The Configuration Manager documentation team has recently published the survival guide on the TechNet wiki. The Survival Guide is a wiki topic meant to capture all the best information on the Web.
Check it out here:
Step into the System Center Virtual Labs for Free
No complex setup or installation is required to try out System Center running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks any time.
Right now the following labs are available:
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager:
System Center 2012 Operations Manager:
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager:
All available labs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/bb539977
Microsoft is getting ready for a new System Center release, and the requirement for licensees has changed. Read all about it and make sure that you organization is ready for the changes:
Licensing details:
Two month ago, I had the honor of presenting at Microsoft Campus Days 2011 in Copenhagen.
I had two sessions, and both sessions topics was about software distribution in System Center Configuration Manager 2012.
The sessions was recorded (In Danish), and is now available on Microsoft TechNet.
Session I15: System Center Configuration Manager 2012: Application Lifecycle Management Part 2 of 2
Download slides from the presentation here from.
Enjoy.
Two month ago, I had the honor of presenting at Microsoft Campus Days 2011 in Copenhagen.
I had two sessions, and both sessions topics was about software distribution in System Center Configuration Manager 2012.
The sessions was recorded (In Danish), and is now available on Microsoft TechNet.
Session I15: System Center Configuration Manager 2012: Application Lifecycle Management Part 1 of 2
Download slides from the presentation here from.
Enjoy.
The current supported configuration of SQL Server for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, is Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 and Cumulative Update 4. I always use unattended installation of SQL (and anything else if possible). Here are the command lines I uses to setup SQL for ConfigMgr 2012:
SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Setup:
setup.exe /q /ACTION=Install /ERRORREPORTING="False" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,RS,AS,IS,SSMS,TOOLS,BIDS,ADV_SSMS,CONN /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /INSTANCEDIR=D:\MSSQL\ /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /RSSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /RSSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /ASSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ASSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /ISSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ISSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASCOLLATION="Latin1_General_CI_AS" /SQLCOLLATION="SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" /TCPENABLED="1" /NPENABLED="1" /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms
SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Setup:
SQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2528583-x64-ENU.exe /Action=Patch /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms /AllInstances /Quiet
SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 CU4 Setup:
SQLServer2008R2-KB2633146-x64.exe /Action=Patch /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms /AllInstances /Quiet
SP1 and CU4 downloads links:
SQL Server 2008 R8 Service Pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26727
Cumulative Update 4 for SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1:
Register for Event here.
Starts: 30 November 2011 13:00
Time zone: (GMT) GMT, London
Duration: 4 hour(s) 30 minute(s)
13:00-13:45 System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
This 45 minute session will dive into the latest release of Microsoft’s multi-hypervisor management technology, System Center Virtual Machine Manger 2012.
‘VMM’ 2012 will allow you to optimise your existing investments by managing multi-hypervisor environments including Hyper-V, Xen and VMware! You can pool and dynamically allocate virtualised datacenter resources (compute, network and storage) enabling the self-service infrastructure experience your business demands. This is all delivered with flexible role based delegation and access control
13:45-14:30 System Center 2012 Operations Manager
It’s all about the App! In this 45 minute session we will cover how Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 can bring intelligent heterogeneous monitoring and management of your line of business applications, business services and the underlying infrastructure fabric including servers (physical and virtual), SANs and switches along with other datacentre resources.
Learn how business services can be measured against SLA’s and how this information can be surfaced to business and application owners.
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:30 System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 makes it easier for you to empower users to be productive with a unified infrastructure that delivers and manages rich user experiences across corporate and consumer devices.
During this 45 minute session we will demonstrate the capabilities of the latest version of our flagship System Center technology which dates back 17 years to SMS 1.0
Patch/Application/OS deployment, power management, asset intelligence & mobile device management will all be covered through live demonstration.
15:30-16:15 System Center 2012 Service Manager and Orchestrator
Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010 is Microsoft’s ‘best of breed’ ITIL & MOF service delivery tool. By integrating with the other System Center technologies as well as Active Directory & Exchange, SCSM can handle all problem, change & incident requirements generated in today’s fast paced world of ICT.
By working in conjunction with Microsoft System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis), we can easily automate a lot of the day to day manual tasks an IT organisation face. This will enable you to build a cost-effective and flexible private cloud infrastructure that responds to incidents, problems and change requests on the fly with minimal if any ‘IT touch’.
16:15-16:30 Break
16:30-17:15 System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 continues to build on the legacy of providing unified data protection for Windows servers and clients as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution from Microsoft, for Windows environments. Data Protection Manager provides the best protection and most supportable restore scenarios from disk, tape and cloud — in a scalable, manageable and cost-effective way.
Already a critical part of Microsoft private cloud infrastructures, Data Protection Manager provides the capability to protect virtual machines in your IT environment, as well as the applications running on them. With the 2012 release Data Protection Manager grows these existing capabilities with support for item level recovery, even when Data Protection Manager is running in a virtual machine
Last week I was presenting at Microsoft Campus Days in Copenhagen. During one of my presentations on Application Management using Configuration Manager 2012, I got a question on dependencies, and how to see what applications (Deployment Types) depends on a specific application, before you retire or delete an the application.
On the References tab for the application, you can see which Applications that depend on this application.
I don’t remeber who asked the question but here is the answer. 
Enjoy.
Awesome! I’ve been selected to participate in Tech·Ed North America 2011 as a Microsoft Product Expert in the Technical Learning Center (TLC).
This is is my 3th TechEd where I get the chance to staff as a Microsoft Product Expert (Ask the Experts) in the Configuration Manager booth. I’m really looking forward to get the chance to talk to customers and show them all the great features in Configuration Manager 2012.
So if you get the time, please drop by the Configuration Manager booth, and talk to us.
See you in Atlanta!
Looking to get a head start on System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (aka Configuration Manager v.Next)? If so then you’ll be happy to know that nominations for the ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 2 Technology Adoption Program (TAP) are now open.
You can find the nomination for the ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 2 TAP here.
Read the full story here.
