Lunch and Learns are kind of a tradition around here. A bunch of us get together, eat some good food, and learn something really cool! I had three people email me yesterday asking for another lunch and learn. I guess I have to stop being so lazy and start organizing.
I need two things from you guys. First, I need a rough count on physical attendees so that I can pick a large (or small) enough place. If you are in the South Georgia (US) area and would like to come, leave a comment. If you aren’t located in the area, don’t worry – you can still attend virtually!
Like last time, the topic is decided by popular vote. Do you have a topic that you would like to learn more about? Make a topic suggestion below. Next week, I will organize the topics into a poll for us to vote on. I will start by suggesting three topics:
- Using PowerShell with Active Directory
- Why aren’t you using SCCM
- Making Windows 8.1 Easy
I will have the date, time, and place next week. So who is ready for another lunch and learn?
I am in the Valdosta area and would love to attend if not too late. Anything SCCM/MDT related would be awesome. 2 people would be attending.
It is not too late at all. We are looking at the end of June/early July. I hope to have everything confirmed early next week. 2 people would be fine.
Great. Look forward to meeting everyone that attends. Be nice to attend an IT related get together that doesn’t require a drive to the ATL area.
SCCM, I haven’t had a chance to get started with it yet, hopefully I will not be too lost as I listen in. I am currently using Litetouch to deploy Windows 7 x64, and would like to see how to leverage SCCM to do so, as well as the other features of SCCM
Stephen
Hey Stephen – if you are using MDT, you probably don’t need to many of the OS deployment features in SCCM. I will try to touch on that though.
Definitely interested in the lunch and learn. SCCM looks like a great topic and am interested to see how it could be incorporated into our organization. Any type of efficiency, ease of use or automation would be ideal for our skeleton crew of IS team members.
Sounds great Debbie! Any pressing issues that you face?
Would love to listen in to what you have to say about Using PowerShell with Active Directory.
Looking forward to you attending virtually!
I will definitely be there. Either SCCM or Powershell with active directory would be fantastic to learn about!
Awesome! The drive should not be too bad for you. 🙂
I’m new here but have already learned lots from your site! Very exciting! We’re not using SCCM anymore due to the new licensing/pricing structure so that wouldn’t be something I would need but if that’s the chosen topic I’d listen in anyway.
A session on Powershell or Group Policy on automating some of my routine AD administrative maintenance or logging would be very helpful. Like maybe keeping AD clean, disabling user accounts or computer accounts that haven’t been accessed in a specific period of time, or adding new users automatically, Or maybe something on GP server logging security config changes or other system changes, or logging domain/forest user account logins, or computer account logins.
I’m just happy that I found you and am learning to Deploy Happiness myself. Thanks for all your hard work.
Marie
I’d be interested in attending virtually. SCCM sounds great. You should record and post it for posterity if possible, though!
We are going to try and record it. Video isn’t a strong talent of mine though.
Hi Joseph,
i would like to see some stuff about using Powershell in Active Directory. May it possible to start a time where people from Europe (in case of me Germany) could attend too?
Anything specific that you would like to see, Kevin? What is your time difference from me? I am in EST.
I am CEST. So i am 6 hours further. How about anything between 5 or 7 pm my time?
If the topic will be Powershell… Sth. I like to see would be creating a home share for a AD user account. Including creating the home folder with ntfs permissions.
We will try to do it at 11 or so my time – that would be 5 yours then.
That topic is also a good idea for a blog post! I will add it to my ever growing idea list.
Unless you’ve already done it and just need to write it up, Jeremy put together a powershell script that uses a scheduled export from our SIS to import users, assign them to groups, create home directories and set permissions. I’ll ask him to forward it to you.
Perhaps Jeremy would like to write up a short how-to guest post? 🙂
That script sounds really good – I am looking forward to seeing it!!
I’m working on deploying SCCM 2012r2 in our company, I’d love to comment and offer input from a beginner \ small enterprise perspective.
SCCM is looking like an early favorite. The best advice that I can give is to tackle it in small chunks. Set up software deployment or updates or remote control or inventory or security features or power options or ….
Just don’t try to do it all at once!
I think you can count on 3 of us coming. I’ve been playing with a eval of SCCM and I don’t think the licensing specialists at Microsoft know what is required to run it. You seem to get a different answer everywhere you look.
Awesome Alan!!
I understand your pain Ricardo! 🙂
The licensing is a bit tough to tackle because it is so different for each sector (education, government, private, etc). I could certainly cover the benefits, what it can/can’t do, roughly how to use it, how it compares to other technologies, etc.
I would love to teach a full day course just on SCCM but many places around here haven’t looked into using it yet.
Hi Joseph,
I can attend virtually; Georgia is too far away from British Columbia and my private jet is in for repairs 😀
I like the topic of “Why aren’t you using SCCM”; I would like to know everything that’s needed to use it from the perspective of licensing, Windows OS versions and the trade off between what it will cost and time savings for the IT admin.
We are a small organization and IT spending is not that loved around here.
Thanks,
I just happened upon your blog a few weeks ago and I immediately scoured every post. South Georgia is a little far away from Memphis, but I’d love to hear some info on SCCM. I’m new to my company and I inherited a SCCM installation that isn’t being used to its full potential. I’ll see if I can attend virtually!
That is great Steve! Hopefully, you can attend virtually!