A lot of exciting things are happening in the System Center community these days with a lot of events around the corner.

IT-Dev Connections , SCU Europe , TechED Europe and Midland Management Summit 2014 are right around the corner and other local user group events are being planned as well.

I always enjoy being part of these events and meet old and new friends all with the same interest: System Center products and common technology’s

This blog post will be around my events I will attended and support from the community. It will list all sessions which I’m presenting and attending , both national and International.

Hope you will attend one of my sessions and if you do, make sure to take the time to meet up and have a beer !

Date	Event	Location	Sessions
15-19 September	IT/Dev Connections	Las Vegas	System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager and Intune: Setup and Deployment Notes from the Field, with a Focus on Single Sign-On Managing Your Hybrid Mobile Cloud Workforce with System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager
1 October	SCUG.BE	Microsoft HQ Belgium	To be determined , but hey , we will have a local CDM speaker and we have Jason Sandys in the house for ECM.
4 October	App-V User Group UK 2014	London – Microsoft	Attendee …
3-7 November	MVP Summit	Microsoft HQ Redmond	NDA – What can I say 😛
10-12 November	Midland Management Summit  2014	Minnesota	How to Extend the App Model to Support your User Centric XenDesktop in the Data Center Mobile Workforce management from the real world with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 & Intune.

Hope it Helps,

Kenny Buntinx

Enterprise Client Management MVP

Yes, MMS 2013 is in front of the door and it will be an exciting week. The complete SCUG team from Belgium will be there!

Myself – Kenny Buntinx (MVP Enterprise Client Management), Kim Oppalfens (MVP Enterprise Client Management) , Kurt Vanhoecke (MVP Cloud and Datacenter), Alexandre Verkinderen (MVP Cloud and Datacenter) , Mike Resseler (MVP Cloud and Datacenter) , Jan Van Meirvenne(SCOM) , Nico Sienaert (SCCM), Christophe Keyaert (MVP Cloud and Datacenter) ,Dieter Wijckmans “IT Rambo”(SCOM) and Tim Dekeukelaere (SCCM,SCOM) will attend MMS in Vegas.

• MMS info : Microsoft Management Summit 2013 http://www.2013mms.com/

My schedule is made and I will have a more or less complete System Center Configuration Manager 2013 week.

I will also do some additional side work at MMS 2013 this year. Here is a little overview:

I will assist Wally Mead in the some proctoring labs and will be around in other HOL Labs.

• If you are an Belgian IT Pro , please let me know . It would be great to know and maybe meet up in Las Vegas.

See you all over there !

Kenny Buntinx

Hello All,

Got back from MMS 2012 and finally rested enough to get going again, but man what a great event this was once more. I am especially pleased with how well the different SCUG members at the convention did either with sessions or with the level of networking.

First of all, we had 2 people from SCUG Belgium presenting, Kim and Mike all had sessions to deliver.

Mike presented a breakout session on Data Protection Manager together with Orin Thomas, while Kim delivered 2 breakouts with a fellow MVP colleague Jason Sandys and Jeopardy Quiz with a fellow MVP colleague Kent Agerlund ( and the golden jackets where awsome)

The Jeopardy Quiz was Awesome ! There where four teams involved : Product Team Group (Wally Mead & Brett Flagg) , MVP Team (Garth Jones & Panu Saukko) , Community team (Brian Mason & Ron Crumbaker) and PSS/CSS (Steve Rachui & Don Brown)

I never had so much fun during a session at MMS. It has to come back next year so please feel fill in those eval forms !

Last but not Least!

I was in the Keynote of Brad Anderson explaining how System Center Configuration Manager 2012 became such a good product. How cool is that and what are the odds to get into it !

See it online at http://www.mms-2012.com/digitalmms

Now I am fighting jetlag and I will start working on Best of MMS 2012 for Belgium very soon . So stay tuned !

Hope it Helps ,

Kenny Buntinx

Yes, MMS 2011 is in front of the door and it will be an exciting week. The complete SCUG team from Belgium will be there!

Myself (MVP SCCM), Kim Oppalfens (MVP SCCM) , Kurt Vanhoecke (SCSM), Alexandre Verkinderen (MVP SCOM) , Yves Janssens ( SCSM & SCOM ) & Mike Resseler ( MVP SCDPM ) will attend MMS in Vegas.

• MMS info : Microsoft Management Summit 2011 http://www.mms-2011.com
• The entire session schedule is available on http://www.mms-2011.com/Topic/List

My schedule is made and I will have a more or less complete System Center Configuration Manager 2012 week.

I will also do some additional side work at MMS 2011 this year. Here is a little overview:

I will assist Wally Mead in the following proctoring labs :

• Ballroom A Wed 2:15PM – 3:30PM Lab Proctor IA05 ILL: Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012
• Ballroom A Thu 8:30AM – 9:45AM Lab Proctor IA05 ILL: Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

I will delivering the following “Birth of a feather”session together with Panu Saukko :

• OA07 BOF: Configuration Manager R3 Power Management: Lessons Learned From the Field

Wednesday, March 23 6:45 PM – 7:45 PM

The ConfigMgr R3 release covers some very cool new features including power management for your clients. This will reduce your energy consumption which saves you costs and you build a Greener IT environment. But talking about the feature is something different than implementing it. In this Birds-of-a-feather session we will talk about best practices for implementing the R3 power management features, build on the experience that we had with our customers during the R3 TAP program.

I will also be available in the “Ask the experts” panel to answer your in-depth questions about ConfigMgr .

• EJ01 Ask the Panel of Community Experts 

Tuesday, March 22 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

This session continues to be one of the most popular at MMS each year, where we bring together a panel of community experts to answer your burning management questions. As in previous years, any and all questions are acceptable, as you try to stump the carefully crafted community expert panel. Get help with your biggest technical issues back home or find out more about the latest product releases. Rod Trent, owner of myITforum.com, the largest internet systems management community, will moderate the session.

If you are an Belgian IT Pro , please let me know . It would be great to know and maybe meet up in Las Vegas.

See you all over there !

Kenny Buntinx

Hi All,

I have recently deployed Configuration Manager 2007 R3 RTM in production at my TAP customer. Those who attended my presentation at the Belgian System Center Day “http://scug.be/blogs/sccm/archive/2010/09/30/announcement-system-center-day-in-belgium.aspx” have seen already the best practices & lessons learned on implementing R3 Power Management .

I just proposed a birds of a feather session on ConfigMgr R3 Power management : Lessons learned from the field together with our Finish Configmgr MVP Panu Saukko (who also did a large R3 TAP implementation).

We are hoping to get enough votes to put on an ultra-slick, seriously hardcore ConfigMgr 2007 R3 Power management : Lessons learned from the field BOF session at MMS 2011.

I am still trying to get enough votes to raise this up so that it can take place.

A short clip from his blog posting to wet your appetite:

• R3 Power Management Overview
• R3 Installation flow
• R3 In-Depth Power Management Implementation notes
• R3 Power Management Caveats
• R3 Power management Tips & Tricks
• R3 Power management Advanced Reporting

If you want to see this session go through then vote for this session thru the roof by performing the following procedure:

· Log into CommNet (http://www.mms-2011.com)

· Click on “BOF Survey” in the left Nav

· In the “Commonly Requested Topics” dropdown select “ConfigMgr R3 Power management : Lessons learned from the field”

· Press “Submit”

Hope it Helps ,

Kenny Buntinx and Panu Saukko

Let me start by saying that it has been a great State of the union , and for those of you that didn’t make it this year, that they are working in the Systems Center Configuration Manager Space. Make sure you are here next year, because you are missing out on a lot of great stuff with Josh Pointer & Bill Anderson.

I was really surprised when they showed this slide . They even called me on stage ! I was really touched …( read the real story at http://scug.be/blogs/sccm/archive/2010/04/19/mms-2010-the-road-trip-continued-we-have-made-it-but.aspx )

But now , lets continue with the serious stuff . I will try to give you a good overview of what has been said during the “State of the Union” below. There was a lot of valuable info today.

What the ConfigMgr team did the previous 12 months for people who really didn’t know yet :

• They released ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 ,
• They released the ConfigMgr dashboards
• They released the new Application Compatibillity Toolkit 5.5
• They released a 64 bit management pack for SCOM
• They released SCAP
• The documentation team created some :
  • Configmgr Super flows (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff385001.aspx)
  • Web based help models

What the ConfigMgr team additionally learned :

• 1/3 of the total ConfigMgr traffic on the Asset Intelligence service had an uptake in the last 3 months
• With recent uptake on AI, the ConfigMgr team learned that there are new gaps in title and categorization that they need to invest into.

What the ConfigMgr team will do in the next 12 months :

For ConfigMgr 2007 :

• The documentation team will :

• Create some more superflows (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff385001.aspx)
• They will create a cloud based help add-on
• They will launch a Bing MSDN Visual search

• Targeted for 2010 there will be releases for adobe patch management thru SCUP ( system center update publisher ).There is an agreed principle that Adobe will be ready at least before the end of this year for Adobe Reader and Acrobat products:

• Supporting Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)
• Leveraging Microsoft System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP)
• Hosted as catalogs at Adobe for automatic download by SCUP
• Products: Adobe Reader and Acrobat (Versions still being determined)
• All updates – Quarterly and Out-of-Cycle Updates (New major versions under consideration)
• Simultaneous with the rest of Adobe Reader and Acrobat deliverables

• Shavlik has released a new plugin for SCUP called SCUPdates ( multivendor ) . (see www.shavlik.com) . Shavlik Data Team maintains updates for multiple vendor products such as Adobe, Apple, Citrix – in a single catalog file.
• Config Mgr R3 : Yes , it still isn’t off the radar.

For ConfigMgr V.next :

Let me start by saying that SCCM v.Next is still minimum 1 year away, so I will start with the stuff that is more or less targeted for release dates (however it can always change). They said during the “State of the union” that the development cycles are longer then the ones for SMS 2.0

• Beta 1 – May 2010
• Beta 2 – Q1 CY 2011
• RTM – H2 CY 2011

Here are some readiness tips for V.next :

• System Requirements :
  • Site servers and site roles require 64-bit OS (distribution points are an exception)
  • Distribution points are an exception (32 bit is supported for standard DP’s)
  • SQL 2008 SP1 with CU6 (64 bit) needed
  • SQL reporting is the only reporting left (web based reporting is gone)
• Hierarchy :
  • Flatten the Configmgr 2007 hierarchy
  • Start implementing branch cache
  • Start learning about SQL replication
  • Best practices – AD Sites for site boundaries, UNC paths for source content, Break up collections that contain both users and devices
• The new ConfigMgr V.next App Model Helpers :
  • State based applications needs certain detection methods. Tip: Use App CI’s today for your applications to learn about this. SCUP is also a good tool for this
  • Rules vs Queries . Tip: Use DCM today to learn how to author settings and rules as experience will be the same.

What about the partnership with Citrix ?

Configmgr/Xenapp Relationship :

• Long term collaboration on user centric architecture and experiences
• Integration that drives core product designs of both ConfigMgr and XenApp
• Logical next step in 20+ year MS/Citrix relationship

Xenapp Connector for Configmgr :

• Offer a single, integrated view and management of all enterprise applications
• Extend ConfigMgr applications to a broader set of users, devices and access scenarios
• Advanced automation with ConfigMgr delivers applications and updates to XenApp servers without impacting users
• Citrix Dazzle enables self service access to XenApp delivered applications from any device
• Available in June 2010 ( could still change )

Configmgr V.next & Xenapp V.next :

• Citrix XenApp & ConfigMgr V.next will align on user centric computing vision
• Citrix will build upon ConfigMgr V.Next as a best practice for enterprise application management
• Citrix will continue to integrate XenApp application delivery into future versions of ConfigMgr v.next

We will talk soon about it when we have our “Best of MMS” session in Belgium, Make sure that you register on the following link ; http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-be/ff628215.aspx

Hope it helped ,

Kenny Buntinx

As explained in other posts as well , almost all European airports where closed . Well that wasn’t good enough for us as explained in the previous posts :

http://scug.be/blogs/mike/archive/2010/04/17/mms-2010-the-roadtrip.aspx

http://scug.be/blogs/sccm/archive/2010/04/17/mms-2010-the-road-trip-continued.aspx

Well , two founding members and one member of the Scug.be community ( Alex Verkinderen (SCOM MVP) , Kurt Vanhoucke (SCSM expert) and Dieter wijckmans ) left already on friday evening to Madrid airport to grab the last two seats on Saturday ….

Ourselfs , also a founding member and two other members of the Scug.be community ( Kenny Buntinx (SCCM MVP) , Mike Resseler (SCE , SCDPM expert) and Arne Peeleman ) left on saturday noon to Madrid airport to grab the last tree seats on Sunday ….

But there is also some sad news :

We lost the following Scug.be members as well due to various reasons :

• Kim Oppalfens (SCCM MVP & SCUG founding member)
• Gino D’hooker (SCUG Member)
• Yves Janssene (SCUG Founding Member)

We still hope that some guy’s can still make it !!

If there are any spelling mistakes , sorry , but I am exhausted

Kenny Buntinx

Best of MMS 2010 will provide the opportunity to learn more about IT Management solutions from Microsoft and how you can adopt them in your datacenter.

In a year packed with new management product releases, MMS 2010 will provide the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter, Device and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft.

This year 5 of our Belgian Experts from the System Center User Group will attend the MMS event in Las Vegas and bring back all the valuable information and present them to the Belgian IT Professionals.
You have the choice to either attend this event in person or follow it by using live meeting.

The Agenda of the day:.

• Overview of announcements made at MMS in Las Vegas
• System Center Configuration Manager vNext
• The top 20 “Must Have “ customizations in Operations Manager
• Introduction into Opalis
• What’s new and what changed in Data Protection Manager 2010
• What to Expect from Service Manager
• Technical Overview of System Center Essentials 2010

Don’t miss this unique opportunity and register now for this free event on the following link : http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-be/ff628215.aspx ! Seats are limited for the offline event , but you can always join us on the livestream!!

Hope it Helps ,

Kenny Buntinx

Hi All,

I just proposed a birds of a feather session on WMI for the SCCM Admin.

This is the session I’ll be delivering at the end of this month at the Belgian Techdays. Quite a few people have asked me whether the session will be recorded, to which I have no answer right now. However, if you can’t come to Belgium (shame on you, as we have great beer and chocolate), yet you will attend MMS and would like to hear more about this, here is your chance.

If you want to see this session go through than vote for this session by performing the following procedure:

· Log into CommNet (http://www.mms-2010.com)

· Click on “BOF Survey” in the left Nav

· In the “Commonly Requested Topics” dropdown select “WMI for the ConfigMgr Admin”

· Press “Submit”

Some of the fancy things I’ll demonstrate:

· Have suppress notification enabled when creating virtual applications

· Have the program of an advertisement disabled at advertisement creation if it is targetting a collection with more than X number of members to prevent Mass-deployments (Unless the program is in the mass deployment category or the advertisement has no mandatory schedule)

Some of the fancy things I’ll explain how to do

· Have any created program limited to predefined target platforms

· Eliminate the need for a Big Red Stop Button (BRSB) (copyright Shaun Cassells) http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/scassells/archive/2008/05/14/how-to-stop-an-errant-advertisement-in-sms-2003-sccm-2007.aspx

And that’s just the plain easy stuff J. If this has you intrigued, than be sure to vote, and yours truly will come to the party (I have some way more fancy tricks up my sleeve, and believe me by the end of this session you’ll think the M in WMI stands for Magic).

—

Enjoy.

"Everyone is an expert at something"
Kim Oppalfens – Sms Expert for lack of any other expertise
Windows Server System MVP – SMS
http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm/default.aspx

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

Just for those who didn’t believe our story about the filet Mignon at the sushi place being so BIG that Kurt just ordered 2 of them at 32 $ each !

Here’s the proof : ( look at the Blackbarry next to it )

Hope it Helps ,

Kenny