System Center Service Manager

SCUG session with Nigel Cain: System Center Service Manager Integration

Hello,

Last week we had the pleasure to attend to the Microsoft partner session with Nigel Cain and in the evening there was the SCUG session where Nigel talked about the integration possibilities of System Center Service Manager.

In this post I want to high light some information that is provided during these sessions:

• In both sessions an overview is provided of the functionality in SCSM. Change management, problem management, incident management and compliance management are part of the product. Asset management can be integrated via custom management pack - http://www.provance.com/en/Solutions/Provance_and_Microsoft_System_Center.html
• SLA management is not included in SCSM V1 and will not be available in RTM version. Let’s say it with Nigel his words “Let’s ship the V1 version and start then thinking about the V2 version”
• End of February there will be a release candidate available:
  • “Line manager” concept will be integrated in that version. Nice for the Review activities.
  • less empty fields in management console, for the moment we have sometimes some empty action fields in the GUI.
• Populating the CMDB is an important task in the setup of an SCSM infrastructure
  • SCCM and SCOM are important sources for populating the CMDB, but SCSM is not limited to that. CSV import is an easy method for importing CI’s. Simple CSV import via the mgmt console can already do the task or you can create a CSV connector.
  • Important for the import of the CI’s is that the source is clean. Keep in mind to clean up the source before you do an import of the CI’s
  • Ok, currently there are connectors available for importing CI’s from Windows platform, but SCSM is certainly not limited to that. SCSM is service management for your whole environment. If you want to have your beamer as a CI in SCSM, create the proper class and start importing. If you need UNIX, LINUX,… system in SCSM, import them in SCSM and so on…
• Configuring SCSM is for a big part the translation of the defined processes. It will be important to have a clear overview of this information before starting configuring SCSM.

A lot more information is provided during the sessions, thank you Nigel for sharing this information with us.

We had a “little” after session with Nigel where we discussed the service provider scenario. Below you can see the result of the brainstorm…

Another nice functionality that is discussed during the after session was the compliancy measuring. The integration with SCCM DCM is explained during the sessions, but there is an additional check that can be performed against different frameworks. Readers who are interested in this kind of functionality, please post a reply on this post. If I can gather some interest on this topic, Nigel wants to give dedicated session about it. I will start gather info about the compliancy regulations that are included in SCSM…

Hope this post provides some info for those who were not in the possibility to attend the sessions.

Kind regards,

Kurt Van Hoecke

Configure SCSM email incident support

We know that we can create incidents via the console; support people can handle a phone request and create an incident in the SCSM console.

This blog provides some info about the email incident support in SCSM. Users can submit incidents by sending an email to a dedicated email address. Several email addresses can be used, one for hardware incidents, one for software incidents, and one for printers and so on… When an email is sent to report an issue, the Exchange Server will send it to the SMTP server, the SMTP server will copy the message to a “drop folder” on the computer that is hosting an SMTP Server service. Service Manager monitors this share and processes the message into an incident. Service Manager parses the ”From address” and attempts to match the user in the Service Manager database. If Service Manager cannot find the user in the Service Manager database, the message is moved into a “bad folder” and no incident is created.

The configuration of this functionality consists of 4 blocks:

• Configuration of the mail server to route the emails to the SCSM SMTP server.
• Setup and configuration of the SCSM SMTP server.
• Configuration of the template for emailed incidents.
• Configuration of the Inbound email settings in Service Manager.

Flow overview:

Configuration of the mail server to route the emails

I’m not going to cover this configuration in detail. You can use the information that is provided in the admin guide or work together with the Exchange team to configure this. The goal of this configuration on the Exchange server is to define the email address as an accepted email domain and route emails for that domain to the SMTP server.

Overview of the configuration:

1. Open the Exchange Management console.
2. Expand Organization Configuration, and then click Hub Transports.
3. In the Hub Transport pane, click Accepted Domain.
4. In the Actions pane, click New Accepted Domains.
5. In the New Accepted Domains dialog box, create a new accepted domain of the type Internal Relay. For example *.helpdesk.demo.local
6. In the Hub Transports pane, click Send Connectors.
7. In the Actions pane, click New Send Connector.
8. In the New SMTP Send Connector wizard, create a new send connector by using the following information:
   1. Address space = *.helpdesk.demo.local
   2. Add Smart Host by using the IP Address of the computer that will host the SMTP Server service defined in the following procedure.
   3. Set smart host authentication settings to None.

Setup & Configure the SCSM SMTP server

The SMTP server is a functionality on server 2008 (R2) and is configurable via the Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager. (So don’t forget to tick this option also when installing the IIS role)

Setup of the SMTP server

• On the computer that will host the SMTP Server service, on the Windows desktop, click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager.
• Right-click the local computer node, select New, and then click SMTP Virtual Server.
• In the New SMTP Virtual Server Wizard, in the Name field, type the name for the SMTP server, and then click Next. In this example, type helpdesk.demo.local.
• On the Select IP Address page, click the drop-down list and select the IP address of the computer that is hosting the SMTP Server, and then click Next.
• On the Select Home Directory page, click Browse and click to the folder for your home directory. For example, select C:\inetpub\mailroot. You will create a share for this folder in the next procedure.
• On the Default Domain page, type the domain name for this virtual SMTP server, and then click Finish. The domain name you enter must match domain name that is configured on the Exchange server in previous procedure. In our example, type helpdesk.demo.local.

Create a share for the mail root folder

• On the Windows desktop, right-click the Start button, and then click Explore.
• In Windows Explorer, drill down to the folder that you specified as the home directory in step 5 from the previous procedure. For example, drill down to C:\inetpub\mailroot. If needed, create two sub folders, Badmail and Drop.
• Right-click the home folder, and then click Share.
• In the File Sharing dialog box, select the domain user that you specified for the Service Manager account, click Contributor, click Share, and then click Done.
• You can double check this account in the SCSM console
  • In the Service Manager console, select Administration.
  • In the Administration pane, expand Administration, security, and then select “Run As Accounts”

• Make sure that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service is set to Automatic and has started.

Configuration of the template for emailed incidents.

One of the items that we have to take in to account in this scenario is that incidents created via email are not assigned to a group or user and have the impact & urgency set on medium. I don’t like to have incidents created without an assignment on it. So, a template must be created to correct this setting.

As specified before, we can have multiple email addresses configured for this functionality. In that case we have to create multiple templates in order to set the assignment for emailed incidents.

Configuration of the template

• In the Service Manager console, select Administration.
• In the Administration pane, expand Library, and then select Templates.
• In the Settings pane, click create template. Template creation wizard starts
• On the Create template page, specify the following items:
  • The name of the template, for example emailed incidents
  • Class of the template, in our case this is Incident
  • Select the management pack to store the template in. I have created a dedicated mgmt. pack for templates.

• Click OK and the incident form is presented.

• On this page you can make the adjustments that you need. Assignment, impact, urgency and Primary owner are items that can be specified in the template.
• Click on Apply and OK to close the page and save the settings.
• Template is created and should appear in the list of template in the SCSM console.

-

Configure Inbound Email settings in Service Manager

Enable the inbound email functionality in SCSM console

• In the Service Manager console, select Administration.
• In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then select Settings.
• In the Settings pane, double-click Incident Settings.

• In the Incident Settings dialog box, select Inbound Email.

• In the SMTP Service Drop Folder Location field, type the path, share, and folder to the drop folder. In this example, type \\<computer_name>\mailroot\Drop where <computer_name> is the name of the computer that is hosting the SMTP Server service, mailroot is the share name, and Drop is the sub folder.
• In the SMTP Service Bad Folder Location field, type the path, share, and folder to the bad mail folder. In this example, type \\<computer_name>\mailroot\Badmail where <computer_name> is the name of the computer that is hosting the SMTP Server service, mailroot is the share name, and Badmail is the sub folder.
• In the Maximum number of e-mails per cycle field, enter a number of e-mails that you want Service Manager to process during an email processing cycle.
• Select Turn on inbound emails processing, and then click OK.

 Configure the template for incoming emailed incidents

• In the Service Manager console, select Administration.
• In the Administration pane, expand Administration, select Workflows and select Configuration.
• In the Configuration pane, select the Incident Event Workflow Configuration and select properties from the task pane.

• On the Incident events page, click Add. A Wizard starts for the creation of the event.
• Click Next on the “Before you begin” page.
• On the Workflow Information page, specify the name of the event and make sure that you have selected “When an incident is created”.

• Click Next to proceed.
• In the Specify Event Criteria, drill down in the available properties section and select Source.
  • Click Add and specify the criteria. In our case, specify “Equals” EMail. (In this way we will apply the template to all emailed incidents).
  • If multiple email addresses are available you can add the Title criteria with a contains <email address>. (red square in screenshot)

• Click Next.
• On the Select Incident Template page, specify the just created template and click Next.

• On the Select People to Notify page, configure the notification for these kinds of incidents.
• Click Next to proceed.

• Click Next on the Summary page.
• Click Close on the Confirmation page.

Result of the emailed incident configuration

So, in this scenario I have to send an email to helpdesk@support.demo.local.

(simple example)

SCSM will pick this up and make an incident from it.

You can see that the assignment is made and the support group is set on the incident form.

This blog post is a simple example of what we can do with this emailed incident functionality. Multiple emails can be used, they can be filtered and we can apply an template on it. In the template we can specify several items for the emailed incident.

That’s it!

Enjoy,

Kurt Van Hoecke

System Center Service Manager 2010: Error when registering the Datawarehouse

While registering a Datawarehouse with Service Manager 2010 I got the following error in the eventviewer of the Datawarehouse server…

A module of type "Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.Module.WorkflowWorkItemModule" reported an exception System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
   at System.DateTimeParse.Parse(String s, DateTimeFormatInfo dtfi, DateTimeStyles styles)
   at System.DateTime.Parse(String s, IFormatProvider provider)
   at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.WorkItem.ShredReader(XmlReader wiInstance)
   at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.WorkItem..ctor(XmlReader wiInstance)
   at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.WorkItem.GetWorkItem(String processCategory, String process)
   at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.Module.WorkflowWorkItemModule.PollForNextWorkItemItem()
   at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.Module.WorkflowWorkItemModule.OnDataItem(DataItemBase dataItem, DataItemAcknowledgementCallback acknowledgedCallback, Object acknowledgedState, DataItemProcessingCompleteCallback completionCallback, Object completionState) which was running as part of rule "WorkflowOrchestration.DeploymentRule" running for instance "Deployment Workflow Target" with id:"{0B09E978-69C6-709F-5D5E-B03C5477393C}" in management group "xxxxxx".

The problem here was that the system locale from the service account used wasn’t set to English-US

After that change (and rebooting the server) the job succeeded

Cheers,

Mike

Importing data into SCSM (part4) – The manual & CSV import CI creation

To make the “Importing data into SCSM” blog list complete we also have to provide information about the manual and CSV file import. Previous blog posts have listed the “automated” ways to import CI’s in SCSM from AD, SCCM & SCOM. AD is a source for CI’s that in most cases can be used. SCCM and SCOM add information to existing CI’s and both create new CI’s who are not available in SCSM. In cases where both System Center products are not available, a manual or CVS import can be used for adding CI’s in SCSM.

Manual creation of CI’s:

Computers, printer, Users & Services can be imported via the manual way. (Default mgmt. console folders – other items can be imported and made visible via SCSM View’s.

In brief, the manual procedure (As example, a computer CI is added)

1. In the Service Manager console, select Configuration Items.

2. In the Configuration Items pane, expand Configuration Items, and then expand Computers. In order to create a new printer, User or service, select the appropriate folder.

3. Select All Computers, and then in the Tasks pane, under Computers, click Create Computer.

4. In the form that appears, create a configuration item for a computer. Use the General, Software and Related Items tabs to fill in the information about the computer.

5. Click OK to save the new configuration item.

For your information, some form screenshots of the creation of the other CI’s.

Note: Not all fields can be provided with data via the CSV file import. In certain cases it is mandatory to have SCCM or SCOM to add the required data.

• Form for new printer CI’s

• Form for New service CI’s

• Form for New User CI’s

CSV import

Configuration items contained in a comma-separated values (CSV) file can be imported into the Service Manager database by using the Import from CSV file feature. This feature allows you to bulk-import instances of any class type or projection type that is defined in the Service Manager database. This feature can be used to:

• Create Configuration Item or Work Item instances from data stored in a tabular format.
• Bulk-edit existing database instances.
• Populate the Service Manager database with data exported from an external database.
• Circumvent data entry through forms when many class instances must be created at once.

Two files are required to import a set of instances by using the CSV import feature:

• A data file that consists of a series of comma-delimited object instances. The data file must end with the ".csv" file name extension.
• A format file that specifies the class type or projection type of the instances present in the data file. Every instance in the data file is assumed to be of this type. The format file also specifies
  • The subset of properties (and in the case of projections, components) being imported for the indicated type.
  • The order in which those properties appear (as columns) in the associated data file. The format file must have the same file name as the "csv" file that it describes, and it must end with the ".xml" file name extension.

Note: For more information about CSV import and class type or projection types, see the blog post Using the CSV import feature (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159957) and download the file CSVImport.docx. Very good explanation about the topic…

The creation of the CSV data file

To use the CSV Importer, we first need to save the spreadsheet as a “.csv” file. The first row of the spreadsheet is assumed to contain an object instance (and not a header), so we remove this line and save the spreadsheet in a file named "import.csv".

Example of a csv file

Creating the format file

The data file “import.csv” is now created. Next step is the creation of a format file that is suitable for importing the rows contained in the import.csv file. The first step in writing the format file is identifying the class type or projection type to be used for the instances in the CSV file.

Microsoft.Windows.Computer is the most appropriate choice for the object type and property set that we wish to import. We begin by declaring the class of the object being imported:

<CSVImportFormat>

<Class Type="Microsoft.Windows.Computer">

...

</Class>

</CSVImportFormat>

In our example the format file should look like this:

When these files are created, we can import this information into SCSM.

Import of the data in SCSM

With the format and data files prepared, we are ready to use the CSV Import task.

1. To access it, navigate to the Administration page in SCSM console

2. Click on the Connectors folder and select the Import from CSV file… task

3. On the Import Instances from CSV file page, provide the path to the xml format file and the actual CSV file.

4. Click Import to start the creation of the CI’s in SCSM.

5. After the import a summary page is provided with the results of the import.

6. All done…imported items should be visible in the Configuration items page in SCSM (corresponding folders)

Update of a CI via CSV

The update of a CI in SCSM goes in a similar way. Creation of the CSV file with a correct format file is required. When we re-use the example from above, the CSV and format files need to be updated with the additional information.

For example, we add the required Properties.

FYI: List of possible Property ID’s for the Microsoft.Windows.Computer class

After the update on the format file we need to add the proper information in the CSV file.

Import the CSV file and job done!

Enjoy,

Kurt Van Hoecke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bunkco

Part 1: (Importing data into SCSM (part 1) – the SCSM AD & SCCM connectors)

Part 2: (Importing data into SCSM (part2) - the SCSM OpsMgr Alert connector)

Part 3: (Importing data into SCSM (part3) - the SCSM OpsMgr CI connector)

Importing data into SCSM (part3) – the SCSM OpsMgr CI connector

As specified in previous blog, two OpsMgr connectors are available in Service Manager:

• Operations Manager Alert connector: The OpsMgr alert connector is used to automatically generate incidents that are based on Operations Manager alerts.
• Operations Manager CI connector: This connector will import objects that were discovered by Operations Manager into the Service Manager database. (For example, distributed apps or SQL databases.)

This blog will handle the Operations Manager CI Connector.

There are two steps that need to be followed for the installation of the OpsMgr CI connector:

• Import of the management packs: In order to import objects discovered in Operations Manager, Service Manager will need a list of class definitions for these objects that we can obtain from the Operations Manager management packs.
• Installation of the OpsMgr CI connector in SCSM: The actual installation and configuration of the connector in the SCSM mgmt console.

Import the management packs

Download the file InstallOMMPs.exe from the Connect Web site

1. On the SCSM server, create a folder for the file InstallOMMPs.exe. (for example D:\MP)

2. Double-click InstallOMMPs.exe to extract the files.

3. In the Unzip to folder field, type the location of the folder that you created in step 1, and then click Unzip. (D:\MP)

4. On the Windows desktop, click Start, click Programs, click Windows PowerShell 1.0, right-click Windows PowerShell, and then click Run as administrator.

5. Change directories to folder you created in step 1, and then click ENTER. (D:\MP)

6. In the Windows PowerShell window, run the following commands:

1. set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted

2. .\installOMMPs.ps1

1. Type exit and then press ENTER.

If you have installed additional management packs in Operations Manager and you want to add the data from those additional management packs to Service Manager, you can edit the Operations Manager CI Connector to add the additional management packs.

• Copy the OpsMgr Mgmt pack to the folder where InstallOMMPs.exe is extracted (In this example D:\MP)
• Add a line with the mgmt pack name on the en of the following section of the Powershell script.

Import of the mgmt packs can be verified in the Management pack folder in Administration pane of the SCSM console.

Installation of the OpsMgr CI connector in SCSM

Follow this procedure to create an Operations Manager 2007 CI Connector:

1. In the SCSM console, click Administration.

2. In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

3. In the Tasks pane, under Connectors, click Create Connector, and then select Operations Manager CI Connector.

4. On the General page, in the Name box, type a name for the new connector. Make sure that Enabled is selected, and then click Next.

5. On the Server Details page, in the Server name box, type the name of the server that is hosting the Operations Manager root management server.

Under Credentials, either select the Run As account you created for the Alert connector and proceed, or click New and in the User name, Password, and Domain fields, type the credentials for the Run As account, and then click OK.

Test the connection before preceding the wizard.

6. On the MP Selection page, either click Select all or select the management packs which define the configuration items you would like to import, and then click Next.

7. On the Schedule page, adjust the Synchronization schedule as needed and click Next.

8. On the Summary page, review the configuration and then click Create.

9. On the Completion page, click Close.

To validate the creation of an Operations Manager 2007 CI Connector

• Objects discovered by Operations Manager are listed as Configuration Items in Service Manager.
• Confirm the status of a connector by viewing the columns in the Connector pane where you will find information such as Start Time, Finish Time, Status, and Percentage.

Create Views for the imported CI’s

Configuring the OpsMgr CI Connector indicates that additional Configuration Items are required in SCSM. SCSM does not have system-defined views or forms for some items, like imported items via the OpsMgr CI Connector. Own created views can make this CI’s visible in the SCSM console.

Follow the procedures below to create a view for imported SQL Server database configuration items.

1. In the Service Manager console, select Configuration Items.

2. In the Configuration Items pane, right click Configuration Items, and then click Create folder. (This is an optional step, you can create own views in existing folders)

3. In the Create folder page, provide a name for the folder and the management pack to store the information. Keep in mind to organize your information in the proper mgmt. packs. In this example we use an own created mgmt. pack for Views.

4. Back in the Configuration Items pane, select on the just created folder. In the Tasks pane, click Create View.

5. In the Create View dialog box, on the General page, in the Name text box, type a name for the new view. For example, type SQL Databases.

In the Description box, enter a description of the view you are creating. Click OK.

6. Drill down to the Criteria section,Search for objects of specific class, click Browse.

7. In the Choose Class dialog box, in the View list select All basic classes.

8. In the Search text field, type SQL, and then click the search button (blue magnifying glass).

9. In the Class list, select SQL database, and then click OK.

10. No further criteria are required for this example and we can remove the existing criteria from the box.

11. Click the Display tab then in the Columns to display list, select Database Name, Database Size (MB) String, and other items that could be interested for as console info. Click OK.

12. Select the new view named SQL Server Databases to see the list of the imported SQL databases.

All done…

Enjoy,

Kurt Van Hoecke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bunkco

This is a second post in the importing data into SCSM series:

Part 1: (Importing data into SCSM (part 1) – the SCSM AD & SCCM connectors)

Part 2: (Importing data into SCSM (part 2) – the SCSM OpsMgr Alert connector)

System Center Service Manager Session with Nigel Cain

On January 19 we will have a session with Nigel Cain, Senior Product Manager!

System Center Service Manager Integration

 Abstract:

In this session, we will take a detailed look at how Service Manager integrates with Operations Manager (SCOM) and Configuration Manager (SCCM) to help you to more effectively manage systems in your data center, learn how to define and manage business services, manage change to those services and create incidents when components fail or degrade. 

Speaker: Nigel Cain, Senior Program Manager

Nigel Cain is a Senior Program Manager in the Virtualization & Datacenter Management team responsible for driving customer focused design and development efforts.  His primary product responsibilities include System Center Service Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.  Nigel joined Microsoft in 1998 as technical consultant and moved into a Program Management role in 2003. Since then he has worked on a number of different products and initiatives but his primary focus has always been on solutions that make Microsoft technologies easier to manage

Agenda Thuesday, January 19, 2010

• 18:00 Registration and lunch
• 18:45 Welcome
• 19:00 System Center Service Manager Integration  by Nigel Cain
• 21:00 Q&A and drink

For more information have a look at http://scug.be/content/Events.aspx

Register fast, seats are limited!

Alexandre Verkinderne

System Center Service Manager - Introduction and scope

Hello Chaps,

This is my first article about System Center Service Manager 2010. This will be a multi part articles series.

Part 1: Introduction and scope

Part 2: High Level Architecture

Part 3: Diving into Incident Management

--------------------

let's start with Part 1:

Product Positioning

 The above picture describes the System Center Global Picture.

System Center Service Manager obviously tries to close the Gap between the current System Center Portfolio and a 360 degrees approach.

So far the following items were addressed or at least partially:

• Operations Management
  • System Center Operations Manager
• Configuration Management
  • System Center Configuration Manager
• CMDB
  • Partially addressed in Configuration Manager
• Knowledge
  • Partially addressed in Operations Manager

System Center Service Manager addresses the following items:

• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Self Service Portal
  • Password Reset
  • Software Request
• CMDB
• Knowledge Database
• Native Integration with AD,SCOM,SCCM

SCSM builds and extends the familiar Management Pack Architecture with a more robust MP ...

In fact the new MP structure allows images, forms, assemblies,etc.... bundled into a new .MPB file format( I will write blog article on this matter later)

Have a nice Day

Frederic Dumesle -

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/frederic-dumesle/0/229/9a2

New SCSM Solution Accelerator to Address Compliance and Risk Management Challenges!

Beta evaluations of the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack and the IT Compliance Management Library for System Center Service Manager now available

This Beta release includes control activities and test automation for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7.

The Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack and the IT Compliance Management Library extend System Center Service Manager with several new features that allow customers to:

• Use the included Program Creation Wizard to quickly and easily determine which control objectives must be addressed to address compliance requirements defined in required regulations and standards.
• Help eliminate the complexities and redundancies often found in multiple, overlapping regulations and standards.
• Leverage System Center Service Manager’s integration with System Center Configuration Manager and System Center Operations Manager to monitor, validate, and report on the compliance state of deployed Microsoft products.

To Download the Beta

Please note that to begin your evaluation of this management pack you will need to download and install the Service Manager Beta-2 Update, available here

To download, simply go to the Service Manager site on Connect www.connect.microsoft.com. click the Downloads link and select “Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack Beta ” and then select all of the following files from the download details page:

• ComplianceAndRiskProcessMPBeta_Documentation.zip – This file contains the documentation for the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack. Please download this file first and read the Getting Started Guide prior to installation.
• ComplianceAndRiskProcessMPBeta.exe – This is the install file for the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack. This must be installed on your server running Service Manager Beta 2 to add compliance management capabilities.
• IT_Compliance_Management_Library_Beta.exe – This is the install file for the IT Compliance Management Library containing control libraries and automation enhancements for the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack. Please read the ITCML User’s Guide before installing.

Have Fun,

Kurt Van Hoecke

Session Recording Service Manager: From Re-active to Pro-active

In this session Maarten Goet, SCOM MVP and participant in the TAP-program for Service Manager, is going to show us what the possibilities are of Service Manager. First he will explain the architecture of Service Manager after which he will deep-dive into the possibilities of Incident-, Change Management and CMDB. With some real life examples Maarten will also show us the possibilities of the SCOM and SCCM connector.

For IT-pros who are working with ITIL, COBIT or the MOF framework, for IT-pros who are interested or searching for a helpdesk system with integration into the system center suite and for IT-decision takers that need to comply with several standards, this is a session you can't miss.

Part I

Part II

Availability of Service Manager Beta-2 (Update)

The Service Manager team just announced the availability of Service Manager Beta-2 (Update)

This refresh is being made available to support the release of the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack (click here to download). In addition to specific fixes to support this solution, a number of other issues have been addressed from the earlier Beta build:

· Allow Administrators to select which SCCM packages to display to end users in the self-service portal

· Enable import of CIs from custom Operations Manager 2007 objects

· Active Directory Connector wizard supports user accounts in another forest (included non-trusted)

· Provide view of workflow failures or timeouts and allow administrators to retry workflows if needed

· Fixed issue for workflow authoring – enable the use of parameter settings defined in an unsealed management pack

· Group memberships are now refreshed automatically

· Templates continue to work after list values are deleted

· Knowledge Categories can now be customized

· Fixed an issue where time worked was incorrectly calculated in the Incident Analyst report

Download

To download, simply go to the Service Manager site on Connect www.connect.microsoft.com. Once you have successfully signed in, click the Downloads link, click Service Manager Beta-2 Update.

Have fun,

Alexandre Verkinderen

Importing data into SCSM (part2) – the SCSM OpsMgr Alert connector

Hello,

Part 1 blog post (Importing data into SCSM (part 1) – the SCSM AD & SCCM connectors) of the importing data into SCSM blog series is handling the AD and ConfigMgr connector. This second part will provide some more information about the OpsMgr connectors in SCSM.

Two connectors are available in Service Manager:

• Operations Manager Alert connector: The OpsMgr alert connector is used to automatically generate incidents that are based on Operations Manager alerts.
• Operations Manager CI connector: This connector will import objects that were discovered by Operations Manager into the Service Manager database.

In this post we will handle the Operations Manager Alert Connector.

Installation and configuration of the Operations Manager Alert Connector

The installation of this connector is a two phase’s process.

• The first part involves creating the Alert connector on the SCSM server.
• The second part requires that you start the OpsMgr console and set up a subscription for the newly created connector.

Creating the Alert connector on the SCSM server

Pre-requisites:

OpsMgr Alert Connector account with the following rights:

• Must be a domain account.
• Must be a member of the Users local security group on the Service Manager management server.
• Must be an Operations Manager 2007 Administrator.

Installation of the connector

In the Service Manager console, click Administration.

In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

In the Tasks pane, under Connectors, click Create Connector, and then select Operations Manager Alert Connector.

1. On the Before You Begin page, click Next.

2. On the General page, in the Name box, type a name for the new connector.

(On this page, we can enable or disable the connector.)

3. On the Server Details page, type the name of the server that is hosting the OpsMgr root management server.

In the credentials section of the page, select an existing account with adequate right or create a new account. Test the connection before preceding the wizard.

4. On the Alert Routing Rules page, click Add if you need to configure specific templates for alerts. For this example, we leave the field empty. In this way, all alerts will be using the operation manager incident template.

5. On the Schedule page, specify the polling interval for the connector. Alert handling can be configured with following options: Resolve alerts in Operations Manager when incident is resolved and Resolve incident when alerts in Operations Manager are resolved. For this example, both options are selected.

6. On the Summary page, make sure that settings are correct, and then click Create.

7. On the Completion page, click Close to finish the OpsMgr connector installation.

First part of the OpsMgr installation is finished…

Creating the subscription in the OpsMgr Console

8. To continue with the second part of the installation, start the Operations Manager console and connect to the Operations Manager root management server.

9. In the Administration pane, click Product Connectors (SCOM SP1), or for Operations Manager 2007 R2, click Products Connectors, and then click Internal Connectors.

10. In the Connectors pane, right click the name of the alert connector (Connector name configured in step 2) and select properties.

11. On the internal connector general properties page, click on Add in the Subscriptions sections

12. In the Product Connector Subscription Wizard dialog box, on the General page, in the Subscription Name field, type the name for this subscription

13. Click Next.

14. On the Approve groups page, select the OpsMgr groups that need to forward alerts to SCSM.

Click Next.

15. On the Approve targets page, click Next if you want to forward all alerts from all targets.

16. If detailed alert information needs to be forwarded, select the Forward only alerts with targets explicit… option and click Add

Targets can be selected OpsMgr targets lists, click Ok when finished and Next on the Approve targets page.

17. On the Criteria page, select the criteria for alert forwarding. Click Create.

(On this page you can select witch alerts you want to forward to the Service Manager)

18. The just created Subscription is added to the subscriptions list. Click Ok to close the properties page.

Job is done in the OpsMgr console.

Review Configuration in the SCSM console

19. Go back to you SCSM console and navigate to the “Work Items” pane.

20. Expand “Work Items” –> “Incident Management” and click on “All Open OM Incidents”

In the results pane you can see the forwarded alerts from OpsMgr (can take some time before the console is updated with the forwarded alerts)

All done…

(This can be further extended with automatic ticket assignment and notification, but that is for another blog…)

Enjoy,

Kurt Van Hoecke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bunkco

This is a second post in the importing data into SCSM series:

Part 1: (Importing data into SCSM (part 1) – the SCSM AD & SCCM connectors)

Importing data into SCSM (part 1) – the SCSM AD & SCCM connectors

The Service Manager database contains information about the environment. After a fresh installation, we have an empty database. This SCSM database can be easily populated with different entries (configuration items for SCSM) with the use of connectors. In the SCSM console, you have four different connectors that can be configured.

Active Directory Connector: This connector enables the import of users, groups, printers, and computers from Active Directory as configuration items (CI) into the Service Manager database. Complete domain, OU or a selection of different objects are source configurations that can be set during installation of the connector.

Configuration Manager Connector: This connector enables the import data from Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Site Database into the System Center Service Manager database. The ConfigMgr connector can enable a couple of functions:

- Importing assets by using a Configuration Manager Connector can add details about a configuration item that has already been imported by using an AD Connector, or add new configuration items that do not exist in Active Directory.

- Importing configuration baselines from ConfigMgr and then use that to automatically generate incidents for non-compliant configuration items.

Operation Manager Alert Connector: The OpsMgr alert connector is used to automatically generate incidents that are based on Operations Manager alerts.

Operation Manager CI Connector: The CI connector imports discovered objects from Operation Manager as configuration items into the SCSM database.

This first blog post will cover the installation and configuration of the AD & ConfigMgr connector.

Installation of the Active Directory Connector

Pre-requisites:

- Connector account with read rights in Active Directory

Installation of the connector

In the Service Manager console, click Administration.

In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

In the Tasks pane, under Connectors, click Create Connector, and then select Active Directory Connector.

The Active Directory Connector Wizard starts…

On the Before you Begin page, click Next.

On the General page, in the Name box, type a name for the new connector. On this page, we can enable or disable the connector.

On the Domain or Organizational Unit page, we have two configuration options:

- Select Use the domain: <domain name> for complete domain import

- Or select Let me choose the domain or OU and then click Browse to choose a domain or an organizational unit (OU) in your environment. (I have selected a specific OU “Accounts” in this example setup.)

In the Credentials area, click New or select an existing Run As account from the drop down list.

Configuration made on this page can be tested using the Test Connection button.

On the Objects page, we can configure the connector to import “All computers, printers, users, and user groups” or alternatively to import only selected items with selecting “Select individual computers, printers, users or user groups”.

On the Summary page, make sure that settings are correct, and then click Create.

On the Completion page, make sure that Active Directory Connector successfully configured appears, and then click Close.

Go back to the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

Select the just created AD connector and navigate to the Tasks pane, under AD Connector, click Synchronize Now.

Wait a few moments and you can see that the discovered objects from AD are imported as configuration items in SCSM. To check the import, just navigate to the Configuration Items in the SCSM console, expand Configuration Items and select for example All Computers. The CI’s are listed in the results pane.

(Example of the imported Configuration items)

Next step is to configure the Configuration Manager Connector. This will import more meta-data information for the imported configuration items from AD. (or add new configuration items)

Installation of the ConfigMgr Connector

The following procedure can be used to import data from ConfigMgr 2007.

Pre-requisites:

- Connector account that must be a member of the smsdbrole_extract and the db_datareader groups on SCCM site database.

Installation of the connector

In the Service Manager console, click Administration.

In the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

In the Tasks pane, under Connectors, click Create Connector, and then select Configuration Manager Connector.

On the Before you Begin page, click Next.

On the General page, in the Name box enter a name for the new connector and provide a description if needed. On this page, we can enable or disable the connector.

On the Select Management Pack page, in the Connector Management Pack list, select System Center Configuration Manager Connector Configuration, and then click Next.

On the Connect to System Center Configuration Manager Database page, specify the name of your SCCM server and the name of the SMS database.

In the Credentials area, click New or select an existing Run As account from the drop down list.

Note: Account must have rights in the SCCM database to import object information like it is specified in the pre-requisites.

On the Collections page, select the appropriate collection, and then click Next. I have enabled the configuration for “All Systems” collection. This can be changes at a later stage…

On the Schedule page, in the Synchronize list, set how often, and at what time, synchronization should occur, and then click Next.

On the Summary page, confirm the connector settings you made, and then click Create.

On the Confirmation page, make sure that You have successfully completed the System Center Configuration Manager Connector Wizard is displayed, and then click Close.

Go back to the Administration pane, expand Administration, and then click Connectors.

Select the just created SCCM connector and navigate to the Tasks pane, under SCCM Connector, click Synchronize Now.

In production environments where many objects are defined in ConfigMgr, it can take several hours to complete the import. A status of the import procedures is displayed on the connector result pane.

When the import is finished, we have detailed information available on the objects imported via the AD connector.

To check the import, just navigate to the Configuration Items in the SCSM console, expand Configuration Items and select for example All Computers. The CI’s are listed in the results pane. You can see that after the import a more exhaustive list of information is available for each configuration item.

Next blog post will cover the configuration of the OpsMgr connectors…

Enjoy,

Kurt Van Hoecke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bunkco

Installing the Service Manager WebPortal

Installing Service Manager part I

As mentioned a couple of days ago the System Center Service Manager Beta 2 is now available http://scug.be/blogs/scsm/archive/2009/10/03/service-manager-beta-2-available.aspx 

In the following blog post I’m going to describe the steps required to install Service Manager Beta 2

Software requirements:

Select install a service manager management server. This will install the service manager server locally and also install the service manager database remotely on a SQL 2008 server. The datawarehouse will be installed later on.

You don’t need to enter a product key during this beta setup. Just click next.

Select a installation folder.

Pre-requisite checker

On the Configure the Service Manager database page, Service Manager will check the current computer to see if an instance of SQL Server exists. If one is found, the default is for Service Manager to create a new database in the existing instance. If an instance displays, click Next.

For this release, Service Manager does not support case-sensitive instances. Setup will fail if you attempt to install Service Manager on a case-sensitive SQL instance.

The Service manager database called Servicemanager is the database that contains the

• configuration items
• work items
• incidents

Type a Service Manager Management Group and select a security group for the SM admins.

The user name and password you provide here must be the same ones used for the Service Manager account on the data warehouse management server.

Make sure the account used as service manager service account is a local administrator.

On the Configure the Service Manager workflow account page, click Domain account, specify the user name, password, and domain for the account, and then click Test Credentials. Make sure that a The credentials were accepted. message displays, and then click Next

Select Install after reviewing the summary.

Verify that everything is installed correctly

When we look in SQL we see a new Database that has been created

After opening the console we see a lot of configuration that needs to be done but that’s for in a new post.

Have fun,

Alexandre Verkinderen

Service Manager Beta 2 Available

The service manager team just relased Service manager beta 2 ! You can download it from the connect site www.connect.microsoft.com .

You can also use the public forums for feedback and support, link below
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2066&SiteID=17

Have Fun,

Alexandre Verkinderen

System Center Service Manager: Questions Answered

Hey All,

As said in my previous posts, I had a few questions concerning the product (probably more to come but…) so I asked them at the Microsoft Forum.  I also promised to let you know the results so here they are:

Q1: No R2 Components Allowed

As stated in the documentation, you can’t install no Operations Manager R2 components on the server(s) running the Service Manager Components.  This is the answer I’ve got

Quote from Anders Bengtsson

With the current version it is not supported to install any operations manager 2007 SP1 or R2 components on a service manager server, doing that might result in collisions as both the products are built on the same platform. This will be fixed before RTM.

Unquote

Fair answer, let’s hope they fix this indeed before RTM

Q2: I’ve noticed that you had to fill in a name for the management group, and that I had to do it twice (once during the DataWarehouse installation and once during the Service Manager installation).  I’ve installed it with entering two times the same name and this seemed to be the correct decision.  I’ve asked the support team what the meaning is of these management groups and if my decision was the right one.  Here is the answer, again from Anders Bengtsson

Hi,
With the current installation wizard you have to input the name twice, that might change before RTM. If you look under the hood it is two seperate installations of the R2 platform, that is why you have to input two management group names. There are more info about what a management group is at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540367.aspx . In operations manger a management group name is the name of the logical installation, most often based on responsibility or geography, for example EMEA or "Exchange Team".

 

Cheers,

Mike

System Center Service Manager: Installation Part III: The Service Manager Management server, CMDB and a console

Hey All, this is part 3 of the installation of System Center Service Manager Beta 1.  This time I’m going to install the Service Manager Management server, the CMDB and a console.  Please note that you can’t install this on the same computer as the Data Warehouse because according to Microsoft, this will work but the results will be unpredictable.

After running setup.exe, I got the start screen again.  This time I have chosen for Install Service Manager management server. 

Again I have the Product registration page.  I’ve changed username, company and accepted the license agreement.  Again, no key is needed for the time being.

Choose the location where you want to install the program.

The prerequisite wizard has run, and again I got a warning.

In the SCSMSetupWizard log (in my case found under the directory where the installation media was extracted) I notice (again) that I don’t have enough memory.  Still I continue (It is a virtual after all, I can add more memory if necessary)

On this page, I needed to tell the program where the SQL server was located.  Since this was the same as where my Data Warehouse was located, I choose that one and again he listed me the only possible instance.

I wanted to create a  new database and choose that one.  The setup program filled in the rest for me.

Here I need to point to the server which contains the Data Warehouse.  This is optional if you have installed a data warehouse.  Otherwise, this is not necessary to fill in.

Again I need to tell the name of the management group which I can’t change afterwards, so I decided to take the same name for the management group as I did for the Datawarehouse.  I’m not sure if that is the good decision so I'm gonna post a question on the Microsoft forums and let you know what their answer is.

The account for Service Manager, which is in my case the SM_Acct account.

Finally the installation summary.

And job done.  Again, this took less then 10 minutes to install.

To check if everything works, I started the console on the server.

I get this window, where I filled in the servername of the Service manager management server.

And yes, it worked.  The first view on Service Manager 2010 beta 1.

To check for more, find the logs that I talked about in the previous post.

Next posts will be the first configuration.

Cheers,

Mike

System Center Service Manager: Installation Part II: The Datawarehouse

Hey All, this is part two of the installation post of System Center Service Manager Beta 1.  In this part, we will install the Service Manager Data Warehouse.

I started the installation with the Setup.exe (of course ;-))

I choose Install Service Manager Data Warehouse

Now he is asking for some data. The traditional name, organization and key.  Since this is a beta, I don’t need a key yet.  I’ve checked the License acceptance box and continued.

Here I choose the installation location.

Now the prerequisite checker has run and he has given me warnings.

In the SCSMSetupWizard.log (in my case found under the directory where the installation media was extracted) I can read that he warns me that I don’t have enough memory (Still I’m going to try with the 2 GB ;-))

In this screen, I need to give the instance for the Databases.  Since he only shows the possible instances, this is an easy one :-)

On the next page, I need to choose the Data Warehouse Management group name.  I left it as default, but be aware that you can’t change this name afterwards.

And finally, on that same screen, I need to choose the admin(s) for that management group.  I choose for the created admin group, SM_Admins.

For the Data Warehouse account, I chose the user we created in the 1st post named sm_acct.  The great thing here is that you have a button to test the credentials to see if your account is ok.

Finally the summary and of we go.

The installation is running

After less then 10 minutes the installation was finished.

For more information about the installation, or to troubleshoot a failed installation, check the log @ \users\<user name>\AppData\Local\SCSM\Setup or at the location where the installation files are located.

And finally, to validate if everything is ok, check if the following databases are created: DWSMDB, SCDM and SCDW

Up to the next part of the installation

Cheers,

Mike

System Center Service Manager: Installation Part 1: The prerequisites

Hey All,

In the next 3 posts I will give a walkthrough how to install System Center Service Manager Beta 1.  Before I start with the installation, I would like to tell what kind of environment I’ve used to test the Beta and the prerequisites.

To be able to test the product, you need two servers. One for the datawarehouse and one for the management server.  I’ve created two virtual servers in my testdomain names VD-FCSD-SCSM01 and VD-FCSD-SCSM02.

VD-FCSD-SCSM01 is a hyper-v virtual machine (not yet R2), will  and has the following specifications (this one will be used as the management server):

CPU: 2 times 3.60 Ghz Xeon

RAM: 2048 MB

Harddrive: 40 GB (C:\ drive)

Nic: 1

OS: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64 SP2 fully patched

VD-FCSD-SCSM02 is also a hyper-v virtual machine, will be used as the datawarehouse and has the following specifications

CPU: 2 times 3.60 Ghz Xeon

RAM: 2048 MB

Harddrive: 40 GB (C:\ drive) 60 GB (E:\ drive)

Nic: 1

OS: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64 SP2 fully patched

I’ve downloaded the Beta 1 from the connect website (connect.microsoft.com) and started reading the SM_Initial_Config_SxS.doc that is included with the download.

According to Microsoft, the hardware requirements are as following:

For the CMDB: Quad-core 2.66 Ghz, 8 GB Ram, 10 GB of available disk space en RAID 1 or 10

For the Management Server: Dual-core 2.66 Ghz, 4 GB Ram, 10 GB of available disk space

For the Management Console: 2.0 Ghz, 2 GB Ram, 1 GB available disk space

For the Data warehouse: Quad-core 2.66 Ghz, 8 GB Ram, 100 GB of available disk space

As you can see, this is much more than I have foreseen, but considering that Microsoft tested the environment for these specifications for 10000 computers, 10000 users, 50 configuration items per computer, 5500 incidents and 1500 change requests, I figured I can do with a little less since I have no access to an environment the size of that :-)

For the software requirements:

For the Management Server: Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard or Enterprise (check) and Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 with SP1 (check). The .NET is also included with the installation media of SCSM

For the CMDB and the Data Warehouse: Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard or Enterprise (check), SQL Server 2008 x64 (Check) and the SSRS component of SQL Server 2008 (Check)

For the Service Manager Console: Vista 64-bit (Damned), Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard or Enterprise (Check) and .NET framework 3.5 SP1 (Check)

For SQL Server 2008

The configuration has to be:

• Default SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation with a default instance
• Service Account configured as Local System
• SSRS service configured and running

SMTP Server

• A valid SMTP Server is necessary if you want to use the notification features.

Preparation for the installation

After the software prerequisites are ready, I’ve started with the preparations for the deployment.

• One of the important things is that there could be no R2 components of SCOM 2007 on the system.
• Created a group called SM_Admins that will be used as the security group for the Service Manager Administrators.
• Created an account FCSD_MResse which is my testuser and which has the following rights:
  • SQL Server sysadmin on the SQL Server
  • Member of the SM_Admins group
• Created a service account called SM_Acct
  • Member of the SM_Admins group
  • Member of the local administrators group of both servers
  • Sysadmin role of the SQL Servers
  • Content Manager role of the SQL Server Reporting Services
• SQL instances have to use port number 1433 (Hope this will change…)

So, as you can read, a lot of preparation work.

Cheers,

Mike

Failed to connect to server '<YourServiceManagerServerName>'

When you install the Service Manager 2010 Stand Alone Console on a remote system, you might get an error message when connecting to the Service Manager Server:

Failed to connect to server '<YourServiceManagerServerName>'
The sdk service is either not running or not yet initialized

This is simply because port 5724 is blocked on the server by the local firewall.

On the Service Manager Server, open the firewall settings and add the port

Your console will now be able to connect without a problem…

Cheers,
Yves

System Center Service Manager: What’s this?

In early 2010, Microsoft will release a new application as part of the System Center family.  The name, System Center Service Manager.  A much awaited application because it will be the Ticketing System from Microsoft.

Why is everybody waiting for this application?

Every time I’m talking to IT decision takers about the future of IT management, the discussion will be about a helpdesk system sooner or later.  Why?  Because may IT decision takers admit that this is a very strategic asset for their environment.  Whether it is a small internal IT team or a large IT team, a ticketing system is necessary for all of them.  But what is on the market for the moment?  Or you have some small ticketing systems (opensource, from a vendor…) that simply do what it is, a ticketing system.  Disadvantages… manual adding of the assets (which you all know starts good the first week and after that…).  Larger IT teams will implement expensive “service desk” solutions with sometimes built-in scanning to build up a CMDB and others implement large solutions but have spend hours, days, months and even years to integrate the solution in their environment.

Again, why is everybody so eager of this application?

Because of the success of the other System Center products (SCOM, SCCM) and the promise of Microsoft of a full integration with their ticketing system, many IT Decision takers are thinking about this product for implementation.  Why?  SCCM will do the scanning and the SCCM CMDB will be fully integrated into the ticketing system.  The alerts coming from SCOM will be automatically created as a ticket in the system so many manual work will be done automatically.

But can this ticketing system be a solution for many companies?

Yes, and maybe.  For many smaller IT teams, this will be a great solution.  It will have everything that they need.  It can be customized easily to their own processes and procedures, it has a self-service portal and it can be integrated with two very popular management applications (sccm and scom) which is very popular in those environments.

Maybe, because I’m not sure yet for the larger environments.  Will they be able to compete with for example a CA?  Will it be possible to insert SLA’s for different suppliers, or for different internal divisions?  Will the system be able to be used as a commercial service desk for ICT providers?  I can continue to think of questions but I’m not gonna do this.  Instead, I will start investigating what can be done with the system and how far we can go. 

One thing I know for sure.  Microsoft really build the platform so that it can be compliant with COBIT, ITIL, MOF (Their own version of COBIT) and so on.  If they would be able to get it ITIL certified, then the story for success is created.  And if it is flexible enough to alter the product with not too much code so that it can be used for large environments, then I think the larger ticketing system companies have a new, dangerous competitor.

In the next months, I will start with my investigation

Till then,

Cheers,

Mike

Try out Microsoft System Center Service Manager in a free, online virtual environment

Try out Microsoft System Center Service Manager in a free, online virtual environment:

http://www.microsoftservicemanagertestdrive.com/

The scenarios in this lab will demonstrate an overview of a Microsoft System Center Service Manager installation and initial configuration, covering the following topics:

* Installing Service Manager
* Importing data from Active Directory,System Center Configuration Manager, and data and alerts from Operations Manager 2007 SP1 and above
* Configuring User Roles within Service Manager
* Manually adding users that were not imported from Active Directory
* Creating several templates, configuring initial parameters, creating queues, lists, and groups, and then creating a management pack to save any custom objects
* Installing Service Manager in a production environment in a scenario where Service Manager is installed on four computers.

Have fun,

ALexandre verkinderen

Service Manager Beta-1 Now Available

What a cool month! First SCOM 2007 R2 Beta released, and now Service Manager!

To download, simply go to the Service Manager site on Connect (link below) and click Downloads.

Service Manager Connect Site

https://connect.microsoft.com/SelfNomination.aspx?ProgramID=2733&pageType=1&SiteID=446

Grtz,

Alexandre Verkinderen

http://scug.be/blogs

ps: If you’r a Belgian IT pro and are familiar with service desks, CMDB, MOF/ ITIL etc and if you want to blog about service manager please contact us @ medewerkers at scug.be

Why Is Microsoft Developing A Service Desk Product?

Paul Ross

Paul Ross and Travis Wright has given a session at teched 2008 on service manager.This session provides an update on the project and the timelines for the next beta and final release!

That's really the tool we're all waiting for!

Watch the session

 Greetz,
ALexandre Verkinderen

http://scug.be/blogs/