Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Please note: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection are now provided as a single installation package.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager helps you to empower people to use the devices and applications they need to be productive, while maintaining corporate compliance and control. As more and more consumer devices enter the workplace, IT faces the challenge of delivering a rich experience to users across multiple devices – both personal and corporate-owned – without giving up the control needed to protect company assets. Configuration Manager provides a unified infrastructure for mobile, physical and virtual environments. Configuration Manager also helps you to be more efficient with simplified administrative tools and improved compliance enforcement.
New features in the release candidate include:

• Improved endpoint protection functionality, with integrated setup, management and reporting of System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection. (see below)
• Improved application catalog design that provides a better, more responsive experience when requesting and downloading applications.
• New support for Windows Embedded devices, including Windows Embedded 7 SP1, POS-Ready 7, Windows 7 Think PC, and Windows Embedded Compact 7.
• Improved compliance enforcement and tracking, with the ability to create dynamic collections of baseline compliance and generate hourly compliance summaries.
• Platform support for deep mobile device management of Nokia Symbian Belle devices. Pending a platform update by Nokia later this calendar year for these devices, customers will be able to try out the management of Nokia devices with Configuration Manager.

System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (previously known as Forefront Endpoint Protection 2012) protects client and server operating systems against the latest threats using industry-leading malware detection technologies. It is built on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, giving customers a unified infrastructure for client security and compliance management. This shared infrastructure lowers ownership costs while providing improved visibility through user-centric malware reporting and control over endpoint management and security.
New features in the release candidate include:

• Support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, including integrated setup, management, and reporting.
• Role-based management across security and operations.
• Improved alerting and reporting, with near real-time and user-centric data views.
• More efficient delivery of signature updates using new automatic software deployment model.

Need more information? See the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection product details pages.

Finally!  System Center App Controller 2012 Beta has hit the Download Center.  And while it’s destined to be the most misunderstood product in the System Center suite, it may ultimately be the most influential for this generation of Cloud management products because really no one has anything like this.  That’s right.  I said it.

App Controller 2012 essentially provides:

1. PORTAL:  End user self-service portal for cloud services
2. PUBLIC/PRIVATE CLOUD:  Control over both on-prem & off-prem services
3. APP TEMPLATE CREATION:  Allow app owners to create & maintain on-going profiles of their n-tier apps to define how to build/scale them
4. TEMPLATE LIBRARY:  Catalog of App Templates for automating scale, builds, maintenance
5. DEPLOYMENT:  Automation of cloud app creation, maintenance, scale through SCOM, SCCM, SCVMM, & most importantly Orchestrator.

System Center App Controller 2012 beta provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you:

• Easily configure, deploy, and manage services through a highly intuitive service-centric interface, while using a library of standard templates
• Create, manage, and move services using a web-based interface that presents a customized view of resources based on your role in the organization
• View private and public cloud services in a single view and get granular control of application components at each layer

Benefits
System Center App Controller 2012 delivers the following benefits:

• Self-service Application Management Across Private and Public Clouds
  Using System Center App Controller 2012, datacenter administrators can flexibly delegate a customized, role-based view of your private cloud services (deployed on Virtual Machine Manager based infrastructure) and Windows Azure services, thus allowing you to easily manage them yourself. App Controller 2012 also enables you to move applications and components fluidly within public and private cloud environments.
• Easy Deployment and Operations for Your Application Services Through a Highly Intuitive Service-centric Interface
  App Controller 2012 enables you to design, build, configure, and deploy services using a library of delegated templates with predefined configuration values. Your datacenter administrators can assign to you the required authority to deploy applications, confident in the knowledge that these predefined service templates will be compliant with company IT standards and policies.
• Visibility and Control with Unified Console Across Private and Public Cloud Resources and Applications
  App Controller 2012 offers consolidated views of your private and public cloud services, including the virtual machines that represent those services. It also empowers you with granular control and visibility into application components, along with the ability to track on-going jobs and maintain a detailed history of changes.

DOWNLOAD:  System Center App Controller 2012 Beta
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27843

Remember Opalis Integration Server?  The lone “Java” product in Microsoft’s management family?  It’s about to be come a distant memory because the .NET version is about to be released as an official System Center product… Integration Packs and all!

The System Center Orchestrator 2012 Release Candidate provides the capability of automation of workflows (Runbooks) across other System Center and 3rd party products. These runbooks are created in the Runbook Designer, deployed via the Deployment manager and run and monitored locally or remotely via the Orchestrator Console.
Feature Summary:
As part of the release candidate we have delivered the following features:

• Install Experience
  • Improved prerequisite checks
  • Implementation of Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), error reporting and interface with Microsoft Update
  • Allow user to log on as a service and select different service accounts for each service
  • Design Improvements( Error handling, port # for DB, increased logging, enabling log on as a service automatically)
  • UI Consistency between other System Center components
  • Time bomb(easy conversion from EVAL to licensed SKU)
• Security improvements
  • Encryption of DB connection
  • Encryption/decryption of passwords
• Globalization
  • Unicode capable
  • Convert SSH to Unicode
• Web service
  • Versioning
• Orchestration Console
  • Browse events
  • View events
  • UI Updates
• Bug fixes across all product features

The System Center Orchestrator 2012 Integration Toolkit contains wizard-based utilities for creating new activities and integration packs for System Center Orchestrator 2012. It also allows developers utilizing the Orchestrator SDK to create new custom integration packs for System Center Orchestrator 2012.
Feature Bullet Summary:
Orchestrator Integration Toolkit

• Rebranding, security enhancements, new generic activity icons
• Wizards can upgrade 6.3 activities and IPs to be compatible with Orchestrator
• Fixes issues with upgrading IPs multiple times
• Fixes issues with DLL / dependent file conflicts among different IPs

The System Center Orchestrator 2012 Release Candidate Integration Packs provides the capability to interface and control other existing System Center products through custom activities which are used to create runbooks.
System Center products supported:

• System Center 2007 Operations Manager
• System Center 2010 Service Manager
• System Center 2008 Virtual Machine Manager
• System Center 2010 Data Protection Manager
• System Center 2007 Configuration Manager

DOWNLOAD: System Center Orchestrator 2012 Release Candidate
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27842

LINK:  User Guide for System Center Orchestrator 2012 Release Candidate
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh237242.aspx

It’s official.  System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta is now available.

System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta

System Center Service Manager 2012 beta provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.

System Center Service Manager 2012 beta helps standardize service delivery across your organization by:

• Enabling IT to deliver flexible self-service experiences so application owners can request private cloud capacity to deploy services.
• Integrating people, processes, and information across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
• Standardizing datacenter processes with workflows designed around industry best practices.

Benefits:

• Enables Self-Service for Application Owners and End-Users
• Integrates People, Processes, and Information Across Enterprise Infrastructure and Applications
• Standardizes Datacenter Processes with Workflows Designed Around Industry Best Practices
• System Center Service Manager Authoring Tool (For SCSM 2012 Beta)

DOWNLOAD:  System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27844

Join us beginning at 10:00PM as we celebrate the launch of “Halo: Combat Evolved – 10th Anniversary Edition”

Show off your skills in tournaments and enter to win great prizes. Bonus: The first 100 gamers attending a launch event will receive a complimentary gift bag.

Pre-order and score $25!
Pre-order Halo: Combat Evolved – 10th Anniversary Edition and get a $25 gift card per title when you pick up your purchases. **

* Open to guests 17 years and older with proof of age. Guests under 17 no admitted without parent or legal guardian.

** Limited-time offer value with pre-order of eligible products through 11/14 or while supplies last. Requires pre-order deposit, which is non-refundable if pre-ordered product is not purchased or refund is not requested within 120days of the product release date. Offer cannot be redeemed for cash or combined with any other offer or promotion. Not available online. Limit one gift card per pre-order game title. Value of gift card may not be applied to purchased of the eligible products. Pre-order and gift card terms and conditions apply. See an associate for details.

DATE/TIME:
November 14th 10:00PM-1:00AM

LOCATION:
Westfield Century City
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
3102283550
http://microsoftstore.com/losangeles

Join us for an informal event where the true agenda is up to you! That’s right, we will have a list of topics (such as ways to get on Windows Server 2008 R2) plus your write-in topic(s) and we will put it to a vote. The ones that get the most votes will be the ones that get discussed. This will be very interactive and works best with participation from everyone. We look forward to having you join us for this new informal event.

DATE/TIME:
Monday, November 14, 2011 1:00 PM-5:00PM

LOCATION:
Microsoft Los Angeles Office
MPR
333 S Grand Ave
Suite 3300 Los Angeles California 90071

REGISTRATION:
Technet Events:  IT Camp
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032497246&Culture=en-US

Event ID: 1032497246

Register by Phone: 1-877-MSEVENT (9AM-7PM EST M-F)

Does your organization have multiple server loads deployed in production? Would you like to monitor their compliance configuration using Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3?

As part of a select group of our key customers, we invite you to participate in the Beta review program for the following Configuration Packs designed to work with Configuration Manager 2007 R3:

1. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 BPA Configuration Pack
2. Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 R2 BPA Configuration Pack
3. Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 SP2 BPA Configuration Pack
4. Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 R2 SP1 DHCP Server Role BPA Configuration Pack (supported on Server Core as well)
5. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Remote Desktop Services Server Role BPA Configuration Pack
6. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Web Server (IIS) Role BPA Configuration Pack

These new configuration packs are designed to provide organizations with an end-to-end solution to help monitor server workload compliance against the desired state for your organization. By participating in this Beta review program, you have the opportunity to provide timely feedback to help us ensure that these resources meet your needs!

TIMELINE
In order to influence the final version of these configuration packs, we encourage you to provide your constructive feedback during the Beta review period. Feedback will be accepted through November 7, 2011.

FEEDBACK
Attached to the download for this Beta review, please examine the user guides and scenario documents for each configuration pack. If you observe any scenario gaps, functionality issues or code defects, please provide this as feedback to us. We will carefully review your feedback and fix any issues that are critical to success of these configuration packs for your organization.

To submit your feedback, please use the Feedback link in the left pane of the Beta review program page (see the screenshot below) or send us an email message at smcpbeta@microsoft.com.

DISCUSSION GROUP
Our team has established a newsgroup for our Beta customers to facilitate additional discussion and provide you with a means to ask questions to the product team. To access the discussion group, click the Discussions link in the left pane of the Beta review program page.

HOW TO DOWLOAD THE BETA REVIEW PROGRAM
Follow these steps in sequence, OR THE DOWNLOAD WON’T WORK.

1. Sign in with your Windows Live® ID and access theProgram Home Page (https://connect.microsoft.com/site715/program6809).
2. Reference the download link for this Beta review program (it will be available through November 7,2011) and clickDownload (http://connect.microsoft.com/site715/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=39357).

We look forward to hearing from you! Thank you for taking the time to review and provide feedback on these Beta materials. Please let us know if you have any questions.

MMS News and Updates!
To receive news and updates about the MMS 2012 event, please email the MMS 2012 Notification Request alias.

WEB SITE:
http://www.mms-2011.com/mms2012

Get Ready for Tomorrow, Today – Hyper-V Virtualization for the Cloud
Virtualization is one of the critical elements of networks operations of all kinds. Virtualization is a key to cloud operations. Joins us as we discuss the key components of virtualization that provide the operational foundation for both Public and Private Cloud.

Private Cloud 201: Microsoft Private Cloud Tools and Technologies
So you have heard the private cloud story from a 101 level and you want to know more. Join us as we discuss Private cloud in greater detail with a focus on the tools and technologies that make Private Cloud such an appetizing It and business opportunity for business both large and small.

DATE/TIME:
Monday, November 14, 2011 8:30 AM-12:30PM

LOCATION:
Microsoft Los Angeles Office
MPR
333 S Grand Ave
Suite 3300 Los Angeles California 90071

REGISTER:
“TechNet Events Presents: The Pathway to the Private Cloud – Los Angeles”
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032497081&Culture=en-US

REGISTER BY PHONE:
1-877-MSEVENT (9AM-7PM EST M-F)
Event ID: 1032497081

Windows Phone 7.5 (codename: Mango) is here – and we want to give you the upper hand on this new release. Windows Phone Camps are free, hands-on events designed to deliver everything you need to develop and publish a Windows Phone application. The camps are ideal for students and seasoned developers alike, whether you create for Windows Phone, Android, Symbian, Web OS, or iPhone. Interested in making money? We’ll lead discussions on how to earn money from your applications and generate buyers for your apps. We’ll also be sharing recent innovations, inside tricks, and a wealth of Windows Phone know-how.

What’s a Windows Phone Camp?
A free, full day event chock-full of everything you need to know to develop a Windows Phone application. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just getting started with .NET development this full-day event is for you. Interested in profit? We’ll also lead discussions on how to monetize your applications and generate profits with your apps.

Don’t miss the new Windows Phone 7.5 (codename "Mango") features as well – with detailed sessions in the afternoon around Fast Application Switching, Multitasking, Live Tiles, Push Notifications, and more.

The day will be capped with an open lab hands-on session and prizes for apps completed. This is the perfect opportunity to begin work on your dream application, or finish that app you’ve already started, with Windows Phone experts there to guide you every step of the way. Bring your own laptop to join in the fun and show off your killer app!

Agenda

• 8:00 AM Arrival & Registration
• 9:00 AM Windows Phone 7.5 Overview for Developers
• 9:45 AM Building Windows Phone 7.5 Applications with Visual Studio
• 10:45 AM Break
• 11:00 AM Building Windows Phone 7.5 Applications with Silverlight
• 12:00 PM Lunch
• 12:45 PM Windows Phone 7.5 Fast Application Switching, Tombstoning,
  and Multitasking
• 1:45 PM Break
• 2:00 PM Live Tiles and Push Notifications
• 3:00 PM Monetizing a Windows Phone 7.5 Application
• 3:30 PM Build Your App or Work on a Hands-On Lab
• 5:00 PM Be What’s Next > Event Closing & Raffle

Prerequisites
Bring a notebook computer and identification. Also check out the APP HUB where you can get developer tools, learn about application features, understand common task for Apps and register and load your APP.

Your chance to win*
Don’t miss a chance to win your very own Windows Phone (ARV $500) – plus many other cool prizes. No purchase necessary, but you must be present to win.

Notes:
This event is brought to you by Microsoft and is free of charge. However, you are responsible for booking and paying for your own travel and accommodations.

——————

TIME/DATE:
Thursday, November 10, 2011
8:00 AM-5:00PM

LOCATION:
Annenberg Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Hwy
Santa Monica California 90402
United States

Parking will not be hosted for this event; self-parking is available for $6.00 in public City of Santa Monica parking lots adjacent to venue. Guests may self-pay at the Park & Pay machines located in the lots.

REGISTER: 
Windows Phone Developer Camp – Santa Monica
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032494662&Culture=en-US 

Event ID: 1032494662

Register by Phone: 1-877-MSEVENT (9AM-7PM EST M-F)