Do you know what time it is? Yes, it’s THAT time…time for you to check out the next full release of System Center Essentials – SCE 2010! For those of you who were with us for the release of System Center Essentials 2007 a little over two years ago, you know that this is Microsoft’s IT management solution specifically designed for midsized businesses. From one console, SCE allows you to monitor and manage your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services.

Over the last two years, we’ve been getting some great feedback from customers using SCE 2007, investigating ways to improve on the existing features AND address a new trend we’ve been seeing with customers’ virtualizing server workloads. Based on all this input, the engineering team has invested a lot of work into making the following updates in this next release. We’ve - 

•  Integrated server virtualization management support, built on VMM 2008 R2 technology, including easy template-based creation of new virtual servers and live migration
• Adjusted licensing limits to allow for management of virtual servers
• Rewritten setup for an easier, intuitive installation
• Built-in automatic Microsoft Update subscription maintenance
• Provided flexible computer grouping
• Added additional software distribution target criteria

Plus a lot, lot more!So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading my blog entry and head to this URL to download the SCE 2010 trial! http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee470677.aspx

David Mills

Sr. Product Manager

Essentials 2007 SP1 Support for WSUS 3.0 SP2

System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 supports WSUS 3.0 SP1 being upgraded to WSUS 3.0 SP2. Customers who are currently running Essentials 2007 SP1 can upgrade to WSUS 3.0 SP2. For how to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 and the improvements in WSUS 3.0 SP2, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972455.

FAQs:

Q) I currently have Essentials 2007 SP1 installed on Windows Server 2003. Can I upgrade WSUS 3.0 SP1 to WSUS 3.0 SP2?

A) Yes. You can upgrade to WSUS 3.0 SP2, if you have installed Essentials 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 (either 32-bit or 64-bit).

Q) I currently have Essentials 2007 SP1 installed on Windows Server 2008. Can I upgrade WSUS 3.0 SP1 to WSUS 3.0 SP2?

A) Yes. You can upgrade to WSUS 3.0 SP2, if you have installed Essentials 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 (either 32-bit or 64-bit).

Q) I currently have Essentials 2007 SP1 installed on Windows Server 2003 with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. Can I upgrade WSUS 3.0 SP1 to       WSUS 3.0 SP2?

A) Yes. Essentials 2007 SP1 supports upgrading WSUS 3.0 SP1 to WSUS 3.0 SP2 with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition or SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. This is supported regardless of whether the database is installed on the Essentials management server or installed on a remote computer.

Q)  Can I install Essentials 2007 SP1 on a system on which WSUS 3.0 SP2 is already installed?

A) The Essentials product team is investigating this and will be updating this issue in an upcoming blog post

Essentials 2007 SP1 Support for SQL Server 2008

Q: Is Essentials 2007 SP1 supported with SQL Server 2008.

A) No, Essentials 2007 SP1 is not supported with SQL Server 2008. Essentials 2010 will support SQL Server 2008.

We’ve seen reports of people unsuccessfully attempting to install Essentials 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 x64 and wanting to use SQL Server 2005 Express as the database.

We have published KB 975344 to provide more information on supported configurations involving Windows Server 2008 x64.

We recommend the following options for customers wanting to use Windows Server 2008:

• Run Essentials 2007 on a 32 bit version of Windows Server 2008 (this may be a virtualized OS)
• Run Essentials 2007 on a 64 bit version of Windows Server 2008 and use SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition x64

You will soon have a third option available – use System Center Essentials 2010. In early October the public Beta for Essentials 2010 will be available, and it fully supports installation on 64 bit versions of Windows Server 2008. There will be more information about Essentials 2010 available when the Beta is released.

System Center Essentials provides several ways to remotely manage computers, including:

• Computer Management MMC
• Remote Desktop
• Remote Assistance
• Tasks to show current information, such as process usage

Sometimes though what is wanted is just a remote command window without the overhead of opening a full remote desktop session.

The PsExec tool which is one of the SysInternals tools provides a way to open a remote command window without needing to install anything on the remote computer.

You can find out more about PsExec from:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

With psExec installed you can open a remote command prompt by calling it as follows:

If you have psExec installed on your computer with the Essentials console you can create a task in Essentials to open a remote command window from within Essentials.

To create this task:

1. Go to the Authoring workspace
2. In the navigation pane on the left hand side, expand Management Pack Objects and select Tasks
3. From the Tasks pane, select Create a New Task
4. Select Command Line from the Console Tasks folder and click Next
5. In the Task Name field, type "Remote Command Window"
6. In the Description type "Use the SysInternals PsExec tool to open a remote command window for the selected computer. PsExec must be installed on the computer with the Essentials console."
7. In the Task Target, click Select and then choose Windows Computer and click OK
8. Click Next
9. In the Application field, type the full path the psexec.exe on the Essentials console (e.g. C:\pstools\psexec.exe). If you have the console on multiple computers you will need psExec installed in the same location on each of them.
10. Enter \\ then Click the arrow at the end of the Parameters field and select Net BIOS Computer Name, then add a space and enter cmd
11. Uncheck the Display output when this task is run box
12. Click Create

In the Computers workspace, with a computer selected there is now a "Remote Command Window" task that is available. Selecting this task will open a remote command window for the selected computer.