It has been a while since I blogged anything, in particular, anything to do with System Center and Forefront, which is kind of the point of this blog. So, this is a heads-up that there will be more coming soon, such as;
- Deployment with SCCM
- Management Packs are your friends
- DPM – what’s all the fuss about?
- Virtualization – what you need to know
Watch this space. In the meantime, I am at TechReady7 and, whilst I can’t say too much about the technology, I can say it will be worth the wait. Come along for the ride and let’s get going!
This is an interesting and informative piece on the licensing discussed at MMS.
http://www.buit.org/2008/05/08/server-management-suite-enterprise-smse-call-licensing-model/
Not mentioned in this article are the required Server 200X Standard, Enterprise and Data center licenses. But when your are running a lot of VM’s take al look at the Data center value proposition with the unlimited amount Virtual Machine options!!!
So, a small recap to see if SMSE is the licensing for your organization:
- Your running a big number of virtual machines and want SCOM for monitoring
- Your using SCOM and SCCM to manage your complete environment, running some virtual machines
- Your using SCOM and SCCM to manage your complete environment and want to use DPM or VMM
- Your using DPM and SCCM, SCOM or VMM running some virtual machines
- You want to use SCOM and VMM
For more information visit the Microsoft System Center License Site and save yourselves some money.
On Tuesday 29th, at the Microsoft Management Summit Summit in Las Vegas, Bob Muglia announced the Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions Beta (Ops Mgr Cross Plat) – more here http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2008/04/29/operations-manager-2007-goes-cross-platform.aspx
“What does mean? Well, with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions Beta organizations can see how they will be able to extend the best-of-breed monitoring capabilities of Operations Manager 2007 to the HP-UX, Sun Solaris™, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server environments.
Some of the key benefits include:
- Improves service levels across Microsoft, Unix and Linux platforms.
- Enables administrators to more easily manage cross-platform environments.
- Accelerates incident resolution through expert knowledge issues and causes.
- Enables detailed heterogeneous performance analysis and reporting.
- Automates routine administration for non-Microsoft platforms
To help introduce you to this exciting new solution, we've created new resources and communities where you can learn more:
- Download the Cross Platform Extensions data sheet.
- "Read all about it" in our new white paper.
- Download the Cross Platform Extensions Beta (see below).
- Visit the Cross Platform Extensions Team Blog (see the first posting here!)
- Join the new Cross Platform Extensions Beta newsgroup (available through the System Center TAP/Beta program under Microsoft Connect).”
You can download the Cross Platform Extensions Beta through Microsoft Connect. To help you navigate to the right spot, follow these directions:
- Go to Microsoft Connect, and log in.
- Click on Connection Directory at the top menu.
- Scroll down the list of categories to System Center TAP/Beta.
- Within this category you will see the Program, "Operations Manager Public Beta (Cross Platform and Interop)". Click Apply Now.
- Complete the survey, and then you're in and can download the Ops Mgr Cross Plat Beta!
More information will soon appear on the Operations Manager 2007 TechCenter
I would highly recommend visiting this site to learn how to protect yourself and those around you (and I include your family) from online threats. 
http://www.getsafeonline.org/ There is also a blog at Get Safe Online Blog
Security is everybody's responsibility and, I would like to echo the advice of my Colleague Ed Gibson (Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft) and suggest that you talk to your family and friends of the potential issues around presenting yourself online.
Take the ten minute internet safety guide. 
This annual 3 day event is coming to a close and the last session is running. I presented 2 sessions today - "Virtualization, Friend or Foe" and "Network Access Protection".
The presentations are available here http://www.microsoft.com/uk/security/infosec2008
Channel 9 interview with Mark Russinovich, founder of www.sysinternals.com with (Bryce Coggswell) and now Senior Fellow at Microsoft.
Watch the video here http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=365911
Companies should think twice about skipping Windows Vista and should get started sooner rather than later on updating their client desktops to the latest Microsoft operating system, according to an independent report issued by Forrester Research.
The report, "Building the Business Case for Windows Vista," says there are a number of reasons to upgrade now, even if avoiding Vista to wait for Windows 7 may seem like a viable option. The company has issued a second report, "Lessons Learned from Early Adopters of Windows Vista," to show how some users have handled migrations
Forrester lays out five reasons companies should begin upgrading soon, including the fact that there are few viable alternatives, given the depth of Windows penetration in the enterprise. The research firm says its hardware surveys show Windows is the operating system found on 99% of PCs in North America and Europe. In addition, Windows is the operating system on 97% of PCs in small businesses, Forrester says.
Benjamin Gray, author of the report, notes that while Apple's Mac OS and Linux are enjoying renewed visibility, switching thousands of users from Windows to another platform is not a workable solution for the majority of companies. In addition, users need to stay current on Microsoft and independent-software-vendor (ISV) support of Windows operating systems, he says.
Forrester notes the expiration milestones for extended support and security patches on Windows 2000 and XP, and the fact that Windows 7 isn't expected to ship until 2010 at the earliest, as reasons users should keep their desktop operating system fresh.
Two other reasons for a prompt migration to Vista are the probable unavailability of Windows XP after June 30, 2008, and uncertainty around Windows 7. Microsoft has extended the deadline once for XP already, and Forrester predicts it will not happen again. In addition, the report says uncertainty around the availability and feature set of Windows 7 is a red flag for those looking to skip Vista.
What is the Open XML Format SDK?
The Open XML Format SDK Technology Preview simplifies the task of manipulating Open XML packages. The Open XML Application Programming Interface (API) encapsulates many common tasks that developers perform on Open XML packages, so you can perform complex operations with just a few lines of code. Using this API, you can programmatically generate and manipulate Word 2007 documents, Excel 2007 spreadsheets, and PowerPoint 2007 presentations. The programming model uses managed code, so it's safe for server-side scenarios.
Where do I get the SDK?
You can download the new SDK from here:
· http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0B72FB-4A1D-4C52-BDB5-7DD7E816D046&displaylang=en
Bugs
· If you have any problems or bugs to report, please email directly to Open XML SDK Issues
Additional Resources
More information on how to use the SDK can be found in the following MSDN Library:
· http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb448854.aspx
Additional information with links to videos, how-to articles, overviews, Open XML Format information, etc. can be found here:
· XML in Office Developer Portal
· Office Open XML Formats Resource Center
· Wouter van Vugt: http://blogs.code-counsel.net/Wouter/
At the recent UK launch of Windows Server 2008 in Birmingham I talked to a lot of people about Microsoft Forefront. It was astonishing the number of people who hadn't heard of it and thought it was
1. an add-on for office
2. a web design tool
3. something for getting stones out of horses' hooves.
OK, I made that last one up. The point is though that Microsoft have released a suite of security products built to be Integrated, Comprehensive and Simple (to deploy, not in function) and we need to tell people about it.
Briefly we have Client - runs on the clients as the name suggests: Server - provides a central solution and can, among other things use multiple anti-virus engines: and Edge - a combination of Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) and Internet Application Gateway (IAG). Forefront is also available for Exchange and SharePoint. The roadmap is here
More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/forefront and the Forefront team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/forefront/
DVDs containing Hands-On-Labs are also available as well as evaluations of the products.
Security is everybody's concern and with the advent of the most secure Windows platforms ever (Vista and Server 2008) it surely makes sense to go for a comprehensive solution that compliments it.
More to follow ....
As already found here http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/03/01/performance-module-could-not-find-a-performance-counter.aspx there seems to be a global issue with SP1 for Essentials.
One problem I have seen is around a missing WSUS 'selfupdate' directory. In this instance, this fix worked;
1. create a SelfUpdate virtual directory and point it to c:\program files\update services\selfupdate.
2. An IISRESET after this should see the Update Service running.
3. Make sure the update server is pointing to the right location to get the updates and
4. run “wuauclt /detectnow /resetauthorization” on the client to make sure.
If it is an authentication issue on the web server, reinstalling IIS and WSUS can fix it.
