Randy Young ::: Adopting and Adapting : Systems Mgmt Software

Technical details on Desired Configuration Monitoring

Randy_Young — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:20:26 GMT

If you are currently using the free Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) solution for SMS 2003 or are evaluating this functionality, there is a great blog on MSDN which digs into the technical details of this software.

In case you are unfamiliar with DCM, this solution will allow you to automate the validation of configuration management data that you are collecting with SMS. DCM also ties into Service Monitoring and Control by utilizing MOM to alert on any “out of compliance” items.

From the documentation, “Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) enables you to author desired configuration manifests, and to monitor and report on compliance of your computers against a desired configuration. DCM strengthens the Microsoft systems management platform by checking for undesired configuration changes across multiple configuration sources.”

A good "How To" on setting up a virtual development and test environment

Randy_Young — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 01:27:00 GMT

Need sound operational and technical assistance to setup a production emulated development and test environment? Need this environment to support change and release management? If the answers are yes, then I highly recommend you examine the WSSRA (Windows Server System Reference Architecture) Virtual Environments for Development and Test solution or WSSRA-VE for short. This is part of the overall WSSRA which outlines a standardized infrastructure architecture. The goal of WSSRA is to establish a foundation upon which organizations can design and implement solutions on the Microsoft architecture with more speed and less risk and cost.

The purpose of the WSSRA-VE is to show how to design and build an accurate emulation of a corporate enterprise data center such as the one designed and documented in WSSRA, but altered to be used by development and test teams.

So, how does this fit into MOF and process initiatives? There is extensive guidance in the Operations document as part of this solution (contained in the download from the link above) which ties this solution into the operating quadrant, virtual team, and various SMFs in the Optimizing quadrant. Roles and responsibilities are documented and skills required to setup and operate in this environment.

This is extensive guidance. Don’t download expecting some light reading. This is very detailed and meant to be distilled within a project team to implement this solution.

Free Add-On Monitoring Solution Available for SMS 2003 to Support Configuration Management

Randy_Young — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 01:55:00 GMT

From the Desired Configuration Monitoring user guide…

“Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) enables you to author desired configuration manifests, and to monitor and report on compliance of your computers against a desired configuration. DCM thereby strengthens the Microsoft systems management platform by checking for undesired configuration changes across multiple configuration sources.
DCM uses the Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) as the underlying compliance-checking engine, Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 for the targeting, deployment, and scheduling mechanism, and Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services as the reporting infrastructure. In addition, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 can be used as the alerting infrastructure.”

When we look at Configuration Management from a MOF / ITIL perspective, the goal of configuration management is to ensure that only authorized components, referred to as configuration items (CIs), are used in the IT environment and that all changes to CIs are recorded and tracked throughout the component’s life cycle. To achieve this goal, the configuration management process includes the following objectives:

To identify configuration items and their relationships and add them to the configuration management database (CMDB).
To enable access to the CMDB and CIs by other SMFs.
To update and change CIs following changes to IT components during the release management process.
To establish a review process that ensures that the CMDB accurately reflects the production IT environment.

If you already have SMS 2003 SP1 and MOM 2005 already in place, this tool can help support your configuration mgmt process by automating some of the review process to ensure that CMDB matches production configuration and also ensure that unauthorized changes to production don’t go unnoticed.

How Microsoft IT does Change and Configuration Mgmt

Randy_Young — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 18:19:43 GMT

A new download is available here on how Microsoft within its own IT group performs the change and configuration mgmt processes. This paper contains an overview describing how Microsoft IT takes advantage of Microsoft solutions to deploy software and services in the enterprise. It is short two page paper (they filled them up with as much info as possible believe me) but provides a good foundation for the project undertaken.

Part of the text are the lessons learned through the service improvement project.

Gain executive and midlevel support and proactive backing.
Spend more time on awareness and training.
Expect an increase in changes to be documented as a result of process compliance.
Expect people issues from a perception of additional bureaucracy.
Use the MOF Risk and Team models.