What is HAL or hardware abstraction layer l

* HAL hardware abstraction layer is used by the operating system to interact with the hardware.

* It is simply a dll call HAL.dll.

* What does HAL.dll does is that it provides the necessary drivers for your operating system to interact with hardware.

* The problem with a HAl.dll is that when you restore your operating system you need to use identical hardware for successful restore this was huge drawback with HAL.dll

* In new your operating system such as Windows 10 this dependency on HAL.dll is removed.

* Now when you restore your operating system the BIOS will detect the existing hardware or the new hardware on which the operating system is being restored.

* To configure this dynamic HAL you need to use a tool call BCDedit.

Bcdedit /set {current} detecthal yes

How to stop SCCM from installing Files on System or C drive

* SCCM by default install site server role component on first available NTFS drive.

* In order to avoid the files being installed, we need to create a magic file on the drive so that SCCM understand and ignore me.

*The Magical file name is "no_sms_on_drive.sms"

* You need to create this empty file and place on the drive which you want SCCM to ignore.

Is Hadoop a Database ?

Hadoop is not a database: Hadoop is an distributed file system and not a database. It simply uses the filesystem provided by Linux to store data

What is Just Enough Administration or JEA in Windows 2016

What is Just Enough Administration or JEA in Windows 2016

• JEA is new kind of Administration Model in Windows 2016.
• Its Role Based administration Model where you can fine tune custom Admin Settings.
• To understand more look at the below video

Video:

Step by Step Procedure to Restore SCOM 2012 R2 Databases after crash or Disaster:

Step by Step Procedure to Restore SCOM 2012 R2 Databases after crash or Disaster:

Many times for various reason we have to restore the SCOM databases.Follow the below procedure

• Start SQL Server Management Studio.
• In the Connect to Server dialog box, select the appropriate values in the Server type drop-down combo box, in the Server name box, and in the Authentication box.
• Click Connect.
• In Object Explorer, expand Databases, and then select the OperationsManager, OperationsManagerAC, or OperationsManagerDW database.
• Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Restore.
• Click Database to open the Restore Database dialog box.
• On the General page, the name of the restoring database appears in the To database list.
• In the To a point in time text box, either retain the default (the most recent possible) or select a specific date and time by clicking the browse button, which opens the Point in Time Restore dialog box.
• To specify the source and location of the backup sets to restore, click the From Device option.
• Click Browse to open the Specify Backup dialog box.
• In the Backup media list box, select one of the listed device types. To select one or more devices for the Backup location list box, click Add.
• In the Select the backup sets to restore grid, select the backups to restore. This grid displays the backups available for the specified location.
• In the Restore options panel, select the Overwrite the existing database option.
• In the Restore the database files as options panel, verify the original database file name and path are correct.
• For the Recovery state options, specify the state option Leave the databases ready to use by rolling back the uncommitted transactions. 
• Additional transaction logs cannot be restored.
• Click OK to restore the database.
• Make sure whenever you restore always restore OperationsManager, and OperationsManagerDW database. Orelse youw ill face 31552 issue.

How to Install Zabbix on Red Hat Linux or Cent OS Step by Step

How to Install Zabbix on Red Hat Linux or Cent OS

Zabbix is the fastest growing monitoring tool today in market. Lot oc companies want to cut down the cost on monitoring and move to Opensource and Zabbix has emerged as the prefered choice.

Step 1: Installing repository configuration package

• Install the repository configuration package. This package contains yum configuration files.

Command:

# rpm -ivh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/2.4/rhel/6/x86_64/zabbix-release-2.4-1.el6.noarch.rpm



Step 2: Installing Zabbix packages

Install Zabbix packages. This example  install Zabbix server and web frontend with mysql database on same server

Command:

# yum install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-web-mysql zabbix-agent

If you want to install agent only for monitoring follow the below steps

# yum install zabbix-agent



Step 3:Creating initial database

Create zabbix database and user on MySQL. Import initial schema and data.

Command:

# cd /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-2.4.0/create
# mysql -uroot zabbix < schema.sql
# mysql -uroot zabbix < images.sql
# mysql -uroot zabbix < data.sql

Edit database configuration in zabbix_server.conf

# vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
DBHost=localhost
DBName=zabbix
DBUser=zabbix
DBPassword=zabbix

You can give any complex password you want.

Step 4:Start Zabbix server process:

# service zabbix-server start

Step 5:Editing PHP configuration for Zabbix frontend

Apache configuration file for Zabbix frontend is located in /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf. Some PHP settings are already configured.

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf

php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value memory_limit 128M
php_value post_max_size 16M
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value max_input_time 300
# php_value date.timezone Europe/Riga
It's necessary to uncomment the “date.timezone” setting and set the right timezone for your location.

After changing the configuration file restart the apache web server.

# service httpd restart

Step 6: Done Your server is ready

• Zabbix frontend is available at http://ipddress/zabbix in the browser. 

Default username/password is Admin/zabbix.


Enjoy!

SCOM 2012 R2 Powershell Command to check if Server is Physical or Virtual

SCOM Powershell Command to check if Server is Physical or Virtual

• Get-SCOMaccesLicense where DEVICE_ID "Computername"
• This will give you information whether the server is Virtual or Physical.Its agent managed or Agentless Managed.

Take Screenshot or Screen Captures in Windows 10 Made easy

Take Screenshot or Screen Captures in Windows 10

• Earlier we have to use the PrintScreen button to take screenshots.
• This has been understood by microsoft that its a teadious task.
• So they have included a new tool called "Snipping Tool"

• Select the sniping tool by clicking on start and search for "Snipping tool" and click on it
• This will open the snipping tool. Now click on new and select the area you want to take screenshot and save it. So easy.

SCOM 2012 maintenacemode from Powershell or Command Shell

SCOM 2012 maintenacemode from Powershell or Command Shell

• Now you can set the maintenace mode in SCOM using command shell or powershell
• You the following command Start-SCOMMaintenanceMode