Hello Readers/Viewers! I am not sure if you have seen this yet, but I thought I would point it out to you… TechNet Library Entry for Database Sizing and Performance I just recently found out about it, and as I know many of you have had questions about this for a long time, I figured I would pass it along...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Ryan Andorfer has done it again - created a great solution which you can leverage as an example to perform similar tasks… This time it is all about AUTOMATING the ability to EXPORT and CHECK-IN Runbooks from Orchestrator to Team Foundation Server. NOTE: This example solution does...

Hello Again Readers/Viewers! Have you checked out the System Center Orchestrator - Engineering Blog lately? It is full of valuable information about Orchestrator – Tips, Tricks, Secrets… a veritable Technical Wonderland. Here is the URL: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/ Some topics that may be...

Hello Readers/Viewers, I wanted to take a moment to introduce someone who you may have already interacted with or gained knowledge from by reading his blog… If not, I hope that this post will increase awareness of his blog and Orchestrator skill set! Brian Nielsen , SharePoint Guy :) Blog: http://wss...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Today we have something a little different, for this, the latest edition to the “8 Minute Demo” video series… This video presentation/demonstration has been a long time coming, as I have been working on this project for quite a few months now. It will walk you through the "Simple...

Hello Readers and Viewers! Again, it has been a while, but I hope to make it up to you with an extra-special (and extra-long) “8 Minute Demo” Video! This one is warm off the heels (okay, cold off the heels) of MMS 2012, where I presented and demonstrated some Policy to Runbook Migration Tips… I did my...

Hello Readers and Viewers! The long awaited and highly anticipated SC2012 Solution Runbook Examples are here! I mentioned them yesterday during my first Instructor-Led Lab @ MMS 2012 , and now they are available here, from my blog and CodePlex . If you happen to be attending MMS 2012, be sure to stop...

Hello Readers/Viewers! I realize that these posts have been few and far between lately, but all that is going to change during and after MMS 2012 ! (believe me, this was by design, not by laziness ;) To get this blog rolling again, albeit slowly, I wanted to let everyone know that the post I made a couple...

Hello Readers/Viewers! During a recent Microsoft Internal Event (TechReady), I realized that the CodePlex IPs that I updated for System Center 2012 Orchestrator were in fact just that, updated – not UPGRADED . Original Blog Post is here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/charlesjoy/archive/2011/11/03/orchestrator...

Hello Readers/Viewers! I know, I know, it has been quite some time since I made a "real" update to my blog, you know, something with actual content. :) After a couple days of upgrading, testing, renaming, testing some more, recompiling, documentation updating, and finally more testing the following...

Hello Readers/Viewers, While many of you have probably started calling it something new like, “Orchestrator Community”, the “Opalis Community” (as it will remain to me :), is still growing, and FAST! That said, I wanted to introduce, or for many of you, re-introduce someone who is taking that community...

Hello Readers/Viewers! I am proud to announce that the System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed book is now available. For some of you this is not news, as it was actually released a couple weeks ago, this is just the first opportunity I have had to get the information on my blog. :) Some...

Good Evening Readers/Viewers! I have a very special, “Just for Fun” addition to the “8-Minute-Demo” Video Series tonight… In this video, I create and execute a very simple Orchestrator Runbook, without touching the keyboard! You heard me right, no keyboard OR mouse. How did I do this? Well, with a bit...

Good Evening Readers/Viewers! Tonight, from the road, we have a very different “8-Minute-Demo”. In fact, it may be the only “8-Minute-Demo” that is shorter than 8 minutes. :) The fact of the matter is, this topic is really not that complex, it is just simple “quirky” functionality I recently found within...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Today we take a look at some new functionality within the VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Release. BACKGROUND If you haven’t already heard, Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 was recently released. In the long list of new features , one in particular stood out...

I recently completed a project where I needed to orchestrate and automate the deployment of System Center Advisor Agents (and pre-requisites) on 228 different Host machines. PROBLEM SUMMARY: A recent configuration request required we enable System Center Advisor for a large number of Sales Demo Host...

Good Evening Readers/Viewers! I figured it was time to create another “8-Minute-Demo” for my favorite video series… So I have come back with something that I have recently been implementing for any Runbook implementing PowerShell data extraction for SQL data storage. It is a very simple concept, that...

Hello Readers/Viewers, as the “Opalis Community” is growing we have more and more great content emerging. Today, I wanted to take a moment to introduce Tiander Turpijn, another one of my many co-workers here at MSFT and a contributor to the Opalis Community. Small Bio: Tiander Turpijn has joined Microsoft...

Readers/Viewers, in the event that you have not yet heard about the release of the SC Orchestrator 2012 BETA, here it is: ***Announcing the System Center Orchestrator Beta!*** Here are some related and helpful links to accompany this announcement: Download the SC Orchestrator 2012 BETA: http://www.microsoft...

Readers/Viewers, this is just a simple post which will be directly referenced content by the OIS 6.3 - Advanced Workflow & Best Practice Video Tutorial post. BACKGROUND Opalis Integration Server (OIS) has the built-in ability to “Self-Monitor”. Each object has the ability to throw an exception if...

Readers/Viewers, this is just a simple post which will be directly referenced as “see also” content by the OIS 6.3 - Advanced Workflow & Best Practice Video Tutorial post. OIS 6.3 - External Interfaces: Any interface which can integrate or orchestrate the initiation of OIS workflows. Exposed OIS...

Happy Friday Readers and Viewers! I thought it was time I present you with a collection of “Advanced Workflow & Best Practice” Video Tutorials. I realize that many of you may think the timing on this is strange, given that the public SC Orchestrator 2012 Beta is due to release TODAY . Rest assured...

Good Morning Readers and Viewers! I had my head in the clouds for this installment of the 8-Minute-Demo Video Series . Today we explore Windows Azure and the Orchestrated Deployment of a Cloud Application utilizing System Center ( Opalis Integration Server and Service Manager ). VIDEO VIDEO DEMONSTRATION...

Hello Readers/Viewers, I wanted to publish a short, yet important post about one of my co-workers here at MSFT: Jim Britt . He recently started his own TechNet Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jbritt/ As you will see from his blog, he has been using Opalis (here at MSFT) for a while now and wanted to...

Readers/Viewers – The following is a guide to my past and current blog posts: ALL VIDEOS - YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/charlesjoyMS COMMUNITY CONTENT - CodePlex: http://opalis.codeplex.com/ and http://orchestrator.codeplex.com/ What is Opalis Integration Server / System...