v.Next overview

Day 2, session 4 was a very good presentation. This one focussed on the upcoming Config Manager v.Next, and the benefits it will offer. The main points I recorded were:

User Centric Client Management - allowing users to connect from anywhere, embracing mobile technologies and central control of assets. v.Next still focuses on system management as with previous versions, but will allow such enhancements as highly configurable deployment options for applications, O/S and patching, for example allowing deployment only for the primary user of a device, out of hours and user selectable download and installation of apps and patches, advanced application management (but with considerably less scripting) and the facility to setup system requirement and dependency checks prior to app deployment, including available memory, disk space and CPU type.

Other points include integration of RBS with templates, a better admin interface and distribution point grouping, cross platform mobile management, including a cute feature which would allow an administrator to package for example Acrobat reader for several device types, and only need to add the user once to the distribution list - v.Next would then deploy to all the users devices as appropriate without the need for separate processes. Also, remote control is integrated into the console for easy multi platform control of devices.

Please check my previous post for the O/S deployment options available with v.Next.

Automating windows

Day 2, session 3 was "Automating windows"- details were pretty sketchy, but I though it sounded interesting...This presentation focussed on manipulating WMI and CIM using Powershell 2, and showed the benefits of replicating changes to single or multiple PCs, even those outside of a DMZ in a secure manner. I must admit, not being a Powershell/WMI wizard myself, I got somewhat lost in the detail on this session, although the benefits of automation were quite clear for task like client monitoring and configuration. Currently we manage this type of activity in the Zen environment, however going forward I can see this technology will be commonly used in the new Mars environment.

Configuration Manager: State of the union

Day 2, Session 2 was entitled "Configuration Manager: State of the union" and was easily the most entertaining session of the day. The hosts started off the presentation showing the various name ideas that the team went through before settling on v.Next, which was amusing if not entirely useful.
They did of course get serious in the presentation, and covered some very slick ideas including integrated Adobe updates in SCCM by the end of 2010, and other 3rd party updates via a third party add-on for SCCM called SCUPdate. The big demo for me was centred around Citrix XenApps deployment of applications via thin client, were the application itself remains on the server, and is seamlessly delivered to the client over either network or internet connection. This seemed to me to be an idea way to deploy and provision applications, and I'm surprised that we haven't seen this technology in Mars as yet.

The rough release timeline for Config Manager v.Next for those interested:

Beta 1 - May 2010
Beta 2 - Q1 2011
RTM - Q3 2011

Day 2 - Keynote from Bob Muglia

Today's event kicked off with a keynote speech from Bob Muglia, president of MS Server and Tools Business. The kenote was quite lively and well presented as you would expect. I didn't take notes during the keynote, but I know Mat will blog heavily about this, so I just robbed some highlights and will let him add the detail.

1) Official releases of both System Centre Data Protection Manager 2010 and System Centre Service Manager 2010.
2) Demonstration of a Distributed Application (DA) with components which were locally monitored and available from the cloud using MS Azure. Demonstration of a task to “Add Web Rule Instances” for the cloud resources. Demonstration of performance information gathered via the web front-end components in Azure. These functions were provided via a management pack that was stated to be publicly available “later this year”.
3) SCVMM 2011 Tech Preview version – The ribbon concept (Microsoft Office, etc) was integrated with SCVMM which implies that this is a technical direction for the UI for the System Centre product line.
4) First sighting of an Opalis workflow within a Operations Manager 2007 R2 console.
5) SCVMM 2010 Tech Preview version – Demonstrated scans for compliance of the image offline, patching offline, and orchestrating deployment of the image. SCVMM was stated to communicate with WSUS for patches.
6) OpsMgr v10 screenshot – displaying changes to the console including the removal of the “Authoring” section and the addition of the “Modelling Configuration”.

Day one wrap

To wrap up the day, I attended an orientation session (better late than never) and then hit the expo hall with Mat to do the tat run. I'm now fully loaded with product brochures, silly putty, badge holders, t-shirts and a rubber duck. Mission accomplished.

Operations Manager 2007 R2: An Introduction

Next up was "Ops Manager 2007 R2: An introduction", which was not what I'd hoped for - the monitoring and alerting processes described where efficient and relatively easy to configure, however the focus in this session was for monitoring Unix/Linux servers, and although I can see the benefits, I didn't feel they were very relevant. I'm looking forward to later sessions on SCOM which will outline the dashboard functions, which I can see will be very useful. Most of the alerting described in this session is adequately covered in our present Spectrum system, and I didn't see much in the way of additional benefits.

Deploying Windows 7 with Config Manager 2007

The next session was "Deploying Windows 7 with Config Manager 2007", a subject which will become dear to the hearts of the ops team. The lab ran through creating a Win7 image, processing for DVD/Server based distribution, scripting (read wizarding, no programming required) the migration from a Windows XP SP3 workstation up to Windows 7 using a customised PXE build process, and verification of the build, complete with re-partitioning if required, all from within the config manager console. The process was quite lengthy, and took all of the available time that I had in the lab (80 minutes), but was ultimately successful, which is very encouraging for our future use. Most of the time was spent creating the Win7 image, which of course only needs to be done once and would be done long before production deployment. The actual migration/deployment portion was pretty quick even on a VM, but I'd love to try the process on metal to see what the performance is like. Methinks I'll be building a nice little environment in STU before long.....