Microsoft System Center 2012

2014

Microsoft Rus LLC, Federal State Unitary Enterprise Enterprise for Deliveries of Products of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation and Sertifitsirovannye informatsionnye sistemy LLC announced in January, 2014 certification by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC of Russia) of SQL Server DBMS 2012 and software package for infrastructure management of System Center 2012.

As it is specified in certificates of conformity of FSTEC of Russia, System Center 2012 (in editions Standard and Datacenter about Service Pack 1, certificate No. 2966), and SQL Servers of 2012 (in editions Standard, Enterprise, Business Intelligence, Web about Service Pack 1, certificate No. 2967) productions of Microsoft company are software tools of general purpose with the built-in means of protecting from unauthorized access to information which is not containing the data which are the state secret implementing functions of access control, identification and authentication, registration of the events of security and meeting requirements of the corresponding Specifications, on condition of installation of all of the relevant obligatory certified security updates and accomplishment of the operating instructions provided in the corresponding forms.

2013

System Center 2012 R2

About an exit new, so far preliminary, versions of a product were reported by Microsoft company on June 26, 2013.

Cloud Ecosystem Poster: Microsoft Azure, Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2

• Public services Microsoft Azure Services: categories of services, providing computing powers in lease (Compute Services), services of storage (Data Services) and service of applications (App Services).
• Services for creation of private infrastructures of virtualization based on products of the System Center 2012 R2 family, including such components as: App Controller, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, Service Manager, Orchestrator, Data Protection Manager and Azure Pack.
• Сервисы платформы Windows Server 2012 R2, включая следующие технологии и составляющие: Storage Spaces, Data Deduplication, Resilient File System, SMB Transparent Failover, Storage Quality of Service, Generation 2 Virtual Machines, Online VHDX Resize, Enhanced Session Mode, Live Migration, Failover Clustering, Cluster Shared Volumes, Scale-Out File Server, Shared Virtual Hard Disks, Hyper-V Extensible Switch, Remote Desktop Services, SMB Direct, SMB Multi-channel и NICTeaming.

Development continuation

System Center 2012 R2 provides integrated management of Microsoft Cloud OS. As continuation of development and improvement of System Center 2012 technologies, a new product portfolio of Microsoft for infrastructure management provides full-fledged management of all opportunities of Windows Server 2012 R2.

Among them:

• start of copies of VM;
• dynamic size variation of VDMX and volumes of data warehouses;
• preparation for operation of multi-user VPN gateways and management of them that allows to expand capacities of a data processing center quickly;
• management of heterogeneous DPCs, including Linux Wednesday.

System Center 2012 R2 is the key tool for management of hybrid infrastructures which provides, for example, live migration of workloads from local infrastructure in Windows Azure Virtual Machines and back.

Together with a cloud service of Windows Intune the solution for configuring of System Center Configuration Manager forms a unified environment for control of various devices – the PC, notebooks, tablets – on different platforms, meeting the requirements of the concept of BYOD.

In October, 2014 Federal State Unitary Enterprise Enterprise for Deliveries of Products of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation and Sertifitsirovannye informatsionnye sistemy LLC received certificates of the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC of Russia) on the Microsoft System Center 2012 R2, Dynamics CRM 2013, Exchange Server 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 software products.

As it is specified in certificates of conformity of FSTEC of Russia, the System Center 2012 R2 software products (certificate No. 3226), Dynamics CRM 2013 (certificate No. 3228), Exchange Server 2013 (certificate No. 3229), SharePoint Server 2013 (certificate No. 3231) developed by Microsoft Corporation is the application software with the built-in means of protecting from unauthorized access to information which is not containing the data which are the state secret, the access for subjects of access to access objects and registration of events of security implementing control functions conforms to requirements of specifications, on condition of installation of all of the relevant obligatory certified security updates and accomplishment of the operating instructions provided in the corresponding forms.

2012

Candidate release

On January 18, 2012 Microsoft announced an exit of System Center 2012 in the version candidate release (RC). The president of division of Server and Tools Satya Nadella during online broadcasting told about how Microsoft will help the organizations to develop quicker, to become more competitive due to creation of flexible and economic private clouds.

Apply System Center 2012 of the version the candidate release and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for creation of cloud infrastructure customers can already now. It is expected that the final version of System Center 2012 will be available in the first half of 2012.

Final version

On April 17, 2012 the Microsoft company announced availability of the final version of integrated solution to management of IT infrastructure of System Center 2012. At the Microsoft Management Summit conference Brad Anderson, the corporate vice president of division of management and security of Microsoft corporation reported about it. Within the report he also told about how cloud computing helps to unroll quickly new reliable services thanks to which the companies can remain competitive.

System Center 2012 integrates eight products which were offered before on separateness, in single solution. Such approach also allowed to simplify licensing of the solution considerably. For example, now only 2 license types on control of servers are offered to customers: System Center Standard or Datacenter depending on the needs for virtualization use.

The license for System Center 2012 Datacenter grants the right to control of unlimited number of virtual machines that allows clients to develop the private clouds without additional costs at increase in density of placement of loadings.

The private cloud constructed using System Center 2012 gives following features which profitable distinguish it from the competing offers:

• Deep application monitoring and services, management of IT services at the enterprise.
• Management of the heterogeneous IT environments including constructed based on products of VMware, Linux, etc.
• Simple way for transition from a virtual server framework to a full-fledged private cloud.
• Possibility of the flexible choice of the necessary method of providing IT services from a private or public cloud, i.e. a possibility of creation of hybrid clouds.

IT departments which use System Center 2012 and Windows Server with Hyper-V for deployment of cloud environments help the companies to develop quicker, to save and increase the competitiveness. So, EmpireCLS, one of leaders in the field of luxury car lease, uses a private cloud of Microsoft that within one and a half years to cut down expenses on support of data center on 50% in the conditions of the 30% growth of business. EmpireCLS uses a private cloud of Microsoft to provide to the employees (more than 1000 people) and customers in more than 700 countries a booking system and leases of cars. Cloud infrastructure of EmpireCLS supports also the new direction of business of the company. BeTransported is the business application on lease and armoring of cars which the company provides in the form of SaaS (Software as a Service). The The Walsh Group construction company migrated in a private cloud of Microsoft to automate providing the virtualized servers, applications and desktops for 5000 employees. In addition to increase in business performance the company cut down expenses on the hardware and the electric power on 20%.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

On January 16, 2013 the Microsoft company announced an exit of the updated System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for effective and flexible management by hybrid cloud environments and also the packet of Windows Azure Services for Windows Server improved Windows Intune and some other solutions. These technologies expand possibilities of Cloud OS – a single infrastructure platform of Microsoft – and help the companies quickly and to qualitatively solve IT tasks.  

"Cloud OS which core are Windows Server and Windows Azure is the single infrastructure platform allowing to integrate possibilities of data processing centers of the customer, service provider and a public cloud of Microsoft in unified information environment, – Michael Park, the corporate marketing vice president of division of Server and Tools, Microsoft says. – Crucial elements of the platform are powerful tools for management and automation. They help IT departments to increase efficiency the works and to be more the innovation in process of development of hybrid clouds and a trend of a konsyyumerization of IT".

Transformation of data processing centers

  The new offer of Microsoft expands possibilities of application of Windows Server 2012 in private, public or hybrid clouds. Using System Center 2012 SP1 with Windows Server 2012, it is much simpler to pass from management of separate components of DPC to a private cloud on the basis of dynamic pools of the resources integrating computing powers, storage systems and networks. Windows Azure Services for Windows Server and the System Center Service Provider Foundation components just allow to connect to private clouds the additional resources available in clouds of service providers and a public cloud of Windows Azure.   Other key features of System Center 2012 SP1:

•       Compatibility with Windows Server 2012: infrastructure management on the basis of Windows Server 2012, including server and network virtualization of Hyper-V.
•         Application monitoring: the new service Global Service Monitor helps to monitor work of application services and applications in regime of "user", being both in corporate network of the company, and in the conditions of access from the outside. Using Operations Manager it is possible to set the schedule and to browse results of accomplishment of synthetic transactions from any place in the world.
•         Work with virtual machines in a public cloud of Windows Azure: migration of virtual machines from a physical medium can be carried out to a public cloud of Windows Azure in manual and in automatic the modes. Thus, it is possible to expand easily possibilities of the DPC and to increase its performance at the expense of the Windows Azure resources.

Uniform management of the PC and devices

  Using the new version of Windows Intune and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 services, customers can manage on a centralized basis the PC, notebooks and mobile devices working based on the most different platforms. Control is exercised through a uniform panel. It allows to provide the high level of protection and to increase productivity of employees, providing them access to corporate information and applications from any place and from any device at any time.   It is possible to obtain the additional information about System Center 2012 SP1 to the address: http://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/server-cloud/system-center/sp1-default.aspx. It is possible to download a product at the link: http://technet.microsoft.com/ru-RU/evalcenter/hh505660.aspx. The additional information about Windows Intune is available to the address: http://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/windows/windowsintune/pc-management.aspx.

Structure of the platform

Microsoft System Center 2012 represents a complex from eight basic software modules:

• System Center Operations Manager allows to solve the problems connected with monitoring of all IT infrastructure (including DPC, a private and public cloud) and to provide the predicted performance and availability of applications;
• System Center Configuration Manager serves for deployment and software configuration, the organization and control of work of users with mobile, physical and virtual environments from different client devices on any platforms;
• System Center Data Protection Manager provides backup and data recovery on disks and a tape for the servers SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint, virtual and file servers and also supports the PC with Windows;
• System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection Manager allows to consolidate means of protecting of the PC and management of them in single solution;
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager is intended for control of virtual machines (their creation, migration and removal) and also for deployment of IT services in environments based on different hypervisors, including on the platforms VMware, Citrix;
• System Center Orchestrator gives the chance to automate the routine processes and transactions connected with management of IT infrastructure. The built-in templates of workflows considerably simplify this task;
• System Center Application Controller is the component implemented in the form of the web console which provides uniform approach to resource management of a private and public cloud and allows owners of applications or services to unroll independently new copies of required service or the application;
• System Center Service Manager provides the built-in processes for the organization at the enterprises of service Service desk, for management of service requests and incidents and also serves for change management and lifecycle of IT resources. It allows to manage flexibly services for users and to increase transparency of work of IT department in terms of business, to accelerate time of response to requests of users, to reduce resolving time of incidents and elimination of the arising problems.

Use options

Thanks to the width of functionality of software of Microsoft System Center 2012 it can be used for the solution of the most various IT tasks connected with management of IT infrastructure and IT services.

Management of IT infrastructure. System Center 2012 allows to execute pro-active monitoring of all servers, network equipment and virtual environment, to carry out inventory and configuring of all devices, to perform data backup and antivirus protection, to provide services to Service Desk, to automate service of databases and other IT components infrastrukury and, at last, to manage private, public and hybrid clouds. In other words, a system solves all problems of management of IT infrastructure of the modern enterprise.

Application monitoring and IT infrastructures. Using System Center 2012 of the enterprise can provide predictable performance level of applications and obtain more information on their use. Technologies of pro-active monitoring are for this purpose involved. It means that thanks to System Center 2012 the IT administrator can predict probable failures in operation of applications and IT systems and to timely take measures for their prevention. Such current monitoring is executed on the basis of the analysis of system magazines based on which necessary measures are taken or in the automatic mode, or using the IT administrator.

Automation of providing IT services. Even more often before modern Chief information officers there are problems of economy of means within IT budgets, ensuring transparency of providing IT services and increase in their quality for reduction of time to market of products and services. One of the factors influencing the solution of these tasks is transition to a consumption pattern of IT in the form of service that causes need for the tools allowing to organize work of service provider (it can be own IT department or the external company) and the consumer of such services in the On Demand mode. Such tools are provided by Service Manager. With their help it is possible to provide selection to the user of resources necessary for it in the automatic mode after execution of the corresponding request by it.

Important feature of the IT as Service model is that between the customer on behalf of the consumer of services and provider there are commodity-money relations. The service provider should know what volume of IT services was consumed, say, in a month for billing to the customer. System Center 2012 provides complete transparency of calculations as includes means for assessment of volume of consumption of services.

System Center 2012 can play not less important role also in ensuring control of observance of the agreement on the service level (Service Level Agreement, SLA) which is necessary and obligatory control the relations between the customer and IT service provider.

Cloud functionality

System Center 2012 helps to organize IT assets of the enterprise (networks, data warehouses, computing powers) in the form of a private cloud which can be integrated with public cloud services. The hybrid cloud received as a result can be managed from a uniform panel. Thus, a system represents the solution for all three cloud environments — local, public and hybrid.

Services of a public cloud can be separated into three types — 'Software as service' (Software as and Service, SaaS), 'infrastructure as service' (Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS) and 'the platform as service' (Platform as a service, PaaS) which allow to use in the form of an application service, infrastructure and the platform respectively. In Russia all three models are available now.

On April 16, 2013 start in commercial operation of the IaaS model on the Windows platform of Azure took place. How can it be used during the work with local IT infrastructure? For example, the enterprise for accomplishment of some project needed the additional computing powers including a quantity of jobs, a certain volume of disk space, several virtual machines, etc. The IT administrator understands that for addition of its current infrastructure with such resources many costs both for updating of the hardware, and for setup will be involved. Now he can implement it in much more short time, using resources of a public cloud Windows Azure using Application Controller.

As a result the IT administrator creates a hybrid cloud environment. At the same time he sees computing resources from a public cloud not separately on some special control panel, and manages all hybrid infrastructure from the single console, and to it it is absolutely unimportant what resources where are located. Already now in Russia a number of the pilot projects allowing customers to estimate opportunities for work in such hybrid mode is implemented.

Implementation and licensing

Today System Center 2012 is the platform consisting of several software products with a large amount of functionality for which effective use the project approach to their implementation and deployment assuming preliminary refining of requests and needs of the customer, formulation of technical specifications, deployment of the necessary functionality and its setup is necessary.

With a release of version 2012 of the rule of licensing of System Center changed. If earlier each component was bought separately and required the separate license, then one license for all eight components which allows the customer to receive a full range of products for management of IT infrastructure is now purchased.

Such model of licensing reflects complex approach of Microsoft to management of IT infrastructure. Also versions of licenses for server OS became simpler. Now their of everything two: Standard which includes the rights of control of two virtual machines or a physical medium (is suitable for infrastructures without virtualization or with a low density of placement of virtual machines), and Datacenter for management of an unlimited number of virtual machines (is suitable for virtual environments and private clouds with a high density of virtualization). Both licenses cover all products System Center and are expected two physical processors.

In addition to servers and network equipment in IT infrastructure there is a huge park of client devices which need to be managed too. The client licenses offered depending on a solvable task in three options are for this purpose intended: Configuration Manager, Endpoint Protection and Client Management Suite.

2011

Such solutions as virtual machine manager of SCVMM 2012 (System Center Virtual Machine Manager), SCOM 2012 (System Center Operations Manager), SCSM 2012 (System Center Service Manager) and SCDPM 2012 (System Center Data Protection Manager) are a part of the updated System Center 2012 family.

AVIcode technologies for deep monitoring and debugging of applications based on Microsoft .NET and J2EE are integrated into System Center Operations Manager 2012. The tool also offers a new control panel which helps to control better accomplishment of SLA (service-level agreement) and network performance.

• System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 will include new opportunities for the centralized backup and protection, including deeper integration about Hyper-V, SharePoint and support of deduplication.
• System Center Orchestrator (earlier known under the code name Opalis) which is the platform for automation of difficult IT processes will become more closely integrated with other System Center components and will receive new scenarios of processes. It will allow to lower costs and at the same time to increase reliability and predictability of DPC services.
• System Center Service Manager 2012 will allow administrators of DPC, to IT managers of business divisions, developers and end users independently to make requests, including for providing cloud services.
• System Center Project (the code name "Concero") represents the portal for independent management of services in cloud infrastructure. Using the portal the consumer of cloud resources will be able to unroll new services, to configure them and to trace a current status. It is important to note that as cloud resources both private clouds, and a public cloud of Microsoft Azure can be used.
• System Center Advisor (earlier known under the code name "Atlanta") represents the protected cloud service which estimates a configuration of servers according to recommendations and allows to monitor changes which are made over servers.

Key component for creation of infrastructure of dynamic DPCs and private clouds is System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012. Key changes of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 can be separated into several categories:

1. Factory management of a data processing center

• Management of lifecycle of servers of virtualization, including detection of new servers on network (even without OS), installation of a hypervisor Hyper-V directly on the hardware, the centralized creation of a cluster from the Hyper-V nodes, management of updates of a cluster.
• Dynamic network management: pools of the IP addresses, MAC addresses and balancers of loading.
• Dynamic management of storages: creation of storages, management of sets of storages and LUN.
• Cross-platform: control of Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere virtualization platforms.

2. Dynamic optimization of use of resources

• Optimization of energy consumption of DPC due to consolidation of resistive loads on several servers and shutdowns of the idle devices.
• New scenarios of optimization of performance and use of resources (Performance and Resource Optimization, PRO) DPC.

3. Management of cloud infrastructure

• Consolidation of servers, network and disk resources in private clouds.
• Access control to private clouds with a possibility of control of capacity, opportunities and the user's quotas.
• Providing self-service on creation, deployment, management and curtailment of applications in a private cloud.

4. Management of lifecycle of services

• Creation of templates of the services including using a difficult multi-tier architecture based on virtual machines, images of operating systems and application packages.
• Scaling of service using increase in number of the virtual machines which are responsible for certain roles (for example, Web servers).
• Monitoring of performance of service and its status due to integration with System Center Operations Manager.
• Separation of updating of images of OS and applications using service on the basis of images.
• Virtualization of server applications of Server App-V.