Tag: book

Book Review: System Center 2012 Unleashed

I’ve wanted to read System Center 2012 Unleashed book for a long time but either I didn’t had enough time or the timing was not right. As I am writing designs for all System Center 2012 components I’ve decided that this is the right time. The book covers every System Center 2012 component at some certain level with the exception of App Controller. You probably think that the book provides some overview of System Center 2012 as it includes almost every component and none of these components cannot be introduced in details because of that. You are probably right but only on 50%. First the book is more than 1000 pages. Second in it you will not only find overview of the components but a lot more information. Every System Center component in the book is presented with the following topics:

  • What is new in the component?
  • How to component works and what feature it provides?
  • Design and planning of the component
  • Implementing the component
  • Administering the component

 

Topics are not covered in full detail but at very decent level. So by reading this book and with the help from Technet you can plan, design, implement and administer a small deployment of System Center 2012. Taking this in consideration I would level 200 to this book. Think of this book as the prelude for the other System Center Unleashed series books that will cover every component in much more detail.

You may also ask why System Center 2012 App Controller is not included in the book. My opinion is that because there is not so much planning about App Controller. It is just a interface in the form of a website. Your design and planning will be identical like every other IIS website.

In summary this book is ideal for engineers who are just starting with all System Center components and for those who are planning a small deployment of the product. All of you who like more advanced information you will find it in the series of these Unleashed books that will cover specific System Center component.

If you want to buy System Center 2012 Unleashed you can find it online on one of the following web stores:

 

Expect soon to make review of System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed.

Microsoft Private Cloud Computing – Book Review

During and after the holiday I had the chance to read the book Microsoft Private Cloud Computing. The book is authored by Aidan Finn, Hans Vredevoort, Patrick Lownds and Damian Flynn. All of the authors are well known experts in Hyper-V and VMM space. The book is 408 pages long and it is divided in 3 parts with a total of 13 chapters. The main focus of this book is System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 so it is VMM book. The reason why VMM is not mentioned in the title is because VMM is presented in the concept of the Private Cloud. This means that all the examples in the book are shown in a way that you can us them to build and managed your Private Cloud with Virtual Machine Manager.

The first two chapters explain the concept of the Private Cloud and the Microsoft Private Cloud in particular. If you are familiar with them you can skip these two chapters but I would suggest you to read them because you can always find something new that will be useful. These two chapters are the first part of the book.

Next 6 chapters are the second part of the book. These chapters describe every feature and configuration of System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager. Along with the descriptions there are detailed steps of how to configure and use these features. Screenshots are also not missing in the book which I think is always necessary to get a clear picture of the tool while reading. In fact the best way of reading this book is in front of the computer with test System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Environment. That way you will be able to execute every instruction in the book and get more familiar with VMM.

The third part of the book consists of four chapters. These chapters are about explaining how you can leverage VMM and other System Center components as a Private Cloud Solution. Included are examples with VMM Self-service portal, App Controller and System Center 2012 Service Manager with Cloud Services Process Pack. The chapters does not show how you can do some complex tasks as there are different scenarios in the Private Cloud. Instead they give you the elements which you can use and how to connect them to fit in your Private Cloud.

The biggest value of the book is that you can always turn to it if you face some challenges with building your Microsoft Private Cloud. In all in the book you will find also PowerShell scripts so you can leverage automation. I recommend this book for those who are not familiar with the Microsoft Private Cloud concept or System Center Virtual Machine Manger 2012. The book is also suitable for those advanced engineers who want to have a reading to which they can refer in time of need.

The book can be bought from Amazon:

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook – Book Review

After reading Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook I’ve managed to read another book about System Center 2012 component from the same publishing company. In front of my eyes was Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook.

Author of the book are Brian Mason and Greg Ramsey. Both are well respected System Center Configuration Manager specialists. The book follows the same style like the SCSM 2012 Cookbook so SCCM 2012 is introduced in series of mini guides (called by Packt Publishing practical recipes) that will show you how to do certain tasks in order to administer the System Center component. In fact the book is focused only in administering SCCM 2012 and the title infers that. If you expect to learn something about designing SCCM 2012 environment you should find another book. The book is divided in 8 chapters which cover only the basics of CM 2012. If you are looking for a book that will explain the architecture of CM 2012 than this book is not for you. This book is a more practical book and than theoretical. If you are looking for more theoretical information you can find it in Technet Library. In the book you will find step by step guides on administrative tasks in CM 2012. The length of the book is 208 pages but that is because there are not so many screenshots which is may be a good thing because that way the book drives you to try the software product while reading the book and test the mini guides. Even though I am reading and trying CM 2012 features for a long time I’ve managed to learn and try new things described in the book simply because Configuration Manager is a big product with a lot of features.

I can recommend this book to engineers who just start with Configuration Manager 2012 but of course before actually reading this book it is best to get to know the product by reading Technet Library. CM 2012 is the most well document System Center component of the family. I can also recommend this book to SCCM 2007 administrators who just start to learn about the new features of SCCM 2012.

If you think this is the right book you can find it in several stores:

You can know more about the book by clicking on the image below.

Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook – Book Review

Recently I had the opportunity to read the book Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook. The authors of the books are Samuel Erskine, Steven Beaumont, Anders Asp, Dieter Gasser and Andreas Baumgarten and two of them are even MVPs which infers for the quality of the book.

The book is divided in 11 chapters. The chapters are structured in a way that when you read the book you will start from more beginners to more advanced information. In the book you will find description and practices examples for all the features of System Center Service Manager 2012. In fact the bigger part of the book contains mini guides on how to do certain tasks in order to administer and manage the product. These mini guides are so detailed and explained well that you can build your own test environment and implement the steps in the book while reading it. This is useful because the easiest way to learn a product is to interact with it, to find out how all its features works by testing them.

The audience of this book is mostly people who currently start using or plan implementation of System Center 2012 Service Manager. The book will be also suitable for people who know different parts of SCSM 2012 but do not know the full power of the product. Before actually reading the book I would suggest to prepare yourself with a little Technet material about SCSM 2012. The authors didn’t include any information that already exists over Internet, instead they’ve included links to it. This gives uniqueness to the book.

Because Service Manager is a big product almost all of the chapters describes the basics of every feature but the book manages to show what are the capabilities of these features if more advanced techniques are implemented. This is good because you when you want to achieve something more advanced you will know if it is achievable and where to look for additional information in order to achieve it.

I definitely recommend this book to engineers who just start with System Center 2012 Service Manager or to more advanced users of this component part of System Center 2012 family.

You can find the book in the following online stores:

 

Mastering System Center 2012 Operations Manager book is available

Mastering System Center 2012 Operations Manager is available for sale at Amazon US and soon will be available also in other like Amazon UK. The book covers topics like:

  • Reviewing the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)
  • Configuring, installing, and deploying Operations Manager 2012
  • Setting up Management Group global settings
  • Managing management packs, individual agents, and consoles
  • Monitoring the network and application performance
  • Backing up, restoring, and implementing disaster recovery
  • Using PowerShell cmdlets to script Operations Manager 2012 functions
  • Troubleshooting with Operations Manager 2012 tools, as well as third-party tools

 

Authors of the book are great experts like Bob Cornelissen, Kevin Greene and my friend Ivan Hadzhiyski so it is no doubt a worth reading book than will help you learn and understand SCOM 2012.