At TechEd North America Microsoft disclosed a lot of information about, and took System Center Orchestrator for a spin in it’s first public outing!
There is an interesting article on the Orchestrator Blog site with the details about the Beta and what to expect.
You can view the article here http://blogs.technet.com/b/scorch/archive/2011/05/17/what-to-expect-in-the-system-center-orchestrator-beta.aspx
Microsoft be running an Evaluation Program as announced here.
If you fill out the form for the Orchestrator CEP you will not only be part of the program which includes guided tours of the new features, ready made environments and calls with the Product Group, but you will also be notified the minute that the Beta is available to download!
The table below contains detailed information about the system requirements and other features of Orchestrator.
Configuration Item
Opalis 6.3
Orchestrator Beta
Orchestrator Release
OS Support for Server components
Windows Server 2003 SP2, 2003 R2 SP2, 2008, 2008 R2
Windows 2008 R2
OS Support for Client components
Windows XP, Vista, 7
Windows 7 x86 and x64
Database Support for Datastore
SQL 2005, 2008
Oracle
SQL 2008 R2
(local or remote)
System Center IPs
Existing System Center products
Existing System Center products (updated)
System Center 2012
All other IPs
(Microsoft 3rd party and community)
Functional based on the OS model they support.
Existing IP support matrix
Expect all IPs that have been remediated to support 2008 R2 to function.
QIK based IPs should be tested and remediation may be required.
New Beta IPs expected in the Orchestrator Beta timeframe:
Active Directory, FTP, VMware vSphere and IBM Tivoli Netcool Omnibus.
All Microsoft IPs that have been remediated will support 2008 R2 and Orchestrator.
More information about IPs being updated and the release cycle to be communicated at a later date.
Export/Import from Opalis to Orchestrator
All information is exported.
Import
Encrypted data that is included in an imported runbook must be re-entered (e.g. passwords)
Runbooks not in pipeline mode will be marked “Checked Out” and require remediation.
Export
Export from Orchestrator and import to Opalis is not supported.
Encrypted data is re-encrypted using the new crypto model automatically.
Web Console
Operator Console
JBOSS and OSS based
Orchestration Console
IIS and Silverlight based
QIK
As per current release
No changes
New QIK features to be communicated at a later date.
Installer experience
Opalis installation experience
JBOSS and Java separate installer
New installer experience including pre-requisite installation
SNMP
As per existing release
No support for SNMP v3
Updates to be communicated at a later date.
Activity changes
(foundation and legacy)
Legacy Activities removed:
Legacy Text / File Management Activities:
Manage Text File
Create Folder (Legacy)
Delete Folder (Legacy)
Copy File (Legacy)
Delete File (Legacy)
Move File (Legacy)
Rename File (Legacy)
Get File Status (Legacy)
Monitor File (Legacy)
Monitor Folder (Legacy)
Non-Pipeline Mode Legacy Activities:
Filter Email
Process Email
Read Email
Filter Exchange Email
Process Exchange Email
Read Exchange Email
Foundation Activities used for Legacy Mode:
Wait
Infrequently Used or Obsolete:
Pager
Purge event log
Send pop-ups
Monitor Event Log Capacity
Monitor Performance
Send Popup
As per Beta.
Further changes and updates to be communicated at a later date.
Other Activity changes (per IP)
Changes specific to each IP as it is remediated