Are You Ready for System Center 2012
Configuration Manager?
Wally Mead, The Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager Expert
7 December 2011
Moderated by:
Sponsored by:
Agenda
• Welcome: Rod Trent, CEO, myITforum
• Overview: BDNA & myITforum
• Wally Mead, Microsoft
– Are You Ready for System Center 2012
Configuration Manager?
• Wrap Up: Rod Trent, CEO, myITforum
̶ 2012 SCCM GURU Webcasts
̶ Winner(s?) of the SCCM Guru T-shirt Contest
Google+ Hangouts & Forums
• Reed Porter’s Hangout:
http://tinychat.com/reedracer
password: welcome
• myITforum SCCM GURU webcast
live forum
http://myITforum.com/SCCMguru
BDNA Normalize for ConfigMgr™
Walker White
CTO, B|DNA
ConfigMgr
Watch the demo at: http://sccm.bdna.com
myITforum
Rod Trent, CEO, myITforum
• All things “System Center”
• Since 1999
• Large and growing community (over
120,000 visitors a day)
• Huge storehouse of System Center
knowledge
• Noobies to experts
Wally Mead Bio
• Been with Microsoft since 1992
• Worked with Systems Management Server (now
Configuration Manager) since 1994
• Work with TAP customers to help test prerelease versions of Configuration Manager 2012
• Help support the community, and ‘manage’ the
Configuration Manager MVPs
Configuration Manager 2012
Empower Users
Empower people to be
productive from
anywhere on whatever
device they choose
Device freedom
Optimized, personalized
application experience
Application self-service
Unify
Infrastructure
Reduce costs by
unifying IT
management
infrastructure
Mobile, physical, and
virtual management
Security and
compliance
Service management
integration
Simplify Administration
Improve IT effectiveness
and efficiency
Comprehensive client
management
capabilities
Improved administrator
effectiveness
Reduced infrastructure
complexity
Reducing Primary Sites
Unique ConfigMgr 2007 Primary Site for:
ConfigMgr 2012 solutions (no unique
primary sites):
Decentralized administration
Role Based Administration
Logical data segmentation
Role Based Administration
Client settings
Client settings for the hierarchy and unique
collections
Language
Language packs
Content routing for deep hierarchies
Secondary Sites or Distribution Points
Infrastructure Changes: Content
• ONE Distribution Point
– PXE Service Point – Increased scalability beyond the ConfigMgr
2007 limit of 75 PXE service points per site
– Multicast option
– Throttling and scheduling of content to that location
– Pre-stage of content and specify specific drives for storage
• Improved Distribution Point Groups
– Manage content distribution to individual Distribution Points or
Groups
– Content automatically added or removed from Distribution Points
based on Group membership
– Associate Distribution Point Groups with a collections to automate
content staging for software targeted to the collection
• No Branch DPs - DPs can be installed on clients and servers
now
Minimum System Requirements:
Component
Minimum Requirement
Site Server and Site Roles
Windows Server 2008 (64-bit )
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
Database
SQL Server 2008 SP2 & Cumulative Update 6 (64-bit) & KB2603910
SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP 1 & Cumulative Update 3 (64-bit) &
KB2603910 (when available)
Distribution Point
Windows Server 2003 (including 32-bit) with limited functionality
Windows Vista SP2 and later (including 32-bit)
Client
Windows XP SP2 & SP3 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 2003 Server SP2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Vista SP2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 7 RTM & SP 1 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 2008 SP2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 2008 R2 RTM & SP 1 (64-bit)
Admin Console
Vista SP2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 7 RTM & SP 1 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 7 SP1 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 2008 SP2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 2008 R2 RTM & SP 1 (64-bit)
Prepare for Configuration
Manager 2012
• Flatten hierarchy where possible
• Plan for Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008,
and 64-bit
• Start implementing BranchCache™ with
Configuration Manager 2007 SP2
• Move from web reporting to SQL Reporting
Services
• Avoid mixing user and devices in collection
definitions
• Use UNC (\\server\myapp\myapp.msi) in package
source path instead of local path (d:\myapp)
Demonstration
• Will do a quick tour of the new
Configuration Manager 2012 console
• Will show a few new features of interest
Questions for Wally?
For more information…
BDNA
Matt Lefer
mlefer@bdna.com
+1 (650) 641-6017
myITforum
Rod Trent
rodtrent@myitforum.com
+1 (513) 217-7122
BDNA Normalize CM
http://sccm.bdna.com
Watch the demo
Download now
Wrap Up
Next SCCM GURU Webcast:
• Wednesday, January 25, 2012
• Reed Porter

www.bdna.com/sccm-guru
Thanks for attending!
To thank you for participating in our SCCM
GURU webcast, we’d like to offer EVERYONE
on the webcast a super cool SCCM GURU
Webcast T-shirt. Please register here:

www.bdna.com/wally2
SCCM GURU T-shirt Winners
 Captain Morgan
David Sixsmith
Twitter: @SirDesktop
Teaching the girls SCCM 
Dave Scambler
Twitter: @scambler
Happy Holidays!
~ from BDNA & myITforum!