Configuration Manager Blog

Archive for January, 2012

This week the release candidate 2 version of the Configuration Manager Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration Toolkit was released. The Configuration Manager P2V Migration Toolkit enables you to migrate your branch office site servers side by side without investing in new hardware.

Read more about the P2V Migration Toolkit in my earlier blogs:

You are able to download the Configuration Manager P2V Migration Toolkit RC2 here (x64) and here (x86) if you are a member of the public beta program or the Configuration Manager 2012 CEP.


The Private Cloud is in combination with System Center 2012 is the main focus for Microsoft this year. To help the adoption of the System Center 2012 suite and of course the Private Cloud, Microsoft developed a two day free “Creating and Managing a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 Jump Start” course. During this 2 day course guys like Symon Perriman, Chris Van Wesep, Kenon Owens, Adam Hall, Sean Christensen  and Prabu Rambadran will take us by the hand and learn us all about creating and managing a private cloud with System Center 2012.

Read more


Yesterday was a big day for the System Center community with the release of System Center 2012 Release Candidate. Yersterday the Release Candidate 2 of the Package Conversion Manager for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 was also released. The Package Conversion Toolkit will help you with the conversion of your classic software packages that you migrate from Configuration Manager 2007 to the new Application Model.

You will find the download at the Connect site.


Another reason to go the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 in Las Vegas is that the Private Cloud beta exams go public at this event:

  • Exam 70-246: Private Cloud Monitoring and Operations with System Center 2012
  • Exam 70-247: Private Cloud Configuration and Deployment with System Center 2012

Together with three (70-640, 70-642 and 70-643) core exams you become MCITP Private Cloud?

You can find more information about the Private Cloud cerification here: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-private-cloud.aspx

The beta exams will be limited, but it will be free

A couple of weeks ago I saw a tweet about that someone was playing with the RC2 version of Configuration Manager 2012. Since then no news about this version, until now! Today is during Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud webcast System Center 2012 Release Candidate released. As part of this suite also System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC2 is released. You can download the suite here.

Part of the System Center 2012 RC suite is:

  • System Center 2012 Unified Installer RC
  • System Center 2012 App Controller Beta
  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC2
  • System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager RC
  • System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC
  • System Center 2012 Operations Manager RC
  • System Center 2012 Orchestrator RC
  • System Center 2012 Service Manager RC
  • System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager RC

A new feature in Configuration Manager 2012 is the ability to simulate a deployment of an application to a user or device. This feature helps you to test the deployment of an application without actually installing or uninstalling the application.  Read more


Today Microsoft has released the new licensing model for the System Center 2012 suite. (thanks to @Syliance) A couple of highlights are the following. Regarding Server Management Licencing there are only two different licences available:

  • Datacenter (Maximizes cloud capacity with unlimited Operating System Environments (OSEs) for high density private clouds)
  • Standard (For lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads)

Buying one of those editions gives you the right to use the complete System Center 2012 suite. The members of the System Center 2012 Suite are:

  1. Configuration Manager
  2. Service Manager
  3. Virtual Machine Manager
  4. Operations Manager
  5. Data Protection Manager
  6. Orchestrator
  7. App Controller
  8. Endpoint Protection

Regarding Client Management Licencing there are three different editions available.

  1. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (per user/device)
  2. System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (per user/device)
  3. System Center Client Management Suite (per user/OSE, composed of Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager, Service Manager, and Orchestrator)

There is no information available about the pricing of the 5 different licencing options, we will have to wait until the System Center 2012 suite is general available. Nevertheless the new much more simple licencing model makes me happy :) , and I think that System Center 2012 will be widely adopted!

Read more information about this new licencing model and all of the benefits at the System Center 2012 Licensing website and here


It looks like that the Community Evaluation Program for Configuration Manager 2012 comes to an end after running since October the 6th of 2010. :( In the past 1,5 years,  members of the Configuration Manager 2012 Product team presented almost 30 sessions about the early versions of Configuration Manager 2012, the P2V migration toolkit and the Package Conversion Toolkit.

 

Read more


The first Community Evaluation Program session of 2012 is scheduled for the 18th of January (9:00 AM Pacific). This session will be about the deployment of Configuration Manager 2012 by Microsoft IT, the largest deployment of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager until now.

Read more


In my last blog I configured the Exchange Server Connector in Configuration Manager 2012 RC1 to connect to an Hosted Exchange 2010 environment in Office 365. Today I want to show some interaction of Configuration Manager 2012 with Office 365 Exchange Online.

Read more