Currently a lot of organizations want to save money and cut back on hardware and power with the great green IT wave landing in most organizations right now. OpsMgr can help you that. VMM 2008 has the ability to manage and optimize performance, load and availability and cut back on the off hour work by leveraging the heterogenic environment to a single management console in combination with PRO ( Performance and Resource Optimization ) it does give you the insides and tips in your environment. So System Center Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager will give you the tools you need the manage it all.

But how can i select the best virtualization candidate in my environment to make the first steps in optimizing my infrastructure? The answer is easier than expected.

To select the best virtualization candidates just import the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and the System Center Virtualization Reports 2008 Management pack from the catalog to run the report for virtualization candidate selection, even when you not using VMM 2008 in your environment.

This MP is not only for the SCOM 2007 R2 users but can be used in SCOM 2007 SP1 too. Just download the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 and import the Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2008.mp and the Microsoft.Virtualization.Reports.2008.mp and you can run your reports.

Getting into the report go, in the SCOM console, to the reporting area and navigate to the System Center Virtualization reports 2008  and select the Virtualization Candidates report. Now you can define the parameters for you selection of virtualization candidates.

Start identifying you virtualization candidates and building your dynamic datacenter, have fun with it!

Update: The selection process for virtual candidates relays on the “Virtual machine” property “IsVirtualMachine” to be FALSE for selecting the physical machines in your environment. The downside to that property is that VMWare virtual machines are not detected so the generated reports will show the physical machines you want to see and the virtual VMWare machines.

The solution to that problem is the following Management pack made by Pete Zerger of the System Center Central. Thanks Pete!

Virtual Machine Discovery MP for OpsMgr 2007

This MP extends existing discovery of virtual machines by Operations Manager and Essentials to include VMware guests. The MP will update the “IsVirtualMachine” property of the Windows Computer object to TRUE for VMware guests. Also disables and replaces the existing discovery rule that sets this value to false for non-MS VMs.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

As a System Center Operations Manager Specialist I’m happy to tell you all that SCOM 2007 R2 has hit Release to Manufacturing today. The Operations Manager Team has worked for two years to get this version out there. Thank for that!

The SCOM 2007 R2 is a solid piece of work with numerous new and improved features to make it easier to do your daily task in getting a better an more cost effective infrastructure. In this article I will discuss a few of the new improvements and features in R2.

One of the big eye catchers is the cross platform functionality that OpsMgr 2007 R2 provides out of the box. OpsMgr 2007 R2 will integrated touch and feel for both Windows and Unix/Linux based clients. With this integration you can watch your environments health through a single pane of glass.

The SCOM 2007 R2 supported cross platform operating systems are:

When Service levels are in place the access and security to these IT services becomes more and more interesting. Audit Collection Services ACS gives the insight IT organizations need to drive compliance and investigate un-trusted and unwanted access to there services. ACS provides an integrated solution and with SCOM 2007 R2 the ability to use ACS on no windows systems will broaden de scope as a complete solution for compliancy.

Ease of operations is always a nice to have but in these times when application updates and product renewal is a day to day operations the ease of use and ease to operate is key for any product. SCOM 2007 R2 even made it a bit easier. A full upgrade from the SCOM 2007 SP1 is supported and all tuning and configuration you have done over the last two years will stay in place. Notifications where simplified and the the latest Management packs will provide reports with easier object selection. Enormous performance increate in console usage, which was a big down side in SCOM 2007 and SCOM 2007 SP1. Even the show updated management pack function as was used in MOM 2005 is back in SCOM 2007 R2. Not as an alert but when importing Management packs from the online catalog you can select the option to show update Management pack which you have installed in your environment.

 If you want to tryout all these features in the new version download the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 evaluation edition. I will get in more detail about some of the new features in some upcoming articles.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

Brad talked about Windows 7, App-V and Med-V giving these feature to the end user without bothering them with technical details or action to give the full functionality. With windows 7 the new feature that will help provide these goals in a secure and cost effective way will be:

• Direct Acces
• Branch Cache
• Federated Search
• Navigation
• Bitlocker
• Bitlocker on the Go
• Applocker
• Security Development lifecycle
• Powershell
• Windows client troubleshooting platform
• Deployment tools
• VDI enhancements

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 with MDOP and System Center will provide Discover & Assess, Compatibility, Deployment and User productivity, faster and easier in every stage for the modern client. To really get this on the road Microsoft is changing there client licensing ECAL to support full Client lifecycle management. New in the ECAL will be the DPM client CAL and the System Center Service Manager Client CAL. Service Manager will be key in these scenarios for delivering enriched client support, self-service and desired operation state in the Desktop optimization model, based on the infrastructure optimization model.

All these solution apply to the onsite IT infrastructure but the future of IT, Like Bob Kelly stated in yesterdays keynote, is the Cloud. Brad Anderson announced the System Center Online Desktop Manager to be available in beta shortly. The power of choice in this scenario will be the On-Premise support model, cloud support model and the combination by the use of federation. The V1 will not have the federation options but in the 6 month update cycle federation will come available shortly after the V1.

Some of the announcements made at the keynote where Configurations Manager Service pack 2 within 60 days and of course the always interesting System Center Road map.

Will keep you posted on the latest MMS 2009 news.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

Today at MMS 2009 Bob Kelly presented the MMS 2009 attendees a gimp on how the Cloud will effect the future of IT and how the Microsoft Windows Server and System Center will live up to the cloud expectation. The Cloud will provide Reliable, Predictable and automated service to companies and end users to drive their business and enable the evolution of IT. But is the Cloud The evolution of IT?

The cloud will provide services and scalability for all, from managed datacenters or your own organizations server room so we are the cloud!!! With this knowledge Microsoft explained the private cloud and Public cloud scenario where federation and management integrate seamless in both clouds.

The Private cloud will be the interesting part because that’s our environment connect to the world. The change in management will be the service oriented look at the infrastructure and how to scale out using the cloud to leverage with business needs, the Dynamic IT model will provide additional investments in virtualization, security and interoperability to get connected and in control. Some of the tools needed to accomplice this where announces by Bob Kelly in the MMS 2009 Keynote:

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 within 30 day with key futures:

• SLA monitoring
• Visio integration
• Performance dashboard
• Linux/Unix Support by the use of open standards and common discovery for all server types
• Partner investments on PRO for VMM by HP and DELL Hardware management and cross platform MP’s for Apache, MySQL, Orcale and VMWare.

Virtual Machine Manager with cloud connection (migrating offline machines to the cloud for leveraging your resources, Demo by MaximumASP) possibilities and live migration in combination with Hyper-V in Windows server 2008 R2.

Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit for Hosters available today!

Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit for Enterprises within 60 days

With all these new announcements the strategies to get your business cloud ready:

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

So why do you need a framework like TOGAF 9. From its origin IT was introduced to speedup business process so companies could make more money faster. Somewhere along the way IT became a technology driven, self sustaining machine where we all needed more gadgets without contributing to the added business value. Enterprise architecture is one of the ways to get the primary goal of IT back within normal costs and in control for a organization.

Have a look at TOGAF version 9 and see where it can help you improve you business with or even without IT.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

But now with the Server Management Suite Enterprise (SMSE) licensing model things are made easy. Normally easier is more expansive and in this case it sometimes is. When your just going to buy SCOM or SCCM licenses and your using standard OML for SCOM you still have to make a good calculation before going to the SMSE license type. 

When you want to use SCCM, SCOM and are on or building a virtual infrastructure the SMSE license will make it cheaper and you can start using Data protection Manager for only the license management server costs.

One of the shown license advantages in a Microsoft client environment was the following monitoring scenarios:

In this case the 100 virtual machines are license covered by the SMSE and your only paying for the hosts not for the virtual machines. according to the Microsoft the System Center Virtual Machine Manager will be added to the SMSE as well so a complete and easy to calculate Server Management platform license can be used.

Microsoft definition of SMSE: Comprehensive solution for end-to-end management of physical and virtual server environments that includes the Enterprise Server management licenses for Operations Manager 2007, Configuration Manager 2007, and Data Protection Manager 2007; the license for Virtual Machine Manager 2007; and, rights to manage an unlimited number of operating system environments on a single server.

Not mentioned in this article are the required Server 200X Standard, Enterprise and Data center licenses. But when your are running a lot of VM’s take al look at the Data center value proposition with the unlimited amount Virtual Machine options!!!

So, a small recap to see if SMSE is the licensing for your organization:

• Your running a big number of virtual machines and want SCOM for monitoring
• Your using SCOM and SCCM to manage your complete environment, running some virtual machines
• Your using SCOM and SCCM to manage your complete environment and want to use DPM or VMM
• Your using DPM and SCCM, SCOM or VMM running some virtual machines
• You want to use SCOM and VMM

For more information visit the Microsoft System Center License Site and save yourselves some money.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

For starters here is a summary of the Server 2008 Hyper-V features:

• Extendable guest support
  • Multi processor (up to 4)
  • Large Memory (64 GB)
  • 64-bit support
• Virtual Switch support with VLAN
• Quick migration with intelligent placement
• WMI interface
• Support for XEN -enabled Linux guests

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has the same look and feel as the VMM 2007 but under the hood the are some technical improvements. Microsoft made it possible to discover and connect to your VMWare ESX environment. With this connection you can, almost, completely manage your ESX environment. Vmotion to move server to an other ESX server with intelligent placement. Live migrating from Virtual Server 2005 to Hyper-V Host Cluster. These options are supported for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008. There is the possibilities of migrating Windows 2000 but this only can be done offline so no live migration there. The support for Windows XP and Vista makes a full VDI solution only near future.

The intelligent placement of server is based on CPU, memory, disk I/O and network availability this data is collected from the host machines to give the star rating. So why isn’t this data available in the SCOM 2007 environment? We will see what the future will bring!

The overall architecture of VMM 2008 has the most added value when integrated with Operations manager 2007 and the knowledge driven way they work together where the pro tips are a real cool feature. Microsoft is currently working hard with a lot of third party venders to extend this to feature and make hardware and (virtual)software tips really get the best out of your environment.  

Pro tips noticed by Operations Manager 2007 and integrated in VMM 2008:

In my previous article about SCSM I described the integration of the Service Manager database with the OpsMgr database, just imagine what the will happen when de Configurations Manager database will join this integration and the pro tip will advice you for desired state or and updates where the performance will be increased. It just a look in the possible future.  

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

Service manager will be the new helpdesk application with integration of SCOM 2007 and SCCM 2007 for easy tasks en response actions to provide your end users with the best support possible. SCSM contains the ITIL and MOF based Incident, problem and change management basic workflow which a can be customized and tuned for automatic incident routing. The self service portal will provide users the options to request and install new applications, create and incident and see which services are operational en which are not. This way the support request to support personal could be reduced and more time and money can be invested in innovation. 

Service manager will use the same database as Operation Manger 2007 uses so when in 2010 SCSM will be released the data warehouse of System Center should be quite different. I guess there will be a single data warehouse at the back end for all System Center product and more integration all around. As we now see in VMM 2008 the first steps of integration start to reveal and the pro tips are a good example of that.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

For SCOM 2007 he announced the Cross platform Agents and Management pack for SCOM 2007. With this announcement he made a big step into monitoring heterogeneous environment with the look and feel of the Windows Server platform. So you don’t need to be an UNIX admin to see what is going on and solve basic tasks on a Unix or SUN box. Just like running a task for a Windows server you can launch a mount drive or restart service without ever getting in the linux shell. SCOM 2007 will connect to the server over SSH with the possibility of a security based super user account that can be elevated to root if needed. The following cross platform monitoring options are announced:

• HP-UX 11i v3 PA-RISC
• HP-UX 11i v3 IA64
• Solaris 10 SPARC
• Solaris 10 x86 
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1

Beside the new monitoring features SCOM 2007 will be integrated with Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Inside VMM 2008 the movement of virtual machines across Virtual Server, ESX and Hyper-V will supported with knowledge of the Virtual environment. VMM 2008 will provide admins the best options on where to move a virtual machine and which hosts are the best options. This advise is not created from OpsMgr data but in Side VMM 2008 there is a new feature called pro-tips. Pro-tips provide configuration or environmental tip inside VMM 2008 to solve or improve your virtual environment. SCOM 2007 is getting more important everyday and the importance of SCOM 2007 beside the other management tooling is growing rapidly.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com

Installing VMWare workstation 6.0.2 on the demo machine, Server 2008,  was no problem at all. It run fine until you start a virtual machine inside VMWare:-(. The Virtual machine will boot and after 30 sec in the boot process you will get a blue screen on Server 2008, error code 0×0000124. Just uninstall the Hyper-V role, reboot, and the problem is solved.

Hyper-V is still in beta so no hard feelings there. I think Hyper-V alone is a good candidate for server consolidation, in combination with Virtual Machine Manager it could be a lot more for less, Hyper-V only costs $28 extra on top of Server 2008.

Regards,
Walter Eikenboom
http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com