Categories: System Center, ConfigMgr, OpsMgr

I'm very pleased to anounce that I have been renewed as an ConfigMgr MVP. This is the second year I got this award for my work in the community.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible! Much appreciated! Looking forward to work with the community!

Dear Jannes Alink,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in System Center Configuration Manager technical communities during the past year.

In this post I want to share some very interesting topics which are also from the top 20 best read in April:

Prerequisites for Installing Configuration Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb694113.aspx

About Configuration Manager Client Installation Properties
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680980.aspx

Planning for PXE Initiated Operating System Deployments
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680753.aspx

Operating System Deployment in Configuration Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632767.aspx

Step-By-Step Example Deployment of the PKI Certificates Required for Configuration Manager Native Mode: Windows Server 2008 Certification Authority
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc872789.aspx

Since ConfigMgr Beta 1 is now available publicly I wanted to share some more information about the prerequisites.

Support
I want to address that beta 1 is not supported in production environments. This does not apply to customers that are involved with TAP.

Schema
With ConfigMgr v.next the schema changes are the same as for ConfigMgr 2007. Also the 'System Management' container is required with the specific rights. More information about the schema: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680608.aspx (related to ConfigMgr 2007 but also applies)

Internet Information Services
With v.next we still need IIS for some of the components. The prerequisites are same as for ConfigMgr 2007, only webdav is no longer required. More information about the IIS prerequisites for ConfigMgr 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431377.aspx

Operating System
For v.next we support the Windows Server 2008 (R2) operating system. We only support 64-bit for site systems, x86 is only supported for a branch DP or a file share DP.

SQL Server
Now we only support Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with SP1 and Cumulative update package 6 (KB977443). This update package can be downloaded here.

Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0
ConfigMgr v.next requires the latest .net framework: 4.0. The standalone installer can be found here.

Installation
Opening the beta 1 and running the splash screen you might be looking for the prerequisite checker. This is now called 'Asses server readiness'. In this build it is not implemented. During the installation wizard a prerequisite checker will run.

I'm running my lab in Microsoft Hyper-V with a single Domain Controller and two member servers running SQL server. One member server is the 'Central Administration Site' (CAS).

The CAS server is basically a central site as we know today with ConfigMgr 2007. The highest site in the hierarchy. One difference though is that it cannot manage clients. You need a CAS when you deploy more than one primary site. For single site environments a CAS is not required.

If you want to test with Secondary Sites keep in mind they require SQL as well with v.next. Reason is that we now use SQL replication to replicate information between sites. A full SQL installation is not required for Secondary Sites, SQL express can also be used. SQL express can be installed post of the installation or you can let v.next install it for you during the site installation.

I hope this gives you all a good start with installing v.next! Have fun!

I'm very pleased to announce that the public beta 1 release of ConfigMgr v.next is now released.

ConfigMgr v.next is the new release of ConfigMgr 2007. The RTM release is for now scheduled in 2011.

This next release is focusing on 3 main areas including;

User centric application management - Empowering Administrators to define intent, and end users flexible access to the right application at the right time

- Allow the administrator to think users first
- Application management model to capture admin intent
- End user self-service software portal

Infrastructure simplification – Simplify management infrastructure, processes and administrative overhead

- Unified management across PCs and devices
- New role based administration and end-user experiences
- Automated content distribution and troubleshooting
- Redesigned core infrastructure and improved scalability

Simplify Client Management – Daily tasks, model based configuration management and improvements over existing capabilities

- Automated compliance remediation
- Client health and auto remediation
- Remote control enhancements
- Offline servicing of OS images

The above are only a few of new cool things we have now with v.next. More info about v.next can be found in my earlier post.

I want to encourage everyone to join the beta program and to provide your feedback.

Have fun!

Well I just wanted to inform that I won't be able to make it to the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 this year.

The reason is the volcano on Iceland. Due to the ash clouds most of European airspace is closed. All flights are cancelled.

The plan was to keep you all informed about the cool stuff what was going on in Las Vegas. Today I cancelled all my meetings.
This is a huge bummer, not only for me but also for the MMS. About 25% of attendees are not able to make it and a lot of MMS speakers won't be there as well.

Some content of the MMS like the keynote will be streamed over the web. My friend Jeff Wettlaufer posted more information about that here.

For those that are able to make it; have a great time! For those who are a speaker; good luck with your sessions and hope the demo gods are with you all!