Cliff Hobbs at myITforum.com

MMS Day Two - Tuesday 27th March

This is the first "proper" day of MMS. The day started with the keynote in which I found out:

• There's a new version of SQL due next year (wasn't aware of that one).
• SCOM 2007 was officially announced as going RTM with it becoming available the first week of April.
• Microsoft, Cisco and EMC are working together to extend MOM to be able to manage network devices

Next attended the "SCCM State of the Union" presentation where:

• TechSexy was announced - Microsoft are trying to promote that their technology is sexy like Tron was (I don't think it's THAT sexy) - more info is going to be available at http://www.techsexy.net/
• HP now offer a Client Catalogue for SCCM to manage servers, workstations and laptops in terms of patches and drivers BUT it won't do BIOS updates.
• The number of customers using SMS 2003 has almost doubled
• The Release Candidate of SMS 2003 SP3 came out last Friday (23rd March). They were hoping to announce it at MMS but hit some problems so it's due sometime in April. It will include 13 hotfixes. NOTE: Microsoft recommends applying Hotfix KB 934206 If you're using the DMFP otherwise applying SP3 will break it - I couldn't find the KB on the Public Microsoft site so maybe it's in progress - checking with Microsoft as you read this.
• SMS 2003 SP2 will be the minimum supported config for SCCM so get upgrading to this as a minimum
• There are 1700 (yes 1700) pieces of Admin UI in SCCM
• SCCM SP1 is due in the first half of 2008 which will include support for Vista SP1 and Longhorn roles
• SCCM R2 is also in progress expected second half of 2008 which will include OS Deployment updates such as support for multicasting and "unknown" machines; It will also start the move from Web Reports to SQL Reporting Services which is the way Microsoft want Reporting to go
• The Admin Feature Pack is now integrated into SCCM
• An overview of the new SCCM roles such as State Migration Point, Branch DP, Software Update Point, Fallback Status Point, System Health Validator, and PXE Service Point was given
• The Rapid Deployment Program for SCCM is now open - contact sccmrdp@microsoft.com

Next attended the "What's new in Software distribution" and "SCCM Deployment" sessions which I'll do separate blog posts on.

In the evening attended the myITforum party which was great and the Microsoft SCCM party at the "W" hotel. Man was it windy and cold - worse than being back at home but we all had a good time, especially in the photo booth.