January 2006 - Posts

• Friendly Reminder - OSUG Winter Meeting - February 1st, 9:30 am -- Great Presentations! Fabulous Prizes!

  Happy Friday! Just one more reminder of the OSUG meeting next Wednesday. Dustin Ingalls (bio below) is going to talk about SMS 2003 R2 (yes, similar to Server 2003 R2, there's going to be an SMS 2003 R2 released this year), and SMS Version 4 - the next version of SMS. Please plan to attend! Fabulous Prizes! That's right, we're sweeping out the prize closet. Here's a sneak peak! Portable DVD Player! Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Windows XP Professional Dominoes Pizza Coupons Vintela (Quest) will be giving away some Best Buy gift cards for those who complete a contact form after their presentation. and more! Don't forget OSUG Karaoke! "Grab the Mike" for 2-3 minutes to brag about an SMS milestone for you, pose a "stump the chump" question to the group, or talk about MMS 2006. Participating in Karaoke gives you an extra entry in the prize drawing! Meeting Information and Registration Link: http://myitforum.com/blog/osug/archive/2006/01/04/18088.aspx Additional Information about Vintela VMX: http://myitforum.com/blog/osug/archive/2006/01/27/18611.aspx Thanks, Warren Byle and Greg Ramsey OSUG Co-Chairmen osug@columbus.rr.com   Dustin Ingalls Product Unit Manager, Systems Management Server Microsoft Corporation As Product Unit Manager for the Systems Management Server product group within the Windows & Enterprise Management Division, Dustin is responsible for all engineering/product development functions associated with the Systems Management Server product. This includes program management, development, test, and sustained engineering. Prior to coming to the SMS organization, Dustin was General Manager of the Enterprise Infrastructure Services organization within Microsoft’s Operations & Technology Group. He was responsible for worldwide monitoring and remote break/fix efforts for all corporate network devices and servers. In addition to owning the Redmond based Global Operations Center, Dustin was responsible for the operation of the 2 Enterprise Data Centers in Washington State. Dustin was also responsible for the operations of Microsoft’s Extranet environment as well as tier 3 support and service management for all data center infrastructure services (Networking, RAS, Backup, NT Core, DNS, WINS, Proxy, Firewall, DHCP, Domain Controllers, etc) Prior to running Enterprise Infrastructure Services, Dustin was the Director of Sales & Support IT Application Support, managing the production support of 48+ applications used by Microsoft’s world wide sales force as well as those utilized by Microsoft’s Product Support Services and Consulting Services organizations. A graduate of the University of Washington, Dustin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business with emphasis in Finance and Information Systems.   Here is our agenda: 9:30-9:50 - Registration and Coffee Social 9:55-10:00 - Welcome 10:00-11:00 - Keynote - Dustin Ingalls from Microsoft 11:00-11:10 - Break 11:10-12:10 - Keynote - Dustin Ingalls from Microsoft Q & A 12:10-1:10 - Lunch 1:10 - 1:45 - OSUG Karaoke 1:45-2:45 - Session 3 - Application Packaging with SMS 2003 using InstallShield Admin Studio 2:45-3:00 - Break 3:00-4:00 - Session 4 - Vintela Presentation & Demo Posted Jan 27 2006, 10:34 AM by Anonymous with no comments

• Vintela VMX Presentation Information for OSUG Meeting on Feb 1st 2006

  Description of the Vintela VMX Presentation for Feb 1 Most organizations contain a combination of Windows-based and Unix-based resources. Traditionally, providing Enterprise-wide management to both resource types tends to be problematic; SMS provides Superior Windows resources management, but cannot provide the same management to the Unix resources in the organization. Therefore, in a mixed-platform environment administrators rely on administration tools separate from SMS for all non-Windows platform management, even though the administration tasks are essentially the same regardless of platform.  To solve this problem, Vintela has developed Vintela Management Extensions, or VMX. VMX seamlessly extends SMS management support to non-Windows resources, enabling SMS to become the central platform for managing all computer resources in an enterprise – Windows and non-Windows alike. Currently Vintela is developing VMX support for these non-Windows platforms: AIX HP-UX Linux Solaris Mac OS X VMX solves the multi-platform administration and management nightmare by seamlessly integrating with SMS to extend SMS management and administration to non-Windows platforms. IT personnel do not have to learn a new management paradigm; they simply use SMS to manage non-Windows resources. This saves your organization time and money.  Come and see how with the power of Vintela Management Extensions from Quest Software we extend the capabilities of Microsoft SMS! Deb Hocker Field Marketing Manager, Central Region Quest Software (v) 630-836-3157 (f)  949-754-8999 (c) 630-605-4030 deb.hocker@quest.com Posted Jan 27 2006, 09:59 AM by Anonymous with no comments

• The Ohio SMS Users Group - Driving Directions and Parking Instructions

  Parking – ALL PARKING is FREE! You must park in the North Visitors Lot (corner of Front and Sycamore). DO NOT park in the Parking Garage or the permit parking behind the building. Building entrance – Enter the main lobby and check in with the receptionist in the center of the lobby (if you sent in an RSVP your name will be on a list for entrance). The meeting will be held on the 3rd floor in Haaf Hall. Directions – click here for a map. From the North (NOTE: Yahoo and Mapquest directions are incorrect!) Take I-71 south toward Columbus Take exit 100B FOURTH Street exit IMMEDIATELY after the I-70/71 interchange (the signs say you can’t exit, but it is possible if you are ready for it! If you miss it continue to exit 98B and make a left at the end of the ramp to get you back onto I-70 and follow “From the West” directions) At the exit go straight through the lights until you reach HIGH ST. and turn LEFT. Go about 6 blocks to SYCAMORE and turn RIGHT Visitor parking will be on the RIGHT . From the East (NOTE: Yahoo and Mapquest directions are incorrect!) Take I-70 West toward Columbus Take exit 100B FOURTH Street. At the exit go straight through the lights until you reach HIGH ST. and turn LEFT. Go about 6 blocks to SYCAMORE and turn RIGHT Visitor parking will be on the RIGHT. From the West Take I-70 East toward Columbus Take exit 100A FRONT ST/ HIGH ST. Turn RIGHT at FRONT ST (first light) Go 1/2 mile and Visitor parking is on the LEFT just before the next light. From the South Take I-71 North toward Columbus Merge onto I-70 and stay in exit lane. Take exit 100A FRONT ST/ HIGH ST. Turn RIGHT at FRONT ST (first light) Go 1/2 mile and Visitor parking is on the LEFT just before the next light. Questions? osug@columbus.rr.com Posted Jan 18 2006, 08:17 AM by Anonymous with no comments

• SMS v4 Information

  Michael Kleef posted a bit of information today about the next version of SMS (commonly referred to as “SMS v4”).  Take a look at some of the improvements for the next version of SMS.  Can you say “Drag and Drop”?  :) http://blogs.technet.com/mkleef/archive/2006/01/13/417347.aspx Michael also mentions the SMS 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring tool. Here's the brief description: Define desired configuration models and enable SMS 2003 to proactively monitor configuration settings for compliance. Administrators can create and edit XML models through an authoring GUI to define desired configuration values and check for configuration compliance such as registry settings, files, software updates, and service packs. And don't forget, if you're in or near Ohio, don't miss our next Ohio SMS Users Group meeting. Dustin Ingalls is our keynote, and we have some great vendors coming in during the afternoon also!   Greg   Posted Jan 12 2006, 05:11 PM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s)

• Ohio SMS Users Group Winter Quarterly Meeting - February 1st, 9:30am - 4:00pm

  This is the meeting you don't want to miss! Our keynote speaker will be Dustin Ingalls, SMS Product Unit Manger from Microsoft! He's coming to Columbus Ohio all the way from Redmond to give us more information about the next version of SMS ("version 4"), and upcoming cool stuff with SMS 2003. In addition to all the great information he's going to give us, he also wants feedback from you. He wants your feedback on SMS 2003, and what you think of the presented improvements for SMS version 4. We can't stress this enough-This is your opportunity to give face-to-face feedback to the Manager of Microsoft Systems Management Server! The Winter Quarterly meeting is just 4 weeks away! It will be held on Wednesday (yes, Wednesday this time), February 1st at Grange Insurance Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio from 9:30 am - 4:00 pm. Same great discussions, presentations, and interaction as always!! (and once again don't forget the great food!!) Here is a preview of our agenda: 9:30-9:50 - Registration and Coffee Social 9:55-10:00 - Welcome 10:00-11:00 - Keynote - Dustin Ingalls from Microsoft 11:00-11:10 - Break 11:10-12:10 - Keynote - Dustin Ingalls from Microsoft Q & A 1210-1:10 - Lunch 1:10 - 1:45 - OSUG Karaoke 1:45-2:45 - Session 3 -- Application Packaging with SMS 2003 using InstallShield Admin Studio 2:45-3:00 - Break 3:00-4:00 - Session 4 -- Vintela Presentation & Demo This would be a great meeting to introduce your managers to the Ohio SMS Users Group. Just tell them about our keynote, the free coffee & bagels, and then about the lunches that Chef Eric puts together for us - yep, that should do it! All that on top of great discussions, food and prizes! Registration, food and parking are free! Register here: http://ramsey.usanethosting.com/OSUG/register/ Driving Directions and Parking Information: http://myitforum.com/blog/osug/archive/2006/01/18/18441.aspx Keep an eye on the OSUG blog for more information: http://www.myitforum.com/blog/osug Warren and Greg OSUG Co-Chairmen Questions? osug@columbus.rr.com     Posted Jan 04 2006, 04:06 PM by Anonymous with 6 comment(s)