Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 First Look 2

Hi,

Microsoft has released Beta 2 of System Center Configuration Manager 2012.
The anticipated release is Q4 of 2011, and this is a first look.

Let’s start with: I’m impressed!

Being a Beta means there are a couple of things that needs some attention:

• The database can only be SQL 2008 SP1 with CU10 or higher (no support for SP2 or R2 yet!)
• x64 OS (finally ConfigMgr is on the same platform as the rest of the System Center Family)
• Ow and RAM, it needs a lot! The minimum is 2GB, but bear in mind ‘the minimum’. Running this one in a lab environment with SQL on the same machine, go for 4-6GB.

Then there are the Prerequisites:

• .NET 3.5.1
• .NET 4.0
• RDC (Remote Differential Compression)
• BITS (Background Intelligence Transfer Service)
• IIS Role Service –> IIS 6 WMI Compability

And WSUS 3.0 SP1 if you want to manage Software Updates with SCCM 2012 (and you want that, don’t you?).
One thing that directly caught my attention, no more need for WebDAV, nice.

After the installation fire up the Console:

SCCM 2012 UI

Wow!

SCCM 2012 Ribbon

First thing that is cool, the ribbon is fully integrated throughout the product. It takes some time to get used to it, but it saves a lot of ‘right-clicks’. Very handy.

So now what?

Clicking through the console you can see the shift towards User Centric Management. This means putting the User first then the Systems. And that’s eventually what it is all about.
We need to support Users in their jobs, providing them with the right tools to do their work.

Also there is Role-Based Security, no more full console with no rights. If you are assigned a role, you will just see what you need to see, uh cool and handy!

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Efficient Application Management.

Sounds cool, but what is it? It means that a single application can now be deployed with multiple deployment methods!
So let’s say you have an application XYZ. You want to deploy this application to your Baseline desktop PC’s as a native application,  stream it as an App-v program to your Laptops and make it available as an Remote Desktop Application when an user logs on to a server. All from 1 application, nice!

To uninstall applications SCCM 2012 now uses ‘retirement’, the application can also be ‘reinstated’.

Retired Application

Reporting.

Reporting is taken out of SCCM 2012 and is done by SQL 2008 by means of Reporting Services. This is how it should be. Of course in SCCM 2007 it was also possible, but in SCCM 2012 the Reporting Point does no longer exists.
And, of course, there are standard more reports 😉
(411 in SCCM 2012 B2 to 389 in SCCM2007R3)

Reports

This was the very first peek in SCCM 2012 B2, more to come!