Maik Koster: One common question regarding the deployment of a new operating system especially on refresh or replacement scenarios is how the user will get his previous applications back. All standard applications are probably already part of your thick image or will be defined as standard applications for all users or a specific location etc. However you will always have a bunch of applications which only a certain amount of users will use. And normally you don't want to spend time after the deployment to get this specific applications back onto the computer. An automated process like MDT shall save time and automate as much as possible.(
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Maik Koster: Within MDT you can define your specific settings via computer definition, Make/Model, Location or Roles. Also Applications in LTI or Packages in SCCM can be defined this way. But instead of assigning the applications/packages directly to a location or computer I suggest to use roles instead.
This means you define a role per application you would like to distribute during your deployment process with the appropriate applications/packages setting. Then you assign this role to all computers, model or locations which shall have this application installed. At the beginning you will have an additional step for each application.(
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Anders Bengtsson: I have been testing Incident Management (IM) with focus on the notification part of IM in System Center Service Manager beta 1.
The main goal of the IM process is to get back to a normal service operation as quickly as possible and to minimize the impact on the business, in other words ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. “Normal service operation” is defined within Service Level Agreement (SLA).(
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Daniele Muscetta: One of the cool new features of System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is the possibility to check and update Management Packs from the catalog on the Internet directly from the Operators Console.
Even if the backend for this feature is not yet documented, I was extremely curious to see how this had actually been implemented. Especially since it took a while to have this feature available for OpsMgr, I had the suspicion that it could not be as simple as one downloadable XML file, like the old MOM2005's MPNotifier had been using in the past. (
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Maik Koster: After implementing the function to
Update the Computerinformation in MDT as explained in the last post, I found more and more settings from the MDT Database I wanted to get or set during the execution of the scripts. So instead of reading the complete set of settings for an entry I started creating similar functions to get/set the Computername, the UDDir, etc. But just after a couple of settings it was obvious that this couldn't be the final solution. The MDT settings table contains 84 different settings (so far) creating a function for each of them would make it confusing and hard to maintain. (
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Maik Koster: Now as we know how to create our own webservice and how to use it from a script, we can go ahead to the more useful topics. We actually want to extend the current MDT implementation.
So I would like to start with a function which was already quite useful on a couple of different implementations. We want to have an easy way to update the Computer information, mainly Serial Number, MAC Address and UUID. The benefit might not be obvious but to give you an example. We use this to prestage a computer to the MDT Database with a couple of additional information like specific SCCM Task Sequence if necessary or the old computer on replacement scenarios.(
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Maik Koster:
In the last Post we created a simple webservice. So far it is working, but yet not really useful.
Now we will add the basic functionality to it which we need in the future. This will be the Database connection to our MDT Database and some functions which will help us to contact the SCCM Server. First we want to be able to have access to the MDT Database. For this we need a connection string.(continue at source)
Currently the SCCM client is 32 bits only. This means that on 64-bit machines the SCCM client is running in 32-bit emulation mode called Windows on Windows (WoW64). WoW64 is a subsystem of the Windows Operating System that is capable of running 32-bit applications and is included on all 64-bit versions of Windows.
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Achieving a unified systems management solution in today’s cross-platform environments isn’t necessarily a difficult challenge, but finding one that has depth, multi-vendor support and a strong-standing community support it may be. This is an introduction to how Microsoft System Center technologies can provide a “single pane of glass” to manage both your Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms. (
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Steve Rachui: My last post discussed the benefits of virtual apps, the components of App-V and briefly discussed integration with SCCM. For this post we will discuss how to deploy a virtualized app in SCCM. For this example we will use Microsoft Word 2007 viewer.(
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Jakub Oleksy: I wanted to provide a high level overview of feature additions to the SDK since Operations Manager 2007 shipped. The items are in no particular order and will be discussed in more depth in subsequent posts.(
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Michael Murgolo: In a
previous post I shamelessly promoted my Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista. I recently was contacted by one of our support engineers about installing these tools. The customer wanted to install most of them in their Windows Server 2008 reference image build using MDT. The command shell script that I had provided in the download was meant to be used manually by a person logged on with UAC enabled. The script would "re-launch" itself elevated and would pause at the end to allow the user to see the results of the commands. This is obviously not suitable for automated installation. So I provided the engineer with a modified version that could be used in MDT.
Steve Rachui: Virtualization is a hot topic in IT circles. When you think of virtualization it is often is in terms of hardware using Virtual PC, Virtual Server or, the latest and best, Hyper-V. But virtualization applies to applications as well and offers several benefits, most of which can be categorized into two very broad classes.
-Reduction in testing time
-Better end user experience
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Maik Koster: In the last Post we talked about
Calling a webservice from a script using MDT 2008. But proud as we are, we don't want to use ANY webservice, we prefer to use OUR webservice
But seriously, the "UnknownComputer" webservice which comes with MDT 2008 is really a great tool however at some point it might be imperative to have more possibilities included. So we will take this as a base and add some additional functionality. Though to be able to do so, we first need to understand, how we can create a webservice. I'm not really a great programmer but as I was able to figure it out I would guess this is fairly simple. At least if we don't make it to complex.
First we would need any kind of programming environment. I personally use Visual Studio which Microsoft gave away on some Launch event for free. But even
Visual Web Developer Express Edition will do the trick. All examples will be based on Visual Studio, so you might need to "interpret" it a bit.
Michael Murgolo: Just a small update on this topic. Microsoft has now published a Knowledge Base article,
KB959753, that documents the "automated profile copy" methods for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. The old "manual or scripted copy of a configured profile over the Default User profile" method will no longer be supported for these operating systems.
It was announced Friday that they have released the Operations Manager 2007 R2 Interop Connectors (Beta 2) to Connect.
This package contains the beta software for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Interop Connectors.
The following Connectors are included:
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Connector for Tivoli Enterprise Console
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Connector for HP OpenView Operations
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Universal Connector
Download :
https://connect.microsoft.com
Service Pack 1 for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 provides continuous data protection for Windows application and file servers using seamlessly integrated disk and tape media and includes the following expanded capabilities:
* Protection of Hyper-V™ virtualization platforms, including both Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and the Microsoft Hyper-V Server, has been added to the existing set of protected workloads, building on the virtualization protection originally delivered for Virtual Server 2005.
* Enhanced SQL Server 2008 protection, including the addition of new protection capabilities for mirrored databases, support for parallel backups of databases within a single instance, and the ability to move data from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 for migration scenarios.
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 receive index protection, significant catalog optimization, and support for mirrored content databases.
* Added protection for Exchange Server 2007 Standby Cluster Replication (SCR), enabling a complete disaster recovery solution that leverages SCR failover alongside DPM point-in-time restores.
In addition to enhancing the protection of each of the core Microsoft application workloads, additional capabilities have also been introduced with the release of DPM 2007 SP1, such as:
* Local Data Source Protection enabling the DPM 2007 SP1 server to act as a branch office server offering self-protecting File Services and Virtualization hosting within one platform.
* Cross-Forest Protection allowing large enterprise customers with multiple Active Directory® forests to now have even more flexibility in their DPM deployments.
* Provision for a Client DPML answers customer demand for a more cost-effective way to protect Windows XP and Windows Vista clients using the same DPM 2007 infrastructure that protects their servers
* Disaster Recovery capabilities within DPM 2007 SP1 now include the ability to leverage a third-party vaulting partner via the cloud (SaaS)
All of this new functionality builds on the features released in the DPM 2007 ‘Rollup Update’ in June 2008, which provided protection of Windows Server 2008, including Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 core, Windows Server 2008 System State and BitLocker™ support – as well as new tape media capabilities around tape sharing and media library sharing. (
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Overview
This download contains the following documentation for System Center Operations Manager 2007:
* Operations Manager 2007 Operations Guide:
* This guide is a comprehensive resource that can be used to understand and use your Operations Manager 2007 implementation to your best advantage. It teaches the Operations Manager administrator what to do after successfully deploying Operations Manager for the first time as well as serving as a reference for ongoing maintenance. Operations Manager 2007 Deployment Guide:
* This guide steps you through the deployment process for System Center Operations Manager 2007. The Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide:
* This guide takes the reader through the necessary steps to develop a complete architectural plan for their OpsMgr2007 implementation. Operations Manager 2007 Migration Guide:
* This guide is intended to help you understand the migration process from Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM 2005) to Operations Manager 2007 and the tools that are used in the process. Operations Manager 2007 Report Authoring Guide:
This guide provides an overview of the Operations Manager reporting feature, including procedures for generating pre-populated reports and authoring custom reports. There is also reference information for users looking to create custom reports.
Download the Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 Documentation
Secure Vantage: We’ve released an update to the ACS Resource Kit for the community.
The ACS Resource Kit now includes a revised version of the ACS Disk Planning Calculator originally posted on System Center Forum, new database utilities for ad-hoc queries and advanced grooming, plus the ACS Visio Stencils previously posted on our blog.
For more information and to download the latest version of the ACS Resource Kit please visit
http://www.securevantage.com/Products/ACSResourceKit.aspx
ACS Resource Kit v1.1, Contents
1. ACS Administrators Quick Reference – ACS newbie cheat sheet of common commands and configurations
2. ACS Database and Disk Planning Calculator – preplan online, offline and archive storage needs plus disk requirements for the online audit database
3. ACS Database Event Analysis
a. ACS Summary Stats - XLS you can connect to ACS DB for event load analysis
b. Query Active Partition for Event Counts
c. Query Active Partition for Specific Events
d. Windows Security Auditing Reference List – List of windows security events, settings and common configuration items for Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003 & 2008
4. ACS Database Utilities
a. Groom Specific Events from Audit Historical Database
5. ACS Noise Filtering
a. ACS Noise Filter Guide
b. My Generic Filter – Sample noise filter
c. Filter Setup Kit – Auto apply generic filter sets after ACS installation
6. ACS Security Event Creation Testing – Scripts to create events for over 50 audit scenarios
7. ACS Visio Stencils – Microsoft Office Visio Stencils of common ACS components
We’ve posted a whitepaper & FREE solution accelerator designed to help IT Pro’s build a complete performance management solution for monitoring the health of their IT infrastructure. IT professionals can now go beyond canned operational reports with interactive performance dashboards, comprehensive scorecards, and powerful analytics - all built on Microsoft platform components including Microsoft® SQL Server®, Systems Center, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint® Server 2007.
The solution consists of a detailed whitepaper as well as preconfigured SQL Server Integration Services packages, cubes, and PerformancePoint dashboards to extract data from Systems Center and deliver it through PerformancePoint Server.
Again, we are offering this content as a free download to help customers maximize the value of the data they are currently collecting through Systems Center, and in the process showcasing the value of our products in a manor that’s relevant to the IT Pro audience.
We are proud to announce the release of
Live Maps v3 for Operations Manager 2007. This version opens many new doors to all the data collected by System Center Operations Manager 2007.
Business process availability monitoring or web enabled executive dashboards? Network topologies or live application diagrams?
Live Maps v3 in combination with System Center Operations Manager 2007 brings you all that and more!
Key New Features:
• Network and application topology maps
• Business process maps
• Executive dashboards
• All maps are dynamic and change-aware
• Network-link monitoring on any map
• Wizard and template based map creation
Key Enhancements:
• Enhanced scalability of the Web and Authoring console
• Changed architecture for health state roll-up
Who Should You Do Next?
•
Request an evaluation or NFR key
•
Watch the new scenario based training videos
• Build some new v3 maps and impress your customers!
If you are interested in a personal demo just send us an
email.
Do you know what tools you'll need to use to prepare and deploy Windows Vista to systems throughout your environment? This is an overview of the tools you'll need, and the ones you can forget about.(
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Lynn Lunik: I wanted to record for reference the 'normal' SPN entries for a SCOM2k7 SP1 Root Management Server, along with the SDK and Config User ID in a single server configuration. I have interacted with a number of colleagues on this recently and thought it merited a Blog post that others could reference. Specifically, I have worked with several Clients who struggled with the SPN values being created 'initially' in an incorrect manner for SCOM2k7 (this had to do with the Installation Steps followed) and thus, struggling with strange Alerts until resolved.(
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We return to our OpsMgr by Example series with a discussion of deploying the OpsMgr Agent.
Scenario: If you're looking for an automated way to provision new systems into management and monitoring solutions without human intervention, you will want to consider using Configuration Manager 2007 for deploying the agent, combined with AD Integration to identify the management server. (
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This guide provides an introduction to Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server® 2008. It includes an overview of features and procedures to follow to setup the technology.
Download the Windows Deployment Services Step-by-Step Guide
Marco Nielsen: SP1 has now been officially released and supported!!
Read all about it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/mobile
All the resource kits tools have also been refreshed.
Key Features and Benefits:
Mobile Device Manager 2008 enables efficient control of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices by providing reliable, low-cost, and consistent manageability, easy integration with your existing Microsoft infrastructure, and secure access to the corporate network.
SP1 is designed to cost-effectively support large-scale deployments of Mobile Device Manager with new features and enhancements:
• Multiple Instance: Supports deployments where multiple points of control are required within a single forest.
• PIN Reset: Allows users to request a PIN reset on their device. (details here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd252841.aspx)
• Enrollment Auto Discovery: Facilitates easier self-service enrollments.
• Runs with Windows Server 2008: Provides support for Windows Server 2008 Active Directory functional level.
• Performance/Scalability: Increased system capacity.
• Virtualization: Provides Hyper-V testing support using Windows Server 2003 as a guest OS.
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London – 8 December 2008 - 3CX (
www.3cx.com) the international developer of telecommunications software has announced the roll out of version 7.0 of 3CX Phone System for Windows. The new version comes with a revamped design aimed at making its already user-friendly Management Console and User Interface even easier to work with; whilst effectively delivering more mobility to users by empowering them to configure their own extensions with advanced call handling rules based on caller ID and time of call.
Nick Galea, CEO at 3CX said that these improvements are building on the company’s strategy to deliver a software-based IP PBX that is easy to manage and use. “One of the things we discovered from listening to our customers is that VoIP phone system users want more flexibility in managing their incoming calls. By allowing call rules to be configured based on caller ID, time received and type of call, users can break free from the office and have more mobility. For example, after-hour calls from important customers can be routed to a mobile phone, whereas all other calls can go to voice mail” Galea said; adding that with the new call handling rules also come many added functionalities such as a new management console and a new configuration wizard.
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The System Center Configuration Manager 2007 User Assistance team has created a set of quizzes to help you assess your understanding of the dependencies and requirements for key features of Configuration Manager. These quizzes help to raise your level of awareness of the some of the nuances of these features before you configure and use them. They can also be used to help train other Configuration Manager administrators within your organization. Each quiz consists of 10 questions that can be answered Yes or No. Regardless of your answer, the quiz will display the correct information, and include one or more links to the corresponding related content located in the Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library located on the Configuration Manager TechCenter. This new version of the quiz application is built using Microsoft Silverlight to provide a more interactive experience.
Download the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Product Feature Quizzes
Omar van der Hoeven was wondering when the ICP's for SCCM SP1 would be available for download. After mailing with Wally Mead, he came to the conclusion that these were already available.
You can download the SP1 ICP's
here
The IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a deployment kit that extends Configuration Manager 2007 by providing IBM utilities, drivers, and custom tasks for creating automated deployment scripts for IBM target servers. The IBM extensions are available as built-in actions within the Configuration Manager menus.
The IBM Deployment Pack includes various IBM and third-party tools that are needed to configure items such as RAID adapters, management cards, BIOS settings, and other vendor specific settings that are required when deploying servers. While it is true these types of activities can be manually added to the operating system deployment (OSD) process, the Deployment Pack is a much simpler solution that puts everything in the right place for the user, so the tools are ready to use in a custom task sequence.
It also includes a custom boot image that is already prepared to work with Configuration Manager OSD. This tool is highly recommended and will save a huge amount of setup and preparation time for the deployment of x86 / x64 servers.
Download from here:IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Release Notes: IBM Deployment Pack for Configuration Manager 2007, v1.0 Release Notes
The out of band management prerequisites for Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 listed DHCP as an external dependency for out of band (bare metal) provisioning only. It has since come to our attention through the TechNet forums that in-band might also have this requirement for option 15, the Domain name. However, it’s possible that even if you configure DHCP correctly, in-band provisioning might initially fail because of native AMT behavior. This post explains this scenario and possible solutions. When our testing is complete, we will update the out of band management documentation accordingly.(
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The administration and operation of an Exchange Server 2007 infrastructure includes not only the day-to-day administrative tasks, but also the necessary operational processes and procedures that help make sure that all components in the organization's environment on which Exchange relies are healthy.
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack helps you do more monitoring with fewer people by monitoring the following key scenarios:
* Are all Exchange services running?
* Are all databases mounted and do disks have sufficient free space?
* Can Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 clients connect and is its performance good?
* Is the mail flowing between servers?
* Is Exchange performing efficiently and reliably?
* Is Exchange configured correctly and is it secure? For example, are regular backups being performed?
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack (MP) for Operations Manager 2007 contains rules to monitor a significant subset of server health indicators and create alerts when problems are detected, or when reasonable thresholds are exceeded.
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 1)
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 2)
OpsMgr MVP Andy Dominey has finally compiled his thoughts on considerations and best practices for designing a highly available Operations Manager 2007 enterprise infrastructure into a whitepaper to share with the community. I was pleased to hear Andy was ready to document some of his hard won expertise deploying OpsMgr in large enterprises, and I happily agreed to serve as tech editor.
Andy’s guide would be a good companion when evaluating design decision criteria in the OpsMgr 2007 Infrastructure Planning and Design Solution Accelerator.
Download Andy%u2019s %u201CDeploying OpsMgr in Highly Available and Distributed Enterprise Environments%u201D guide
Service Manager (SM) enables the automation of IT Service Management processes with its configuration driven platform. At high level SM can be divided into 3 major blocks -
1. User Experience Layer
2. Solution Layer
3. Platform Layer
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The Infrastructure Planning and Design team is working on a new guide, Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 SP1. Get the beta by visiting the Connect Web site at http://connect.microsoft.com.
Considering a data protection strategy for your organization? This guide leads the reader through the process of planning a Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 SP1 infrastructure. Work through the infrastructure design process in a logical, sequential order. This IPD guide enables the reader to quickly identify what types of data will be protected, what the recovery goals are, and the protection strategy to achieve those goals. Other benefits of using this guide include best practice design guidance from the product group and an optimized infrastructure to best meet the business requirements.
To join the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta, follow these steps:
1. Visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta at
http://connect.microsoft.com.
2. Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID to continue to the Invitations page.
3. Scroll down to Infrastructure Planning and Design.
With the anticipated release of R2, the current beta has revealed some very simple, yet highly effective improvements. My favorite is the addition of the Process Monitoring Management Pack Template. Although the functionality is reproducible in SP1, it is far easier to configure. One particular problem I always encounter by end-users is the presence of the cscript.exe process. Sometimes 1 instance, sometimes 4. The variability, depending on deployed management packs, always has and still makes many server owners and security personnel nervous. We now can monitor it.(
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Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog : A new version is coming soon!
The latest version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, MDT 2010, is currently being developed. This new version, which is due to be released shortly after the Windows 7 release, will offer:
· Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
· Deployment Workbench and script architecture improvements.
· Documentation improvements.
The first beta release will be made available in the coming weeks. Please sign up for at the Connect website to be notified as soon as it is available, if you haven’t already done so. To sign up, follow these simple steps:
1. Access
http://connect.microsoft.com.
2. Sign on using any valid Live ID.
3. From the Connection Directory, find the “Solution Accelerators” connection.
4. Apply for the “Microsoft Deployment Toolkit” program. Approval is automatic.
We look forward to receiving your feedback on this new MDT 2010 version and encourage you to use the Connect site for that feedback.
If you have suggestions, comments, or concerns about MDT 2008 (the current release), please submit that through the Connect site as well.
http://blogs.technet.com/msdeployment/archive/2008/12/03/a-new-version-is-coming-soon.aspx
| 10 Dec '08 - 07:34 | kenneth van surksum | 
no comments | news source ~ Configuration Manager Writers 
