Spamming about Information Technology (System Center, Exchange, PKI, Unified Communication and Virtualization)
Posts tagged System Center
Exchange Management IP for Orchestrator 2012 released today!
01 day ago
Today I released my Exchange Management IP for Orchestrator 2012. It is currently available for download at the Microsoft Technet Galleries: GET IT HERE
This integration pack is an addition on the already available Exchange Mail and Exchange calendering integration packs. This IP will allow you to automate all (or at least most of them) Exchange (2010) related management tasks. For example:
- Adding and removing mailbox permissions
- Changing the Quota of a mailbox.
- Mailbox database and DAG management.
All activities are aware of your Exchange environment. There is no need to select a specific server. A server is automatically selected based on availability. There is also no need to install the Exchange Management Console or Powershell cmdlets. All activities use remote Powershell to connect to your Exchange environment.
Documentation is included in the ZIP file which explains most of the features including input parameters and published data. Integration with Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager is possible.
If you would like to have features added please drop me a line. Also you can follow me on twitter (@Bart_Inovativ) to receive updates on my development work and more System Center stuff.
Enjoy!
Orchestrator 2012 – OIT Custom icon DLL creation
02 weeks ago
This (mini) blog article will demonstrate how to create a custom icon DLL which can be used with the Orchestrator Integration Toolkit. For this example we are using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
For every activity you will need two icons in bitmap format. You will need to different icon sizes (16×16 and 32×32) and the filename must end with _16.bmp or _32.bmp. Below you can find an example of a icon called Exchange_MBX.
| Size | Name |
| 16×16 | Exchange_MBX_16.bmp |
| 32×32 | Exchange_MBX_32.bmp |
All images are clickable.
Step by step guide:
New Exchange IP for Orchestrator – Icon set
22 weeks ago
Yesterday I blogged about my new Exchange integration pack (IP) for System Center 2012 Orchestrator. This IP is still in development. Today I created the icon set for the first 20 activities.
Overview and color coding
I have created a color scheme for all the activity icons. I hope this will improve the user experience of the integration pack.
Integration pack activity icons v0.5
Based on the color scheme I have created the following activity icons.
This is how it looks within the Orchestrator Integration Pack Wizard:
Not all activities are included yet. Still looking for the best icon set from a user experience perspective.
Next blogpost will go about the creation of an icon set DLL with Visual Studio 2010.
Any comments or additions are very welcome.
Kind regards,
Bart Timmermans
Orchestrator and Exchange better together – Sneak preview
03 weeks ago
Currently I am working on a new Exchange IP (Integration Pack) for System Center 2012 Orchestrator. With this IP you will have the ability to automate the process of almost all Exchange related tasks. A couple of examples:
Activities are still added day by day. So don’t worry if you are missing some activities.
All activities are aware of your Exchange environment. There is no need to select a specific server. A server is automatically selected based on availability and Active Directory Site. There is also no need to install the Exchange Management Console or Powershell cmdlets. All activities use remote Powershell to connect to your Exchange environment.
Within this blogpost I will give you a sneak preview about one of the activities which are part of the IP.
Changing the mailbox quota of a user
For the Change Mailbox Quota activity three input properties are required.
- Mailbox (the username, alias, DN of the mailbox you would like to change)
- Mailbox Quota (the size in MB of the quota)
- Warning Percentage (when should a user be alerted)
Within this example we are going to change the mailbox quota of my own mailbox. Currently I don’t have a quota applied to my mailbox (lucky me).
Below a screenshot from my Exchange mailbox properties.
Microsoft releases beta for Microsoft Orchestrator 2012
011 months ago
Source: Microsoft
The System Center Orchestrator Beta product provides the capability of automation of workflows (Runbooks) across other System Center and 3rd party products. These runbooks are created in the Runbook Designer, deployed via the Deployment Manager and run and monitored locally or remotely via the Orchestrator Console.
Feature Bullet Summary:
- Management Server
- Orchestrator Console
- Runbook Designer
- Deployment Manager
- Web service for reporting
VISIO AND SHAREPOINT 2010 EXTENSIONS FOR OPERATIONS MANAGER
02 years ago
Source: Microsoft System Center Operations Team Blog
I am pleased to announced that the collaboration of the Visio and Operations Manager teams has shipped two deliverables for the Office 2010 wave immediately following last Friday’s Office 2010 RTM. This release consists of two downloads:
1. Visio 2010 Add-in and Operations Manager 2007 R2
2. SharePoint 2010 Visio Services Data Provider
What’s new:
In addition to all the great functionality we added in the original Visio 2007 add-in, this adds,
- The Visio 2010 Add-in fully integrates the Visio 2007 add-in functionality into the Visio 2010 ribbon for a seamless user experience.
- The SharePoint 2010 Visio Services Data Provider leverages the power of Visio Services to provide the ability display Visio diagrams as live dashboards in SharePoint pulling health state directly from Operations Manager.
User Scenario:
The user can create a Visio-based view of an application, service or infrastructure – either based on an exported Operations Manager diagram view or a Visio diagram that was linked to Operations Manager managed objects (computers, web site, perspectives, etc.), just as with the Visio 2007 Add-in.
Visio diagram in Visio 2010:
After this, the user can now save the publish the diagram to SharePoint 2010 as a web drawing, and when you browse to the document in SharePoint, you’ll get the same experience of a seeing a live Visio based dashboard pulling health state from Operations Manager:
Same Visio diagram in SharePoint 2010: Wow!
At MMS…
Stay tuned at MMS, as the SharePoint Visio Services Data Provider will have some quick exposure in Kenon’s demo during the BobMu keynote. Also Rory McCaw’s and Maarten Goet’s sessions will feature this, and we are preparing to add this to the live monitoring of the labs.
Here’s a Visio diagram, shown in SharePoint 2010, hosted in an Operations Manager web page view from Bob Muglia’s keynote:
See http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/infrastructure/videoGallery.aspx?contentID=xinfra_MMS2010_day1Keynote to watch this keynote.
Links:
· These downloads are now live from the Visio Toolbox site at http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads/addins/Visio_2010_Add-in_for_System_Center_Operations_Manager_2007_R2_961.aspx.
· The documentation is available in the Operations Manager tech center.
Resources from the Visio 2007 add-in:
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 RTM!
02 years ago
Source: Microsoft System Center Team blog.
System Center Data Protection (DPM) 2010, meantime, delivers unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers — as well as Windows desktops and laptops. Microsoft has re-engineered DPM 2010 to be more scalable so that both midsize and enterprise-class organizations can take advantage of it.
Key additions in DPM 2010 include:
- The ability for roaming laptops to get centrally managed policies around desktop protection, so that your laptop data is protected, whether you are connected to the corporate network or remote
- Enhanced virtualization protection, including Hyper-V R2 LiveMigration scenarios and the ability to recover single-files from within host-based backups
- Additional protection and recovery capabilities for Windows application servers like SQL Server, Exchange or SharePoint
- Native site-to-site replication for disaster recovery to either another DPM server or an off-site cloud provider
- Significant enterprise-scalability increases for deploying DPM in large environments
- Centrally managed System State and Bare Metal Recovery
We are very excited about two offerings because we think they address a critical need among midsize businesses: the struggle to find great IT management solutions that are tailored to provide that elusive combination of rich features and ease of use.
Microsoft releases Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
02 years ago
by Bart Timmermans
in Uncategorized
The System Center Operations Manager 2007 guide, updated for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, outlines the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of System Center Operations Manager. The reader is guided through the step-by-step process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. Identification and design of the required management groups are presented in simple, easy-to-follow steps, helping the reader to design and optimize management infrastructure.
Microsoft releases System Center Essentials 2010 beta 1
02 years ago
Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations, a unified physical and virtual management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment.
You can download the beta here.
Watch the video on TechEd 2009 with all new features.
