Check time on remote machine to which you can't RDP

There are a lot of things in networking that depend on times being syncronized between computers and servers.  Sometimes you just cannot RDP to that remote machine, like a workstation OS where there is a user already logged on.  You still need to check its clock.  To check the time on a remote computer (server or workstation) you can open a command prompt as an administrator of the computer to be checked and use the command

net time \\<computername>

Quick way to check that time against the domain controller is to use the command

net time %logonserver%

Silverlight Applications (SCCM Application Catalog) Stop Working If Silverlight Not Up To Date

Yeah... so... had a weird thing happen with our App Catalog.  It just up and stopped working.  It was working Friday, not working today.

Of course the Internet was full of useful information on the App Catalog such as how to install it, how to troubleshoot it, what this or that error in the logs means, etc, etc, etc.  What it wasn't full of was anything that was relevant to my symptoms.

My symptoms were:

• Site Status shows both Application Catalog web service point and Application Catalog website point as Critical.
• Component Status shows both components running and green.
• Logs have no errors for either component.

Yeah... not much to go on with those symptoms.

I was reading over Microsoft's Technet article on how the App Catalog works and it said that it will install Silverlight 5 when it installs.  Simply out of curiosity I wondered what the latest version of Silverlight was so I went over to the Silverlight site to find out.

Low and behold a message at the bottom of my web browser... "Silverlight has been blocked because it is not up to date" (or something very similar) and an "update" button.  At this point, knowing that Silverlight is required for the App Catalog, and now knowing that Silverlight is being blocked by... Silverlight? Browser?... whatever, something Microsofty... I clicked "Update".

Sure enough, about 15 seconds later my App Catalog is back online.  So, there you go... I'm guessing this will apply to any Silverlight application but it definitely applies to SCCM Application Catalog.

How to Sysprep More Than Three Times

Like most of what I plan to put in here, this is something that I'd forgotten about until a co-worker ran into the problem.  Of course I've run into this before so I got out onto the interwebs and found the answer again.  Here you go.

The easy way to get around the three time limit of sysprepping is to either a) use a virtual machine and save a snapshot before the first time you sysprep, or b) capture an image through the console of the state before sysprepping, and then deploy it when it to the same class machine when it needs updated.  If you accidentally reached the three rearm limit without having to start over from scratch, here is a step by step how to get around it.

1. Open up Registry Editor. (Start > Run > regedit)
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup\Status\Sysprep Status.
3. Change the value of CleanupState to 2. (0x00000002)
4. Change the value of GeneralizationState to 7. (0x00000007)
5. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform.
6. Change the value of SkipRearm to 1. (0x00000001)
7. Open an administrative command prompt. (Start > Run > cmd... right click on the cmd icon and go to Run as Administrator)
8. Type msdtc -uninstall and push enter.  Wait a minute and reboot.
9. Type msdtc -install and push enter.  Wait a minute and reboot.
10. Browse to c:\windows\system32\sysprep.  Delete the panther folder.
11. Run sysprep.  It should now complete, and you can capture the image.

This will have to be done every time you capture the image, but it still is less time consuming than starting over from scratch.

First!

Whoot! I'm the first one to post on this blog!!!

Heh, ok, seriously I just thought that I should at least write a post as to why I decided to start a blog. I often find myself having technical solutions that it seems like nobody else has. I don't necessarily claim original thought credit for these solutions, but usually when I go to try to locate them on the Internet again I have a difficult time finding them.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I have a pretty broad knowledge of just about any Microsoft product that runs on a Microsoft server. They will also tell you that I'm a fount of esoteric knowledge on these products. Little tips and tricks that I've picked up in my over 20 years dealing with Windows servers. Well, in that 20 years a lot of the original documents that I referenced to learn what I know have been deleted or lost in the depths of the Internet. My blog will also, most likely, be lost in the great garbage gyre of the Internet and be of no use to anyone save those who know me personally, but at least I can retain some of these computer ninja tricks for them at least. And... the biggest reason... to preserve them for myself so that I can find these things again when I need them.

So, mostly for myself and somewhat for my personal friends and acquaintences, I will begin to record various items that have become near impossible to find anymore. The Internet has become less a place to find answers and more a place to find a whole lot of people asking the same question that you are. Hopefully, here on my blog, some answers can be found once in a while and I can at least leave that itty-bitty positive mark on the Internet.