SCOM Console Install on VMM Server Causes Service Crash

Had a strange one today.

Customer had tried previously to setup the connection between VMM and SCOM but made some mistake somewhere along the line and then uninstalled the SCOM console without removing the connection as they said the console was causing the VMM service to constantly crash.

Having not seen that behaviour before and slightly doubting it somewhat I re-installed the console and sure enough was prevented from accessing the VMM console as the service was crashing.

Just as an added check, I tried running some PowerShell commands to check it wasn't a GUI issue only to be created by error messages complaining that the VMM service wasn't running or accessible.

So I uninstalled the console again which allowed me access back to VMM and running the Get-SCOpsMgrConnection showed me the broken connection.  However attempts to remove via the console or PowerShell were both met by errors telling me I needed the SCOM console installed first in order to manage the connection.  Arh.. slight problem...

After checking everything I could think of (SPN's, SCP's, Service Accounts etc etc) and not finding anything that stood out (Including nothing useful in the event logs) I thought I'd try a timing trick.

So I opened up a SCVMM PowerShell window ready, kicked off the SCOM console install again and then repeatedly spammed Remove-SCOpsMgrConnection -Force and wouldn't you know it after a few messages saying the SCOM console must be installed, just before the install completed the command completed successfully and removed the broken connection.  More to the point the SCOM console installation completed and the VMM service didn't crash.

After recreating the connection everything remained stable, but even though the create connection job ran successfully, the following error was present in the connector details:

“Operations Manager discovery failed with error: “Exception of type ‘Microsoft.VirtualManager.EnterpriseManagement.common.discoverydatainvalidrelationshipsourceexceptionOM10’ was thrown.

This is because the SCOM connection was created with the PRO-Tips enabled but without a SCOM monitoring agent deployed to the VMM Server.
Easily fixable, just untick the PRO and Maintenance Mode connection settings, deploy a SCOM agent to the VMM server and once the agent is installed and reporting, re-enable the options.

Converting a WIM file to VHD on a UEFI system

I always use the excellent Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 script by Mike Kolitz for taking the WIM files from the Windows media and converting them into bootable VHD files.  It's the quickest and easiest way for creating VM Templates in SCVMM.

The script can be found here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Convert-WindowsImageps1-0fe23a8f/

However, I ran into a problem today with the script throwing an error about "Could not get the BootMgr object from the Virtual Disks BCDStore"

It turns out from a couple of replies in the discussion thread of the TechNet Gallery listing that this will generally happen if trying to run the script from a device that uses UEFI to boot, which I happen to be doing.

Thankfully the fix is relatively easy, you just need to modify the script slightly.

1. Do a search in the script for $bcdBootArgs which is usually first referenced at line 4055
2. On the line a couple below (usually 4057) change the following
   "/s $Drive" modify to "/s $Drive /f ALL"

This tells the BCDboot.exe command to create boot entries to enable the vhd(x) to boot for both BIOS and UEFI systems.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744347(v=WS.10).aspx

Save the script and you're good to go!

 

Problems Clustering Virtual Machines on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

I was re-building our lab environment at work the other week in preparation for our big Summit13 event, that and the lab had been trashed over the last year...

As part of the re-build I had decided to implement a couple of virtual machine clusters, one for a scale-out file server and one as a SQL cluster.

I'd deployed the virtual machines for the cluster nodes using Service Templates in SCVMM and as part of that template chosen to use an availability set to ensure the VM's were separated across hosts (a cluster doesn't provide much High Availability if they all reside on the same host that's failed!).

When I started to create the cluster I ran straight into a problem with the Failover Cluster Manager reporting problems due to timeouts when creating the cluster.

Creating a single node cluster worked fine, but then would again fail when trying to add in another node.

I happened to put one of the Hyper-V hosts into maintenance mode for something and it migrated all the VM's onto the same host, at which point creating the cluster worked flawlessly, yay!

However, when the Hyper-V host came back out of maintenance mode and the availability sets kicked in during optimisation forcing a VM node back onto a separate physical host, the clusters broke again, not yay :(

So after some Googling Binging about and a shout on Twitter (Thanks @hvredevoort and @WorkingHardInIT) an issue with Broadcom NICs was brought to my attention and I came across this TechNet Forum post talking about the same issue.

Sophia_whx suggested trying to use Disable-NetAdapterChecksumOffload on the NICs to help with the issue.

So, first things first.  Use the Get-NetAdapterChecksumOffload to see just what the configuration was and sure enough Checksum Offload is enabled for just about all services across the majority of the NICs.

I then used the Disable-NetAdapterChecksumOffload * -TcpIPv4 command which resulted in this:

 

A reboot later and then perform it on the second host and whoa....

For some reason, the virtual switch really didn't like having that done to it.

I wish I had some screenshots, but I went into "get it fixed fast" mode.

 

Basically the switch via powershell was showing as up, the NIC Teaming GUI was showing it down and all the bound adapters as failed. SCVMM had lost all configuration for the switch altogether.

Deleting the switch from SCVMM didn't delete it from the host, but brought it back to life on the host but was missing in SCVMM.  SCVMM then wouldn't redetect it or let you build it again as it was still there, apparently???

 

I had to manually remove the team from a remote NIC Teaming GUI (I could of PowerShell'd it I know!) and then recreated via SCVMM.
 

Anyway... at first this looked to have fixed the clustering within virtual machine issues, but it only delayed the symptoms i.e. it took longer to evict nodes and randomly brought them back online.

 

So next I tried disabling Checksum Offload for all services, being careful not to touch the Virtual Switch this time.

 

Rather than going adapter by adapter I used the following command:

 

Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.Name -notlike "Converged*"} | Disable-NetAdapterChecksumOffload

 

This resulted in the Checksum Offload being disabled for the various services as shown, except for my virtual switch.

After doing this on the other host and giving them a reboot, my clustered virtual machines appear to be nice and stable when split across physical hosts. Yay! Problem fixed.

Just as another side note about Broadcom adapters, there have also been reports of performance issues when the Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) setting is enabled, despite it being a recommended setting.

A quick check of my hosts showed it was enabled:

Another quick PowerShell line later and it wasn't:

Get-NetAdapterVmq -InterfaceDescription Broad* | Disable-NetAdapterVmq

SCVMM - Delete IP Pool

Quick PowerShell snippet for handy reference when I'm playing in the lab and need to delete an IP Pool:

##Display all IP's and the VM's they are assigned to:
$ippool = Get-SCStaticIPAddressPool "Internal Network"
Get-SCIPAddress -StaticIPAddressPool $ippool | ft -property Address,Description,State

##Return all the IP's for that pool ready to remove the pool
$ip = Get-SCIPAddress -StaticIPAddressPool $ippool
$ip | Revoke-SCIPAddress

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 - Where's the goodies?

There's plenty of posts starting to come online now regarding Service Pack 1, especially around installation and new features.

If you're looking for that type of content then you might like to start with these links:

• Kevin Greene's covered installing SCOM SP1- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Kevin Greene's also covered Installing Orchestrator SP1 
• Bob Cornelissen has a good post for the DPM 2012 -> SP1 upgrade here
• Marcel Zehner has you covered for the SCSM SP1 upgrade here
• Russ Rimmerman rounds off the links with ConfigMgr upgrade here

However, I thought it might be useful to pull together a listing of the various downloads that would be handy for anyone about to start implementing from scratch or upgrading alike to have to hand.

1. System Center 2012 Service Pack 1
   Unfortunately I can't list a download link for this as it's not available as a simple upgrade Service Pack.  The Service Pack is actually slipstreamed into the System Center 2012 media to allow you to either install fresh or upgrade from it.
   To obtain it you need to head to one of the following sites with your appropriate subscription account:
• Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC)
• TechNet
• MSDN
• Microsoft Partner Portal
   
2. New and Updated Orchestrator (SCORCH) Integration Packs (IP's)
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34611
    
   Orchestrator Integration Toolkit
   System Center 2012 SP1 Integration Packs
   Integration Pack for REST
   Exchange User
   Exchange Admin
   FTP
   Active Directory
   Windows Azure
    
   vSphere IP for SP1 (Bit confused as to whether this IP is still Beta or not)
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34604
    
   HP iLO and OA
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34616
    
   HP Service Manager
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34606
    
   HP Operations Manager
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34610
    
   IBM Tivoli Netcool/Omnibus
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34618
    
3. Configuration Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36213
    
   11 Essential tools to help you manage, maintain and troubleshoot your ConfigMgr environment, containing:
• Client Spy
• Policy Spy
• Security Configuration Wizard Template
• Send Schedule Tool
• Power Viewer Tool
• Deployment Monitoring Tool
• Run Metering Summarization Tool
• Role-based Administration Modelling and Auditing Tool
• Wakeup Spy
• Content Library Transfer
• Content Ownership Transfer
   
4. ConfigMgr Clients for Additional Operating Systems
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36212

    

   Service Pack 1 brings with it support for Mac OSX and Linux/Solaris and these are the native clients for those Operating Systems

    
5. Windows Phone 8 Company Portal
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36060
    
   Might not seem like something to list with System Center, but you'll need this for side loading applications via ConfigMgr and Intune on Windows Phone 8 with System Center SP1
    
6. Service Manager Authoring Tools
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36214

    

   Need to extend or customise SCSM forms or add new classes?  Then you need this Authoring Tool.

    
7. Server App-V Remote Sequencer
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36216

    

   Rather than having to install apps on the same server as your sequencer, you can now use this tool to install software on a remote server and monitor it for sequencing.

    
8. Data Protection Manager (DPM) Azure Online Backup Update
   

   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2779569

    

   Following very quickly on SP1's heels is this update for DPM that brings the following new or improved features to DPM's ability to utilise the Azure Online Backup Service:

    
• This update improves the performance of Windows Azure Online Backup.
• Windows Azure Online Backup support for a SQL Server data source in System Center 2012 SP1 DPM is available.
• The retention range of Windows Azure Online Backup for System Center 2012 SP1 DPM is increased to support 120 recovery points.
   
9. Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2785682
   
   Hot on the heels of Service Pack 1 and before SP1 is even fully Generally Available is Update Rollup 1 bringing a collection of further bug fixes to System Center 2012 with SP1.
    
10. Visio 2010 & SharePoint 2010 Extensions
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29268
    
    This Visio 2010 Add-in will enable diagrams to show health states of System Center 2012 - Operations Manager managed objects within the Visio diagram. This live health state functionality is available both when viewing the document in Visio 2010 and in SharePoint 2010.
     
11. Visual Studio Authoring Extensions (VASE)
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30169
    
    The System Center 2012 Visual Studio Authoring Extensions—VSAE—is an add-in for Visual Studio 2010 Professional provides Lifecycle Management Tools to support Management Pack Authoring.
     
12. Visio MP Designer (VMPD)
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30170
    
    The System Center 2012 Visio MP Designer—VMPD—is an add-in for Visio 2010 Premium that allows you to visually design a System Center Operations Manager Core Monitoring Management Pack.
     
13. System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Manager Package Conversion Manager 2.0
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34605
    
    Package Conversion Manager (PCM) is a feature pack download that lets you to convert ConfigMgr 2007 packages into System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Manager applications.
     
14. System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36524
    
    The CSV XML merging tool makes CSV VM backup serialization easier for Windows 2008R2 CSV Cluster environment.
     
15. Global Service Monitor (GSM) Management Packs
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36422
    
    These management packs enable the System Center Global Service Monitor functionality within System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1
     
16. System Center 2012 Service Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36497

    Addons for Service Manager including:

    IT Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Process Management Pack

    System Center Cloud Services Process Pack - coming soon

System Center 2012 SP1 Setup Software Prerequisites

Since I'm updating my lab environment (more like a wipe and reload) to Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012 I thought I'd just take the time quickly (mainly for my own reference) to document the prerequisites needed for deploying the various components.

This is all based on installing it on Windows Server 2012 as the Server OS and SQL Server 2012 in a clustered, named instance setup.

This post is focused on software pre-reqs, not design or account pre-reqs.  See my other post here about service accounts and System Center 2012.  This post is also not a step by step install guide.


Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
Very simple for SCVMM, before the SCVMM installation install the Windows ADK and only choose:

• Deployment Tools
• Windows Preinstallation environment (Windows PE)

Alternatively you can use the following PowerShell snippet to automate the download and install of the ADK components if your server has Internet access:

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$ADKurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/9/F/99F5E440-5EB5-4952-9935-B99662C3DF70/adk/adksetup.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($ADKurl, "$dwnld\adksetup.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\adksetup.exe" -Wait -ArgumentList "/quiet /features OptionId.DeploymentTools OptionId.WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment"

After that there is nothing extra required.



Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr)
Slight bug/feature in Server 2012 when it comes to installing .NET Framework 3.5 where you'll need the install media to get it installed using the following command:
N.B. This command line assumes you have the source media in the D drive.

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess


To install all other features via PowerShell:

Get-Module ServerManager

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Windows-Auth,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Metabase,Web-WMI,BITS,RDC, NET-Framework-Features,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,NET-HTTP-Activation, NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,UpdateServices-Services,UpdateServices-RSAT


Also required is the Windows ADK and only choose:

• Deployment Tools
• Windows Preinstallation environment (Windows PE)
• User State Migration Tool (USMT)

Alternatively you can use the following PowerShell snippet to automate the download and install of the ADK components if your server has Internet access:

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$ADKurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/9/F/99F5E440-5EB5-4952-9935-B99662C3DF70/adk/adksetup.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($ADKurl, "$dwnld\adksetup.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\adksetup.exe" -Wait -ArgumentList "/quiet /features OptionId.DeploymentTools OptionId.WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment OptionId.UserStateMigrationTool"

ConfigMgr has more pre-reqs (Silverlight 5 etc) but these should be remediated by the ConfigMgr installer automatically.

Service Manager (SCSM)
For all SCSM roles we need to use dism to add .Net 3.5 before we can even start the installer

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Management Server & Data Warehouse
SQL Analysis Management Objects (AMO) from here
SQL Native Client from here N.B As stated earlier this is the SQL 2012 Native Client, you'll need the version matching your SQL environment.

Both of these pre-reqs are part of the SQL 2012 Feature Pack

Report Viewer 2008 SP1 is also required, but not on the Data Warehouse.

If the server you are installing SCSM on has internet access then you could use this Powershell snippet to download and install the Prerequisites automatically.

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$AMOurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239666&clcid=0x409'
$SNCurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239648&clcid=0x409'
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/4/F/04F99ADD-9E02-4C40-838E-76A95BCEFB8B/ReportViewer.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($AMOurl, "$dwnld\SQL2012AMO.msi")
$object.DownloadFile($SNCurl, "$dwnld\SQL2012NCli.msi")
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -ArgumentList /i, "$dwnld\SQL2012AMO.msi", /qn -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -ArgumentList /i, "$dwnld\SQL2012NCli.msi", /qn, IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe" -ArgumentList /q -Wait



Orchestrator (SCORCH)
Again, we need to use dism to add .Net 3.5 before we can even start the installer

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

The only other pre-req is the IIS role, but if this isn't installed the SCORCH setup will do this for you anyway.

However, if you'd like to prep the server manually, use the following PowerShell command:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Asp-Net,Web-CGI,Web-Mgmt-Tools,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45,MSMQ,RDC,WAS



Operations Manager (SCOM)

Operations Console
Microsoft Report Viewer 2010 Redistributable Package is required on any device where the console is to be installed and that is usually at least one management server.

The following PowerShell script will download and install it for you.

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/A/1/EA1BF9E8-D164-4354-8959-F96843DD8F46/ReportViewer.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe" -ArgumentList /q -Wait


Web Console
The SP1 Operations Manager 2012 web console requires the some IIS Server Features to be enabled.

The following PowerShell line will install and enable the required features:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Asp-Net,Web-CGI,Web-Mgmt-Tools,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Web-Metabase

If for some reason the pre-req checker is complaining about "Enable the ISAPI and CGI restrictions in IIS for ASP.NET 4.x" then try a reboot first but if it still complains then try the following command and then another reboot.  It says the command doesn't work in Server 2012/IIS8 but it worked for me after a reboot.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -enable -r



App Controller
The following PowerShell line will install and enable the required features:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-Core,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Filtering,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Asp-Net45


General
If you need to check if a server has some of the features installed already, use this PowerShell line:

Get-WindowsFeature | where {$_.Installed -eq "True"} | ft DisplayName, Name, Installed

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 RTM & Download

There's been bits of information floating around the internet over the last few days that System Center 2012 SP1 had gone RTM.

Like everything, people were sceptical as there was no official announcement, only a blog post on the DPM forums.

However, it had gone RTM internally and today saw it released to those with TechNet and MSDN subscriptions.

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/subscriptions/securedownloads/#ProductFamilyId=463

For those without TechNet or MSDN, chances are you will still have to wait another week or so until about the 3rd of January (rumoured)

Time to go update the lab!

Installing the SCVMM (Non SP1) console on Windows 8

If you find yourself running the new swanky Windows 8 OS on your desktop that you use for administration, you might run into a problem with trying to install the System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager console for remote admin purposes.

When Service Pack 1 is released (very soon) this isn't too much of an issue, except when you may want to administer a non-SP1 SCVMM setup.

So, there's a "hack" to install the SCVMM console, without SP1, on a Windows 8 machine.

** Firstly - disclaimer - This is in no way shape or form supported and you are to run this at your own risk, it's not my responsibility if it kills your infrastructure!!! **


Steps:

1. Grab the SP1 Beta install folder for SCVMM and copy it locally to a folder called VMMSP1
2. Copy the Non-SP1 install files locally to a folder too called VMMNONSP1
3. Rename the setup folder in either i386 or amd64 depending on your OS in the SP1 media to setupOrig.  In the screen shot below I've done this for the i386 folder.
   
   
   
4. Copy the setup folder for the relevant os (x86/x64) from the non-sp1 folder to the SP1 folder
   
   
   
5. Edit the PrerequisiteInputFile1033.xml in the setup folder copied across to the SP1 folder and look for the Win7 section below:
   
   <LogicDelegate LogicType="or" DelegateId="OSVersion-win7-Fail"
    DelegateNameSpace="Microsoft.VirtualManager.SetupFramework.BuiltInDelegates,SetupFramework"
   DelegateName="RequiredOperatingSystem">
   6.1.7600.0,6.1.9999.9999,Win32NT,WinNT,2
   </LogicDelegate>
6. Add this new section underneath the Win7 section:
   
   <LogicDelegate LogicType="or" DelegateId="OSVersion-win8-Fail"
    DelegateNameSpace="Microsoft.VirtualManager.SetupFramework.BuiltInDelegates,SetupFramework"
   DelegateName="RequiredOperatingSystem">
   6.2.9200.0,6.2.9999.9999,Win32NT,WinNT,2
   </LogicDelegate>
   
   
   
7. Go back to the root level for the OS "bitness" you're doing this for and run SetupVMM.exe
   
   
   
8. Don't worry when you see the splash screen as this will still say SP1, just click "Install"
   
   
9. This will then launch the Non-SP1 install and allow you to step through the options as normal to install the admin console.
   
   
   

As I said before, use this at your own risk and test fully in a lab environment first.  I will not be held responsible for what may go wrong, there's probably a reason Microsoft blocks the install, but I've always hated to be told no so had to try this.

Thanks to Dirk Flakowski for getting me side-tracked on this one today!
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/virtualmachinemanager/thread/07576dd4-bce2-442a-8af8-40213228406c

VMM 2012 SP1 (Beta) with Server 2012 Hyper-V Issue

After migrating my 2008 R2 cluster across to Server 2012 I was having problems adding in the cluster/hosts to SC2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1.

The cluster could be discovered and imported fine, but a few minutes later would report back that it could no longer be managed.

It turns out that because on the rebuild I didn't make the hosts DC's (it's a testlab before someone comments on best practise!!) so the computer accounts got placed into an OU along with the normal servers that had a Group Policy applying some WinRM settings.
Unfortunately doing a winrm /qc or allowing VMM to check that WinRM is enabled doesn't set/check all the required settings are actually in place.

Having a look around I found the following TechNet forum post from Wes Kroesbergen who listed a registry key that's advisable to have set, plus the winrm commands to set all of the required settings.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/virtualmachingmgrhyperv/thread/4bd9be4b-0ff9-46f3-bf32-1b7c1245c494


Wrap the below into a batch file (you can't use these commands via PowerShell before you try), run it on your Hyper-V hosts and you're good to go!

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{CredSSP='True'}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{AllowRemoteShellAccess='True'}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxMemoryPerShellMB='2048'}
winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts='*'}
winrm set winrm/config/client/auth @{CredSSP='True'}

SCVMM 2012 SP1 - Missing properties and unable to refresh VM

Giddy as a kid in a sweet shop I migrated my testlab cluster to Server 2012, migrated my VM's across and installed System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 to manage it.

Straight away I ran into some slightly strange issues.

1. Majority of the Auto Discovered VM's refused to see hardware configuration properties such as:
   Virtual Hard Disks and Controllers
   Virtual Network Cards
2. Majority of the Auto Discovered VM's left hardware configuration properties at defaults, such as:
   Processor Count and Memory Amount
   High Availability Status
3. Every time I tried to refresh a VM I would get the error:
   Error (2923)
   
   A malformed response was received while trying to contact the VMM agent on hyperv01.domain.local.
   Unspecified error (0x80004005)
   
   Recommended Action
   1) Ensure the VMM agent is installed and that the SCVMMAgent service is running.
   2) If the SCVMMAgent service is running, restart the service, and then verify that WS-Management is installed correctly and that the WinRM service is running.
   3) Check the manufacturers' Web sites to ensure that you have the latest drivers for your network adapters and other devices.

Looking on the Microsoft Connect site I found that someone called egilsk was having the same issues.

Thankfully, last Friday (05/10/12) Mark at Microsoft posted the following suggestion to try:

On the Hyper-V hosts run the following PowerShell commands

Import-Module Hyper-V

Get-WmiObject –Namespace “root\virtualization\v2” Msvm_PlannedComputerSystem | foreach{Get-VM –Id $_.Name} | Remove-VM –Force

Once this has been run on your hosts, refreshing the VM's should work successfully and all of the missing/default hardware config should be updated and displayed.

It looks like this is to do with the hosts having the VM stuck in a temporary state, even if brought across as a planned import or migration.

The problem is now at least known about and should be fixed/handled in the next release of the Service Pack.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 CTP2 - What's New?

So Service Pack 1 CTP2 has just been released for download:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30133

With the Technical Documentation here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30134

I don't know if it's an oversight or not, but there is currently no technical doc for ConfigMgr....

From scanning the documents quick, here's a high level new feature list:

App Controller

• Upload a virtual hard disk or image to Windows Azure from a VMM library or network share
• Add a virtual machine to a deployed service in Windows Azure
• Start, stop, and connect to virtual machines in Windows Azure
• Migrate a virtual machine from VMM to Windows Azure
• Deploy a virtual machine in Windows Azure to create hosted service
• Add a Service Provider Framework (SPF) hosting provider connection

Orchestrator

• In System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 are both supported.
• Additional support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
• Manage VMM self-service User Roles
• Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
• Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds

Virtual Machine Manager

• Network Virtualization
• VHDX Support
• SMB 3.0 File Shares
• Live Migration Enhancements
• Storage enhancements
• Provision a Physical Computer as a Hyper-V Host - Enhancements
• Support for VMM console add-ins

Service Manager

• SQL Server 2012 Support
• New Charge Back Feature

Operations Manager

• New APM Monitoring Capabilities (WCF, MVC and .NET NT services)
• New MP and support for Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8
• Azure SDK support

Configuration Manager

• Support for Windows 8
• Support for Mac OS clients
• Support for Linux and Unix servers

Data Protection Manager

• Improved backup performance of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over CSV 2.0 deployments
• Protect Hyper-V over remote SMB share
• Protect Windows 8 deduplicated volumes
• Support for Live Migration (Uninterupted Protection)
• Use SQL Server 2012 to host DPM database

Server App-V

• Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
• Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

Building the TESG Private Cloud Customer Experience Centre - Part 1

Every year my employer holds an event for customers (and potential new customers) to show case what we do and give customers a chance to meet our partner vendors.

This year, nicely coinciding with just after the System Center 2012 release, I landed the brilliant job of setting up something to demonstrate our System Center and Desktop expertise.

And so the concept of the Private Cloud and Optimised Desktop Customer Experience Centre was born.

The goal?

1. To showcase the full System Center 2012 suite
2. To showcase the interactions of each component and how they drive efficiencies
3. To showcase an elastic and easily scalable datacentre that can flex into the Public Cloud
4. To showcase the dynamic desktop with OS, Data, User and Application layers abstracted
5. To showcase BYOD and specifically desktop/application access on tablet devices

Over a couple of blog posts I'll aim to share some of the planning, thoughts and tips & tricks that went into building it.
What I'll not be doing is guides on how to install the different components as there are plenty of them out there, but I will post links to some relevant good guides.

My original test lab was made up of a couple of HP Proliant DL380 G7's with some shared space pinched off the corporate SAN, but as this was going to need to host a lot more and it would need to be "slightly" portable for attending events like the T360 it was time to purchase some upgrades.

1. More memory.  Upgrade from 64Gb per host to 128Gb
2. Dedicated Storage.  iSCSI SAN that would also allow me to show some of the VMM storage management features (N.B. More details on this later, plus some pitfalls to watch out for!)
3. Dedicated Switches.  To show SCOM network management & keep the environment self contained.
4. More NIC's.  The original environment only had 4 onboard NICs, not good enough.
5. Flight case to rack it all in to make it portable (kind of!)

Now that might sound slightly overkill for a test/demo environment.  However, I have a laptop which is quite capable of showing 2-3 of the System Center products at the same time, but this Customer Experience Center had to host the following:

• Active Directory
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Operations Manager
• Service Manager
• Configuration Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Orchestrator
• App Controller
• SQL 2008 R2 Server
• SharePoint Enterprise Server
• Exchange
• Lync
• ForeFront UAG
• ForeFront TMG
• File Servers
• XenDesktop Mgt Server
• XenDesktop VDI Desktops
• XenApp Mgt Server
• XenApp App Servers
• Remote Desktop Session Hosts
• Remote Desktop Broker/Gateway/Licensing
• RDS/Hyper-V VDI Desktops
• Dedicated Win 7 Admin Workstations
• Citrix NetScaler VM Appliance
• App-V Sequencer Workstations

When you consider that all of this needs to be up and running at the same time, my laptop just wasn't going to cope!

So far this has spread out across 34 VM's and there's still more to come...

This is a quick example diagram that I drew up to show the Hyper-V layout

Once all the hardware components were installed and racked then Hyper-V was the first thing to tackle and all I can say is thank god for Aidan Finn and his blog: http://www.aidanfinn.com/

Lots of useful posts, for example: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=10311

I'm going to leave the rest for the next post, but I just want to mention something that came to light when I installed the first System Center component, Virtual Machine Manager.

This is a logical first place to start if you've got the chance to build a private cloud from scratch like I have as you can implement Service Templates for deploying your VM's to help structure the environment and provide servicing and scale out options.

However, I hit a problem almost straight away, I struggled to get it to see my storage provider.

Originally I was ordering a Dell Equalogic iSCSI SAN for the environment, but due to certain disks not being available and increased costs for alternatives I was suggested to look at a DotHill AssuredSAN 2332.

The first thing I did was ask/check it supported SMI-S protocol, which it did as this is what VMM requires for the new features.
However when trying to set it up in VMM, it soon came to light that it only supported SMI-S 1.3 whereas VMM requires version 1.5.

So lesson learnt, make sure that when checking specifications, especially SAN's that you check in detail, right down to the version number!

There is a useful table (I found this afterwards!) that details the supported arrays:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610600.aspx

Part 1 - Building the TESG Private Cloud Customer Experience Centre

Part 2 - Service Accounts & Permissions

Part 3 - Installation Guide Links
Part 4 - Partner Solutions & Extensions

System Center 2012 Update Rollup 1 - SCVMM & App Controller

Sneaking in quietly under the radar is the first update for the just released System Center 2012.

N.B. Don't be alarmed that there are updates available already for a product that has only been released, the development cycle and the aligning of the different System Center components mean that Virtual Machine Manager was slightly ahead in development which means they've been able to focus on updates and service packs already (a CTP Preview of SP1 is already available, see the bottom of this post)

This update focuses purely on Virtual Machine Manager, both server side and console as well as App Controller.

The knowledge base for Update Rollup 1 can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2686249

The downloads can be found on Microsoft Update or manually here:

Virtual Machine Manager Server Update (KB2663959)http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2663959
Virtual Machine Manager Console Update (KB2663960)http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2663960
Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal Update (KB2663961)http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2663961
App Controller Update (KB2677596)
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2677596

In total we're looking at about 16 issues that have been fixed in this rollup.

It's also worth noting that after performing the server side update, the VMM agents on your hosts will also require updating.

To update the VMM agent on the managed computers, follow these steps:

1. Open the VMM Console.
2. Click Fabric, and then select Servers.
3. Under Managed Computers, select the servers, and then click Update Agent

MMS 2012 - Wrap up

Well I'm back from this years Microsoft Management Summit and just about recovered.

I thought I'd write a quick post to cover some of the useful information that I've seen filtering through since MMS 2012 and also to post some useful links that I didn't get chance to while balancing my tablet on my knee during sessions.

Johan Arwidmark has released a brilliant "Hydration Kit" to help deploy a complete ConfigMgr 2012 infrastructure, fully automated, for a lab/test environment.
http://www.deploymentresearch.com/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/57/The-Hydration-Kit-for-ConfigMgr-2012-RTM-is-available-for-download.aspx

The sessions from MMS 2012 can be watched on-demand from the http://www.mms-2012.com/digitalmms site.  The individual slide decks are also available from here.

If you don't want to trawl through so many sessions grabbing the slide decks, you can download the entire stack from the myITforum site.

Similarly, with the video sessions, you can find a nifty little PowerShell script here on the scomfaq site that will allow you to download all the sessions for offline viewing, or supply your own text list of session ID's if you don't want them all.  Just be careful, there's around 26Gb of videos available to download!

Various System Center solution accelerators, add-ins and resource tools have been released:
Service Manager 2012 Exchange Connector 3.0
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012
Security Compliance Manager 2.5
Many other Addons that I previously listed

Keynote Day 1 saw the "official" announcement that System Center 2012 was RTM and GA (General Availability) which was no huge surprise (For those customers that took my bet that April 17th was the release date I'll collect my winnings later!)
Another non-surprise was the announcement that Windows Server "8" was officially renamed to Windows Server 2012 (shortly followed with the Windows client team announcing that Windows "8" will be officially called Windows 8).

Keynote Day 2 was more client focused, but the main announcement was that Intune will be receiving a big feature update in the next release with the ability to manage iOS and Android devices, not just through Exchange ActiveSync policies, but by being able to allow applications to be installed from a centrally controllable "approved" list.  Details are still sketchy and the demo showed a web page being used on iOS, but fingers crossed this will change to being an app.

Microsoft's Eric Main posted more information on the changes. Here's an excerpt with some additional details:
"The next release of Windows Intune will integrate with Windows Server Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server, allowing IT to manage the many devices brought into the workplace, even if they’re not owned by the organization. IT will also be able to use Windows Intune to set security policies for mobile devices and enforce password protection, encryption and even kick off a remote wipe if a device is compromised. Windows Intune’s mobile device management will support any device with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync capabilities, including Windows Phone, iOS and Android."


I took both the new Private Cloud exams while I was out there;
70-246 - Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud
70-247 - Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud

For those of you thinking about taking these exams and don't work daily with ALL of the System Center 2012 products, I'd recommend you look at attending the classroom based courses:

Learning Plans and Classroom Training
10750AB: Beta: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 (5 Days)
10751A: Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 (5 Days)

Unfortunately I have to wait until June time to find out my results, fingers crossed that I passed!


Much to the disappointment of my wife who was hoping to come to Las Vegas with me next year and a colleague who also had his sights set on Vegas, the announcement was made that MMS 2013 will be held in New Orleans in June next year.  Rumours are already circulating that this may well mean a combining of both MMS & TechEd since MMS is usually held in April/May and TechEd in May/June time.  Since both events usually have the same set of Microsoft staff attending a fair portion of the sessions it would certainly make sense.


Finally, while I did the usual sweep of the vendor stalls looking for swag, I personally thought it was rather light on goodies.  I did however find swag gold from BDNA.  For those people that don't know me, I tend to drink a lot of Relentless, so being a geek these were the highlight of the swag gathering!

System Center 2012 Licensing Changes - Knowledge Cast

After the recent announcement last week by Microsoft on the changes being made to the license models for System Center ready for the launch of the 2012 wave, I'd like to share an invitation to a knowledge cast that I will be presenting on these changes.

http://www.trustmarquesolutions.com/news/system-center-2012-licensing-changes-webinar/

These significant changes include:

• Streamlining the complexity of licensing System Center
• The discontinuation of the Enterprise workload licenses
• The removal of Management Server Licenses
• License grants & transition paths available for existing Software Assurance customers

The Knowledge Cast will cover:

• Review of the licensing changes
• What these changes will mean to your business
• The key timelines for pricing & product changes
• The increased benefits of the System Center 2012 models

*Update- due to demand, we've added an additional session on Thursday morning*
There are four sessions that I'll be presenting on, across two days:
Tuesday January 24th 2012
11:00 – 12:00
14:00 – 15:00
Thursday January 26th
11:00 – 12:00
14:00 – 15:00

I know it's short notice, but these changes were only announced last week and some of the changes have important impact if not acted on quickly.

Places are limited, and aimed at UK based organisations, so booking soon is recommended:
http://www.trustmarquesolutions.com/news/system-center-2012-licensing-changes-webinar/


*Usual disclaimer: While I work for Trustmarque Solutions, and this knowledge cast is presented for them by myself, this blog is my personal blog and the writings and opinions contained within this blog are my personal opinions and are not reflective of the thoughts or intentions of my employer*

Microsoft Private Cloud, System Center 2012 and License Changes

http://www.microsoft.com/business/events/en-us/PrivateCloudExec

Today Microsoft announced a change in the licensing for System Center.
The multiple SKUs and versions have been greatly simplified down to just 2 (yes that's just TWO!!) offerings.

That's a big change from currently the four different licensing schemes, Datacenter, Enterprise, Single Enterprise, and Single Standard.

The new license types are:
System Center Standard - Manage a physical server, or very lightly virtualised (2 VM's)
System Center Datacenter - Manage unlimited VM's on a physical host

Both the System Center license types contains the following products:

• Configuration Manager
• Service Manager
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Operations Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Orchestrator
• App Controller
• Endpoint Protection 

So no more individual license for each product, it's a suite license only.

Another couple of major changes....
Licences are now only needed for endpoints being managed, no management servers or SQL licensing. (Yep, you heard it right, SQL licenses for the SC Management Servers is now included in the new licenses)

Both types (Std & DataCenter) are both processor based Licenses, but covers up to two processors per license.

There is also a transition model from the old licensing model to the new.

If you have Software Assurance coverage on your current System Center licenses at the time of System Center 2012 General Availability, you will receive the following System Center 2012 Server ML grants at the ratios listed below:

That covers off licensing Server Operating Systems, however for the Configuration Manager and Service Manager parts of System Center for example, you still require Client Management Licenses for non-server OSE's

Microsoft also have a useful interactive site online that can provide some common scenario questions about System Center 2012 licensing:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/SystemCenter2012.aspx

Just to pre-empt the most likely couple of questions likely to get asked around this:

Q) Are there separate offerings without SQL Server Technology?
A) No. All System Center 2012 products include the right to run a runtime version of SQL Server Technology to support System Center so there are no longer separate offerings.

Q) Do I need to purchase separate Management Server Licenses to run Management Server software?
A) No. With System Center 2012, the right to run Management Server software is included with the Server MLs and Client MLs.

Further information:
System Center 2012 Licensing Datasheet

System Center 2012 Licensing FAQ

How to move a SCVMM 2012 database to another SQL server

I'm not exactly re-inventing the wheel here as it's the same process for Virtual Machine Manager 2012 as it was for 2008 R2, but I thought I'd post about it anyway.

This isn't a common thing to need to do, but I found myself in the position today where I wanted to move the database that was on a local SQL install on a SCVMM 2012 server up onto a new SQL Cluster I had just finished building.

So these are the steps I took to move the database:

1. Take a snapshot of the server (assuming it's a VM)
2. Take a backup of the existing VMM DB
3. Uninstall VMM and choose the Retain Database option
4. Detach the VMM DB from the local SQL instance
5. Copy the VMM DB files across to the new SQL Server
6. On the remote SQL server, attach the VMM db
7. Re-install SCVMM 2012 and when prompted, point it at the new SQL server, selecting to use an existing database (the one you imported) 

Easy!  Now you're free to uninstall SQL as and when.

System Center 2012 Wave

I thought I'd post a quick one on how the System Center 2012 stack is starting to line up and some bits to note for testing and in preparation for implementations.

At present we have the following table that shows the parts of the System Center stack available and their current release stage:

Configuration Manager	Release Candidate 1
Operations Manager	Release Candidate 1
Service Manager	Beta 1
Virtual Machine Manager	Release Candidate 1
Data Protection Manager	Beta 1
Orchestrator	Release Candidate 1
App Controller	Beta 1

All of the System Center solutions are undergoing a branding change.
If you haven't noticed, the branding has now changed to:
"System Center 2012 Product Name"

So this makes it:

• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager
• System Center 2012 Service Manager
• etc etc etc....

A small change I'm sure you'll agree, but important in the long run as we start to see really tight integration between all the solutions, and the development and release schedules of all the parts of the System Center align up.
(Hopefully we'll also see the Start Menu program groups be consolidated together unlike the random scatterings it is at present)

SQL Collations between the solutions are also drawing together with the need for the following collations per solution:

Configuration Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Operations Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Service Manager	See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh495583.aspx
Virtual Machine Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Data Protection Manager	Unsure - Doesn't seem to specify
Orchestrator	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
App Controller	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

Anyone else see the running theme here?
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS seems now to be the de-facto SQL Collation for the System Center 2012 wave.

You can also expect SQL 2008 R2 to be the prefered SQL version, 2008 may be supported for some of them, but 2005 is definitely a no go.

Private Cloud, make sure you choose right!

This is brilliant Microsoft advertising.
It's good to see that Microsoft have got a sense of humour, but the points it mentions are valid.

One thing in particular did catch my attention when the IT guy asks Tad if his solution would allow him to see deep inside his apps (1:30 min though).

Rather than Tads blank expression reply...

This is where System Center comes into its own and the upcoming 2012 wave will just blow the competition out of the water.

Imagine having your data centre built as a private cloud infrastructure using System Center as the pivotal part of the solution. When the IT guy then asks if the solution would allow him to find out performance problems, bottle necks and root causes the reply would be a resounding YES!

Virtual Machine Manager handles the virtualisation management piece of the solution, providing management of the "cloud" and dynamically assigning resources where and when required to ensure optimum performance. However, with Operations Manager sat within the environment gathering events and metrics constantly it would alert IT staff to potential problems, automatically raising Incidents directly within Service Manager. The necessary and relevant information is immediately at hand for the engineer to work on resolving the incident, coupled with Operation Managers ability to deeply dive into .Net applications to such a level as to even show which line of code is at fault
Once the root cause is identified using the information surfaced through Operation Manager (Events & Performance) and Service Manager (Configuration & Changes), then, if for example an update was required, the necessary Change Control would be raised in Service Manager to apply the update and once approved Orchestrator could pick up the change. Orchestrator could proceed to automate the remediation by talking across the infrastructure management products to take a backup of the system using Data Protection Manager, put the system into maintenance mode to suppress alerts in Operation Manager then create the necessary tasks with Configuration Manager to deploy the update to the system and finally check the success and report this information back into Service Manager for later review and analysis. 

Once service is restored and operating normally, it may be deemed that either during a known busy period or to support an advertising campaign for example, that the corporate web site will need extra resources to cope with demand.  A Change Request is raised within Service Manager and once approved Orchestrator can take on the responsibility of setting the wheels in motion for adding those resources for example by instructing Virtual Machine Manager to provision a new Virtual Server, Configuration Manager to deploy a new Operating System and any required software along with updates, settings and configuration.  Orchestrator would enable the bringing online of a new web server and adding it into a web farm as extra resources with little to no interaction of highly skilled technical resources.

This is all so easily possible due to the tight integration that is now present within the System Center product suite and is only going to continue to grow stronger with this next 2012 wave and beyond.
The tight integration allows for data about the infrastructure to flow across products, negating the need for duplication of effort or manual input.
The end net result is a very dynamic, private cloud infrastructure and much more efficient service delivery model.

This has several other benefits such as:

• End users of the service gain improvements around time taken to respond to requests
• Total Cost of Ownership is lower to support and maintain the environment
• IT staff have more time to be proactive rather than constantly being reactive
• High control of the environment can be achieved, helping with compliance (PCI, CoCo, Sarbanes Oxley)
• Conversion of processes to automation helps with both workload reduction and better auditing of changes to the environment
• Paves the way for Platform as a Service (PaaS)

One key thing to note, while I’ve mentioned various Microsoft products such as Data Protection Manager as the backup tool and Hyper-V as the virtual hypervisor, this doesn’t have to be the case

Microsoft have done a real good job of “growing up” these last couple of years and have finally embraced the fact that data centres are heterogeneous environments. So while I’ve mentioned the best products (sorry, couldn’t resist) you can still use the System Center tools like Virtual Machine manager to manage your VMWare or Citrix hypervisors and Operations Manager to monitor your Solaris and Unix servers while Orchestrator can use integration packs to work with other vendor systems such as BMC Remedey and HP Openview etc

Why is this worth mentioning? Because it means that to implement a private cloud and reap the benefits doesn’t require a complete rip and replace of your current infrastructure and the costs associated. You can introduce the tools, methodologies and principals behind the cloud now as you plan towards full implementation (Based on Hyper-V et al of course!)

Finally, as we start to move towards the release of the System Center 2012 wave of products, the dedication Microsoft has towards enabling businesses to implement private clouds and also link them with public clouds is very evident with new product features such as Virtual Machine Manager 2012's ability to provision storage and networking elements, Operation Manager 2012's increased Networking & Application Monitoring along with more Azure integration, Configuration Manager 2012's more user centric approach and it's support of "IT Consumerisation" and Service Manager 2012's expansion of ITIL/MOF process support with Service Requests and the further integration with Orchestrator to help with automation of processes all show Microsoft is serious about making this all a reality, and achievable for all, not just the biggest companies around with the most cash as these solutions scale both up and down.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/private-cloud/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/default.aspx

Footnote:
This is only scratching the surface of what the System Center products can do, areas like reporting, SLA management, patching, baselines, tuning etc etc would make this post just too long to read.

SCOM & SCVMM Dirty Views

Both myself and Rob have mentioned a few times about the dirty views in Operations Manager after importing the Virtual Machine Manager MP (the SQL view contains ALL virtual computers rather than just servers with SQL installed).

Well good news, it's fixed in the new SP1 release of SCVMM!!!!

Along with Kevin Holman giving an outline of the new SCVMM SP1 he also confirms the problem, that for myself was a show stopper on the last System Center product for us to tackle, is now fixed.

More information can be found here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2011/03/29/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2008-r2-sp1-ships.aspx

Hurahh for Microsoft, it's only taken just over two years to fix ;)