Tag: sp1

Microsoft Kind Of Brings New Features in SC 2012 SP1 UR2

Last year we were surprised when Service Pack 1 of System Center 2012 was revealed and we found out that it will bring a lot of new features. We were used to get new features on R2 and R3 release of a product. But seems Microsoft is entering a new redefined cycle for supporting their products (examples: SP1 for SC 2012, the CU updates in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012). Now we are surprised again because System Center team announces kind of new feature in Update Rollup 2 for SC 2012 SP1 which is scheduled for early April. This new feature is called Exchange Connector for SCSM. Let me state out that the Exchange connector existed before this announcement but it was separate download without Microsoft support. Exchange Connector 3.0 Release Candidate with compatibility for SC 2012 was announced somewhere in April 2012 but RTM version was never released. With the release of SP1 many have doubt that RTM version will be released soon. So after a lot of queries against SCSM team for the Exchange Connector Travis Wright responded with official response on SCSM Team blog. The final version of Exchange Connector for SCSM will be included in Update Rollup 2 for SC 2012 SP1 and will be fully supported.

MVA course: SC Orchestrator 2012 SP1

Microsoft promised more MVA courses for System Center 2012 SP1 and here is another promised fulfilled:

Example Upgrade of SCSM 2012 to SP1 by Microsoft

Upgrades can be tough if they are not planned well. Event in very good planned upgrades there are some issues but the idea is to be prepared to squash them on the moment and finish the upgrade process to the end. This is what one of the Microsoft teams did when they upgraded their SCSM 2012 environment to SP1. read about their experience here.

Be Patient with SCOM 2012 SP1 Upgrade

There is an article on Operations Manager Engineering blog titled Patience is a virtue with the System Center 2012 Operations Manager SP1 installation. This articles advises you to be careful with upgrading SCOM 2012 to SP1 and not to rush things because you can face a lot of issues. Basically you should not upgrade two or more management servers at the same time. I would follow this advise to almost every product.

System Center 2012 SP1 General Availability and VHD Downloads

It is official: System Center 2012 SP1 has reached General Availability. Summarization of the new capabilities you can find on the System Center blogs:

If you want to test the components you can download VHD files that will help you with that:

I trial version of the product can be downloaded from here.

Documentation for download:

List of SC 2012 SP1 KB articles:

Kevin Holman’s QuickStart deployment guides:

Microsoft Virtual Academy Courses:

  • Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals – Learn how Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V, and System Center 2012 SP1 can help you build, deploy, and manage private cloud architecture. NOTE: This course becomes available on Jan 15.
  • System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Updates – Learn about the enhancements to each of the System Center 2012 SP1 components, which includes added support for Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012 and tighter integration with Windows Azure. NOTE: This course becomes available on Jan 16.
  • COMING SOON: System Center 2012 SP1 Capabilities – Learn about the configuration and management of the infrastructure, services and applications available from System Center 2012 SP1. NOTE: This course becomes available on Jan 31.