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SCU 2016: Prepare to have your mind blown!

 

I got the news that I have the privilege (that’s how I definitely see it) to speak once again at SystemCenterUniverse in Dallas on the 19th of January 2016.

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I consider this a huge privilege as I have a special relationship with this particular event. This is in fact where my wild journey through the System Center Universe as a speaker started. 2 years ago SCU held a fierce battle to determine who would be the new SCU_Jedi winning a session at this event… I was lucky enough to pull it off and suddenly I was presenting among the (what I consider) big shots in the System Center world…

Most of them are still presenting today if you look at the list of speakers it is quite impressive:

The first but not complete list: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/presenters.htm

As you can see al the usual suspects are there!

For the full agenda please check here: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/agenda.htm

this year again there’s a 2 track approach so you have the ability to cross over and see a session out of your comfort zone to learn really new cool stuff!

My session will be about the vast power of OMS and how it can create new possible insights in your environment. A truly not to miss session if you ask meSCUheader

Can’t fly in?

Too bad… You are missing out…

Not really! Because SCU is (I think) the only event who offers free streaming of the event over the web. There are even a lot of viewing parties organized near your location where you can easily follow the event from your location!

OK but why should I fly in then?

Well that’s very simple as well! IF you have the ability to fly in you get a chance to mingle with peers and talk to the speakers. There are no designated areas for speakers or whatsoever so everyone is really accessible to have chat or answer your questions…

So this is probably expensive right?

A full day of training on different subjects for only 150$ that’s a bargain if you ask me!

Last but not least

This is one of the events who are really embracing the social media (twitter, facebook,…) to reach out to attendees onsite but also across the world to engage during and after the event.

Make sure you follow: @scu2016 and #scu2016 on twitter for the latest updates and feeds!

 

Hopefully see you all there!

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OMS phone app now available on all platforms: First look

 

This is one thing I really like about the new strategy of Microsoft: All platforms (I know it’s not the official statement but still)

The OMS app was already available on WindowsPhone platform (in preview) and quite frankly it makes sense to actually develop for your own native platform first.

But today Microsoft has announced the availability of the OMS app across all the different platforms (Ios, android and winphone).

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The install is crystal clear as you are used to through the store.

More info here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2015/10/21/log-analytics-on-the-move.aspx

Direct link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/operations-management-suite/mobile-apps.aspx

NOTE: Fellow MVP Cameron Fuller has a blog post about the experience on an ipad here: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2015/10/21/the-microsoft-oms-experience-on-an-ipad/

A first look:

A couple of screenshots of the possibilities and look and feel on iPhone:

First start of the app (really like the look and feel):

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Login screen looks very familiar:

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Auto switch between corporate or personal

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Signed in and detected that your workspaces, it’s indeed possible to switch between the different workspaces:

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You have 3 options:

  • Dashboard: Is your personal dashboard which you can change by using the familiar pen icon
  • Overview: The general overview of you environment with all the solutions installed
  • Searches: Launch different searches in your workspace

Starts into your dashboard:

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Overview:

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Also possible in landscape 🙂

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Searches:

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Settings tab can be reached by tapping the 3 red dots on the top of the screen.

My wishlist:

  • Push notifications on home screen for predefined scenarios
  • Add new searches in the app to answer specific questions of people calling outside office hours
  • Ability to choose where to start (dashboard or overview)
  • change order of the solutions in the overview pane

Conclusion:

The app is intended as an extension / dashboard for your OMS workspace. It’s not possible to add servers or delete servers from your workspace nor add solutions. This is not a drawback in my opinion as you only want to see things happening in your workspace on the go. This is a first version of course but I had no issues installing and connecting it. I will keep an eye on the data usage on my cell phone plan though just to see how it will affect my usage of mobile data and of course my battery life.

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MVP 2015: Cloud and Datacenter Management

 

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It’s very strange how time flies by so quickly… It has already been a year since I received my first MVP title and just a week a go I noticed I was up for renewal again…

Receiving the mail above always has something magical like new-year’s eve. A new year full of opportunities lies ahead to experience the true value of the MVP program. During the last year I’ve got to learn a lot of people in person which I knew already online out of the community, got to interact with the product team and took part in some really cool in depth discussions which really benefit the products I work with on a daily basis.

It’s nice to know where to go to if you have a problem with configuring something… And with that I’m not only referring to the MVP community but also the System Center community in general. It’s you out there who keep this community alive and I’m grateful I can contribute to it.

So in conclusion: I hope we’ll meet (again or for the first time) at an event or online and keep continue to spread the Sysctr love.

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System Center Universe Dallas around the corner

Wow I can’t believe it has already been a year when I spoke at System Center Universe in Houston. And what a year it was! For me personally a lot of things have changed. System Center Universe 2014 was a great experience after winning the SCU Jedi contest in 2014 I got the possibility to speak at this fine convention.

I don’t know whether it had something to do with SCU but a couple of months later I was awarded with my first MVP in Data Center and Could management which enabled me to even more engage in the System Center Community.

So that’s me… Why should you come to SCU Dallas or take the time to watch the free live cast. Well because the organizing team of SCU has done it again this year… They brought the usual suspects back together for a multi track 1 day event to bring you all the new ins and outs of System Center and Azure. SCU is not only the 1 day event in Dallas but a global event (and who knows even an intergalactic one). The freely available livefeed gives people the ability to watch the sessions in realtime from around the globe and viewing parties are organized to mingle with peers during the event.

Last year I’ve talked about monitoring and embracing the cloud / azure in your monitoring environment. This year I will be talking about another problem I see at a lot of clients and receive a lot of questions about when attending events: How do I create the ultimate dashboard to show my stakeholders at a glance what they want to see.

During my session I’ll go over the do’s and don’ts of dashboarding and will give you quick tips  and tricks from the field to get you going fast to create the ultimate dashboard to monitor your death star.

Check out the agenda  and timeframe to attend in person, attend a viewing party near you or check out the livefeed which is freely available.

Check the speakers: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/presenters.htm

Check the agenda here: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/agenda.htm

Check the viewing parties: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/venue.htm

Hopefully see you there whether it’s virtually or physically!

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SCOM 2012: Overview link blog

This post will be my (and hopefully yours) one stop to post all the relevant info to SCOM 2012. I will try to generate an overview of all the different steps you need to start from scratch and continue to build your environment to a level that suites your environment.

If you feel there are things missing or you’ve found dead links please do not hesitate to leave a comment and I will update this post. This post has grown out of my favourite list of SCOM related topics and info I found on forums, technet and blogs.

Note:

    • I’ll sometimes post more than 1 link at a topic so you can combine the different blogposts to get the bigger picture.
    • Most of the info is relevant for SCOM 2012 and SCOM 2012 SP1 (if there’s specific info for a specific version it will be pointed out.)
    • This is a link post to relevant info I found on the web. All credits and copyright belong to the respective authors.

SCOM 2012 R2:

General information:

This section lists all links that will give you a general overview of SCOM.

Design and Topology

This section lists all links that will help and guide you to make a proper design and take the correct decisions concerning topology

How to install

This section lists all links to the install walkthroughs and possible issues.

Configuring scom

This section lists all links to help you quickly setup scom after you have succesfully installed it.

 

Specific configuration

This section lists all the different aspects of SCOM that need additional installation or configuration

Dashboards

ACS

APM (Application Performance Monitoring)

Gateway configuration

Network Monitoring

Azure Monitoring:

Management pack basics

This section lists all the links to give you the basics about management packs

 

Management pack advanced

This section liste all the links to the more advance management pack tips and tricks.

Community Management packs

A list of must have community management packs to increase your productivity and solve some gaps and functionalities in scom.

Note: These management packs are written by members of the community so no warranty is given. Test before you use in production!

Integration possibilities

This section lists links to different integration possibilities between the different System Center products.

 

Usefull blogs and sources for this list (In random order of importance)

Note: System Center Blogs: Now on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone

Tips & Tricks

Cool Showcases with SCOM

Partner solutions for SCOM (in random order)

Videos

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LiveMeeting 22/11/2012: System Center Products better together…

 

On the 22th of November I’m hosting a LiveMeeting on how to integrate the different System Center products.

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We’ll go over the different steps to integrate the different System Center products to get past the standard “just monitor it” scenario with SCOM but truly integrate the different products together.

All the products will be positioned within the System Center stack and integrations will be showcased.

If you are looking for a session to convince your boss to install more system center products or just want to convince yourself of the force of system center products brought together…

Look no further this is your session.

Register here:https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032533093&Culture=en-us&community=0

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Best of MMS 2012: Belgium Edition

MMS 2012 is already in the rearview mirror but we are looking back one more time during our traditional “Best of MMS” event on the 7the of June in Mechelen.

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This year SCUGBE will again provide you with all the new System Center info received and viewed at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.

The list of sessions which are given by scugbe members will be online shortly.

Registration has opened for this event: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032513205&Culture=en-US

Reserve your seat quickly as seats are limited.

See you the 7th of June!

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MMS2012: Schedule builder has been opened for Alumni

9 weeks to go to THE event of the year for everyone who’s working with System Center software.

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As usual this MMS will be packed with good info, nice peers to talk to and sessions given by the best of the best of System Center Specialist.

This year will be extra special (is this possible?) because of the Tidal wave of new versions being released.

The session builder is open to alumni (people who attended MMS in the past year) since yesterday and will be available to the general public beginning of March.

I’ll be posting my favorite sessions shortly so check back soon to find out where you’ll find me taking in all the new things to use them to make my customers happy as never before.

There are 4 things you need to book when you’re at MMS2012:

  • Breakout sessions
  • Instructor Lead Labs (ILL)
  • Birds of the feather sessions (BOF)
  • Last but not least the new Certification Track!

But more on this in my series: How to get the most out of MMS2012 which will start shortly.

Do you feel the buzz?

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SCOM 2012: What’s new: Default behavior of overrides

This post is part of a series What’s new: Check here for the other parts.

SCOM has some huge changes on board… But some are rather small and go unnoticed to the untrained eye although they could save you a major headache.

I’m pretty sure not a lot of hands will be raised when I pop the question: “Are you 100% sure your default management pack is free of overrides, if it’s not you buy me a beer?”. Although this is not that important because (let’s face it) it works doesn’t it? You will at one point or another have a big headache when you want to delete or upgrade a management pack which has an override stored in the default management pack. This makes the default management pack referenced by the management pack and therefore you can’t delete it.

Although a lot of new System Center admins make this error I must admit it’s in fact quite easy to make the error… Just click next and it’s there…

In SCOM2007R2 the default behavior when creating an override is storing it in the default management pack:

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NOTE: Notice that My default management pack name has been changes to something which draws a little bit more attention when you want to click OK to minimize the possibility you click ok to fast. Check here how to do this: http://scug.be/blogs/dieter/archive/2011/05/13/scom-2007-renaming-default-management-pack-display-name.aspx

This is one of the first things to do on my checklist when I open the console at a new client. As this is not ruling out the fact that you once in a while just click ok to fast it helps avoiding some issues.

In SCOM2012 this behavior is changed. Now you need to explicitly select a management pack before you can click ok. Making my linked blog post above completely useless but hey you can’t win them all Smile

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This small adaption will keep a lot of default management packs clean and will score me a lot less free rounds of beer but hey… it’s for a good cause Smile

While we are on the subject make sure you use the proper approach for storing your overrides.

Marnix Wolf MVP has written a nice blog post on the subject: Storing overrides, the good, the bad and the ugly.

His conclusion:

“When storing Overrides, store them in a single unsealed MP which is dedicated only to the MP where you’re making the override for. So overrides for the SQL MP go into the unsealed MP ‘Overrides SQL’ and overrides for the Server OS MP go in to the unsealed MP ‘Overrides Server OS’. This is the only viable and workable option. All other options cause issues, sooner or later.”

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SCOM 2012: So what’s new?

So the System Center Operations Manager 2012 is almost rolling in the station…

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What are the cool new things which will make your life so much easier as an SCOM Admin? Will they help you to convince others of the great things SCOM is capable of doing?

There will be small things which will make great difference and of course there will be big things which will make little difference (because the old situation was already SO good Smile )

The different parts will be linked here so you’ll have the overview in 1 post:

  1.  Agent Config in scom 2012 for multihoming agents
  2.  Maintenance mode changes in scom 2012
  3.  Default behavior of overrides in scom 2012

Get your ticket now to hop on and explore the new features in this blog series.

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