System Center Guide

In short, yes. But, when I recent customer requested documented reference to that fact prior to canceling a subscription to another inventory solution, I had to go digging – deep!

What I was able to find is the True Up Guide on Microsoft’s website.

Page 3 of the document confirms that indeed you may use several of the built-in reports to support your True Up efforts. While it’s a little dated and references SMS and SCE, it’s well understood that it naturally would cover ConfigMgr as an inventory method as well.

Here’s a link to the guide for your reference:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/b/85b71ce5-2f4a-4984-a021-a24df9814b71/TrueUp_brochure_letter.pdf

P.S. Make sure you’re using a service packed version of ConfigMgr as the their were issues with the RTM release that showed free Office viewers programs as the full products in the earlier reports. This issue has been resolved in SP1.

Dear Configuration Manager Open Beta Participants,

We are pleased to announce that the Release Candidate (RC) build of Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available for download on Microsoft Connect. Please proceed to the following link for more information:

https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=8163&SiteID=16

Sorry I haven’t been very active with blogging in the past couple of weeks but I’ve been busy getting ready for my System Center presentation the Microsoft Launch event being held tomorrow at the Tripod, Harcourt Street, in Dublin. There’s three 2-hour sessions beginning at 12PM and then repeating at 3PM and 6PM. So, if you’re an Irish reader, come on by and check out what’s coming from Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Plus, if you pop into my session, you’ll get a sneak peek at the latest member of the System Center product family – due to go to beta very soon!

The list is long and exhaustive, but check it out anyhow. Lots of good stuff in here!

Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2000 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=1&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d9fe205c9-dff6-4acd-b437-e33df2a991cd%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2003 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=2&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3db6f61bdf-cb9c-4a1b-960d-3d99fca87837%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2003 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=3&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d0d61b34c-b655-4e63-bddd-b809742d1e18%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2003 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d71c5619c-3b48-4fb5-91da-bd0ae8db63f1%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2003 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d7d86c340-03cb-4f3a-895e-d5a8dff7a440%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2000 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=6&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d639100ae-6cfc-4812-882d-a3d718ff2d48%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 MSIT Basic Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SharePoint Server 2007 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=7&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3da04acc13-b719-4f5c-9567-f865b05f73b6%26displaylang%3den

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your Operations Manager 2007 server roles, and was developed based on recommendations from the System Center Operations Manager Product Group regarding the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=8&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3de9643fd9-a184-431c-b807-de7561f92e89%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SharePoint Server 2007 server roles, and was developed based on recommendations from the Microsoft SharePoint Product Group regarding the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=9&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3de67b8d7b-ec3a-46b8-8460-c8a34f0b2287%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 MSIT Basic Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=10&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dc75d9d43-6293-4dbd-b1fd-14dcbfa6ec84%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 MSIT Comprehensive Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SQL Server 2000 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=11&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dae5e69a9-357d-4a23-ba6d-35e4b84149f9%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 MSIT Intermediate Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SQL Server 2000 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=12&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d33afd9c9-f0b7-4f0f-89ee-62859b7066fb%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 MSIT Intermediate Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=13&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d0ddc1c1f-5d09-4b28-9868-de850e5e82be%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 MSIT Basic Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SQL Server 2000 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=14&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dd702688f-7af1-4107-a70a-2a19f6afdcab%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2005 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=15&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dfe3a2b70-4ac7-49ee-ba18-748133feead1%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2003 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=16&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dfe7308e4-a12b-4f47-a82c-3d04efec2613%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2000 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=17&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d65dfe5d8-e867-4945-bb7d-e19b7e7e820f%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2005 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=18&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d976df931-a3cf-40e3-802e-3281b1451835%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2005 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=19&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d14862939-4bb0-4e26-b43a-a5953b484239%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2005 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=20&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d7050d56c-7e5a-479f-b94c-419ede535608%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2005 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=21&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d312505ac-f51c-4642-9a36-78e6974bc5ee%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 MSIT Comprehensive Configuration Pack for Configuration Manager 2007

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to manage your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 server roles, and was developed based on settings used by Microsoft IT in the configuration of these server roles.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=22&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d2720df81-c585-42cf-af80-016e5786f53b%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2000 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=23&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d79d68fb7-f471-4bf2-aefd-cd60c75546f0%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2000 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=24&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d83519002-4ed9-43f2-84e3-3ab1956a173e%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2000 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=25&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d24cd5c8f-e176-433d-b75d-18c06e5f6f76%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2000 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=26&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dd8757847-8ba8-4de2-b7a6-b6f1f610a28c%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your SQL 2000 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=27&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d1629d04c-c5a5-4752-a06f-4bc4584ae1b7%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft and ITIL v3

This paper describes how Microsoft supports and extends the service life-cycle approach of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=28&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dedcaad48-1414-4447-8b1a-a866a146565d%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2000 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=29&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d730d685d-5873-433e-ae99-476a6cca64ae%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Windows 2000 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=30&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d852469e5-f195-4c16-82d6-86b2cc915223%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Exchange 2003 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=31&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d12f480f7-4ef7-4573-bd37-4065bf45b8de%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Exchange 2003 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=32&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dd0534cbe-753a-449e-81ca-c2237b6c18b8%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Exchange 2003 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=33&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dc0e9de62-8c7a-4697-aec8-a31538177c8e%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Exchange 2003 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=34&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d9babab34-c78d-4634-af3c-4164a20ee504%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your Exchange 2003 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=35&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d4d3875ac-84c1-4e56-8886-a20f98dcd210%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Assessment Configuration Pack for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your IIS 6.0 servers in order to support your Federal Information Security Management Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=36&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dfe44701d-11dc-44c6-a75c-102a692c490a%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Assessment Configuration Pack for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your IIS 6.0 servers in order to support your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=37&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3ddb25b733-481c-49fa-9e18-62836d0c96be%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Assessment Configuration Pack for Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your IIS 6.0 servers in order to support your Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=38&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d1f68a273-728e-48d3-b2d0-1965905d8952%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Assessment Configuration Pack for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your IIS 6.0 servers in order to support your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=39&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d418e6a72-02c5-4949-8d85-010d2baec298%26displaylang%3den

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Assessment Configuration Pack for European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD)

This configuration pack contains configuration items intended to help you establish and validate a desired configuration for your IIS 6.0 servers in order to support your European Union Data Protection Directive compliance efforts.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=40&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d0409ff6f-27aa-48a6-ab27-aa67e3b7bf33%26displaylang%3den

Jeff Wettlaufer, Sr. Technical Product Manager at Microsoft, discusses the ins and outs of NAP in Configuration Manager 2007. The post also includes a great demo video of endpoint protection and validation using a combination of Windows Server 2008 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

Read the post here

Paul Thomsen, Senior SMS Engineer with Microsoft’s Desktop Management Services team, illustrates how to analyse a large amount of data within log files – even when distributed across many systems within the enterprise.

Click here to read the post.

Find yourself needing to test/prove the patch management features of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 in a disconnected lab environment? You’re not alone.

Thankfully, the Microsoft Update Catalog has provided an easy-to-use shopping basket type system for manually downloading the security update binaries. Couple this with the well-documented process for manually adding security updates to the SCCM Deploy Software Updates Wizard and your only a USB-drive away from having everything you need to begin your tests.

You can find out more from the following links.

Microsoft Update Catalog

How to Manually Download Software Updates

Using Microsoft Update Catalog with Configuration Manager 2007

Founded in 2004, Joyent developed an innovative platform that enables teams to effectively communicate and collaborate with email, calendaring, contacts, file sharing, and other shared applications.

However, on 12 January the company’s success took a sharp noise dive as both its Bingodisk and Strongspace data storage solutions failed – and failed miserably indeed. The services were offline for the better part of 10 days. Joyeur customers couldn’t even access their accounts, no less the files that were contained on the backend Sun x4500s.

The company has since ceased taking on new customers for Bingodisk and Strongspace. But, the more alarming message from this is contained within the company’s explanation of what happened, as posted to the blog:

Was there a backup?

Yes, and no. In the traditional sense of us writing the data from Bingodisk and Strongspace to tape or some other Thumper, no, there was no backup. Data redundancy is built into the ZFS/Thumper software/hardware combination. The Thumper is both server, and backup. Moreover, it’s hard to see how a backup of 18TB of data to another physical device would work, in practice. Moving Bingodisk to another Thumper during this crisis took 30 hours (3TB of data). A large, multi-tenant service such as Bingodisk or Strongspace with the amount of data they manage makes it practically impossible to do a meaningful backup. A single backup would take over a week. The backup process would kill end-user performance. A service like Strongspace, which people use to rsync their own backups, means the data turns over rapidly and an incremental backup would not make sense.

While that seems to be a perfectly acceptable explanation given the environment these services are running within, it gave me a sense of satisfaction knowing that when I discuss System Center Data Protection Manager with customers and how it can be used to perform live backups of Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server and SharePoint Server instances, that the underlying technologies overcome the challenges that are being blamed for the Joyeur system outage. The case is made even stronger when you incorporate System Center Operations Manager 2007 for monitoring and alerting and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for patching, updating and general systems management.

I know that we’re not comparing apples to apples here. A Microsoft-centric environment is completely different from what the folks at Joyent were using to host their services. But, in theory, could a DPM-like solution provided the company the necessary backup solution that now and in the weeks to come will have seemed worthwhile?

More importantly, what is your organisation doing to ensure that the same catastrophic failure doesn’t occur on your mission critical systems?

Jeff Wettlaufer, Sr. Technical Product Manager, kicks off the new year with his technical commentary on what the future may hold for Configuration Manager and the direction the team may go in their blogging efforts.

Read more on the team’s blog

Imagine being able to manage computers even in the event of:

• No ConfigMgr client being installed
• The computer stops responding
• No operating system installed
• The computer is turned off

That is precisely what Configuration Manager’s SP1 Out-of-Band feature will support.

Read the Configuration Manager Writers blog entry about this exciting new feature set!