November 2008 - Posts
The following four presentations has been zipped up and is available for download (20 megs).
| Presenter | Subject |
| Greg Cameron | SC Virtualization Management |
| Hal Rottenberg | Managing VMWare w/ Powershell |
| Troy Wilch | App-V/Softgrid w/ SCCM 2007 R2 |
| Jeremiah Beckett | ACS Design and Planning |
We would like to thank our sponsors at Acresso and Secure Vantage for the continued support!
If you don't know, Secure Vantage is the go-to partner for turning OpsMgr (ACS) into a full-blown GRC engine. More information @ www.securevantage.com.
... and Acresso is the maker of InstallShield (probably remember when InstallShield was Macrovision). Get more detail @ www.acresso.com.
News:
The next meeting is being planned for February 3, 2009. Mark your calendars everyone! The agenda is wide open right now so feel free to contact us with suggestions or if you would like to present a topic.
Contact Us:
To get the latest news on meeting times and places, please join the SMUG mailing list:
Subscribe: atlantasmug-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: atlantasmug-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
For more information, contact one of your SMUG presidents.
Marcus Oh, President - marcus.oh@gmail.com
Scott Moss, Vice President - jscottmoss@gmail.com
Thank you for your Support!
Scott Moss - SMUG VP
This is part of Microsoft Press Celebrating 25 years of providing technical books. Windows Server® 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP) book is available for download, just sign up to download the entire e-book in PDF format 38 MB in size.
Friday was the System Center Virtual User group meeting #3. Decks from this meeting are now available in PDF format here. Videos of the three sessions will be available in the near future, I'll post a note on my blog when they are ready for download.
Thanks to the speakers
Raphael Burri: Active Directory Integration for System Center Operations Manager 2007
Kevin Colby: Integrating Forefront Client Security with System Center Configuration Manager
Baelson Duque: Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features and Fixes
Thanks to the sponsors
SecureVantage - Is the industry leader in security management, security audit and security compliance solutions for System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuration Manager 2007 and a growing list of products in the System Center suite.
Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed is THE BOOK for Operations Manager 2007 administrators. A little birdie told me an update for R2 is in the works!
Thanks to Jeremiah Beckett (SecureVantage) and Kerrie Meyler of the Unleashed team!
Two small R2 Highlights
Here are two small highlights from Baelson Duque R2 Round up. Small highlight #1 the number of web sites monitored per management server has gone up from SP1's level of monitoring 100 web sites per management server to R2 level of monitoring over 2000 web sites per management server. Small highlight #2 R2 release time line, RC Release date Q1 2009; RTM Release date Q2 2009.
Baelson requested that the Operations Manager community that tests the beta of Operations Manager R2 Beta 1 to post comments, pain point and problems to the Microsoft Connect web site. This will help them track bugs and problems.
We are planning the next System Center Virtual User group meeting for January 2009.
Scott Moss
Virtual Gopher
Virtual System Center Users Group
As others have noted over the past few hours, Operations Manager 2007 R2 Beta 1 is available on Connect. Finding the download could be problematic depending on how well versed you are with the sometimes painful Connect site. The easiest way to get signed up correctly is when you add the Connection to System Center (Operations Manager, Service Manager & Essentials).
Select Connection Directory, then find on the web page Operations (this is a Kevin Holman special), select add to dashboard hot link, and under that should be Program Operations Manager Beta Apply Now. Click the Apply now option and fill in the requested information. Click your dashboard, then click on System Center (Operations Manager, Service Manager & Essentials) then on the left side find the downloads link, and boom there it is. Another fine example of easy to use gui.
A great resource just got better. Check out the new look of the site. http://www.systemcenterforum.org/
We have rescheduled the meeting to Nov 21st. Please register using the link below.
| Presenter |
Agenda |
Start Time |
End Time |
| SCVUG |
Introduction |
1:00 |
1:05 |
| Raphael Burri |
Active Directory Integration for System Center Operations Manager 2007 |
1:05 |
1:30 |
| Kevin Colby |
Integrating Forefront Client Security with System Center Configuration Manager |
1:30 |
2:00 |
| Baelson Duque |
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features and Fixes |
2:00 |
3:00 |
| SCVUG |
Wrap Up - Open for questions Door Prize drawing |
3:00 |
3:10 |
Central Time Zone
Registration site:
http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=133537 .
Raphael Burri
Lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland. In the last 9 years Raphael has been designing, implementing and operating various network, system and service management suites. Since joining Swisscom (largest Telco and ISP in Switzerland), Raphael concentrates on MOM 2005 and Operations Manager 2007. Raphael Burri's blog:
http://rburri.wordpress.com/
Kevin Colby Sr. Solutions Engineer, Secure Vantage Technologies Inc.
Description: Session will cover how to deploy FCS agents with SCCM, how to maintain FCS signature updates with your existing SCCM WSUS infrastructure and monitoring FCS configurations via DCM.
Baelson Duque Senior Program Manager Microsoft
Baelson Duque started at Microsoft as an Operations Analyst performing common Tier 1 Operations work. He then became a Systems Engineer and shortly thereafter, became a Tools Engineer building tools for Microsoft Game Studios Internet Operations team. There he owned the Monitoring Infrastructure where Baelson pioneered MOM 2000 as the Operations Monitoring Platform. Baelson is now a proud member of the Operations Manager Program Management team for the last 6 years and brings with him over 5 years of Operational Expertise from many levels in the IT Operations stack.
Scott Moss - Virtual Gopher - System Center Virtual User Group
The System Center Virtual User Group meeting for today was cancelled. Live Meeting support said they are experiencing some issues affecting a large number of customers with no ETA on the fix at the moment.
Since this problem prevents us from recording the sessions, we will have to reschedule. Will try to have updated meeting dates posted in the next 24-48 hours.
Thank you for your support!
Scott Moss
Virtual Gopher - System Center Virtual User Group
Microsoft Windows Server DHCP 2000/2003/2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 ver 6.0.6452.0
Overview
The Windows Server DHCP 2000/2003/2008 Management Pack includes monitors, rules, views, and reports for the monitoring of your DHCP infrastructure. Alerts contain context sensitive knowledge base of useful information to help administrators resolve an issue when DHCP fails to process.
Note: This package includes library MP, 2000 and 2003 MPs, and DHCP 2008 MP. DHCP 2008 MP can only be installed on System Center OpsMgr 2007 SP1. Others can be installed on either OpsMgr 2007 RTM or OpsMgr 2007 SP1. Before you import the Windows Server DHCP Management Pack, uninstall any existing DHCP management packs. You may wish to record custom overrides and rules for possible inclusion in the new DHCP management pack.
Feature Bullet Summary
- DHCP 2003/2008
- Native Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 MP
- Windows Server 2008 Support
- Scope & Superscope Address Availability Health
- Updated Health Logic
- New Reports
- Updated Knowledge Base Information
- Coexists with the included DHCP 2000 MP
- DHCP 2000
- Converted Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 MP
- Coexists with new native DHCP 2003 / 2008 MP
Release History
- 10/26/2007 - Release of Windows Server 2000/2003 DHCP MP for OpsMgr 2007, version 6.0.5000.41
- 8/15/2008 - Added support for Windows Server 2008, version 6.0.6383.0
- 11/7/2008 - QFE release to fix the high CPU utilization issues, version 6.0.6452.0
Some dates to know that are on the MMS-2009 site now. Registration starts 12-09-2008. Content Survey is available till December 22 2008, midnight PST, they are looking for attendee input.
Registration Overview page, has a boat load of information specifically that MMS 2009 will be taking place at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino, and the cost of Registration only and the Registration Package. See Registration Overview page for more details.
Join us for the System Center Virtual User Group meeting November 13th. There will be some great content and community experts, and a review of Operations Manager 2007 R2 features from Senior Program Manager on the Operations Manager product team, Baelson Duque.
| Presenter |
Agenda |
Start Time |
End Time |
| SCVUG |
Introduction |
1:00 |
1:05 |
| Raphael Burri |
Active Directory Integration for System Center Operations Manager 2007 |
1:05 |
1:30 |
| Kevin Colby |
Integrating Forefront Client Security with System Center Configuration Manager |
1:30 |
2:00 |
| Baelson Duque |
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features and Fixes |
2:00 |
3:00 |
| SCVUG |
Wrap Up - Open for questions |
3:00 |
3:10 |
Central Time Zone
Registration site:
http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=133286 .
Drawing for a few door prizes will be held after the meeting.
Thanks: Special Thanks to our speakers, Microsoft and SecureVantage for their generous donations of their time.
Raphael Burri
Lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland. In the last 9 years Raphael has been designing, implementing and operating various network, system and service management suites. Since joining Swisscom (largest Telco and ISP in Switzerland), Raphael concentrates on MOM 2005 and Operations Manager 2007. Raphael Burri's blog:
http://rburri.wordpress.com/
Kevin Colby
Sr. Solutions Engineer, Secure Vantage Technologies Inc.
Description: Session will cover how to deploy FCS agents with SCCM, how to maintain FCS signature updates with your existing SCCM WSUS infrastructure and monitoring FCS configurations via DCM.
Baelson Duque
Senior Program Manager Microsoft
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features
Scott Moss - Virtual Gopher - System Center Virtual User Group
Windows Server Active Directory Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 ver 6.0.6452.0
Overview
The Active Directory Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of your Active Directory deployment. It monitors events that are placed in the Application, System, and Service event logs by various Active Directory components and subsystems. It also monitors the overall health of the Active Directory system and alerts you to critical performance issues. The monitoring provided by this management pack includes monitoring of the domain controllers and monitoring of health from the perspective of clients utilizing Active Directory resources. To monitor the domain controllers, the Active Directory Management Pack provides a predefined, ready-to-run set of processing rules, monitoring scripts, and reports that are designed specifically to monitor the performance and availability of the Active Directory domain controllers. The client in your environment might experience connectivity and service issues even though the domain controller appears to be operating correctly. The Active Directory Client Management Pack, included in the Active Directory Management Pack files to download, helps to identify these issues. This management pack monitors the services provided by the domain controller. It provides information in addition to that collected directly on the domain controller about whether they are available by running synthetic transactions against the directory service, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) binds and LDAP pings.
Feature Summary:
- Replication
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
- Domain Controller Locator
- Trusts
- Net Logon service
- File Replication Service (FRS)
- Intersite Messaging service
- Windows Time service
- Key Distribution Center (KDC)
- Monitoring service availability
- Collecting key performance data
- Providing comprehensive reports, including reports about service availability and service health and reports that can be used for capacity planning
Management Pack Release History:
- 3/23/2007 - Initial Release, version 6.0.5000.0
- 1/15/2008 - Updated Guide - same version
- 03/17/2008 - QFE, version 6.0.6278.3
- 03/26/2008 - QFE, version 6.0.6278.10
- 11/7/2008 - Initial release for 2000/2003/2008, version 6.0.6452.0
| Presenter |
Agenda |
Start Time |
End Time |
| SCVUG |
Introduction |
1:00 |
1:05 |
| Raphael Burri |
Active Directory Integration for System Center Operations Manager 2007 |
1:05 |
1:30 |
| Kevin Colby |
Integrating Forefront Client Security with System Center Configuration Manager |
1:30 |
2:00 |
| Baelson Duque |
Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features and Fixes |
2:00 |
3:00 |
| SCVUG |
Wrap Up - Open for questions |
3:00 |
3:10 |
Central Time Zone
Registration site:
http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=133286 .
Raphael Burri
Lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland. In the last 9 years Raphael has been designing, implementing and operating various network, system and service management suites. Since joining Swisscom (largest Telco and ISP in Switzerland), Raphael concentrates on MOM 2005 and Operations Manager 2007. Raphael Burri's blog:
http://rburri.wordpress.com/
Kevin Colby
Sr. Solutions Engineer, Secure Vantage Technologies Inc.
Description: Session will cover how to deploy FCS agents with SCCM, how to maintain FCS signature updates with your existing SCCM WSUS infrastructure and monitoring FCS configurations via DCM.
Baelson Duque
Senior Program Manager Microsoft
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features
Scott Moss - Virtual Gopher - System Center Virtual User Group
Operations Manager R2 was finally announced in Barcelona at Teched IT Pro a few days ago. The Microsoft web site has been updated for R2 Beta, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/opsmgr/dd239186.aspx .
To get a leg up on Operations Manager R2 Features check out the next System Center Virtual User Group meeting November 13th at one central. One of the three sessions will be Operations Manager 2007 R2 Features presented by Microsoft's own Baelson Duque. Check back for more details and registration information. There will be a SWAG drawing as well.
I've updated my links, which was a long over due task. I dont think there is anything new, but if there is I'll update this post.
Last week the following Management Packs were released.
Windows HPC Server 2008 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 version 2.0.1551.0
Overview
The Windows HPC Server 2008 Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of Windows HPC Server 2008 for a cluster environment. It monitors Windows HPC Server components – such as head node, compute node, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) broker node, network, and Job Scheduler – to report issues that can cause downtime or poor performance for the cluster that is running Windows HPC Server 2008.
Feature Summary
The Windows HPC Server 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 includes a number of key monitoring scenarios that are enabled with monitors, rules, alerts and tasks to help manage an HPC cluster, which include:
- Head Node Monitoring
- Network Monitoring
- Job Scheduler Monitoring
- Compute Node Monitoring
- Broker Node Monitoring
Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 version 6.0.6441.0
Overview
The SQL Server Management Pack provides the capabilities for Operations Manager 2007 to discover SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 installations and components and to monitor them, primarily from the perspective of availability and performance. The availability and performance monitoring is done using a combination of scripts and native Operations Manager capabilities.
Note: Scripts in the SQL Server 2008 management pack rely on SQL Data Management Objects (SQL-DMO) to query information from the SQL Server. SQL-DMO is now deprecated and is not shipped as a part of SQL Server 2008. Every system with SQL Server 2008 that will be monitored must have SQL-DMO installed from the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components. For instructions on how to download and install the SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components refer to the management pack guide.
Feature Bullet Summary:
The following list gives an overview of the features of the SQL Server management pack. Refer to the SQL Server management pack guide for more detail.
- Support for Enterprise, Standard and Express editions of SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 and 32bit, 64bit and ia64 architectures.
- Support for both simple and complex SQL configurations such as clustered installations, multiple instances and 32bit roles running on a 64bit OS. For full details on supported configurations refer to the guide included with the management pack.
- Discovery and monitoring of SQL Server roles such as DB Engine, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, Integrations Services.
- Discovery of SQL components such as databases, the SQL Agent and SQL jobs.
- Over 20 views covering areas such as database free space, SQL related performance, SQL related alerts, and lists of the various SQL roles and components which are discovered and their related state.
- Reports for longer-term analysis of common problem areas related to SQL Server such as SQL Server lock analysis and top deadlocked databases, SQL Server service pack levels across discovered roles, user connection activity. Likewise the generic reports from the Microsoft Generic Report Library can be used against the roles and components discovered by the SQL MPs to review availability and performance across many systems and over longer periods of time.
- Role and component specific tasks which provide access to common tools, triage information, or corrective actions without needing to leave the Operations Console in most cases.
- Monitoring of databases covers database status, database free space, log shipping monitoring for both the source and destination, and transaction log free space.
- Monitoring of key SQL related services.
- Monitoring for persistent SPID blocking.
- Monitoring of numerous SQL events and performance data points. Alerts bring the issue to your attention and provide knowledge on the impact and possible resolutions.