Understanding Microsoft System Center - Using the right tool for the right job!
That old saying that “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail” can harm your perception of what Microsoft System Center is all about. Perhaps the biggest issue is simply to have a good handle on the whole suite - which is not easy as traditionally many of you will have been an expert in just one or two components (or whole products, as was).
Andrew Fryer, Evangelist at Microsoft, provides a simple breakdown below to help you identify the most effective tool for the job: Virtual Machine Manager controls the fabric of the modern virtualized data center, which allows us to provision services on top
App Controller is there to allow us to control services in Azure, as well as those we have in our data center
Configuration Manager allows us to manage our users, the devices they use and the applications they have. It can also manage our servers, but actually in the world of the cloud this is better done in VMM (Virtual Machine Manager)
Then it’s important to understand what’s going on with our services, and that’s Operations Manager.
Rather than sit there and watch Operations Manager all day, we need to have an automated response that is triggered when certain things happen, and that’s the role of Orchestrator.
In a world where Service Delivery is key, we want change to happen in a controlled and audited manner; whether that’s change needed to fix things, or change because somebody has asked for something. That’s what Service Manager is for. If something is picked up by Operations Manager that we need to respond to, this would be raised as an incident in Service Manager. This in turn would automatically remediate the problem by calling a process in Orchestrator, which would then prompt a change within Virtual Machine Manager for example.
The reason that System Center is not fully configured and integrated out of the box is simply down to history and honesty. Historically, System Center was a bunch of different products which are becoming more and more integrated. Honesty comes from the realisation that in the real world, many organisations have made significant investments in infrastructure and its management which are not Microsoft based. For example if your helpdesk isn’t based on Service Manager, then the other parts of SVC can still, to large extent, integrate with what you do have. If you aren’t using Windows for Virtualization or your guest OS, then System Center can still do a good job of managing VMs, and letting you know that the services on those servers are OK, or not as the case may be…
So in order to fully utilise Microsoft System Center and achieve the most effective service from your products, a thorough understanding is key.
To learn more about Microsoft System Center within your organisation, Fast Lane would recommend the following courses:
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- !Administering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (10747)
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Why attend these courses with Fast Lane?
As a Microsoft Silver Learning Partner, Fast Lane offer a comprehensive training and certification portfolio on all the latest technologies, including Microsoft System Center and the components within. Our expertise lies within cloud computing and virtualization and all of our courses are delivered using Microsoft Official Curriculum by certified instructors.
In addition to our public schedule of Microsoft training, it is often preferred by an organisation to arrange a closed course, which could be taught at one of our well-equipped training centres, or conveniently delivered on your own site if facilities are available.
Fast Lane are also pleased to assist customers in redeeming their Microsoft Software Assurance vouchers, which can be used against a vast number of public and private courses.
To discuss your training requirements further, please call Fast Lane on 0845 470 1000 or enquiries@flane.co.uk