
“Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses. The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements).
Please take a moment to read through the hardware requirements below. If you meet these requirements, go to
http://connect.microsoft.com, click on Invitations, sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID;
Extr-GHBC-JCJM.
Kent Compton, Product Manager in Microsoft's Windows Server Solutions Group, writes:
Another milestone for Windows Server code name "Centro" occurred this afternoon with the official signing off of the CTP (5241) build. The CTP builds on the foundation established in Beta 1 while moving into new areas such as enabling legacy Active Directory domain joins, including Windows Server 2008, etc. If you're in the TAP or TechBeta you should be able to download it from connect.microsoft.com within a few hours. Please test it, push it, break it and then file those bugs! We looking forward to hearing from you.
We're on the road to Beta 2...
Silect Software, a developer of products that reduce IT ownership costs, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of MP Studio 2007. MP Studio helps offset spiraling IT management costs by giving IT organizations the ability to more effectively leverage IT management knowledge critical to the operation and maintenance of complex IT systems. Working together with Systems Center Operations Manager 2007, the result is a highly tuned service monitoring capability which identifies the slightest deviation in service delivery from defined service levels.

Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs contain rich operational knowledge used to deliver effective service level monitoring. MP Studio 2007 delivers a framework to achieve an efficient, repeatable process for managing the key stages of the Management Pack lifecycle including analysis, reporting, tuning and version control, reducing the cost of using and managing System Center Operations Manager while increasing System Center Operations Manager’s ability to effectively monitor and report on your organization’s IT infrastructure.
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Redmond, June 29th 2007 -- today Microsoft announced that Kirill Tatarinov, currently Corporate Vice President of the Microsoft’s Management and Solutions Division (MSD) within the Microsoft Business Division, will fill the MBS leadership position vacated by Satya Nadella in March. The move will be effective on July 2, 2007. Kirill brings extensive experience in leading R&D and broader business to the MBS leadership role. For the past five years Kirill has led Microsoft’s management business including prioritizing R&D bets, galvanizing the team and delivering high-quality solutions to customers and partners. This has yielded break-through results for Microsoft including a greatly expanded product portfolio and improved brand perception.
Prior to Microsoft, Kirill spent time in both large and small company environments and experienced what it was like to be a Microsoft partner. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for BMC where he also spent time leading Business Development and running an end-to-end business, and was the founder of his own company, Patrol software, the developer of innovative software solutions for systems and network management. Patrol Software was acquired by BMC in 1994. Kirill has also worked in several systems, networking and consulting companies in Russia, Israel and Australia.
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We got this email from Jalasoft:
Jalasoft wants to proudly announce that Xian Network Manager Io RC2 is now available for download from our website.
This RC2 version is code complete and its release to manufacturing (RTM) will be announced next week. This final code milestone concludes our Xian Network Manager Io Beta program to date, with several hundred participants.
Xian Network Manager Io RC2 for Operations Manager 2007
You should check out their offering, because it can extend your OpsMgr 2007 installation by adding detailed network device support and agents for non-Windows platforms like Solaris and VMware! See
screenshots here.

I found an interesting blog with information about how Microsoft have implemented Operations Manager 2007 internally. There is a lot of information on how they have handled hardware design and SQL optimization and redundancy. The info is written by Cory Delamarter, Microsoft.
Here is the link to the "
Monitoring at Microsoft with Operations Manager" blog.

In a
previous post I found out the way to do basic queries to the opsmgr database. I got a request on what to do with two different objects with the same name. For example two SQL servers hosting a database with the same name. There is no way to distinguish them with my previous query.
I found the following query would do the trick;
SELECT MEG.[Displayname] AS Object, LEFT(MEG.[PATH], CASE WHEN charindex(';' , MEG.[PATH]) > 0 THEN charindex(';' , MEG.[PATH]) ELSE 1 END - 1) AS Server, TMV.[Name] AS MonitoringClass, MEG.[Healthstate] FROM dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView AS MEG
INNER JOIN dbo.[ManagedTypeView] AS TMV
ON TMV.[id] = MEG.[MonitoringClassId]
WHERE MEG.[Displayname] = '
'
AND TMV.[Name] = 'Microsoft.SQLServer.Database'
Miami, Florida - 26 June 2007 - 3CX today released the Enterprise edition of its new product 3CX Phone System, a Windows-based IP PBX that completely replaces a proprietary PABX. 3CX Phone System is based on the open SIP standard and interoperates with a wide range of popular SIP phones, VOIP Gateways and SIP-based providers. The Enterprise edition of 3CX Phone System implements enterprise telephony features such as Call Queuing and Exchange 2007 integration. It has been independently tested and certified for Microsoft Windows 2003.
The Exchange 2007 integration feature allows 3CX Phone System to use the Unified Messaging Server in Exchange Server 2007 as the voice mail server. This way, users can connect to their Exchange Server to listen to their calendar, have Exchange read out mails and receive their voice mail in their email inbox.
The Call Queuing feature allows companies to hold callers in a queue, whilst agents answer calls. Agents are able to login and logout to queues from Windows seeing the exact number of callers in the queue. (more)
you can now attend a free e-learning on SQL Server 2008 at this URL :
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=78337
Title: Clinic 7045 - What's New in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008
Course Type: Self-paced Course
Available Offline: Yes
Estimated Time of Completion: 2 Hours
Language: English
Description: In this clinic, you will learn about the new and enhanced features included in SQL Server 2008. You will explore the new data types and the data management features. Additionally, you will learn about the enhanced Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services included in SQL Server 2008. This online clinic is composed of a rich multimedia experience.
Objectives: At the end of the course, students will be able to:
Describe the features of SQL Server 2008 and their benefits.
Describe the features of enterprise data platform that help you to secure data in applications.
Describe the dynamic development features that facilitate the development of database applications.
Describe the features of SQL Server 2008 that provide data storage solutions beyond relational databases.
Describe the enhanced features in SSIS that help you to integrate data effectively.
Describe the enhanced features in SSAS that help you to improve the BI infrastructure.
Describe the enhanced features in SSRS that help you to improve the scalability of the reporting engine.
Arlindo Alves writes: "One of my colleagues developed a tool called VMRC Plus which is an improved version of the VMRC client that is deployed together with Virtual Server 2005."
What does VMRCplus offer?
Direct control of local or remote instances of the Virtual Server service. IIS and IE browser are no longer required!
Tabbed interface to quickly jump between Virtual Server hosts and guest VMRC sessions.
Reusable saved states: this feature allows users to preserve a particular saved state and return to that state at any time.
Multiple guest selection supported for startup/shutdown/save/display. (more)
Kevin Remde links to a screencast which shows off for the first time support for an 8 core virtual machine.