Today the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Toolkit V2 went live on the Microsoft Download Center. This release is a follow up to our original release back in 2007. With this V2 release we re-introduced the Delete Group Class, MP Troubleshooter, Preload Package and Send Schedule Tools from the SMS 2003 Toolkit. All four tools where frequently requested from our customers and we are happy to enable them for use with ConfigMgr 2007 with some added features. The release also includes an updated Security Configuration Wizard Template for ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Furthermore this release includes all the original 2007 Toolkit tools along with the new ones in one easy to install MSI.
The following list provides specific information about each tool in the toolkit.
Jeff Wettlaufer Sr. Technical Product Manager System Center
We are excited to announce the beta release of the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool v3.0.
If you’ve used version 2.1, you know that it offers free, tested guidance and automated tools that let you safely service offline virtual machines in your SCVMM library. VMST 3.0 builds on this functionality, adding powerful new features designed to streamline the process of keeping your offline virtual machines, templates and VHDs up-to-date with the latest operating system and application updates, without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure. VMST 3.0 helps you effectively manage the workflow of updating your offline virtual machines according to their individual needs. Using VMST 3.0, customers can also keep users productive during updates and maintenance of physical hosts: VMST 3.0 now automates the servicing of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V host clusters, leveraging live migration.
Using new features in VMST 3.0, customers can now service:
Stopped and saved state virtual machines on a host
Virtual machine templates
Offline virtual hard disks in a SCVMM library by injecting update packages
Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clusters running Hyper-V
You can access the Beta Program download on Connect here.
Good morning everyone, we are about to start a really interesting Panel Webcast, hosted by Mark Russinovich.
Come and join Microsoft Technical Fellow, Mark Russinovich, as he will be leading a discussion around the process of planning, testing, assessing and rolling out Windows 7 in an enterprise organization. Mark will be joined by a panel of IT professionals who are currently in the piloting and deployment process, along with Microsoft subject matter experts who can speak in depth about the technologies. The event will be broadcast live over the web at 9:00 am PDT, and will be available for on-demand viewing following the broadcast. The discussion will be open and candid, with the panel sharing insights, dispelling myths and getting down to the real story around technical adoption of Windows technologies. Specific topics will include the role of the pilot and the critical information it provides, best practices and tips & tricks for ensuring a successful effort, tools and technologies that will help automate the pilot and deployment processes, and conducting a frank post-pilot assessment. During the event, Mark will field questions coming in via the web from viewers across the globe.
You can access the webcast here.
Last week was published a video where I provide a brief introduction to System Center Service Manager 2010. Frankly, I only scratch the surface of the rich capabilities of Service Manager, but you’ll get a decent overview of what the product can do including incident and change management, the different consoles, and the tight integration with Active Directory, System Center and Office Communications Server.
For more information on Service Manager 2010, check out the following resources:
[Re-post of my original blog on the System Center team blog].
Sacha Dawes, CISSP Sr. Technical Product Manager System Center Solutions for Dynamic Datacenters
Last Tuesday saw the announcement of the eagerly awaited RTM of Service Manager 2010 (build 5826) with the immediate availability of the product trial. The announcement was highlighted in Brad Anderson’s blog that covered the opening of MMS as well as in the Service Manager team blog … and now to our BIEB blog.
The sessions at MMS 2010 clearly echoed the excitement on Microsoft’s newest addition to the System Center suite, with great attendance and fantastic session scores and comments received all around!
So, what is Service Manager 2010? Service Manager is an integrated platform that enables automation of core IT Service Management best practices including incident, problem and change management. Through its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, and Active Directory Domain Services to deliver benefits in the following key areas:
We’ve really focused on ensuring that this release hits the mark! Over 300 customers participated in the Service Manager Community Rapid Deployment Program (RDP), making it the largest System Center RDP ever, and today 57 customers are using Service Manager in production (including Xbox Live and microsoft.com). To quote some of our customers:
Microsoft Partners have also been hard at work extending the power of Service Manager, with solutions from Provance, Intel, Absolute Software, Bay Dynamics, Savision, ATEA, FullArmor, Infront Consulting, Secure Vantage and RightStar that include asset management, vPro integration, mobile-device enablement, data protection for stolen/lost laptops, and more!
Additionally, over 18 System Integrator partners are also ready to help you deploy Service Manager into your environment.
To help you get the most out of the product, we’ve also been busy building up training and content as follows:
Want to get your hands on Service Manager 2010? Download the Service Manager 2010 Trial, a 180-day fully-functional trial which is immediately available for download via the System Center Trial Downloads page on microsoft.com. Customers licensed for the product will be able to download the bits from the standard channels when Service Manager 2010 becomes generally available on June 1st, 2010.
Watch out for more news and information on Service Manager 2010 on both the System Center blog and the Service Manager team blog in the coming days and weeks. You can also follow #servicemanager and #SCSM on Twitter.com for updates!
Clare Henry Director, Technical Product Marketing System Center
Sacha Dawes, CISSP Sr. Technical Product Manager System Center
With the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day upon us, today, we are very pleased to announce the release of ConfigMgr 2007 R3 Beta. Power management is at the core of the ConfigMgr 2007 R3 release, and addresses the need that many organizations have to monitor and reduce both power consumption and CO2 emissions. R3 Power Management leverages the power management features built into Windows to apply relevant and consistent settings to computers in the organization.
There are three major components to power management in R3:
In addition to Power Management, R3 will deliver enhancements to Scale and Performance. In the scale area, R3 shifts the number of supported clients to 300,000 per site. With respect to performance, R3 will provide improvements to AD Discovery with a new feature called Delta Active Directory Discovery. When combined with an additional new feature called Dynamic Collection addition, Administrators will able to significantly reduce the time it takes to reflect AD changes, and Collection updates. Finally, R3 delivers a new capability to OS Deployment, called Prestaged Media. This will allow organizations to package their OS boot and install WIM image components into 1 common image, that can be provided to their hardware vendor, or supplier. This feature builds on top of existing Task Sequence technology, and integrates fully with OS deployment capabilities.
We would love to see you download and experience the beta of Configuration Manager 2007 R3. You can find access to this download here.
Kind regards
Good evening from Vegas. Bob Muglia’s keynote today was absolutely awesome. For both the attendees here in town, as well as our guests watching the streaming feeds, there were four major demos showcasing our datacenter vision. Next up is Brad, and our Client vision tomorrow. We hope you can join us.
If you’re like most people, you’ve faced a maintenance or repair job that was bigger than the tools in your toolbox. Maybe your in-sink disposal got jammed when one of your kids decided it would be a fun place to “blend” their sibling’s favorite miniature stuffed animal? So, you needed a basket wrench to hold the sink basket in place while the big locking nut (below the sink) is turned. Unfortunately, all you have is vice grips and they don’t open wide enough. However, you do have a screwdriver you can jam into the basket, but this slips and “OUCH” – there go the knuckles. In the end, you get the disposal fixed, but it took longer than it should have and was more painful than it needed to be.
Most of the midsize businesses I talk to are looking for better IT management tools to keep their infrastructures up and running. Midsize IT departments, with 1-4 IT “generalists”, typically use a mix of manual processes and some various “point solutions” to manage Servers and keep their IT infrastructures up and running. This is usually because Enterprise IT management solutions are more complex than these companies need and not really priced right for their budgets. In most cases, they’d simply like more comprehensive and better integrated tools so they can spend less time being reactive and more time focusing on making IT a strategic business asset. And…with server virtualization with Hyper-v seeing increasing adoption in midsize IT departments, what about being able to manage those virtual server workloads in addition to the physical stuff in an integrated way?
With today’s announcement of the release to manufacturing (RTM) of System Center Essentials 2010 and Data Protection Manager 2010, Microsoft is providing a unified virtualization and IT management solution that will give midsize businesses the right tools for their IT toolboxes to take control and simplify the complexity of managing their physical and virtual servers, PCs, network devices PLUS seamlessly back-up and restore their critical business data on servers and PCs.
RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release and it is also an appropriate time to give a big “THANK YOU” to all the partners and customers who have downloaded the beta and RC bits of these products and provided thoughtful feedback that influenced the products and made them yours.
So, go check out SCE 2010 and DPM 2010 and see if they don’t provide a better tools to keep your IT infrastructure up and running – and save those IT “knuckles” some scrapes!
(BTW, here’s a SCE 2010 review on www.Toolzz.com. Coincidence? I think not…)
David Mills
Sr. Product Manager
System Center
We are truly disappointed by how many are effected by the current flight situation in Northern Europe. Not only are there impacts to the guests of MMS, but also to our colleagues, event staff and partners. We really hope you can make it to Vegas, even if it is a day later.
Watch the MMS keynotes on the web!
Come view the Microsoft Management Summit executive keynotes live on the web. Don’t miss this opportunity to see our top executives discuss the latest IT Management news, strategies, and solutions from Microsoft, and how to apply them in your organization.
The Microsoft News Center will have access to the streams, and we will link from the MMS home page. Also make sure to follow the event hashtag #mms2010 for the latest updates.
Safe travels
Hello everyone, we managed to grab a few minutes with Brad this week to briefly talk about the Management Summit happening next week in Vegas. We talked about what will be happening there at the event, and for those of you that cannot get there, how you can stay up to date on all the traffic and news that will pop.
Check it out…..