New features in System Center 2012 SP1 (Part 1 of 2)

New features in System Center 2012 SP1 (Part 1 of 2)

  

Today the A-team will like to discuss the new features of System Center 2012 SP1 which is in Beta right now. Nikunj Kansara, takes the responsibility of taking us through the SC2012 SP1 products.

In this 2 part series of blog posts, we are going to have a look at the features of the following products of the System Center suite: SCCM, SCOM, SCO, SCSM, SCVMM, SCDPM.

This blog post discusses 3 components, SCCM, SCDPM, SCO, SCSM.

1. Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 features

· Now new SCCM client can be client can installed Windows 8 PCs

· And SCCM can also deploy Windows 8 and also upgrade previous versions to Windows 8

· SCCM also supports 'Windows To Go' feature.

· We can take advantage of Windows 8 features like "metered Internet connections" and "Always On Always Connected" using SCCM.

· Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 are supported.

· There are clients to manage Apple Macintosh computers, and on Linux and UNIX servers.

· For Mac OS X, we can deploy software, collect hardware inventory, and manage compliance settings.

· For supported Linux / Unix, we can deploy software and collect hardware inventory

· We can now automate SCCM operations using new PowerShell cmdlets.

· Now, a distribution point for SCCM can be set up in the cloud by using Windows Azure infrastructure: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/windows-azure-distribution-point/qmsiq126?cpkey=156c18fe-0d87-4c4f-a913-673c01d15b70%7C%7C%7C%7C

· Now there is multiple software update points for a site which provides automatic redundancy for clients just like we can configure multiple management points.

· Email alert subscriptions are now supported for all features, not just Endpoint Protection.

2. Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1 features

· Data Protection Manager leverages Windows Azure Online Backup to allow users to store their data online. To use this functionality, customers will need to subscribe to the Windows Azure Online Backup service. Following link includes document which can be used to deploy and test this feature: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34608

· Now there is a support for protecting SQL Server 2012 databases that use the AlwaysOn feature.

· DPM Database can be hosted on SQL Server 2012 stand-alone instance.

· Resilient File System (ReFS) File servers can be protected using DPM.

· Protect Windows 8 deduplicated volumes. Data deduplication involves finding and removing duplication within data without compromising its fidelity or integrity. DPM allows optimized back of deduplicated volumes, both locally and over the network.

· Protect Windows 8 deduplicated volumes. DPM allows optimized back of deduplicated volumes, both locally and over the network.

· Improved backup performance of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over CSV 2.0 deployments.

3. Orchestrator 2012 SP1 features

· There new Integration packs available for:

                            o Exchange Administrator Integration Pack for Orchestrator in System Center 2012 SP1.

                            o Exchange Users Integration Pack for Orchestrator in System Center 2012 SP1.

                            o Representational State Transfer (REST) Integration Pack Guide for Orchestrator in System Center 2012 SP1.

4. Service Manager 2012 SP1 features

· Chargeback model can be created using Service Manager 2012 (SP1) along with other System Center components.

· In Service Manager, chargeback consists of a new node in the Administration workspace; new OLAP data cubes, and sample Excel reports.

· There is Improved Operations Manager Integration. An SCOM 2012 SP1 agent is automatically installed as part of Service Manager SP1. We have than manually configure the agent to connect it to SCOM management server. The agent works with SCOM 2007 R2, SCOM 2012, and SCOM 2012 SP1.

· There is SQL Server 2012 Support. SQL server 2012 can be used to host all Service Manager Databases.

· There is support for Windows Server 2012 except for the Self-Service Portal SharePoint web parts.

· Windows 8 is supported for the Service Manager console and for end-users accessing the Self-Service Portal.

The link for the Part 2 of this series can be found here:

New features in System Center 2012 SP1 (Part 2 of 2)

Hope this helps. Cheers!

- A-Team!