Today, at day three, at the Microsoft Management Summit, I met with some other great people. Steven Bink from
http://bink.nu, Stefan Stranger from
http://weblog.stranger.nl, Erik Luppes from
http://www.buit.org, Roeland Kuipers (a friend of Steven), Daniel van Soest from
http://blogs.microsoft.nl/danielvs and Robert Bakker from Microsoft NL were there. We enjoyed the sun, ate some burgers and fries and talked about great things like Veridian and upcoming products like Office Communications Servers, etcetera. Here's a quick capture:
Amsterdam is the place to be in June when Microsoft, Tech Conferences and Windows IT Pro join forces to produce IT Pro Connections 2007. The conference at the Rai Convention Center will focus on Microsoft Exchange 2007, Windows Vista, SharePoint and Office. IT Pro Connections will be held on June 19 and 20 followed by a post-conference day on June 21 that features a hands-on workshop for Exchange 2007 that has previously only been given to internal Microsoft personnel.
IT Pro Connections is the European version of the hugely popular Microsoft Exchange, Windows and Office Connections events in the States and will feature over 60 in-depth, no-hype sessions delivered by Microsoft and industry experts. The immersive educational sessions include subjects such as Advanced Group Policy, SharePoint Designer, Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server, System Center, MOM, Advanced SQL Server 2005, Exchange 2007 Migration, and more.
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Dhananjay Mahajan presented a session about Agentless Exception Monitoring, part of System Center Operations Manager 2007. He showed some nice demonstrations about enabling AEM, generating reports but also creating a LOB diagram with a client perspective on a certain LOB. Dhananjay told that there will be some new reports for Agentless Exception Monitoring in the coming months:
Cost Incurred due to Errors and System crashes
Helpdesk problem report
- Operating system crashes by computer
Helpdesk resolution report
- Top resolutions impacting knowledge workers
Besides announcing the Vista Management Pack - currently available to TAP and RDP customers - he said that Microsoft is developing a Network Access Protection (NAP) management pack. The NAP MP will track NAP service operation, will provide NAP service status and trends and show reports about Health policy Compliant/Noncompliant Clients, Client remediation time and trends and Early warning of developing health policy compliance problems. Here is a preview:
Health Policy Non-Compliant Clients Report
Ian Blyth writes:
Today at MMS I met up with Stefan and Maarten in their orange shirts promoting the System Center User Group in the Netherlands. They did a short 4 minute video interview with me about my experience and thoughts on System Center. You can see it on their site when it goes live on 18th June. They will have videos from Program Managers and other System Center bloggers.
With SoftGrid 4.1 Service Pack 1 and SoftGrid version 4.2 coming up we wanted to share a little information about these releases and what they'll bring to the table. Nothing will be released until we are satisfied with the quality of the code so as always, dates are subject to change:
SoftGrid 4.1 Service Pack 1
SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 is mostly a hotfix and critical updates release, improving overall system stability and compatibility. A noteworthy improvement is the ability to sequence applications using Side by Side assemblies (aka WinSxS), including Visual Studio Express and Office 2007, among many other applications from both third party ISV's and Microsoft.
Expected availability is in the April/May timeframe and the release will be made available for download as soon as test is completed. We will release the Sequencer, Desktop Client, Terminal Server Client and Server at the same time.
SoftGrid 4.2
SoftGrid 4.2 builds on the 4.1 improvements by adding Windows Vista compatibility, both on the sequencer and client. There is not going to be a 4.2 version of the Server or the Terminal Server client as the moniker
4.2 is reserved for the components adding Windows Vista compatibility. We expect to release an
unsupported Tech preview in the same timeframe as the 4.1 SP1 RTM (release to manufacturing), with a
final release some time around July. We expect 4.1 SP1 and 4.2 to maintain parity over time, the only exception being Windows Vista compatibility in the 4.2 components.
These initial KB’s really address user error rather than any issues with Ops Mgr.
KB934756 - How to test notification settings after you configure e-mail notifications for a recipient or for a subscription in Operations Manager 2007
Available at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934756
KB934757 - Error message when you click Record after you start the Web Application Editor in Operations Manager 2007: "The requested lookup key was not found in any activation context"
Available at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934757
"What if the device and the storage card are both stolen?"
The best practice is to use a PIN or strong password and local wipe to protect the data on the internal flash. Issue a remote wipe via OWA to wipe out the data on a stolen device as soon as possible. In WM6, a local or remote wipe will also wipe any inserted storage card."
One of the things I've appreciated in this last development cycle is much more openness through blogs and other communication tools regarding the development of Windows Mobile. In this post,
Scott Yost provides an FAQ on
Windows Mobile 6 Storage Card Encryption from key escrow and recovery to the MENC extension.
As promised, the link to today's morning presentation: here. Here is a summary:
- MCSA and MCSE are still the right certifications if you are working with WS2000 or WS2003.
- MCSA and MCSE will not retire.
- In one year, the WS2000 MCSA and MCSE exams will retire (that's the exams, not the credentials); more news of this to publish soon.
- If you are planning for any of the core MCSA/MCSE 2003 exams, there are offers on related training: e-learning, ALL training kits and a few reference books, and practice tests through April/May 2007. Learn more.
- There are new elective options for SA/SE tracks
- Longhorn Server certifications will be in the "new generation" structure of MCTS (3 exams) and MCITP (2 exams, respectively); no details yet on names/exam numbers/paths
- The first exams will beta at TechEd (June 2007) then MCTS exams available one month after Windows Server "Longhorn" releases to manufacturing (RTM); MCITP exams available 2 months after Longhorn RTMs. For reference RTM is in late October/early November, it sounds like.
- There is no upgrade path from MCSA/MCSE 2000 to "Longhorn"
- There is an upgrade path for both MCSA and MCSE 2003 to "longhorn"
- Customers who hold an MCSA 2003 or MCSE 2003 by June 30, 2007 are eligible for a 40% savings voucher on their upgrade exam to Longhorn. You have to register for this offer in advance.
- MCPs should see credential path details in May; public announcements in June.
If you would like more information on any of this, please
watch the Live Meeting recording.
This post focuses on two aspects of
Active Directory (AD) design for
Exchange 2007:
- The recommended ratio of Exchange 2007 servers to Active Directory global catalog (GC) servers
- When to use dedicated Active Directory sites for your Exchange 2007 servers
While most of the existing guidance about AD design for Exchange 2003 applies to Exchange 2007, there are several new factors that must be considered:
- Exchange 2007's new 64-bit architecture
- Availability and mix of both 32-bit and 64-bit AD servers
- New (or upgraded) services and clients (Unified Messaging, anti-virus/anti-spam, Outlook 2007, etc.)
- New role separation and architecture for Exchange 2007 servers (Mailbox, Hub, Client Access Server, Edge, UM.)
- More use of advanced features by typical users (mobile devices, calendaring, etc.)
- Increasing average mail traffic and storage allowances
- Additional message handling (anti-spam/antivirus, compliance features) requires more GC network bandwidth and processor utilization per user/message
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continue at source)
A brand new tool has been released to
www.windowsvista.com that allows you to analyze your network's router to see if it supports certain technologies. The tool is designed for both Windows XP and Windows Vista users. However, if you're running Windows Vista - the tool will let you know if your router supports any of Windows Vista's advanced networking features.
Website: Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool
Microsoft Live Labs announced the limited public availability of Deepfish, a preview of a technology that can be used to improve mobile browsing. In its current form, Deepfish provides users of mobile phones or other small screen devices a full ‘as designed’ view of websites on their mobile device. Because the site looks as you would expect it to on your desktop, pages are easier to navigate than the typical experience with mobile browsers today. The interface lets people zoom in and out on the parts of a web page that interest them in an intuitive way, making it easy to use these large screen formatted pages on a mobile device.
As you likely know, it can typically take up to a minute or more for a webpage to render on a mobile device--however, Deepfish’s unique architecture retrieves the information needed for a particular view, significantly reducing that time to load. To optimize for faster load times, Deepfish takes a snapshot of the selected page reduced to fit on the mobile screen and sends that view to the mobile device. When a user zooms to a particular portion of the page, a more detailed version of only that specific portion is sent down to the device. This provides a much faster page load experience than many traditional mobile browsers.
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Jakub Olesky has put his MMS demo code on the web:
I put together and presented a short demostration on the SDK at MMS on Monday. I think it went over well and was a short glimspe on some of the power of the SDK. I wanted to make my demo available so here it is. Let me know if there are any issues with it.
Operations Manager 2007: Discovery and operational data insertion via SDK
Kirill confirmed during the keynote that System Center Service Manager indeed will be the final naming for codename "Service Desk". The public beta should be out in the next couple of weeks. CMDB will the core for this new product, aggregating information from all other System Center products and thereby offering the highest fidelity of information. Key to the new product is "self-service", enable an end-user to get serviced.
System Center Service Manager beta 1 will be publicly available within 45 days. Ken van Hyning was invited to stage to demonstrate Service Manager. Ken showed that self-service portal allow the user to request software, search knowledge and see announcements. A really great demo was the request for software and the approval process.
Ken also showed a Vista Sidebar gadget, connecting to Service Manager, show your requests and messages! Screens were showed to approve the software request and after that; Visio being streamed to the desktop using Softgrid.
Service Manager: Analyst Console
Service Manager: Request Software
Service Manager: Request Submitted
Service Manager: Self Service Portal
Service Manager: Approval Email
Service Manager: Approval Webpage
Service Manager: Assets
Service Manager: Search
Service Manager: Vista Sidebar Gadget
On the second day of the Microsoft Management Summit 2007, Kirill Tatarinov presented another keynote. The session started off with some big names showing that they are using System Center products to manage their IT infrastructure; Nissan, Dell, HSBC, Carnival and Virgin. Kirill talked about what Dynamic Systems are and how System Center and the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) will facilitate those systems becoming or staying dynamic. He talked about three key scenario's; Dynamic Service Management, Dynamic Configuration Management and Dynamic Operations Management.
Dynamic Configuration Management is about knowing about and maintaining the assets in your environment. It is also about adaptive software distribution, where you make choices about how applications will be provisioned to the user; e.g. traditionally using software distribution (SMS, Configuration Manager), application virtualization (Softgrid) or presentation virtualization (Terminal Services). To support asset intelligence,
Microsoft announced that SMS 2003 SP3 will be available in April, which will have the former AssetMetrix intelligence built-in.
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Omar van der Hoeven has some interesting info from the Configuration Manager sessions he joined during the MMS:
Common infrastructure for Softgrid in SCCM 2007
What's new for SCCM 2007 SP 1 and R2?
SMS 2003 SP3: RTM takes a little longer
HP Update catalogs integration for SCCM 2007
Keep a close eye on Techlog as we will be updating our website frequently the coming days!
Bob Muglia did not really emphasize it during the opening Keynote on the Microsoft Management Summit 2007 in San Diego, but the slides actually proved it;
System Center Service Manager will be the definitive name for what is currently called codename "Service Desk". My sources actually tell me that should have been kept under NDA until tomorrow? Here is the picture I took from the keynote:
System Center Service Manager (High Resolution)
Here are some great slideshows from the opening Keynote on the Microsoft Management Summit 2007.
MMS 2007 Keynote Photo slideshow (Duncan McAlynn)
MMS 2007 Keynote Photo slideshow (Erik Luppes)
Stay updated on what's happening during the MMS? Visit our friends:
Innovative Technology Weblog (buit.org)
Sefan Stranger (weblog.stranger.nl)
Steven Bink (bink.nu)
Spotted by the camera-man during the opening Keynote on the Microsoft Management Summit.
I'm on the right and
Stefan is sitting on the left.
As you might know,
Stefan Stranger and I are at the MMS in San Diego, wearing our orange System Center User Group shirts. This morning we did our first interview with Vlad Joanovic, program manager for the Operations Manager product team. The video will be on our upcoming website,
www.sucg.nl (dutchies: leave your email address to be notified!). Stefan
has a preview:
After the Keynote from Bob Muglia Maarten Goet and I had an interview with Vlad Joanovic (Program Manager Microsoft - Windows and Enterprise Management Division) for our new Dutch System Center User Group. After editing we'll post our interviews with people in the System Center field on our website SCUG.nl. We started out-side the conference center but as expected the train passed and blew the horn so we went inside to finish the interview. He signed the SCUG polo which we will be given away to a lucky member of our new SCUG community later this year.
Vlad Joanovic signing an orange SCUG t-shirt
Here are two press releases that Microsoft put out today, detailing the things that Bob Muglia said during the
keynote:
Microsoft and EMC Unveil Systems and Network Management Technology Licensing and Collaboration Agreement
Combines market’s premier solutions for behavior-aware network and systems management for delivery of network-aware, end-to-end service management.
Microsoft’s System Center Solutions Deliver on the Dynamic Systems Initiative
System Center Operations Manager 2007, new industry alliances, SML interoperability standard highlighted at Microsoft Management Summit 2007.
As expected Microsoft
announced System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) beta 2, which will be publicly available within 45 days. In this new beta Microsoft introduces most wanted features like:
Virtualization Candidates Recognition
System Center Virtual Machine Manager leverages historical performance data in the Operations Manager 2007 database to identify and list underutilized physical servers that are good candidates for consolidation
Capacity Planning
When a virtual machine is deployed, Virtual Machine Manager analyzes performance data and resource requirements for both the workload and the host. This allows an IT administrator to fine-tune placement algorithms to get the best matched deployment recommendations. First, historical performance data is used to understand actual resource requirements of the workload. Next, minimum CPU, disk, RAM, and network capacity requirements in the virtual machine?s configuration are checked. After determining the virtual machine?s requirements, performance data is gathered for candidate virtual machine hosts. Finally, pre-selected business rules are factored in to optimize placement recommendations either for resource maximization or for load balancing, and to weight the importance of different resource types for the workload.
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Here are some pictures I made during the Keynote that Bob Muglia gave on the Microsoft Management Summit:
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: MMC console
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: Powershell
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: Linux VM
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: Live adding a NIC
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: SC Virtual Machine Manager
Codename "Veridian" / WSV: Integration OpsMgr 2007
Today, at the opening keynote on the Microsoft Management Summit 2007, Bob Muglia announced some interesting things. One of the things he noted was that in 2007 their DSI, Dynamic Systems Initiative, will really start to deliver. Microsoft sees prominent positions for Windows Vista, Forefront, System Center, Windows Server "Longhorn" and Office to deliver on DSI.
Bob also said that the successor to SQL 2005 will come in the beginning of 2008.
Five industry trends will be important; Industry Standards, Virtualization, Regulatory Compliance, Diverse IT Architectures and Convergence of Systems & Security & Storage management. Microsoft sees Virtualization as "core" to their business deliveries. Bob talked about Infrastructure Optimization (IO) where you can see that DSI will enable business to progress from the different phases; from Basic to Dynamic.
Microsoft is investing heavily into virtualization; from OS virtualization (Virtual PC, Virtual Server 2005 and codename "Veridian" on Longhorn Server) to Application Layer virtualization (Softgrid) to Presentation Layer virtualization (Terminal Services) and managing all those layers using System Center. Bob hinted that the future could behold that desktops will be delivered using OS virtualization. I am not sure about this to be the
final naming, but Bob talked about
codename "Veridian", the hypervisor technology to Longhorn Server as
Windows Server Virtualization (WSV).
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Steve Wilson from the System Center Operations Manager product team has put this site together to help you with undestanding and building new MP's. It includes info on:
Concepts
MP Schema
Module Types / Monitor Type library
Tutorials
Samples
Authoring principles
Application instrumentation guidance
Visit the AuthorMPs website
Omar van der Hoeven has another scoop from one of the MMS pre-conference sessions:
MMS 2007: In the near future, Microsoft will provide pre-sequenced applications for the Softgrid application virtualisation platform next to the current installation methodes and engines. (reaction of a presenter to a question from the audience, more info to be published when available, sorry!). Microsoft also was happy to anounce that the number of licenses for Softgrid this year equaled and topped the total amount for all years that SofTricity tried to sell it themselves. This does not come as a suprise after a license fee drop of 85% to a low $8,50.
Omar attended a MMS pre-conference session with some nice info on the System Center timeline:
At MMS 2007 a forecast was given about the development of the System Center family components. We can expect a SP 1 for SCCM 2007 around the second half of 2008, which will include a single detection agent for hardware updates that are currently being deployed with ITxU. This will also be the timeline for the Virtual Machine Manager.
As expected the Office Communications Server 2007 public beta is now released to the web. The release date says March 23rd, you can find the downloads here:
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta
Documentation for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server Public Beta
With every launch of a new Microsoft operating system comes two things:
1. New error messages
2. A new ubiquitous advertising campaign.
Apparently fed up with the new "Wow" advertising campaign that has hit the streets of Prague, Czech painter Jeremiah Palecek created a set of print-your-own Vista error message stickers. He's designed an easy to print sheet so that users can buy a pack of labels, run them through the printer, and then go out and retake the streets (not that he, or we here at Download Squad condone vandalism in any way).
The error message on the stickers? Windows Vista's most baffling communication: "Error: The operation completed successfully."
Sources within Microsoft tell me that the final code on System Center Operations Manager 2007 was signed off last night. The golden and final code, also known as RTM (Released to Manufacturing) will probably be available for RDP and TAP customers in the coming days. General availability should be in the coming weeks. Expect a big announcement at the upcoming
Microsoft Management Summit! My sources tell me that the trial version will be available very very soon and that the VLK (volume license) media will contain a tool to convert the trial version to a full version with the correct key. Let's hope that Microsoft will keep their word and support upgrading from RC2 to RTM.
UPDATE: A Microsoft employee from Germany confirms:
German |
English (translated)
UPDATE: Clive Eastwood also
blogs about it, saying that the build number is 06.0.5000.0 and confirming that the Trial bits will be released very soon.
Seems like Clive deleted his original post and replaced it with this one
UPDATE: Evaluation Edition is released to the web,
click here to download
This puts a big smile on my face
If you want to see MOM 2005 in a movie, then watch Firewall with Harrison Ford. There is a scene where Harrison unintentionally spreads a computer virus via E-mail (at the command of his captor). For some reason Harrison has another monitor on his desk, and as they zoom in on it you can see that it's a MOM 2005 ops console with a diagram view displayed.
Dell is all over this movie, but I guess MSFT paid to have their monitoring tool plugged as well. Kudos MSFT for getting a MOM cameo! I wonder if Harrison Ford is a MOM MVP! Sometimes I wish I could use the force to deploy agents and solve MOM issues. In the end I just go into a wookie rage and destroy my cube.
In previous versions of the MMCs it was not possible to manage other attributes then those by default available in the GUI without "additional configurations". For example, when it was needed to manage and attribute like "employeeID" you either has to extend the MMC with custom made snap-ins or you had to adjust the administrative context menu which is available when right-clicking the object. In Windows Server
Longhorn, both "Active Directory Users and Computers" and "Active Directory Sites and Services" provide a new tab called the "Attribute Editor". With this tab it is possible manage each and every attribute from an object as long as it is allowed to change the attribute and enough permissions are available.(
more)
The ADMX Migrator enables you to convert ADM files to the ADMX format and take advantage of the additional capabilities that it provides. The new XML-based format includes multilanguage support, an optional centralized datastore, and version control capabilities.
You can select multiple ADM files for conversion. The ADMX Migrator creates a unique namespace which you can rename and will display a warning if a collision is detected due to duplicate names. Also, any items that cannot be validated against the ADMX schema are preserved in an Unsupported section. Please note that any annotations in ADM files are removed during the conversion process.
Additionally, the ADMX Migrator provides an ADMX editor with a graphical user interface for creating and editing Administrative Templates. You can select settings from menus rather than entering them manually in a text file, speeding template creation and reducing the chance for error.
ADMX Migrator
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) Public Beta program set to launch
March 26th. Participants enrolled in the OCS Public Beta program will receive access to the latest releases of OCS 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator (OC) 2007, Microsoft Office Meeting Console and Office Add-In. Additionally, participants will gain access to Beta Central, where they will find product documentation, virtual labs and webcasts, as well as the community forum.
In the forum, customers are able to collaborate with the Beta community, sharing ideas and individual experiences of each other’s deployments, and can receive support from identified SMEs and MVP resources. Finally, the program’s website can be localized into 13 languages, creating a highly-customized web experience.
With the introduction of the OCS Public Beta program, the RTC Private Beta program will be closing. As of April 6, 2007, access to the RTC Private Beta site, downloads, feedback channel, newsgroup, and Live Meeting conference center will no longer be available. To continue with your product evaluation and testing, we encourage you to pre-register for the Public Beta program. To take advantage of the Public Beta offering,
please click here to pre-register.
A member of the System Center Operations Manager product team, Steve Wilson, has created a website to evangelize and teach others about Management Pack authoring. Have a look at his website for complete tutorials, and concept overviews. It also has downloadable samples. This site is targeted towards more advanced Management Pack authors (people who like XML), but its worth a glance for anyone using Essentials.
Click here to go to the website: AuthorMPs
Long Zheng writes:
Alex Kipman, the group manager for Windows Vista Ultimate has posted a short video of an upcoming DreamScene wallpaper featuring an animated version of the back-lit glowing Windows orb wallpaper released weeks ago. The back-lit Vista orb was one of two Vista Ultimate branded wallpaper released for public download on March 8. A lot of people agreed that these were awesome wallpapers and the download numbers up to the nearly hundred thousands reflect this enthusiasm.
It looks pretty cool, non-intrusive and unbranded. The way wallpapers should be. Hats off to them. Also, it should be noted the increasing transparency from the Ultimate team about their future plans and strategies is a welcoming change after years of national secrecy ever since the beta program.
My good friend
Stefan Stranger has posted an article on creating some nice Windows Sidebar gadgets for Operations Manager 2007 using PowerShell and PowerGadgets.
Read it here. Bharat Suneja, an Exchange MVP, created a similar article for Exchange Server 2007 and some nice graphical information on:
Number of messages blocked by the RBL provider Spamhaus.org
Top 20 Mailboxes
Content Filter gadget - shows total messages scanned by Content Filter agent
Recipient Filter gadget - shows messages dropped because of invalid recipients
Read more information on how they were created and download them from here:
Empower Your PowerShell with PowerGadgets
