System Center Blog

System Center Universe DACH Now Open For Registration

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:56:02 GMT

The System Center Universe is expanding to Europe! A new System Center Universe will be held in Switzerland in September! For two days, IT professionals will get up to speed on the latest information about Microsoft System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management topics in 38 sessions. Registration is now open and there is an early bird discount. I will be a presenter at the event and look forward to seeing everybody there! Details below from the System Center Universe DACH event team.

When and where is the event happening?

The event will be held in Bern/Switzerland on September 16th and 17th 2013. Check out the web site for more information –> http://www.systemcenteruniverse.ch

Why should I attend?

During 2 days we present the latest information about Microsoft System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management topics. Learn how all these products are working, how they can be integrated and how you can use them in your own company to bring your IT infrastructure to the next level. Still unsure if this is the correct event to attend? Check this out:

The best of the best speakers from all over the world present Microsoft Windows, System Center and Windows Azure content
More than 15 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), Microsoft Program Managers and Microsoft Consultants are presenting content
2 days, 2 keynotes and 36 breakout sessions in 4 parallel tracks
No marketing content but technical in-depth, real-world sessions
Meet the experts sessions (discussions, Q&A)
Sessions are presented in German and English
Networking options with other specialists and speakers
Sponsoring booths
Food & Beverages during the whole day
Exclusive Networking Party on September 16th

What about pricing?

No time wasting here. We only offer 1 package for attendees plus an early bird option:

Full 2-day pass (all inclusive), early bird price until June 30th –> CHF 399.00
Full 2-day pass (all inclusive) –> CHF 449.00

Prices are in Swiss francs. Make sure you benefit from the early bird option if you know that you will attend. Additionally, the first 50 registered attendees will get a special gift!

Is a session list available?

We published the schedule but not a detailed session list yet. Sessions will be planned and announced after TechEd North America in June 2013.

Who are the event sponsors?

Without sponsors it would not be possible to organize and carry out an event like that. We
are therefore pleased that we were able to inspire a number of sponsors for this event. The actual sponsors are:

Platinum Sponsors

Microsoft
Cisco

Gold Sponsors

Veeam
Provance
Cireson
OpxLogix

Silver Sponsors

Nice

Some of the sponsors will be present at the event with a booth. Use this option to ask and talk about new or planned products with the manufacturers.

Who is the event host?

The event is completely planned and carried out by itnetx gmbh – Microsoft Gold Partner and Microsoft Switzerland Partner of the Year 2011 and 2012.

Hope to see you in September!

TechNet Radio Series on Building a Private Cloud

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:44:21 GMT

We’ve recently been running a series of TechNet Radio shows on Building a Private Cloud with technical evangelists Keith Mayer and Yung Chou to show you how to build and manage your hybrid cloud environment with System Center 2012 SP1. Tune in as they demo for us how to get started with building and operating a private cloud.

(Part 1) Building a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 - Introduction

(Part 2) Laying the Foundation with Windows Server 2012

(Part 3) Deploying & Upgrading to System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager

(Part 4) Configuring Storage Fabric in Virtual Machine Manager

(Part 5) Configuring Network Fabric in Virtual Machine Manager

(Part 6) Configuring Compute Fabric in Virtual Machine Manager

(Part 7) Creating & Delegating Private Clouds in Virtual Machine Manager

(Part 8) Deploying & Managing Private Cloud Applications

(Part 9) Updating the Private Cloud Fabric

(Part 10) Protecting Your Private Cloud with Data Protection Manager

(Part 11) Dynamic Optimization of the Private Cloud Fabric

(Part 12) Building a Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure using Windows Azure

(Part 13) Building a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Managing Your Hybrid Cloud Network

Once you are done with all of that, you can head over to the TechNet Evaluation Center and download the Private Cloud Evaluation Software to get started on your own private cloud.

Enjoy!

Overview of Windows Azure Services for Windows Server

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:17:36 GMT

Wouldn’t it be great if you could run Windows Azure in your own datacenter? Well, now you can! With the recent release of Windows Azure Services for Windows Server you can run elements of Azure IaaS on premise in your own datacenter for virtual machine, database, and web site infrastructure. The solution costs nothing beyond the usual System Center, Windows Server, and SQL Server licenses. It leverages System Center components like Service Provider Foundation and Virtual Machine Manager to provide the management layer while providing a user experience that is visually consistent with the Windows Azure portal.

Marc Umeno, a Microsoft Principal Program Manager and long time System Center expert, sat down with Microsoft Technical Evangelist David Tesar at the Microsoft Management Summit to give a walkthrough of Windows Azure Services for Windows Server.

Check it out!

You can watch or download the full interview to your device from its source here or watch it embedded in the post below.

New Series of Microsoft Virtual Academy Courses on System Center–Ask a System Center Expert Your Questions!

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:55:00 GMT

On May 21, Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) continues its monthly series of free Q&A sessions led by Microsoft technical evangelists. This month, we’re releasing several great System Center 2012 SP1 courses and have invited Symon Perriman to answer any questions you may have about the product.

Space is limited. Register now.

The live, audience-led discussion is geared toward IT professionals that are interested in System Center 2012 SP1. Attendees can get answers to their questions on technical capabilities, get advice for using products in a live environment; and learn from their peers in the industry and Microsoft expert Symon Perriman.

This MVA Live Q&A session will focus on topics covered in the previous System Center Courses posted on MVA. Prepare for this event by taking the following courses and testing your knowledge with the module self-assessments:

· What’s New in System Center 2012

· System Center 2012 SP1: Capabilities

· System Center 2012 SP1: Updates

· System Center 2012: Configuration Manager (SCCM)

· System Center 2012: Data Protection Manager (DPM)

· System Center 2012: Orchestrator (SCO) & Service Manager (SCSM)

· System Center 2012: Operations Manager (SCOM)

· System Center 2012: Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

· System Center 2012: Licensing Overview

· System Center Advisor

As a Microsoft corporate Technical Evangelist covering Private Cloud, System Center & Hyper-V, Symon Perriman is a recognized industry expert in datacenter management, cloud, virtualization, high-availability, disaster recovery, mobile technologies and social media. Previously he spent four years as a Program Manager on the Server Clustering & High-Availability team and has been working in the technology industry since 2002. Symon holds several patents and certifications, including MCSE Private Cloud, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and VMware Certified Professional (VCP). Additionally, he has contributed to four technical books for virtualization, server, clustering and SQL; co-hosts the ‘Edge Show’ for IT Professionals; and has had technologies featured in PC Magazine. Symon also serves as President & Founder of FanWide Technologies LLC and graduated from Duke University with degrees in Computer Science, Economics and Film & Digital Studies.

Registration is now open for this free Q&A event: Register now.

Join our ITPro Panel and influence future Microsoft Server Management and Cloud products!

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:53:01 GMT

The Microsoft Server and Management Studios User Research team is looking for IT Professionals to join our customer panel. Your participation in this panel will help us understand customer requirements, workflows, and usage trends when working with Windows Server, fabric virtualization, cloud management, and infrastructure management. In exchange for your participation in studies you elect to engage in; you get to choose Microsoft product gratuity from our standard usability gratuity lists.

We are looking to grow our panel particularly in the areas of Cloud administration and virtualization infrastructure management. You will be asked to participate in customer phone/site interviews, focus groups, surveys, and usability studies.

We are asking potential panel candidates to start by completing a survey that will help us determine if you fit the criteria for the panel.

Once you complete the survey, we will contact you with next steps for participation.

We currently are only accepting participants located in the US but will add additional countries in the near future.

Sound interesting? To get started, please complete this survey. We will contact you to let you know if you meet the requirements to participate.

Windows Server/System Center MVP Speaker Series Starting This Week!

Travis Wright MSFT — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:04:36 GMT

We are launching a new Windows Server/System Center MVP Speaker Series this week! This continuing education series of presentations will be delivered by some of our MVPs on various topics around Window Server and System Center. The content will be deep dive, advanced, and very technical. The MVPs are some of the most knowledgeable people about the products in the world, especially when it comes to real world experience and practical application.

Anyone can attend because all of the meetings will be presented over Lync. The meetings will also be recorded and made available afterwards for on demand viewing.

This week we will have two sessions and we’ll normally have one per week. The two sessions coming up this week are:

Automating Hyper-V Administration with PowerShell (Tuesday at 8:00 AM Pacific time)
Keeping your CIO Happy: Executive Scorecarding with SQL, SharePoint, and System Center 2012 Operations Manager (Thursday at 8:00 AM Pacific time)

You can grab all the meeting invites for the speaker series from this location.

You will need the Lync 2013 client to be installed on your computer to view and hear the presentation. You can download and install that from here.

Watch the Windows Server/System Center Partner and Customer Solutions blog for announcements on this series including the schedule for next quarter’s sessions.

Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 is now available

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:12:35 GMT

Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available. This update includes a bunch of great fixes for App Controller, Operations Manager, Service Manager, Orchestrator and Data Protection Manager. You can get all the details and a download link here:

KB2802159 - Description of Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2802159)

J.C. Hornbeck | Knowledge Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

System Center All Up: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/
System Center – Configuration Manager Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
System Center – Data Protection Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
System Center – Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
System Center – Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
System Center – Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center – Virtual Machine Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm

Windows Intune: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsintune/
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/
The AD RMS blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/rmssupp/

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv

The Forefront Endpoint Protection blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 is now available

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:01:17 GMT

Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 is now available for download and includes fixes for Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager. The article below discusses the issues that are fixed in Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft System Center 2012 as well as download and installation instructions.

KB2822776 - Description of Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2822776)

J.C. Hornbeck | Knowledge Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

Windows Intune: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsintune/
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/
The AD RMS blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/rmssupp/

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv

Global Service Monitor and System Center Advisor Support for Windows Server 2012 Now Available

Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Team — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Today, we are pleased to announce the commercial availability of Global Service Monitor (GSM), a Windows Azure-based service with active Microsoft Software Assurance coverage for System Center 2012 server management licenses.

Learn more about GSM and System Center Advisor support for Windows Server 2012 here.

Brad Anderson Defines the “Cloud OS”

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:44:06 GMT

Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President, Windows Server & System Center, is talking about the concept of the “Cloud OS” today on his new blog called “In the Cloud”. Brad has been a transformational leader of our System Center and Windows Server groups for a long time now and really has his pulse on the industry, customers, and Microsoft technology. In his blog, he will be talking about Microsoft’s vision for enterprise cloud computing using Microsoft’s breadth of technology ranging across Windows Azure, Windows Server, and System Center and more importantly how they all come together as the “Cloud OS”.

Here’s how to follow Brad:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/inthecloudmsft

Brad’s blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud (RSS)

Also, check out Brad’s original introductory post when he launched his blog last week:

Getting ‘In the Cloud’ with Microsoft