YAASAFTSAT (AKA Yet Another Awesome Solution Accelerator From the Solution Accelerator Team) :)

Check out the new Service Level Dashboard 2.0 Beta for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 RC1

This free Solution Accelerator collects and monitors operational measurements for your line of business (LOB) applications. Its graphical dashboard makes it easy to keep tabs on service availability and performance, letting you:

· Spot trends in service availability and performance

· Head off problems before they occur

· Reduce costs by streamlining IT operations

This new version of the Dashboard uses Operations Manager as the engine, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 as its presentation platform to track and report service levels on a near real-time basis.  The Dashboard now tracks additional metrics for service level compliance, including mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failures (MTBF), and application service level trends.  The Dashboard’s SharePoint-based authentication lets you create individual Dashboards by department, so you can easily track service levels for different groups in the organization.

Click here to join the Beta on Microsoft Connect (you’ll need your Microsoft Live ID).  Already using SCOM 2007 R2 Release Candidate 1 ? Click here

I’ve been waiting for this guide for a while (‘cause that’s how I roll), but if you are interested in guidance on when/how to use Active Directory in your perimeter network, the AD team has released a guide for that:

Active Directory Domain Services in the Perimeter Network (Windows Server 2008)

The guide covers the following AD models for the perimeter network:

• No Active Directory (local accounts)
• Isolated forest model
• Extended corporate forest model
• Forest trust model

Overview

This guide contains direction for determining whether Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is appropriate for your perimeter network (also known as the DMZs or extranets), the various models for deploying AD DS in perimeter networks, and planning and deployment information for Read Only Domain Controllers (RODCs) in the perimeter network.

Because RODCs provide new capabilities for perimeter networks, most of the content in this guide describes how to plan for and deploy this new Windows Server 2008 feature. However, the other Active Directory models introduced in this guide are also viable solutions for your perimeter network.