This post covers the installation of the Windows Intune client and outlines for what kind of businesses Microsoft's cloud-based systems management solution is suitable.

In this final part of this series on Windows Intune we’ll look at the Intune client experience and then wrap up by comparing Intune to other similar products as well as look at the cost and the future of Intune.

Windows Intune Client

The easiest way to install the client agent on a PC is to download the 14 MB zip file from the console; save it in a network share or on a USB stick and then install it manually. The executable contains both the 32 and 64 bit version and will run the appropriate one automatically; supported client operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Server operating systems are not supported. The installation is really just a two click affair with no questions asked. Notice that the zip file also contains a WindowsIntune.accountcert file that has to be kept in the installation folder as it’s used by the agent to identify which account to connect to in the cloud.

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In this third part of the Windows Intune review you will learn more about the workspaces Software, Licenses, Policy, Reports, and Administrattion.

The last post of this series covered the Windows Intune workspaces System Overview, Computers, Updates, End Point Protection, and Alerts. Let’s have a look at the other workspaces.

Software

Here you’ll be provided with a collated list of all software packages installed across all managed PCs, this list can be sorted by how many installations you have, publisher, name or category. There’s also an option to drill down to see what’s installed on individual computers, it’ll even tell you if a package is installed as an App-V program. Third party applications are inventoried and categorised as well.

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This post introduces the Windows Intune workspaces System Overview, Computers, Updates, End Point Protection, and Alerts.

The fist part of this series introduced Windows Intune. In this second part of this Windows Intune review we’ll explore the Intune user interface and discover how the different components make the solution tick.

System Overview

This workspace gives a quick look at the overall health of all monitored computers; broken down into issues with Endpoint Protection (Anti-malware), agent health, other alerts, update status as well as letting you create computer groups and view reports.

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In this first part we’ll look at what Windows Intune is and what it’s not and how it fits in with other solutions in the Microsoft portfolio.

In this four part article we’ll look at Microsoft’s first foray into cloud based systems management and what Windows Intune is capable of providing.

The Windows Intune Console is easy to navigate

Most IT services and products today seem to have the word “cloud” added to their name, deservedly or not. Some companies seem to push cloud computing as the only clear way forward whereas others tout the security and control aspects of what’s called (sometimes derogatory) “legacy”, or “on-premise” computing.

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This third part of the Configuration Managger v.Next review covers migration from SCCM 2007, Mobile Device Manager 2008 (MDM) and Role Based Access Control (RBAC).

There’s no in-place upgrade option for going from SCCM 2007 to v.Next. Fortunately Microsoft has built migration tools right into the console to help with the transition.

Migration

In a nutshell the process follows these steps: first your SCCM 2007 environment is evaluated, it has to be at the SP2 level, and then you install your new v.Next hierarchy. At the central site metadata is mapped from the old to the new so that each site is matched to its new counterpart (you’ll have to come up with new site codes, you can’t use the same ones you do today), this synching continues until you turn it off at the end of the migration so as to capture any changes in the SCCM 2007 environment.

All objects are then transitioned over using migration jobs that you can run straightaway, schedule for later or run manually when it suits you.

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This article discusses the new console and the new infrastructure in Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager v.Next.

Hands up all sys admins that love the MMC based console in SCCM 2007….. No one? Didn’t think so – it’s known to be slow in large environments.

New console

Whilst I haven’t been able to test the v.Next console in a large business it does seem snappier and easier to work with. The middle, main pane has tabs at the bottom which makes for less expanding and collapsing of the tree structure. Overall the console adopts the Outlook feel and the new “Wunderbar” (official name) in the lower left hand corner features links to Administration, Software Library, Monitoring and Assets and Compliance.

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This part of the SC Configuration Manager v.Next review focuses on User Centric Management (UCM), on the Applications concept and the new deployment types.

Many systems administrators are familiar with Microsoft’s Systems Center Suite, relying on its various components for their day to day jobs. Operations Manager keeps tabs on the health of your infrastructure, Data Protection Manager makes sure all your (Microsoft) workloads are safely backed up, Virtual Machine Manager keeps your virtual servers and hosts in check and Configuration Manager keeps track of computer hardware and installed software.

Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 was recently updated with an R3 release which added power management and a few other tweaks. In this article I’ll give an overview of the next major release of SCCM, currently called “v.Next” and explain where Microsoft is taking SCCM. This article is written on beta1; beta2 is expected in January 2011 with RTM possibly sometime mid next year.

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Paul Schnackenburg talks to Jason Buffington, Senior Technical Product Manager at Microsoft and Frederique Dennison, Product Marketing Manager – Security and Management at Microsoft about the Systems Center Suite, Systems Center Configuration Manager vNext, Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010, Disaster Recovery and backup over the wire, small business backup and the Tech Ed Australia 2010 experience.

PS Congratulations on becoming Technical Product Manager for Systems Center Operations Manager, you’re sort of straddling three products now. That would be a pretty big load?

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Update: This great free tool has been submitted more than two years ago by Jeffrey Botts. Since then quite a few new features have been added and because Spiceworks 4.7 is now out, I updated this post. The top new features and some screenshots follow after Jeffrey’s original comment. Also check out Spiceworks installation guide.

Submitted by Jeffrey Botts, November 2007

You want network management software that works for you, not software that makes you work. You wish you could have it… without spending a fortune. Your wish is granted.

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In my last article I covered ManageEngine Desktop Central’s capabilities with regard to configuration management, software deployment, and patch management. I outlined that all three tasks are basically Configurations. Desktop Central has a few functions that are not organized as Configurations.

The integrated Inventory solution is one of these. It has its own tab where all inventory settings are configured and where you can access all inventory data. You can either scan all your computers manually or schedule regular scans. Desktop Central supports hardware and software inventory. You can retrieve information, such as the number of installations of a certain program or a certain device. With a few mouse clicks you can find out on which machines a certain program has been installed. Programs can be arranged in categories. My favorite feature is the Prohibited Software function. Whenever Desktop Central finds a program in this list, it will just be uninstalled.

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In my last post in this series, I discussed the concept behind ManageEngine Desktop Central. Today, I want to dig a little deeper and describe some of Desktop Central‘s capabilities. As outlined before, all management tasks are basically Configurations. There are two types of Configurations: User Configurations and Computer Configurations. Computer Configurations are applied during startup and User Configurations are applied during user logon. Both configurations are also applied every 90 minutes.

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ZOHO Corp. (formerly AdventNet), the publishers of ManageEngine Desktop Central, sponsors two licenses of its Windows client management solution’s Professional Edition. The winner will get licenses for 100 computers (worth $995) and the runner 50 (worth $545). If you want to take part in this contest, you just have to send an email to:

with the subject line ManageEngine Desktop Central. Please, add your name and the name of your organization. The deadline is July 12, 2009.

It would be great if you also answer this question:

What type of reports should a client management tool have?

Since ManageEngine Desktop Central has quite a few features, I will introduce this web-based Windows management software by three articles.

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The five winners of the Admin Arsenal contest have been drawn. I used the services of random.org to calculate the corresponding random numbers. They use atmospheric noise to compute true random numbers, so you can be sure that it was a fair contest. If you are among the winners, then you should have received an email from Brisworks, the sponsor of this contest, by now. If you haven’t been lucky this time, I encourage you to have a look at Admin Arsenal. This systems management tool is certainly worth its price. You don’t even have to register to download the free 30-day trial.

In the future, you will have the chance to win other admin tools as I am planning to run such contests frequently. I created a page that lists all 4sysops prize games. At the moment you have the chance to win a license of AutoAdministrator 2.0, a nifty tool that lets you automate all kinds of typical Windows administration tasks. There will be more tools to come soon.

Below are some of the responses of the participants in the Admin Arsenal contest. I want to say thanks to all who agreed to allow me to publish their answers to this question:

Describe the biggest challenge that you face as a Windows system administrator.

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In my last article, I gave a general introduction to AutoAdministrator, a nifty tool that lets you automate all kinds of Windows administrator tasks. Now let’s have a closer look at AutoAdministrator’s functions.

Online Status

Before you perform a particular action, it is advisable to check whether the relevant computers are available. With AutoAdministrator, you can ping any number of computers with just two mouse clicks. You can configure the packet count, the packet size, the required success rate, and the maximum roundtrip time. The latter two options determine whether a machine is flagged as available or whether you receive an error message.

Services

This function is certainly one of AutoAdministrator’s highlights. Managing system services on multiple machines is a feature that many expensive system management solutions lack. AutoAdministrator enables you to query, start, stop, continue, pause, and restart services. Furthermore, you can configure the startup type remotely. You can, for example, use this feature to set the startup type of the Remote Registry service on all your machines to automatic, to ensure that you can use all of the features of AutoAdministrator. It is also possible to remove services, or to configure their logon account.

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NETIKUS.NET, the publisher of EventSentry, is raffling off ten AutoAdministrator licenses, available to 4sysops readers. AutoAdministrator clearly demonstrates that no command prompt or scripting language is needed to “automate” system administration tasks on multiple computers. This useful tool costs only $69 US and can save you a lot of time. It would certainly be a lot more expensive for your organization to ask you to program scripts with the same capabilities. Moreover, AutoAdministrator is multi-threaded. You can’t easily do that with a script, and that can reduce the time it takes to perform certain updates 10-fold (e.g. with 10 threads).

AutoAdministrator 2.0 lets you query or manage nine different settings on multiple computers: Services (query and edit services), Password (manage user passwords), Registry (view or change registry values), File Management (copy and delete files and folders), File Information (view file details), Logons (view users logged on), Shutdown/Reboot, Online Status (ping hosts), and ODBC (query and manage DSNs).

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