Pessoal,

Aproveitando o momento de lançamento, gostaria de compartilhar um texto bem bacana que li no blog da equipe do System Center (http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter) escrito por John Novak, Group Product Manager da equipe, sobre a integração do Windows Server 2008 e a suite System Center.

O texto está em inglês, mas vale a pena reservar um tempinho para ler.

Um abraço,

Rodrigo Dias

 

Better Together: Windows Server 2008 and the System Center Suite

Benefits and Compatibility Overview

Can you feel it!? The anticipation is growing as we count down to the Windows Server 2008 launch. Appropriately, the launch theme is “Heroes Happen Here.”

Heroes are big these days. Just ask my wife how much she has spent on superhero action figures and books for our son this past year.

Of course, with Windows Sever 2008 we are talking about real heroes; IT Professionals. And just like the fictional superheroes, these real IT Pro Heroes have their gadgets and superpowers ready to draw on to make them rise above us mere mortals. This year, the big talk amongst the Hero community is a superhero combination that has everyone else down at the “Hall of Justice” turning green with envy; Windows Server 2008 and System Center.

That’s right. System Center is already being used to help Heroes around the world successfully plan, for the smoothest Windows Server 2008 deployments and upgrades so the most efficient management infrastructure can be in place. Windows Server 2008 and System Center, together, these guys have some serious talent.

For starters let’s highlight some of the core ways that Windows Server 2008 and System Center combined provide some real super powers for IT professionals:

  • System Center Configuration Manager: Configuration Manager integrates with the new Network Access Protection (NAP) feature in Window Server 2008 to provide comprehensive end-point security that enables secure access to your enterprise irrespective of the access mechanism; be it remote access, LAN or wireless connections.
  • System Center Virtual Machine Manager: Virtual Machine “vNext”, due out in the second half of 2008, manages Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Hyper-V Server, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 servers, and will even manage VMWare virtualized environments. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) enables easy and fast consolidation of physical machines onto a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V infrastructure and rapid provisioning of new Hyper-V workloads.
  • Powershell: Powershell delivers additional flexibility and interoperability between Windows Server 2008 and the System Center family, enabling customers to automate normally manual efforts and align process to achieve operations that meet the needs of the dynamic IT environment.
  • System Center Operations Manager: Operations Manager provides the monitoring infrastructure that assures the health and performance of your Windows Server 2008 infrastructure. Using one or more of the 22 Operations Management Packs, customers will be able to monitor core Windows Server 2008 roles such as Active Directory, IIS, DHCP, NAP and more.

What can our customers do today to be optimally prepared and when can they expect to see these two heroes in action together? Customers that want to enjoy the benefits outlined above and be ready for the optimal planning, deployment and management situation should be evaluating and familiarizing themselves not only Windows Server 2008 today, but also the System Center suite of offerings. Trial versions of the System Center offerings are available here.

Customers interested in managing their Windows Server 2008 upgrades and deployments can take advantage of Microsoft’s Enterprise Edition of the System Center Server Management Suite license, which allows customers to manage the entire lifecycle of their servers--including an unlimited number of operating system environments on a single server--with one low-cost purchase and provides economical value for managing physical and virtual environments.

On the compatibility and support front, we’ve made significant investments in the Windows Server 2008 platform. Customers will find that we’re working to ensure that the System Center applications all are compatible and run on Windows Server 2008 as part of their infrastructures. We’re also working on specific support for Windows Server 2008 and its various roles so that customers can optimally deploy, manage and maintain their IT operations. The team is busy at work with the RTM code of Windows Server right now to ensure complete compatibility across the System Center suite and will be providing the necessary updates in the coming weeks and months as you’ll see below. The following provides information on how we define compatibility and support and what we’re doing for each of the System Center offerings in these areas:

  • Compatibility: We define compatibility as the ability for our System Center core products to run on the Windows Server 2008 platform. That means we’ve test System Center Configuration Manager, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager to run on Windows Server 2008.
  • Support: Support means we’ve successfully tested that our System Center Operations and Configuration Management packs support Windows Server 2008 roles like Active Directory, etc.

Let me outline the compatibility and support for each of the offerings in the System Center family:

Configuration Manager 2007:

  • Compatible - Second half CY08 – Will run on Windows Server 2008 with the release of SP1
  • Support - Second quarter CY08 – Management of Windows Server 2008

Data Protection Manager 2007:

  • Now – Compatible with Windows Server 2008 and can protect Windows Server 2008 core

Operations Manager 2007:

  • Compatible - Second quarter CY08 – Windows Server 2008 when running SP1 and additional updates
  • Support - Second quarter CY08 – Management Packs for monitoring Windows Server 2008 server roles

Virtual Machine Manager “vNext”:

  • Compatible - Second half CY08 – Will run on Windows Server 2008
  • Support - Second half CY08 – Will manage Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2008

Essentials 2007:

  • Compatible - Second quarter CY08 – Windows Server 2008 when running SP1 and additional updates
  • Support - Second quarter CY08 – Management Packs for monitoring all Windows Server 2008 server roles

Capacity Planner 2007:

  • Now – Compatible with Windows Server 2008 and can be used for planning pre-deployment

There are also some of our previous offerings which will most likely not be compatible with Windows Server 2008, but will offer support for Windows Server 2008. Let me run through those as well.

SMS 2003:

  • Compatibility not being tested
  • Support – Second quarter CY08 – Agents for managing Windows Server 2008 will be available

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005:

  • Compatibility not being tested
  • Support - Second quarter CY08 – Management Packs for monitoring Windows Server 2008 server roles

Virtual Machine Manager 2007:

  • Compatibility not being tested and no anticipated support

Reporting Manager:

  • Compatibility not being tested and no anticipated support

Hopefully that’s useful information as you’re evaluating Windows Server 2008 and the System Center suite and provides a good overview of the timing and availability of all the components in the suite and their compatibility with Windows Server 2008. For more information on the "better together" story of System Center and Windows Server, check out this page on the System Center site.

The System Center and Windows Server 2008 teams look forward to seeing you at one of the WW launch events this year.

Regards,

John Novak, Group Product Manager