System Management / ITIL v3

System Management is not only about technology its also about the soft parts on how you manage your IT Environment and business processes with Change Management, Configuration Management etc. System Center is a good suite that adopts well to ITIL and the soft parts about system management.

Microsoft has released a good document on how Microsoft and ITIL go hand in hand. So if you want to read more about it the document liked below will give you a good reading.

You can download it here.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=EDCAAD48-1414-4447-8B1A-A866A146565D&displaylang=en

How Microsoft Moves ITIL v3 from Concept to Practice

Overview
The IT Infrastructure Library has evolved from focusing on functions in its first version, to processes in its second version, and now—with ITIL v3—to addressing the entire service management life cycle, from service conceptualization to continuous service improvement.

Through the integration of Microsoft Solutions Framework, Microsoft Operations Framework, and the recent addition of the Continuous Improvement Roadmap (CIR), Microsoft delivers guidance for managing IT services throughout the life cycle.

This white paper is intended for business and IT professionals who are tasked with ensuring the performance, efficiency, and effectiveness of IT infrastructure services.

ConfigMgr updated documentation (Nov-07)

Microsoft just updated the documentation library for Configuration Manager you can download it here.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=81997356-7f18-48b2-a53a-d6f995a47f35&DisplayLang=en

Overview
The Configuration Manager Documentation Library has been updated. The Documentation Library is the primary documentation for Configuration Manager 2007. The November update contains new material and fixes to documentation problems reported after Configuration Manager 2007 was released. Refer to “What’s New in the Configuration Manager Documentation Library for November 2007” for a list of topics that are new or updated in this version. The updated smsv4.chm will have a date of 11/06/2007 and will overwrite the existing smsv4.chm in %systemroot%help. This information is also available online in the TechCenter Library http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680651.aspx.

Feature Bullet Summary:
The Documentation Library includes the following types of information:
• Setup and upgrade instructions.
• Information about new features and backwards compatibility.
• Conceptual descriptions about the technologies and features in Configuration Manager 2007.
• Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in Configuration Manager 2007
• Step-by-step topics to guide you through sample deployments
• Scenario topics to provide examples of how the technology might be used
• Security and privacy information about the features
• Troubleshooting information

Introduction to Desired Configuration Management in Configuration Manager 2007

I wrote a brief introduction on Desired Configuration Management (DCM), the article contains information about what DCM is and some guides for importing configuration packs and assigning them. I hope this will bring some light to thoose of you who want to get familiar with DCM.

You can read my article Introduction-to-desired-configuration-management-in-configuration-manager-2007.pdf

DCM Configuration Packs

As I told you earlier the DCM Configuration Packs are now released and available at the following link.

 https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/scp/configmgr07.aspx

Configuration Manager Toolkit

Currently I am at IT Forum in Barcelona and in one of the sessions it was announced that the Configuration Manager Toolkit is planned to become available this or the upcoming week, 6 tools and 1 template will be provided in this toolkit. The core admin tools are:

• Trace32 – Our popular log viewer application

• PolicySpy – Policy viewer that assists in troubleshooting ConfigMgr  2007 clients

• Client Spy – Popular tool for troubleshooting common client tasks including software dist, inventory, and metering

Tools for DCM:

• Model Verification Tool – Used to validate and test DCM configuration items and baselines authored outside of ConfigMgr

• Digest Conversion Tool – Converts existing SMS 2003 DCM solution templates into ConfigMgr 2007 DCM configuration items

• Substitution Variables Tool – Tool used to author configuration items which specifically use chained setting and object discovery.

And the template:

• Updated Security Template for all new ConfigMgr site systems in 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=948e477e-fd3b-4a09-9015-141683c7ad5f&DisplayLang=en

Configuration Manager Pricing

If you want to know more about how licensing works with Configuration Manager the following link will help you get an understanding of how licensing and pricing works for Configuration Manager.

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/configmgr/howtobuy/default.mspx

MVLS

Now you can find the System Center Configuration Manager at the MVLS site.

http://blogs.technet.com/smsandmom/archive/2007/11/06/configuration-manager-2007-rtm-is-now-available-on-the-mvls-site.aspx

Next week there will be alot of System Center Configuration Packs for thoose of you who want to run DCM ( Desired Configuration Management) with configuration baselines from Microsoft for their products, Exchange, SQL etc. So stay tuned if you want to get more information on that.