Today System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Unleashed was shipped to the printer. Final page length is 1224 pages. Availability on Amazon is anticipated for early August.
And I'm very happy to announce that two of the contributors to this book - Jason Sandys and Jannes Alink - received the MVP award for Configuration Manager today. Way to go - Jason and Jannes! You definitely earned it!
DCM is one of the new features of Configuration Manager 2007. Using DCM enables you to monitor, report on, and take action regarding the configuration of your managed systems. This enables you to monitor regulatory compliance, change verification, configuration drift, and time to resolution. Configuration baselines are used to group configuration items, which are assigned using rules. Read more
Last Thursday, during Continental flight 61 from Brussels to Newark, NJ, the pilot had a heart attack and died. The co-pilot and a backup pilot who was part of the crew landed the plane uneventfully in Newark.
Although flight attendants asked if a doctor was on board, the passengers were not informed of the pilot's death since there was a concern they might panic.
However, it was definitely information known elsewhere and on the Internet. Read more
The European Commission has sent around a questionnaire to PC makers and Microsoft software rivals concerning its preferred remedy to restore fair competition in the browser market. This questionnaire has nine questions - most of which seek feedback on the remedy - which is a proposed "ballot screen" with a list of browsers users would see the first time a new PC is connected to the Internet. The deadlines for replies to the questionnaire is June 12.
Microsoft's seemingly never ending trials and tribulations with the European Union's antitrust case may have a new twist. Earlier this year, the EU's antitrust agency charged Microsoft with shielding Internet Explorer (IE) from competition by bundling its browser with Windows. This was based on a 2007 complaint by Opera Software. Mozilla and Google have also joined the complaint.
Read more
Audit Collection Services (ACS) is a component of OpsMgr that enables you to collect records generated by an audit policy and store them in a centralized database. These records are normally written to the local Security log; ACS enables taking that information and storing it in a centralized SQL Server repository. You can then filter and analyze information using the data analysis and reporting tools provided by SQL Server. ACS also comes with a number of reports out of the box.
Read more
An article published April 16 in PC World, http://www.pcworld.com/article/163277/doj_asks_for_extension_of_microsoft_antitrust_judgment.html?tk=rss_news, states that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked to extend the antitrust agreement against Microsoft by at least 18 months (May 2011), to give the company enough time to fix problems in technical documentation required in a communications protocols licensing program.
Read more
Like 2008, at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Unlike 2008, rooms were not quite as cold (or maybe I just dressed warmer). And the announcements weren't quite as momentous - but after all - how do you compete with last year's flying pigs? (although the cross-plat folks did bring along a supply for giveaways)
Seriously ... This year instead of being at MMS on a press pass, I was a presenter. As such, since I presented on Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday were pretty much spent with last minute details in preparation for that.
Read more
Monday, April 27, SystemCenterCentral.com was officially announced in Las Vegas at MMS 2009. The site aims to be the place to visit for "Everything System Center."
SystemCenterCentral.com was founded by Pete Zerger, Rory McCaw, and Maarten Goet, all System Center MVPs, and is dedicated to being a community site focusing exclusively on the technologies included in the System Center Suite of products.
Go to www.SystemCenterCentral.com to check it out and become a member of the community!
I didn't anticipate my earlier article on H1-B visas to create the hornet's nest it did; but since then I've seen several interesting articles on the topic: Read more
It's been well publicized that the R2 release of OpsMgr 2007 will include Unix/Linux management, fully integrated into the product. A number of other enhancements are also being added. If you are attending MMS, come to session SU20 - Getting involved in the Operations Manager MVP Community - to meet some of the OpsMgr MVPs and hear us discuss the following new features:
Read more
I am very happy to announce that System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed is on its way. Last week all material was completed and sent to Sams Publishing to begin the production cycle. Look for availability sometime this summer (July/August).
Read more
Nearly two weeks ago on April 1, the government began taking appplications for 2010 H-1B visas.
For the past few fiscal years, the annual quota was reached within days. Last year, for example, the visa cap was reached just one week after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services opened the application period. In 2007 (the 2008 fiscal year beginning October 2007), it was a mere two days! Read more
As IT professionals, sooner or later we decide to look for another job (hopefully voluntarily). And even if you're not looking for a job at the moment, it's always a good idea to have your resume current ... you'll never know when you'll need it.
What do potential employers look for? Is it someone with deep technical skills developed through computer science and/or software engineering degrees? Read more
Operations Manager is used to identify conditions that occur and provide notification if those conditions take place. Generically speaking, the concept of monitoring is "Watch my back (uh, environment), and let me know what's going on." Monitoring with OpsMgr allows us to react to situations more quickly than we would otherwise. Once we are aware of an issue, OpsMgr can provide product knowledge to help us more quickly resolve the problem. The user community also assists with problem solving - there are numerous articles and blogs discussing the use of the product. Read more
Once again, MMS is being held in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel, April 27-May 1. After Microsoft's announcements last year regarding virtualization and monitoring Linux systems using Operations Manager, this year should be include interesting discussions (although whether or not there will be actually flying pigs again remains to be seen).
Many of the individuals who have worked on System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed will be presenting breakout sessions at MMS. These sessions include: Read more
To follow up on my last posting - regarding Windows Vista haters - why exactly does Vista have the bad reputation it has? I see several reasons: Read more
I've spoken previously about the adoption of Windows Vista. Its not one of my favorite operating systems; but I've been impressed with Windows 7 - with beta code that outperforms Vista released code! I guess I'll have to get used to that new UI yet!
However, a friend of mine had a rather interesting experience earlier this week. He doesn't work for Microsoft, but he happens to have a logo'd Vista jacket. Read more
Now that's one you don't hear much about today. Everyone talks about open source and Microsoft's participation in that or lack thereof (although speaking of flying pigs, the cross platform agent on OpsMgr 2007 R2 is built using open source Pegasus, so they are trying ...).
What seems to be forgotten a lot - and I know I had as well - is the fact that one of Microsoft's bold initiatives beginning in the 1980s is that their operating systems were not tied to a particular hardware vendor. Read more
R2 a.k.a. "Release 2" is a vehicle Microsoft has used in recent years as a midway release between major software releases. The Windows Server team first adopted this with Windows Server 2003 R2. Multiple R2's have been released since then, in the System Center area this includes SMS 2003 R2, Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Essentials in SBS 2003 R2, System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2, and Operations Manager 2007 R2 (in development). Read more
Advertisement: |
Kerrie Meyler, a Microsoft MOM MVP, is an independent consultant and trainer with more than 15 years of Information Technology experience. A previous senior technology specialist at Microsoft, she focused on infrastructure and management solutions, presenting at numerous product launches. More recently, she presented on Operations Manager 2007 and gave several podcasts at TechEd 2007.
Kerrie has worked with Microsoft Learning to develop Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) for several courses, including the Implementing Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 course, and did the beta teach for that course.
Kerrie is the lead author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed
Check out an excerpt from System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, Chapter 3: Looking Inside OpsMgr.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
