Orchestrated Chaos

SCCM 2007 Scripting and Console Extensions : Greg Ramsey

For those of us that live and die by the community written console extensions for SMS 2003, this session is a must. Where would we be without the ability to right - click on a collection or computer and force a hardware or software inventory, or restart CCM exec, or open the logs?

Off the bat, Greg makes a reference to the great MyItForum.com as the place to go for more info and downloads. I think the only session that MyItForum.com has not been mentioned is in the keynotes. I also noticed that Greg uses the great Crimson Editor for editing text / powershell / vbs. I switch back and forth between it and Notepad++. Both are great editors.

Greg has a clever way to pull the GUID out of the console XML file so that it shows up in the console. While not something you'd want to do in production every day, this would be perfect for a test environment where you write your customizations.

It doesn't take an expert level of understanding of XML to write customizations for the console, only an understanding of the syntax needed. 

Some great info on Powershell and the SCCM extensions.

This slide deck will be one you'll want to keep handy.

 

Managing The Dynamic Desktop

Microsoft Funny Guy: Still not so much.

User - Centric Computing : Delivering an application to a user in a seamless fashion regardless of the device they use to connect. The user is the device. Deliver an app either virtualized, hosted, or 'standard' depending on bandwidth and device. Give the user the opportunity to be productive across all of their devices.

Key components in the delivery of this vision are cached and offline folders, application virtualization (Softgrid), and SCCM.

A brief demo of a consistent desktop across a laptop and remote terminal services session was impressive. With Windows Terminal Services 2008 they were able to replicate the user's laptop experience, down to the wallpaper. They then demonstrated the same thing using Citrix and then Xen Virtualization, where the Vista session was running virtually. Pretty cool.

Announcement : Config Manager SP1 Available in May. R2 Release Candidate Available in July. SP1 / R2 incorporates Intel VPro functionality and new Asset Matrix capability, with auto update capability.

New version of MDOP available Q3.

There's been a lot of talk here about separating the application from the OS and App Virtualization. I thought last year that we would see the day when Microsoft and other vendors begin delivering thier apps MDOP ready, and I think we're continuing to move closer to that today.

Using the Intel VPro add on to Config Mgr, they remotely powered off machines in the Comm-net lab, which was cool. And funny. The machines powered off within about three seconds, and they could multi-select machines. This makes WOL look like a dinosaur. Then using Out-Of-Band management they were able to remote boot a machine, watch it boot, and change BIOS settings. You can also force an IDE redirection and remote boot a PC off of a network file or image in the case of severe OS failure. This would allow you to do disk level diagnostics and copy client data.

Bill Anderson did a demo of Network Access Protection. The key thing for me was a demo of having the ability to provide NAP protection in the event of a Line-Of-Business app being out of date. It's just a couple of clicks on the deployment of any SCCM app. So you don't have to worry about users coming in and munging that critical database because their client app is two versions out of date. They won't get access until it's upgraded.

Technology Preview!

A demo of an add-on that pulls Config Manager and Ops Manager data and runs business analytics against it. It consolidates it into scorecards that enable stakeholders to view metrixs and make business decisions. It can also allow you to compare metrics and baselines to other companies that have also used the service. It surfaces data metrics from other companies without revealing anything about that company. It also includes notification services, where Microsoft and other customers can surface issues and allow them to trickle down to you based on hardware and configurations. Very promising functionality.

Summary:

I've long held that the Management space is the place to be in IT. Exciting things are happening and will continue to happen. We deliver value and savings to our clients / offices today, and will continue to drive down costs while driving up functionality. I'm totally geeked to be in this space today, thank  my company for sending me to MMS, and thank Microsoft for finally leading in this space. A MS TA once told me that Microsoft first enters the space, then gets it right, then innovates. Well in the management space Microsoft is innovating like no one else.

Extending Operations Manager

Cameron Fuller's session was well attended and well done. He went through a slew of Community and Third - Party extensions to SCOM, including (but not limited to):

Override Explorer

ReSearch This!

Savision - Live Maps

Command Shell:

Alert Close

Set Action Account

Export Alerts

Usability Extensions

MPViewer

Maintenance Mode

Proxycfg

Scheduling MP

Process Monitoring

Alert Forward

Eventid.net Lookup

The post - session Q&A was great. I was able to remind everyone that if you are running the Web Console, you can subscribe to it's RSS feed for alerts (<webconsoleServer/rss, I think) to replace the old MOM 05 Console Alerts. The RSS feed is something that's little publicized and under utilized, IMHO.

Client Health in SMS and SCCM

A good look into the complexities of "Client Health". what it is, and how to monitor and remediable it. My only wish is that I would have been to this session last year, would have saved me some pain.

How do they do that?!?

A great session from an MS Consultant giving a broad overview and some details around how clients have dealt with various situations in Config Manager. This session was very well attended in one of the larger breakout rooms.

Topics included process, planning, and some nuts and bolts. How can you tell how many machines will execute an advertisement successfully before you send it? Why should you have a Definitive Software Library and what should be in it? Why should you 'brand' your package deployments and how would you do it?

Packed full of great tips, this is one slide deck I'll be keeping on hand. Very well done.

Some awesome announcements in the keynote address.

First off, the comedian guy at the beginning : the "show of hands" line of jokes was funny last year. Not so much this year. Won't be at all funny next year. His strength is in the 'man on the street' interviews. Those are golden.

VMM 2008:

Beta announced today. Allows management and migration of VMWare ESX and Virtual Center servers from within the Microsoft VM Console. You can migrate VMWare to VMWare live, VMWare to Windows Hyper V "nearly live" (short downtime). They promise that live migration in HyperV is in the lab now and is something we'll see soon. I'm guessing it we'll see it at the next MMS.

Ops Manager Cross Platform Extensions:

Announced also was a beta of Cross Platform Extensions for Ops Manager 07. This allows you to manage Linux, Unix, HPAIX, Solaris from within the operations manager console. Working with partners and Open Source, you can now view Apache web sites, MYSql dbs, Oracle dbs, and basic OS info around these systems from within the Ops Manager console. This means that you can also report on them, pull them into Distributed Apps, and use every other Ops Manager feature (tasks!) with them.

Favorite Quote: "It's not your grandfather's Microsoft."

They understand that we all live in a heterogeneous environment, and the want us using their tools to manage it. That's a foot in the door of every space we're in for Microsoft, and there's nothing for them not to like about that.

What a zoo! I think all four thousand attendees were lined up trying to get in the doors. The line went back nearly to the casino (if not all the way there by the time the doors opened) and that wasn't single file, but three or four wide the entire way down.

Here's a really bad picture from my cell phone camera that does the crowd no justice .

My apologies to the guys in front, who probably didn't want to end up on the Internet.

As usual, the MyItForum.com booth was swamped, and by the time I finally got there they were out of party buttons. Doesn't it figure?

It was good to finally put faces to names of folks we've been talking to at both 1E and PS*Soft.

Swag was mostly in the "meh" category. Not as much furor over giving away zunes and xboxes and such this year, although some companies were.

I did manage to score three t-shirts that don't fit and one hat I can't wear. Such is life.

Keynote tomorrow.

Advice : Start the VM's as soon as you sit down! Be careful when closing items in the VM that you don't close the VM itself! You don't want to have to start the lab over. Not that I did that or anything.

Yo03 - Advanced Ops Manager 2007

First of all, the VM sessions rocked. Finally, something that can keep up. I think that the OpsMgr SP1 Console had a lot to due with my perception here, but it was quick and very useable.

The lab itself was a disappointment. I don't think any topic covered here, perhaps with the exception of the brief Powershell section, should be considered "Advanced". Is creating a basic Distributed Application "advanced"? Creating a Run-As account? Creating a basic role and notifications? If these are "advanced" topics, what are basic topics?

And for once, when we create a distributed app, can we do something besides the basic "Web Site, Back End DB, Host Server" app? How about choosing a service, monitoring it for availability, cpu and memory utilization, and creating custom alerts and subscriptions around that? THAT would be advanced.

If we must to the basic Distributed App, can we continue it on and create the alerts and subscriptions, and discuss why default alerts you get without customizations are gibberish?

Lastly, when someone from Microsoft says that they recommend not putting customizations and overrides in the Default MP, it would be nice if they explained why. An explanation would go farther towards ensuring that folks don't do it.

Yo07 - Building MPs with the Authoring Console

Great class. If you're involved in building or maintaining MPs at all in your organization, this is the class you need. Great content and an instructor willing to go off book and answer questions during the class. Even has the latest version of the MP Authoring Console, which only came out a short time ago.

Recommended.

And really, this could boil down to a philosophical choice. I'd rather the labs be a jumping off point for discussion and questions. If I want to click through the lab I can do it on my own time in the CommNet center or even off of the DVD. At the same time I know that there are folks new to the product that need the walk through.

We paid Microsoft (and The Venetian) big bucks to get in front of the insiders and developers on these systems, and I'd rather do that in the class / session setting than chasing them down the hall afterwards.

If you are an MMS Alumni, make sure you stop by the Alumni room, if only to pick up your official polo shirt.

Ok, I get it. The Venetian is gargantuan. I think it's as far from my room to the conference center as it was last year in San Diego. I exaggerate a bit, but not much. I'm finally learning the lay of the land here - to get anywhere, you must go through the casino.

Nice swag bag with registration. A nice Ogio backpack, again this year sponsored by Intel. The most interesting thing in it was a copy of the Powershell book, which tells you something about what Microsoft is emphasizing lately. Giving away 4000 copies of Windows Powershell Step-by-Step is no small gesture.

I'm sitting in the Comm-Net area, where the self-paced hands-on labs and communications workstations are. I'm guesstimating there are twice the number of stations for both this year.

I think that the growth of Microsoft Management products is going to explode in the coming years, and this conference will only continue to grow. Once Service Manager hits the streets and Microsoft can offer the entire suite, it's anyone's guess how many will be signing up for this event.

No breakfast today and keynote is tomorrow morning, so I'm free until 10:30 or so. Off to the Alumni Lounge!

Here and cranked up to start MMS tomorrow. Congratulations to the fine folks at American Airlines for getting both me and my checked bag to the same place at the same time.

This time.

Heading out to MMS tomorrow. Given past experience, I'm packing two days worth of clothes in my carry on and praying for the bag I'll check.

I'll blog things of interest while I'm there. Really looking forward to meeting folks in the community, and renewing acquaintences.

Hope to see you there!