Speaker(s): Michael Niehaus

Session Level(s): 400

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Speaker(s): Vinay Deo

Session Level(s): 400

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Speaker(s): Russell Wilson

Session Level(s): 400

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Paul Thomsen

Session Level(s): 400

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Paul Thomsen

Session Level(s): 400

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Steven Kaczmarek

Session Level(s): 300

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Travis Wright

Session Level(s): 400

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Amanda Eckert, Thomas Winzer

Session Level(s): 400

Abstract pending

Speaker(s): Matt Ayers

Session Level(s): 300

Come join Matt Ayers, a Program Manager in Windows International, to discuss issues around managing and deploying multi-lingual systems in large environments. Topics include unattend.txt, UI language, MUI systems, User and System locale, codepages and fonts. Matt will give an overview about key international settings and then answer questions, listen to feedback and gather product suggestions. Come learn about -- and share your own -- international issues and help us improve the way we handle multi-lingual products.

Session Type(s): Keynote

Abstract pending

Session Type(s): Keynote

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Session Type(s): Keynote

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Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

Gain a general understanding of SMS 2003, including the use of the console and the common tasks associated with such tasks as application deployment, security patch management, and asset management.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

Ready to upgrade your SMS 2003 site to SMS 2003 SP1? Not sure of what all is involved in the upgrade or how to proceed? In this hands-on lab, you will experience an upgrade from SMS 2003 RTM to SMS 2003 SP1. You will upgrade a site server, an Advanced Client, and a Legacy Client to an Advanced Client. If you have time, you can also upgrade a secondary site to SMS 2003 SP1.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

This lab covers the changes in the recently released SMS 2003 Service Pack 1, including UI folders and client authentication.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

Learn how to effectively deploy SMS 2003 Management Points and examine how to troubleshoot common issues.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

SMS 2003 has great features for managing security and Microsoft Office updates to managed desktops, laptops, and servers. In this lab, you will use the SMS 2003 patch management feature from installation of the utilities, through deployment of a security update, and finally through reporting patch compliance in the SMS environment.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

This lab details how to configure SMS 2003 to support roaming client that move between SMS sites or that connect remotely.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

This lab introduces the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack and wakls through the process of creating a required PC image and deploying that image to one or many machines through SMS 2003.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 300

The SMS product group recently released a new feature pack for SMS 2003 SP1 that allows you to manage Pocket PC devices with your SMS environment. In this lab, you will experience an end-to-end solution for device management through installation of the feature pack, installation of the client agent, and management of the device, including inventory and software distribution.

Session Level(s): 300

SMS has a rich environment for automating tasks. For example, you can easily script the creation of SMS objects such as advertisements or query SMS to create reports. These labs show you how to create simple scripts that access the SMS Provider through WMI. You will learn how to connect to WMI, access SMS objects and generate simple reports.

Session Level(s): 300

A hands-on opportunity to practice installing MOM 2005. You will learn valuable information about configuring new security features such as the action account and mutual authentication as well as other new features including automatic error reporting and operational data reporting. We will walk through an entire installation using multiple servers in an advanced configuration which will include tiering using the Microsoft Connector Framework (MCF), multi-homing agents, importing management packs, and installing the data warehouse, reporting, and web console.

Session Level(s): 300

Upgrading from MOM 2000 SP1 to MOM 2005 can be a very simple process if the right steps are followed. Come experience first-hand how to upgrade an entire multi-tier MOM 2000 SP1 configuration group to MOM 2005. We will cover how to transition from alert forwarding to the Microsoft Connector Framework (MCF) and from Microsoft Access-based reporting to the new MOM 2005 reporting engine built on SQL Server Reporting Services.

Session Level(s): 300

Walk through the steps required to both configure and manage a MOM 2005 environment. In this lab you will walk through common agent and server configuration tasks and understand how to manage all aspects of your MOM environment. This lab will cover managing key components of MOM including the Agent, Agentless servers, The MOM Server, Database, Reporting Server, Reporting Datawarehouse and MOM Connector Framework. Also you will walk through how you can leverage the different versions of the MOM management pack to monitor MOM.

Session Level(s): 300

Walk through the steps required to manage Exchange and AD with MOM 2005. In this lab you will walk through AD and Exchange management pack configuration and then you'll run through a number of key AD and Exchange monitoring scenarios that show how MOM 2005 can identify and help solve top customer pain points that are experienced with these technologies.

Speaker(s): Thomas Theiner

Session Level(s): 300

This HOL walks you through a step by step sample MOM custom report creation from start to finish using Reporting Services Report Designer and MOM 2005 Web Reports

Session Level(s): 300

Learn how to use MOM 2005 to effectively manage and monitor your SQL Server environment to ensure optimum service and server availability.

Speaker(s): Vladimir Joanovic

Session Level(s): 300

Learn how to extend MOM 2005 using the Software Development Kit for MOM 2005. You will also learn how to extend and connect MOM to other environments using the Micrsoft Connector Framework (MCF).

Session Level(s): 300

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and all the management packs that are available from Microsoft and from 3rd parties provide powerful knowledge and rules to allow you to manage these applications. But what about your own line of business application or an application that doesn't have a management pack? This hands on lab will walk you through the concepts of a management pack in mom 2005 including Rule Groups, Attributes, Knowledge authoring (author mode), computer groups, views, rules, tasks and much more. We will also walk you through ways you can build your own management pack to monitor your line of business applications using a mom 2005 resource kit tool called the management pack wizard.

Session Level(s): 300

This self paced lab offers the opportunity to complete any of the SMS 2003 labs without an instructor, but with the assistance of lab proctors.

Session Level(s): 300

This self paced lab offers the opportunity to complete any of the MOM 2005 labs without an instructor, but with the assistance of lab proctors.

Session Level(s): 300

This self paced lab offers the opportunity to complete any of the Virtual Server 2005 labs without an instructor, but with the assistance of lab proctors.

Session Level(s): 300

This self paced lab offers the opportunity to complete any of the Windows Technology labs without an instructor, but with the assistance of lab proctors.

Speaker(s): Jim Ni

Session Level(s): 300

The objective of this lab is to introduce you to the basic and advanced features of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. After completing this lab you will have: - Created a new virtual machine from an existing virtual hard disk - Started virtual machines - Configured virtual machines for virtual networking - Configured Virtual Server and virtual machine settings - Used advanced features of Virtual Server including undo & differencing disks

Session Level(s): 300

Managing Group Policy in an enterprise is made considerably easier using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). This Hands on Lab guides you through the use of GPMC to configure GPO scope, order, inheritance and enforcement. It illustrates delegation of Group Policy tasks, generation of reports, backup/restore of GPOs and creation of Group Policy Results information. It also covers copying GPOs, both within and across domains, and the use of GPMCs scripting capability.

Session Level(s): 300

In this lab you will learn the enhanced administrative interface for Windows Server Update Services, step through the process of identifying updates available, scanning client machines to discover which machines require updates, then configuring the machines to receive the updates.

Session Level(s): 300

These labs step through the fundamentals of the Data Protection Server (DPS) software which enables the best disk-based backup solution for protection of Windows file data. We'll show how implementing DPS can result in improved operational efficiency, faster recovery and lower costs of data recovery for our customers, by taking advantage of key benefits of the Windows Server operating system such as the volume shadow copy service. During this lab you will learn how to discover data on your network, assign it to a protection group, schedule snapshots and recover data from these snapshots. Using DPS to protect not only files, but entire volumes, shares and folders. The participant will walk through the steps required by an average IT Admin to create a comprehensive data protection strategy for their organization, such that you will have a key understanding of Data Protection Server and how it can fit within your clients' infrastructures.

Session Level(s): 300

Microsoft "Indy" provides Exchange architects and administrators a way to accurately estimate resource requirements for Exchange Deployments. Take advantage of these hands-on labs to get up to speed on using "Indy" to plan a new Exchange deployment and run simulations to project the hardware resources required for that deployment. This session will introduce the "Indy" product and allow participants to walk through a set of scenarios demonstrating how to use Indy to quickly build new scenario descriptions, get initial feedback on the hardware required, expected transaction latencies, and overall performance of a distributed messaging infrastructure. Using this feedback, participants will be able to fine-tune the deployment to make sure that exactly the right hardware is deployed to the right locations without ever having to build out a machine in the lab.

Speaker(s): Bill Anderson, Brad Anderson

Session Level(s): 200

It's been another great year for Systems Management Server 2003. Come hear about the incredible momentum that we've seen in the marketplace and the exciting new developments we're working on in the coming months!

Speaker(s): Leonard Janze

Session Level(s): 400

With extensions from Vintela and Ianywhere, Systems Management Server 2003 now provides change management capabilities for non-Windows platforms. Come learn how you can use the Vintela and Ianywhere add-ons to manage your non-Windows environment.

Speaker(s): Wally Mead

Session Level(s): 400

Come hear how to resolve the top customer support issues with SMS 2003 and how to avoid these common pitfalls. We will discuss real life examples and how these issues were diagnosed and solved.

Speaker(s): Russell Wilson

Session Level(s): 300

With the growing reliance on mobile devices, it is critical for administrators to understand their mobile environment, to ensure users set up secure corporate access, and to deliver new business capabilities while utilizing existing infrastructure investments. Experience first hand how Systems Management Server 2003 with 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 user, dramatically reducing the cost of deploying and managing devices.

Speaker(s): Steven Kaczmarek, Deb McFadden

Session Level(s): 300

This session will drill in to the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack, which provides end-to-end solutions for distributing OS images This session will detail the new capabilities available with the feature pack and provide planning information to help customers get it installed and in operation quickly. You will see a detailed demonstration of capturing an image in the new Windows Imaging Format, customizing it, and then witness the deployment experience.

Speaker(s): Vinay Deo, Richard Porter

Session Level(s): 200

This session will describe the challenges of patch management (skills, cost, regulatory requirements, etc) and provide a solution framework for those challenges by describing: Measurable, repeatable processes that ensure the proper notification and risk based evaluation of threats and vulnerabilities, appropriate testing, rapid deployment, and comprehensive verification of updates, An organizational model with executive support that and clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all staff necessary to operate the solution, and; Technology products that support the organization in enabling the processes through automation.

Speaker(s): Muki Murthy, Kevin Rhodes

Session Level(s): 300

The combination of SMS and NAP is a powerful solution which ensures that managed Windows clients stay healthy with respect to security updates, protecting the network from access by endpoints that do not meet defined health policies. System Administrators can define policy to validate clients for patch compliance and system health at the time clients attempt to access the company network. SMS and NAP together enable policy enforcement through the installation of missing security updates, periodically monitor compliance levels and optionally restrict non-compliant systems until they can be remediated.

Speaker(s): Kyle Smith

Session Level(s): 300

Planning and deploying your SMS 2003 environment is an important step to ensure that you have a successful installation. In this session you will learn the best practices for deployment and gain an understanding of various tools available to assist you with your SMS 2003 installation.

Speaker(s): Bruce Jones

Session Level(s): 400

This session is designed to make the SMS administrator familiar with all the tools in the SMS toolkit. Further, you will take away strategies for troubleshooting client deployments, software distributions, health issues, and site maintenance. This session was very popular last year, and has been updated to reflect the new tools released in version 2.

Speaker(s): Bruce Jones

Session Level(s): 300

Many SMS Admins don't have SQL experience, but are responsible to write queries. This session will introduce the SQL nonguru to the basics of the SMS 2003 view schema so you know where to look for various kinds of data, and how to join some of the more frequently used views. You will learn simple tricks with SQL's graphical query wizard to help you write your own queries or easily reverse engineer an existing query. You will learn and take home with you examples of a variety of common (and not so common!) queries, including counts, machines that do or don't have some characteristic, manipulating date related queries, case, joining on data not in the SMS database, etc. You will learn easy ways to figure out why your query is incorrect. This session is appropriate for anyone who writes or requests others to write queries against the SMS views. This popular session has been updated with new information relevant to SMS 2003 SP1 and the new Client Health Feature Pack database.

Speaker(s): Steve Campbell, Michael Niehaus

Session Level(s): 300

Michael Niehaus and Steve Campbell from the Microsoft Consulting Services Deployment Community of Excellence team will talk about common issues encountered and best practices that should be observed when using the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack and the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment.

Speaker(s): Levi Stevens, Paul Thomsen

Session Level(s): 300

Microsoft IT uses SMS to manage over 200,000 clients in multiple hierarchies. Managing SMS on that scale presents challenges but also a great opportunity to find best practices. On any scale you should be able to benefit from Microsoft IT's experience.