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.

While catching up on some of the myITForum discussion list threads, I saw a post by Jeff Gilbert (part of the SCCM writing team) regarding a unique approach to updating product documentation. They have, in effect, patched the existing offline help file (.CHM) to include updated content.

This method reminds me of the scene in Minority Report where Chief John Anterton (played by Tom Cruise) is on the lamb. Riding in an ultra-modern version of a subway, he looks towards a fellow passenger that is nose-deep into the “paper”. However, the “paper” is actually a high-gloss device that updates itself in real time. With only a moment’s notice, the front page changes - much to Anterton’s dismay. He looks on to see himself cited as the city’s most wanted man and sure enough he’s recognised within seconds.

Now, I’m not saying that the Microsoft documentation team is stealing ideas from Hollywood (although the reading might be more entertaining if they did), but the concept of truly living documents is an interesting one. Imagine having the confidence that every time you pressed F1 or clicked “HELP”, that you knew you were receiving the most timely and accurate information possible – with or without the use of an active Internet connection at the time.

I think this is a great idea and certainly one that I would welcome even further investments among the rest of the Microsoft product stack.

Read the teams blog entry regarding this

Don Brown has written an excellent article about exposing SMS agent properties through the Windows PowerShell. This local policy approach provides much more granularity than what’s available from the site properties. Check out the article at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/11/UtilitySpotlight/default.aspx.

PS’SOFT ANNOUNCES ASSET AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT SUITE: “PS’Soft, a global provider of IT asset and service management solutions, today announced the general availability of its Asset and Service Management Suite which integrates the rich asset inventory data collected by Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. PS’Soft Asset Management solution integrates with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to deliver rich end-to-end software license management capabilities. Integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 enables PS’Soft to address the needs of a vast user base of Microsoft System Center customers. “

Desired Configuration Management (DCM) is a feature in System Center Configuration Manager. With DCM, utilize Microsoft and third party best practice configuration knowledge to improve configuration definition and maintenance. Find the software you need to define configurations for your Microsoft and third party applications with Configuration Manager 2007.

At time of posting, there are 31 Configuration Packs available for download from the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Configuration Pack Catalog on Microsoft’s website.