Omar's Blog on Systems Management

SCCM Certificate Infrastructure example and checklist

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:13:51 GMT

Microsoft has published a few technet articles about the Certificates that are neccesary to have SCCM run in Native mode. They provide guidelines and a example setup of the certificate infrastructure. You can find it at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680312(TechNet.10).aspx

A Blog @ MyITForum.com!

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:08:55 GMT

At the MMS 2008 I've got an invitation from Rod Trent to start a blog at MyITForum.com. Ain't that cool? As soon as I have a little more time I'll be posting my first entry over there.

Minke: de brief uit Atascadero is voor mij

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:46:21 GMT

Minke, ik kan je geen mail sturen, maar de brief uit Atascadero is voor mij. Hij is van mijn oom en tante naar aanleiding van het overlijden van mijn vader. Laat aub een berichtje achter hoe ik je kan bereiken.

Ruff month...

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:07:02 GMT

It was a ruff month: the day I came home from MMS, my father passed away. After a week of arrangements and the funeral, I took some time off to spend two weeks in Spain with my family. I'm back now and I'll be taking up the postings and blogs soon again

SCCM R2 and SoftGrid Highlight review

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:58:18 GMT

The full integration of MAV 4.5 (SoftGrid) and SCCM and how well it is done really makes me happy. I have made a short high light report on the most important points they have presented during MMS 2008.

Infrastructure integration

the current SVAS infrastructure has been integrated into SCCM 2007 R2. By using HTTP and Virtual directories, it is now possible to stream any application from a IIS based Distribution Point.
HTTP streaming: SVAS used RTSP RTP protocols to manage streaming. The session I attended wasn't suitable to ask the presenter to elaborate on how streaming was controlled via HTTP. I'll add some info at this point when I know more!

Console integration

All deployment activities are integrated into the SCCM console. MSFT took care to have all former SG UI actions to deploy applications to look like the regular work you do in SCCM when you deploy a classic application. Changes have been made to the Advertisements interface to allow streaming from an available distribution point. The DP properties window now contains a 'Streaming' tab to enable / disable streaming.

Managed installation / deinstallation will only be available for virtualized applications, so if you are a package specialist and you do understand which way the word is coming to: You know which training / specialization you should choose.

Attached Knowledge Services technology compairs performance of your organization to others anonymously..

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:39:16 GMT

During the second day keynote of MMS 2008, Bratt Anderson introduced a new concept that will launch as a Service Enabled environment, called a attached service (e.g. WSUS) . This solution is still in beta and goes by the name of Attached Knowledge Services technology.

The solution is focused on creating decision/business information about the effectiveness / innovation factor between organizations. Bratt Anderson described it in a recognizable way: the answer to questions about 'how are we doing IT versus other organizations? This information will be generated by SC family products: If you participate your SCCM / SCOM etc. environent generates data and will be send anonymously to a microsoft Inet location. The information will display KPI of your organisation in comparison to other organizations level of technology. This should give decision makers information on where they stand in comparison to their compatitor companies.

It seems an easy way for the IT pro to use this service as a foundation for roadmapping and to base future investments on it. But I get a little scaired with the idea that this information miht fall in the wrong hands... .

Intel AMT technology makes SCCM even better

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:36:28 GMT

During the second day key note of MMS 2008, the enhancements that will be available for SCCM R2 in combination with Intel Advanced Management Technology (AMT) were made very clear. A demo showed a few scenario's that will need on site support, but with AMT that could be history.

On the part of Out of band management:

Using a serial console, it is possible to control a system in the pre-boot environment so that BIOS setup can be done remotely
In data recovery scenario's, it is possible to boot the system remotely off a file. This will make possible that even local data can be saved remotely

One of the best parts is that AMT integrates with AD and uses Kerberos for Out of Band management

SCOM: Cross Platform Management

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:19:59 GMT

From my collegue Walter Eikenboom:

For SCOM 2007 he announced the Cross platform Agents and Management pack for SCOM 2007. With this announcement he made a big step into monitoring heterogeneous environment with the look and feel of the Windows Server platform.

For the whole story visit the Buit.org website at http://www.buit.org/2008/04/30/scom-2007-cross-platform-monitoring-announcement-mms/

MMS 2008: Generation -Y and 'That Old Admin guy'...

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:14:45 GMT

The keynote for the second day of MMS 2008 was presented by Brad Anderson, GM of the Management and Solutions division and focussed on the the challenges for IT for delivering service in the future. One of the key elements will be the next generation users who aren't afraid of computers; they grew up with it and experience 'mobility' as a part of their daily routine. Or as Brad put it: Now the Client is the User.... .

Their expectations of the service an IT organization should give are parrtially defined by the way they are used to use technology. They use their home pc, cellphone, laptop or office PC transparantly, which challenges the way the IT organization manages application deployment and data availability. Security, Centralization and Virtualization were again keywords where the solutions from the System Center family were used as examples how to get things done (Xen Desktop virtualization, SoftGrid App virtualization, Terminal Services, NAP, DCM) in a controlled environment (e.g. the Domain) with managed systems. If you are interested in a managed workspace solution that already has all these components integrated, please visit the Getronics FRW site.

I expect that this 'evolution' of the user will be becoming far more complicated than we are able to solve now. I am already involved in projects where organisations are being confronted with unmanaged clients and still need to deliver applications and services to what I call 'Alienated Environments'. In the next couple of weeks I will try to write some articles about the issues and possible scenario's, for example the challenges of "Bring your own hardware" environments.

For a full annotation of Brad's keynote see Joseph Hinkle's article

The Virtual Data Center: VMM will manage VI3 infrastructure

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:57:02 GMT

In het first key note of MMS 2008, VP Bob Muglia talked about Dynamic IT: Transforming Management and the Data Center. He confirmed that most of us already understood: Virtualization is the way to go, especially for Data Center environments. The announcement of the VM Manager Beta 2 release was followed by a short demo that showed SCVMM managing a heterogenous VM environment of Windows Hyper-V and ESX servers. For ESX, VM Man drills into the VM tools installed on the VM machine so you are actually able to perform a guest-OS migration between ESX host servers.

OMG - I'm in 'RodneyVision'!!

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:13:31 GMT

At the MMS 2008 Exhibitioners opening party of last night, I ran into Rodney and his camera team and got interviewed. Rodney is the stand-up comedian who does all daily intro's @ MMS. I wasn't that sober anymore, so I wonder what it's going to be after they have edited....

Auwch!

SCOM: OpsMan Authoring Console released

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:07:25 GMT

At MMS 2008 Microsoft announced the release of the SCOM Authoring Console. The current methode (using notepad) for creating xml for Model Based Management was too difficult and did not support off-line action. This should give you the highlights:

Online / Offline authoring in SCOM
simplified by using wizards for service and health models

Microsoft expects great opportunities for software manufacturers and specialists to build customized models for their environments.

2010: A System Center Odyssey

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:48:29 GMT

Without disclosing any extra information, I can only the year 2010 will be a big year for System Center with the release of new versions. So get better reserve some money for your 2010 + budget !

SCCM SDK Arraybbuilder scheduled task

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:43:46 GMT

During MMS 2008, Microsoft partner DELL showed a add-on to the SCCM OS deployment tasks. Based on the SCCM SDK, they have build the array builder which configures your disk array during OSD task sequence. The most brilliant part was that the task was highly flexible: depending on the ammount of disks detected, the raid configuration could be set. For instance, if a raid set of six disks was detected, the task sequence would arrange the disks as 2x RAID 1, 3x RAID 5 and one hot spare. The same task could be used for other disk configurations, consequently configuring the raidset as defined. HP and IBM have co-operated too, providing similar task sequences for their hardware.

This tool I think looked awsome and would love to use it, but it seems that this SDK is only planned for (OEM) partners

erratum: I got the following mail from Jim Dempsey:

"Your statement that the SCCM SDK is not planned for public release is incorrect. It has been available for public download for over a month: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=064A995F-EF13-4200-81AD-E3AF6218EDCC&displaylang=en . If you're talking about the OEM toolkit, that's a different story, and I don't really have any information on it other than the fact that it was created using the standard SDK. So even if it is not available other than to OEMs, you can still accomplish the same things with the SDK."

I would like to thank Jim for correcting this part. All I can say is that the session I attended was quite confusing because the presenter added some humor and other statements during his presentation that I must have misunderstood. The folks at DELL told me that they are going to add some of they task sequences to their Website shortly just for 'evaluation resons'.

MMS 2008: SCSM gets three databases!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:32:01 GMT

At MMS 2008 the SCSM team opened up about the issues that resulted in a reset of the SC Service Manager. Poor performance (database tables) and tooling that did not worked as well as thought up, meant a complete redo of SCSM.

One of the redesigned features of SCSM is that the system can/will use three databases:

CMDB: this database will contain all assets (SCCM / SCOM will provide extensive data)

Datawarehouse: this database will contain all workflows etc.

Reporting: This database will provide the reporting services for SCSM. This database will probably also be used for sustaining CMDB information that is being discarted form de the actual CMDB database.

SMS 2003 support update: Extended support ends January 2015

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:13:41 GMT

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 and Systems Management Server 2003 R2 will transition from Mainstream Support to Extended Support on January 12, 2010. Extended Support will now end on January 13, 2015. Both the Mainstream and Extended Support dates were extended once the follow-on product, System Center Configuration Manager 2007, was released to manufacturers

Server 2003 mainstream support ends 2010

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:03:22 GMT

Microsoft announced today Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 – Mainstream Support Ends July 13, 2010, Extended Support Ends July 14, 2015
Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will transition from Mainstream Support to Extended Support on July 13, 2010. Extended Support for both will end on July 14, 2015. This date was announced because the follow-on product, Windows Server 2008, was released to manufacturers on February 4, 2008.

This transition timeline is in line with the Support Lifecycle policy, which states that Mainstream Support for Business and Developer products will be provided for either five years or for two years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer.

for more information see http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle

Getting ready for MMS 2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:38:39 GMT

It has been a while since I posted to this blog. Due to personal circumstances and my involvement with a new developmentproject within our company, blogging became a second or even thirth level priority. Anyway, buzz will fade away this week and at the end of this month: Viva MMS2008 Las Vegas!

From that time on I hope to blog some usefull and interesting articles from 'the Mother of all Management Conventions'. I would be suprised as this will be the last year to be called MMS since there is much more focus on the whole of the System Center family. Eitherway some points on my agenda I am looking forward to:

The Invitee only sessions on monday
The MyITforum party (I do hope they didn't change the buttons, I still have mine from last year...)
Getting in touch with the guys and girls again (Marc, Anthony C., April, Rod, I hope to see you there!)
beefjerkey (Costs a fortune in Europe, but with the current dollar I''ll be shipping it back to the max. Probably will be gone in three weeks)

See you at MMS 2008?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:29:33 GMT

Today the approval for my attendance @ MMS 2008 came through. I hope to meet some of you there. @ Rod Trent: Save me a button!

Service Manager delayed untill Q2 2010

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:48:05 GMT

On Monday 11th February Microsoft announced that the Service Manager’s planned release has been delayed until the first half of 2010. A refresh of the Service Manager beta will be released towards the end of 2008. The reason for the delay is the feedback for beta 1 and can be summarized as a need to:

Improve the performance of the product
Provide improved integration across System Center

Senior Product Marketing Manager for SCSM Paul Ross comments the delay: "I’m confident that our strategy for Service Manager is going to provide the capabilities that our customers are asking for in terms of the IT service desk, deep integration across System Center products, and support for service management process frameworks such ITIL or MOF. I know any delay is unfortunate, but we must ensure that the product is ready on day one, rather than deliver a product that has to be changed once it is deployed in customers' environments."

Many thanks to my friend and colleague Gerben pointing out to http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2008/02/07/system-center-service-manager-update.aspx

Photo Album: MMS 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:18:49 GMT

MMS 2008

Rodney "On the Ball"

BobM Keynote

And BobM himself

Heroes - Thats Us ?!

Collegue Marielle & I @ MyITForum party

Checking out the Strip

Our home and workspace for one week ;-)

OMG- I'm on Rodneyvision!!

GPR_NL Ready to hit Town

Photo Album: MMS 2007

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:43:47 GMT

MMS 2007

room with a view-1

room with a view-2

Rodney heats it up

BobM doing his thing

Making DSI theory more physical

War on VM starts

solution architecture

It has a name now...

Foto zonder titel

DSI timeframe

More Photos...

Photo Album: IT Forum 2006

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:20:14 GMT

IT Forum 2006

The collegues

Happy with goodiebag

Weather aint bad at all

Microsofts Promise

Roadmap Timeline

Well... ;-)

Detail on SCSD pane: ITIL definitions

Photo Album: IT Forum 2005

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 12:55:30 GMT

IT Forum 2005

Foto zonder titel

Custom List: Recommended blogs

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:12:25 GMT

Recommended blogs

SMS & MOM supportability blog
BUIT.org
The guys and girls from our Business Unit Innovative Technology.
techlog.nl
Maarten Goet's blog on System Center.
Stefan Stranger's Blog on MOM
GPR Collegue and MVP for MOM
Gerben's Blog on Virtualisation
GPR collegue and friend who is specialising on virtual environments
Anthony Clendenen's blog
Anthony is one of the core SMS bloggers of MyITforum.com He currently works for 1E
The Powershell Guy
MVP and GPR collegue MOW aka Marc van Orsouw's blog on the subject he was described as being a 'savant': Powershell