Duncan McAlynn Microsoft System Center

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2008-01-16T13:11:00Z

I'm now posting all Microsoft-related content to SystemCenterGuide.com. There is full RSS support via the new site. Hope to see you there!

Duncan

Something Somewhere

2006-09-18T14:52:21Z

This is a test blog.

BDD 2007 Beta 2 is now available for download

2006-09-14T00:58:39Z

BDD 2007 Beta Updated for Windows Vista RC1

Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 Beta 2 is now available for download on Microsoft Connect. BDD 2007 provides end-to-end guidance and automation for large-scale deployment of Microsoft® Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Now Posting from Microsoft Office 2007!

2006-09-12T17:40:00Z

Always playing catch-up to the competition, but the boys from Redmond eventually get there and many time surpass the competition’s efforts. Such is the case with Word 2007, which now supports Blogging among many, many, many other items. I'll be using this from time-to-time to see if I prefer it over some of the other WYSIWYG and offline editors. More to come...

System Center Capacity Planner - Public Beta Launch

2005-10-07T22:53:00Z

I am very pleased to announce the public Beta release of System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP). This release marks the completion of application models of Exchange 2003 and MOM 2005. It incorporates feedback received from previously released private Beta and the TAP airlift held in August.

SCCP Public Beta Capabilities

What scenarios will it solve:

Customers and System Integrators can create green-field deployment plans for Exchange 2003 and MOM 2005. SCCP prescribes a System Architecture Model based on best practices, and explains the model in terms of topology, hardware configuration and software configuration. Simulation is run on the System Architecture Model to provide rich reports on utilization and end-to-end latency. A graphical editing surface allows customization of the model and experimentation with what-if scenarios to alleviate performance bottlenecks and improve end-user experience. A hardware editor allows creation and customization of computer systems at the level of processor and storage devices.

What’s new in public Beta:

· “Model complete” for both Exchange and MOM. Improved model accuracy and added more model validations, which will lead to better-configured scenarios that conform better to best practices.

· System Architecture Model: Prescribed model is more compliant with Exchange and MOM best practices and WSSRA. Usability enhancements allow specification of preferred hardware. Automatic recommendation of storage and SAN configurations, minimum memory requirements, and sub-service mappings (workload allocations) to storage.

· Model Editing capability integrated into topology surface to significantly improve usability.

· Exporting to Excel and Visio

Beta Release Dates and Availability

SCCP public Beta will be available October 7^th at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B68C06A5-8949-4A3F-9685-21228DBE8A0E&displaylang=en
SCCP community forum is live at http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=128

ADMT v3 Released to Web!

2005-10-06T17:46:00Z

Active Directory Migration Toolkit (ADMT) is the strategic offering from Microsoft that assists you in solving technical and business problems pertaining to restructuring of your Active Directory environments, as well as transitioning from NT4.0 to Active Directory. ADMTv3 enhances the rich feature set of v2 with a new backend database, support for simultaneous migration tasks, multiple ADMT consoles with delegation, agent enhancements, full object rename, and a host of other improvements.

Active Directory Migration Tool v3
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F86937B-533A-466D-A8E8-AFF85AD3D212&displaylang=en

The Designing and Deploying Directory Services Documentation
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6cde6ee7-5df1-4394-92ed-2147c3a9ebbe&displaylang=en

Community Scripting Center

2005-10-03T19:13:00Z

You needed to accomplish a particular task, and you wanted to use a script. You checked the Script Center (always your first step of course). What? It’s not there? Okay, so then you searched the Internet. No luck. You sent email to the Scripting Guys to see if your question showed up in a Hey, Scripting Guy! article, and…Nothing. You looked everywhere, explored all avenues, and couldn’t find the script you were looking for. What did you do? After hours of hard work and research you figured it out for yourself.

Would you like to save your fellow scripters the time and trouble of figuring out how to script this same task? Are you so proud of your accomplishment you want to share it with the world? Then submit your script and have it posted for all to admire and use.

Check out the Community Scripting Center

(Note: this is a work in progress and due for 'public release' later this month.)

Potential MSN/AOL Merger in the Cards

2005-09-16T21:49:00Z

Have the stars begun falling?

Has hell really frozen over?

Is the world as we know it coming to an end?

Could MSN and AOL really become America on MSN?

Being in the middle of Microsoft valley you tend to hear things on the street before they actually hit the mainstream media. Most of the time you take it with a grain of salt, but after hearing about a potential MSN/AOL merger a few days ago and now starting to see it actually hit the press, I think I'll listen to those around me a little more closely.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/index.php?p=12

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=MSN

System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005

2005-08-27T04:27:00Z

The DPM Management Pack monitors the state of data protection and recovery for DPM servers and the file servers that they protect, and monitors key health and performance indicators on DPM servers.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3906256

AVICode .NET Management Pack (Operations Edition) for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005

2005-08-27T04:26:00Z

The AVICode .NET management pack (Operations Edition) extends MOM to monitor health of ASP.NET and Web Services applications providing probable cause information for application failures.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3906254

Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1 Management Pack for MOM 2005

2005-08-27T04:25:00Z

The Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1 Management Pack for MOM 2005 monitors the health of computers running Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1 on Windows Server 2003.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3906249

Server Performance Advisor 2.0 Management Pack

2005-08-23T23:32:00Z

Microsoft just released a management pack for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, also known as Server Performance Advisor 2.0. Server Performance Advisor (SPA) 2.0 collects performance data and generates comprehensive diagnostic reports that give you the information you need to analyze problems and develop corrective actions. You can download the SPA management pack at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82632729-3263-4254-9332-1f51815c55fb&displaylang=en

Altiris Lays Off 5-7-10%???

2005-08-16T00:55:00Z

Remember back in October of last year when I stated that Altiris was becoming less of a competitor to Microsoft. Well, it appears that I was right. Although the Utah-based company is only publicly reporting 5-7% layoffs (what the hell is up with that? They don't know exactly how many were laid off???), an insider that survived the cuts has reported a 10% reduction. Regardless, it proves the point that they're position in the enterprise management space is continuing to weaken. Personally, I look forward to the next round (with the exception of my source).

Winternals Defrag Manager Syncs into Microsoft's Enterprise Operations Management Solution

2005-08-16T00:18:00Z

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2005--Winternals Software(R), a leading provider of Microsoft systems recovery and data protection solutions, announced today that Defrag Manager 4.0, the company's Windows enterprise defragmentation solution, is the only commercial defragger that integrates with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. The integration enables administrators to include Defrag Manager status updates in the comprehensive event management processes already provided through MOM 2005 deployments.

More: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050815005035&newsLang=en

Release of BDD version 2.5

2005-08-12T14:24:00Z

We are very pleased to announce the release of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment v2.5 on Wednesday, August 10, 2005.

The Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) delivers end-to-end guidance for efficient planning, building, testing, and deploying Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Office Professional 2003. BDD has been shown to reduce the cost of desktop deployment dramatically, from about $500-1000 cost per PC in the case of manual installation down to less than $100 per PC using Zero Touch deployment.

BDD v2.5 is the successor to BDD v2.0 which was released last fall. BDD has been used successfully to deploy 2MM desktops in the Enterprise space last year. This solution is free and available on our TechNet website, with number of downloads exceeding 15,000 per month.

Highlights for BDD version 2.5:

Integration with Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0

Support for Windows x64

Advanced reporting by integration with MOM 2005

Strong improvements in application packaging, management tools and documentation

The new overview page can be viewed at the Desktop Deployment Center (DDC) - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bddoverview.mspx.

Don't Miss This One!

2005-08-11T22:40:00Z

TechNet Webcast: Implementing the New Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (Level 200)

Microsoft has just released a new scan tool for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates. SMS and Windows Server Update Services technologies have been combined to provide SMS customers with a new SMS security update scan tool for enterprise patch management. In this webcast, we provide an overview of the differences between the various scan tools customers can use, as well as provide information on how to prepare your environment for the new Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates. In conclusion, we show how to implement the tool in your environment after the completion of the prerequisite installations in your SMS environment.

Presenter: Wally Mead, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Wally Mead has been with Microsoft for 13 years. He started in the Microsoft training group working with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 1.0. In the past 10 years, he has worked with all releases of SMS, developing training and presentation materials for various Microsoft and customer events, including the Microsoft Management Summit.

Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Technical Reference

2005-07-16T05:09:00Z

The Technical Reference provides essential technical information about MIIS 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/95vvg

Windows Installer Source Location Manager Whitepaper

2005-07-16T05:05:00Z

This white paper contains information about configuring and using the Windows Installer Source Location Management feature for Systems Management Server 2003.

Updated July 14th. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=32f40db4-6706-4e62-b867-aa1d332b6403&DisplayLang=en

Active Directory Management Pack for MOM 2005

2005-07-16T05:02:00Z

The Microsoft Windows Active Directory Management Pack provides forest-wide monitoring of your Active Directory service and its required subsystems (7/13/2005).

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3565865

Extended Security Update Inventory Tool

2005-07-16T05:01:00Z

The Extended Security Update Inventory Tool is used to detect security bulletins not covered by MBSA, including MS04-028, February 2005 bulletins, and future security bulletins that are exceptions to MBSA.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3565864