Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tags 'News' and 'SMS'

Systems Management Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 3

daniel — Wed, 02 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT

Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 R2 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) brings organizations full lifecycle support for Microsoft’s latest platform including software distribution, update services and inventory are available to the Vista client.

Adding optional capabilities to enhance the software and hardware inventory functionalities provided in SMS 2003, SP3 provides information to help organizations to make better business decisions about their IT assets. Through a new library of over 400,000 software titles, SMS 2003 SP3 provides an option to augment existing SMS inventory capabilities with deeper asset intelligence. SMS SP3 provides rich reporting about installed applications and hardware enabling better license reporting, software consolidation and upgrade planning.

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My 12th Microsoft KB Article

daniel — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT

HOWTO: Assign SMS Advanced Client to the Isolated Secondary Site

The Step by Step Information to configure the SMS Advanced Client to report to SMS Secondary Site without connect to SMS Primary Site.

In some cases, the network connection between SMS Primary Site Management Point and the new installed SMS Advanced Clients that located in SMS Secondary Site maybe isolated. The SMS Advanced Clients unable to contact to the SMS Primary Site Management Point and get the site code and policies directly.

SMS Advanced Clients cannot assign to the SMS Secondary Site. They must located in the SMS Primary Site and assign to the SMS Primary Site first. But it is not suitable for the Desktop computers that located in the isolated Secondary Site.

For the solution, Please visit

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555853

Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 3 Open Beta

daniel — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT

In addition to providing the latest fixes for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, Service Pack 3 (SP3) adds capabilities to enhance the software and hardware inventory functionalities provided in SMS 2003. Enabled through a new library of over 400,000 software titles, SMS SP3 provides rich reporting about installed applications and hardware to help organizations make better business decisions about their IT assets. New capabilities enable:

•	License Reporting: New reports enable comparison of Microsoft applications installed with licenses purchased as well as how those titles were obtained (for example: volume licensing, retail, or OEM) for better optimization of software use across the organization and fewer unutilized applications.
•	Software Consolidation: View applications by category to better see how many different applications with similar functions and versions are deployed in the organization and make consolidations. The result is accelerated application standardization, a more streamlined support structure, and the ability to maximize volume discounts from software vendors.
•	Upgrade Planning: Identify core and non-core applications in order to understand what applications require migration to the new environment. Software consolidation aids upgrade planning by reducing the number of applications that need compatibility testing. Identify hardware assets that need upgrading based on comparisons to published operating system hardware requirements. The result is more efficient planning and streamlined execution for upgrading users to Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Full Windows Vista Support

Deploy Windows Vista with the SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack update. Manage it post-deployment with SMS 2003 via SMS SP3 as you would Windows XP or another operating system. With SMS SP3, administrators can:

•	Deploy Windows Vista updates
•	Deploy applications to Windows Vista client computers
•	Perform software and hardware inventory for Windows Vista client computers

More Information

70-089 SMS 2003 Exam

daniel — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 05:00:00 GMT

I took the 70-089 SMS 2003 Exam today.

And i got 1000 marks (full marks again)

I'm very happy about it.

It is not a very difficult exam, focus on Patch Management and Local/Remote Distribution Points, System Requirement and OSD.

Microsoft in talks to buy Softricity

daniel — Fri, 19 May 2006 05:00:00 GMT

Microsoft is in talks to buy application virtualisation software vendor Softricity of Boston, USA CRN has learned.

"It's coming down to the final stretches," said one source close to Microsoft who is familiar with the discussions. "It's not a done deal yet but it's just last minute haggling kind of stuff."

That's not all. At its hardware conference for OEMs next week, Microsoft is expected to announce plans to accelerate the delivery of its homegrown virtualisation hypervisor code-named "Viridian" and will formally debut plans for a virtualisation management platform code-named Carmine.

The deal with Softricity - which hit the rumor mill earlier this week - is expected to be finished before the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle next week. Sources say Microsoft at WinHEC also will unveil Virtual DLL, a feature for Windows Vista developed in conjunction with Softricity.

The feature will not enable full application virtualisation offered by Softricity's SoftGid platform but it will allow users to virtualise application registries and "end DLL hell once and for all," one source said.

"I know Microsoft has been talking to Softricity and has worked with engineers at Softricity," said another source familiar with the joint development work on Virtual DLL by the two software companies.

"It allows you to have a virtual registry instead of a single registry so you have can have multiple DLLs sitting on the registry," he continued. "The benefit for us is to remove application conflicts. With this, you can have Office 97 and Office 2003 on the same machine."

Softricity did not respond to CRN calls for comment. A Microsoft spokesperson said only that the company does not comment on "speculation."

Sources say they are not surprised about the deal with Softricity, a former Citrix ISV that has quickly emerged as a key Microsoft ISV partner over the past six months.

At Microsoft Management Summit last month, Microsoft highlighted Softricity's new SoftGrid 4.0 for Systems Management Server 2003, which allows IT managers to virtualise Windows applications on the fly from within the management platform.

The flurry of activity in Microsoft's virtualisation unit comes as VMware - the market leader in the explosive virtualisation software market - is expected to announce availability of its next generation ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2 platform during the first week of June.

In addition to its application virtualization push with Softricity, Microsoft will try to slow adoption of VMware's platform by announcing a stepped up delivery plan for Viridian, sources told CRN.

Microsoft plans to put Viridian into private beta with a limited number of partners sometime in the fourth quarter, sources said.

The hypervisor, which will replace its standalone Virtual Server product, was originally planned to be integrated into Windows Longhorn Server in 2006. That server is now due to ship in the second half of 2007.

But company executives later amended that plan and said Viridian would be in the R2 release of the Longhorn server. R2 is not expected to be available until 2009 or 2010.

Sources said Microsoft is speeding up its Viridian plans and pushing forward on its virtualisation management plans and application virtualisation efforts to appease corporate customers that want a VMware-like platform but don't want to wait much longer.

Microsoft is very worried because corporate customers are really pressuring the company to step it up or they will go to VMware, sources said, noting Microsoft's recent agreement to license its virtual Hard Disk format to XenSource - an open source company.

Source: http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=32786

Systems Management Server 2003 R2 Open Beta

daniel — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:00:00 GMT

SMS 2003 R2 contains new features/capabilities in two areas – Vulnerability Assessment and Software Updates.

SMS Scan Tool for Vulnerability assessment.

SMS 2003 R2 leverages the vulnerability assessment technology and knowledge in MBSA 2.0. SMS 2004 R2 leverages the SMS infrastructure to deploy the MBSA 2.0 VA scanner, scans the system and report scan results across the enterprise. SMS customers can now get a global view of the vulnerabilities and risks in their organization and drill down to very specific vulnerabilities. For example, using SMS 2003 R2 customers will be able to get a global view of the # of desktops/servers that have accounts without passwords and then drill down and see every account on every desktop/server without defined passwords. This same level of detail is present in SMS 2003 R2 for over 70 vulnerabilities including vulnerabilities for IIS, SQL, and Windows.

Microsoft Inventory Tool for Custom updates.

Software updates (patching) is one of the most commonly used features of SMS 2003. SMS 2003 is the leading software update solution for Enterprise organization. One of the most common customer requests is to extend the SMS 2003 software updates capabilities to enable distribution/reporting of non-Microsoft packages and LOB software updates. The SMS and Windows Update teams collaborated to define a common catalog schema that SMS 2003 R2 could leverage that would be common with Microsoft Update for patching of 3^rd party and LOB applications. SMS 2003 R2 includes a scanner and catalog publishing tool that enables Microsoft’s ISV partners to build and ship software update catalogs that SMS natively consumes. SMS 2003 R2 also enables customers to create software update catalogs – enabling SMS 2003 R2 to natively patch your internally developed applications.

Program significant dates:

Open Beta: 2/9/2006

RC: 4/13/2006

RTM: 5/18/2006

Systems Management Server 2003 R2 Open Beta program: Apply now and be the first to participate in the SMS 2003 R2 Beta.

Go to http://connect.microsoft.com/, and click on “Available Programs” for details.