I was also in this session and agree with what Colin has written, Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack, is a great tool. DEM is a great feature of it and the presenter demonstrated these well.
Something we should definitely look further into to understand the cost impact of getting MDOP into our environment and using these tools.
Find out more about it here (Pdf will open)
Showing posts with label MDOP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MDOP. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Desktop Error Monitoring
This was an excellent session which covered a component of the MDOP suite called Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM). I was extremely impressed with this product demonstration and can see immediate use for it in both our current and future environments. The tool would assist primarily the tier 3 teams (EUT), in strategic problem solving, but would also be useful to tier 2 teams in terms of published problem management, and statistical information. I understand that the tool itself is free, however because we don't have desktop OS enterprise licensing, there will be some commercial issues which would need to be ironed out prior to us deploying - I certainly intend to pursue this investigation, and if necessary raise a business case to implement MDOP as the benefits are clear and immediate.
In order to describe the product, the speakers first talked about why the product exists - this was mainly user need driven:
• Provide an immediate ROI
• Deliver end to end solutions
• Better TCO on desktops/laptops
• Requirement for low cost monitoring for knowledge and productivity issues
• Requirement for better visibility of desktop issues (users automatically reboot, often overwriting error data in the process)
DEM offers the following to help with the above:
• Crash monitoring
• Application and System crash/hang data captured and stored centrally
• Direct access to troubleshooting & solutions
• Agentless deployment (via group policy)
• Lower helpdesk volume calls
• Engagement with support partners
• Internal 'Watson' back-end
• Patch and update tracking
• Easy analysis of captured data reports
The requirements for a DEM deployment are pretty standard:
• A management server
• A reporting server
• An SQL server
• Active Directory
• Global Policies in use in the environment
It's worth noting that DEM is a separate product to SCCM, although SCCM does effectively do the same job albeit on a much bigger scale. DEM is focussed directly on the desktop/laptop environment.
DEM also offered such features as customisable web pages displayed on the desktop when a crash occurs - which means that if we have a solution or workaround already, the user is notified straightaway. This has an obvious effect of reducing helpdesk calls. DEM can also suppress the "Send details to Microsoft" dialog, which users as often as not will click "No" on - once deployed, DEM automatically sends the error data to the central server, and then can display the kind of web page as described above.
Along with application issues, DEM also records system errors such as the dreaded BSOD. One of the issues EUT has faced recently is the issue of collecting BSOD error data - our environment is such that this is not easy on all devices and the user was usually forced to reboot prior to the full error log completing - this could be negated with the DEM system. It is often essential for our vendors that we provide complete error logging so that they can quickly resolve these types of issues, so anything that can help with this will be invaluable to us.
In addition to error data, DEM also captures the CAB file associated with application issues and bundles this in with the reporting - this would help Satyam with issues in packaging and us with patching and update problems. When use in conjunction with crash analysis tools, this is a very powerful way of identifying issues in applications.
In terms of UI, DEM looks very much like SCCM. It has facilities groups similar issues together, but in granular detail (ie by revision/version of individual DLLs) so things like video driver errors etc are clearly visible, even on a cursory glance at the logs.
As I said in the beginning of this article, I intend to follow this up with a serious intent to raising a business case to implement this technology in our environment as soon as possible. It can be used very soon - as soon as the new AD is in production to be exact, and I think the support teams will see the practical benefits immediately. Management should also see benefits from this too - apart from the obvious potential to improve our problem management, quicker and more proactive issue resolution and the potential for ticket reduction; they will also enjoy both the high level reporting available, with the options to produce highly granular reporting if required as well.
In order to describe the product, the speakers first talked about why the product exists - this was mainly user need driven:
• Provide an immediate ROI
• Deliver end to end solutions
• Better TCO on desktops/laptops
• Requirement for low cost monitoring for knowledge and productivity issues
• Requirement for better visibility of desktop issues (users automatically reboot, often overwriting error data in the process)
DEM offers the following to help with the above:
• Crash monitoring
• Application and System crash/hang data captured and stored centrally
• Direct access to troubleshooting & solutions
• Agentless deployment (via group policy)
• Lower helpdesk volume calls
• Engagement with support partners
• Internal 'Watson' back-end
• Patch and update tracking
• Easy analysis of captured data reports
The requirements for a DEM deployment are pretty standard:
• A management server
• A reporting server
• An SQL server
• Active Directory
• Global Policies in use in the environment
It's worth noting that DEM is a separate product to SCCM, although SCCM does effectively do the same job albeit on a much bigger scale. DEM is focussed directly on the desktop/laptop environment.
DEM also offered such features as customisable web pages displayed on the desktop when a crash occurs - which means that if we have a solution or workaround already, the user is notified straightaway. This has an obvious effect of reducing helpdesk calls. DEM can also suppress the "Send details to Microsoft" dialog, which users as often as not will click "No" on - once deployed, DEM automatically sends the error data to the central server, and then can display the kind of web page as described above.
Along with application issues, DEM also records system errors such as the dreaded BSOD. One of the issues EUT has faced recently is the issue of collecting BSOD error data - our environment is such that this is not easy on all devices and the user was usually forced to reboot prior to the full error log completing - this could be negated with the DEM system. It is often essential for our vendors that we provide complete error logging so that they can quickly resolve these types of issues, so anything that can help with this will be invaluable to us.
In addition to error data, DEM also captures the CAB file associated with application issues and bundles this in with the reporting - this would help Satyam with issues in packaging and us with patching and update problems. When use in conjunction with crash analysis tools, this is a very powerful way of identifying issues in applications.
In terms of UI, DEM looks very much like SCCM. It has facilities groups similar issues together, but in granular detail (ie by revision/version of individual DLLs) so things like video driver errors etc are clearly visible, even on a cursory glance at the logs.
As I said in the beginning of this article, I intend to follow this up with a serious intent to raising a business case to implement this technology in our environment as soon as possible. It can be used very soon - as soon as the new AD is in production to be exact, and I think the support teams will see the practical benefits immediately. Management should also see benefits from this too - apart from the obvious potential to improve our problem management, quicker and more proactive issue resolution and the potential for ticket reduction; they will also enjoy both the high level reporting available, with the options to produce highly granular reporting if required as well.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Asset Inventory Service
I've seen a couple of sessions on this now so I shall summarise my thoughts.
Right now I'd say that this solution has only one place where we would consider it's use, and that's Royal Canin. Given the lack of network routing between the sites, this is a solution that would be able to deliver value very quickly (the installation would still need to be managed on a subsidiary by subsidiary basis though).
Microsoft have big plans for this product though, and some of the areas of interest are the software catalogue, which will be automatically referenced in Systems Center R2. To become a fully fledged service though, user authentication needs to be standards-based (I don't think the MS passport is an identity standard yet, but I'm sure Doug will correct me if I'm wrong) and the database will need to be accessible to enterprise business intelligence tools.
So apart from RC, I think this is one to look at again no earlier than version 2 (likely to be announced at Tech Ed later this year)
Right now I'd say that this solution has only one place where we would consider it's use, and that's Royal Canin. Given the lack of network routing between the sites, this is a solution that would be able to deliver value very quickly (the installation would still need to be managed on a subsidiary by subsidiary basis though).
Microsoft have big plans for this product though, and some of the areas of interest are the software catalogue, which will be automatically referenced in Systems Center R2. To become a fully fledged service though, user authentication needs to be standards-based (I don't think the MS passport is an identity standard yet, but I'm sure Doug will correct me if I'm wrong) and the database will need to be accessible to enterprise business intelligence tools.
So apart from RC, I think this is one to look at again no earlier than version 2 (likely to be announced at Tech Ed later this year)
Application Virtualisation & Streaming
I've attended a whole bunch of sessions covering different aspects of this topic, so I'll try to summarise my thoughts now we're done.
Firstly, the App Virtualisation product finally gives the Microsoft management suite proper user-targetting for software distribution, which it has always lacked. The main business benefit of the product is reducing the need for regression testing of different applications (i.e. conflict solver no longer required!). There is a secondary benefit in allowing previously incompatible applications co-exist, thus increasing flexibility/agility. This would be a great solution for COMPASS running Office 2007 alongside previous versions of Office.
The streaming aspect might be useful to deploy to users with limited connectivity, and there is clear potential to use this deployment mode to enable centralisation along with NGN V2. Lots more work to do here but also some big opportunities.
In summary App Virtualisation is something that should definitely be on our roadmap, but it's not going be a solution for everything.
Firstly, the App Virtualisation product finally gives the Microsoft management suite proper user-targetting for software distribution, which it has always lacked. The main business benefit of the product is reducing the need for regression testing of different applications (i.e. conflict solver no longer required!). There is a secondary benefit in allowing previously incompatible applications co-exist, thus increasing flexibility/agility. This would be a great solution for COMPASS running Office 2007 alongside previous versions of Office.
The streaming aspect might be useful to deploy to users with limited connectivity, and there is clear potential to use this deployment mode to enable centralisation along with NGN V2. Lots more work to do here but also some big opportunities.
In summary App Virtualisation is something that should definitely be on our roadmap, but it's not going be a solution for everything.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation
This session was all about the "sixth" piece of MDOP. The Kidaro acquisition is not due to complete until May, so there are no release dates yet. They also confirmed that the pricing of MDOP will not change when this component is added in, always a surprise from Microsoft!
So onto the product itself, which is fairly clever. At a high level, it is basically a 'hidden' virtual PC installation running windows XP or Vista. Applications that are 'published' from the hidden virtual OS are presented seamlessly on the user's host PC. This could potentially be used to deliver an SDS XP experience on a non-standard workstation (e.g. contractor laptop). It's also the technology that was used to run the USB demo at the end of the keynote that Mat has already mentioned.
The product adds usability to the Virtual PC application in a number of ways. Firstly, the virtual machine is hidden, so the user experience is seamless. Updates to the VM image can be done on the fly, and the update mechanism promises to be very light on bandwidth as the agent checks if any of the updated components already exist on the host machine and only transfers the differences.
While it is very cool technology, I have to wonder about the horsepower required on the desktop to run this acceptably, and there are still a bunch of unanswered questions on how licensing will work.
We should definitely watch this space!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The 5 pieces of MDOP
This session was a quick runthrough of the 5 (soon to be 6) products that are available through MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack)
I guess the first thing to note is that MDOP is only available to customers that buy Software Assurance, which is Microsoft's version of the maintenance contract. It looks like relatively good value and seems to be the resting place of products that Microsoft have recently acquired
Desktop Error Monitoring is the first product, which allows a company to collect all the Dr. Watson error events from the desktops that are sent to Microsoft and analyse them. This works well with the second tool which is branded DaRT (Diagnostic and Recovery Tool) which you may have heard of as Winternals prior to Microsoft buying it. This allows centralised diagnosis of blue screen type events, and recovery in software related crashes. Useful where desksiders aren't available!
Advanced Group Policy Management isn't particularly relevant to us today, but when we start using Active Directory for our desktops this could well be critical, as it allows auditing and workflow for any policy changes. Seems to me that this should be in the core product though...
Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a 'cloud based' inventory service that could be really useful for those hard to reach devices (salesforce laptops!), although when I spoke to the product manager he seemed a bit stumped on how you'd actually get the client onto the machines in the first place. Seems like a fairly large oversight to me! This product used to be known as AssetMetrics
Last and most interesting of all was Application Virtualisation (formerly SoftGrid), which is the application virtualisation technology. Loads more to discuss in up and coming sessions so I'll just say that this product is aimed at Application to Application isolation, and doesn't address Application to Operating System isolation, which is where the sixth product will come in (Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation, formerly Kidaro)
I guess the first thing to note is that MDOP is only available to customers that buy Software Assurance, which is Microsoft's version of the maintenance contract. It looks like relatively good value and seems to be the resting place of products that Microsoft have recently acquired
Desktop Error Monitoring is the first product, which allows a company to collect all the Dr. Watson error events from the desktops that are sent to Microsoft and analyse them. This works well with the second tool which is branded DaRT (Diagnostic and Recovery Tool) which you may have heard of as Winternals prior to Microsoft buying it. This allows centralised diagnosis of blue screen type events, and recovery in software related crashes. Useful where desksiders aren't available!
Advanced Group Policy Management isn't particularly relevant to us today, but when we start using Active Directory for our desktops this could well be critical, as it allows auditing and workflow for any policy changes. Seems to me that this should be in the core product though...
Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a 'cloud based' inventory service that could be really useful for those hard to reach devices (salesforce laptops!), although when I spoke to the product manager he seemed a bit stumped on how you'd actually get the client onto the machines in the first place. Seems like a fairly large oversight to me! This product used to be known as AssetMetrics
Last and most interesting of all was Application Virtualisation (formerly SoftGrid), which is the application virtualisation technology. Loads more to discuss in up and coming sessions so I'll just say that this product is aimed at Application to Application isolation, and doesn't address Application to Operating System isolation, which is where the sixth product will come in (Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation, formerly Kidaro)
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