Infrastructure Planning and Design guide for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager available!

Last week the Infrastructure Planning and Design team has announced the IPD guide for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager is available for download!

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager outlines the infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of Operations Manager. It guides you through the process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. You’ll find easy-to-follow steps on identification and design of the required management groups, helping you to optimize the management infrastructure.

Download the Microsoft System Center 2012 – Operations Manager Guide

Launch the download of the IPD guide for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager.

Launch the download of the entire released Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide series.

Visit the Download Center to select other released guides in the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide series.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 8.0 Beta Now Available

The latest release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with tools to accelerate their migration to the cloud.

Download the beta materials on Connect: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219165

Thanks for your ongoing interest and participation in the MAP beta review program. We hope you’ll take the time to preview and provide feedback on MAP 8.0 Beta.

Accelerate your Windows Server 2012 migration with Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 8.0 Beta. This latest version of MAP adds new scenarios to help plan your environment with agility and focus while lowering the cost of delivering IT. Included in MAP 8.0 Beta are hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments to assist you in planning the deployment of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, preparing your migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, readying your environment for Office 2013 and Office 365, and tracking your usage of Lync.

Determine your Windows Server 2012 readiness

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 deployment. This feature includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating which machines meet Windows Server 2012 system requirements and which may need hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Determine your Windows 8 readiness

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT environment for a Windows 8 deployment. This feature evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which may need hardware upgrades.

Key benefits include:

• Assessment report and summary proposal to help you understand the scope and
  benefits of a Windows 8 deployment
• Inventory of desktop computers, deployed operating systems, and
  applications

Assess your environment for Office 2013 and Office365

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses readiness for Office 2013 and Office 365 and provides an in-depth assessment of client desktops for upgrading or migration. This feature also offers support for Office 365 features such as web apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, or full Office 365 client support.

Migrate to Windows Azure VirtualMachines

MAP 8.0 Beta performs a comprehensive assessment of Windows Server and Linux machines to determine feasibility of a migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines. MAP then provides suggested changes to prepare targeted machines for migration. This feature helps you reduce the operating costs of hosting on-premise servers, as well as estimating the required size and monthly network and storage usage required to migrate on-premise Windows and Linux servers to Windows Azure Virtual Machines using actual data from the targeted environment.

For a comprehensive list of features and benefits, visit the Connect site: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219168

Technorati Tags: MAP,Azure,Cloud,Windows 8,Office 2012,Office365,Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1 Beta 1—Now Available for Download

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 is now available for download!

Download MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 now! [http://connect.microsoft.com/site14/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=8689]

Download the latest release to stay up-to-date on your deployment needs. New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever!

This release expands your deployment capabilities with support for the latest software releases, including Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate, and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 Community Technology Preview.

Notable new features include:

· Support for using the DaRT 8 Beta with the Windows 8 Release Preview version of the Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

· New “Build Your Own Pages” support for User-Driven Installation (UDI), enabling IT pros to create new wizard panes using simple drag-and-drop operations – no coding required.

· Integration with System Center Orchestrator, enabling task sequences to invoke Orchestrator runbooks at any point in the deployment process.

· Completely reworked “Roles and Features” logic, supporting both installation and removal, as well as providing a new Lite Touch wizard pane for selecting roles and features to install at deploy time.

· Support for PowerShell 3.0 to make it easier to run PowerShell scripts inside task sequences on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and Windows PE 4.0.

· Simple monitoring functionality for Configuration Manager task sequences, leveraging the monitoring capabilities provided initially in MDT 2012 for Lite Touch deployments.

· Improved “boot from VHD” deployment capabilities, supporting both bare metal and refresh deployments.

Learn more

Visit the MDT home page: http://www.microsoft.com/MDT [http://www.microsoft.com/MDT]

Get the latest news straight from the MDT team: http://blogs.technet.com/b/msdeployment/ [http://blogs.technet.com/b/msdeployment/]

MDT works with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit and Security Compliance Manager to help you plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. Learn more at http://www.microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators [http://www.microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators].

Service Requests System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Failed #sysctr

Background

The System Center Cloud Services Process Pack provides a service solution for automating the deployment of private and public cloud infrastructures. With the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack, enterprises can realize the benefits of infrastructure as a service while simultaneously leveraging their existing investments in System Center 2012 – Service Manager, System Center 2012 – Orchestrator, System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), and System Center 2012 – Operations Manager.

The System Center Cloud Services Process Pack offers a self-service experience to facilitate private cloud capacity requests from your business unit IT application owners and end users, including the flexibility to request additional capacity as business demands increase.

You can download System Center Cloud Services Process Pack at the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=231143.

Service Requests System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Failed

In preparation of a Service Manager 2012 demo for the Pre-TechEd Europe 2012 event , organized by Microsoft, HP and Inovativ I was facing an issue. After submitting a cloud service request through the Service Manager 2012 Self-Service Portal all requests almost instantly failed.

The status of work items can also be viewed through the Service Manager console or by the Self-Service Portal.

When you drilldown to the workflows status section (Administration\Workflows\Status) and filter on cloud you’re able to find the faulting workflow which is related to the service request, in our case the Assign Virtual Machine Reviewer. (see also Troubleshooting Workflows in Service Manager for addtional throubleshooting tips)

When selecting the workflow we get clear where in the process the service request is failing, as you can see event 17 is faulting.

As sometimes error messages can be somewhat cryptically, a good next troubleshooting step is the Operations Manager eventlog. When searching the Operations Manager eventlog within the time range when the service request was failing Event 26319 got my attention. As you can see we found the root cause of our problem.

The user CONTOSO\svc-svcmgr-wf does not have sufficient permissions to perform the operation.

The CONTOSO\svc-scvmgr-wf is the Service Manager Workflow account. By simply adding the workflow account to the Activity Implementer user role the workflow account has the required permissions to successfully execute the workflow(s) which are part of the service request offerings.

After adding the Workflow account to the Activity Implementers user role and submitting a new request the service request wll succesfully processed.

Now the service request is ready to be approved…and provision the requested VM.

Many thanks to Raganathan Srikant (Program Manager at Microsoft) helping sorting this out.

Resources:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh546808

http://www.systemcentercentral.com/BlogDetails/tabid/143/IndexID/91323/Default.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/jeffa36/archive/2011/11/29/system-center-cloud-services-process-pack-beta-now-available.aspx

Microsoft User Experience Virtualization and Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 Betas Now Available!

Microsoft announces the beta versions of Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0 and a new MDOP product Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) are now available for download from
Microsoft Connect.

UE-V is an enterprise-scale user state virtualization solution that delivers a user’s personal Windows experience across devices, is simple for IT to deploy, and easily integrates with existing management tools.

Some of the main features of UE-V are:

• Users retain their application experience without having to reconfigure applications when they log in from a different Windows instance – regardless of whether it is a rich desktop or virtual desktop session. 
• Automatically delivers a personal experience to Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 8 based devices, giving users the flexibility to work from anywhere.
• If a user accidently applies unwanted changes, IT can simply roll back to the initial state.
• Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft desktop virtualization products to roam the user experience in heterogeneous environments.

 Some of the new features in the App-V 5.0 Beta are:

• Flexible virtualization choices let virtual applications work more like traditionally installed applications, allowing local and virtual applications to communicate and enabling control of which virtual applications can share environments.
• There’s no dedicated drive letter required, and no 4 gigabyte maximum package size. It’s easy for IT to work with and take action on App-V diagnostic information because App-V logs Windows events instead of separate log files.
• Easy and efficient to use in VDI environments, allowing IT to make the best use of expensive disk resources without changing the way they get their jobs done.
• Web-based management makes it easy for busy IT professionals to get their work done while away from their desk.
• Rich PowerShell scripting allows IT to automate repetitive tasks and to integrate App-V with existing processes.

These products will be part of a future version of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP).  If you want to learn more about App-V 5.0 and UE-V now, check out the Windows for your Business Blog were we have posted even more information about the products.

Download and try the betas of UE-V and App-V 5.0.

 

Sources:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mdop/archive/2012/04/04/microsoft-user-experience-virtualization-and-microsoft-application-virtualization-5-0-betas-now-available.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/business/archive/2012/04/04/introducing-ue-v-and-app-v-5-0.aspx

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 6.5 beta Now Available!

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 6.5 beta Now Available!

The journey to the cloud is now smoother than ever with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5 Beta. The MAP Toolkit’s new capabilities help users to securely assess heterogeneous IT environments while enabling the evaluation of workloads for migration to Microsoft’s private and public cloud platforms. Consolidate existing server workloads using the updated Hyper-V^® Cloud Fast Track capacity planning feature. The revamped Azure Migration feature in MAP 6.5 provides more in-depth analysis of the suitability of migrating on-premises applications to the Windows Azure^™ platform. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows^® devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront^® Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server^®.

Key features and benefits of MAP 6.5 Beta help you:

        Analyze your portfolio of applications for a move to the Windows Azure platform.

        Accelerate private and public cloud planning with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Onboarding.

        Identify migration opportunities with enhanced heterogeneous server environment inventory.

        NEW!Assess your usage of Microsoft software with the Software Usage Tracking feature.

        Discover Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers for migration to SQL Server.

To join the beta review program for Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5, visit Microsoft Connect:http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219168  

Sources:

www.microsoft.com/map

http://blogs.technet.com/mapblog

www.microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators

How to Discover 16-Bit Applications Before Migrating to 64-Bit Versions of Windows 7

How to Discover 16-Bit Applications Before Migrating to 64-Bit Versions of Windows 7
By Andreas Stenhall, Microsoft MVP — Windows Expert – IT Pro

When companies migrate to Windows 7, most of them look at deploying the 64-bit version of Windows 7. The x64 architecture of Windows does not support running 16-bit applications as the 32-bit version does. Unfortunately, 16-bit applications are still widely in use—even though you might not know it.

You can use the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to take an inventory of all applications on your client machines. This is a great way to find applications when migrating to Windows 7. The ACT inventory does contain information about 16-bit applications that are still on client computers and being used in your business, but there is one slight challenge.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning #MAP 6.0 Beta released

The latest beta release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with tools to accelerate the adoption of Microsoft private and public cloud platforms.

MAP 6.0 Beta: Accelerate the adoption of Microsoft private and public cloud platforms

Planning your journey to the cloud just got a bit easier. The next release of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit—version 6.0 Beta—includes assessment capabilities to evaluate workloads for both public and private cloud platforms. With MAP 6.0 Beta, you now have the ability to identify workloads and estimate the infrastructure size and resources needed for both Windows Azure and Hyper-V Fast Track. Also new to MAP 6.0 Beta is the Office 365 client assessment, enhanced VMware inventory, and Oracle schema discovery and reporting. Expanded assessment and discovery capabilities from MAP help you streamline planning for your next migration project. Plan what’s next with MAP.

New features and benefits from MAP 6.0 Beta release help you:

·        Analyze your portfolio of applications for a move to the Windows Azure Platform

·        Accelerate planning to private cloud with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track onboarding

·        Identify migration opportunities with enhanced heterogeneous server environment inventory

·        Assess your client environment for Office 365 readiness

·        Determine readiness for migration to Windows Internet Explorer 9

·        Discover Oracle database schemas for migration to SQL Server

The beta materials can be downloaded on Connect: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219165

This program is now open. The beta review period will run through mid-July, 2011.
To join the beta review program for Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.0, visit Microsoft Connect:http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219168

Introduction to Windows #Intune | part 1 – Infrastructure overview #sysctr

Last week I was at Microsoft site following a technical workshop of Windows Intune.

Windows Intune is a cloud based services which provides client management solution for managing and securing PC’s for small and midsize companies in any location throughout the internet. Today companies are facing challenges in managing PC’s. Think about multiple configurations, different versions and licenses. Lack of insight and reactive response instead of pro-active to support issues are topics on top of mind of administrators. Windows Intune provides online PC management from anywhere over the internet. The management console is browser-based (Silverlight is required), so administrators can be anywhere. Windows Intune requires no server infrastructure, offers per-seat licensing and it is easy to deploy, use and maintain.

Overview of System Center Announcements during #MMS2011 #sysctr

During MMS2011 a lot of announcements were made concerning new System Center products releases and important changes. Herewith a summary of the announcements so far:

• System Center Advisor
• System Center Concero
• System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta-2
• System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta
• System Center Orchestrator
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta
• Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) Beta