New Dell Openmanage MP Released

Dell has released an updated version of their Openmanage MP, with several functionality enhancements to numerous to mention here including enhancements to State View, additional Tasks and added support for the latest of OMSA, Storage Management and Array Manager.

Get all the details and download the new version HERE.

TechEd 2006 Conference Launch

The Microsoft TechEd 2006 Conference was in full swing Monday 6/12/06. Sources tell me it is a bit light on management technologies this year (not surprising on the heels of a very successful Managment Summit in April). However, I've heard good things about the MOM chalk talks, as well as an awesome presentation on security auditing with MOM given by MOM MVP Rory McCaw.

Look for updates and downloads on here on momresources.org.

MOM Availability Reporting MP Pulled

 The Availability Reporting Management Pack has been temporarily pulled from Microsoft downloads pending resolution of several issues, including those documented in KBs 914989, 918711 and 913278.

An updated MP will be posted when the MOM Product and Testing teams are confident all issues have been addressed.

FIX: Availability Reporting MP Installation Failure on SQL 2005

Many have noticed that the Availability Reporting MP install fails in MOM 2005 SP1 on a SQL 2005 backend with the following error:

"Error: -2147217900: failed to execute SQL string, error detail: The query uses non-ANSI outer join operators ("*=" or "=*"). To run this query without modification, please set the compatibility level for the current database to 80 or lower, using stored procedure sp_dbcmptlevel. It is strongly recommended
to rewrite the query using... "

Cause: SQL Server 2005 strictly enforces ANSI SQL compliance on newly created databases. The Availability Reporting MP uses several stored procedures during both installation and general operation which are not fully ANSI SQL compliant.

Good news! A workaround is available. Read the KB with the fix HERE.

MMS 2006 Keynote Videos Available

The 3 keynote speeches delivered at MMS 2006 have been made available online:

-Bob Muglia (Microsoft's Server & Tools SVP)
-Kirill Tatarinov (Windows & Enterprise Management VP)
-Ron Markezich (CIO and Managed Solutions VP)

Find them HERE.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Announced

Reliable and Scalable Service Oriented Monitoring Made Simple

Microsoft introduced new and coming components in the System Center family, including MOM v3, officially named System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Read the product overview HERE. Register for the beta HERE.

MMS 2006 Day 2 in Review

Stefan recounts  MMS day 2 activities, including notable breakout sessions and Keynote Bullets from Kirill Tatarinov, discussing Microsoft's investment in the System Center suite of applications, where IT Operations disciplines will converge in an integrated suite of products.

Read Stefan's review of day 2 HERE.

MMS 2006 Day 1 in Review

Stefan Stranger offers a review of MMS day 1 activities, including notable breakout sessions and product announcements from keynote speaker Bob Muglia

Read Stefan's review of day 1 HERE.

New Availability MP to be Released

According to Microsoft PSS, a new version of the Reliability and Availability management pack is due to be released in the near future. They could give no definite release date nor did they give information as to what would be updated in the new version.

My hope is that this is a major revision rather than a minor. Keep your eyes on the Microsoft MOM downloads section to see when this update is released.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Beta Announcement

As companies grow their business, adding more employees and rolling out new applications and services, their IT environment becomes increasingly more challenging to manage. The result is a constant treadmill of complexity and costs that hinder the ability of IT to focus on delivering value to the business.

Read the full press release HERE.

Microsoft to Ship Longhorn 2nd Half of 2007

The next Longhorn server beta is due "shortly" but the final product won't ship until the second half of 2007...

Read the complete article HERE.

Microsoft Management Model Designer 1.5

The Microsoft Management Model Designer (MMD) is a tool for developing management models. Management models provide a way to represent all of the areas of manageability for applications and systems services.

Download available HERE.

Q&A: Kirill Tatarinov Discusses Innovations in Microsoft’s System Center Family of Products

At its annual management summit, Microsoft takes the concept of embedding knowledge into management tools to new heights with System Center, and announces investments in infrastructure capabilities and in driving industry standards...

Full transcript of the session available HERE.

MOM 2005 Summary Reporting Pack for System Center Reporting Manager 2006

The MOM 2005 Summary Reporting Pack for System Center Reporting Manager 2006 extends the data warehouse to provide long term reports on performance metrics and alerts based on weekly and daily summarization of data.

Download available HERE.

Microsoft System Center Reporting Manager 2006 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005

The SCRM 2006 Management Pack monitors the SCRM Server, SCRM Databases, and SCRM Data Sources.

Download available HERE.

System Center Reporting Manager 2006

Microsoft System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is a reporting solution that integrates change and configuration management, operations management, and business context data.

Download available HERE.