System Center Service Manager 2010 offers enterprises a complete, integrated platform for adopting and automating service management best practices, such as those found in ITIL and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). Now, there’s a comprehensive, independent reference and technical guide to this powerful product. A team of expert authors offers step-by-step coverage of related topics in every feature area, organized to help IT professionals quickly plan, design, implement, and use Service Manager 2010. After introducing the product and its relationship with the rest of Microsoft’s System Center suite, the authors present authoritative coverage of Service Manager’s capabilities for incident and problem resolution, change control, configuration management, and compliance. Readers will also find expert guidance for integrating Service Manager with related Microsoft technologies. This book is an indispensable resource for every IT professional planning, installing, deploying, and/or administering Service Manager, including ITIL, MOF, and other IT consultants; system administrators; and developers creating customized solutions. • Understand Service Manager’s architecture and components • Discover how Service Manager supports ITIL and MOF processes • Accurately scope and specify your implementation to reflect organizational needs • Plan to provide redundancy, ensure scalability, and support virtualization • Design, deploy, and maintain Service Manager with security in mind • Use Service Manager’s consoles and portals to provide the right resources to each user • Create complete service maps with Service Manager’s business services • Fully automate incident management and ticketing • Implement best processes for identifying and addressing root causes of problems • Systematically manage the life cycle of changes • Use Service Manager to strengthen governance, risk management, and compliance • Customize Service Manager’s data layer, workflows, and presentation layer • Use management packs to simplify service desk customization • Make the most of Service Manager’s reporting and dashboards

This is the first comprehensive Operations Manager 2012 technical resource for every IT implementer and administrator. Building on their bestselling OpsMgr 2007 book, three Microsoft System Center Cloud and Data Center Management MVPs thoroughly illuminate major improvements in Microsoft’s newest version–including new enhancements just added in Service Pack 1. You’ll find all the information you need to efficiently manage cloud and datacenter applications and services in even the most complex environment. The authors provide up-to-date best practices for planning, installation, migration, configuration, administration, security, compliance, dashboards, forecasting, backup/recovery, management packs, monitoring including .NET monitoring, PowerShell automation, and much more. Drawing on decades of enterprise and service provider experience, they also offer indispensable insights for integrating with your existing Microsoft and third-party infrastructure. Detailed information on how to... Plan and execute a smooth OpsMgr 2012 deployment or migration Move toward application-centered management in complex environments Secure OpsMgr 2012, and assure compliance through Audit Collection Services Implement dashboards, identify trends, and improve forecasting Maintain and protect each of your OpsMgr 2012 databases Monitor virtually any application, environment, or device: client-based, .NET, distributed, networked, agentless, or agent-managed Use synthetic transactions to monitor application performance and responsiveness Install UNIX/Linux cross-platform agents Integrate OpsMgr into virtualized environments Manage and author management packs and reports Automate key tasks with PowerShell, agents, and alerts Create scalable management clouds for service provider/multi-tenant environments Use OpsMgr 2012 Service Pack 1 with Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012

Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite Unleashed is the first and only definitive real-world guide to the entire Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite. It brings together tips, tricks, best practices, and lessons learned by top consultants who’ve deployed System Center in some of the world’s largest enterprises and most successful small businesses. Drawing on years of early adopter and production experience, Rand Morimoto, Chris Amaris, and their team cover the entire System Center lifecycle and its components for system configuration, operations management, data protection, virtual machine management, help desk support, change management, asset control, capacity planning, and mobile device management. You’ll learn about individual components and how to integrate them to build automated, exceptionally efficient managed environments. For smaller businesses, the book also presents Microsoft’s streamlined, lower-cost IT management offering, System Center Essentials 2010. Use System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to image, update, manage, and support servers and clients Proactively monitor your systems to identify and fix problems before they fail Use System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 to provide reliable, timely backup/recovery Implement and manage all aspects of virtualization, including virtual guest sessions on both Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware Make the most of System Center Service Manager 2010’s integrated tools for managing help desks, incidents, assets, and changes Use System Center Capacity Planner to properly size, procure, and deploy new systems Remotely track, secure, patch, update, and support mobile devices with System Center Mobile Device Manager Simplify small business IT management with System Center Essentials 2010’s wizards and auto-configuration components

This is the definitive real-world guide to Microsoft System Center 2012, Microsoft's newest and most powerful version of System Center. Authored by consultants who've deployed System Center in hundreds of enterprises and innovative smaller businesses, this book brings together up-to-the-minute tips, tricks, and techniques you just won't find anywhere else. You'll learn how to use System Center's powerful capabilities to build highly-efficient managed environments that encompass datacenters, cloud environments, client computers, mobile devices, and more. The authors address planning, design, implementation, integration, and administration, and cover every component, including Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Service Manager, and Orchestrator. Use Configuration Manager 2012 to deliver software and updates in highly-distributed environments including datacenters, clouds, and mobile devices Reliably manage and report on assets with Configuration Manager 2012 Perform monitoring, alerting, operations, and security reporting with Operations Manager 2012 Use Data Protection Manager 2012to protect file systems, SQL, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint Leverage Data Protection Manager 2012's improved central monitoring and remote recovery Run Hyper-V virtualized environments with VMM 2012--including new private clouds and mixed private/public fabrics Use Service Manager 2012 to provide top-down integration, and use Orchestrator 2012 for bottom-up process automation and integration "glue" Give users an efficient self-service portal for creating service and incident requests and browsing service catalogs Manage service offerings and implement enterprise-wide change control with Service Manager 2012 Ensure compliance by creating, executing, and repeating auditable, documented processes with Orchestrator 2012

This book is your most complete source for in-depth information about Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007! System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed is a comprehensive guide to System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2007. ConfigMgr 2007 helps you manage servers and desktops, integrates SMS 2003 “feature pack” functionality, and adds new capabilities. It enables you to assess, deploy, and update servers, clients, and devices across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments, including clients that connect only over the Internet. This book guides you through designing, deploying, and configuring ConfigMgr 2007 with detailed information on topics such as capacity planning, security, site design and hierarchy planning, server placement, discovery, native mode, and using Windows Server 2008. You will learn how to tackle challenges such as setting up DCM and OSD, customizing inventory, creating queries and using query results, and configuring asset intelligence. Detailed information on how to... • Understand how ConfigMgr works • Plan your ConfigMgr deployment • Manage Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) • Architect for performance • Install or migrate to ConfigMgr 2007 with Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 • Discover and manage clients • Create and distribute packages • Understand patch and compliance management • Create queries • Use reports • Deploy operating systems • Secure ConfigMgr 2007 • Perform site maintenance • Back up ConfigMgr components

This comprehensive resource will help you automate and optimize all facets of service management with System Center 2012 Service Manager. Expert consultants offer deep “in the trenches” insights for improving problem resolution, change control, release management, asset lifecycle management, chargeback, and more. You’ll learn how to implement high-value best practices from ITIL and the Microsoft Operations Framework. The authors begin with an expert overview of Service Manager, its evolution, and its new capabilities. Next, they walk through overall planning, design, implementation, and upgrades. Then, to help you focus your efforts, they present stepwise coverage of all topics in each feature area, linking technical information about Service Manager with essential knowledge about the technologies it depends on. Whatever your role in deploying or running Service Manager, this guide will help you deliver more responsive support at lower cost and drive more value from all your IT investments. • Leverage MOF and ITIL processes built into System Center 2012 Service Manager • Plan and design your Service Manager deployment • Install Service Manager or upgrade from earlier versions • Efficiently administer work and configuration items • Use connectors to integrate with Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center components • Create service maps • Enable end user access through Service Manager’s self-service portal • Implement incident, problem, change, and release management • Utilize workflows to automate key support processes • Create service level agreements with calendars, metrics, and objectives • Provide quick access to a standardized catalog of services • Use notification to ensure that Service Manager items are promptly addressed • Secure Service Manager and its data warehouse/reporting platform • Perform maintenance, backup, and recovery • Manage Service Manager performance • Customize Service Manager

This is the comprehensive reference and technical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012. A team of expert authors offers step-by-step coverage of related topics in every feature area, organized to help IT professionals rapidly optimize Configuration Manager 2012 for their requirements, and then deploy and use it successfully. The authors begin by introducing Configuration Manager 2012 and its goals, and explaining how it fits into the broader System Center product suite. Next, they fully address planning, design, and implementation. Finally, they systematically cover each of Configuration Manager 2012's most important feature sets, addressing issues ranging from configuration management to software distribution. Readers will learn how to use Configuration Manager 2012's user-centric capabilities to provide anytime/anywhere services and software, and to strengthen both control and compliance. The first book on Configuration Manager 2012, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Unleashed joins Sams' market-leading series of books on Microsoft's System Center product suite: books that have achieved go-to status amongst IT implementers and administrators worldwide.

Using System Center 2012 Orchestrator, you can capture and document processes across your entire IT organization, establishing the automation you need to deliver advanced cloud services and self-adjusting computing resources. Authored by five leading System Center experts, this comprehensive reference and technical guide brings together all the knowledge you’ll need to architect, install, implement, integrate, and maximize the value of your own Orchestrator solutions. The authors introduce current best practices based on large-scale enterprise implementations they’ve personally led or participated in. This up-to-date guide shows how to apply Orchestrator’s major improvements to implement IT process automation in any environment, including private clouds. You’ll start with context: what Orchestrator does, how it has evolved, how it works, and essential architecture and design techniques. Next, the authors help you make crucial up-front decisions about activities, runbooks, security, and administration. Finally, you’ll find expert guidance for integrating Orchestrator with the rest of System Center and with Windows Azure cloud services—including advanced automated workflows that encompass both data center and cloud. Detailed information on how to... • Understand System Center 2012 Orchestrator’s capabilities, evolution, architecture, and design, including SP1 improvements and R2 • Successfully install System Center 2012 Orchestrator and migrate smoothly from Opalis Integration Server 6.3 • Take full advantage of Orchestrator’s advanced new runbook automation capabilities • Configure activities associated with runbook control, systems, scheduling, monitoring, files, email, notification, and data handling • Design runbooks for fault tolerance and optimal performance • Enforce strong security using roles, permissions, and auditing • Deliver integration capabilities for Operations Manager, Service Manager, Configuration Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, and Data Protection Manager • Automate end-to-end data center/ cloud workflows with integration packs and PowerShell • Create your own integration packs with Orchestrator Integration Toolkit (OIT.SDK) • Support Orchestrator 2012, troubleshoot problems, and discover the best web and third-party resources

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager’s SQL Server database contains valuable information about your users, computers, hardware, operating systems, applications, compliance status, and much more. Microsoft has provided excellent tools for extracting this information in meaningful ways, including SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Data Tools Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI). System Center Configuration Manager Reporting Unleashed shows you how to make the most of these tools. World-renowned System Center reporting guru Garth Jones and his expert coauthors guide you through all facets of custom reporting with System Center. You’ll walk through installing and configuring SSRS, using SQL views to find the data you need, writing SQL queries, creating basic and advanced reports, and using role-based administration to securely deliver those reports to the correct individuals. Jones brings together reliable, comprehensive, and up-to-date System Center reporting techniques you’ll find in no other book or website. Using this guide, you can consistently retrieve the right information to solve immediate problems and quickly respond to management concerns. Detailed information on how to... • Install and configure SQL SSRS for optimal System Center reporting and easier troubleshooting • Understand the data stored in the ConfigMgr site database • Efficiently retrieve ConfigMgr data by writing SQL queries in SQL Server Management Studio • Learn best practices for developing and designing System Center reports • Create report templates, customize content with report parameters, and embed charts • Customize logos, color palettes, and other report elements for your own organization • Construct advanced drillthroughs to provide deeper understanding • Strengthen report security by integrating ConfigMgr role-based administration into SQL queries • Leverage reporting to measure KPIs and gain a better understanding of your environment • Tailor your reports to the needs of end-users or management • Foreword by Wally Mead, Principal Program Manager, Cireson The only book entirely dedicated to Configuration Manager reporting, this guide complements Meyler's System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed, offering far more in-depth coverage of reporting than the single chapter in that book. Most of the content in this new guide will be equally valuable in both System Center 2016 and 2012 environments.

This is the comprehensive reference and technical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012. A team of expert authors offers step-by-step coverage of related topics in every feature area, organized to help IT professionals rapidly optimize Configuration Manager 2012 for their requirements, and then deploy and use it successfully. The authors begin by introducing Configuration Manager 2012 and its goals, and explaining how it fits into the broader System Center product suite. Next, they fully address planning, design, and implementation. Finally, they systematically cover each of Configuration Manager 2012's most important feature sets, addressing issues ranging from configuration management to software distribution. Readers will learn how to use Configuration Manager 2012's user-centric capabilities to provide anytime/anywhere services and software, and to strengthen both control and compliance. The first book on Configuration Manager 2012, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Unleashed joins Sams' market-leading series of books on Microsoft's System Center product suite: books that have achieved go-to status amongst IT implementers and administrators worldwide.