Kevinsul's Management Blog

Some Common Questions (and Answers) that I Get about 'My Stuff' from EDU customers...

The following are a few common asks/questions I get most often and figured that blogging my general responses to these queries may be beneficial to somebody.  The below is by no means 'all inclusive' and will change as time goes by - I may turn this into an article that I will update on a regular basis if that makes sense...

• Where can I go to learn more about the System Center products?
  • Free Learning:
    • OpsMgr 2007 5-7 Minutes Training Videos: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498237.aspx
    • System Center Virtual Labs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb539977.aspx
    • Technet Reference Guide Landing Pages:
      • OpsMgr 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/default.aspx
      • ConfigMgr 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/configmgr/default.aspx
      • SoftGrid: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/softgrid/default.aspx
      • DPM: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/dpm/default.mspx
  • 'For Fee' Learning:
    • OpsMgr 2007 eLearning Course: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/elearning/offerdetail.aspx?offerpriceid=127702
    • MOC's available for SMS 2003 and MOM 2005..
    • Partner InFront Consulting has developed a 4-day System Center (OpsMgr 2007) course.
• I want to 'kick the tires' on MDOP. Where the heck is SoftGrid and the rest of the MDOP stuff?
  • If you subscribe to MSDN, MDOP can now be downloaded from the MSDN site.  If you have access to the MVLS web site (volume license customers), you can get at the bits there.
• Where can I go to get the betas?
  • ConfigMgr 2007: https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?siteid=16
  • DPMv2: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/dpm/beta/overview.mspx
  • Service Manager: https://connect.microsoft.com (search for 'Service Manager' in the 'Available Connections' section
  • Virtual Machine Manager: http://connect.microsoft.com/vmm
• How do I plan for implementation for SCCM, SCOM, SG, etc. (i.e. sizing, scale, redundancy, etc.)?
• OpsMgr2007 Sizing Whitepaper: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/6/d3633fa3-ce15-4071-be51-5e036a36f965/om2007_perfscal.doc
• Softgrid Server Sizing Guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608286.aspx
• SMS 2003 Capacity Planner: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=009e0c30-bded-4b95-a8f9-06037de85c57&displaylang=en
• SCCP (Still in beta): http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sccp/default.mspx
• What are some other misc. but good resources for System Center stuff?
• www.myitforum.com - best non-MSFT forum/blog site about System Center and other stuff
• www.appdeploy.com - product agnostic but awesome for figuring out how to deploy pretty much any popular commercial and open source software
• http://Blogs.technet.com/kevinsul_blog - I confess, I am not the most animate at updating this but I try!
• http://www.softgridguru.com - good forum site for Softgrid related stuff
• My 'MGMT in EDU' newsletter - just let me know and I will add you to the list.