I'm not a Linux guy...know very little but was able to pretty quickly get a CentOS 6.5 VM managed by both SCCM and SCOM 2012 R2. I did run into a few 'gotcha's' and thought I'd share here to hopefully save some of you the same experience...

You can use Kevin Holman's Blog post here as a backdrop for the basic steps.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2012/03/18/deploying-unix-linux-agents-using-opsmgr-2012.aspx

You need to create the Linux Resource Pool, certificate stuff (in my lab I have only 1 management server so that part is easy - you just run the export command in the blog post...and that's it) and then run the discovery process.

One important thing I missed up front is that the Linux VM needs to be able to resolve via DNS.  There is an IP lookup in the discovery wizard, but you need to have A and PTR records associated with the machine in DNS.  In my case, I created a static A record pointing the hostname I assigned during the CentOS setup to the OS with it’s IP address.  I clicked the checkbox to create the associated PTR record.  If you don’t create the PTR record you’ll get an error during the discovery (meaning, it won’t find anything).

A couple things you’ll need to do to the VM:

1) Make sure SSH is running.  That’s how you will connect to it via SCOM.

2) You may run into a firewall issue – you’ll either want to disable it (lab) or poke holes.  SCOM needs ports 22 and 1270 open to communicate with the VM for discovery/management.

3) OpenSSL needs to be installed/running as well.

The one thing you will have to do is make sure you have the latest/greatest Linux/UNIX MP's installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696

Click the download link and make sure you scroll down a bit to pull the R2 bits down.

You will then import these MP’s into SCOM 2012 R2.  You should get to this version.  The key for CentOS is getting the Universal MP’s installed.  I went ahead and installed others as well…future proofing myself.   1021 is the version that you’ll get from the above download.

After a successful discovery you’ll click the “MANAGE” link and it will install the agent and put the OS under management.

By the way, if you are interested in getting this working with SCCM (2012 R2 agent installed and managed by SCCM) – there is a great tutorial here. 

http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9357-how-can-you-manage-linux-based-clients-in-system-center-2012-r2-configuration-manager/

I seem to be getting a lot of requests for these reports lately so I thought I’d document the URL to find these for reference on this blog.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/datacenter/virtualization-enterprise-applications.aspx

Most recently, the addition of Exchange 2013 performance on Hyper-V was just posted:

Summary of the testing is:

ESG Lab performed hands-on testing of a virtualized tier-1 Exchange 2013 application workload. The workload used was designed to emulate thousands of Exchange users performing typical activities including sending and receiving e-mails, making calendar entries, updating contacts, and managing to-do lists. The storage activity of up to 48,000 typical Exchange users was tested using a single physical server hosting up to twelve Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V virtual machines.

Key findings included:

· Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V supported the needs of 48,000 emulated Exchange mailboxes.

· Performance scaled linearly from two to 12 virtual machines on a single server, as sustained IOPS reached a maximum of 5,894—over 60% more than the targeted IOPS rate of 3,600.

· Response times remained manageably low reaching a maximum of 15.31 milliseconds. This was well under the Microsoft maximum threshold guideline of 20 milliseconds for Exchange database reads.

· The I/O efficiency improvements in Exchange 2013 reduce the cost of delivering e-mail support in mixed virtual server environments. ESG Lab supported up to 48,000 mailboxes on 12 virtualized Exchange servers on a single Dell M620 blade server.

ESG Lab confirmed that the improved IOPS performance efficiency of Exchange 2013 and the manageably low IOPS overhead of Microsoft Server 2012 with Hyper-V can be used to consolidate tier-1 e-mail application workloads with confidence. A single server hosting a virtualized Exchange infrastructure deployed within twelve Hyper-V virtual machines supported the I/O requirements of up to 48,000 simulated Exchange users with excellent response times.

The IT Pro Evangelism team, Microsoft Learning and the Microsoft Virtual Academy are pleased to announce the next Jump Start course Microsoft Tools for VMware Integration & Migration on Thursday, March 14^th from 8am – 12pm PST. 

This is a live, public, free, online event so ask your customers to sign up today: http://aka.ms/vmtools.  This event will be recorded and available on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) several weeks later, so even if you cannot make the live event, sign up so that you receive a notification once the course is available on the MVA.

This course is designed for IT professionals who need to manage, monitor and automate VMware in their datacenter using System Center 2012 SP1.  During this half-day Jump Start, Microsoft Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman (MCSE and VMware Certified Professional) will be joined by four different Microsoft and VMware experts during the team-taught learning experience.  First, Eric Winner will share how Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and App Controller can run VMware infrastructure, hypervisor and VMs.  Next Michael Stafford from Veeam will show how the Veeam Management Pack for Operations Manager monitors and reports on the VMware infrastructure.  Third, Justin Incarnato demonstrates how VMware can be integrated and automated using Orchestrator.  Finally, Anupama Vedapuri walks through the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC), a free Solution Accelerator that converts VMware-based VMs and disks to Hyper-V.

Agenda

·         8am – 9am | Manage VMware with SC2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager

·         9am – 10am | Monitor VMware with SC2012 SP1 Operations Manager and Veeam

·         10am – 11am | Automate VMware with SC2012 SP1 Orchestrator

·         11am – 12pm | Migrate VMware VMs using Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC)

Tweet: Free #MSJumpstart course on #Microsoft tools for #VMware integration & migration on 3/14 Register http://aka.ms/VMtools  #VMM #SC2012

Also check out previous virtualization Jump Start events which are now available on the MVA:

·         “Introduction to Hyper-V” Jump Start (with Symon Perriman and Jeff Woolsey) 

·         “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” Jump Start (with Symon Perriman and Matt McSpirit)

StorSimple is the most adopted storage solution with Windows Azure. StorSimple offers:

• An appliance that connects Windows Servers to Windows Azure storage
• Automatic archiving with Windows Azure storage
• Elastic storage with Windows Azure
• Backup and restore with Windows Azure data protection

Offer Details

The offer includes two components: a Windows Azure storage discount and a solution from StorSimple at no additional cost.

$100K Offer and a $50K Offer

• Special Priced Windows Azure Storage:
  • $100K/year on Azure EA for storage
    • Covers 100TB of Azure storage through StorSimple appliance for most use cases
    • Note: This is an approximate amount of storage. This varies based on discounts, Azure storage type selected (local vs. geo replicated) and usage of other Azure services
• Free StorSimple Solution
  • Option-1: 7020 Appliance
    • Gold support for 3 years with NBD parts
  • Option-2: 7520 Appliance
    • Gold support for 1 year with NBD parts
• Additional Costs
  • Option-1 – 7020 with 3 years of support
    • Additional $7,500 for upgrade to platinum support for 3 years
    • Additional $10,000 for upgrade from 7020 to 5520
  • Option-2 – 7520 with 1 year of Gold Support
    • $7,500 per year for Gold support in yrs. 2 & 3
    • Additional $2,500 per year for upgrade to platinum support
  • Note: Xyratex will charge the customer directly

• Special Priced Windows Azure Storage:
  • $50K/year on Azure EA for storage
    • Covers 50TB of Azure storage through StorSimple appliance for most use cases
    • Note: This is an approximate amount of storage. This varies based on discounts, Azure storage type selected (local vs. geo replicated) and usage of other Azure services
• Free StorSimple Solution
  • 7020 Appliance
  • Gold support for 1 year with Next Business Day (NBD) parts
• Additional Costs
  • $5,000 per year for Gold support in yrs. 2 & 3
  • Additional $2,500 per year for upgrade to platinum support
  • Additional $10,000 for upgrade from 7020 to 5520
  • Note: Xyratex will charge the customer directly

NOTE: This offer is available for a limited time until March 31, 2013.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/jj659306.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_133_1_7

Windows Server 2012 Essentials (formerly Windows Small Business Server Essentials) is a flexible, affordable, and easy-to-use server solution designed and priced for small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices that helps them reduce costs and be more productive. Windows Server 2012 Essentials is an ideal first server, and it can also be used as the primary server in a multi-server environment for small businesses.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials enables small businesses to protect, centralize, organize and access their applications and information from almost anywhere using virtually any device.

Need more information? See the product details page .