System Center Guide » Configuration Manager 2007

Shavlik Offering Merges Patching of Non-Microsoft Applications With SCCM

Duncan McAlynn — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:58:34 +0000

ST. PAUL, MN–(Marketwire – March 3, 2010) – Shavlik Technologies, LLC, the market leader in simplifying and automating critical IT operations, today announced the Shavlik SCUPdates™ catalog which delivers update information from multiple vendors — like Adobe or Apple — to Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). More and more organizations today are leveraging the power of SCCM to assess, deploy and update Windows systems. By using the Shavlik SCUPdates catalog, SCCM users now have a single workflow for deploying updates for both Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications.

Read the full press release

Three Ways to Prevent Insider Risk Within Your SCCM-Managed Environment

Duncan McAlynn — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:12:45 +0000

With great advantages come great responsibilities. As the advances in USB devices have made them invaluable to most business users’ workday processes, they have also exposed organizations to three enormous risks:

data loss
data theft
malware propagation

You need only to follow the news to see that USB devices are involved time and time again in today’s highest-profile data breaches, either through the loading of breach-causing malware onto the corporate network, by facilitating the intentional covert removal of data, or simply by enabling data loss through the misplacement of an unencrypted device.

In this white paper, you’ll learn how removable device policy enforcement can prevent these risks while enabling managed use of these necessary productivity tools—seamlessly within your Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager-managed environment. You’ll find that the real key to secure use of all portable devices is striking the right balance between the productivity they offer and the risks they pose.

Click here to download the white paper (Windows IT Pro registration required)

Microsoft Releases Updated Windows Deployment Tools

Duncan McAlynn — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:13:22 +0000

Microsoft has made available for download Windows-7-friendly versions of two of its Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) tools as part of its campaign to get more businesses to move to Windows 7, and soon, Office 2010.

Released on February 22 is the final version of Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6, as well as the near-final Release Candidate of the Service Pack 1 build of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). These two tools ultimately will be part of MDOP 2010, the first of two MDOP releases that Microsoft officials are expecting to roll out in calendar 2010. (Today, MED-V 1.0 SP1 is being released simultaneously with MDOP 2010, as it is not yet in final form.)

MDOP is a bundle of various deployment tools that Microsoft sells to Software Assurance customers only. At the end of last year, when it added a previously-unscheduled MDOP 2009 R2 release to its line-up, Microsoft announced its intention to release MDOP 2010 in the first calendar quarter of this year.

Rest the rest of the article

InformationWeek Gives SCCM Some Love

Duncan McAlynn — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:39:48 +0000

In Randy George’s “Rolling Out Windows 7″ article for InformationWeek, SCCM is compared to LANDesk, KASE, Snap Deploy and others. Yet, the accolades for SCCM kept “rolling” on in…

Read the article here.

Top 5 Tips for Windows 7 Deployments

Duncan McAlynn — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:11:56 +0000

Here are the 5 key upgrade tips for an enterprise considering Windows 7:

1. Make application compatibility the first priority.
2. Use System Center Configuration Manager for image creation and deployment.
3. Start with basic group policy settings but then update.
4. Work with ISVs early and often.
5. Align Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 deployment timing.

Read the full article on the System Center team blog.

IBM Deployment Pack v1.2 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Released

Duncan McAlynn — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:05:53 +0000

The IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) is used to configure IBM hardware components prior to deploying Windows using Microsoft SCCM. This kit extends Configuration Manager 2007 by providing a convenient integrated user interface that will be familiar to SCCM administrators. The Deployment Pack completes the end-to-end deployment scenario in environments where IBM-specific configuration steps are required including RAID, IMM, RSA2, BMC, and BIOS/UEFI.

More information, including a Users Guide, and download available from http://bit.ly/aR8oXD.

System Center Configuration Manager Reporting Dashboard Beta released

Duncan McAlynn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:30:25 +0000

Microsoft has just released the Reporting Dashboard beta for SCCM. This dashboard lets customers utilize a browser based graphically rich reporting experience that showcases the robust reporting capabilities of the world’s leading system management product. The dashboard will help you stay informed of application and operating system deployments, security updates, system health status and more; whether on the plasma screen in your operations center, or your administrative desktop.

SCCMAutoDoc Beta 1 Now Available

Duncan McAlynn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:29:09 +0000

SccmAutoDoc is a command-line utility that documents a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 site in a human-readable format. Much effort has been put in making the document resemble closely to what you see in the Configuration Manager admin console. SccmAutodoc in other words documents your Site Configuration.

More information is available here.

Help Desk Software Announces Integration With Microsoft SCCM and SMS

Duncan McAlynn — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:19:23 +0000

Web Help Desk releases seamless out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft SCCM and SMS, providing IT professionals with up-to-date hardware and software asset details within the web-based help desk software. No table mapping configuration or SQL scripts required. In classic Web Help Desk style, simply choose your synchronization schedule, point to the SCCM/SMS deployment and select which SCCM/SMS data to be made visible, then carry on with your now enhanced service management operations.

Click here to learn more.

System Center Configuration Manager Extensions for SCAP released!

Duncan McAlynn — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:30:22 +0000

Today Microsoft officially released the System Center Configuration Manager Extensions for SCAP, the result of certification testing for ConfigMgr as an SCAP-validated tool with FDCC scanning capability. This free add on to ConfigMgr will consume the SCAP data streams, assess a target system for compliance, and report the results back in SCAP format.

The System Center Configuration Manager Extensions for SCAP allow organizations to use Configuration Manager 2007 to scan computers for compliance with the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) mandate issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These extensions enable Configuration Manager to consume Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) data streams, assess systems for compliance, and generate report results in SCAP format.

If you or someone you know works in a US government agency – you are aware that those organizations are required to have an SCAP validated tool for ensuring adherence to the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC).

Read more and download the tool from the System Center Team Blog (here).