I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with customers over the last 6-12 months helping them plan out and deploy their first private clouds managed by System Center 2012.  To help people get started faster I headed into the Enterprise Engineering...

I just noticed that all of these cool demo videos were posted to TechNet Video earlier this month.  Check them out to see how System Center 2012 can make managing your private cloud a whole lot easier and better!   Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza...

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one is a basic overview of what Maintenance Mode is and when/how you’d want to use it, plus a couple common issues you may run into. ===== What is Maintenance Mode? Maintenance mode is a feature in...

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one talks about an issue where you may be unable to see any performance or availability details using System Center 2012 Operations Manager widgets ===== Symptoms When using performance widgets in...

With System Center Operations Manager 2012, the 32-bit agent cannot be installed in a 64-bit server. Although - in general - 32-bit applications can still be monitored by the 64-bit agent, you won’t be able to collect 32-bit custom performance counters...

Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 contains a number of fixes for System Center 2012 Operations Manager, App Controller and Virtual Machine Manager, including cross platform fixes and support for Oracle Solaris 11. I won’t go into all the details...

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses a database related issue you may run into when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager. ===== Symptoms While installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager, the...

With Microsoft System Center 2012 Operations Manager connections to other Enterprise Management (EM) tools or Service Desks are now provided via System Center 2012 Orchestrator.  Customers have been asking how to build a suite of Orchestrator Runbooks...

This came out a little while ago but better late than never to promote it! This management pack synchronizes System Center 2012 - Operations Manager Application Performance Monitoring (APM) alerts and Team Foundation Server (TFS) work items. After importing...

An update to Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 has been released.  In addition to the previous fixes for Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and App Controller (AC), the update rollup now includes fixes for Operations Manager (OM). A few things to...

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one describes an event you may see when deleting a Favorite in AVIcode or System Center 2012 Operations Manager. ===== Summary After deleting a Favorite Report from AVIcode Advisor in...

          Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) The Microsoft Operations Framework team is working on a new guide: Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud...

The following is a self-study guide put together by a Technical Account Manager here at Microsoft named Scott Rachui. He was gracious enough to let me post the contents here so if you’re looking for a crash course on System Center Advisor and App Controller...

I’ve put together a new TechNet Wiki page that is a “one stop shopping” index of the following things: · Forums · Galleries · Libraries (aka “docs”) · Survival Guides · Wikis · Engineering Team Blogs · Microsoft Employee Blogs · Community Blogs · MVP...

As I write this post flying back from TechEd, North America ( check out Day 1 keynote ), it never ceases to amaze me how technology has really changed our lives!!! Speaking of which, what an honor that all of you voted System Center 2012 as best Microsoft...

As Vijay announced we are excited about the CTP2 release of the System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 that is now ready to download! System Center 2012 SP1 integrates with and leverages the exciting new features in the Windows Server 2012 RC while continuing...

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one talks about an issue where installing a System Center 2012 Operations Manager fails if there is not enough free disk space for the Data file folder or the Log file folder. ===== Symptoms Installing...

I have been talking to a number of people, both online as well as in person (at MMS, TechED and in other occasions) and one of the recurring questions I get, as people plan for their deployment of System Center 2012 – Operations Manager and want to use...

App Controller – Evaluation VHD http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4da3d1d9-91d4-472e-acb7-10885df9d1c2 Operations Manager – Evaluation VHD http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=00b78007-638f...

Check out the System Center 2012 Guided Hands On Labs!  They are a set of 14 labs that cover how to use System Center to deliver IT as a Service using a Private Cloud.  The demos span across the three pillars of System Center – Application Management...

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team is working on a new guide: System Center 2012 – Operations Manager. Join the beta now. Join the System Center 2012 – Operations Manager Beta. This guide outlines the infrastructure design elements that are crucial...

So... I was talking to my friend/colleague Eric in MSIT (Microsoft IT), who is one of our internal System Center power users, as you can imagine. MSIT manages thousands of line of business applications. As APM gets rolled out to web farms, or new servers...

Are you looking for a good way to get started learning everything that’s new in OpsMgr 2012? If so then here’s the guide for you: ===== Operations Manager got its start under the name Microsoft Operations Manager or MOM, after which it evolved to be known...

The System Center 2012 Monitoring Pack for Power Management enables you to monitor and manage the power consumption of computers running Windows Server 2012. This Management Pack provides: Visibility into power consumption Visibility and control of power...

We're happy to announce that MMS will return to Las Vegas, NV, April 8-12, 2013! In order to be one of the first to know about the opening of MMS 2013 registration, send mail to mmsnotfy@microsoft.com to subscribe to MMS News & Updates. http...