Microsoft has engaged in a continual process of upgrading, enhancing, and improving its System Center Configuration Management server since its release several years ago. At this point, organizations who plan to use the product for Operating System Deployment must seriously consider an upgrade to Service Pack 2, or they lose the ability to support Windows 7 workstations. Service Pack 2 is also a necessity for the organization wishing to take full advantage of Out of Band Management.
The fourth edition of Microsoft's System Management Server was released in August, 2007 with a new name, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), making it part of the System Center brand, along with a considerable package of enhancements extending the SMS 2003 product. Since the initial release of SCCM, there have been two service packs, an R2 version, and the beta version of R3. Keeping track of which iteration is necessary for which feature is a daunting task that has been complicated by the R3's continued beta status and the v.Next product that has been demonstrated at Microsoft's MMS and TechEd events. In this white paper, we will go through the components of each variety of the product that is often called ConfigMgr in an effort to clear up the confusion around this very valuable piece of management software.
In broad strokes, SMS and its re-named child provide an enterprise with the ability to centrally deploy applications and operating systems, inventory software and hardware, manage the distribution of updates and patches, and permit the reporting of each of those crucial components. As a replacement for SMS 2003, SCCM 2007 brought with it several brand-new features including Desired Configuration Management, Wake on LAN, and Network Access Protection.
Desired Configuration Management (DCM) provided an organization with the ability to analyze and compare their existing computers against a previously created standard. Wake on LAN allowed the deployment of applications and patches to a machine that is a low power state. Network Access Protection permits an organization to exclude non-compliant machines from gaining access to the network.
Additionally, a significant number of capabilities that had been introduced as Feature Packs in SMS 2003 were now included in the SCCM 2007 standard deployment, including Operating System Deployment, Asset Intelligence, and Mobile Device Management. In many ways, SCCM 2007 was the natural progression of a solid and mature product. The new and enhanced capabilities made a good business case for an upgrade for SMS 2003 users and for the adoption of the product for those using other tools or were attempting to gain a better grasp of their environment.
In May of 2008, the first Service Pack of SCCM 2007 was released. It provided some new features such as Out of Band Management, support for Soft Grid (now App-V) applications, as well as enhancements to Asset Intelligence and license management capabilities. By introducing the entirely new Out of Band Management capability, which allowed for the control of systems that were powered off or in a low power state, Microsoft signaled that it would continue its strategy of adding significant components to the ConfigMgr product through the interim service packs and releases.
At the end of August 2008, Microsoft released the R2 version of ConfigMgr 2007 to market. As a new "version," it was made available without additional cost to SCCM customers who participated in the Software Assurance program. Release 2 came with an updated help file, which continues to prove quite useful, in addition to new capabilities previously unavailable in SCCM 2007.
As a feature pack, R2 provided five new capabilities. Foremost is support for SQL Reporting Services, which enables the level of extensibility that many enterprises demand. Additionally R2 allows for integration with Microsoft's Forefront Client Security (FCS) application, allowing the usage of Desired Configuration Management packs to leverage the capabilities of the anti-virus and anti-spam of FCS. The third new feature is Client Status Reporting, which can assess the health of client machines. Also provided is true App-V 4.6 support for the newly labeled Soft-Grid system. Last, but certainly not least, are the improvements to Operating System Deployment, which include the ability to deploy the OS to computers without first adding them to the ConfigMgr database and the ability to use multicasts for OSD.
Perhaps the most powerful feature of the NT 6.x operating systems (Vista, Server 2008, and Windows 7) is their new BIOS-agnostic approach to deployment. In short, an image created on or for a Dell Computer could be deployed without modification to a Lenovo or a Hewlett-Packard. That was hardly the case with the previous Microsoft operating systems as images made for Dell 620s could not be deployed to Dell 630s. Unfortunately, Microsoft's initial NT 6.0 end user OS ran into substantial "market resistance" from the enterprise user. While I was an early proponent of Vista, that OS suffered some drawbacks. Now, with Windows 7, we finally had something we could whole-heartedly support. With a Release to Market to essentially coincide of that of Windows 7, ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 was launched.
No comments:
Post a Comment