Word is 30

Microsoft Word v1.0 (for DOS) was released in 1983 which makes it 30 years old. Quite a milestone for a software program.

MMS 2013 Videos

In the old days you had to attend MMS to see the sessions and a few months later they would send a DVD (or 2) with all the sessions so you could catch up on the ones that you missed. If you were lucky you could get some extra DVDs to hand out or if you were not there pick up one from a friend. These days the videos are all online and in fact most of them were up 1 to 2 days after they were recorded. Absolutely brilliant. They can be watched online at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013.

You can also download the videos to watch offline from the same source. You have a choice of formats to download these files. It is handy as I am working at a site where I need to go by train and the hour journey is enough to watch a video – especially when you change the speed to do 1.4x.

If you want to down load all of them it is a bit tedious but a few people have presented PowerShell scripts to help.

Stefan Stranger (ex MVP and now at Microsoft) has a couple.

Videos

http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_stranger/archive/2013/04/14/download-mms-2013-videos-from-channel-9.aspx

List of sessions as an Excel spreadsheet

http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_stranger/archive/2013/04/03/retrieving-mms-2013-content-sessions-using-powershell.aspx

I used this one below to download the files and Stefan’s above to get the sessions as an Excel file.

http://blog.scomfaq.ch/2013/04/10/mms-2013-download-sessions-offline-viewing/

Note that these scripts  all need PowerShell v3.

This downloads the media files as WMV files. Before I used the script I had downloaded a few as MP4 which was handy for my tablet.

An interesting one was this one which gave you a menu of what format you wanted to download the files in.

http://infoworks.tv/2013/04/09/mms-2013-session-video-download-script-2-0-rtw/

But from comments it does not work and it did not work for me. The author is aware of it and has said he will fix it when he gets time. There was another comment that posted some PowerShell that was supposed to fix the problem. I never got around to trying it as I had already started with the other script.

This is a big help to those of us who did not manage to get across to Las Vegas for the MMS. A big thanks to Channel  9 for making these available.

All Quiet on the Blog Front

I have been pretty quiet here for a few reasons. There are so many good bloggers now that finding something new and different to say is harder. Also the projects I have been working on have not pushed any boundaries.

I note that a few people are having problems with flights to MMS due to the volcano in Iceland. If that does not clear up it will be a very quiet MMS as a large portion of the attendees come from Europe. I had no plans to go (which is just as well) as I tend to skip an MMS. It works out as the OpsMgr stuff usually happens every 2 years. R2 last year and 2007 3 years ago. The interim years have really good sessions on best practices and notes from the field which is great if you are new to the product and looking to deploy it in your organisation.

The big thing this year will be around Service Manager. It would have been nice to get some in depth hands on with Opalis now that Microsoft have bought it and bundled it with the System Center Suite license. I remember talking to those guys years ago and seeing it demonstrated. It looked really good but the price was way too high in comparison to what a customer was paying for MOM 2005. Bundling it as part of the suite makes the suite more attractive. I have not heard if they will release it as a stand alone product. They might even change its name! Bets are off that it will start System Center. It is what comes after that. What about System Center Workflow or System Center Automation. Sounds like the type of generic word that Microsoft would use. Marketing person from years ago – “it is a word processor. I know. Let’s call it Word.”

Forums for Technical Questions

I was away on holiday and on coming back I noticed a large number of comments. Most were the same question from one person. While I try and answer these questions sometimes time pressures (I have paid work to do) and sometimes being away on holiday means it is not possible to answer these questions.

A blog post is not a good place to ask a technical question. Especially when the post is al;most 2 years old. It is called a comment field for a reason and not Ask The Blogger a Technical Question. The best places to ask technical questions is on the forums. There are a few but these are probably the best two for OpsMgr.

Microsoft – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager

SystemCenter Central – http://www.systemcentercentral.com/tabid/60/tag/Forums+Operations_Manager/Default.aspx

There are plenty of Microsoft Support people and MVPs as well as other people that know OpsMgr that go onto these forums to answer questions. That should be your first port of call for a technical question unless you have a support agreement with Microsoft and you can ask them direct.

Ian

PS I had a great time skiing by the way. It is nice to get away from technology now and again.

SCCM R3

My old ex colleague and buddy Jeff Wettlaufer, announce that System Center Configuration Manager will be having an R3 release.

http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2009/09/08/announcing-system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r3.aspx

R3? That is a new one on me. I wonder how the marketing guys came up with that one? And will we see it spread to other products? Anyone for Windows 2008 R3 and then R4?

It looks like the big thing for this release is power management. Interesting as this is an area that 1E has been active in for some time with their NightWatchman product.

http://www.1e.com/SoftwareProducts/NightWatchman/Index.aspx

You can also read more about NightWatchman in the 1E blog.

Ian

Windows Server 2008 R2

RTM was with Windows 7 but it is now available for download on (at least TechNet Plus) and MSDN. This means that System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 is not far away. This is probably the one System Center family member that has most synergy with OpsMgr. For more info about SCVMM R2 there is a webcast on 7th Sept.

Windows Server 2008 R2 is unique in that it is the first OS from Microsoft that is 64 bit only. That should trigger more applications to be 64 bit only. A 180 demo VHD for Hyper-V can be downloaded from here.

Windows 7 RTMs and Windows 2008 R2 Too

Build 7600 has RTMed. I have been using the beta/RC and it is a lot smoother than Vista. Probably more important to OpsMgr readers is that Windows 2008 R2 has also RTMed. This is the first OS from Microsoft that is 64 bit only. It can support 256 logical processors. That is a lot of CPU power. Probably the big news is Live Migration for Hyper-V. Microsoft gets closer to making Hyper-V a fit for enterprise production to offer real competition for VMWare ESX.

Availability seems a bit convoluted as outlined here but 4Sysops sums it up better.

Summary

MSDN and Technet subscribers: August 6 in English, October -  remaining languages

Software Assurance (SA) customers: August 7, remaining languages a couple of weeks later via the Volume License Service Center (VLSC).

Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal: August 16

Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers: August 23rd

Volume License customers without SA: September 1

Consumers: October 22

 

6th August! That is just 15 days away. Better get reading and planning.

MMS DVD

My DVD finally arrived today so I can catch up with all the sessions that I missed. The MMS was 27th April to 1st May so it has taken 11 weeks. Soon to be time for the next MMS!

MMS 2009 DVD

One of the nice things about attending the MMS is that you get a DVD with all the sessions on it so that you can watch the ones that you missed. Makes it a lot easier when there are multiple sessions that you want to see. Just a pain that it takes so long. Just received this e-mail.

Dear MMS 2009 Attendee,

This e-mail serves as confirmation that your MMS 2009 DVD set has been shipped and you should be receiving it within 1-2 weeks (International locations may take longer).  The DVD set has been sent via the U.S. Postal Service to the address included with your registration information.  

Just a few more weeks now. Luckily I downloaded a number of the videos from the MMS site when I was there and could watch those. Actually if you are an attendee you can still logon on to the site and download the presentations and videos. But it is nicer to have the DVD.

It reminds me that one of the OpsMgr sessions that they should have ran was how to deal with certificates. I am sure that would have been popular.

MMS 2009 1st Day

I arrived at Las Vegas on Saturday so I had some time to get over the 8 hour time difference. It was nice to be able to walk around on Sunday in the sunshine. The Venetian is a great hotel and it is a lot quicker to get to the convention from the rooms compared to when they held it at Mandalay Bay.

Monday is not the official first day but they hold a number of hands on labs and some sessions. But to be honest, although the event does not officially start until tomorrow with the keynote, with the number of sessions running and attendees around it looked like a normal day. At one point it looked like there was not going to be food or drinks but they brought them out for lunch. Although they way they did the sessions meant that there was only 15 mins for lunch.

I did a couple of hands on labs this morning and then a series of sessions by Brian Wren based on the concept of creating an MP. I wish Brian had done this session 2 years ago! The labs were OK but there was some bits which were just standard OpsMgr and not new for R2 which I found frustrating but may have been good for people new to the product. I still find it amazing that they create these labs with mistakes in them when they are showcasing to a large audience. I did a couple of HOLs a few years ago and I got a friend who was not in IT to walk through to ensure that there was no mistakes and I had not jumped steps. Quality control please.

One thing though that I did notice is that the OpsMgr R2 console in the HOL was very quick even though it was running as a VM. Very promising. I am compiling a list of likes and dislikes as I get more exposure to the product that I will turn into a post later.