Migrating DHCP from Windows 2003 to Windows 2012 and setting up failover: Part 1

Posted by on 17 May, 2013 No comments

DHCPThe principles of DHCP are simple and Microsoft has not changed its core since before Windows NT days, however its not something you shouldn’t undertake lightly or ill-prepared. Most of your client devices will rely on DHCP to function and failing to migrate seamlessly will only cause disruptions to your business.

This article is to help document how to migrate multiple active DHCP servers to a new DHCP server running on Windows Server 2012. We will finalise the configuration by creating a failover for all scopes to a secondary server. I am writing the to include all the necessary information that I think is required to complete this successfully. Read more »

Common WMI queries I have found useful

Posted by on 30 October, 2012 4 comments

Below are some common WMI Queries that I have used, both during OSD (Operating System Deployment), startup/logon scripts or similar situations. I have broken them down to their most common form, and will show you how you can leverage this in a VB script at the end.

I will continue to update this post with new useful queries that I come across.

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Computer name conventions

Posted by on 26 October, 2012 5 comments

Computer naming conventions are like creating an Active Directory hierarchy – there is no wrong or right. Its more about what best suits your current and future needs. Over the years my naming conventions have evolved and below I will document my currently preferred method. First we will look at the technical constraints when naming them, and what characters I recommend using.

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Automatically generate description field for computers in Active Directory

Posted by on 9 October, 2012 4 comments

Having worked in help-desk roles in the past I know the importance of knowing which user has logged onto which computer. Its simple stuff really, but unless you have 3rd party systems like System Center 2012 (SC12) or client agents, its either hard or time consuming to find out the relation between users and computers. What we needed was an easy way to find out what the last logged on user was for every machine. Read more »

How to decomission Blackberry Enterprise Server Express 5.0 from our Exchange 2010 environment

Posted by on 27 September, 2012 7 comments

It is inevitable that more and more organisations will be moving away from Blackberry more and more as the domination of iOS, Android and Windows Mobile continue to dominate the handset market. Well we have come to that point in now, where we have had a BES server running for over a year without a single user connecting to it, and now it is time to remove the server the right way.

After trawling through the labyrinth we call the internet it surprised me that finding all the information simply was not in the one place. Admittedly the uninstallation of BES is quite an easy task there are a number of tasks to do before and after… and ill show you what they are. Read more »

How to uninstall application (Silverlight in this instance) using a command prompt

Posted by on 26 September, 2012 1 comment

Normally when I want to uninstall an application I will work through the below steps to get a simple clean uninstall script that is recommended. Unfortunately sometimes vendors dont provide this and you need to get creative in how you uninstall certain applications. Read more »

How to enforce Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox policies on mobile devices

Posted by on 22 May, 2012 No comments

Has your CTO/CFO/CEO/ITM (whatever acronym they decide to give themselves) asked you to lock down or secure mobile devices? Well if they haven’t then they sure as hell should! The security risks, in particular loss of confidential information from mobile devices is extremely high with more and more devices storing more data.

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My URL is changing (ever-so slightly)

Posted by on 16 May, 2012 No comments

Hi All,

Just a heads up to any returning readers out there. I have decided to change my URL. (its a small change). Here are the new details:
New URL:
http://ivan.dretvic.com

Old URL:
http://ivan.dretvich.com – the trailing ‘h’ has been dropped.

They will both work but hyperlinks will now default to the new one.
RSS should still work as well.

If anyone has any problems with this change please let me know so I can rectify it.

Regards,
Ivan

Deploying Adobe Flash Player 11.2 with auto-updating in an enterprise

Posted by on 9 May, 2012 17 comments


Adobe have come to the mercy of IT administrators by introducing an auto updating feature for Flash Player. This is excellent news but now we need to get it to work in the real world

With the below configuration the end device should be able to automatically update without granting users extra permissions. The service can automatically update the files without user intervention and even if a browser window is open, it will update as soon as the browser is closed. Read more »

How to deploy mms.cfg config file to your Adobe Flash Player clients?

Posted by on 9 May, 2012 12 comments

You have just downloaded the Adobe Flash Player distributable, created an mms.cfg configure file and you want to push it out to your network. You might be scratching your head on how to do this if you don’t have an enterprise software deployment solution?

Don’t worry – there is no need for that – all you need is Group Policy Preferences to push out your mms.cfg config file to your clients! Read more »

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