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Duncan McAlynn Microsoft System Center

Resourcefulness is the great divider between excellence and mediocrity.

July 2005 - Posts

Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Technical Reference

The Technical Reference provides essential technical information about MIIS 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/95vvg

Windows Installer Source Location Manager Whitepaper

This white paper contains information about configuring and using the Windows Installer Source Location Management feature for Systems Management Server 2003.

Updated July 14th. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=32f40db4-6706-4e62-b867-aa1d332b6403&DisplayLang=en

Active Directory Management Pack for MOM 2005

The Microsoft Windows Active Directory Management Pack provides forest-wide monitoring of your Active Directory service and its required subsystems (7/13/2005).

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3565865

Extended Security Update Inventory Tool

The Extended Security Update Inventory Tool is used to detect security bulletins not covered by MBSA, including MS04-028, February 2005 bulletins, and future security bulletins that are exceptions to MBSA.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3565864

Enterprise Update Scan Tool v2 (Standalone Version)

Microsoft has released a new tool designed to help enterprises detect updates provided with the Microsoft Security Bulletins released June 14, 2005. This tool is a command line scanning tool built for the sole purpose of helping customers determine systems that may need security updates provided with the released bulletins (7/12/2005).

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3565863

SMS v5 Wish List
OK, put your thinking caps on... pretend you have a time machine... and think about what you'd like to see if in a couple years you were sitting down looking at the latest version of SMS. Not the version after 2003, but the one after THAT. Yes, I realize that's a way down the road, but when you're as big as Microsoft you have to plan waaaaaaaay ahead. The product team at Microsoft has asked the SMS MVPs to provide our 'wish list' items for SMS v5. I'd love to hear what you might have to say on this subject. Think about it... YOU could provide that next great idea that actually ends up in the product! How cool is that? Anyhow, use the 'contact me' option to let me know what you're thinking.
A Bigger Threat Than Viruses?

Everyone is on the Patch Management, Virus, Vulnerability, Threat Assessment, Security Blah, Blah, Blah bandwagon. Don't get me wrong - it's a vital part of your organization's overall management strategy. However, when companies start using the whole 'patch management' veribage to sell products that are in no way, shape or form related to patching systems well that just pisses me off. Latest case: Executive Software's Diskeeper 9. In the company's latest series of print advertisements they suggest that fragmented disk drives are the bigger threat to desktop systems. Their argument? “What's really at stake? Why do we protect against viruses? Think about it. A virus causes a computer to slow down or stop, rendering the system less usuable.” The article-like advertisement goes on to say that “disk fragmentation causes the same damage as a virus”!!!

What are these marketing ninnies smoking? The reason that we protect so heavily is because one infected system on our corporate networks can easily spread the virus to the entire organization - literally within minutes - rendering the ENTIRE COMPANY USELESS. Not just one system. We won't even discuss the financial impacts of this happening to a publicly held company or how devistating it can be to a relationship with a third-party when you also infect their systems.

This, you Executive Software MORONS, is why we protect against viruses.

Do you SDK?
As a MOM Admin do you find yourself having to refer to the Software Development Kits (SDK)? If so, drop me a line and let me know what you're doing with it.
Got Suggestions for MOM Product Documentation???
The Microsoft MOM documentation team would love to hear any suggestions you may have for improving documentation for the current and future versions. You can reach them by email at: momdocs@microsoft.com.
Sybari Extends Manageability of Its Antigen Security Offering for Messaging and Collaboration Servers

Today at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Microsoft Corp.’s annual flagship European technical education conference for developers and IT professionals, Sybari Software Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, announced general availability of the Sybari Antigen management pack for Microsoft® Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. The management pack provides critical performance and availability data through the MOM 2005 console for Sybari’s Antigen for Microsoft Exchange and Antigen for SMTP Gateways, and enables IT administrators to rapidly identify and manage potential threats to the security of their network.

Full story

OK... The move is over and I'm settled in.

As many of you are aware, I recently relocated to Redmond, Washington to take a position as Infrastructure Practice Principle for Interlink Group, Inc. Now that the move is over, I've settled into the area and have taken on the new role, you can expect to see more activity here and with many of the other sites I contribute to.