MOM & SMS Webcasts - December

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Keith Combs, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, we explore the features and capabilities of the Microsoft Active Directory Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. This management pack monitors events that are placed in the Application, System, and Directory Service event logs by various Active Directory components and subsystems. It also monitors the overall health of Active Directory and alerts you to critical performance issues. Learn how the Active Directory Management Pack for MOM 2005 can provide you with valuable monitoring information for most implementations of Active Directory. We also show how Active Directory Management Pack reports make important information available to you in the areas of trending, user account problems, configuration, and service level availability.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032287391&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Planning and Deploying Systems Management Server 2003 (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Planning the deployment of your Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 environment is an important step towards ensuring that your installation is successful and stable. In this webcast, we offer best practices for deployment and look at various tools that are available to assist you with your SMS 2003 installation.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032287393&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: An In-Depth Analysis of Self-Managing Dynamic Systems (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Peter Meister, Lead Product Manager, Windows Server, Microsoft Corporation
Jeff Woolsey, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Self-managing dynamic systems are information technology (IT) infrastructures that abstract, or virtualize, computing resources to help IT professionals deploy business services more nimbly and respond quickly to business requirements. Self-managing dynamic systems can have a powerful effect on how you approach your business. This webcast provides an in-depth analysis of self-managing dynamic systems. Learn how to create highly available, highly reliable server operations by combining key management technologies with virtualization and coupling them with the Microsoft Windows Server operating system.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032284679&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Troubleshooting Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 (Level 200)
Monday, January 23, 2006 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Troubleshooting Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 installations can be difficult unless you know where to look and what to look for. This webcast describes some of the common problems with SMS 2003 environments and illustrates straightforward solutions with practical demonstrations. We cover common problems and solutions, including those related to installing SMS management points and advanced clients, communication between the components in your SMS hierarchy, management point security, and Microsoft SQL Server access.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032287568&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 for Exchange Deployments (Level 200)
Friday, January 27, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Keith Combs, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, we explore the Microsoft Exchange 2003 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 and show how it can help your organization proactively identify problems. We discuss the monitoring capabilities provided by this management pack and demonstrate how they can help you to identify problems and quickly solve them. We also examine the reporting capabilities provided by this management pack and explain how they can help you avoid problems.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032287397&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Best Practices for Security Update Management with Systems Management Server 2003 (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Join this webcast to learn about the best practices you should consider when you develop an update management solution using Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003. Get detailed recommendations for all parts of a software update solution, including the setup stage and the software update cycle. We provide specific guidance on updating  desktop, mobile, and server computers. We also discuss using the Dell inventory tool to update Dell servers.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032287454&Culture=en-US

MyITForum blogs have moved

Ron mailed me last week when I was out on the road at the Exchange Unplugged roadshow telling me about the MyITForum blogs.  They've now moved to this location.  Whats even better is that comments now have been fixed - so I can be as cheeky as I want on blogs...

Update your feeds to point to the new blog location...

Microsoft Management Summit 2006

Yikes!
MMS next year isn't in Las Vegas.  It's going to be in San Diego instead... Here's some of the information from the official site

Microsoft Management Summit 2006 Registration Open!
The year’s MMS 2006 event will take place this April in sunny San Diego and will once again focus on technical content covering Microsoft management products, technologies, and solutions. The MMS 2006 web site is live and registration is open.  Full details of the event including the outline agenda, sponsorship
information, registration options, and hotel information can be found on the event web site at: http://www.mms2006.com.
As we start putting the plans for MMS 2006 together, we’d like to ensure that the event matches your needs and requirements. Our aim is to provide you with the information and resources you need to manage your organization’s IT assets safely and effectively. To help us achieve this goal, we would appreciate your help.
Please take a few moments to answer the Content Survey, which should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Your answers will be kept confidential, and are used only as part of a statistical analysis to help allocate breakout session and hands-on lab slots where they are most needed.
Thanks in advance for helping us make MMS 2006 your IT event of the year!

I really wanted to go to Vegas - I missed MMS 2005.... Grrrr...

User State Migration Tool - on the web

I noticed this from an internal newsletter the other day - useful for your delpoyments

USMT 2.61 has been Released to Web
Microsoft® Windows® User State Migration Tool (USMT) version 2.6.1 migrates user files and settings during large deployments of Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP. USMT captures desktop, network and application settings as well as a users files, and then migrates them to a new Windows installation. 
 

Management solutions available to download

Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM)
This solution enables   IT professionals to easily define desired configuration settings across multiple hardware and software configuration sources and detect configuration non-compliance before service outages occur. 
The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 SLA Scorecard for Exchange
This solution provides an executive dashboard for measuring and trending service availability and workloads across multiple server roles in a Microsoft Exchange Server messaging environment. This solution also enables IT managers and service managers to collaborate and define desired service levels and identify the cause of service outages.
Both the SMS 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring and the MOM 2005 SLA Scorecard for Exchange are available as free downloads at the Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Exchange Service Management Guide
This guide is a top-down, business-driven approach to managing a messaging environment. It specifically addresses the strategic business value that an Exchange team generates and the need to deliver a superior messaging service.  The guidance will help you implement process and team best practices within the corresponding components of the Exchange Service Management solution: Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 SLA Scorecard for Exchange and Systems Management Server 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring.

Blogcast: How to create yourown blogcast

****Edited broken links :-) ****

Well I've had quite a few mails asking me how to create blogcasts since the Exchange team published my blogcast series on how to upgrade from Exchnge 5.5 to Exchange 2003. So here's some infomation covering the various questions I've been asked about these recently:

What is a blogcast?

Sometimes there just isn't time to view a whole Webcast, when all you want to do is learn something specific.  Wouldn't it be great to have a demo and dialogue covering the exact component that you want to learn about?   Blocasts are mini Webcasts, typically about 5 minutes long, and show a visual demo of the technology.  Audio is embedded along with the  Windows Media (.WME) file and you can view these on demand over and over again.  Blogcasts differ from podcasts in as much as podcasts are audio only, and podcasts have enclosures that means that you can subscribe to a podcast feed to receive updated audio broadcasts when they are available.  Blogcasts (cast out, from a blog, typically) show short, targeted demos and they're visual.  Some have PowerPoint included, some only show the interface...  They're short and sweet and show you exactly what you want to know.  But the best thing is... anyone can create them.

How do I create a blogcast?

We’ve published everything so that anyone can get up and running and recording blogcasts really quickly.  We use Windows Media player at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx and follow John Howards instructions on configuring Windows Media Encoder: http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward/archive/2005/01/24/359391.aspx.  or watch the blogcast on "how to create a blogcast" a http://www.blogcastrepository.com

Where can I store blogcasts?

You need to host these files somewhere accessible from the Internet, either using hosting space from your ISP, or use the free hosting service for blogcasts at: http://www.blogcastrepository.com

Where can I find examples of blogcasts to give me an idea of what they contain?

In addition to www.blogcastrepository.com, http://sqlserverfaq.com, http://blogs.technet.com/mkleef/archive/2005/08/01/408453.aspx and http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward/archive/category/8894.aspx try Daniels fantastic blogcast series (in German on hw to upgrade your Exchange infrastructure at: http://blogs.technet.com/dmelanchthon/archive/2005/11/16/413811.aspx or just search for them.

Then add a comment to the blog letting me know when you find a great example of a blogcast... and start creating them...

MOM & SMS Webcasts for December

Microsoft Webcast: Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape Backup with Data Protection Manager and CommVault
Thursday, December 08, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Randy De Meno, Director of Advanced Applications & Microsoft Partnership, CommVault
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 is a server software application designed from the ground up to optimize disk-based backup and recovery. With DPM, recovering information is as simple as browsing a share and copying directly from the DPM to the production server. DPM provides several unique capabilities, including rapid and reliable recovery, efficient and near-continuous protection, and operational simplicity. In this webcast, learn how Microsoft is partnering with CommVault to deliver an integrated disk-to-disk-to-tape backup and recovery solution, extending the traditional disk-to-disk-to-tape scenario by offering freedom to recover the data regardless of media type and where it originated.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032284685&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure (Part 14 of 18): SMS 2003 Software and Patch Management (Level 300)
Friday, December 2, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Continuing on from the points addressed in our previous webcast, this webcast session shows how to use Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS 2003) for patch management and software management. Learn how to use this product and how SMS 2003 can help you deploy software and patches to numerous locations.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282175&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure (Part 15 of 18): Automating Desktop Configuration with SMS 2003 OSD (Level 300)
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Open Software Description (OSD) is an Extensible Markup Language technology that describes software components and their relationships to other components. The OSD vocabulary is a standardized way to describe software components, their versions, their underlying structures and their dependence on other components. Concluding this series-within-a-series about Microsoft Systems Management Server, this webcast shows how to use the OSD to enable organizations to deploy a standard set of desktop operating systems.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282177&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure (Part 16 of 18): Using MOM to Monitor Your Environment (Level 300)
Friday, December 9, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Adding servers to an environment to add business value might seem easy, but you must consider the costs of keeping all those servers running, secure and up to date. This webcast presents an example organization that has chosen Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) to help manage a rapidly growing network. This webcast and the one to follow examine how our example organization leveraged MOM and the MOM Management packs to reduce management overhead. See how our example organization monitors its servers worldwide, how the design points for deploying MOM were chosen, how the server locations were decided and how all servers were monitored.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282180&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Planning and Deploying Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 (Level 200)
Monday, December 12, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Planning and deploying your Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 environment helps to ensure that your installation is a success. This webcast presents the best practices for deployment and introduces the tools available to assist you with your SMS 2003 installation. This webcast demonstrates the Capacity Planner tool in SMS 2003 that can help model the topology of your proposed SMS site and suggest appropriate configurations for your SMS site systems.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285708&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure (Part 17 of 18): Using MOM Management Packs to Monitor Your Environment (Level 300)
Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Continuing from the previous webcast, this webcast shows how our example organization used Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) to manage its environment. This installment examines a variety of management packs to monitor Microsoft Systems Management Server, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration, Sybari Antigen and third-party servers.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282182&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Planning and Deploying Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 (Level 200)
Friday, December 16, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Join this webcast for a complete look at Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, whether you are upgrading or newly installing a MOM 2005 management solution. Learn about MOM 2005 features and components, deployment topologies and scenarios, planning considerations, upgrade tips, and security settings.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285727&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Troubleshooting Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 (Level 200)
Friday, December 16, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Troubleshooting Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 installations can be a difficult task unless you know where to look and what to look for. This webcast examines some of the common problems you are likely to encounter in SMS 2003 environments and provides straightforward solutions with practical demonstrations. We cover issues involving both management points and Advanced Clients, including troubleshooting steps you can use to identify specific problems and techniques for resolving the issues you find.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285730&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: System Center Capacity Planner 2006 Overview (Level 200)
Monday, December 19, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2006 provides you with state-of-the-art tools and guidance to help you create a system architecture model for deploying a Microsoft server application, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. Tune in to this webcast to learn more about the capabilities and features of System Center Capacity Planner 2006, and find out how it can help you plan and implement a successful deployment.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285733&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 for Active Directory (Level 200)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast presents the Active Directory Management Pack in Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, a valuable tool for monitoring events that are placed in the Application, System, and Directory Service event logs by various components and subsystems of Microsoft Active Directory directory services. This management pack provides important information in the areas of trending, user account problems, configuration, and service level availability. It also monitors the overall health of Active Directory and alerts you to critical performance issues. The Active Directory Management Pack is designed to provide monitoring information for most implementations of Active Directory. Join this webcast to explore the various monitoring scenarios.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285738&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Performance and Sizing (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast explains how the configuration of key components in the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 architecture affects the performance of the monitoring environment as a whole. Join us to find out what the support limits are for MOM 2005 configurations and understand the reasons behind them. We conclude by showing common MOM problems that affect performance and the solutions to these problems.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285743&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Securing Your Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Environment (Level 200)
Monday, December 19, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Get an overview of security management and learn about the new security features that have been added to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. In particular, this webcast introduces you to an important new scenario in MOM 2005, trusted monitoring. Discover how to secure your MOM 2005 deployments from the MOM management (server-side) and the MOM agent (client-side) perspectives.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032285801&Culture=en-US

Code Sharing Community for MOM Management Packs

The MOM product team has launched a code sharing site that can be used for our community to share MPs, Connectors, Reports and Scripts on GotDotNet.  This is designed to complement – not compete with – other community forums such as myITforum.com and SMSMOM.com.  The key aspects GotDotNet provides are:
License control – you can post your own open source license or otherwise with your upload
Download counts – track what’s hot and what’s not
News and Threaded discussions per project
To access the site, just click here..

Sign Up for MOMv3 Focus Groups

Last Chance..
On November 17th at ITForum in Barcelona, the MOM’s product marketing team will conduct focus groups to gather feedback on the MOMv3 licensing model.  It is critical to incorporate customer feedback about current MOM 2005 licensing to ensure a customer centric licensing model going forward.  If you want to participate in this focus group, you must:
be MOM customers or partners
have current NDAs
have purchasing responsibility or influence
If you are interested, please contact Ben Brauer 

MOM 2005 Summary Reporting Pack

Stefan  and Blake both watch whats going on in the MOM world and have both blogged about the availability of this reporting pack.   Here's the info from the download site:

The MOM 2005 Summary Reporting Pack extends the MOM data warehouse to provide long term reports on performance metrics and alerts based on weekly and daily summarisation of data.  Key reports include Exchange resource and protocol utilization, AD disk utilisation and replication latency, OS performance, and generic summary reports for performance counter analysis, alert counts, and alert resolution times.  The Summary Reporting Pack increases the performance and reduces the storage resources required for long term reporting with the MOM data warehouse.  The download page for Summary Reporting Pack is here and you should also get to grips with how the MOM Data warehouse works for long term reporting.  There's a good best practices deployment guide which explains all about this in detail.

Customer Problem: the usual patterns for collecting long-term performance, event, and alert data in a common MOM 2005 deployment causes the data warehouse to grow to hundreds of GB sooner than the 395 day standard grooming interval.  As a result, report generation time is adversely affected.  It also makes the data warehouse less manageable from a pure size perspective.
Core Functionality
·          Aggregates existing and new MOM 2005 data warehouse performance and alert data to provide daily and weekly summary data
·          New reports for viewing aggregated data
·          Allows customers to drastically reduce the volume of raw data in the data warehouse thus reducing the size requirements by up to 90%
·          Allows customers to generate long-term reports based on a much smaller number of data rows thus satisfying the customer expectation that the Reporting Console is interactive
 

The reason that this summary reporting pack is significant is because MOM collects large amounts of information, for use in capacity planning.  As MOM stores the data and configuration information in the MOM SQL Server 2000 database which can grow very large, particularly in environments where MOM is collecting significant amounts of data or monitoring a large number of computers.  If you want to maintain an optimum database size, MOM periodically grooms data from the MOM database.  As MOM grooms data, you can lose performance, alert, event, security, and capacity planning data, which is no longer available for MOM Reporting. You might want to maintain this historical data for a number of business reasons, such as long-term security auditing, long-term capacity planning, or other types of custom reporting.
To maintain historical MOM data while keeping the MOM database at optimum levels, you create a separate database to serve as a MOM data warehouse. You can periodically back up MOM data from the MOM database, restore it to a holding database, and then import that data to the MOM data warehouse. You would do this regularly before grooming the database to preserve data. Because the MOM data warehouse contains all of the historical MOM data, you can use it to run reports containing long-term data.

So the bottom line is: This reporting pack is useful.  Go download it :-)

MOM 2005 Management pack for Citrix

I've had a bit of a focus on management products this week, and found this on one of the email distribution lists.  Really useful if you manage a large Citrix estate..

Citrix Management Pack for MOM 2005
Citrix Presentation Server 4—running in both 32-bit and 64-bit environments—deepened integration with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 earlier this month with its new release of the Management Pack for MOM. This integration improves user experience and heightens management, monitoring and security capabilities.
The Citrix Management Pack is a plug-in to MOM that enables system administrators to centrally monitor the health and availability of Presentation Server systems and server farms from a single view, and easily respond to and resolve issues from a single desktop console.
Management Pack Features
Some key features and benefits of using the Management Pack in a Presentation Server installation:
Event management. The Management Pack captures a variety of events from servers and server farms. These events are collated and then presented to the administrator through the MOM Administrator Console, allowing an overall view of server operation. In MOM 2005, events are managed through the MOM Operator Console.
Performance monitoring. You can use the Management Pack to monitor server performance. Rules can be customized and new rules created to set thresholds for key performance attributes in the server farm.
Extensive knowledge base. The Management Pack includes an extensive product support knowledge base, including links to relevant Citrix Knowledge Base articles. Centralized access to information about managing servers enables administrators to quickly interpret events and troubleshoot problems.
Customizable rules and alerts. You can configure the Management Pack to alter how it responds to an event. You do this by modifying and extending the rules to best suit your environment. For example, you can configure the rule for the ICA session disconnection rate so that the alert that is triggered is meaningful and appropriate to your site. Citrix Knowledge Base documentation is available to help you with this customization.
License server monitoring.  The management pack can raise alerts pertaining to Citrix license servers. For example, the pack is able to alert an administrator if licenses are near their expiration date, or if the number of available licenses on a Citrix license server is running low.
State monitoring. New for this release is full support for the MOM state view. The management pack adds two columns or “roles” to the MOM state view to allow administrators to quickly view the current state of their Citrix Presentation Servers and Citrix License Servers alongside other products and services they are monitoring using MOM.
Graphical topology view of monitored farms and servers.  Also new in this release, the Citrix management pack utilizes the MOM Topology view to display a diagram showing the structure of a user’s Citrix deployment. This diagram comprises a hierarchical view showing Citrix farms and zones, and the servers they contain. The diagram shows servers with special roles such as zone data collectors, as well as general information for each server, such as whether logons are enabled, and which license server is supplying its licenses.
Convenient launch of the Access Suite Console.  The new management pack takes advantage of MOM 2005’s task-running functionality to provide a link inside the operator console which will launch the Citrix Access Suite Console if it is currently installed on the MOM server.
Citrix views. Citrix views are available in the Public Views folder. These views allow you to monitor events and alerts raised for servers and server farms, and to identify trends and performance issues occurring on servers and published applications.
Citrix notification group. The Management Pack includes a notification group, called the Citrix Administrators group. You can configure this group to ensure that the appropriate people are notified about problems with servers and server farms.
Easy installation. The Management Pack consists of a single file that is available from the Citrix website. To install the Management Pack, you simply import this file into MOM, using the MOM Administrator Console.
The Citrix Management Pack for MOM is available to Citrix Subscription Advantage members, who can download it from the Citrix Secure Portal at www.citrix.com/mycitrix.

Cap Plan 2006 Beta refresh release

There's a beta refresh for System Center Capacity planner out at the moment.  I'd blogged about the features the other week, but the Windows Management team have been looking at feedback and have made quite a few enhancements: Don't forget though that this Beta is for evaluation use only and is shared to enable you to become more familiar with the product and provide valuable feedback to us so that we deliver a fantastic product.
We look forward to receive valuable feedback on this new product.  Please download the product here, work with it, and give us feedback in the forums:

Here's some of the enhancements:
·                                 SCCP Beta2 Refresh aligned with .NET 2.0 RC release
·                                 Improved support for modeling VPN connected users 
·                                 More granular control of Exchange transaction rates 
·                                 Optional exclusion of a redundant WAN link from load balancing
·                                 Improved support for users in branch office 
·                                 Improvements to reporting
·                                 Improvements to the Hardware Editor
·                                 Improved online help
·                                 Modifications to the user interface text

Learn more about System Center Capacity Planner 2006:

Inventory tool for Dell updates - mandatory re-install

I blogged quite a while ago about this tool and how it worked.  Well I've been alerted to something that you may need to be aware of to make sure that the tool still works effectively.  If you utilise SMS to do patching of Dell BIOS, Firmware and Drivers using the Inventory Tool for Dell Updates (ITDU) then you need to update the tool due to a recent change in the signing of the catalog that is downloaded from Dell. (The Certificate is now signed by DELL rather than Verisign which now breaks the tool).
This does require a re-installation of the scan tool package from here... Note that after an upgrade, the Distribution Points for the Dell Updates Sync program (ITDUSync.exe) need to be updated with a new version of the package source to ensure that the sync host is running the latest bits. Existing packages already created for Dell Component or System updates should not be affected.

Thanks to Jaspaul for the info...

An amazing set of support resources

Blake submitted an amazing set of links to the Industry Insiders blog yesterday, the links took me over an hour to check that they were all current and valid, so heaven only knows how long they took to collate.  He has managed to get every single link to all of the support sites for all of our products, with links to the KB articles, searches for documentation, how to's and tips.  He's included all of the best newsgroups that we host, as well as searching out all of the product team blogs and articles.  This must have taken him forever (or he has too much time on his hands...!)

I just wish I'd had access to this set of resources at my fingertips when I was out on customer site.  It would have saved me so much time when troubleshooting.  So now I'm giving you the link to the document.  So that you'll have less head scratching time - and much less frustration when you've got a problem...

MOM & SMS Webcasts for November

Microsoft Webcast: Protect Critical Data While Lowering IT Costs with Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 and HP
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
Christopher Whyte, Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Brad Parks, Product Marketing Manager, HP
How much down time can your business afford? More than 50% of companies that experience a major data loss will close their doors forever. Increasing rates of data growth, higher service level expectations, and tighter technology budgets have left IT managers with fewer resources to protect critical data. Join HP and Microsoft for a webcast that presents strategies that you can use to protect your data while lowering IT costs. Learn about the HP ProLiant Data Protection Storage Server, a disk-based backup solution that is easy to deploy, powered by Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006, and built on the ProLiant server platform.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032283982&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introducing System Center Capacity Planner (Level 200)
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Manish Kalra, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Matching hardware capability to server-based application demands can be a tricky task. In this webcast, learn how to use a new member of the Microsoft System Center suite, the System Center Capacity Planner. This tool can help you determine proper sizing for your Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Operations Manager servers. Join us to learn how to make best use of this great tool.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278635&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure (Part 13 of 18): Installing and Configuring SMS (Level 300)
Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Software and patch management are time-consuming and costly. Making sure systems are current and have only licensed software can be very labor-intensive. An information technology (IT) management product can reduce these costs? This and the next two webcasts in this series show how Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS 2003) helps IT professionals manage and maintain servers and clients quickly and efficiently. This series-within-a-series webcast demonstrates what SMS 2003 is and does, and discusses how you can get SMS 2003 up and running. Learn how to inventory the current environment, deploy software, update software, and deploy and check patch status.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282173&Culture=en-US

Self Managing Dynanic Systems

There's been quite a bit of a buzz over the blogosphere over night with our announcement about self managing Dynamic systems.  Johns post tels you whats happening in the Virtualisation world.

You can also look at the DSI website  and the official press story for more information... 

System Center Capacity Planner 2006 now available

The chaps in the Windows and Enterprise management division have certainly been busy with names.  We've had RepMan, CapMan and now CapPlan is now available to download.  Thats System Center Reporting Manager, Capacity manager and now Capacity Planner... It's an open beta release, but you have the opportunity to provide direct feedback through the discussion forums.

I had to go and read up a bit more about Capacity planner as the original internal announcement passed me by.  It allows you to model and plan your MOM and Exchange 2003 deployments and brings the option of what-if analysis that if you plans change you can run the model again.  You can perform different types of what-if scenarios: 

• Proactive performance planning: Helping an organization meet their service level goals consistently, now and in the future.
• Infrastructure planning and optimization: Plan for IT purchases to optimize cost.
• Help to ensure success of Microsoft Exchange 2003 and MOM 2005 deployments: Use to plan correct amount of infrastructure needed for a new application to meet service level goals.
• Performance analysis and predictive reporting: Automatically report performance trends and bottlenecks to manage current and future performance issues.
System Center Capacity Planner 2006 (Beta) is designed to help you create a system architecture model for deploying a Microsoft server application, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or MOM 2005. A typical system architecture model consists of the following information:
• Topology: Site locations, types of networks, network components, and network characteristics (bandwidth, latency)
• Hardware: Server distribution and characteristics, server and network mapping
• Software: Server role and service mapping, file and storage device mapping
• Usage profiles: Site usage and client usage
After you create a model, you can run a simulation that provides a summary and details about the performance of the application and its supporting components.

Think that this one is going to be really useful if you're planning a migration to Exchange server 2003 and want to get things right and plan for flexibility after the migration.  A useful tool...

System Center Reporting Manager - available

So I've noticed that you can now get the beta software for System Center Reporting Manager.  just register on betaplace to get the download.  You can read the overview here...

1. Go to the Microsoft Betaplace Site and sign in with your Microsoft .Net Passport ID. If you don't have a Passport account, you will need to first complete a Passport registration.
2. Enter the Guest ID "SCGUEST" (this ID is case-sensitive).
3. Click on the Systems Center Reporting Manager 2005 link.
4. Click on the Nomination link on the left side of the page.
5. Fill out and submit the nomination form and expect that in 24 hours you will have access to the beta build.
 

So what do you get with the SC RepMon beta?

• Provides a single, centralized, and simplified query and report authoring experience across MOM and SMS historical data, as well as business context data, to enable reporting scenarios that are not possible with the current SMS and MOM reports.
• Includes a rich decision support solution for MOM and multiple SMS operational databases into a single data warehouse to enable better decision making more quickly using "Better Together" reports.
• Offloads expensive decision support operations from the SMS Central Site server and improves performance of key queries and reports for SMS administrators.
• Delivers clear value for "SMS only" customers using new reports and enabling new analytical scenarios for SMS administrators (such as deployment status by cost center).
• Delivers clear value for "MOM only" customers by providing about 150 centralized reports across multiple MOM 2005 management groups and delivering new enterprise reports.
• Provides a Web-based reporting front end from any desktop using SQL Reporting Services without requiring client-side software to be installed.
• Additional reports and queries can be created and shared using a community driven process.
• Enables a broader audience to leverage systems and operations management data by delivering a new set of predefined reports that are designed for IT managers and business executives.
The reports produced:
• Locate underutilized servers and target them for elimination by comparing performance data in a server platform consolidation scenario.
• Support load balancing decisions by providing information on server performance across specific workloads and identifying any excess capacity.
• Determine if hardware changes or software updates are responsible for causing an increased volume of server alerts.
• Compare server performance statistics over time in the context of specific software changes.

Secure and Well Managed Enterprise

We're running a series of webcasts aimed at managing your enterprise.   Here's the info...

 You can learn how to become a dynamic IT organization and achieve operational effectiveness through delivering higher quality of service, email availability, and a more secure Windows environment. Our technical experts will help guide you through step by step instructions on how to install, configure, automate and mange a more secure and well managed infrastructure. Topics covered will include Active Directory installation and monitoring, Step-by-step patch management implementation, server, application, and desktop monitoring, PKI Infrastructures, Security concepts and principals, and the utilization and configuration of Group Policy, SMS, MOM, ISA and Exchange. Don’t miss out on this series as we provide a clear road map on the journey to a more secure and well managed enterprise environment.
Bonus: Attend four of the five October webcasts in this series (live or on demand) by October 31, 2005 and you will receive a Microsoft “geek” t-shirt.  Attend seven of the eight November webcasts in this series (live or on demand) and you will receive a multi-tool kit.  And, by attending a live webcast in this series and submitting an evaluation, you will also qualify to win a Portable Media Center pre-loaded with some of our best webcasts.  Offers open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only.  See webcast landing page for details.

Bummer.  Why can't we win a geek t-shirt over in Europe then?  don't we qualify as geeks then?  Humph!  Shall I try and get some for over here then?  Let me know...

By the way - you really should also have a look at Johns series of blogcasts on the Secure and Well Manged Infrastructure (SWMI) where he's building up the Infrastricture step by step...

MOM & SMS Webcasts for October

TechNet Webcast: MOM and AVIcode: Incorporating the Operations Perspective in Dynamic Systems Initiative (Level 200)
Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Stephen Pelletier, VP Business Development, AVIcode, Inc.
Dhananjay Mahajan, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Application development and application maintenance are no longer separate. Closing the loop between operations and development is critical for keeping the total cost of operations down. In this webast, learn how Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System and AVIcode Intercept Studio 2.3 extend the capabilities of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. AVIcode Intercept Studio and MOM 2005 provide the foundation for "friction-free" application health modeling and operational monitoring of distributed Microsoft .NET applications. Find out about the powerful capabilities this solution provides for software architects, systems operators and administrators.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032282311&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introducing Systems Center Reporting Manager 2005: Understanding, Architecting and Deploying (Level 200)
Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft Corporation
Reduce troubleshooting time and improve your planning capabilities with Microsoft Windows Server System Center Reporting Manager 2005. In this webcast, learn the basics on System Center Reporting Manager 2005 architecture and the best practices for deployment.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278633&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Does Security Updates (Level 300)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Paul Thomsen, Patch Management Service Lead, Microsoft IT, Microsoft Corporation
Successful security update management is crucial to maintaining computer security at any organization. Learn from the Microsoft Information Technology (IT) department's experience with over 200,000 clients in a challenging environment. Microsoft IT continues to improve its processes by merging datacenter and desktop security update operations using the new Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates. This new tool formalizes the security update management service, improves reporting solutions, and makes other improvements which Microsoft shares with other Microsoft Systems Management Server customers.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=52131

defining SMS local and remote site boundaries

Mark had a problem with his local and remote site boundaries

His Active Directory site was defined within “Site Boundaries”. He has Included site boundaries within the local roaming boundaries of this site  in the “Roaming Boundaries” check box and wanted to define one TCP/IP subnet to be a remote roaming boundary. he wanted to know which TCP/IP subnet would take precedence over the AD site

Well I scanned through the Configuration guide for Advanced client roaming and found this:

 If you have an Active Directory site that includes a mixture of fast and slow subnets, specify the Active Directory site as a local roaming boundary, but also add the individual slow subnets and mark them as remote roaming boundaries. Remote settings take precedence over local settings.

So now I know.  Sorry for taking so long to get back to you Mark...well it was a long document to read :-)

Documentation for MOM 2005 SP1

MOM 2005 SP1 documentation is now available at the Microsoft Download Center.  These documents will provide guidance and explain features & functionality that will help you plan for, deploy, and administer MOM 2005 SP1.   Visit http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx for more information or to download today

Chris, he of the (soon to be shaved head) has also blogged about other Systems Management downloads coming this week - worth a look

Monad shell available to download

I just noticed this on one of our internal newsletters and thought it was worth forwarding on...

“Monad” Shell – Publicly available on Microsoft Download Center
Windows "Monad" Shell is a new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology for Windows that enables administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers. "Monad" Shell provides powerful task-based control (via built-in command line tools and utilities) and a powerful scripting language that enables comprehensive scripted control of the Windows operating system and applications. Download “Monad” for X86 or X64 from the Download Center.  Watch “Monad” Architect Jeffrey Snover demonstrate “Monad” on a Channel 9 MSDN Video Interview and via two webcasts.

Also - contact John via his blog for some extra documentation not included with beta 2, and follow Lee's blog for code samples and for the link to the *new* public newsgroup... 

Bill Gates chats to Channel 9 - without socks

Robert Scoble gets to chat to Bill Gates for 15 minutes on Channel 9.  Its an interesting interview and has a few insights about Bill's 10 and 15 year vision for software, and where he thinks we're headed. He talks about XML and development initiatives and where he sees things going in developer land and also his excitement about Office 12.  He's also not wearing socks :-).  And no ones given him an Xbox 360 yet either...!

Bill also mkes a few good comments on blogging and how people who read bloggers at Microsoft get to know us as a person and not just part of a machine.  (I'm not sure you'd want to know too much about my home life though - its rather bit less geeky than my Microsoft life!).  It's worth listening to a couple of times as he pushes out a heck of a lot of information in a really short space of time. And he's funny. And warm. And witty too. 

This did get me thinking though about the type of software I was using 10 years ago.  We also had hundreds of green screens hooked up to the System 36, System 38 and AS/400's in the Data Processing room (Gosh that dates me!).  I was in the middle of a migration.  Migrating Netware 3.12, Windows 3.11, Wordstar 6 and Lotus 123 version 2 to NT 3.51 with Windows 95 on the desktop, and Back Office 4.2(?) strutting its stuff out the back.  Oh happy days... Everything (our needs were simple then) on the desktop was controlled by ntconfig.pol (very scary in those days), and we were just moving over from our AS/400 based system to MsMail 3.2.  But my pride and joy was the machine over in the corner attached to one of those soft cup modems (1200 baud I seem to remember) .  You know the sort of modem that you had to shove the telephone handset into the modem when you heard the warbles down the line?  I had a Compuserve account and was connected to a couple of news forums for troubleshooting help and information.  This was "The Internet" and I was incredibly protective of it too!  How far have we come?...

So what sort of technology were you using 10 yesrs ago? and what do you expect to be using in 10 years time?

Small Business Server - have you outgrown it?

There's been quite a bit of a buzz about the announcement made yesterday about our new mid market solution codenamed Centro with several articles in the press , blog, and news sites.  Centro is aimed at businesses sized from 50 - 250 pcs, and aims to simplify the management of your environment.  Centro will be made up from components such as Windows, Exchange, ISA, MOM, SMS (sorry, System Centre) - the next versions where appropriate each I suppose -  all linked together to make management much more simple.  So there's one place to go to create a  new user for example, and wizards to automate day to day tasks.  As its aimed at the mid sized business, there'll be a focus on simplifying these sort of tasks too.  So if your organisation has more than 50 PC's and is currently runing Small business Server, then Centro could be the answer as your business develops and grows.

It will be available to buy just after Longhorn Server is available, but watch out for updates and more news as the product develops...

Software Assurance Webcasts. don't miss out

There are quite a few changes coming with the new Software assurance program, so I'd really recommend that you watch one of these 4 global webcasts coming up next week.  The current Software Assurance benefits provide IT Pros with Training Vouchers, eLearning, unlimited phone/web Problem Resolution Support for qualifying servers, deployment tools, monitoring tools, complimentary TechNet subscriptions and other benefits. There will be an announcement additional value and enhancements for IT Pros.

Here's the info to register...

Microsoft Announces Major Software Assurance Program Enhancements
Microsoft invites all customers and partners to attend one of four global webcasts live on September 15, 2005. 
Senior Microsoft executives will introduce several new technology, support, planning, and training benefits that will boost the value of your Microsoft software investment and improve the way IT professionals deploy and manage technology. Register now for your webcast. 
For more information about Software Assurance and the webcasts, visit http://www.microsoft.com/licensing.

Managing Data Protection Manager with MOM 2005 MP

Yes, there's a management pack for DPM.

Data Protection Manager (DPM) is a server software application that enables disk-based data protection and recovery for file servers within an Active Directory domain. DPM performs replication, synchronization, and shadow copy creation to provide reliable protection and rapid recovery of data by both system administrators and end users.   By using the DPM Management Pack, an administrator can centrally monitor the state of data protection and recovery for multiple DPM servers, and the file servers that they protect, in Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM). The Management Pack also monitors key health and performance indicators on DPM servers.  For DPM servers, the DPM Management Pack monitors the state of DPM database and service health, server performance, and key indicators such as disk availability and configuration changes to volumes protected by DPM. For protected file servers, the DPM Management Pack monitors the state of connectivity with DPM, data recovery operations for protected volumes, and replicas and shadow copies that are stored on the DPM server. DPM can be downloaded here:

Watch the webcast: 

Download the beta of DPM:

How to Deploy Windows 2003 SP1 with SMS

There's a document available to download showing how to deploy Windows Server 2003 SP1 using SMS.  Here's the information from the download site.  

This document provides detailed steps on how to prepare Windows Server 2003 SP1 files for deployment, create queries to identify SMS clients ready for the Windows Server 2003 SP1 upgrade, deploy the Windows Server 2003 SP1 upgrade to your SMS clients, and verify that the SMS clients successfully upgraded from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2003 SP1.
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 provides convenient, comprehensive access to the latest updates, enhancements, and new features for Windows Server 2003. Each of these components allows customers to better leverage the enhanced security, reliability, and performance of Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft recommends that a corporate update management solution, such as Systems Management Server 2003 or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), is used as a best-practice approach for implementing a managed rollout of Windows Server 2003 SP1. This document details the steps necessary to test a deployment of Windows Server 2003 SP1 using SMS. While some procedures in this document focus specifically on SMS 2003 Advanced Clients, most procedures apply to both SMS 2003 Legacy Clients and SMS 2.0.

However - if you're using SMS SP1, then you'd better read Tims post on the potential impact of SMS SP1 and Windows 2003 SP1... just in case.

Systems Management Server Upgrade Survey

The SMS team would like you to take a survey about SMS:

Take the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) Upgrade Survey.  By taking this survey you help provide direction to Microsoft when building content and upgrade programs that help our customers get the latest set of technologies.  SMS 2.0 End of Life is nearing in March 2006 and we want to help our customers upgrade with the greatest possible return on investment.  Take the survey here: 

Notice the bit about SMS 2.0 nearing end of life in March 2006.

So start thinking about the upgrade and planning accordingly...

Windows 2003 Server Performance Advisor MP for MOM 2005

The MOM team have just released the Windows Server 2003 Server performance Advisor management pack v2.0.  This MP helps to diagnose the root causes of performance problems in windows Server 2003.  You get reports on CPU and Memory use, top consumers of CPU nd busy files etc. John mentioned  and Vinod the launch of V1.0 in June.

The Management Pack for SPA 2.0 provides performance diagnosis for server roles, such as, AD, IIS, DNS, and Print spooler. Examples include:
Alerts indicating performance issues (e.g., responsiveness, resource usage, configuration) of certain server role or a general system
Events indicating tool issues (e.g., data collection failure, missing template data)
Automatic and distributed data collection

Worth a look anyway...

SMS 2003 viewing the namespace

So where would you go if you wanted to find out exactly which bits of inventory are interrogated by SMS 2003? I seem to remember playing with WBEMtest and having a look at namespaces and classed viewing which bits of hardware inventory you could collect. It's worthwhile becoming familiar with this tool in case you can't view the Admin console for some reason. (By the way - where did MOF manager go?  It was really useful in SMS 2.0 and now I need it - it doesn't exist any more...)

But I also noticed this mail on the SMS mailing lists the other day and saw some other resources you could use...

SMS Schema information views

Schema View mapping

SQL Server views

Well its the nearest you can get to seeing the schema - although we don't publish it..

Will the Real Rob Marshall please stand up?

<pinched from an Eminem song I think...>

This is a plea for Rob to get in contact with me.  I've tried to leave a comment on his blog, and also use the contact me field, but I think the guys in myItforum have some challenges with receiving comments on their blogs (I gave up trying to comment on their blogs months ago - sorry Rod, Ron, Brian, John etc...)  Trackbacks do still work however - hence this post.

So Rob, or anyone who has access to his smtp address - please can you contact him and ask him to get in touch.  I want to make him an offer....

Scripting - for Absolute beginners

Just noticed this on TechNet.  A series for those (like me, who haven't got a clue where to start to script) A beginners series on scripting for budding script writers. So I now can progress past my FOR NEXT loop attempts in BASIC, and my "hello world" (increasing font size) in HTML.  Scary thought...

And it's called Sesame script.  Aah sweet. 

Inventory tool for Microsoft updates

Daniel is well ahead of me on searching out news.  Here he writes about the SMS 2003 inventory tool for Microsoft updates and WSUS.  There's a good guide available on the web explaining the relevant pre-requisites needed for the installation of the tool.  Be aware though, that this tool needs Windows installer 3.1 too, as Bryan explains.  So it's needed for SMS and MOM now as I mentioned yesterday...

Issue with MOM 2005 SP1 install

Daniel blogged about the features included with MOM 2005 SP1 and where to get the download so I didn't get around to blogging about it right away...

Ian then warned me about the "gotcha" you need to be aware of (and the kb article) which saved Alfred some work.  So my question is... Rod, why didn't one of your guys pick up on this? I missed this point completely.. aargh!

Anyway MOM SP1 depends on Windows Installer 3.1 to install (read the kb article for all the info).  Also - welcome Ian to the blogosphere - I look forward to more hidden gotchas that I need to be aware of...

MOM & SMS Webcasts for September

TechNet Webcast: SQL Server 2005 Manageability Using Management Pack for MOM (Level 200)
Friday, September 9, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Vipul Shah, Program Manager, SQL Server, Microsoft Corporation
Are you paying attention to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)? This webcast shows how to manage Microsoft SQL Server 2005 better by using MOM. See what is new in the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Pack. Learn how to use different capabilities in Management Pack such as Client Side Monitoring, Service Availability, Performance Monitoring, Space Monitoring, and the ability to launch tasks. We show you how to effectively monitor your SQL Server installations using built-in Reports and State Components in MOM.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032280135&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: What's New in SMS 2003 Service Pack 2 (Level 200)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft Corporation
The next service pack for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 is in development. If you want to see the new features this new service pack will provide to your SMS 2003 environment, this webcast is for you. Join us as we look at the new features and updates in the service pack, as well as how to upgrade to SMS 2003 Service Pack 2.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278629&Culture=en-US

MOM 2005 Sizer tool released

This tool provides sizing recommendations based on workloads.  Plug the figures in and it recommends the configuration of your management servers so you can effectively place them into your organisation.  It also gives a report for database servers and reporting servers.  Download it here..  

SMS 2003 SP2 Beta program

Management Pack Notifier for MOM 2005

This Management Pack will periodically contact Microsoft to determine if updates to previously installed management packs are available for download. When an update is detected an Informational alert will be generated indicating which management pack(s) and version(s) are available. 

So now you can be proactively notified when new management packs are available for MOM and are available to download.  A really neat idea and kudos to the MOM team for this.  (Have you seen their blog by the way)?  Definately worth adding to your RSS feeds...

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Service Pack 1: Available for Download

I've just noticed that MOM SP1 is available... Here's the info on it.....

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Service Pack 1 was made available for download August 1, 2005. MOM 2005 SP1 not only addresses critical customer requests, required security fixes, adds new OS and database platform support and broadens our localization support, but also includes a new feature that make license compliance much easier: License Usage Alerting . MOM 2005 SP1 can be downloaded from here

License Usage Alerting is a new feature of MOM 2005 SP1 that allows you to receive alerts when product usage exceeds a configured threshold of available OMLs. When installing SP1, customers simply enter the number of Operations Management Licenses (OML’s) they are licensed for in the License Usage Alerting dialogue box and then the MOM server periodically checks the number of managed systems against the entered number of licenses. If the number of managed systems is greater than the number of licenses then a warning alert is generated. This is a great feature and I encourage you to work with your customers to get it deployed and use this as an opportunity to have a dialogue about MOM deployment and OML compliance. For more information, visit the Pricing and Licensing FAQ

Microsoft management summit - in the UK

Well not really - but if you didn't get a chance to get to Las Vegas for MMS in the spring and hear Bill Anderson talk about our management products, then you've got another chance.  We're planning to host a "highlights of MMS" here in the UK on September 30th, and we'll repeat the best sessions of the event earlier this year.  The team are planning to repeat the tour around Europe (dates and locations to be advised).

To register for the event (it's going to be held at the Microsoft campus in Reading, UK) click here...and check out the free gift on offer to those attending....

ExBPA 2.1 and the MOM Management Pack

Giving product feedback on MOM

(Or other products by the way)

I just found this on the MSDN site.  You get the opportunity to submit feedback to the MOM product team, and can see what other feedback has been submitted. The MOM team actively welcome feedback and bug reporting

So where's the link to submit feedback about other stuff like Exchange, LCS and SMS then?

MOM and SMS Webcasts for August

TechNet Webcast: Modifying the SMS_DEF.MOF for Advanced Clients (Level 300)
Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 11:30:00 AM - 1:00:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft Corporation
Do you already have your Microsoft Systems Management Server Advanced Clients installed, but now need to make changes to your hardware inventory collection process? Do you also want to make sure that newly installed Advanced Clients implement the new configuration? In this webcast, we discuss how to properly configure hardware inventory to add new providers, classes and attributes to your Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 environment.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278626&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Migration from Software Update Services to Windows Server Update Services (Level 300)
Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 11:30:00 AM - 1:00:00 PM Pacific Time
Marc Shepard, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Many customers today use Software Update Services (SUS) to deploy Windows updates across their businesses. During this session, which was highly rated when presented at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, as MGT350, learn how to upgrade from SUS to Windows Server Update Services, the next version of SUS, to reap the benefits of the enhanced capabilities and broadened application support. Learn best practices and pitfalls to watch out for to help you upgrade seamlessly.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032277804&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: The Value of Manageability and Windows Server System (Level 100)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Microsoft Technical Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Come hear about the value that Microsoft management products such as Microsoft Operations Manager Workgroup Edition and Microsoft Windows Server Update Services add to your current infrastructure. Attend this webcast to find out how these products fit within the Microsoft Windows Server System and how they help make your infrastructure more secure and well managed.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278732&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: An Introduction to Software Asset Management: Optimize, Secure and Build (Level 100)
Thursday, August 25, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Cory Lane, SAM Sales Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Software asset management (SAM) is a relatively new concept for many businesses in the United States. Increasingly, companies seek to optimize their technology investments and ensure better corporate governance, which requires a better understanding of the value of their technology assets. Microsoft Software Asset Management enables you to put the people, processes and technology in place for the effective management and control of software assets within your organization. SAM enables you to optimize your technology investments, secure your infrastructure, and build for the future. This webcast helps you better understand SAM and what it can do for you. We also show you the tools available to implement Microsoft Software Asset Management.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278512&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Security Update Management with Windows Server Update Services, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and Systems Management Server (Level 300)
Thursday, August 25, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft Corporation
Mike Chan, Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
There are a variety of technologies available that can help you with update management: Microsoft Update, Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 1.0, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and the Microsoft Systems Management Server Inventory tool for Microsoft Updates. Don't miss our presentation; Wally and Mike walk you through these update management technologies and demonstrate where each is most appropriate. This webcast is one of the top-rated breakout sessions from Microsoft Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida. Come learn about Microsoft's strategy for update management. We investigate each technology to help you understand how you can use these products together to keep your computers up to date.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032278524&Culture=en-US

Scripting for MOM - Part 2

I noticed that scripting for MOM part 2 has been placed onto the Technet site.  I blogged about part one the other week and understood most of the concepts in the topic.  Lets see how I fare with part two...

Scripting in SMS 2003

I blogged about scripting in MOM the other week - so here's the information for you if you want to use scripts in SMS... You can download the SMS 2003 scripting guide to have a look at some "how to" examples for creating advertisements, running queries and things like that.  There are also some self paced labs that ran at the Microsoft Management summit which allows you to create simple scripts to automate tasks in SMS 2003.

BLogcast: Enabling software distribution in SMS 2003

Here's a really short blogcast - 39 seconds (the shortest I've seen so far!).  It's about enabling software distribution in SMS 2003 and refreshing the app in control panel.

Thanks to the TechNet team in the US for these.  You can watch the rest of the SMS blogcasts here..

Blogcast: Enabling Roaming boundaries in SMS 2003

Here's a blogcast showing how to enable local or remote roaming boundaries in SMS 2003.  The blogcast talks about how to enable BITS to ensure bandwidth throttling and the benefits of assigning local or remote roaming boundaries depending on link speed. You can read about BITS in the Advanced client section of the deployment guide 

This enables a finer degree of control when software packages are distriuted, and allows clients to download software packages from an alternate site within their boundary. 

The blogcast runs for 3 minutes 22 seconds, and is optimised for streaming.  You can find links to other blogcasts here.

Scripting for MOM

Now this is a great idea. Mike blogged about how there's a TechNet site with sample scripts and walkthroughs for creating scripts for MOM with a great article about the basics of scripting. 

But here's the great thing.  There's a link asking for content, so you can ask to see scripts that solve your (or mine) particular MOM problems.  That means that I can try to persuade someone else to do the scary scripting for me. Hee hee...

Blogcast: Configuring the Advertised Programs Client Agent in SMS 2003

Here's a blogcast from the TechNet team on how to configure the Advertised Programs client Agent in SMS 2003.  the APCA forms an important part of software distribution in SMS 2003. The blogcast runs for 1min 25 seconds and talks about the various options that you can set at the client to determine how often the client polls the server.  You can also set options if you want the client to be notified when a new program arrives for installation.

There are links to other blogcasts here...

Blogcast: Configuring Hardware and Software Inventory in SMS 2003

This is a 3 part blogcast as part of a series from the Technet team in the US showing how to configure and enable hardware and Software Inventory in SMS 2003. 

Part 1 is here, and runs for 3minutes 42 seconds and shows how to configure Hardware and software Inventory

Part 2 is here, runs for 1 minute 42 seconds  and shows how to enable hardware and software inventory.

Part 3 is here and reviews the inventory collected by viewing the updated collection..

There are links to other blogcasts here, or you can take a look at Brian's blogcast site for more advanced SMS blogcasts and how to's on lots of other topics...

MOM and SMS Webcasts for July

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft System Management Server 2003 Technical Overview (Part 1 of 2) (Level 200)
Friday, July 22, 2005 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
This series highlights the new features of Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, showing how SMS 2003 integrates with network and operating system technologies such as Active Directory and Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation. In part one of this webcast, we discuss and demonstrate SMS Active Directory integration and review the new SMS Advanced Client. We also cover asset management using software and hardware inventory. Familiarity with SMS is helpful but not required for this session.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276908&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape Backup with DPM and Microsoft Partners (Level 200)
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Pacific Time
Christopher Whyte, Tech. Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Learn about Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) and independent software vendor solutions that interoperate with DPM to complete the disk-to-disk-to-tape scenario. Join this webcast and see how DPM enables you to streamline your backup infrastructure, use tape more effectively in the datacenter, and lower your overall cost on administrative overhead while protecting the data in your branches.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276926&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft System Management Server 2003 Technical Overview (Part 2 of 2) (Level 200)
Friday, July 29, 2005 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Pacific Time
John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
Learn more about the new features of Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003.  The first half of the webcast series covered SMS Advanced Client along with Active Directory integration and asset management. In the final webcast we focus on software distribution and SMS reporting. We examine the software distribution process, including roaming boundaries and the SMS Installer. The session concludes with a brief discussion of SMS reporting features. Familiarity with SMS is helpful but not required for this session.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276930&Culture=en-US

Blogcast: Deploying the SMS 2003 Advanced client

This is the second blogcast in the series of SMS 2003 and the advanced client produced by the TechNet team. This blogcasts shows the actual deployment of the advanced client (we prepared SMS 2003 for the advanced client in the previous blogcast).  The blogcast also discusses the premissions needed to deploy the Advanced client, shows how to assign the XP workstation to the site, and the steps to deploy the Advanced client to the workstation and to the entire collection.  The client is deployed and validated from the Systems Management icon in control panel.

Steve, John and Mat link to other topics created by the the TechNet team. Here's the link to the blogcast.  If you don't know what a blogcast is, then Steve explains it quite well in his post.  There are other blogcasts on Microsoft.com too with an RSS feed to subscribe to new blogcasts

There are links to other blogcasts here

Data Protection Manager Webcast

I've blogged about DPM a couple of times recently and it's been talked about a lot at TechEd Orlando the other week, so I thought I'd mention this webcast that's coming up..

System Center Data Protection Manager Webcast
TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Deploys Customer Data Protection Scenarios with DPM June 28  1:00-2:30 PM PST
Learn how Microsoft uses Data Protection Manager for branch office backup with Calvin Keaton, Microsoft IT Operations Manager. This webcast will cover details of the MS-IT DPM deployment, including the ROI and TCO analysis which drove the deployment decision. It will also include key performance metrics and lessons learned during deployment. 
 

LCS with SP1 management pack for MOM 2005

I blogged about the availability of the management pack for Live Communications Server 2005 back in December.  Well now there is an MP for LCS with SP1

The management pack monitors and provides alerts for:
• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
• Performance degradation
• Health monitoring
• Centralised management
Related Resources  

Blogcast: SMS 2003 Integration with Active Directory

The TechNet team have been blogcasting on a variety of topics.  In my team, I'll cover all of the SMS topics, and leave the security, SQL and Virtual Server blogcasts to Steve, John and Mat.  The blogcasts use the semo virtual machines that we use in TechNet presentations so they'll be familiar to you.

here's the link to the first blogcast in the series.  We have a look at SMS 2003 and its integration with Active Directory.  Then SMS is configured to deploy the Advanced client.

There are links to other blogcasts here

And a huge thank you to the TechNet team, and Alan for producing these...

System Center Capacity Manager 2006, Express Edition

Have a look at this new tool that helps successfully architect application deployments and identify how changes to the infrastructure will affect hardware utilisation and user experience.

SMS Primary and Secondary sites

So what's the maximum number of secondary sites that can attach to an SMS 2003 primary site?  <customer question>

Well, I've searched all over for the definitive answer to this one - and I can't find anything! I've discovered that SMS can't deal with more than 500 Distribution points at all, and that 500 secondaries are not recommended.  The SMS Capacity planner gives a lot of assistance in planning your site, and gets you round some of the questions - but you need to be aware of the reporting times that having such a lot of secondary sites gives you..

I've scoured the Deployment scenarios document but can find nothing definitive.  So if you see something that I've missed, please let me know so I can go back to my customer (rather a large scale deployment and they want to use the least number of servers possible)

Log Bugs and make suggestions for MOM 2005

I received the following mail from the MOM team.. The site is worth bookmarking if you have any suggestions for MOM 2005

The MOM Product Team has been fielding bugs and enhancement requests logged directly from our community since MOM 2005 released last year. We have processed over 168 bugs and enhancement requests and over half have been accepted by our team for consideration for inclusion in MOM 2005 SP1 and MOM V3, but even so we would like to increase the level of engagement from our community in this forum.   We invite everybody from our community to contact us via this forum in addition to using the feedback link provided in the MOM Administrator Console and 3 links on http://www.microsoft.com/mom.

We are deeply committed to finding ways to connect with customers and we think this channel is an important step in that process. Please go to http://www.microsoft.com/mom/feedback and use this site to provide the MOM Product Team with their feedback.

The MSDN Product Feedback Center is a public suggestion and bug database for Microsoft products. Suggestions and bugs entered are ported directly into our internal bug and suggestion tracking databases. Because we collect information in a structured way and insert it into our developer’s usual workflow, it is very actionable for the product teams. Enforced search, voting, and validation, help to remove duplicates and surface the issues that are most important to our customers.

The Product Feedback Center is about transparency, community and closing the loop with you - our customers. You can report on a bug or post a suggestion, find out if it has already been reported or see if there is a workaround or a fix. The community can connect with other customers by posting workarounds and comments or influence the timeliness of a fix by validating and voting. We want to show that we not only acknowledge and accept customer feedback, but we also listened and act upon it.  Please support us in this effort – helping us to deliver a better product to you.

It's a good opportunity to get your suggestions directly to the product team...

System Center Data Protection Manager Webcast

Paul is delivering a TechNet event for me next month on System Centre, here in the UK.  Well, if you're too busy to come to the session or have some other reason, like you live in Australia or some other valid excuse. There's a webcast coming up showing how you can use DPM in a branch office environment.

If you need an overview about DPM you can have a look at this previously recorded webcast that I blogged about the other week.

System Center Data Protection Manager beta

Whilst the beta for System Center is just around the corner, you can have a look at Data Protection manager and how you can optimise and centralise your backup and recovery.  Click here to download the DPM beta software from the DPM site

There was a webcast last week that gives an overview about DPM which you can view at your leisure too...

DSI Demo

There's a nice little flash based demo on the web about DSI (you've got to press the ctrl key when you download it, as it runs in a pop up window).  It's very animated :-).

I present this session quite often, and this demo covers all of the fundamental concepts you need to know - especially if you're not too familiar with Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Christian points to some useful links about the SDM and VSTS to get you up to speed

You can also find other links from the DSI home page.

Putting the MOM agent into maintenance mode

Tony asked me if there was an easy and quick way to put the MOM agent into maintenance mode for troubleshooting.  Well, Tony, you can use the MOM information utility (MOMInfo) which is in the Resource kit which runs from the command line and puts the agent into this mode.  Download it here...

There are quite a few whizzy other tools in the Reskit that you can play with too...

Systems Management Server 2003 Scripting Guide

The SMS 2003 Scripting Guide provides over 40 scripts, ranging from tasks such as creating advertisements to running queries. It explains the basics of SMS objects, WMI, and VBScript through a series of 'How To' examples. Each example has extensive and appropriate links to other resources, such as the SMS SDK, the WMI SDK, and the Windows 2000 Scripting Guide.

Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates Beta

The Systems Management Server and Windows Update Services teams have combined their technologies to provide SMS customers with a new SMS security update scan tool for enterprise patch management: the Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates.
The SMS Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates enables customers to standardize on the latest Microsoft software update technology. Windows Update Services and the WSUSScan catalog contain patching support for all of the upcoming Microsoft Update/Windows Update products including Windows, Office, SQL Server, and Exchange. The inventory tool enables the following:
   - Detection and deployment of the latest security updates, update rollups and service packs from Microsoft
   - Improved patch management through a more comprehensive and more widely-supported detection technology
   - Broader detection support for more Microsoft products
   - Consistent product support across multiple detection technologies including parity with Automatic Updates

Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates is currently in development and is scheduled for release in the second half of 2005. The beta program for Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates is open for nominations. If you would like to participate, please visit the Microsoft BetaPlace site and follow the nomination instructions below.

Please note that:

Not all nominations for the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates beta program can be accepted due to a limited number of spaces in the program.
 
We would ask that you only nominate your company for evaluation of Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates if you are willing to provide feedback to Microsoft. We consider customer feedback from Beta programs critical to our ability to successfully deliver a product that meets customer needs. If your interest is just in learning more about Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates, please keep checking this Web site over coming months for new product information.
 

To obtain access to the beta:

1. Go to the Microsoft Betaplace site  and sign in with your Microsoft .Net Passport ID. If you don’t have a Passport account, you will need to first complete a Passport registration.
 
2. Enter the Guest ID "SMSInvite" (this ID is case-sensitive).
 
3. Click on the Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates link.
 
4. Click on the Nomination link on the left side of the page.
 
5. Fill out and submit the nomination form.

System Center Reporting Manager 2005

After Jonathans gentle reminder that I've been speculating too much on the short forms of Indy's new name (CapMan)  and correcting me appropriately (Thanks Jonathan), So System Center Reporting Manager 2006 has been announced at MMS.  I'm actually going to leap straight in with my assumption about RepMan (not SCRM!)  I'm pleased to note that the schema will be exposed, so custom ad hoc queries and reports can be created.  You can also modify the schema, which is a nice change from the SMS schema which you can't view

There were lots of other announcements at MMS (which I didn't go to unfortunately, but have a look at JH's blog for the full spiel.

PS - I'm jealous about the conference bag.  I wish I'd gone there now...

Software and Patch management with Windows Update services

Here are the list of links I mentioned in my talk about patch management at the TechNet event last night.  If I've missed any links off, please add a comment to the blog entry. and I'll update things..

How to configure automatic updates using Group Policy

Changes in content for SUS 

Getting started with Windows server update services

Windows server Update services product Overview

Windows Server update servces Deployment guide

WSUS download

Windows installer 3.1

New features of BITS 2.0

Delivering XPSP2 through SUS

SUS Feature Pack

SUS Feature Pack web site

WSUS Evaluation

System Center Capacity Manager 2006 - Indy's new name

My colleague Bruce over in Canada picked up this scoop from MMS.  So Indy now has a name. System Center Capacity Manager 2006. Thats a heck of an acronym though.  SCCM 2006.  Hmmm.  wonder what else is coming up?  You may want to read Johns posts later today.....

MOM and SMS Webcasts for May

TechNet Webcast: Applying SMS Updates to an Advanced Client (Level 300)

Thursday, May 05, 2005 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Pacific Time

Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft

Need to apply a Systems Management Server (SMS) update (hotfix) to an Advanced Client? Are you unsure of which procedure would do so successfully? And how do you verify that the installation was successful? In this session, we'll cover the proper procedure to update Advanced Clients with SMS updates from start to completion.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032272707&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Office 2003 Patch Management with SMS 2003 (Level 200)

Thursday, May 05, 2005 - 1:00 PM-2:00 PM Pacific Time

David Smith, Senior Technical Consultant, Entirenet

In this intermediate-level technical session, discover how you can easily maintain Microsoft Office 2003 with your System Management Server (SMS) 2003 implementation without losing your sense of control. Learn how to use the software inventory and software distribution features in SMS 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to ensure that all copies of Office within an enterprise have the latest updates applied.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42340

Error Code: - 2147467259 The agent could not connect to the MOM Server

This is a real pig of an error message, and has had me chasing my tail today about it.  My MOM agent just couldn't contact to the MOM server.  I found some information about how to work arond the problem in the kb article, and played around with the security settings and the registry to see if I could connect. 

I had a look at the EnableAuthEpResolution Registry Key to see if the RPC Endpoint mapper was causing the problem and thoroughly scared myself reading the developer blurb.  so I went back to basics.

Tried ping.  Hmm.  Didn't work

Tried Ipconfig.  Aha.  192.168.x.x.  What a pillock!

Works fine now.  What a waste of a couple of hours!

Blogcast: MOM 2005 Rule Override

Gordon has been really busy recently.  In the last few weeks he's become an MVP in his favourite subject MOM, written a fantastic article for our Industry Insiders blog which impressed Rod, Delivered a fantastic TechNet evening session on using MOM 2005 to manage SQL and SME, and now he's done a blogcast on how the MOM 2005 Rule override works.  What a star! I'm overwhelmed.

The Blogcast is 1Mb in size and runs for just over 5 minutes.  There are links to other blogcasts here, and don't forget the fantastic Blogcast Repository that Brian created after responding to my pleas...

The Technet Evening last night went really well, with lots of info about MOM.  Here are links that he mentioned last night: 

TechNet 

The public SMS Web site

The public SQL Web site

MOM Product Info

Management Packs

Community

SQL Server Management Pack Guide

SMS 2003 Management Pack Guide

MOM Extensions 

MOM Consultancy 

Software Asset Management - and a free tool

I've been playing with the Software Inventory analyser (MSIA)  after downloading it recently and playing around scanning my home network for Microsoft products.  It's easy (wizard driven), I've now got a consolidated report of all my stuff from each PC, and a graphical view of the machines in my domain. Quite cool. 

You can find it on our new website about Software Asset Management  which links in to the SMS site.  I just wanted to have a go witn MSIA on my home network as I'm not running SMS at home (ooh shame on me!) and see how effective and easy to use it is.  I've got a lot more stuff on my office PC than I'd previously thought - lots of things to patch and update now! 

SMS 2003 scripting guide

Lots more management packs released for MOM 2005

There has been 10 more management packs released for MOM 2005 Management Packs.  This release almost doubles the number of MOM 2005 enhanced Management Packs available for Microsoft products and enhances MOM’s capability to manage these crucial applications by adding state monitoring, tasks and new reports. 

This release contains the following Management Packs:

1.       Microsoft Virtual Server

2.       Microsoft Windows Distributed File Services

3.       Microsoft Windows Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Services

4.       Microsoft Windows File Replication Services

5.       Microsoft Windows Print Services

6.       Microsoft Windows Terminal Services

7.       Microsoft Windows Application Center

8.       Microsoft Windows Desktop Base Operating System

9.       Microsoft Availability Reporting  

10.   Microsoft Web Sites and Web Services

Highlights in this list include the much requested Virtual Server Management Pack, a Desktop Management Pack for monitoring mission critical desktop machines, a management pack designed to provide state-of-the-art availability reporting based on the Reliability Analysis Service technology, and the Web Sites and Web Services Management Pack. these Management Packs are shipping in all three additional languages.

Want to learn more?  The full set of 168 Management Packs and connectors available for MOM – including 108 from our ecosystem of partners – can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/catalog.aspx.

Update: Edited with the links to the MP's

Deploy Windows 2003 SP1 using SMS

So Windows Server 2003 SP1 shipped yesterday (my colleague John was on line most of the night so he could download the new SP1 bits whilst they were still warm).  But the great thing about this is that we also shipped the SMS Package definition files, so you can quickly deploy SP1 without messing around creating the PDF's yourself.  There's a kb article documenting how to deploy SP1 too.

And if you missed the hoo ha about SP1 for Windows Server, here are some links...

 SMS PDF:

 Deployment tools x86:

Deployment tools ia64:

 Support tools x86: 

 Support tools ia64  

 Symbols:

SP1 list of updates:

 Release Notes for SP1: 

  How to obtain the latest service pack for WS03:

SP1 support tools:

SP1 deployment tools:

Hard disk space requirements for SP1: 

MOM CRM connector

I got an email from Simon today asking all of the MOM gurus to have a look at this.  (I thought it said MOM gnu's until i found my glasses... oops).  I think it should also be for CRM gurus too though... 

The MOM-CRM Connector download is now live.  The MOM-CRM Connector is a COM+ component for creating the necessary entries in Microsoft CRM and a Web service component for connecting to the MOM 2005 connector framework. The connector code is written in C# on the Microsoft .NET Framework. While MOM 2005 proactively monitors your IT services environment, it raises initial alert warnings that are filtered and forwarded with the Microsoft MOM-CRM connector to Microsoft CRM 1.2 Customer Service, where a trouble ticket is generated, and where you can assign, manage, and resolve the cases with automated routing, queuing, and escalation of service requests, along with case management, tracking, and auto-response e-mail.

This connector was developed for Microsoft by a Microsoft partner in Switzerland, Lambert Consulting                   

Securing MOM 2005

I had a question from Tony over the weekend (he must have had a busy time rolling out MOM!) and he was asking how some security questions.  They had 2 management groups which they planned to connect to the central group using the MOM to MOM product connector and MCF.  He was concerned about privileges of the MOM service and which security accounts needed access to which directories.

I had a search on the web, and found this useful guide which documents how to secure the MOM servers and agents which should keep the security team happy.

Good luck with the security meeting Tony!

Windows Server Update Services released to Web

So SUS has changed to US, and it's now available to download.  Here's some of the key features:

Microsoft is also announcing the official name - Windows Server Update Services, or Update Services for short, of the next version of Software Update Services (SUS).  Update Services is a corporate update management offering used by SMB and enterprise customers to update Microsoft software, and is available free of charge to customers of Windows Server (2000 and above).  The Release Candidate of Windows Server Update Services includes new features such as: 

· Replica mode for WS Update Services server hierarchies, making them easier to manage. 

· SSL connections between WS Update Services servers and clients, providing an even more secure end-to-end environment. 

·  Automatic Update policy to allow non-administrators to receive update notifications, offering greater flexibility in organizations where logged on users are commonly not administrators. 

How can you obtain the Windows Update Services RC, associated documentation, and tools?

· Go to this site:  

·Register and download the release. 

It is important to note the following regarding content support for your existing Beta 2 installation:

• The last update to the beta Microsoft Update service was made on March 8th. As a result, Windows Update Services Beta 2 will no longer receive new updates. We encourage you to download the Release Candidate of Windows Server Update Services as soon as possible to continue receiving updates and testing the product.
• Existing content on the beta Microsoft Update service will be available for server synchronization until April 22, 2005. After that date, that service will be decommissioned and Windows Update Services Beta 2 installations will not be able to receive any content.

ExBPA 2.0 now released

It's now on the web...

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003/exbpa/default.mspx

Announcing the second version of the highly popular Exchange Server Best Practices Analyser tool (BPA).  To date over 200,000 customers have downloaded and run the tool.  Exchange Server Best Practices Analyser automatically examines an Exchange Server 2000 or 2003 deployment and determines if the configuration is set according to Microsoft best practices.

New in the Exchange BPA V 2.0 release:

· Support for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005

· Available in all server languages:  French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Korean

·  And much more…DNS collector, new export capabilities, improved scanning scope, command line flexibility, group expansion collector, last backup times collector, permission checking infrastructure, perf sampling, scheduling capabilities

Maintaining the health and optimal performance of a Microsoft Exchange Server deployment just got easier. You might think of this tool as a “Microsoft engineer in-a-box”. By pairing our infrastructure expertise and Microsoft’s tool, we will analyze the configuration and health of your entire deployment, or even a specific server, and offer step-by-step guidance to help resolve issues.

Tool Highlights:

· Generates a list of issues, such as suboptimal configuration settings or unsupported options

· Judges the overall health and captures a summary of the entire Exchange environment

· Helps troubleshoot specific server deployment problems

· Points you to self-updating help documentation to get to a resolution fast

For more information see: www.microsoft.com/exchange and www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads

There will be a Webcast on 10 May, 2005.

The original Webcast was posted to http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032259582&CountryCode=US and the May 2005 Webcast will be linked from http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/tnexchangeserver.mspx

MOM Webcasts for April

Only one this month....

TechNet Webcast: Monitoring Active Directory with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (Level 300)

Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Mas Libman, Program Manager - Directory and Identity Services, Microsoft

Effective Monitoring of Active Directory is essential!  In this 90-minute webcast we will show why monitoring is important and how management will be vastly improved with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM).  The inclusion of state monitoring, topological views, and context specific tasks in MOM 2005 will help you more easily manage your Active Directory.  This session will also include Active Directory Management Pack monitoring details, best practices, and customizations.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43973

MOM management pack for ExBPA

Oooh! this is interesting.  Whenever we talk about the Exchange Best Practices analyser, we get asked where it fits in with MOM and MOM's management pack and guide for Exchange.  Well here's the thing that effectively connects MOM and the ExBPA.  You can even now deploy ExBPA using MOM.  Download it here

Blogcast: Hints and tips on managing Exchange 2003

We regularly get asked about hints and tips for managing Exchange 2003, so Ewan has created a blogcast on managing Exchange 2003 and using MMC snap ins to customise the Administrative environment. its only 2mb in size and runs for 8mins 50secs.

If you like the concept of this bite sized demo based training, why don't you have a go at creating your own blogcast?  Once you've set things up initially, a blogcast doesn't take very long to produce at all, and there must be lots of topics, hints and tips that you'd love to share with the rest of the blogging community.  After my pleas to Rod about creating blogcasts for MOM and SMS, Brian Tucker has created a storming web site  where you can upload your efforts.  He's created an amazingly useful site if you need just in time training and it's well worth a look at the site.

So now - It's my turn to do some more - it's about time I got my microphone out again.....

There are links to other Exchange blogcasts here... 

Managing Exchange and Active Directory with MOM 2005

Ian delivered a really good TechNet session last night – managing Exchange and AD with MOM.  Here are some of the resources he referred to during the session:

Cluster nodes are referred to as managed nodes

How to configure Event log replication in Windows 2000 Cluster Servers

MOM 2005 product Documentation

MOM Workgroup Edition

MOM Management packs

Operations manager performance and sizing White Paper

MOM 2005 service continuity solution accelerator

Management Pack for Terminal server

Management pack for Windows security from NetIQ

MOM 2005 Security guide

Retaining data in the MOM 2005 database

MOM 2005 SDK

MOM 2005 agents and bandwidth used

MOM Notification Workflow solution accelerator

Optimising BizTalk using MOM - Webcast

If there is anything I missed let me know and I’ll amend this post…

Web sites and services Management pack for MOM 2005

My colleague Ian just pointed me to this which I thought was worth sharing if you have a web site that needs monitoring... It has a recorder type package that you use to monitor what you are doing on the web, and turns your navigation clicks into a monitoring tool.  Nice...

The MOM Team is pleased to release the Web Sites and Services Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - English

The Web Sites and Services management pack can be used to monitor availability and performance of Web Sites and Web Services by performing HTTP requests against the monitored entities. 
When monitoring Web Sites, the user can configure the management pack to monitor a stand-alone URL (equivalent of a HTTP “ping”), to monitor a Web page complete with resources (like images and scripts), to validate links on a Web page, and to monitor a Web application. The management pack will measure availability and performance and can validate response content.  It can be configured to alert on certain conditions or to simply collect the measured values.

Core Functionality           
• Perform HTTP GET and POST requests using HTTP 1.0 and 1.1    
• Perform HTTPS requests
• Support editing of HTTP headers      
• Automatic cookie handling
• Retry logic for connection errors
• Support error and warning monitoring criteria   
• Group one or more requests in a sequence in order to build HTTP synthetic transactions

Authoring         
• Capture Web Site navigation and turn into a Request Sequence
• Dynamic evaluation of Web page resources (images, scripts, etc)
• Web Service WSDL parser
• Web Service method parameter editor

Performance metrics and monitoring criteria         
• DNS resolution time
• HTTP request timeout
• HTTP response time
• HTTP response status code
• HTTP response body size
• HTTP response body content
• SSL certificate expiration date
• Request Sequence total response time         

Authentication   • Basic         
• Windows Integrated Authentication        
• Forms authentication

Tape Backup trauma

I loved this blog entry, with the link to the John Cleese sketch - and felt very sheepish as I once lost $100,000 of data due to a faulty tape. 

Very close to my heart.  Thanks Dave. 

P.S. I did press the third button....

Troubleshooting SMS 2003

When I worked with SMS 2.0 I used the troubleshooting flowcharts extensively to work out what was going on when a packet or a status request went missing.  I found them really invaluable, and I've continued to use them with SMS 2003.  The problem is, that I had to download them to view them. 

Now they're available to view online, so I can check whats going on without the hassle of a download.  Thanks to the SMS team.... There are flowcharts covering the following categories: Discovery Methods, Clients, Inventory, Setup and Configuration,  Software Distribution, Software Metering, Server Components, Software Update Services. 

I found these when I was trying to work out where one of my packages had gone.  I shoud have watched one of Brians excellent BlogCasts on the topic.  Here's a blogcast he did on package distribution which is well worth watching.  Hey Brian, that's a heck of a lot of packages you've built already! 

SMS 2003 running in Virtual Server

Just noticed this article which states that SMS 2003 server roles are not supported when running in guest operating systems

something to watch out for.....

Reducing MOM traffic between client and server

I'm in the middle of an email dialogue with a customer who is deploying MOM using the Deployment guide and had some questions on advanced MOM deployment and deployment of Agents across slow links. He was concerned about setting the Agent control level to 'None' which lowers the amount of traffic between the client and the server.

If the Agent control level is set to 'None', then the amount of client configuration won't be upgraded and you won't be able to upgrade remotely.  Other things that are initiated by the agent will work.  Things like downloading rules and new configurations.

I'd also recommend reading the low bandwidth configuration section of the MOM 2005 performance and sizing white paper   which gives a perspective on the trade offs and some tweaks to apply...

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange 2003 with MOM 2005

I really wanted to highlight the time of this webcast again, as this management pack for Exchange puts all of the bells and whistles onto Exchange that the old Resource kit tools used to, back in the days of Exchange 4.0 and 5.0.  Take time to have a look at just what you can pull out of the box to manage your Exchange environment, and this, coupled with the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer, really makes it simple and intuitive to manage your Exchange environment. 

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange 2003 with MOM 2005: Better Together (Level 200)

Friday, March 25, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Chris Hallum, Program Manager, MOM, Microsoft

Learn how Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 and the Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2005 can help improve the health and performance of Exchange Server 2003 through specialized, proactive monitoring and alerting. This webcast explores the wide range of valuable tools and knowledge contained in this Management Pack and shows how you can use them to identify, understand, and resolve IT health issues to keep Exchange running and your organization's e-mails flowing.

mailbox size reports for Exchange 2003

Paul mailed me after my TechNet presentation to ask if we had any solutions for producing statistics for mailbox usage, size of mailboxes etc. He'd had a look around and had a look at Quest MessageStats but was asking if we had anything that would do this out of the box for Exchange 2003.

Well, we do have something out of the box, but it's not the Exchange box.  It's the MOM box.  There is an Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2000 SP1 which provides quite a few reports on Mailbox and folder sizes:

Top 100 Mailboxes by Size,

Top 100 Mailboxes by Message count,

Top Public folders by size,

Top 100 Public folders by message count,

Highest growth mailboxes,

Highest Growth Public Folders

Checklist for upgrading to SMS 2003 SP1

Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Upgrade Checklist

This document outlines the steps you should take to upgrade from Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 to Microsoft SMS 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). 

For a complete discussion about planning for an implementation or upgrade of SMS, especially if you are deploying a new installation of SMS 2003 SP1 rather than an upgrade, review the Scenarios and Procedures for Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003: Planning and Deployment guide, which is available for download from the SMS Product Documentation Web page.

SMS and MOM Webcasts for March

TechNet Webcast: Using the SMS 2003 Administrator Feature Pack (Level 200)

Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft

The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Administration Feature Pack includes tools that can help make administration of an SMS 2003 site more efficient. In this session SMS veteran Wally Mead will introduce the tools and describe ways to improve administrator efficiency through the use of the tools.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267544&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to System Center Reporting Manager 2005 (Level 200)

Monday, March 21, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Barend Brink, Program Manager, Microsoft

Are you looking for a way to consolidate your change and configuration information from System Management Server 2003 and your event and performance information from Microsoft Operations Manager 2005?  System Center 2005 can give you easy access to the reports you need to manage your enterprise.  This webcast provides you with an overview of System Center Reporting Manager 2005 key features and architecture. Learn more about the enterprise-class reporting tool that will enable you to integrate your operations management data and generate reports quickly and easily.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42377

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Security Patching Using Windows Update Services (Level 200)

Monday, March 21, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Jason Leznek, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft

This webcast presents an overview of Windows Update Services (WUS), formerly known as SUS 2.0. WUS provides the features administrators need to manage and distribute updates through a Web-based tool.  Administrators are able access this tool on any Windows computer in their corporate network.  Join us as we look at the new features, offer planning and deployment guidance, and demonstrate the technology found in Windows Update Services.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42392

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Microsoft Develops an Operations Manager 2005 Custom Management Pack (Level 200)

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time

Mark Pohto, IT Senior Technologist, Microsoft

The Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) group supports internal line of business (LOB) applications. To improve monitoring of these applications and to help reduce downtime, Microsoft develops custom management packs for the LOB applications and deploys them to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) servers inside Microsoft IT. This session examines the process that Microsoft IT uses and recommends to plan, develop, and deploy custom MOM management packs.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42378

Technical Roadshow 2005 - UK dates.

We've just released the dates and locations for the UK Technical Roadshow this year.  I'll be presenting at each location talking about Exchange (Day 1) and Live Communications Server (Day 2).  Here are the links for registration:

MSI tools for SMS 2003

Details of an upcoming Webcast...

Web-Seminar: New Tools for SMS 2003 Admins in using the Windows Installer Service

More and more customers are using MSI as their standard installer technology on Windows.  This session will cover some new free tools for SMS 2003 administrators from Macrovision (formerly InstallShield) that will help better repackage and deploy applications, as well as some of the new features of SMS 2003 to better manage MSI content.  Visit this link to register for this web-seminar which will take place on Thursday, March 3^rd 2005 at 10am (Pacific time.)

MOM 2005 Management Pack for ISA Server - now available

The ISA Server Management Pack monitors ISA Server events and alerts. With detailed alert information you can quickly identify and troubleshoot ISA Server issues, minimizing time-to-resolution when problems occur. Collect and analyze performance trends and metrics. Performance information allows you to manage bottlenecks, identify capacity requirements, and proactively manage your ISA Server configuration to resolve issues before problems occur.

The ISA Server Management Pack provides the following:

• View state monitoring to quickly assess the overall availability and health of your ISA Server deployment.
• Monitor alerts identifying ISA Server configuration issues. Check the availability of ISA Server services, and critical dependent services such as Network Load Balancing, Routing and Remote Access, and ADAM.
• Monitor capacity and performance. Monitor performance counters to track trends in ISA Server components such as cache, Web proxy, and Firewall. Thresholds based on performance counters trigger alerts for critical issues.
• Get detailed information for troubleshooting alerts and events.

MOM and SMS documentation - does it meet your needs?

The documentation teams doe MOM 2005 and SMS 2003 want to know what you think about the documentation for the management products.  Take this 15 minute survey - and tell them how well the documentation meets your requirements.

MOM 2005 Management Pack Documentation for Active Directory in French, German and Japanese

Now released:

This document provides a detailed technical reference for Active Directory Management Pack (ADMP) for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005.  ADMP is designed for administrators who are responsible for maintaining a healthy Active Directory service.  This document provides an overview of ADMP, and it explains how ADMP defines “health” for Active Directory components. This document also contains information about the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) providers and the algorithms that are used by ADMP monitoring scripts, which perform much of the work involved in monitoring Active Directory.

This document is now available in French, German, and Japanese.

MMS 2005 in Las Vegas - registration open

Ron and Rod have been blogging about MMS for a while now and Martin has been tracking the event and questions.  If you haven't registered - here's the link.  There is also a one day pre-event for SI's.  here's the text:

Announcing One Day Pre-Event for System Integrators held at Management Summit 2005

This year the Microsoft Management Summit (April 18-22, Las Vegas) is adding a one day briefing held April 18th to help System Integrators deliver value to their customers in the areas of compliance, line of business, asset management, and heterogeneity. These sessions will cover the integration efforts and value of adding 3rd party tools for MOM 2005 and SMS 2003 into your management deployments and compliment your service portfolios. The event is FREE to system integrators only. Registration is required to a limited seating capacity. To register you must email  (this address) to receive nomination form. We look forward to your attendance in Las Vegas!

SMS - how the client calculates network saturation

I was looking through the SMS 2003 Planning guide from the documentation library.  I was looking for references to slow networks and how the client worked out whether the network bandwidth was saturated or not.  I found this interesting snippet:

TechNet - What's new

This is a fantastic link to all of the new stuff thats gone up onto the TechNet website with links to previous additions to the site.  Now can we have one on Microsoft.com please. What a time saving link.  Thanks TechNet team! 

How to secure your SMS 2003 environment

How to get secure and stay secure with SMS 2003 (updated for SP1 also).  An evolving subject - not a set and forget option.  I was reading through the KB article as I'd been playing around with ExtADsch.exe  and messed up my security settings when I installed SMS, and was trying to troubleshoot the issue. I'd forgotten that it was all about the Systems container in AD.   so from the KB:

To grant the appropriate permissions to the System container, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
2.	On the View menu, click Advanced Features.
3.	Expand your domain tree, right-click the System container, and then click Properties.
4.	On the Security tab, click Add.
5.	Click Object Types. If SMS 2003 is configured to use Advanced Security, make sure that the Computers check box is selected. If SMS 2003 is configured to use Standard Security, make sure that the Groups and Users check boxes are selected. Click OK.
6.	If Advanced Security is turned on, type the name of the site server's machine account, click Check Names, and then click OK. If Standard Security is turned on, type the name of the SMS service account, click Check Names, and then click OK.
7.	In Group or user names, click the account that you added in step 6.
8.	In Permissions for Enterprise Admins, click to select the Full Control check box, and then click OK.

Restart the SMS Site Component Manager service to start updating Active Directory. You can monitor the Sitecomp.log file to see the status of the update.

 

Using SMS 2003 for hardware inventory of your Dell

I've been scanning through my mails whilst preparing to record my next blogcast and noticed that we've released a new tool that scans Dell servers and is now available for download.  Here's the blurb...if you haven't noticed it already on Jonathan or Rods blog

Deployment of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool Using SMS

A useful KB article:   Visit http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=891716  to find out step-by-step how to use this virus removal tool in an enterprise environment with Systems Management Server (SMS)

SMS 2003 Database schema information

I often get asked where information about our SMS internal database is published.  This KB article explains why the schema isn't published.  You can have a look at the SMS 2003 SDK for info on the schema and check out Ron and Steve's posts too...

MOM 2005 - Monitoring Active Directory across slow links

I found this useful piece of information when reading the MOM deployment guide. Chapter 7 talks about settings to apply when monitoring AD over a slow link.  Here's an extract from the guide:

There are several scenarios in which you might decide not to collect warnings, performance data, and miscellaneous noncritical events. These scenarios include the following:

·         Deployments with very slow WAN links

·         Large branch office deployments

·         Deployments across satellite links

·         Deployments in which alerts are forwarded to a global network operations center

·         Scenarios in which warnings and informational messages are not needed

If you are deploying the Active Directory Management Pack in any of these scenarios, you can disable certain performance data to decrease network traffic.

          In the MOM Administrator console, double-click Management Packs, double-click Rule Groups, double-click Microsoft Windows Active Directory (enabled), and then double-click Active Directory Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 (enabled).

            In the left pane, right-click Reporting Rules for Active Directory, and then click Properties.

            On the General tab, clear the Enabled check box, and then click OK.

            In the left pane, double-click Active Directory Windows 2000 (enabled).

            In the left pane, right-click Reporting Rules for Active Directory, and then click Properties.

            On the General tab, clear the Enabled check box, and then click OK.

            In the left pane, right-click Management Packs, and then click Commit Configuration Change.

Using the consoles over a slow link

You can use the Web console over a link as slow as 64 KBps, however the Administrator and Operator consoles are not suitable for this type of connection and is not supported. It is recommended that over slower links that you use Terminal Services to connect to a computer that has the Administrator or Operator console and that is connected over a faster link to the Management Server. Satellite connections are also not supported.

MOM 2005 MP - French and German versions

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Management Packs - DEU/FRE

Baseline Security Analyzer Management Pack

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Management Pack 

Microsoft Internet Information Service Management Pack -  

MOM 2005 Management Pack

Microsoft Windows Server Clusters Management Pack

Microsoft Domain Name Service Management Pack (DNS)

Microsoft Windows Base Operating System Management Pack

SMS 2003 Documentation

The SMS 2003 product documentation posted on the SMS website has been reorganised so you can easily find the information you need. 

 Learn About SMS

Customize SMS

Plan and Deploy SMS

Distribute Software

Create a Report

Deploy Software Updates

Secure SMS

Troubleshoot SMS

Backup and Restore SMS

Understand Roaming

Password change notification service for MOM 2000 MP

Microsoft Password Change Notification Service MOM 2000 MP– English - Released

Microsoft Password Change Notification Service MOM 2000 MP provides a monitoring system for the Microsoft Password Change Notification Service. PCNSMP collects events placed into the event log by PCNS. Key events are highlighted to indicate possible service outages, configuration problems, and degraded performance so that corrective or preventative actions can be taken in a timely manner.

MIIS Management Pack for MOM 2000

Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2000 SP1– English - Released 

This management pack monitors identity integration scenarios for MIIS 2003. Examples include

·   Management agent errors requiring administrative intervention

·   Events indicating service outages

·   Alerts indicating configuration issues and connected data source changes

·   Verification that all dependant services are running

·   Identity integration is performing normally and predictably

·   Automation of identity integration does not result in data corruption or loss

·   Notification if the password management is denying access to requests

·   Notification when account provisioning doesn’t occur correctly

Insiders forums

Steve Lamb blogged about creating a Security Insiders forum and so far has received very positive feedback about the need for this type of community.  I'm thinking about following his lead and creating 3 different types of Insiders forums:

Messaging Insiders

Real Time Communication Insiders

Windows Management Insiders

I wanted to include Insiders who didn't specifically use Exchange for messaging, or MOM for managing the Windows environment, to encourage sharing of industry wide best practices and to encourage debate.  I'm also looking for presenters / technical writers etc.

If you're interested please let me know, if this is a good idea or not, either by adding to this post by posting a comment, or by using the contact link on the blog.  I'd be interested in your thoughts. 

Operating System version requirements for MOM 2005 components

I found this useful piece of information about which versions of the OS are needed to support MOM 2005 components and thought it was worth sharing.  A lot of our really useful information is hidden deep down in white papers, and hard to find.  Maybe we should think about reducing the size of the white papers we publish, and sort of publish them as a component, then if you need to learn *just* about  one subject, you don't need to plough through hundreds of pages to get to where you want!

SMS 2003 Webcasts for February

TechNet Webcast: Preparing a business case for Systems Management Server (SMS) (Level 200)

Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time

Ed Goad, Senior Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation

You have determined from an IT perspective that SMS is the right solution for your environment - but how do you build a business case that will help you secure the resources you need for proper implementation? In this webcast, we will discuss key considerations, such as reviewing your infrastructure and building an implementation plan, that will help you build the business plan you will need to make your ideal SMS deployment a reality.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267026&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Zero Touch Deployment Using Systems Management Server 2003 with the Operating System Deployment Pack (Level 200)

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

David Smith, Senior Consultant, Entirenet

Ben Hansen, Group Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation

How automated is your desktop deployment operation? The Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) component of the Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator adds functionality to the OS Deployment Feature Pack of Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. Join this webcast to learn how to fully automate your desktop deployment as we demonstrate higher end functions of SMS 2003. We will highlight the features in the Operating System Deployment Pack that are most useful for deploying new machines in the Enterprise. We recommend that you have some basic familiarity with SMS to get the most out of this webcast.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267990&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft System Management Server 2003 Technical Overview (Part 1 of 2) (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

This two-part series highlights the new features of Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, showing how SMS 2003 integrates with network and operating system technologies such as Active Directory and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). In the first part, we will discuss and demonstrate SMS Active Directory integration as well as review the new SMS Advanced Client. We will also cover asset management using Software and hardware inventory. Familiarity with SMS is helpful but not required for this session.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267548&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Using Tools from the SMS 2003 Toolkit 2 (Level 200)

Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Wally Mead, Program Manager, SMS, Microsoft Corporation

You've been using SMS 2003 or have been thinking about it. Is there something that could make it even easier to use this powerful system to administer an enterprise-wide IT system? Fortunately for you, SMS 2003 Toolkit 2 has been recently released. It contains many tools that can provide immediate benefit to SMS sites. Join SMS 2003 expert Wally Mead as he explains these new tools and how you can use them to improve SMS efficiency and troubleshoot SMS issues more quickly.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267539&Culture=en-US

SMS 2003 and Active Directory - extending the schema

I found this interesting point on the SMS 2003 FAQ document which is worth sharing.

Q.

Do I have to extend my Active Directory schema to use SMS?

A.

No. You need to extend the schema only if: • You want to use global roaming for Advanced Clients. • You want to use the most secure method available for authenticating management points to Advanced Clients. • You want to use automatic key exchange for secure site-to-site communication. • You want clients to automatically detect the server locator points and management points without requiring Windows Internet Name Service (WINS). If you do not extend the schema, WINS is required for automatic site assignment, roaming, and selection of a local management point.   Although running SMS 2003 in an Active Directory domain gives you many other benefits, such as advanced security and support for boundaries based on Active Directory sites, schema extension is not required for those features. For more information about extending your Active Directory schema, see the “Active Directory Schema Modification and Publishing for Systems Management Server 2003” white paper on the Microsoft Download site. For more information about authenticating management points, see “Appendix B:  SMS Certificate Infrastructure” in Scenarios and Procedures for Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003:  Security on Microsoft TechNet.

 

SMS 2003 Webcasts

In addition to the following SMS webcasts, check out the SMS Webcast Series. The series is offered seasonally and offers progressive webcasts to help you build on your SMS expertise.

	TechNet Webcast: Overview of Office 2003 Deployment Tools January 20, 2005: This intermediate-level technical presentation introduces some of the potential tools you can use in deploying Office 2003, including CD Images and SMS 2003.

	TechNet Webcast: Creating a Highly Available SMS Site January 19, 2005: Do you have a large number of clients in your environment, demanding high availability from your servers? Join this webcast to learn how to deploy an SMS cluster with network load balancing (NBL) and availability in mind.

	TechNet Webcast: Windows Server 2003 System Administration (Part 2 of 2) January 12, 2005: This session covers Windows Server 2003 administration from a number of views, including a look at out-of-the-box tools, SMS 2003 options, and MOM 2005 features. The presentation concludes by showing how SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 augment the tools previously covered, including software and patch management in SMS 2003 and server monitoring using MOM 2005.

	TechNet Webcast: Deploying XP SP2 January 11, 2005: How do you assure that Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) gets properly and appropriately installed? This webcast discusses using tools, such as Software Update Services, Group Policy, and SMS 2003.

	TechNet Webcast: Implementing SMS 2003 Software Metering January 06, 2005: This session discusses the Software Metering feature of SMS 2003. It shows how to use SMS 2003 to monitor which desktops are using which applications, and how much they are using them.

	TechNet Webcast: Windows Server 2003 System Administration (Part 1 of 2) January 05, 2005: This session covers Windows Server 2003 administration from a number of views and concludes by showing how SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 augment the tools previously covered, including software and patch management in SMS 2003 and server monitoring using MOM 2005.

	TechNet Webcast: Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network - (Part 3 of 4) December 15, 2004: This webcast is the third in a four-part series that examines key aspects of proactive Windows Server 2003 network management. In the third part we will focus on using SMS to package and deploy software and updates across your network.

	TechNet Webcast: Deploying SMS for Server Management December 14, 2004: Ever wonder what is involved in an effective deployment of an SMS infrastructure? In this webcast, we will explore the specific business and technical requirements needed to analyze and deploy SMS for use in the management of a server environment.

	TechNet Webcast: Zero Touch Deployment December 9, 2004: Learn to fully automate your desktop deployment. Get guidance on using the latest versions of SMS and Microsoft BizTalk to automate deployment and provisioning. This webcast introduces the Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Enterprise Edition solution. which offers complete guidance for Zero Touch Provisioning using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004.

	TechNet Webcast: Creating a Highly Available SMS Site December 7, 2004: Do you have a large number of clients in your environment, demanding high availability from your servers? Join this webcast to learn how to deploy an SMS cluster with network load balancing (NBL) and availability in mind.

	TechNet Webcast: Security Patch Management Tools (Part 3) - SMS with the SUS Feature Pack November 22, 2004: In this webcast, we will discuss using SMS and the SUS Feature Pack as patch management tools in your environment and how they fit into a comprehensive patch management strategy. SMS and SUS offer different advantages and benefits to an organization. This webcast will review their different capabilities and how they contribute to a secure infrastructure.

	Executive Circle Webcast: What's New with Microsoft's Enterprise Product Roadmap September 29, 2004: This webcast will bring you up to speed on the enterprise software roadmap, highlighting the significant shifts in delivery dates and support policies for Windows Server™ 2003, SQL Server™, Systems Management Server and Security technologies.

	TechNet Webcast: Upgrading to SMS 2003 SP1 September 23, 2004: Now that SMS 2003 SP1 has been released, what is the upgrade process? In this webcast, we'll perform an upgrade of an SMS 2003 site to SMS 2003 SP1.

	TechNet Webcast: Security Patch Management Tools (Part 3) - SMS with the SUS Feature Pack September 17, 2004: Do you have an effective, comprehensive patch management strategy? Do you know when to use SMS and when to use Software Update Services (SUS)? In this webcast we will discuss using SMS and the SUS Feature Pack as patch management tools in your environment and how they fit into a comprehensive patch management strategy.

	TechNet Webcast: SMS 2003 Lessons Learned September 9, 2004: SMS 2003 has been in the market since November 2003. What are some of the gotchas others have already encountered? What are things to be aware of? In this webcdast, we'll discuss issues other customers have encountered in their SMS 2003 deployments to help you prepare for your deployment.

	TechNet Webcast: Security Patch Management Tools (Part 3) - SMS with the SUS Feature Pack June 23, 2004: This webcast will discuss using SMS and the SUS Feature Pack as patch management tools in your environment and how they fit into a comprehensive patch management strategy. SMS and SUS offer different advantages and benefits to an organization. This webcast will review their different capabilities and how they contribute to a secure infrastructure.

	TechNet Webcast: Combining PatchLink with SMS, SUS, and MBSA for Patch and Security Management May 27, 2004: This webcast demonstrates how PatchLink UPDATE works with Microsoft SMS 2003, SUS, and MBSA to enable patch management from a single console for all Windows operating systems as well as non-Windows OS platforms.

	TechNet Webcast: Microsoft System Management Server 2003: A Technical Overview May 21, 2004: Whether you have used SMS before or are just thinking about SMS for the first time, this webcast will give you the information you need to plan for an upgrade or adoption of SMS 2003. The session starts by showing the new features of SMS 2003 and goes on to show how SMS 2003 integrates with Network and operating system technologies, such as Active Directory and Windows Management Instrumentation.

	TechNet Webcast: Shop Talk Discussion on Patch Management at Microsoft using SMS 2003 May 5, 2004: This webcast tells you how the Microsoft Information and Technology Group (Microsoft's IT department) patches its desktop and server environment using SMS 2003.

	TechNet Webcast: Getting Started with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 March 25, 2004: This webcast shows how features in the new version of SMS 2003 can help you improve the management and security of your IT infrastructure. Agenda items include an overview of the new capabilities in SMS 2003, recommended best practices for deployment, and how to use the new and improved features.

	TechNet Webcast: Using SMS 2003 Software Update Management Features March 3, 2004: This webcast discusses the SMS 2003 software update management process, and demonstrates the entire process from installation of this feature to verification that the distributed patch was deployed successfully.

	TechNet Webcast: Upgrading SMS 2.0 to SMS 2003 February 4, 2004: This webcast describes guidelines and procedures you can use when upgrading to SMS 2003. It also discusses the differences in architecture, site systems, client deployment, and capabilities between the two versions of SMS, and includes a walkthrough of an upgrade on an SMS 2.0 site.

	TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Automated Deployment Services February 3, 2004: This webcast offers a comprehensive overview of ADS and provides details on its architectural design, features, and benefits, as well as examples of customer deployments.

TechNet Webcast: Getting Started with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 January 8, 2004: This webcast explains how features in SMS 2003 can help you improve the management and security of your IT infrastructure.

Webcasts: 10 Ways to learn about MOM 2005

MOM 2005 Performance and sizing White Paper

An accurate analysis of the performance and sizing of the hardware systems that support Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 is critical to the successful implementation of MOM 2005. This technical whitepaper shares some of the knowledge gained from the performance and sizing testing for MOM 2005, and is presented in various scenarios.

MOM 2000 Management Pack for Terminal Server

Microsoft Windows Terminal Server MOM 2000 MP, version 2 monitors the TS services application event log. This management pack includes event rules for the Terminal Server service, Licensing Service and Session Directory service in NT4 TS Edition, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. The events collected from each service indicate critical issues with TS operations during deployment.

The improvements in this version include:

• Fewer rules and alerts, every rule has a name describing a high-level operational problem. 
• Rules have well-adjusted alert severity levels, depending on the criticality of the events in the rule. 
• Version 2 contains very well-documented description of every event and steps to remedy a situation caused by it. 
• Consistent rule naming conventions. All rules start with either ‘TS’ (for Terminal Server), ‘LS’ (for Terminal Services License Server) or ‘SD’ (Terminal Services Session Directory), which lets administrators at a glance see which service threw an event.

The improvements above apply to Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 sections of the MP.  

Configuring SQL Server Replication for an SMS 2003 Management Point

This white paper is provides guidance for configuring SQL Server replication for management points in an SMS 2003 site.  SQL Server Replication allows management points and server locator points to query the SMS data they need, and to service client requests without placing additional load on the SMS site database server. The replication process is handled, entirely, by the SQL Server publication and subscription services. 

The website does recommend that you have a look at the SQL documentation too to check replication - oh and also read Mat's blog  and for insider tips!

Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2005

Rod Trent pointed me towards an interesting new blog today.  Martin Dey has created an MMS 2005 blog in which your comments and suggestions about MMS 2005 get straight to the guy who is organising it!  Great idea.

I blogged about how to register for this event the other week. 

Virtual Labs for Live Communication Server (LCS) 2005 (and other products)

Patrick blogged about his experiences with LCS 2005, but if you havent tried it yet you can have a play in a virtual lab without having to install LCS at all...

Virtual Labs for Live Communications Server 2005 are now available on the TechNet site -  you can easily register on the site below to obtain an account and start using these virtual labs.  Topics covered include deploying in a single forest, single domain topology; enabling federation; enabling remote access, and deploying Live Communication Server archiving service. 

Go on to the TechNet site to register:

These are the labs:

System Center Reporting Server 2005

I've blogged about this before, but I keep getting questions on this topic.  If you want to know more about how System Center Reporting Server works with SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 then have a look here.  The first release of System Center 2005 will include SMS 2003, MOM 2005 and System Center Reporting Server 2005.

System Center Reporting Server 2005, the third component of System Center 2005, will deliver an integrated data repository and reporting service to support your IT decision making.  Everything currently available in the MOM 2005 Operational Database will be in System Center Reporting Server 2005. The same data transfer service (DTS) jobs used to move data from the MOM 2005 Operational Database to the MOM 2005 Reporting Server, will be used to transfer data from the MOM 2005 Operational Database to the System Center Reporting Server Data Warehouse.  With SMS 2003, all the software inventory, hardware inventory, software distribution, and security update management data will be moved to System Center Reporting Server 2005 and the schema will be published to enable you to create custom reports and ad hoc queries.

There is an FAQ available with more information, or you can have a look at SMSPerfGuys blog for techy design information.

User State migration tool (USMT) 2.6 integration with SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature pack

I blogged about the SMS 2003 OS deployment feature pack the other week, and how good the support for USMT 2.6 was.  I've finally got around to having a play with migrating some data to my spare machine.  It's fantastic!  As long as the USMT installation folder is accessible through a UNC path, and you've specified where to store the user state data, then it works like a dream.  I grabbed it from the download centre  and had a play with Scanstate and Loadstate command line tools.  Scanstate captures an intermediate store like a server or CD drive, with the user files and settings from the source computer.  Loadstate restores these files and settings to the destination computer.  Here is the syntax for both commands:

scanstate <MigrationPath> [/i <InfFile> [/i <InfFile> [...]]] [/l <LogFile>] [/v <number value>] [/f] [/u] [/x] [/c]

loadstate <MigrationPath> [/i <InfFile> [/i <InfFile> [...]]] [/l <LogFile>] [/v <number value>] [/f] [/u] [/x]

By default, the OS Deployment Feature Pack saves the user state data locally on the destination computer, which is the most secure location as it doesn't impact the network. 

Very useful indeed, and so easy to use...

MOM 2005 resource kit

Well, it's back to work for me with a thump, and I'm hit with several deadlines already!  I've got to deliver an article for FYI magazine on MOM deployment, and I've also got to prepare my sessions on Exchange to deliver at our next event (IT forum highlights in Birmingham).  So I've been busily building my Virtual machines and cursing at the way that my UK keyboard within a Virtual machine sometimes lets me down during demos.  Fortunately my old colleague Tim, who has recently moved to Redmond, provided an excellent solution which seemes to have sorted out my problem. Phew! 

I've just loaded the MOM resource kit onto one of my Virtual PC images, and I'm playing with the Share Point Web part to show MOM data within Share Point.  Excellent!  I'd better get on to the next demo now...

Deploying Office using SMS

Here are some useful links to help you with your deployment of Office using SMS including an Administrative install. I'd blogged about Deployiong Office 2003 before, but I thought it was worth including the link again for reference. 

Strategies for updating Office XP installations

Updating Office XP client from a Patched Administrative image

Using SMS to deploy Office

Overview of Office XP Deployment (from the SMS 2003 operations guide)

Deploying Office XP service Pack 3

Using SMS 2003 to deploy Office 2003

MOM Operations and deployment planning guides now available for download

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Operations Guide – Now Available

The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Operations Guide includes guidance and recommended best practices for backing up and restoring, maintaining, optimizing and monitoring Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) in an existing IT infrastructure. This guidance is based on the supported MOM deployment architectures described in the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Supported Configurations Guide. Additional instructions are provided for managing agents across multiple domains, across firewalls, across slow links, and in workgroups. Detailed instructions are provided for each of the MOM components: the MOM Database, the Management Server, agents, consoles and the MOM Reporting Database. Detailed information about MOM security-related features and processes are provided in the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Security Guide.

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Planning Guide

This guide provides you with a roadmap for developing a deployment plan for your Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) monitoring solution. In addition, this guide directs you to the relevant conceptual, security, and planning resources you might need to help you develop a sound deployment strategy.

Live Communications Server 2005 management pack for MOM 2005

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how to manage LCS 2005  with MOM 2000.  Here is the management pack for MOM 2005.  Rod Trent actually got there before me though!

To export and import packages in SMS 2003

Try this tool.  The Package loader tool at the SMS toolkit has a lot of neat functionality that is used for manual package distributuion when you dont need a central site to take over distribution.  check this one out...

MOM connector framework through firewalls

I found this informationn from the MOM security guide on the web and thought it was worth passing on:  The MOM Connector Framework (MCF) and MOM-to-MOM Product Connectors (MMPC) are new in MOM 2005 and provide the ability to share and synchronize data between MOM 2005 and MOM 2000 SP1 configurations, between MOM 2005 management groups, and between MOM 2005 and other management programs.

The MCF is a Web Service on the Management Server and communicates using TCP port 1271. Because of this, you can use MCF connectors through firewalls and over a LAN, WAN, or even the Internet.

MOM does not provide encryption for either the MMPC or the MCF connection; however, you can use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for this purpose. For more information about configuring SSL encryption, see the Internet Information Services (IIS) documentation. You can also use IPSec for this purpose. For more information about using IPSec, see the “IP Security (IPSec)” section in this guide.

Important
If you are using the MCF over a “non-secure” connection, you should use SSL or IPSec to secure the data being sent because some of the data might be of a private nature, such as information passed in events or alerts.
Also, be aware that using SSL or IPSec, could degrade the performance of the MCF transmissions somewhat.

Using MOM 2005 with a disjointed DNS namespace

The deployment guide for MOM 2005 has an interesting excerpt about DNS.  So if you have problems when the target machine cant find the MOM 2005 server, then try this tip:  

Using MOM 2005 With a Disjointed DNS Namespace. 
To discover and push agents using MOM 2005 in a Disjointed DNS Namespace:

•	Using the MOM Agent Install/uninstall wizard, provide Domain\Computername or NetBIOS name format.
•	Using the Create Computer Discovery Rule dialog, provide only the NetBIOS computer name or the Domain name and the NetBIOS computer name for the Domain name and Computer name fields respectively If you attempt to use MOM 2005 over a disjointed DNS namespace.

The following features are not available:

•	Mutual Authentication
•	Push install when using the “Browse” functionality to choose a target computer
•	Push install when using the DNS FQDN computer name

A “disjointed DNS namespace” is a DNS infrastructure that includes two or more top-level DNS domain names. For more information about this, see “Configuring Name Resolution for Disjointed Namespaces” in the Windows Server 2003 documentation, under Deploying Network Services.

Windows Update Services (WUS) Deployment guide

The WUS deployment guide was published a couple of weeks ago, and I've just got around to reading it.  It's useful that WUS uses BITS technology for trickle downloads and allows you to migrate from SUS to WUS by using the command line utility WUSUTIL.EXE.  THere are more documents in the pipeline too....

Management Technologies: Webcasts for January

TechNet Webcast: Implementing SMS 2003 Software Metering - Level: 200

Thursday, January 06, 2005 - 11:30 - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Wally Mead, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Software applications represent a considerable and ongoing investment for any large organization. How do you know if your organization is getting the best use out of its software and is compliant with its license agreements? SMS expert Wally Mead presents this session about the Software Metering feature of Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. He'll show how to use SMS 2003 to monitor which desktops are using which applications, and how much they are using them. Join this webcast and learn to use SMS 2003 to make best use of your organization's applications and license agreements.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032266417&Culture=en-US

Connecting to the SMS Admin console

If you're having problems connecting to the SMS Admin console, then you may have problems with DCOM.  To fix this, make sure that you have Distributed COM available on the site server.  This KB article explains how to do this.

Also check that your Group Policies are OK, as you may have set the policy:

MOM Management packs and product connectors

There are about 12 management packs on the MOM 2005 CD, but you can find loads of them at the Management Packs site.  If you're looking for Product connectors like the HP Openview connector, you can also search for them here. 

If you want to develop your own Management Packs, there's also a guide showing you how to create them too...

December Webcasts: Management Technologies

TechNet Webcast: Deploying SMS for Server Management (Level 200)

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time

Ed Goad, Senior Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation.

Ever wonder what is involved in an effective deployment of an SMS infrastructure? In this webcast, we will explore the specific business and technical requirements needed to analyze and deploy SMS for use in the management of a server environment.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258955&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Virtual Server 2005 COM API: Automating Your Virtual World (Level 300)

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Robert Larson, Subject Area Manager, Microsoft Corporation.

During this webcast you will learn about the Virtual Server COM API and how to create scripts to automate tasks like virtual machine creation, configuration, enumeration, and provisioning VMs for a test lab.  The session will focus on demonstrating small scriplet building blocks and assembling them into useful scripts.  Session assumes knowledge on writing VBScripts.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032259266&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Best Practices (Part 14 of 14)—Level 200 (Level 200)

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

Matt Hester, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation.

In this final session, we will offer some best practices for creating and applying GPOs in complex networking environments. We will also look at using inventory tools as a way to manage Group Policy objects.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032259774&Culture=en-US

Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Feature Pack Updated for JPN/DEU/FRE

The SMS 2003 Administration Feature Pack (JPN/DEU/FRE) has been updated for SMS 2003 Service Pack 1.  The SMS 2003 Administration Feature Pack contains three tools: the Manage Site Accounts Tool, the Transfer Site Settings Wizard, and the Elevated Rights Deployment Tool. The following describes each tool:

·        Manage Site Accounts Tool: The Manage Site Accounts Tool manages accounts and passwords in use by one or more sites in a hierarchy, as well as the associated domain updates.

·        Transfer Site Settings Wizard: You can use the Transfer Site Settings Wizard to copy the settings from a source site to one or more target sites. Supported settings include site configuration, package, and collection settings.

·        Elevated Rights Deployment Tool: The Elevated Rights Deployment Tool (also known as RunOnce) helps you deploy applications that require local administrator rights after a system restart.

The Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Feature Pack – JPN/DEU/FRE is available at the Microsoft Download Center:

DEU File Path: http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/5/e95138fb-ba82-47ea-b2ca-077e6ee33888/SMS2003SP1_AdminFP_DEU.exe

JPN File Path: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/6/2/46287f6c-ec28-4b8f-9c6b-ab0233008e23/SMS2003SP1_AdminFP_JPN.exe

FRE File Path: http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/3/e/33e78f86-a064-407d-9dcf-81f2fe138353/SMS2003SP1_AdminFP_FRN.exe

Evaluate MOM 2005

I saw this link on the US version TechNet Flash this week to download a 120 day copy of MOM 2005. I try to keep up to date with whats new on TechNet by subscribing to the newsletter.  I usually sign up to receive the newsletter so that I can deal with if when I want to. 

Microsoft Management Summit 2005

On-line registration for MMS 2005 is now open, and can be accessed from the event web site.  This site also provides an overview of the event, the facilities at the venue and information about the schedule and receptions.

This year’s summit will be held at The Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.  Two different registration options are available for MMS 2005 attendees - they may either purchase their MMS 2005 Registration and hotel accommodation separately, or as a package.  Details are provided on the registration page .

“Knowledge” is this year’s conference theme and the event will be packed with useful information about how to optimise Windows-based client and server networks. Attendees will learn about smart solutions for deployment and management of services and security, as well as how to seamlessly incorporate the latest innovations into their enterprise.

With all of this detailed content and the usual expert speakers the Microsoft Management Summit is expected to be the top management event of 2005.  Visit the conference web site for more details and registration information.

Evaluate Windows Update services

If you want to have a look at the Windows Update Services (WUS) beta, you can find it here. You need to have the BITS 2.0 beta installed before downloading WUS.  If you're running Windows 2000 you'll need a different beta for BITS though.

Configuring clients to go to specific SUS servers for updates.

I was reading some threads about SUS earlier today, and in particular came across one that wanted information on how to configure which servers clients could go to for updates.  You need to add the WUServer and WUStatusServer settings to the: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate key.

You can set registry settings to configure Automatic Updates in a non Active Directory environment.   You would need to manually add the registry key at this location:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU and then add the preferred settings to the key.

Most of the documented registry keys that can be modified are in the Deployment guide on the web.

Come to the Motorcycle museum and learn about Technology!

The UK IT Evangelists had such a good time at IT Forum in November, we've decided to re-run some of the sessions in the UK on January 13th 2005.  We've got a fantastic venue - the Birmingham motorcycle museum.  The museum was ravaged by a huge fire in 2003, but has been rebuilt.  Its a bit of a shame that some rare and classic motorbikes were damaged or lost in the fire though. 

We're running 15 technology sessions covering Windows and Collaboration, Data and Security, Interoperability and Management. Quite a packed day all in all.  You can register here.   I must try to have a look around the museum too before I present my sessions!

SMS 2003 SP1 Advanced client for XP Embedded

The advanced client for XP Embedded has now been released.  It installs into the XP embedded SP1 or SP2 development environment. This allows an XP Embedded image to be created which includes all the SMS 2003 SP1 advanced client components.  Download it here.  If you're still running SMS 2003 prior to SP1, you can find the Advanced client here. 

Active Directory MOM Management Pack Technical Reference

This document provides a detailed technical reference for Active Directory Management Pack (ADMP) for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. ADMP is designed for administrators who are responsible for maintaining a healthy Active Directory directory service. This document provides an overview of ADMP, and it explains how ADMP defines “health” for Active Directory components. This document also contains information about the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) providers and the algorithms that are used by ADMP monitoring scripts, which perform much of the work involved in monitoring Active Directory.

Managing Live Communications Server 2005 with MOM 2000

The Live Communications Server 2005 Management Pack for MOM 2000 is now available for download.  It monitors the health of computers running Live Communications Server 2005 on Windows Server 2003 and alerts IT administrators about critical health conditions that indicate degraded performance.

The management pack monitors and provides alerts for:

• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages

• Performance degradation

• Health monitoring

• Centralised management

System Center Reporting Server

On demand SMS webcasts

10 Webcasts to learn about MOM 2005

Deploying Office 2003 using SMS 2003

MOM 2005 launch - deja vu?

Well, like all of our latest products, its more scalable.  Each MOM Management Server can manage 2000 client agents (servers) that’s an increase of almost twice as many as MOM 2000, with the introduction of the new Operators Console in addition to the existing Administration console, monitoring your systems has never looked so good. There’s support for AMD and Itanium 64-bit as well as 32-bit.  If you’re managing a smaller server estate, then MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition manages up to 10 servers in exactly the same way as its larger sibling does with limitations only on reporting and integration.  In fact, each attendee at IT forum received a full copy of MOM 2005 workgroup Edition.  If you work in a tightly locked down environment, where the installation of an agent on some of the servers would cause issues, then there is the ability to perform Agentless monitoring on these servers.  You’ll actually still get about 80% of the functionality of monitoring compared with using an Agent, one of the noticeable features that would not be available is the ability to execute scripts.

On the MOM web site, there is a management pack catalog where you can search for all of the Microsoft and third party Management packs that are available, logically sorted in one location.  An excellent idea that has been long overdue.   You can download an evaluation copy of MOM 2005 from the MOM 2005 site so start monitoring!

Monitoring SMS 2003 using MOM 2005

This is the "how to" guide from the web

The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Management Pack for SMS provides new and improved capabilities for SMS 2003 monitoring, including:

•	Monitoring the starting and stopping of all SMS 2003 services, including critical dependent services like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Internet Information Services (IIS), Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and Microsoft SQL Server™.
•	Alerting the SMS administrator to critical SMS status messages.
•	Monitoring backlogs of discovery data records (DDRs), software inventory, hardware inventory, status messages, and software metering on both primary site servers and management points.
•	Monitoring system resource usage.
•	Monitoring processing rates.
•	Monitoring the performance trends of many SMS performance counters by using views and reports.

In addition to robust monitoring capabilities, this Management Pack expands on existing features and provides new features:

•	Product knowledge content for all alerts and processing rules.
•	Detecting all SMS 2003 computers and computer groups.
•	Views.
•	Reports.
•	Monitoring of Device Management Feature Pack.
•	Tasks for executing SMS Administrator console applications.
•	State view containing the health of all SMS server roles and the SMS Advanced Client.
•	Service Discovery of important SMS server and SMS client information.
•	Suppression of Service Unavailable alerts arising from the execution of SMS Site Backup.
•	Topology diagram of the SMS site hierarchy.
•	SMS 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) configurable alerting on distributed program execution failure through SMS program properties.

SMS 2003 Patch Management Solution Accelerator

Upcoming MOM Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 at MSN—Using MOM 2005 to Monitor One of the Largest Web Portals in the World (Level 300)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Baelson Duque, Program Manager - WEMD, Microsoft.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how Microsoft does IT, you won’t want to miss this informative webcast. See how Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is used to support the unique business requirements of MSN®, Hotmail®, and Passport through proactive monitoring and alerting.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258045&Culture=en-US

Upcoming SMS Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Creating a Highly Available SMS Site (Level 200)

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time

Ed Goad, Senior Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation.

Do you have a large number of clients in your environment, demanding high availability from your servers? Join this webcast to learn how to deploy an SMS cluster with network load balancing (NBL) and availability in mind.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258953&Culture=en-US

SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack now released to the web

I noticed today the the Systems Management Server 2003 Operating System (OS) Delpoyment Feature Pack has been released and is available for download from the web

The features of OS Deployment are:

• Image capture management

 Steps administrators through the process of capturing an image of a reference computer in the new Microsoft Imaging format

• OS package management

Customize and manage the settings for individual deployments including notifications, distribution settings, or network settings

• User state migration

Integration with the User State Migration Tool 2.6 preserves user profiles when installing new operating systems

• Image deployment

Scalable deployment utilising the SMS 2003 infrastructure with customisable task-based installation

• Reporting

Rich status reporting on specific deployments aid in troubleshooting and demonstrating deployment success

SMS Device Management Feature Pack now available

The SMS 2003 Device Management Feature Pack extends the enterprise change and configuration management capabilities of SMS 2003 to mobile devices running Windows CE 3.0 or later (ARM based devices with required OS components) and Windows Mobile 2002 for Pocket PC or later.  The Device Management client included with Window CE 5.0 Platform Builder (all processor types) is compatible with the Device Management feature pack. The Device Management Feature Pack allows IT administrators to capture the asset characteristics, configure settings and security policies of mobile devices, and update or deploy new applications with minimal interruption to the end user’s experience, dramatically reducing the cost of deploying and managing devices in the enterprise.

The Device Management Feature Pack is available for download and provides the following capabilities: 

• Hardware inventory

• Software inventory

• File collection

• Software distribution

• Settings management*

• Password policy management*

*Not available for Windows CE

MOM 2000 Management Pack for Routing and Remote access - now on the web

I've been asked when this management pack would be available - so here are the details...

The MOM Management Pack for Routing and Remote Access provides the ability to monitor Availability, Health, and Configuration of Routing and Remote Access (RemoteAccess) service, Remote Access Connection Manager (RASMAN) service and Routing on Windows Server 2003.

The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Management Pack for Routing and Remote Access provides monitoring for RAS, VPN and Routing. e.g.

• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
• Performance degradation
• Health monitoring
• Centralised management

MOM 2005 licence requirements for a Virtual Machine

I had a question from a customer today asking how MOM 2005 is licenced in a Virtual machine.  I had a look around and found the pointer to the document which explains this.  So a single physical server running either Virtual Server or VMWare requires only one Operations Management Licence (OML), regardless of the number of virtual machines or processors.  There is a licencing document for MOM 2005 available here  but it doesn't have detailed information on how Virtual Machines are licenced.

Free MOM hands on labs in London

After Bill Gates' keynote on Management at IT Forum you may want to try out Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) in a Lab environment with technical resources on hand to effectively get MOM up and running.  Well, if you're based in the UK, one of Microsofts partners is providing some free hands on labs in London.  Follow the link to register. 

If you prefer to stay ar your own PC, then the Technical Walkthroughs  and Virtual Labs  also give you a good introduction to the product.

Distributing Office 2003 using SMS 2003

There is a new white paper  that has been released to the web describing how to distribute Office 2003 by using SMS 2003.  This white paper supplements the Office 2003 documentation and the SMS 2003 software distribution documentation by providing information specifically targeted at deploying Office 2003 to SMS 2003 clients in the organisation.  This combined with the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack  gives administrators a lot of flexibility in deploying desktops easily and under control. 

Microsoft Management products made sexy

I was watching the Keynote talk at IT Forum yesterday, and listening to Bill Gates speak about our management products and his roadmap for the future. One of his many predictions was that in the future, mainframes won't be able to deliver the same performance that industry standard hardware will deliver (I'm typing this on a Dell Inspiron 5160 with a P4 3.2GHz hyperthreaded processor and 2GB of RAM so that's not too hard to imagine already).  The overriding theme of the Keynote was how individual systems could be simplified and managed to give an integrated view of what's happening in the organisation.  Management software would reduce complexity as a wave of developer tools would be introduced to provide a service oriented approach to management.  The Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) would encourage a move away from individual systems to a resource allocation model where web services would use management protocols using web service standards.

I was watching the demo where 100 Dell XP Desktops were upgraded from XP Service pack 1 to XP service pack 2 with a single SMS script and I was standing with Eric Rudder, the senior Vice President for the Server and Tools division.  "Wow!" he said. "That demo with MOM and SMS shows that Microsoft has made Windows management sexy!"  I said I'd quote him - so here it is!

Dynamic Systems Initiative Website

I noticed this morning that the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) Website is now live on Microsoft.com. DSI addresses the issues that companies have around managing their infrastructure by effective monitoring and management, and using this knowledge to increase Operational Efficiency. 

Microsoft has done a lot of work monitoring applications and creating guidance and best practice documents so that application manageability and health can be improved. Comprehensive information on system health is necessary for effective maintenance and diagnosis. The knowledge captured translates directly into the information needed to encode and create a MOM management pack. Management packs for MOM 2005 show how this knowledge can be captured to improve manageability and simplify identification of issues to prevent potential outages.

For a general overview of DSI, have a look at the live, or on demand Webcasts which walk you step by step through the vision for DSI and our managment products roadmap

MOM and SMS Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 at MSN—Using MOM 2005 to Monitor One of the Largest Web Portals in the World (Level 300)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 10:00 AM - 11:30 PM Pacific Time

Baelson Duque, Program Manager - WEMD, Microsoft.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how Microsoft does IT, you won’t want to miss this informative webcast. See how Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is used to support the unique business requirements of MSN®, Hotmail®, and Passport through proactive monitoring and alerting.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258045&Culture=en-US

Exchange Management Pack guide for MOM 2005

I noticed this morning that the Exchange Server Management Pack (EMP) guide for MOM2005 has been published to the web.  The document gives a comprehensive walk through of how to set up MOM to manage Exchange which is useful for Exchange admins who may not have much experience of MOM, and MOM admins who may not have much experience of Exchange.

Topics like using IIS lockdown, preventing SMTP anonymous relay and configuring SSL are covered in detail, as the EMP will genreate alerts if the monitoring environment is not secured.  Clusters can be monitored too, as the EMP components automatically detect a clustered environment.  The scripts run on active cluster nodes identifying virtual servers running on those nodes.  Passive notes also have events generated by the scripts, namely:

·         Check HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold Registry Key

·         Check 'services to monitor' registry key

·         Collect Operating System Server Information

·         Publish ExMP Data

·         Verify IIS Lockdown was run

·         Verify required Windows hotfixes

Best practices in configuration are also covered in detail (this document is 130 pages long) and I think that it's a really comprehensive guide to managing your Exchange organisation, and goes nicely hand in hand with the Exchange Best Practice Analyzer tool currently on the web