System Center Guide

I was just looking for some contextual illustrations for Capacity Planner and noticed that there are SharePoint beta models available now. Actually, they’ve been out there for a while now, but this is one of the System Center products that I use less often. So, forgive my oversight in that regard. Anyhow, the SharePoint models, currently in beta and available from the Connect site (Live ID required), will allow you to access what the minimum hardware needed to deploy SharePoint in your environment, along with guidance on where and how such hardware should be deployed. Additionally, the models will help optimise your deployment for high availability and peak performance, as well as the “what if” scenarios to see how the SharePoint architecture will stand up to growing demands.

Installing the tool adds application models for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. Check it out.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb961988.aspx

Clive Eastwood discusses the first Solution Accelerator to be released for System Center Operations Manager. The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit includes more rules, new and improved reports and comprehensive coverage of the two management packs utilised by this toolkit.

Clive goes into more detail on his blog. More after the jump.

Read Clive Eastwood’s Blog Entry

There are some confusing elements to the new System Center licensing structure – particularly for Operations Manager. The most common question is when does a customer require the Enterprise Operations Management License (OML) instead of the Standard OML? This is a valid question since the Enterprise OML price is equal to approximately three times the cost of the Standard OML.

The “How to Buy” webpage doesn’t help to explain the matter much:

Standard OML

Monitoring, troubleshooting, audit collection, and reporting for servers, including Storage/File/Print and Networking workloads, the base operating system, system hardware, and other management agents on the system

Enterprise OML

Monitoring, troubleshooting, audit collection and reporting for any server workload or application, including the base operating system, system hardware, and other management agents on the system

However, upon reviewing the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Licensing Brief, I was able to determine from the Managed Workloads section that the Enterprise version is required for anything beyond monitoring of the following:

• System Resource Manager
• Password Change Notification
• Baseline Security Analyzer
• Reliability and Availability Services
• Print Server
• Distributed File System (DFS)
• File Replication Service (FRS)
• Network File System (NFS)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Windows SharePoint® Services
• Distributed Naming Service (DNS)
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
• Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)

Whereas the Enterprise OML also permits the following usage scenarios:

• Business Applications
• Database
• Identity Management
• Messaging
• Collaboration
• Web
• Security
• Management
• Remote Access
• Terminal Emulation
• Other

So, clearly if you want to take full advantage of Operations Manager 2007 and its ability to manage distributed applications or core infrastructure products an Enterprise OML is required.

TechNet Webcast: Deploying Operating Systems with System Center Configuration Manager (Part 1 of 2) (Level 300)
Monday, December 10, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Keith Combs, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032360204&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Optimizing Desktop Management with System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization (Level 300)
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Jeff Wettlaufer, Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation 
Chad Jones, Group Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032358169&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Software Distribution with System Center Configuration Manager (Level 300)
Thursday, December 13, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Cheng Wei, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032355812&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Deploying Operating Systems with System Center Configuration Manager (Part 2 of 2) (Level 300)
Friday, December 14, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Michael Murphy, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032360206&Culture=en-US

Interested in learning what commands are available using the Virtual Machine Manager command shell? The following command will allow you to view all VMM cmdlets and their syntax.  I hope this tip will help in your journey to exploring System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Get-Command –PSSnapin Virtual MachineManagerSnapIn | format-list

In case you’ve been asleep for the past month, you’re probably aware that there has been quite a bit of publicity regarding Microsoft’s virtualisation strategy coming out of TechEd ITForum 2007. Most notably would have to be the launch of System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This product is designed to simplify the creation, deployment and management of virtual environments. Finally, Microsoft has a competitive solution that may, just may mind you, be compelling enough to sway customers from VMWare’s ESX Server.

While VMWare still has a competitive advantage in its vMotion technology, the simplified management experience of SCVMM, particularly when coupled with other System Center technologies, may be good enough for the major of customers seeking to mature their IT infrastructure posture through virtualisation. Then, add into the fold Microsoft’s acquisition of SoftGrid, the forthcoming Hyper-V technology in Windows Server 2008 and a matured Virtual Server product and what you have is a very strong competitor to VMWare.

Is it possible that VMWare rose to the top so quickly and easily that they’ve spent the past several years enjoying the fruits of their labours instead of continuing to pull further and further away from the pack? Could VMWare become the next Novell and slowly drift off into the land of the obsolete?

Only time will tell. But, if I’m right, then I’ll say you heard it here first. If I’m wrong, then I can’t wait to see what unfolds next in this highly competitive space.

The Virtual Machine Manager Scripting Guide explains how to create Microsoft Windows PowerShell scripts that execute Virtual Machine Manger 2007 commands, and provides many useful sample scripts.

Download the guide

The OpsMgr product groups has provided a blog entry of every executable/MSI associated with OpsMgr 2007. Trust me, this is worth bookmarking!

View the Article

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.

Well, some of you may have noticed my activity level drop off this week. That was due to the overwhelming pressures of having to prepare for the Brandon Consulting System Center Practice Launch at the Guinness Store House on Thursday. I had visited the locale on several previous visits to Ireland, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined coming back to the Store House to launch the practice that I would be managing while living here.

Most visitors to the Store House would completely overlook the 3rd floor business centre that has a number of rooms available to rent for private occassions. Similarly, the 7th floor Gravity Bar (a glass-enclosed circular bar that provides a 360-degree view of Dublin and the end-point for the Store House tour) is also available for letting during the evening. This provided an excellent view of the city at night.

The launch event included 5 sessions held throughout the day, with myself delivering the lion’s share of 3 sessions. We kicked off with Bill O’Brien, Business Group Lead – Server and Tools for Microsoft Ireland, discussing Core Infrastructure Optimisation. This was followed by my three presentations on System Center Operations Manager, Configuration Manager and Essentials. We wrapped up with a brief discussion about the System Center licensing, presented by our licensing partner, Micro Warehouse.

In all, we had fantastic attendance and overhelming responses to our offer for a whiteboard session with prospective customers. At the end of the day, I sat exhaustively in awe of what had just transpired: I had just finished launching my new practice at the Guinness Store House. How amazing is that?