The Service Manager product group annouced yesterday evening that they’ve hit a major milestone with the RC of the product. Read all about what’s made its way into the build on there blog:
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
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:
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)
The issue was raised recently that we needed a means of identifying all new servers introduced to the environment so that we can add them to the appropriate patching collections within SCCM. With the help of Donnie Taylor, I was able to get the following query to work:
select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where DATEDIFF(dd, SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.TimeStamp,GetDate()) < 30
Now there is no logic in the code to select only server-based operating systems, but I accomplished this by limiting this collection results to the “Windows Server Systems” collection.
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.
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.
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
Last Month was quite busy around here with the holidays and such, but Microsoft kept themselves busy as well. The following management packs were released or updated in the month of December 2007:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005 Management Pack (v6.0.6247.5)
12/21/2007 – The SQL Server 2000/2005 Management Pack monitors Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.
System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 MP for SC Operations Manager 2007 (v1.0)
12/14/2007 – With the DPM Management Pack, an administrator can centrally monitor the state of data protection and recovery for multiple DPM servers and protected computers. The Management Pack also monitors key health and performance indicators on DPM servers.
SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit (v.2.0)
12/7/2007 – The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit helps you manage Microsoft® SharePoint® environments of all sizes with two new management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007: Windows® SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack.
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 (v2.0)
12/7/2007 – This management pack is part of the Sharepoint Monitoring Toolkit. The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit helps you manage Microsoft® SharePoint® environments of all sizes with two new management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 (v2.0)
12/7/2007 – This management pack is part of the Sharepoint Monitoring Toolkit. The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit helps you manage Microsoft® SharePoint® environments of all sizes with two new management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007.
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
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