Swiss IT Professional & TechNet Blog : Network Management

Now Launched Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2

MJDorner — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:43:00 GMT

Small Business Server 2003 R2 was launched at our world wide partner conference.

SBS 2003 R2 will be available for purchasing in August (English and German versions; additional languages will be available in following months.). It is offered in two editions: standard and premium.

With the update release we are also changing the access licensing rights of SBS to allow you to use your SBS CALs to access SQL Server 2005 Workgroup or Exchange 2003 running on a second server. The current version limits the SBS CAL to access the server suite from only one server. SBS comes with five client access licenses free.

The updated SBS R2 offers following enhancements:

automated, network-wide patch and update management
increased mailbox limit up to 75 gigabytes
a new feature called "Green Check," which informs customers whether or not they are running up-to-date Microsoft software
Daily report on status of desktops and server(s) running Microsoft software

The premium edition also includes SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition and ISA Server 2004. In addition to the enhancements, Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 includes Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Sharepoint Services, Shared Fax Service and Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS).

Read more about the Windows Small Business Server R2

Optimize Your Core Infrastructure: Manage Complexity, Achieve Agility, Protect Information and Control Access, On It’s Showtime!

MJDorner — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:48:00 GMT

Join Bob Kelly as he discusses the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), Microsoft's long term strategy that couples a model-driven approach with a complete, integrated set of technology solutions to enable IT to manage complexity and achieve agility. Kelly also outlines Microsoft's comprehensive set of security and access solutions, designed to enable IT to address the ever-changing landscape of technology threats so they can protect information and control access across their organization.

German: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/de/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=220

French: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/fr/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=220

Now Available: Systems Management Server 2003 R2

MJDorner — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:43:00 GMT

SMS 2003 R2 is now available. Included in SMS 2003 R2 is the ability to update custom line-of-business and third party applications as well as to provide scanning for almost 100 critical system vulnerabilities. Together, this new functionality promises to help simplify the process of keeping systems updated and more secure.

Download the Evaluation version today at www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.mspx and look for it on the August pricelist.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack

MJDorner — Fri, 26 May 2006 09:07:00 GMT

The Scalable Networking Pack adds new Windows Server 2003 (Server Pack 1 or later) architectural enhancements and application programming interfaces (APIs) to support the next generation of network acceleration and hardware-based offload technologies.

These Scalable Networking innovations help optimize Windows Server 2003 performance and maximize network throughput by reducing inefficient utilization of platform resources and offloading potentially CPU-intensive network packet processing to specialized network adapter hardware.

This frees up CPU cycles for application related tasks, such as supporting more user sessions or responding faster to network application requests. Depending on the workload, this can reduce network packet processing overhead by 20 to 100 percent, resulting in significant server performance gains.

You find detailed technical information on the corresponding TechNet site:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/network/snp/default.mspx

Introducing System Center Virtual Machine Manager

MJDorner — Thu, 25 May 2006 01:10:00 GMT

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager is the latest addition to the System Center family of management products and provides centralized management of Windows Virtual Machine infrastructure. Virtual Machine Manager enables increased physical server utilization, centralized management of virtual infrastructure and rapid provisioning of new virtual machines by the administrator and end users.

Microsoft Management Product Roadmap on IT’s Showtime!

MJDorner — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:22:00 GMT

This session will cover Microsoft's management product plans for the next 12 months, including new product releases. It will outline the new System Center family of products and discuss how they integrate to provide a complete management solution. A number of partner solutions will be described which extend Microsoft's management solutions to non-Microsoft applications and platforms.

French: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/fr/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=60

German: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/de/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=60

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Management Pack Released

MJDorner — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 10:17:00 GMT

The Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Management Pack enables you to monitor physical computers running the Virtual Server service and the virtual machines that the service hosts, in Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM). This Management Pack expands the monitoring and reporting capabilities of the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Management Pack. You can use the Management Pack to monitor servers running Virtual Server 2005 R2 or Virtual Server 2005.

Download the Management Pack.

You can find an overview of all available Management Packs in the online catalog.

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Launch

MJDorner — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 02:00:00 GMT

On April 4, 2006 we launched Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 at Storage Networking World in San Diego. Windows Storage Server R2 will be available through NAS appliances built by our OEMs such as HP, DELL and others. The new version of Storage server delivers some new attravtive storage features in addition to the new features and functionalities delivered with Windows Server R2.

Read all about Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 on our website.

Announcing the Release of Systems Management Server (SMS) v4 Beta 1

MJDorner — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 09:52:00 GMT

Announcing Microsoft’s next generation in change and configuration management solution. Available today, SMS v4 Beta 1, is the lowest cost solution for managing changes to your Windows-based assets, including new advances in complete security management and system deployment.

Download SMS v4 Beta 1 at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver

The R2 Version of SMS 2003 is also available as a Beta right now. Check following blog entry to get more information about the SMS 2003 R2 Beta: http://blogs.technet.com/chitpro/archive/2006/02/23/420353.aspx

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Latest Version of MOM 2005 Resource Kit Now Available for Download

MJDorner — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:01:00 GMT

This resource kit has been updated to support MOM 2005 SP1 and new tools have been added:

Alert to RSS Utility – Enable subscriptions to alert information via RSS.
DAS Role Update Utility – Tighten the security of MOM servers by removing the BUILTIN\Administrators group from the MOM Administrator role.
Computer Group Hierarchy Utility – Export and import the Computer Group Hierarchy, including using AD containers and hierarchy to create Computer Groups
Console Scope Utility – Automatically update Console Scope membership and mirror AD Security Group membership into console scopes.
Management Group Utility – List and cleanup Management Group membership data on individual agents. MOM Remote Pre-requisite Checker – Verify the configuration of the services and ports required for agent installation and discovery.
Response Test Utility – Quickly test response scripts for minor errors from the command line, before finally saving them to an MP.

You can download the updated MOM 2005 Resource Kit at: http://www.microsoft.com/mom/downloads/2005/reskit/default.mspx

Systems Management Server 2003 R2 Beta Available for Download

MJDorner — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:12:00 GMT

Evaluate SMS 2003 R2 today to provide your organization a comprehensive solution for change and configuration management for the Microsoft platform.

Find out what's new with SMS 2003 R2

Download Beta Version

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Server Clusters: Storage Best Practices for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003

MJDorner — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:58:00 GMT

This document describes storage topologies, storage features in Windows Server 2003 and clustering, hardware-based storage features, storage tools and services, backup and restore, and storage management.

Download

SQL Server 2000 Management Pack for MOM 2005

MJDorner — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:52:00 GMT

The Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack monitors SQL Server 2000 and 2005 for critical conditions indicating potential operational problems.

Download

System Center DPM & HP Proliant DPSS

MJDorner — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 11:23:00 GMT

Download this 24-page supplement that not only shows you how to implement a full backup, recovery and data protection service, but also explains how to perfectly incorporate DPM into an existing Windows Server environment (Windows Server, Active Directory, Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003), while assessing in a practical way the working of DPM with HP Proliant Data Protection Storage Server.

MOM 2005 SP1 Evaluation Software Now Available in English, French and German

MJDorner — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:12:00 GMT

The MOM 2005 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) evaluation software is now available for download in English, French and German. Receive the 120-day evaluation software and get a preview of the enterprise-class event and performance management that MOM 2005 SP1 delivers for your Windows Server System infrastructure. For more information about MOM 2005, see the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Product Overview page.