Management Updates

Microsoft Announces Comprehensive Virtualization Strategy to Enable Self-Managing Dynamic Systems

On Oct. 10 Microsoft announced a broad reaching plan to enable ‘self-managing dynamic systems’. This announcement specifically focuses on virtualization technologies, changes in Windows licensing, and our long-term DSI strategy. System Center products MOM and SMS were important components in the announcement and supplied demos. For further information on this announcement please review Microsoft Announces Comprehensive Virtualization Strategy to Enable Self-Managing Dynamic Systems. The DSI web site has been updated to reflect the announcement as well and can be viewed at Dynamic Systems Initiative.

 

WS-Management – a new Remote Management Protocol - submitted to DMTF and will ship in Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows Vista

Web-Services for Management (WS-Management) is a multi-vendor initiative to develop a standard protocol for remote management. WS-Management will allow management vendors and development tools to use a common method of communicating management information across a distributed system. The purpose of this new specification is to reduce the overall complexity of management and build management capabilities into the platform itself. The WS-Management specification, co-authored by 12 organizations, was submitted to the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF®) in August 2005. The submission follows a number of feedback and interoperability workshops. Co-authors of the WS-Management specification have increased from 5 to 12 in 2005. The twelve co-authors include Microsoft Corp., Intel Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell, Sun Microsystems, Symantec Corp., Novell Inc., Computer Associates Inc. (CA), BMC Software Inc., WBEM Solutions Inc., Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, and NEC Corp. Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server™ Division, announced the submission in his keynote address at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 (PDC05) in Los Angeles. Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 will be able to monitor the new WS-Management service and collect hardware events as part of the Base OS Management pack for Windows Server 2003 R2. Read the press release and find out more information about WS-Management including an overview and a whitepaper describing how to use WS-Management protocol (Windows Remote Management Service and Utility) in Windows Server 2003 R2 for hardware management.

 

Microsoft Moves to Further Simplify Server Licensing

Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Watch October 10, 2005 The Redmondians are continuing in their quest to simplify the volume-licensing maze that they've created over time. On Monday, Microsoft made official the latest tweaks to its program. Instead of charging users of its Windows Server System products (Windows Server, Exchange Server, BizTalk Server, SQL Server, etc.) licensing fees at installation, the company is now moving to a model where users pay at the time of consumption. The changes take effect December 1.

 

Managing Windows with Windows Management Instrumentation – Video Overview, New Tool, and WMI Scripting Assistance

Microsoft continues to invest in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) in order to ensure the manageability of Windows. Watch a video hosted by WMI team members Alain Lissor, Rajesh Mishra and Daniel Pravat that demonstrates how one can more easily manage Windows via WMI. Microsoft has also recently released WMI Code Creator 1.0 which allows IT Professionals to quickly create management scripts and to help developers learn WMI scripting and WMI Provider Development 1.0 for .NET Framework (WMI.NET). Microsoft also has a number of other useful WMI tools for download including WMI Administrative Tools (set of four tools), Scriptomatic 2.0 (tool for writing WMI Scripts in VBScript, Perl, Python or Jscript) and a Scriptomatic 2.0 Tutorial. The TechNet ScriptCenter has a large repository of task-based scripting examples that leverage WMI and a Scripting Primer. More detailed information about WMI can be found on MSDN. Video: Managing Windows with Windows Management Instrumentation on Channel 9 (48 minutes – Sept 2005).