Category Archives: Updates Publisher

Azure management services and System Center: What's New in June 2019

In June have been announced, by Microsoft, a considerable number of news regarding the Azure management services and System Center. From our community, through these articles released monthly, aims to provide a general overview of the main new features of the month, in order to stay up to date on these issues and have the necessary references for further information.

Azure Log Analytics

Azure VMBoundPort Monitor

In Azure Monitor was announced the availability, in all the regions supported by Log Analytics, to consult theVMBoundPort data set. VMBoundPort contains information about all ports that accept incoming traffic and that can potentially accept it. This is a very useful feature, to analyze what ports are open and which are active, to carry out analysis of security or for troubleshooting.

New region supported for Azure Monitor for VMs

Azure Monitor for VMs, the service that allows you to analyze the performance and health of both Windows and Linux VMs, by monitoring their processes and ralative dependencies with other resources, is now also available in the region of West US 2. They become so seven Azure regions that currently support Azure Monitor for VMs.

Availability in new regions
Azure Log Analytics is now also possible to activate it in these new regions: South Africa North, Brazil South, UK West and North Central US.

Advanced Data Security available for SQL Server VMs in Azure

Advanced data security is available in preview for SQL Server on Azure VMs. This feature allows you to protect your SQL Server installations made on board of Azure virtual machines. This service currently includes the capabilities necessary to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities on databases and detects unusual activity that may indicate the presence of a security threat on the server.

Updates to the User Interface in Azure Monitor Log Analytics

During the month, some elements of the Azure Monitor Log Analytics underwent a change, For more details you can refer this document.

New version of the agent for Linux systems

This month the new agent version of Log Analytics for Linux systems introduces improvements relating in particular to the installation process and performance. To get more information about it you can access the GitHub official page.

Azure Site Recovery

New Update Rollup

For Azure Site Recovery was releasedUpdate Rollup 37 solving different problems and introduces some improvements. The details and the procedure to be followed for the installation can be found in the specific KB 4508614.

Data replication of new disk added

Azure Site Recovery introduced the ability to enable replication of data disks, only if managed type, that are added to a Azure VM, that has already enabled the ability to make disaster recovery.

New support limits for the Mobility service for DR scenarios of VMware VMs and physical servers

Azure Site Recovery is now able to support up to five GPT partitions on UEFI, when you use the Mobility service for disaster recovery scenarios of VMware VMs and physical servers.

Using an existing automation account for automatic updates of Mobility service

When you set up automatic updates of the Azure Site Recovery Mobility service extension running on Azure VMs enabled for disaster recovery scenarios, introduced the ability to select an existing automation account to use, instead of using the default created by Site Recovery.

Azure Backup

Support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on VMs in Azure

The 9 July 2019 officially ends support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 and thanks to the Microsoft approach, which guarantees other 3 years of security updates if migrated to Azure environment, many customers are proceeding with its migration. In the event you choose to move the SQL Server on-premises, in a VM in Azure environment, is appropriate to manage the backup and for this reason, Microsoft has decided to introduce in Azure Backup the support (at the time public preview) of SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 from Windows 2008 R2 SP1.

System Center Configuration Manager

New release for the Technical Preview Branch

For Configuration Manager was released the update 1906 that among the main innovations provides the ability to specify a user category as a filter in the applications that are on the Software Center page.

To verify the details about what's new in this update you can see this document.

Please note that the releases in Technical Preview Branch help you to evaluate the new features of SCCM and it is recommended to apply these updates only in test environments.

System Center Updates Publisher

Announced the availability of System Center Updates Publisher preview (SCUP) June 2019.

Evaluation of Azure and System Center

To test and evaluate free of charge the service offered by Azure you can access this page, while to try out the various components of System Center you must Access to theEvaluation Center and, after registering, you can start the trial period.

OMS and System Center: What's New in September 2018

In September were announced, by Microsoft, various news about Operations Management Suite (OMS) and System Center. Our community releases monthly summary that provides a general overview of the main new features of the month, in order to keep you informed on these arguments and have the necessary references to conduct further study.

 

Operations Management Suite (OMS)

Azure Automation

In Azure Automation was introduced the ability to import (package format .whl, .tar or .gz), create and run runbook in Python 2. For these runbooks it is also provided the use of Automation resources such as schedules, variables, connections and credentials. Their execution can be done either by Azure that through Hybrid Runbook Worker. To investigate this new feature you can see this article.

Figure 1 - Import of a package in Python 2

In Azure Update Manager these new features have been released:

Figure 2 – Pre/post installation tasks

  • Dynamic groups (preview): allows you to create dynamic groups of Azure VMs as targets for update deployments. These groups are defined by using query (based on Subscriptions, Resource groups, Locations and Tags) and the membership is calculated at startup of the update deployment.

Figure 3 – Dynamic groups

  • Update inclusion: allows you to specify the list of updates included, to control exactly which updates are applied during deployment.

Figure 4 – Update inclusion

 

Azure Backup

In Azure Backup support has been extended to allow protection of virtual machines that have linked up to 32 disks. The previous limit was 16 disks.

 

System Center

System Center Configuration Manager

Released the version 1809 for the branch Technical Preview of System Center Configuration Manager.

In this release are covered several improvements regarding:

  • The functionality CMPivot. It is a new utility available in the Configuration Manager console to provide real-time information on connected devices in your environment. On this information you can apply filters and groupings, then perform certain actions.
  • Product lifecycle dashboards.
  • Data warehouse.
  • Maintenance windows for software updates.

Please note that the Technical Preview Branch releases help you to evaluate new features of SCCM and it is recommended to apply these updates only in test environments.

 

Released the version 1808 for the Current Branch (CB) of System Center Configuration Manager. The main novelty of this update reveals the possibility of a gradual release of the software updates automatically (Phased Deployment). The button that allows you to configure this is present in the console nodes All Software Updates, All Windows 10 Updates, and Office 365 Updates.

Figure 5 – Phased Deployment creation button

 

In this interesting article are reported the announcements made during Microsoft Ignite 2018 about System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune.

 

System Center Operations Manager

Microsoft has announced that the cloud service Global Service Monitor (GSM) present in SCOM and used to monitor the availability of external web applications from different geographical locations, will be retired in November 2018. The recommendation is to use Azure Application Insights, that offers next generation advanced capabilities for web applications monitors. For further information you can consult theMicrosoft's official announcement.

 

System Center Updates Publisher

It is reported the release of a update rollup for System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP) that resolves some important issues.

 

Evaluation of OMS and System Center

Please remember that in order to test and evaluate for free Operations Management Suite (OMS) you can access this page and select the mode that is most appropriate for your needs.

To try out the various components of System Center you must access theEvaluation Center and after the registration you can start the trial period.

OMS and System Center: What's New in March 2018

In March there have been several news announced by Microsoft on Operations Management Suite (OMS) and System Center. In this series of articles, which we make with monthly basis, are listed all the main innovations of the current month, accompanied by the necessary references to be able to conduct further studies.

Operations Management Suite (OMS)

Azure Automation

In Azure Automation new features have been officially released that allow you to:

  • Manage the distribution of updates (Update management).
  • Collect inventory information about the applications installed on systems (Inventory).
  • Track changes made on the machines (Change tracking).

The our article, posted in recent months, shows how to configure the Azure Automation Account to take advantage of these new features and reports the key features.

Figure 1 – Related solutions in Log Analytics


Azure Backup

Azure Backup introduces several new features that address the following aspects:

  • Large disk support: ability to protect disks of size up to 4 TB, both typologies: managed and unmanaged. The limit was previously of 1 TB.
  • Backup and Restore performance improvements: to reduce the execution time of the backup and restore will be retained snapshots, performed during the backup process, for 7 days.
  • Instant recovery point: the recovery point is made available instantly at the moment of creation of the snapshot made by the backup job, in a similar way to the checkpoint created by Hyper-V or VMware.
  • Distribute the disks of restored VM: during the restore process you are given the opportunity to choose where to place the disks unmanaged of virtual machines. This reduces the configurations, post restore activities, that would be required putting all disks within the same storage account .

To take advantage of these improvements you need to upgrade your subscription which owns the Recovery Service Vaults. The upgrade can be performed directly from the Azure Portal (there will be an appropriate notification in the dashboard of the Recovery Service vault ) or via PowerShell commands. For further information you can consult theMicrosoft's official announcement.

Figure 2 – Subscription upgrade process at the new stack

Microsoft has also announced that the Azure Backup service is now also available in the regions of Azure France (France Central and France South).

 

System Center

Microsoft has officialized the release of Windows Server 2019 which will be available to the public in the second half of 2018. In the same time will be made available System Center 2019 and it will have full support for Windows Server 2019 from the very first day of release.

System Center Configuration Manager

During the month has been released the version 1802 for the Current Branch (CB) of System Center Configuration Manager that introduces new features and major improvements in the product.

This summarizes the areas impacted by this update:

Modern Management

  • Endpoint Protection workload transition in co-management
  • Management insights
  • Co-management reporting

Figure 3 – Co-management reporting

Microsoft 365 Adoption

  • Phased deployments
  • Windows AutoPilot Device Information report
  • Support for Windows 10 ARM64 devices
  • Surface Device Dashboard
  • Microsoft Edge browser policies
  • Report to show default browser for client machines
  • Windows 10 Servicing for a specific collection report
  • Improvements to Office 365 client management dashboard
  • Improvements for Windows Defender Exploit Guard
  • New settings for Windows Defender Application Guard

Streamlined Infrastructure

  • Configure Windows 10 Delivery Optimization to use Configuration Manager boundary groups
  • Add management points to your boundary group fallback relationships
  • Moving Distribution Points between sites

Improvements in Cloud Management Gateway

  • Cloud management gateway support for Azure Resource Manager
  • Install user-available applications on Azure AD-joined devices
  • Windows 10 in-place upgrade task sequence over the Internet

Improvements in Software Center

  • Approve application requests for users per device
  • Improvements to client settings for Software Center

Improvements in OSD

  • Improvements to Windows 10 in-place upgrade task sequence
  • Deployment Template for Task Sequences

Miscellaneous Improvements

  • Support for hardware inventory strings greater than 255 characters in length
  • Run scripts

Figure 4 – Run Script status

To see the complete list of new features and to get more details about it you can access the Microsoft's official documentation.

The update will be made available globally in recent weeks and will be displayed in the node "Updates and Servicing" in the SCCM console. To force the availability of this update you can use this PowerShell script.

For System Center Configuration Manager has been released the version 1803 for the Technical Preview branch. In addition to general improvements in the solution are introduced useful changes that can improve the Configuration Manager infrastructure. Furthermore, interesting improvements have been made to the Software Center. All the new features included in this update can be found in the article Update 1803 for Configuration Manager Technical Preview Branch.

Please note that the Technical Preview Branch releases help you to evaluate new features of SCCM and it is recommended to apply these updates only in test environments.

System Center Updates Publisher

System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP) is the Microsoft solution that allows you to manage custom third-party update. This month a new version of SCUP has been officially released and can be downloaded at this link. The new release introduces support for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. All details about this release can be found in the’official announcement.

System Center Operations Manager

Following, are reported the news about Management Packs of SCOM:

Evaluation of OMS and System Center

Please remember that in order to test and evaluate for free Operations Management Suite (OMS) you can access this page and select the mode that is most appropriate for your needs.

To try System Center products you can access to the’Evaluation Center and after the registration you can start the trial period.

OMS and System Center: What's New in September 2017

Even the month of September is full of news and different updates have affected Operations Management Suite (OMS) and System Center, also thanks to Ignite 2017, the annual Microsoft conference of this week in Orlando. This article contains a summary accompanied by useful references for further study.

Operations Management Suite (OMS)

  • OMS Customers are using the solution Security & Compliance are given the option to use the features found in ’Azure Security Center in order to have a unified management of security and protection of their systems, all without additional cost. This is particularly useful to be able to manage workloads across hybrid environments, regardless of where they reside, on Azure, on-premises, or on other public clouds. Within the Azure Security Center will be automatically handle the security of the systems that are already connected to the solution OMS Security & Compliance and you can add additional machines simply by installing the Microsoft Monitoring Agent. To see details of the features offered I invite you to consult the publication OMS customers can now use Azure Security Center to protect their hybrid cloud workloads. In this regard it is worth noting that to enable the features just in time VM access, dynamic application controls and network threat detection of Azure resources you must select pricing tier Security Center Standard for the Subscription or the Resource Group.

Figure 1 – List of features for the protection of hybrid environments

  • The Azure portal now includes two features related to Operations Management Suite (OMS): Workspace Settings and View Designer. From the Azure portal you can access the settings of the workspace OMS as shown in the following figure:

    Figure 2 – Settings of the Workspace who are accessible from the Azure Portal

Also, the View Designer, that allows you to create custom views, is now accessible directly from the Log Analytics section of Azure portal:

Figure 3 – View Designer available directly from the portal Azure

  • As already announced in a dedicated article the update of Log Analytics has introduced a new powerful query language. In this useful article highlighted the main changes introduced by the new language.
  • Another interesting new feature is the ability to run query not only on single workspace OMS, but in a transversal way across multiple workspace. To learn more about you can see Query across resources.
  • Article Monitoring SQL Azure Data Sync using OMS Log Analytics returns the configuration to be carried out in order to monitor the solution SQL Azure Data Sync using a custom solution OMS. Azure SQL Data Sync allows you to synchronize data in both directions or unidirectional between different Azure SQL database andor to SQL database on-premises. With this procedure you can detect error conditions or warning in the synchronization process so simple, thanks to OMS.
  • To help you to track the Big Data application involving different technologies was announced in preview the ability to monitor cluster HDInsight with Azure Log Analytics . In this video there are the details of how HDInsight customers can monitor and debug Hadoop, Spark, HBase, Kafka, Interactive Query and cluster Storm.

Solutions

  • In OMS there is a new solution Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Analytics for centralizing in Log Analytics the jobs of one or more Virtual Machine Manager to have an overall view of the health and performance of the virtualization infrastructure managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Figure 4 – Overview of VMM Analytics solution

Agent

  • Released a new version of the OMS agent for Linux systems that mainly has solved some bugs and introduced an updated version of some of the main components. For more details and to get the updated version please refer to the official GitHub page OMS Agent for Linux GA v 1.4.1-45

Figure 5 – Bug fixes and what's new for the OMS agent for Linux

 

System Center

System Center Configuration Manager

  • Released the Cumulative Update 6 for UNIX and Linux clients of Configuration Manager. It is a new version of the client that fixes several bugs and adds support for new Linux distributions. This release also removed support for Unix and Linux distributions even obsolete discontinued by vendor. Customers using the SCCM clients with these versions may continue to use the client updated to Cumulative Update 5. The release announcement and further details can be found in this article.
  • During Ignite 2017 was announced an interesting feature called co-management that interest the management of the device using either System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune. With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update there is the possibility to make the join of the device both to the Active Directory domain (AD) on-premises and to Azure AD in the cloud. This expands the possibilities for management of devices using the Configuration Manager client and the MDM agent of Intune. To deepen this topic, you can look in the video section of the Ignite site the sessions with the following reference codes: BRK3057, BRK3075, BRK3076 and BRK2079.

Figure 7 – Co-management devices with SCCM and Intune

 

System Center Updates Publisher

By accessing this page you can select the way you find most suitable to test and evaluate free Operations Management Suite (OMS).