Exchange 2007 MP dump updated

I have extracted and saved the current version of the Exchange 2007 management pack and saved it to here on the http://www.opsmanjam.com site. Chris

Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:19 PM by chrfox | 0 Comments

Filed under: Management Packs

Case study: Fixing a discovery…

Discoveries are a critical part of management packs. Ideally the discovery should discover the objects and their properties accurately, as soon as possible and with the least amount of performance hit.

In this post I shall discuss a scenario where we had the following problems:

1) The right information was not discovered (accuracy problem)

2) There was a big lag in discovering the information. (freshness problem)

3) It had a performance hit on the machine. (performance problem)

Let us discuss the problem in a general term without mentioning the MP or the discoveries which were really affected.

For a background, let us assume a MP has class A and B. With class A hosting class B.

The key property of class A is called Key and both class A and class B have a property P that is discovered by two individual discoveries.

Both class A and B were supposed to discover the same value for P, but the main problem surfaced when the two classes showed different values for property P.

Upon investigation it was discovered that the two discoveries each used a WMI query to discover the property P and during a fix the discovery of P in class A was fixed whereas the discovery of P in class B was not fixed which led to the discrepancies in the values.

At this stage we had two problems; the information was not accurate and using two WMI scripts to discover the same property has a performance hit too.

So the solution at this stage was to reuse the information discovered by discovery targeting class A in class B. This would avoid second WMI query and make sure the information is accurate as there is only one script to fix.

We did not completely eliminate the WMI query as it was still needed to find the issue and since it ran only once in 24 hours, the performance hit was not that bad.

To achieve this we replaced the discovery of class B to have a datamapper module to map the property P from class A to B.

The code to do that looks as shown below.

<ClassId>$MPElement[Name="B"]$</ClassId>

<Name>$MPElement[Name="A"]/Key$</Name>

<Value>$Target/Property[Type="A"]/Key$</Value>

</Setting>

<Name>$MPElement[Name="B]/P$</Name>

<Value>$Target/Property[Type="A"]/P$</Value>

</Setting>

</Settings>

</InstanceSettings>

</ConditionDetection>

During testing it was learnt that the above solution still did not solve the problem completely, looking into the log file it was seen that the discovery packet was being dropped at times. The reason for that was since we do not control the execution order of the workflows on the agent, if the discovery for B runs before the discovery of A has run for the first time, then the value of property P is null which makes the management server drop the discovery packet.

Even though this is not a major problem it is something to take care of, and the fix was to introduce the below condition detection module above the datamapper module. This module checks if the property P is not null and only then does the data mapping.

<Value>$Target/Property[Type="A"]/P$</Value>

</ValueExpression>

<Operator>NotEqual</Operator>

</ValueExpression>

</SimpleExpression>

</Expression>

</ConditionDetection>

With the above condition detection, we have a good performing and accurate solution. This is good for most cases but there is an issue with freshness. If the discovery for B runs before discovery for A is run then in the worst case B would pick up the data 24 hours after discovery for A has run.

There is a solution for this problem too. Not an easy but a solution does exist. To understand how we can achieve this we need to understand the workings of operations manager. Every time the configuration of a module changes, this causes the module to be reloaded and activated. So if we can make the discovery of B reload when the property P for A changes, we can immediately discover the newly discovered value for property P for class A.

The way we do this is by creating a new scheduler module which takes in a property as the configuration parameter (ReloadOnValueChange), so that it can reload when the property changes on discovery. The code for the module looks as shown below.

<SchemaType>System!System.ExpressionEvaluatorSchema</SchemaType>

</IncludeSchemaTypes>

<xsd:element name="Scheduler" type="PublicSchedulerType"/>

<xsd:element name="ManagedEntityId" type="xsd:string"/>

<xsd:element name="ReloadOnValueChange" type="xsd:string"/>

</Configuration>

</Native>

</ModuleImplementation>

<OutputType>System!System.TriggerData</OutputType>

</DataSourceModuleType>

So to finally fix the discovery of B, we replace the scheduler module with the following.

<Interval>$Config/IntervalSeconds$</Interval>

</SimpleReccuringSchedule>

</Scheduler>

<ManagedEntityId>$Target/Id$</ManagedEntityId>

<ReloadOnValueChange>$Target/Property[Type="A"]/P$</ReloadOnValueChange>

</DataSource>

With the above fix we were able to instantaneously discover P for B when P changes for A.

So a fix to just make sure the right value is discovered turns into a journey to improve accuracy, performance and freshness of the discovery. Glad to say, that the mission was accomplished J

Advantage:

This type of discovery pattern is very useful when you want to chain discoveries based on the discovery of another object or property. So even if you have very large discovery intervals, you can still maintain freshness of data when the property on which you depend changes.

Disadvantage:

This scheduler module is only for discovery as it completely breaks cookdown. Also it should not be used when the dependent property changes often, as it would reload the module every time the value changes and can possibly cause a performance hit.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use of attachments are subject to the terms specified at http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

Posted Monday, June 15, 2009 8:17 PM by mandhar | 1 Comments

Filed under: Management Packs, performance, Discovery, cookdown, mandhar

Security Hardening Guide for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Windows Server 2008

In May of 2008, I wrote a post announcing the release of a Security Hardening Guide for Operations Manager 2007 and Windows Server 2003. A new version of the Security Hardening Guide for use with Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Windows Server 2008 is now available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153917

This new release is for use with Operations Manager 2007 R2 running on the following operating systems:

Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 1
Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2008 R2

The Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) is automatically installed with Windows Server 2008 including the scwcmd command-line tool and is accessed in Server Manager (under Security Information…Run Security Configuration Wizard) or in Administrative Tools..Security Configuration Wizard.

Posted Friday, June 12, 2009 10:54 PM by jdowning | 0 Comments

Partner Pack Newsletters archive on OpsManJam

The Partner Pack Newsletters are being archived on the OpsManJam site and are accessible there.

Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:37 PM by chrfox | 0 Comments

Filed under: Management Packs, MP Authoring, Best Practices, authoring

New R2 Deployment Complex Scenarios (Adding Clustered RMS and Upgrading to SQL 2008)

In OM2007R2, we have introduced two new complex deployment scenarios we did not support in OM2007SP1. I am going to take a few minutes here and outline the new scenarios and procedures.

Adding Clustered RMS to an Existing Deployment

In OM2007SP1, clustering a Root Management Server (RMS) was only supported during the initial deployment of a management group. If you were to install a clustered RMS you needed to do this as the very first thing after deploying the first management server. If you later decided to cluster RMS (after you have deployed agents) the ManagementServerConfigTool would detect every Health Service in the management group and add them to the RMS cluster in the Operational Database. Basically, leaving your management group in a broken state. At this point,you would be forced to restore from backup.

In OM2007R2, we have made some changes to the ManagementServerConfigTool to support adding a new RMS cluster to an existing management group.

Supported

What we have done here is added two new management server to the management group, setup the RMS cluster group, and ran our ManagementServerConfigTool with the “InstallCluster” switch.

Procedure:

Backup the OM DB
Setup Cluster Disk, IP and Network Name
Install OM R2 Management Server on all Nodes
Restore encryption on all nodes
Create cluster service resources (HS, CS, SDK) (Leave resources offline)
On active node, run ManagementServerConfigTool w\ “InstallCluster” switch

Note: Go here for detailed instructions on creating the RMS cluster group.

Additional Info:

A Few things to note:

This will demote the existing RMS to a MS during the process.
All agents and management servers reporting to the existing RMS will be redirected to the new clustered RMS. If you are planning on keeping the old RMS as a MS you should redirect all agents back . Gateway assignment will not change.
If creating a new RMS cluster where the current RMS is x64 and the new RMS cluster will be x86. You will need to manually demote the x64 RMS. (this will be rare). You will receive instructions from the managementserverconfitool with the command you will need to run.

Known Issues:

If your current RMS OMSDK or OMCFG account is “Local System” you will need to switch to using a domain account before proceeding with adding the RMS Cluster.

On the new server hosting the OperationsManager database, add the correct permission for the login of the root management server on which the SDK Account is running, as follows:

Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, and in the Object Explorer pane, navigate to Security and then expand Logins.
Locate the SDK Account, and add the account if it is not listed.
Right-click the SDK Account, and select Properties.
In the Login Properties dialog box, in the Select a page pane, select User Mapping.
In the Users mapped to this login list, in the Map column, select the box that corresponds to OperationsManager (default name).
In the Database role membership for: OperationsManager list, ensure that the following items are selected: configsvc_users, db_datareader, db_datawriter, db_ddladmin, and sdk_users.
Click OK to save your changes and to close the Login Properties dialog box.
Recycle RMS Health Service

note Note

Before you can use discovery, you must restart the following services: System Center Data Access, System Center Management Configuration, and System Center Management Services. You might also need to restart the following services: SQL Server and SQL Server Agent.

Unsupported:

Below I have highlighted some of the most common unsupported scenarios. If your scenario does not match the one highlighted above it is not supported.

Upgrading SQL From SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008

In OM2007R2, we are supporting a new installation of OM on SQL 2008 as well as upgrading your SQL 2005 Server to SQL Server 2008.

Upgrade order:

Upgrade all OM DB roles to OM2007R2 (OMDB, OMDW, ACSDB, OM Reporting)
Backup all DB’s
Upgrade Operational DB to SQL 2008 with SP1
Upgrade OM DW to SQL 2008 with SP1
Upgrade ACS DB to SQL 2008 with SP1
Upgrade OM Reporting according to the instructions in the upgrade guide, (Note: Reporting is the only role that requires following a set of procedures)

New Tools for Reporting upgrade:

SRSUpgradeTool.exe

This does a basic config file restore and registry updates of SCOM Reporting’s MSI components. This tool has to run before and after SQL instance upgrade.

SRSUpgradeHelper.msi

This tool needs to be run after the SQL 2008 upgrade is complete and you have run the SRSUpgradeTool tool with the “postSQLUpgrade” switch

Reporting Upgrade Procedure:

Run the SRSUpgradeTool with the “PreSQLUpgrade” switch

This will basically restore the three config files we backed up during the initial installation of OM. This is necessary because SQL 2008 install detects are custom security extensions and blocks upgrade until they are removed

Upgrade to SQL 2008
Note: Do not apply SP1 of SQL 2008 our tool will not run on SP1
Once SQL Upgrade is complete, run SRSUpgradeTool with the “PostSQLUpgrade” switch

This will update the registry entries for installed components of OM reporting to point to new SRS folder location

Run SRSUpgradeHelper.msi tool to place the OM reporting related files on new SRS folder and set the SRS configuration
Upgrade to SQL 2008 SP1 (Remember to apply SP1 of SQL 2008, SQL fixed some report rendering issues for us in this service pack)

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Program Manager

Disclaimer:

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
Use of included tools and reports are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

Posted Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:08 AM by rkuehfus | 1 Comments

Filed under: Administration, News, Reporting, Tips, Deployment, Setup, Upgrade, Best Practices

What’s new in R2 Deployment and Upgrade

<Update> I have include information on how to upgrade from R2 RC to R2 RTM.

Not much has changed when upgrading from Operations Manager 2007 SP1 to R2 or deploying a fresh installation of Operations Manager 2007 R2. However, I do want to take the opportunity to point out few of the changes.

Changes to supported platforms

Operations Manager R2 now supports OM database roles running on SQL 2008 with SP1. Please be sure install SP1 of SQL 2008 before beginning your R2 install or upgrade. Our Prerequisite checker detects for SQL 2008 SP1and will block until it is found. Note: We still continue to support SQL 2005 with SP1 or higher.

Operations Manager R2 also supports upgrading from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008. Only the Operations Manager Reporting role require special instructions. Detailed instructions can be found in the upgrade guide. Upgrading SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 Link

Upgrade Support

Operations Manager supports the following upgrade paths:

Agent Mixed Management Group Multi-homed Support

For agents that are multi-homed we support the following:

Upgrading from R2 Trial version (Eval) to R2 RTM (Select)

Upgrading from R2 RC to R2 RTM <New>

When upgrading from R2 RC to R2 RTM please follow the same procedures outlined in the Upgrade guide for upgrading from OM SP1 to OM R2.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362729.aspx

R2 Monitored Item Capacity changes from SP1

New Supported Operations Systems for Agent

Windows Server 2008 Foundation, WePOS v1, POSReady, Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded Enterprise, Windows Embedded POS Ready

New Documentations and Guides

Upgrade Guide

Troubleshooting Guide

Deployment Guide

Lastly, we have added some new functionality for adding a RMS cluster to an existing management group. In one of my next blog posts I plan to go into more detail on this topic.

Thanks you!

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Setup and Deployment Program Manager

Posted Friday, May 29, 2009 12:24 AM by rkuehfus | 6 Comments

Filed under: Administration, Troubleshooting, Documentation, Tips, Deployment, Setup, Upgrade, Best Practices

Service Level Dashboard 2.0 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 - Released

Overview

The Service Level Dashboard Management Pack 2.0 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 assists you in tracking, managing, and reporting on your line-of-business (LOB) application service levels. It displays a list of applications and their performance and availability against service level goals. Using this graphical dashboard, you can:

Spot trends in service availability and performance
Head off problems before they occur
Reduce IT costs by streamlining IT operations

Download Package Contents
The Service Level Dashboard 2.0.zip contains the following files:

SLD 2.0 Release Notes.rtf
Microsoft.EnterpriseServiceMonitoring.ServiceLevelDashboard.R2.mp
Service Level Dashboard 2.0_x86.msi
Service Level Dashboard 2.0_x64.msi
Service Level Dashboard 2.0 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 User Guide.docx
Supplemental License for Service Level Dashboard for OpsMgr 2007 R2.rtf

To read more about this Solution Accelerator online at TechNet click here.

Send questions or feedback to us directly at SATfdbk@microsoft.com

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1d9d709f-9628-46a8-952b-a78f5dd2bdd9

Posted Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:37 PM by justinincarnato | 1 Comments

System Center Operations Manager 2007 - Online Forums Launched

Hello Operations Manager Community,

We are pleased to announce the System Center Operations Manager Online Forums:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager

Over the next few weeks we'll encourage our community to start using the forums as opposed to the current NNTP servers we are using today.

Thanks to everyone for participating in this forum and we look forward to seeing you over on TechNet.

Thanks,
Justin

Posted Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:41 AM by justinincarnato | 1 Comments

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 - RTM!

Dear Operations Manager Community,

Late yesterday the RTM of Operations Manager 2007 R2 was approved, which immediately initiated the next stage of the process ... getting this latest version of Microsoft's end-to-end monitoring product for IT environments and datacenters out to YOU! Read more in our overview whitepaper, What's New datasheet, or download the trial, and see customer stories and more information on our pages on Microsoft.com and TechNet.

Get community help on the New Online Forums here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager

The trial version of Operations Manager 2007 R2 RTM (build 7221) is now available via the Microsoft Download Center. General Availability of the product will be 1st July 2009, at which point new and existing customers will be able to obtain the bits from their respective customer download centers, such as MVLS.

In addition to the updated product documentation, our overview whitepaper, and what's new datasheet, newly released collateral includes a number of new datasheets that include:

Some of you have also have the opportunity to try our new hands on labs at our MMS and TechEd events this year, which cover topics such as installation, introduction, management pack authoring, and more. We're busily upgrading these with the RTM bits, and they will be available for you to use via the TechNet Online virtual labs next month (June).

In addition to downloading the trial (or if you're waiting for the upgrade or full product bits to arrive in your customer portal):

Check out our TechNet Webcast Series on Operations Manager 2007 R2:
Watch our TechNet EDGE Video Blogs (more on their way!):
Learn about v2.0 of the Service Level Dashboard from our Solution Accelerators team, which lets you measure and report application or system performance & availability in near real time across your organization through Microsoft SharePoint. Download the Service Level Dashboard from the System Center Catalog (available shortly).
Check out our new community portal, System Center Central for downloads, discussions with our MVPs, and much, much more!

How else can I extend and leverage Operations Manager 2007 R2?

Operations Manager 2007 R2 Interoperability Connectors provide the ability to synchronize alerts and status between Operations Manager 2007 R2 and other management systems. Beta connectors for Tivoli Enterprise Console, HP OpenView Operations, and the new Universal Connector can be obtained from the Operations Manager R2 download on Connect. Download the Interop Connectors from the System Center Catalog (available shortly).
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Visio Add-in delivers the ability to link status and health information gathered by Operations Manager 2007 R2 into normally-static Visio diagrams, adding life and interaction to those diagrams. Download it today from Microsoft Connect.
New Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack (MP) Beta, which provides enhancements over the current Exchange MP such as reducing alert noise and enhanced performance. Download it today from Microsoft Connect.
BridgeWays MP Beta Program, providing beta MPs for MySQL, Apache, and Oracle running on Windows, Linux or Solaris. For more information, and to register into the BridgeWays MP Beta Program, visit http://www.bridgeways.ca/bw_management-pack-beta-program-signup_form.php

Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 10:28 PM by justinincarnato | 5 Comments

Notification Test Tool

The Notifications Test Tool is a simple tool you can use to test your notification channels and subscriptions. This tool can be used to test email (SMTP), Instant Message (IM) or Text message (SMS) channels. Also, you can use this to generate a test alert in OpsMgr to test subscriptions.

Install Instructions:

Download and install the OMTestTool.msi to a local directory on your computer.

Note: This tool must be installed on a computer that has the OpsMgr console installed and run from someone logged as a local admin. To run the tool you must me a member of the OpsMgr Administrator group.

I have included a small user guide in the zip file. This tool will work on all version of OpsMgr. I plan to update this tool to support multiple channels types that R2 now exposes when I get some time.

Note: If you are running this tool on an OS where UAC is enabled please make sure to right click and run as Administrator.

Enjoy!

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Program Manager

Disclaimer:

This utility is supplied "as -is" with no support. In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.

Posted Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:11 PM by rkuehfus | 4 Comments

Filed under: Administration, Troubleshooting, Tips, Deployment, Setup, Scripting, Notifications

Attachment(s): Notifications Test Tool.zip

Solution Summary: ACS Support for Unix and Linux Systems

Available by 2nd half of 2009 (late fall) - brought to you by the System Center Cross Platform team.

Provide Audit Collection Services (ACS) for Unix and Linux systems

Leverage OpsMgr 2007 R2 Cross Platform infrastructure to enable Unix/Linux auditing
Collect and aggregate audit events across enterprise systems for a singular view
Out of the box support for base OS audit events

Reporting – base OS auditing reports

Access violations - unsuccessful logon attempts
Account management - Account creation/deletion/password change
User logons
Administrator activity - su, sudo
Forensic – all events for a computer/event ID

Management Pack (to collect events)

Out of the box MP for each platform
Datasources - Syslog, su log, audit, etc.
Audit event collection:

Logons – success/failure (Ssh, telnet, rsh, tty, ftp)
Privilege use activity – su, sudo
Account activity – create/delete/password change

Platforms

RedHat Enterprise 4, 5
Novell SLES 9, 10
Solaris 9, 10
HPUX 11iv2, 11iv3
AIX 5.3, 6.1

Provide the infrastructure to extend enterprise auditing - potentially for things like:

Network devices (e.g. Firewalls, Routers, Load balancers)
Applications (e.g. Databases, ERP/CRM systems)
Leveraging standard System Center Cross Platform logfile provider (or build your own customer provider) to read events

Delivery

Out of band, dependent on OpsMgr 2007 R2
CY 2H09

Posted Monday, May 11, 2009 12:05 AM by josephchan | 2 Comments

Filed under: Security, Reporting, Event Log, ACS

Notifications Update Alert History Tool

One of the challenges we face when working with notifications in System Center Operation Manager is figuring out if a notification subscription was triggered and who received it. Currently in OM2007SP1 and OM2007R2 we do not record when the notification was sent and who received the message.

The following tool in the download link below uses a combination of a command notification channel and a command line tool to update the alert history of any alert that meets the subscription criteria. All you need to do is make sure this command notification is a part of the subscription. Please click on the link to download the setup instructions and tool.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer:

This utility is supplied "as -is" with no support. In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Setup and Deployment Program Manager

Posted Friday, May 08, 2009 9:43 PM by rkuehfus | 9 Comments

Filed under: Administration, News, Tips, Scripting, Notifications

Attachment(s): UpdateNotificationHistory.zip

ACS Reports for Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2

ACS reports that will come out of the box with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, will support Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2.
In addition, R2 which has many new enhancement and features - and for ACS in particular, it will also include more robust creation of indexes for better query performance.
Oh, and here's the cool part - by 2nd half of 2009 - the System Center Cross Platform team will extend ACS in OpsMgr R2 to support Linux and Unix systems as well!

We have also included several new reports:

Access_Violation_-_Account_Locked.rdl
Policy_-_Account_Policy_Changed.rdl
Policy_-_Audit_Policy_Changed.rdl
Policy_-_Object_Permissions_Changed.rdl
Policy_-_Privilege_Added_Or_Removed.rdl

Most reports have been rewritten for enhanced performance. Each report will query for relevant security events from Window Server 2000, 2003, 2008, 2008 R2 (as well as Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7) and normalize the different fields from different OS versions such that the data are presentated in a single coherent format.

Ok, but what if you are using System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1's ACS feature and need reporting support for Windows Server 2008 today?
Well, we have taken the curtosy of providing these reports for you here* (see attachement - please do not re-distribute the reporting package).
Installation is pretty simple:

Rename your existing Audit Reports folder in SRS to another name (Say Old Audit Reports)
Copy the zip file to your local machine and unpackage it into a local folder (say C:\ACS)
In C:\ACS, run UploadAuditReports

UploadAuditReports {DatabaseServerAndInstance} {ReportingServiceURL} {ReportFolder}
Example (database with instance):
UploadAuditReports MyDBServer\Instance1 http://MyDbServer/ReportServer$Instance1 C:\MyReports
Example (database with no instance):
UploadAuditReports MyDBServer http://MyDbServer/ReportServer C:\MyReports

That's it!

*note: these reports have only been tested and verified for R2, but should technically work for SP1 as well

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
Use of included tools and reports are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

Posted Friday, May 08, 2009 6:10 PM by josephchan | 6 Comments

Filed under: Security, Reporting, ACS

Attachment(s): ACS Reports.zip

Video released Visio Add-in for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

To learn more about the Visio Add-in for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, check out the video on TechNet Edge at http://edge.technet.com/Media/Visio-Integration-with-Operations-Manager-R2/.

Posted Friday, May 08, 2009 1:39 PM by dalekoetke | 0 Comments

Filed under: Documentation, Tips, Extensibility, tutorial, Visio

Announcing SystemCenterCentral.com

From the SystemCenterCentral Administration Team

PRESS RELEASE

We are proud to announce SystemCenterCentral.com, the site to visit for "Everything System Center".

SystemCenterCentral.com was founded by three System Center community members; Pete Zerger, Rory McCaw and Maarten Goet. SystemCenterCentral.com is a community initiative that will combine a number of existing Internet properties under a single community site and strive to become the leading community landing page for all System Center technologies.

As Microsoft continues to invest in its System Center brand, we feel that there is a need for a community site that focuses exclusively on the technologies included in this suite of products. Unlike other community sites, the motivation behind this site is to continue to give back to the community at large, one of the reasons why each of the founders have been awarded the Microsoft MVP title.

The official launch of SystemCenterCentral.com will be at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas, NV, the week of April 27 to May 2, 2009. SystemCenterCentral.com has a dedicated community area where you can check out the site, get more information or become a member!

At this time you will find blogs, where well-known MVPs will start blogging in the coming days, a download area, a community "pack catalog" and forums. Later in May, we will be launching a wiki and a ‘community feedback' platform and other exciting features.

SystemCenterCentral.com is a strong supporter of user groups. We have the commitment of the following user groups to user SystemCenterCentral.com as the main landing page to find their user group and some of these groups will transfer their internet presence to SystemCenterCentral.com in the following weeks:

Atlanta Systems Management User Group, Microsoft Enterprise Management User Group (Denver), System Center Professional's User Group of Jax (Florida), New York System Center User Group, Portland EPG System Center User Group, Northwest System Center User Group (Seattle), Windows Management User Group (UK), System Center User Group (Netherlands), System Center User Group (Belgium), System Center User Group (Malaysia), System Center Virtual User Group and the Powershell Virtual User Group.

We would like to thank our sponsors for making this possible. Both Quest Software and Microsoft are supporting SystemCenterCentral.com as Gold Sponsors and will be active participant in this new online community. By having them as gold sponsors, we are confident this will become the go-to, online community for all things System Center..

Also, we would like to thank Bridgeways and SecureVantage, who are supporting SystemCenterCentral.com as Silver Sponsors.

Not going to MMS, but still want to check out this new System Center community site? Go to www.systemcentercentral.com now and join!

Best regards,

Peter Zerger, Rory McCaw and Maarten Goet

Posted Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:03 AM by justinincarnato | 3 Comments

System Center Operations Manager