Remote Managed Services

If you missed MMS, catch our Remote Ops Mgr Deployment session at TechEd US 2008

dustinj — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:12:00 GMT

If you still have questions on how to deploy Remote Operations Manager, and missed MMS, catch our session at TechEd US 2008 in Orlando this year.

IT Conference

MGT367

Microsoft System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007: Deployment and Configuration
Session Day/Time: 6/13/2008 1:00PM-2:15PM
Room: N220 D

You can check out our session and more at http://www.msteched.com!

Remote Operations Manager team at MMS 2008!

dustinj — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:25:00 GMT

If you're attending the Microsoft Management Summit this week in Las Vegas, be sure to stop by the Remote Operations Manager booth on expo floor, or catch us at one of the many sessions we are hosting this week.

SY17 Microsoft System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007: Deployment and Configuration

Wednesday, April 30 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM, Murano 3201A

Speaker(s): Dustin Jones, John Joyner

Track(s): Systems Management

Session Type(s): Breakout

Products(s): Essentials, Remote Operations Manager

Learn how Microsoft partners can move from a break-fix to an annuity-based IT support business! Remote Operations Manager 2007 is a new platform which Microsoft partners can use in conjunction with System Center Essentials 2007 to provide proactive remote IT management for their small and midsize business customers. This session will also cover in detail the process of deploying and configuring this solution as well as using it to provide great deep remote IT management for Microsoft products.

http://www.mms-2008.com

Updated Remote Operations Manager deployment guide and release notes available

dustinj — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:32:00 GMT

We've updated the Remote Operations Manager deployment guide and relnotes. The updates contains:

Updated credentials information in post-deployment setup instructions to use Windows Stored User Names and Passwords.
Added scaling information
Added architecture diagram

You can obtain the deployment guide and relnotes from this location on the Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b621eb7-01bb-45f5-9a77-52853f06eec9&DisplayLang=en).

Remote Operations Manager Deployment Guide Update

dustinj — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:43:00 GMT

The Remote OpsMgr team is updating the deployment guide with new capacity and security guidance. We plan to have it available in early November as well as the operations guide.

Dustin

Remote Operations Manager architectural guidance

dustinj — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:37:00 GMT

In the Remote Ops Mgr deployment guide, you'll notice we've given guidance to help you plan your Remote Operations Manager deployment. A standard Remote Ops Mgr deployment is very similar to a multiple server, single management group Ops Mgr deployment, but there are a few differences I want to point out.

First, you'll need a least a Root Management Server to create the management group. For fault-tolerance you can cluster the Root Management Server. You'll also need a database server which also can be hosted on a SQL 2005 cluster for fault-tolerance. Next, you'll need to use an internet-facing gateway management servers for communication between the root management server and each Essentials server at your customer sites. Again, to provide fault tolerance you can use multiple internet-facing gateway management servers, configuring the Essentials server to failover from a primary gateway to a backup in case of failure.

Optionally, you can install a web console server to provide live monitoring views for your customers if they desire this capability.

To scale your Remote Ops Mgr deployment, you'll need to add additional management servers and internet-facing gateways. A management server can monitor a maximum of 2000 agents; once your Remote Ops Mgr management group reaches this threshold, you'll need to add additional management servers. An internet-facing gateway can monitor a maximum of 530 agents (which is also the maximum number of computers that can be managed by one Essentials server.

Take the example that you are managing 20 customers who each have 200 computers. To support this Remote Ops Mgr deployment, you'd need at least two management servers and eight internet-facing gateway servers, but for fault-tolerance you should consider having additional management servers and gateways available as failover servers in case of an outage.

To reduce the amount of hardware needed to support the required gateway, you could run the gateway management servers in a virtual server. Since Remote Ops Mgr is licenses through the Service Provider Licensing Agreement, adding additional management servers does not increase the incur additional licensing costs.

Maximum number of agents that can be monitored through one management server: 2000

Maximum number of agents that can be monitored through one gateway management server: 530

Maximum number of agents managed by an Essentials server in service provider mode: 530 (30 Windows Servers and 500 Windows clients)

To assist with modeling the required infrastructure for a Remote Ops Mgr deployment, you'll also be able to use the soon-to-be-released System Center Capacity Planner to plan for your Remote Operations Manager deployment.

System Center Remote Operations Manager Product Information Page is now live!

dustinj — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:46:00 GMT

The product site for Remote Operations Manager is now live as part of the Microsoft Partner program. This site includes:

§ Datasheet about system center remote operations manager

§ FAQ

§ Pricing & Licensing Guide

§ Overview Deck

§ Deployment Guide

Required connectivity to use Remote Web Workplace - Port 4125 is important!

dustinj — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:03:00 GMT

Thanks to John Joyner (Essentials TAP customer) for pointing out this great article that details connectivity requirements when using Remote Web Workplace - especially on a computer that's running the ISA firewall.

ISA Server prevents connection to a remote desktop when you connect through Remote Web Workplace on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/828053

Remote Operations Manager Deployment Guide is available!

dustinj — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:08:00 GMT

We just posted the deployment guide for Remote Operations Manager 2007. This guide contains details on how to design and implement Remote Operations Manager.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=33D66740-8F86-4AE5-9146-E8E180503384&displaylang=en.

We are also preparing an operations guide that we will release later this month.

Remote Operations Manager support forum is live!

dustinj — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:43:00 GMT

The support forum to receive assistance from MVPs and the product group for Remote Operations Manager is live!

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1738&SiteID=17

I'll also be blogging soon about the guidance we have on the web to help you understand how to design and implement Remote Operations Manager.

Start posting your questions!

Announcing System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007

dustinj — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:40:00 GMT

System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007 is the final name for the managed service solution that uses Operations Manager 2007 to provide remote managed services to many SMB customers who each have a System Center Essentials 2007 server installed at their premises.

Remote Managed Services team will be at WWPC 2007!

dustinj — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:15:00 GMT

A bunch of the folks who are working on Microsoft's upcoming offering for managed service providders will be at our Worldwide Partner Conference next month in Denver. Feel free to send me a note to schedule some time with the team, come to the Operations Manager 2007 sessions, or drop the Operations Manager or Essentials booth in the product pavillion.

http://www.microsoft.com/partner/events/wwpartnerconference/default.htm

Remote Web Workplace

dustinj — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:36:00 GMT

As part of our upcoming remote managed services offering using Operations Manager 2007 with Essentials 2007, we'll be including the capability to use Remote Desktop to troubleshoot end-user problems without needing to have connectivity from the service provider's network operations center to every computer in the customer's environment. Remote Web Workplace (RWW), developed by the Small Business Server team at Microsoft, provides this capability by proxying the inbound Remote Desktop requests so that all connects go through the Essentials server. With RWW, service provider's will be able to Remote Desktop to all of the Windows operating systems that support it (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003. Remote Assistance is also possible by first using Remote Desktop to access the Essentials server and then using Remote Assistance from the Essentials console. RWW is accessed using Internet Explorer across the internet, connecting to a secure web site hosted on the Essentials server. RWW provides a list of all of the computers in the customer's AD forest, making it easy to find and connect to the right computer. I'd recommend that you use the Web Page view in Operations Manager 2007 to create a RWW view per customer. Here's an example of using RWW inside the Operations Manager 2007 console.

Public Beta of System Center "Remote Managed Services" available!

dustinj — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:51:00 GMT

Check out our public beta offering of System Center "Remote Managed Services" by registering here:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sce/sceremoteit.mspx

Outstanding Presentation on Remote Managed Services using Essentials 2007 and Operations Manager 2007

dustinj — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:19:00 GMT

One of our partners (ClearPointe Technology) presented last week to partners on how to deploy and use Operations Manager 2007 with Essentials 2007 to remotely manage multiple customers.

Check out the recorded presentation by John Joyner (ClearPointe Technology) - its full of demos and details!

http://www.msreadiness.com/attendeeregister.asp?eid=5013&rid=378873

Managed Services architecture

dustinj — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:39:00 GMT

The managed services solution uses System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 to provide managed services to many remote customers.

The service provider would install System Center Operations Manager 2007 in their network operations center (NOC). System Center Essentials 2007 (SCE) would be installed at each customer location. SCE could be installed on an existing server such as a Small Business Server or domain controller. The SCE server would be configured to communicate with the Operations Manager 2007 server across the internet, using certificates to mutually authenticate the connection. Computers at the customer location would be discovered and installed from the SCE server.

The service provider would then be able to monitor and manage computers at each customer.