Microsoft to World: All your BITS are belong to us!

If WindowsCentral is to be believed, as of 7/31/2015, over 67 MILLION PC devices have already been updated to Windows 10. Microsoft has already set sustained bandwidth records surpassing Apple with this latest launch. And the pace of bandwidth utilization will continue to grow, especially considering the massive amount of "Internet of Things" meta data this latest OS will be sending back to the Mothership.

At least, unless you are Opting Out of a LOT of stuff. 

My earlier post on WUDO and its background enabling of peer-to-peer sharing of updates (unwittingly turning us all into miniature Microsoft Windows Update Servers) is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the amount of data LEAVING these newly updated PCs. 

Not in a Tin Foil Hat kind of way, but in the way that your Android and Apple devices have been doing for years. 

Robert Heinlein used the expression TANSTAAFL in a lot of his books: "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". And to be honest, this is why this latest release is "free". The informed consumer will already be aware of this passive heuristic data that is being collected, but others are not as informed and may not be aware of the cusp that we are sitting on between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 - that this heuristic data, when applied correctly, enables a passive and frictionless consumption of ALL DAT DATA. 

Microsoft has essentially, with this release, made their cost of customer (meta) data acquisition $0. This can, in turn, be leveraged for things like:

Agile Development focus - what are customers actually USING? Let's invest in THOSE areas and not waste time on fictitious requirements that someone thinks may be needed. 

Improving how we navigate our work day - by looking at things like calendaring and traffic, passively alert us about things like "Hey, your meeting across town is at 1:00PM, and for the last 2 weeks construction has slowed it to the point where you may want to get going a little earlier. Actually, here's a way different from your USUAL route that gets you there quicker."

Enter Cortana, the end user face of all that data chomping. 

The fact is that, nowadays correlating the massive data sets for the insights above is possible. And this new OS is a bold and ambitious grab for this new age of Heuristic Web. But it's only cool if you WANT to PARTICIPATE. 

So here are some links to opt out of stuff, in the event that your latest Tin Foil Hat has been sparking with weird vibes from Windows 10. 

Boy Genius already has some of it posted so rather than copypasta or recreate, here is a link with some suggestions:

http://bgr.com/2015/07/31/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/

Also check out my WUDO post if you want to get out of the WUS bidness. A quick FAQ for those settings can be accessed from Microsoft itself:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/windows-update-delivery-optimization-faq

Windows 10 Review - Day 4 and WUDO

While it hasn't been perfect, my Windows 10 experience has been pretty damn impressive. Considering I am one of tens of millions of users that upgraded, I have to admit any gripes I have are insignificant considering the daunting scale of this bit-torrent inspired, massive scale canary deployment of the latest OS.

Bit torrent? What? Yeah - in the event you didn't know there is new peer-to-peer bit sharing going on in the background. Called Windows Update Delivery Optimization (WUDO), it might be a bit of a bandwidth nibbler for those of us under a bad cable providers metered data caps.

What's that, you say? Shot - I didn't know that! Yeah - expect the privacy and disclosure bombs to drop in steadily for a bit. When you think about it, it makes too much sense not to do. A distributed torrent model makes highest and best use of largely otherwise vestigial resources. But its the kind of thing privacy advocates want out there in your face, ya know?

Good news is that if, like me you will get a bandwidth nastygram from your provider, you can disable in the Advanced options of "Let me choose how updates are delivered", as pictured below:

With the "bad" out of the way, here's something cool I found: visualization of my app reliability. Nestled in settings:

With every turn I keep learning more and more about this neat new OS. I will continue to share in the hops it helps whoever needs the info.

Windows 10 on the Dell Venue 8 Pro

Based on the success of my Surface Pro 3 upgrade to Windows 10 (via the Media Creation tool), I am proceeding to standardize the device fleet.

The next toy to get the upgrade is my Dell Venue 8 Pro, my handy 8" tablet that, initially at least, frustrated the hell out of me due to early driver issues. While the upgrade this time was similarly  smooth, there were serious input lag delays and slow performance on the older firmware (A5) and the older chipset drivers. I was initially unable to do things like adjust battery settings, screen dimming settings, etc.

In order to get back to the great battery life and performance on my 8.1 stack, I had to grab the new files from the web.

So here is the recipe for happiness on the Venue Pro 8:

5830_Chipset_Driver_67YC3_WN32_603.9600.2067.27988_A00.EXE
5830A11.EXE

These are the chipset drivers for the Intel Atom Z3700 and the BIOS firmware to get to the Dell preferred A11 version for Windows 10.

Installation of the Chipset drivers required Run As Administrator to operate correctly, but once applied a simple reboot and performance was impressively improved. Battery life instantly was back to the 8 to 10 hours that I enjoyed with minimal tweaking on Windows 8.1. I will post an update of power utilization after a few test runs.

There is a new battery report utility on system settings, similar to the ones seen on phones, that report a breakdown of what applications and devices consumed the battery. Its a nice touch. I keep finding nuggets like this in 10 that I am really appreciating. So far, my experience has been outstanding (aside from the Edge browser - probably my next write up).

Thanks for reading! Onwards and upwards!

Cisco Anyconnect Support for Windows 10

Well, its that time again. A new Microsoft operating system was released today - one that is HIGHLY anticipated and promises to address many of the frustrations experienced by some users of Windows 8 or 8.1. Personally, I have enjoyed 8, and appreciated the slight modifications delivered in 8.1, but I have only used them on touch enabled devices (my Surface Pro, Pro 3, and Dell Venue).  I think that was a large factor in my happiness.

My most popular blog posts (still generating hits) were the ones that assisted the Corporate users of Surface Pro hardware with getting Cisco AnyConnect working. I will try to assist those people again, by jumping on the grenade early and documenting in an available location again. So without further ado, here is Cisco's official support statement regarding Windows 10 support:


AnyConnect Compatibility with Microsoft Windows 10.X
AnyConnect 3.1MR10 (3.1.10010) and later are compatible with Windows 10 official release.

Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support will be available beginning on 7/29/2015. For best results, we recommend a clean install of AnyConnect on Windows 10 system and not an upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1. If you are planning to perform an upgrade from Windows 7/8/8/1 with AnyConnect pre-installed, make sure that you first upgrade AnyConnect prior to upgrading the Operating System. The Network Access Manager module must be uninstalled prior to upgrading to Windows 10. After the first upgrade is complete, it can be re-installed on the system. You may also choose to fully uninstall AnyConnect and re-install one of the supported versions after upgrading to Windows 10.

For my own personal journey, I will be backing up my configuration files FIRST. These are located in the following directory:

C:\ProgramData\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\Network Access Manager\system

I have a zipped archive of the configuration.xml file, and will be copying back into that directory once I have:

• Uninstalled my Anyconnect client
• Upgraded successfully to Windows 10
• Performed a "clean" installation of Anyconnect using anyconnect-win-3.1.10010-pre-deploy-k9.iso

Any issues encountered I will address and document with due diligence, in the hopes that it will make peoples lives easier. If you have any tips or feedback, please feel free to share it!

Please do not request copies of the ISO - this is licensed Cisco software and as such is subject to a valid licensing agreement being in place for entitlement. I was able to quickly download the ISO by logging into Cisco TAC, and navigating to:

Downloads > Home Products > Security > VPN and Endpoint Security Clients> Cisco VPN Clients> AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client >AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client v3.x> AnyConnect VPN Client Software-3.1.10010

Looking forward to the feedback - happy computing!

Update on Dell Venue Pro 8 Usage

After the initial hiccups with firmware and updates, I have to admit that my Venue has grown on me considerably. Even after a few months, the battery life keeps bringing it out of the laptop bag. This is what the Surface Pro should strive for if it wants to become a defacto standard. Here is the output from powercfg /batteryreport:

Battery report

COMPUTER NAME	VENUEPRO
SYSTEM PRODUCT NAME	DellInc. Venue 8 Pro 5830
BIOS	A01 10/11/2013
OS BUILD	9600.16452.x86fre.winblue_gdr.131030-1505
PLATFORM ROLE	Slate
CONNECTED STANDBY	Supported
REPORT TIME	2014-02-09 13:09:11

Installed batteries

Information about each currently installed battery

	BATTERY 1
NAME	SR Real Battery
MANUFACTURER	Intel SR 1
SERIAL NUMBER	123456789
CHEMISTRY	LION
DESIGN CAPACITY	18,675 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	18,353 mWh
CYCLE COUNT	38

Recent usage

Power states over the last 3 days

START TIME	STATE	SOURCE	CAPACITY REMAINING
2014-02-06 13:16:50	Active	Battery	31 %	5,794 mWh
13:32:31	Connected standby	Battery	27 %	5,115 mWh
14:46:08	Active	Battery	26 %	4,898 mWh
15:10:52	Connected standby	Battery	20 %	3,735 mWh
16:24:35	Active	Battery	18 %	3,450 mWh
16:31:47	Connected standby	Battery	17 %	3,146 mWh
16:52:01	Active	Battery	16 %	3,068 mWh
17:55:01	Connected standby	Battery	2 %	461 mWh
17:55:02	Suspended		2 %	461 mWh
2014-02-07 16:54:05	Connected standby	Battery	100 %	18,533 mWh
16:54:05	Active	Battery	100 %	18,533 mWh
17:58:15	Connected standby	Battery	87 %	16,226 mWh
18:00:37	Active	Battery	87 %	16,219 mWh
20:36:07	Connected standby	Battery	57 %	10,631 mWh
20:41:48	Active	Battery	57 %	10,616 mWh
21:00:27	Connected standby	Battery	54 %	9,986 mWh
21:01:53	Active	Battery	54 %	9,979 mWh
21:21:43	Connected standby	Battery	49 %	9,203 mWh
21:32:56	Active	Battery	49 %	9,184 mWh
22:13:01	Connected standby	Battery	43 %	7,916 mWh
2014-02-08 07:49:34	Active	Battery	38 %	6,983 mWh
10:15:20	Connected standby	Battery	2 %	458 mWh
10:15:21	Suspended		2 %	458 mWh
18:55:32	Connected standby	Battery	100 %	18,308 mWh
18:55:32	Active	Battery	100 %	18,308 mWh
19:29:48	Connected standby	Battery	93 %	17,014 mWh
19:35:10	Active	Battery	93 %	16,999 mWh
19:51:04	Connected standby	Battery	90 %	16,459 mWh
19:55:46	Active	Battery	90 %	16,444 mWh
20:08:24	Connected standby	Battery	88 %	16,061 mWh
20:15:55	Active	Battery	87 %	16,046 mWh
20:19:34	Connected standby	Battery	87 %	15,915 mWh
20:19:41	Active	Battery	87 %	15,915 mWh
20:37:28	Connected standby	Battery	83 %	15,176 mWh
20:37:45	Active	Battery	83 %	15,173 mWh
20:42:29	Connected standby	Battery	82 %	14,993 mWh
20:45:16	Active	Battery	82 %	14,981 mWh
21:20:10	Connected standby	Battery	74 %	13,665 mWh
21:22:56	Active	Battery	74 %	13,643 mWh
21:31:56	Connected standby	Battery	72 %	13,305 mWh
21:34:50	Active	Battery	72 %	13,294 mWh
22:07:10	Connected standby	Battery	66 %	12,086 mWh
22:22:26	Active	Battery	66 %	12,045 mWh
22:41:25	Connected standby	Battery	62 %	11,325 mWh
22:48:40	Active	Battery	62 %	11,306 mWh
22:58:41	Connected standby	Battery	60 %	10,935 mWh
2014-02-09 08:03:29	Active	Battery	54 %	9,994 mWh
09:33:08	Connected standby	Battery	34 %	6,244 mWh
09:45:16	Active	Battery	34 %	6,221 mWh
09:45:48	Active	AC	34 %	6,195 mWh
09:59:28	Connected standby	AC	34 %	6,221 mWh
13:02:14	Connected standby	Battery	71 %	13,009 mWh
13:02:14	Active	Battery	71 %	13,009 mWh
13:02:18	Connected standby	Battery	71 %	13,009 mWh
13:02:18	Active	Battery	71 %	13,009 mWh
13:08:00	Report generated	Battery	71 %	13,009 mWh

Battery usage

Battery drains over the last 3 days

START TIME	STATE	DURATION	ENERGY DRAINED
2014-02-06 13:16:50	Active	0:15:40	4 %	679 mWh
13:32:31	Connected standby	1:13:36	1 %	217 mWh
14:46:08	Active	0:24:44	6 %	1,163 mWh
15:10:52	Connected standby	1:13:43	2 %	285 mWh
16:24:35	Active	0:07:12	2 %	304 mWh
16:31:47	Connected standby	0:20:13	-	78 mWh
16:52:01	Active	1:03:00	14 %	2,607 mWh
17:55:01	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
2014-02-07 16:54:05	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
16:54:05	Active	1:04:10	12 %	2,307 mWh
17:58:15	Connected standby	0:02:21	-	7 mWh
18:00:37	Active	2:35:30	30 %	5,588 mWh
20:36:07	Connected standby	0:05:41	-	15 mWh
20:41:48	Active	0:18:38	3 %	630 mWh
21:00:27	Connected standby	0:01:26	-	7 mWh
21:01:53	Active	0:19:50	4 %	776 mWh
21:21:43	Connected standby	0:11:12	-	19 mWh
21:32:56	Active	0:40:05	7 %	1,268 mWh
22:13:01	Connected standby	9:36:32	5 %	933 mWh
2014-02-08 07:49:34	Active	2:25:46	35 %	6,525 mWh
10:15:20	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
18:55:32	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
18:55:32	Active	0:34:16	7 %	1,294 mWh
19:29:48	Connected standby	0:05:21	-	15 mWh
19:35:10	Active	0:15:53	3 %	540 mWh
19:51:04	Connected standby	0:04:41	-	15 mWh
19:55:46	Active	0:12:38	2 %	383 mWh
20:08:24	Connected standby	0:07:31	-	15 mWh
20:15:55	Active	0:03:38	1 %	131 mWh
20:19:34	Connected standby	0:00:07	-	-
20:19:41	Active	0:17:47	4 %	739 mWh
20:37:28	Connected standby	0:00:16	-	3 mWh
20:37:45	Active	0:04:44	1 %	180 mWh
20:42:29	Connected standby	0:02:47	-	12 mWh
20:45:16	Active	0:34:53	7 %	1,316 mWh
21:20:10	Connected standby	0:02:46	-	22 mWh
21:22:56	Active	0:08:59	2 %	338 mWh
21:31:56	Connected standby	0:02:54	-	11 mWh
21:34:50	Active	0:32:19	7 %	1,208 mWh
22:07:10	Connected standby	0:15:15	-	41 mWh
22:22:26	Active	0:18:59	4 %	720 mWh
22:41:25	Connected standby	0:07:14	-	19 mWh
22:48:40	Active	0:10:01	2 %	371 mWh
22:58:41	Connected standby	9:04:48	5 %	941 mWh
2014-02-09 08:03:29	Active	1:29:38	20 %	3,750 mWh
09:33:08	Connected standby	0:12:08	-	23 mWh
09:45:16	Active	0:00:31	-	26 mWh
13:02:14	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
13:02:14	Active	0:00:03	-	-
13:02:18	Connected standby	0:00:00	-	-
13:02:18	Active	0:05:41	-	-

Usage history

History of system usage on AC and battery

	BATTERY DURATION			AC DURATION
PERIOD	ACTIVE	CONNECTED STANDBY		ACTIVE	CONNECTED STANDBY
2013-12-13 - 2013-12-20	29:24:05	78:07:49		0:15:02	17:31:27
2013-12-20 - 2013-12-27	19:43:10	96:55:44		13:05:41	6:10:31
2013-12-27 - 2014-01-03	52:36:56	47:59:31		6:56:21	40:05:08
2014-01-03 - 2014-01-10	27:00:05	92:46:33		1:47:04	22:37:36
2014-01-10 - 2014-01-17	23:10:02	83:33:18		0:26:44	37:44:26
2014-01-17 - 2014-01-24	20:26:13	69:23:52		0:30:06	23:41:52
2014-01-24 - 2014-01-31	22:15:07	95:59:01		0:09:59	22:06:04
2014-02-01	3:28:39	20:30:51		-	-
2014-02-02	6:01:46	10:14:23		0:09:52	2:35:21
2014-02-03	5:00:17	9:05:12		0:10:02	9:44:08
2014-02-04	4:38:33	5:12:46		0:00:06	14:08:12
2014-02-05	2:11:39	20:09:31		0:00:06	1:38:25
2014-02-06	2:46:46	15:07:56		-	-
2014-02-07	4:58:08	2:07:38		-	-
2014-02-08	5:39:46	9:39:39		-	-

Battery capacity history

Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

PERIOD	FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	DESIGN CAPACITY
2013-12-13 - 2013-12-20	18,478 mWh	18,675 mWh
2013-12-20 - 2013-12-27	18,649 mWh	18,675 mWh
2013-12-27 - 2014-01-03	18,572 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-01-03 - 2014-01-10	18,670 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-01-10 - 2014-01-17	18,652 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-01-17 - 2014-01-24	18,292 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-01-24 - 2014-01-31	18,219 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-01	18,675 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-02	18,675 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-03	18,675 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-04	18,675 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-05	18,670 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-06	18,642 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-07	18,593 mWh	18,675 mWh
2014-02-08	18,453 mWh	18,675 mWh

Battery life estimates

Battery life estimates based on observed drains

	AT FULL CHARGE			AT DESIGN CAPACITY
PERIOD	ACTIVE	CONNECTED STANDBY		ACTIVE	CONNECTED STANDBY
2013-12-13 - 2013-12-20	7:04:14	135:17:27 12 % / 16 h		7:08:46	136:44:00 12 % / 16 h
2013-12-20 - 2013-12-27	8:34:25	183:28:41 9 % / 16 h		8:35:08	183:44:02 9 % / 16 h
2013-12-27 - 2014-01-03	7:16:23	172:15:59 9 % / 16 h		7:18:48	173:13:18 9 % / 16 h
2014-01-03 - 2014-01-10	7:44:47	91:35:54 17 % / 16 h		7:44:54	91:37:22 17 % / 16 h
2014-01-10 - 2014-01-17	8:44:44	194:32:27 8 % / 16 h		8:45:23	194:46:51 8 % / 16 h
2014-01-17 - 2014-01-24	7:54:17	126:14:07 13 % / 16 h		8:04:13	128:52:43 12 % / 16 h
2014-01-24 - 2014-01-31	7:49:32	111:26:00 14 % / 16 h		8:01:17	114:13:21 14 % / 16 h
2014-02-01	6:41:05	113:04:34 14 % / 16 h		6:41:05	113:04:34 14 % / 16 h
2014-02-02	7:01:14	136:17:54 12 % / 16 h		7:01:14	136:17:54 12 % / 16 h
2014-02-03	8:00:29	136:50:58 12 % / 16 h		8:00:29	136:50:58 12 % / 16 h
2014-02-04	8:20:37	166:24:28 10 % / 16 h		8:20:37	166:24:28 10 % / 16 h
2014-02-05	8:11:58	183:14:00 9 % / 16 h		8:12:06	183:16:56 9 % / 16 h
2014-02-06	7:27:30	123:24:03 13 % / 16 h		7:28:18	123:37:10 13 % / 16 h
2014-02-07	8:44:28	272:46:06 6 % / 16 h		8:46:47	273:58:17 6 % / 16 h
2014-02-08	7:36:08	170:16:07 9 % / 16 h		7:41:37	172:19:01 9 % / 16 h

Current estimate of battery life based on all observed drains since OS install

Since OS install

7:37:45

133:11:36 12 % / 16 h

7:45:47

135:31:49 12 % / 16 h

How to Configure EMC ESI SCOM Management Packs for EMC VNX

Installing the Management Packs on the System Center host

Copy the SCOM Management pack install from the host where you have the ESI Installation media expanded - usually the ESI host.

The management pack is located in a sub directory - 

EMC_Storage_Integrator_for_Windows_Suite_v3.0.1151.6309\SCOM.ManagementPacks

Double Click on ESI.SCOM.ManagementPacks.3.0.1151.6309.Setup.exe.

Follow the steps in the wizard to install both the ESI SCOM and ESI Exchange SCOM management packs.

The management pack files are installed by default to the C:\Program Files (x86)\EMC\Management Packs folder

Confirming the connection between SCOM agents and ESI Service

1. On the System center host, open up Internet Explorer and browse to the following location:

https://EsiHostIPAddress:54501/esi/console/graph/Entities?class=StorageSystem

This will open up a web page that shows the response time of the ESI SCOM Agent. Looking for a response time less than a second.

Import the Agents into System Center Operations Manager

Go back to the Operations Console, click on Administration:

On the right-hand pane, select “Import Management Packs” under Actions:

Click on Add… Add from disk…

You will see a warning – click on “Yes”

The management pack files are installed by default to the C:\Program Files (x86)\EMC\Management Packs folder.

Import the following files in SCOM:

EMC.SI.Exchange.mp.

EMC.SI.Exchange.Reports.mp (if you want to use reports)

EMC.SI.Exchange.Customization.xml

EMC.SI.Library.mp

EMC.SI.Monitoring.mp

EMC.SI.Reporting.mp

Please note that the import process takes a few minutes.  

Modify the Registry of the System Center Host

Before enabling the discovery of ESI Service, change the Value to Decimal 5120 in the following registry key for each SCOM agent that will monitor EMC storage systems:

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\HealthService\Parameters

Type: REG_DWORD

Name: Persistence Version Store Maximum

Value: Number of 16-kilobyte pages (change to Decimal 5120)

Publish the Array Connection Within ESI

Open up the ESI Interface on the ESI host, and select Action… Publish Connection…

Refresh.

Add in the array on the list.

Verify Success.

Configured the System Center Overrides on System Center

Once the agents have been installed, and hosts discovered, we can begin the process of configuring the host overrides.

Click on Authoring…Object Discoveries… and search for “EMC SI Service Discovery”

Right click the EMC SI Service Discovery, and select Properties.

Click on the Overrides tab, and select Override – For a specific object of class: Windows Computer

The NODE for which we are configuring the override is ESI Host:

Set the following override values:

Enabled – TRUE

ESI SERVICE HOST – ESI HOST IP ADDRESS OR DNS FQDN

HTTPS to HTTP Fall Back: TRUE

Interval (sec) – 60

Click okay to save.