System Center Guide

I have to admit that I’m a bit shocked by the Webwire press release from Fujitsu today. The release promotes Fujitsu’s new virtualization offering for the SMB market. Naming it “My very first Hyper-V” may not have been the most creative, but at least the technology behind it is compelling. Based on Fujitsu PRIMERGY x86 servers and ETERNUS DX disk storage systems, this hardware and software combination provides a flexible, expandable platform for introducing a new virtualized IT infrastructure built on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and managed by Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

Could you or your customers benefit from this appliance based, Microsoft-centric approach to virtualization? Who do you think will be the next big vendor to jump on-board?

Read the full press release here.

I managed to find this little snipplet from a Redmond Magazine article recently posted. It contains some interesting insights into new tools being made available for managing data center virtualization with System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Hyper-V.

The Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Enterprises (DDCT-E) is scheduled to be released during the first half of 2010. It aims to address servers, networks and storage as a single set of available resources in the same pool, thereby reducing idle time. Automation through batch creation and provisioning of VMs is the key to the automation of the Microsoft environment. The focus is on automation of provisioning and proper tracking of those deployed resources. Microsoft provides a self-service portal along with role-based access control. Tracking and chargeback reports are also available. DDCT-E will be free, but it integrates with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, which carry steep price tags. Microsoft finds itself on the cusp of big developments in the private cloud, as well as in hybrid cloud models, but it hasn’t done much yet in the way of shipping products.

Pretty interesting stuff, uh? How would you vision using this toolset within your organization?

This lab is intended for IT Professionals who would like to deliver virtual desktop computers using Microsoft Hyper-V Server, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Citrix XenDesktop. Users will work through the steps to simulate deploying multiple virtual desktops, and will first capture a reference image using the Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops.

Next, the user will verify that the computer can be booted from a diskless client computer. The user will create multiple virtual machines using the reference computer as a template.

Finally, the user will use the Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller and System Center Virtual Machine Manager to create a group of virtual desktops and deploy them to end devices. At the end of this lab, the user will have worked through all the steps required to implement Citrix XenDesktop using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=281742e3-2613-42da-bd58-2c3578f039b4

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

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.

Need some nice Visio templates for documenting your System Center Service Manager deployment? You’re in luck! Here’s a set provided to you courtesy of the SCSM team.

http://blogs.technet.com/servicemanager/attachment/3303593.ashx

DISM is a new command line tool which was introduced in Windows 7 for deployment. DISM can be used to service a Window image or to prepare a Windows Pre-installation Environment (Windows PE) image. DISM also supports more features and functionality than the other tools (Package Manager) supported in Windows Vista, including logging, inventory commands with parse-able output, detailed help, offline INF driver package installation, direct application of MS update packages, and integration of international settings.

These how-to articles on DISM will help you understand what DISM tools can do, which were the tools it replaced, its Commands, Architecture and options.

http://www.msigeek.com/343/introduction-to-dism-deployment-image-servicing-and-management

http://www.msigeek.com/2610/mount-a-wim-image-using-deployment-image-servicing-and-management-dism

http://www.msigeek.com/2661/add-or-remove-a-driver-from-a-wim-image-using-dism

http://www.msigeek.com/2672/enable-or-disable-a-feature-from-a-wim-image-using-dism

http://www.msigeek.com/2635/unmount-and-clean-up-a-wim-image-using-deployment-image-servicing-and-management-dism

Do lemme know, your comments and Thoughts!

Cheers’
Vijay

Looks like my prediction caught the attention of the System Center Service Manager (SCSM) Team… the following was posted to the team’s blog overnight. Notice the closing comments….

Hard to believe that the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 is only two months away now!  Service Manager is going to have a MUCH larger presence this year with:

• 4 sessions by SCSM product team Senior Program Managers
• 1 session by MVP Maarten Goet
• 1 session by Microsoft Consulting Services consultants
• 3 sessions on Opalis including integration with Service Manager
• 1 session by Service Manager customer – MPSD – the operations team that runs Microsoft.com, TechNet, MSDN, etc. that has been using Service Manager in production for a few months to manage 4,000+ servers
• 2 sessions just on compliance and risk management using Service Manager including one from a partner – Secure Vantage
• 1 session by our partner Intel showcasing how customers can leverage Intel vPro capabilities directly from within SCSM
• 1 session dedicated to showcasing just some of the many partner solutions that are coming to market on top of SCSM at RTM
• 2 panels covering broad topics but also including SCSM
• 5 instructor led hands on labs (that will also be available as self-paced hands on labs)

That is a LOT of content.  You could practically spend the whole week at MMS doing nothing but learning about Service Manager (and eating and sleeping occasionally of course   ).

You can see the entire session schedule filtered down to just SCSM content by going here:

http://www.mms-2010.com/public/sessions.aspx

Reminder: there is a reduced registration price of $1,725 if you register before March 24.  It goes up to $1,970 after that so hurry and register.

We hope you all can make it! 

There are even apparently people speculating and taking bets that Service Manager might announce RTM at MMS.  Now, that would be exciting!!

LONDON & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–1E, a leading provider of software and services which reduce organizations’ IT costs and environmental footprint, today announced that Web WakeUp, a software tool which enables remote users to securely power on their office PCs from home through a web interface, has taken the ultimate next step in user empowerment.

Read the press release here.

From Ulf Månsson, of Lumagate:

We are many that are waiting impatiently for the release of Service Manager 2010. Microsoft has now revealed some information regarding the licensing for Service Manager 2010 which I think will be appreciated by many.

Service Manager 2010 will be a part of Server Management Suite Enterprise (SMSE) and Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD). If you have one of these licenses today with a valid Software Assurance or if you sign a new contract you are entitled to Service Manager 2010 when the products is released this spring.

The other products that are included in SMSE and SMSD are:

• Configuration Manager 2007
• Operation Manager 2007
• Data Protection Manager 2007
• Virtual Machine Manager

Good news is that Opalis will also be a part of these licenses. Opalis was acquired by Microsoft in the end of 2009 and will bring automation of tasks and processes into System Center products.

If you are not familiar with the licenses for SMSE and SMSD you find more information about them here.

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/management-suites-faq.aspx