sufficient rights to the computer.

           Solution: Verify that the site server computer account is administrator of the computer


Solution:
1. Open "distmgr.log" in \Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Logs

2. Search for """"CWmiDpRegistry::WmiOpenEx: Failed to connect to WMI namespace root\SCCMDP on machine""" and if you see that within the log then most likely this is the solution for you.

3. Please copy smsdpprov.mof file  from \Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\bin\X64  to remote DP server c:\ and in CMD run ‘mofcomp.exe c:\smsdpprov.mof’ .This will create the WMI name space and the DP role installation will continue without errors.
please wait for few minutes and refresh distribution status under monitoring ..you will see a green tick mark.....

Activate Windows 7 Pro with MAK Key via SCCM 2012 task sequence

Objective: Whenever a Windows 7 Pro computer is deployed via SCCM 2012 task sequence, I would want Windows to be auto activated.

Solution: 1. In SCCM 2012 console => Task Sequences=> edit task sequence => apply windows settings => product key: type in Windows 7 Pro MAK key here  (if you don't have MAK key get one),

2. add run command line => command line: cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

3. start in:  c:\windows\system32

Note: Make sure when you add the Run Command Line, place it at the bottom of the list or at least right after "Setup Windows and Configuration"  .....This solution worked for me and I hope it will for you too!



then windows is auto activated once deployed.

Can I delete files in the %windir%\Installer directory?

Along the same lines as removing items from the Windows component store to save space, I have recently seen a couple of questions come in about the Windows\Installer directory. This is a hidden system directory; it is used by the Windows Installer service to cache installer data files for various applications. Over time, this directory will grow and can eventually take up an amount of space that might cause pressure on thinly provisioned storage.

So, the question usually asked is: Can I safely remove the files in this directory? The answer is flatly: No. So let's talk about why this is a bad idea.

First, it is not supported. If you remove files from this directory and have issues, you may need to reinstall the application to get back to a good state. Therefore, that would suck for both you and the engineer that needs to deliver that message.

Second is the overall idea that you really should not remove items in the Windows directory. We build and test our software based on the existence of specific files and directories. When those files and directories don't exist, bad things can and will happen. However, that is a generalization that usually upsets many people so let's be more specific. This particular directories job is to act as a cache location for Windows installer based applications. It holds stripped down versions of the Windows installer data files. During application install, update of the application or application removal, this directory is used by the application to confirm the existence of previously installed items to determine the next steps the installer needs to take. The files are different from machine to machine, so if you expect to delete the files in the directory and then copy them over from another machine, that would be incorrect. Removing items from here could cause you to have application crashes, or worse, require the reinstallation and patching of the application.

The proper way to alleviate space pressure in this directory is to uninstall any unneeded applications.
I hope that this makes sense and you can see why removing files from this directory can cause you unneeded pain. Overall, this is similar to the advice I have given in the past when it comes to removing items from the component store...just don't do it. Plan your future space requirements based on your operating system and application needs and you can alleviate many of these types of issues before they occur.

Last time a computer authenticated to domain

Objective: Needed to know when a computer has last logged on to the domain? I basically want to clean up a load of old computer accounts in AD.

Solution: "dsquery computer -inactive 24 -limit 0 >>C:\Lastlogon.txt"

Note: 24 being the number of weeks not logged into, and pipe the result to the C drive location.

Cisco Switch 3750 POe went bad, not giving power to the VOiP Phones.

Here was what I did in summary to fix the issue.

 

1.       Pinged Site BB from Site PK was successful.

2.       Went to Site BB to look at the switch, a lot of ports has no light to them.

3.       In cisco switch, within the bad interface did a “Shut” command(gave me a power failure error, I forgot what it said exactly) then a “no shut”  (nothing happened and was at Administrative Down”

4.       Restarted the cisco switch “connected via USB Console”

    
      5. Ran into a looping error messages that I couldn’t get out of (The only happens when VoIP Phones are plugged into the Cisco 3750 POe switch)

6.       Called Cisco to get a replacement switch (arrived at 4 hours later)

7.       In the old switch I was able to Telnet in so I ran the “Show power inline” command it tells you which ports are bad, apparently all ports got bad for some reason after switch rebooted & having the VoIP phone plugged into the switch port (only 6 cisco phones were plugged).

 

8.      

8.       Switch arrived then  loaded the configuration from the old switch (used TFTP to saved the backup of old switch config), now it’s  working.