System Center Guide

The System Center Operations Manager team is excited to announce the availability of the Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta, which is ready for you to download through Connect today! Operations Manager 2007 R2 introduces key new and enhanced functionality, including:

Enhanced application performance and availability across heterogeneous platforms
. Delivers monitoring across Windows, Linux and Unix servers-all through a single console.
. Extends end to end monitoring of distributed applications to any workload running on Windows, Unix and Linux platforms.
. Maximize availability of virtual workloads with integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.

Improved management of applications in the data center
. Delivers on the scale requirements of URL monitoring of your business.
. Meet agreed service levels with enhanced reporting showing application performance and availability.
. More efficient problem identification and action to resolve issues.

Increased speed of access to information and functionality to drive management
. Faster load times for views and results.
. Improved and simplified management pack authoring experience

The Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta integrates the functionality delivered within the Cross Platform Extensions Beta. New betas of the Interoperability Connectors will available shortly through the Operations Manager R2 Connect program.

Support for the R2 beta can be found through the following:

For general questions on the Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta, please use the existing newsgroups at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb839593.aspx

For questions relating to Cross Platform and the Interoperability Connectors, we are excited to launch the new forums available at:

Cross Platform Monitoring - http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=604&SiteID=17

Interop Connectors - http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=605&SiteID=17
We look forward to your evaluating this exciting new beta release, and hearing your feedback on the Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta.

Best regards,

System Center Operations Manager team

There are many occassions where we want to install software on only particular platforms such as desktops, laptops or servers. By using a combination of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, we can make this happen. Sadly, however, this hasn’t been very well documented and put into a step-by-step guide, so I’ve done that here.

The following 20 steps are what it takes to get Configuration Manager to use the MDT variables isDesktop, isLaptop, and isServer during an operating system deployment task sequence. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know.

1.  Download Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008, Update 1.
2.  Install MDT to site server.
3.  From the Start menu, select Microsoft Deployment Toolkit | Configure ConfigMgr Integration.
4.  Create a package for the toolkit using the “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit \Templates\Distribution” folder as the package source. No program needed - just create the package.
5.  Configure your packages distribution points, as normal.
6.  In the Task Sequence Editor, click Add | MDT | Use Toolkit Package. Select the package that you created in step 4.
7.  Move this task between Install Operating System and Setup Operating System.
8.  Again, click Add | MDT | Gather.
9.  Choose the radio button for “Gather only local data (do not process rules). 
10.  Move this new task beneath the Use Toolkit Package task.
11.  From the Task Sequence Editor Install Software section, select the software package you like to have installed only on laptops (VPN software for example).
12.  Click the Options tab.
13.  Click Add Condition.
14.  Select If Statement.
15.  In the If Statement Properties page, select All Conditions.
16.  Highlight the line you just added beneath the “This group/step will run if the following conditions are met:”.
17.  Click “Add Condition” again.
18.  Choose Task Sequence Variable.
19.  In the Task Sequence Variable properties page, type isLaptop for the Variable, leaving the Condition set to equals and type TRUE for the Value.Remember, you also have isDesktop and isServer options to use as well.
20.  Save your Task Sequence.

I hope you’ll find this useful. Enjoy!

While attempting to install the User State Migration Toolkit on a Windows Server 2008 system, you will be presented with an error stating that “There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.”

This problem has been noted on the USMT team blog.

When you click the OK button on the error message the USMT301 folder will be erased. However, as a workaround to obtaining the source files to build a USMT package for operating system deployment with Configuration Manager, you can keep the error message up, copy the source files from the C:\Program Files\USMT301 folder to another destination. Just make sure to do this prior to clicking OK. Otherwise, they’re gone!

David Williams, Analyst with Gartner, has published an in-depth examination of System Center Operations Manager 2007. In his report, Williams states that “Operations Manager 2007 has moved to rival many of the capabilities provided by more-established and more-expensive [tools].”

To read the full report (no Gartner account needed), visit the Gartner site at:

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol10/article2and3/article2and3.html

While recently testing Desired Configuration Management features of System Center Configuration Manager with a client, we ran into an issue with the DCM baselines coming down but not actually running or creating the client-side reports. After reviewing the DCMAgent.log file, it was determined that we were missing the  appropriate .NET framework version on the client.

The following article specifies that .NET framework version 2.0 or later is required for this feature to work.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680801.aspx

The System Center Professional User Group of Jacksonville will hold their 4th quarter meeting on November 19, 2008 at 6:30 P.M.  It will take place at New Horizons Learning Center, 7020 A.C Skinner Parkway Suite #180, Jacksonville, FL, 32256.
 
A meet and greet period is scheduled for 6:30 to 7:30 with food and drinks provided.  This will be followed by a presentation from sponsor SecureVantage Technologies entitled “Security Auditing with System Center Operations Manager and the Audit Collection Service.”  All System Center Professionals in North Florida are invited.
 
SPUGJax was created to connect I.T. professionals working in the Microsoft System Center ecosystem with products such as SMS, SCCM, MOM, SCOM, Microsoft virtualization technologies, SoftGrid and the many third-party tools that support System Center.
 
Please forward this post along to anyone you know working with Microsoft server applications.  Thank you.
 
A special thanks to all of those that attended the first meeting.  It was a great success.  1E, Inc. presented their suite of applications and provided sandwiches, drinks, sides and cookies by Jason’s Deli.
 
 
Respectfully yours,
 
Dan Taylor and Ivan Lindenfeld
http://spugjax.tech.officelive.com

The first public beta of SCCM Client Center V2.0 is online at: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/smsclictrv2/ 

This beta version is for testing only and should not be used in a productive environment. Feature-Requests and Issues should be reported on the smsclictrv2 Tracker (NOTE: a Sourceforge Account is required!).

Tip:

You must enable each program that is associated with a Task Sequence application installation (including the SCCM client) to be available during Task Sequence execution without an Advertisement. To do so, just select the properties for the appropriate program (most commonly Per System Unattented Installation) and tick the checkbox at the bottom of the resulting tab.

If this item isn’t selected, all applications intended to be installed during the Task Sequence will fail. No Microsoft Updates will be installed and the User State will not be migrated as the Configuration Manager client will not be present.

USMT GUI is “just” a user interface for Microsofts User State Migration Tool. 
 

Features: 

- Simple backup of userdata from Windows 2000 SP4, XP and Vista.
- Restore to XP and Vista and also restore Vista backup to XP (making a Vista to XP downgrade easier than ever!)
- Selection of what filetypes to migrate and where to restore.
- Possible to generate and use customized Config.xml file.
- Script builder that creates the scripts needed for automatic migrates.

Download from: http://usmtgui.ehler.dk/