Microsoft Datacentre Security & Management Update – November week 3

We’ll start this week with a great article and interview about the new storage features in Windows 8 and how they impact on Hyper-V 3, so if you want to find out more about VHDx files, Storage Pools and Spaces and how to use them to Cluster Hyper-V virtual machines click here.

Last week I blogged about the release of System Centre Service Manger 2012 Beta, there are some really cool new capabilities that are available, specifically the new Service Catalog and Service Request Management feature that Microsoft started talking about and showing examples of last year.

One of the key elements of the Microsoft Private Cloud is the ability to monitor a mix of physical, virtual, and cloud resources that run a diverse mix of operating systems and hardware. You need to diagnose and fix IT problems before they lead to any downtime or loss of business productivity and revenue with that in mind Microsoft has announced the Release Candidate for System Centre Operation Manager 2012. In Operations Manager the Web Console is a very useful tool, whether you’re away from your desk or you want to devolve some of your admin, but there are a number of prerequisites before you can perform the install. So how about a nice PowerShell script to get it right every time.

I’ve never been much of a scripter and to quote Wally Mead from last week’s WMUG Config Manager 2012 event I can just about spell API, but I know there are plenty of you out there. So one of the major ways to customise the functionality of Systems Centre Configuration Manager is via the SDK, the 2012 version is no different and this article may help. Sticking with Config Manager 2012, this integrates System Center Endpoint Protection, formerly Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 into the product. No details on the licensing yet but watch this space.

That’s it for this week, have fun!

Sean Taylor
Microsoft Solutions Architect