System Center 2012 (DPM) Certification

It is no longer possible to get certified on Data Protection Manager only. Actually the same applies to Operations Manager. Both products (and many more) are now part of the Private cloud certifications. The Private Cloud exams cover all the System Center 2012 private cloud components (except for Configuration Manager)

• Data Protection Manager
• Operations Manager
• App controller
• Virtual machine Manager
• Orchestrator

So a lot more stuff to cover in only two exams. In my experience this means less in-depth knowledge about the individual products and more  focus on how the components work together (in a private cloud). But still a very interesting path to go.

The certification process is made up two parts. The first part is the MCSA (2008 or 2012) as a base level of knowledge. If you have achieved this certification, there are two exams that you separate the MCSE Private Cloud certification.

Exam 70-247 - Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012.
Audience Profile:  “Candidates for this exam use System Center 2012 products to install and configure a private cloud solution. They design, configure, and deploy the underlying infrastructure fabric of networking, storage, and compute resources. They standardize and automate configuration and deployment of applications. Candidates for this exam have Windows Server, Active Directory, System Center 2012, security, high availability, fault tolerance, and networking experience in an enterprise environment, basic Microsoft SQL Server and Windows PowerShell knowledge, and application configuration experience. Candidates are also familiar with ITIL and MOF concepts.”

Exam 70-246:  Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012
Audience Profile:  “Candidates for this exam have Windows Server, System Center 2012, security, high-availability, fault tolerance, and networking experience in an enterprise environment, candidates should also have basic Microsoft SQL Server and Windows PowerShell knowledge, and application configuration experience. Candidates are also familiar with ITIL and MOF concepts. These candidates might be the Active Directory Administrator, Virtualization Administrator, Enterprise Administrator, or System Center Administrator for their organizations.”

Trainings and study material
There are two official Microsoft trainings available one for each exam (M10750, M10751). Both trainings take 5 days (total of 10 days). These training are a good way to get going with the certification. But also without these courses there is a lot of information available for free on the web,

Study material 070-247
The Microsoft Exam guide is the official exam guides which contains a variety of resources to help you prepare for the exam
Keith Mayer created an alternative Prep guide with many useful information sources helping you to prepare for the exam.
The Microsoft Virtual Academy is another useful resource MVA provides its users with a virtual university experience.  Students on MVA can get access to information and training on the latest Microsoft technologies. Learning through MVA is free of charge, and you can study any time at your own place.

• System Center 2012: Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

Study material 070-246
The Microsoft Exam guide is the official exam guides which contains a variety of resources to help you prepare for the exam
Keith Mayer created an alternative Prep guide with many useful information sources helping you to prepare for the exam.
The Microsoft Virtual Academy is another useful resource.

• What’s New in System Center 2012
• System Center 2012: Orchestrator & Service Manager
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager

Other resources

VHDs
Of course, it is most important of all to have a practical hands-on knowledge of System Center 2012. Download the System Center 2012 (SP1) VHD’s. This download consists of files that you extract into a single pre-configured VHD file for this System Center component. The VHD enables you to create a virtual machine to evaluate the different System Center components.
Operations Manager,  App controller, Data Protection Manager, Orchestrator, Service Manager, Virtual Machine Manager

Guided Laps
Active guided lab that will help you evaluate the Microsoft private cloud core capabilities of Infrastructure Management, Service Delivery & Automation, and Application Management,
Lab 1: Provide Resources through self-service requests
Lab 2: Drive consistent service delivery
Lab 3: Provision additional cloud infrastructure
Lab 4: Delegate cloud resources
Lab 5: Create consistency through service templates
Lab 6: Perform a standardized application deployment to test
Lab 7: Stage application resources
Lab 8: Self-service deployment of an application to a production environment
Lab 9: Gain insight and visibility through reporting
Lab 10: Monitor infrastructure
Lab 11: Taking corrective actions in the infrastructure
Lab 12: Reduce time to resolution with application performance monitoring
Lab 13: Deploy an update to service instance
Lab 14: Explore creating dashboards

Second Shot
If you plan to do the exams, then I suggest you register for the Second Shot option. Passing the exams needed to demonstrate those skills can be tough, but for a limited time, you’ll get a free second chance to succeed. You can register here.

Conclusion
I’ll not recommend this cortication process for people that only work with Data Protection Manager, because only a small part of the Private Cloud exams are focusing on DPM. But again in many cases you will use multiple System Center components, then this exam will help you to understand how these components work better together.

More info: Born to learn, KemSim

DPMRA not starting on the DPM Server

The following issue I encountered in our own DPM environment.

When checking the DPM console we found that all jobs were stuck. During investigation we found that the the DPMRA service on the DPM server keeps failing to start.The event log shows countless number of the following errors.

Log Name:      System Source:        Service Control Manager Event ID:      7009 Task Category: None Level:         Error Keywords:      Classic Description: A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the DPMRA service to connect.

Log Name: System Source: Application Popup Event ID: 26 Task Category: None Level: Informatio Keywords: Classic Description: Application popup: DPMRA.exe - Application Error : The exception unknown software exception (0x8007000e) occurred in the application at location 0xfd74bccd

There are no other event in the eventlog that indicate why the DPMRA service keeps failing. The DPMRA1.errlog logs gives us a better indication of the root cause.

2430 28D4 02/04 09:31:11.131 03 agentcfg.cpp(475) [0000000000A5CC20] NORMAL Cound not find configuration for DPMRA 2430 28D4 02/04 09:31:11.131 29 dpmra.cpp(125) [0000000000A594D0] NORMAL CDPMRA: destructor [0000000000A594D0]

With help of this Technet forum post we found that this error indicates that one of the registry keys for DPM is missing.

did a procmon trace, and found that the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent\2.0\Configuration is missing ! Which would co-incide with the agent saying "Element not found"

We checked the registry and the key is indeed missing. As shown in the image below.

 

This is a complex key with a lot of unique information, therefor the best way to fix this issue is by restoring the key. In our case we have a System State back-up available of the server (created at the time the server was working fine).

The steps below show you how to restore the registry key from a System state back-up (VHD). This procedure uses Windows 2008 R2 server. Other OS versions involve different steps

Windows 2012 Hyper-V VMs enters a paused state or a CSV volume goes offline during back-up

A serious issue when backing up CSV 2.0 volumes. Host-based backups could bring down most of the VMs on the cluster. This can be a serious show stopper if you plan to migrate to Windows 2012 Hyper-V

When creating a back-up of a Windows 2012 Hyper-V CSV  volume you might get the following error in your cluster log.

Event id: 5120 Cluster Shared Volume xxxx is no longer available on this node because of 'STATUS_CLUSTER_CSV_AUTO_PAUSE_ERROR(c0130021)'. All I/O will temporarily be queued until a path to the volume is reestablished.

• You enable the Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) feature on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster.
• You create a virtual machine on a CSV volume on a cluster node.
• You start the virtual machine.
• You try to create a backup of the virtual machine on the CSV volume by using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM).

In this scenario, one of the following issues occurs:

• The backup is created, and the virtual machine enters a paused state.
• The CSV volume goes offline. Therefore, the virtual machine goes offline, and the backup is not created.
• VMs stop responding while the backups runs

There is a hotfix available from Microsoft unfortunately it looks like this doesn’t solve the issue. In addition after applying this hotfix there seemed to be a severe memory leak on the node storage owner.

More info and a workaround available on the Technet Forum thread.

More information also available the Microsoft support article: Issues that occur after you deploy System Center 2012 DPM SP1.

The DPM 2012 database grows and the console crashes after installing Update Rollup 3

 

After installing Update Rollup 3 for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager you notice that the DPM database grows and eventually the DPM console will crash.

On one of the days when this didn't happen, the dpm system becomes unresponsive around 2-3am and all the jobs just pile up. By restarting the server or killing the DPM service will correct the blockage and as above the Sharepoint catalogue fails to complete. If I run the powershell to create the Catalogue nanually, the server again becomes unresponsive. This has all happen after Rollup 3 was installed. It is very clear that when DPM runs the Sharepoint Catalogue job, something starts to go wrong.

This is fixed in SP1 but there’s an alternate workaround here:

KB2809773 - The Data Protection Manager database grows and the console crashes after installing Update Rollup 3 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2809773)

forum link

Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 (DPM) Service Pack 1

 

Here is what is fixed in this roll-up release

Issue 1
Client backups fail when there is a case difference between the client computer name on the computer and the client computer name that is stored in Active Directory.
Issue 2
The Administrator Console may stop working when a user starts the Create Protection Group Wizard on a non-English or a non-Russian version of Data Protection Manager.
Issue 3
The Agent Management Wizard may stop working on the Spanish version of Data Protection Manager.

Data Protection Manager (KB2802095)

System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool

This tool is mostly interesting for people trying to back-up Windows 2008 R2 CSV.

The back-up of Windows Server 2008 R2 CSV van be tricky. It is recommended to use a hardware snapshot provider. If there is no hardware provider available then you need to switch to serial CSV back-ups.

This process creates an XML file that is read by DPM.  This works well when you have only a couple of Hyper-V servers to manage.  But what if you had lots of clusters backed up by a single DPM server?  With the current approach, if there are multiple clusters managed by DPM, the user needs to run DSConfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster and then XMLs of each cluster needs to be merged and replace the DataSources.xml

Microsoft has released the System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool to help you in this scenario.  This tool is intended to be used when backing up Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V clusters with one or more CSVs using DPM 2010 with QFE 3 and above or DPM 2012.

Read more at Aidan Finn, IT Pro

System Center 2012 SP1 DPM documentation

The following documentation is available for the new release of Data Protection Manager.

Title	Size	Link
SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.doc	3.6 MB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.pdf	3.6 MB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_CompleteDocumentation.docx	1.2 MB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_CompleteDocumentation.pdf	5.7 MB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Deployment.docx	155 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Deployment.pdf	778 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_GettingStarted.docx	134 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_GettingStarted.pdf	407 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Operations.docx	929 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Operations.pdf	4.4 MB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Planning.docx	181 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Planning.pdf	810 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Troubleshoot.docx	475 KB	DOWNLOAD
SC2012_DPM_Troubleshoot.pdf	5.2 MB	DOWNLOAD

Plenty to read for some hours…

HOTFIX: Hotfix rollup package 7 for System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

This article describes the issues in Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 that are fixed in hotfix rollup package 7 for System Center DPM 2010.
This hotfix rollup resolves the following issues:

• When a Microsoft SharePoint site collection name contains a space, SharePoint item-level recovery fails in System Center Data Protection Manager 2010.
  For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  2755678 SharePoint item-level recovery fails when the site collection name contains a space in System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

• After you rename a SharePoint site in System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, you cannot restore the site.
  For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  2763004 System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 is unable to restore SharePoint after renaming a site

• In System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, the SharePoint Recovery Point Status report displays incorrect data.
  For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  2763010 System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 SharePoint Recovery Point Status Report shows stale data

Source and Download link

DPM reporting fails (after server reinstall)

Reinstallation of DPM with the same server name and database. For instance in the case of hardware replacement. Could lead to failing reports on the DPM server.

Error

An error occurred during client rendering. An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted) Cannot create a connection to data source 'DLS'. (rsErrorOpeningConnection) Cannot open database "DPMDB" requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user ‘%servername%\DPMR$%servername%.

Cause
After recovery of the DPM server to new hardware. The account ‘%servername%\DPMR$%servername%. doesn’t have the correct mappings for the DPM database.

Solution

1. Connect to the MSDPM2010 instance using SQL management dtudio
2. Expand Security then expand Logins; right-click %servername%\DPMDBReaders$%servername% and select properties
3. Select User Mapping in the left pane; in the upper right pane, under "Users mapped to this login:" verify DPMDB is selected; In lower right pane, ensure db_datareader and public are both selected; click OK

An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted) Cannot impersonate user for data source 'DPMReporterDataSource'. (rsErrorImpersonatingUser) Log on failed. Ensure the user name and password are correct. (rsLogonFailed) Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer

To resolve this error, you must ensure that the DPMReport account has the Allow log on locally user right. To assign the Allow log on locally user right to the DPMReport account: In Administrative Tools, open Local Security Policy. Under Security Settings, expand Local Policies, and then click User Rights Management. In the details pane, right-click Allow log on locally and then right-click Properties. In the Allow log on locally Properties dialog box, click Add User or Group. In the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog box, click Locations, click the name of the DPM server, and then click OK. In the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog box, enter DPMReport, and then click OK. In the Allow log on locally Properties dialog box, click OK. In the details pane, right-click Deny log on locally and then right-click Properties. If the DPMReport account is listed, select DPMReport and then click Remove

Microsoft Online Backup Service

With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft will launch a new online backup service. Code name Cloud Base Windows Backup. The new cloud based service for Windows Server “8”, which backs up your server’s files and folders to the cloud.

Windows Server “8” uses the downloadable Microsoft Online Backup Agent Windows Server Backup interface to offer this service..

Most important features

Feature	Description
Simple configuration and management	Microsoft Online Backup Service integrates with the  Windows Server Backup utility. Which provides a familiar interface.
Block level incremental backups	Just like DPM, MS online backup is offering block level incremental. Only the changed blocks need to be replicated
Data compression, encryption and throttling	The Microsoft Online Backup Agent ensures that data is compressed and encrypted on the server before being sent to the Microsoft Online Backup. Data is always stored encrypted in the cloud.
Data integrity is verified in the cloud.	Automatically checked for integrity once the backup is done
Configurable retention policies for storing data in the cloud	The retention range for the data can be configured from the client or by PowerShell.

Application data support
According to the information available this service offers only protection for files and folders. There is no support for application data yet. Therefore this is not a solution for Active directory, Exchange, SQL or Sharepoint backups.

Steps to get started

• First step is to register and create a passphrase to encrypt the backups from the server
• Set backup schedule. What should be in the backup, when should the backup run, for how long should the data be available?
• Start the backup. This can be done manual or by the set schedule.

All above options are also available using Powershell

Recovering data
To recover data use the Microsoft Online Backup Service feature. As part of the Recover Data Wizard, you can choose the volume from where data needs to be restored and the date and time of the data to be restored.

Integration with System Center Data Protection Manager
The current release has no integration with SCDPM. Microsoft does not offer cloud storage for DPM.

Beta sign-up
You can sign up for the beta at: http://connect.microsoft.com/onlinebackup

Read more at Source:

System Center 2012 (Data Protection Manager) released

The System Center 2012 suite released and available for download today.

The suite will be officially announced at the Microsoft Management Summit on April 18th NZ time

This includes Virtual Machine Manager, App Controller, Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, Service Manager, Data Protection Manager, and Orchestrator, and all can be installed with the new Unified Installer.

If you have access to the Volume Licensing portal, TechNet subscriptions etc. the Suite should be available now for you to download.

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/nmercer/

System Center 2012 DPM Central Console in action

Introduction
The manageability is something that Microsoft has paid extra attention to in the new version of DPM. In the previous versions local logon was needed for all GUI based management. Especially in environments with multiple DPM servers this is pretty inefficient. To change this Microsoft has introduced the Central console in to DPM 2012. The cool thing about this is that the DPM central console is built on top of the System Center Operations Manager console. Many admins are using this console already to monitor their environment and now can use it for DPM administration as well.

Installation
For demo we use System center 2012 Operations Manager. During RTM this option will also be available for SCOM 2007 R2.

Before we can start the installation we need to import the DPM Management pack to Operations Manager.

• Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataProtectionManager.2011.Discovery.mp
• Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataProtectionManager.2011.Library.mp

When completed we logon to the Operations Manager management server and start the setup from the DPM2012 media. Then select the DPM Central Console.
In the next screens we accept the license agreement and the setup starts.

In this case we install the central console server-side and client-side on the same server. This way we can start the central console directly from the management server. You can also install the DPM Central-client side on a workstation (with the Operations console installed) for remote administration.

The setup will also install the DPM remote console and the DPM Management shell.
The installation is now completed

Start Central Console
The DPM Central console is integrated to the Operations Manager console. Start Operations Manager to work with the central console. The screen below provides an overview of all the options.

At first it looks like a normal management pack. But the power of the new DPM management pack comes from the integration with the DPM remote console. This allows you to take direct action. Let’s take it to the test.

First we select monitoring (A) section in the console.

Alert View (B)
The alert view provides an overview of all DPM related alerts and also an overview per category.

The Backup Alerts contains all alerts related to backup issues like recovery point creation, replica synchronization, disk backup and tape backup alerts.

The Infrastructure Alerts folder shows alerts about the DPM Infrastructure, like Disk Infrastructure, Protected computers and the Tape infrastructure.

For this example we take a disk backup related alert. The message below shows that the allocated disk space for recovery points is not sufficient anymore. When this happened in the past you would need to logon to the affected DPM server and modify the disk space locally.

With the central console you can take direct action from the Operations Manager console using the Action Task panel (F) and the DPM tasks (G).
For this alert we select Take recommended action.

It will open the modify disk allocation screen. Here we can adjust the disk allocation directly from the central console. We enter the correct values for the replica and recovery point volume.

And the action is in progress…..

After a few seconds the action is complete. Without the need to logon to the DPM server.

State view (C)
The State view shows the health state per component. You can view the status of the DPM servers, Protected servers, Portion groups, Disk or Tape drives

In the example below we select the status of the Protect machines. This provides you with a single interface on the DPM protection status of all servers in your environment. Again there is no reason to logon to the local DPM servers. This will be available for all you DPM 2010 and DPM 2012 servers.

Scope Console
A scoped DPM console is a remote DPM console which only shows alerts and actions related to the selected protected machine.
We select troubleshoot protected server in the action panel to open the scoped console.

The console shows now only the options and alerts related to this protected machine

Other Tasks available in the Central console
Some of the other available tasks you can perform using the Central console

• Resume tape or disk backup after a failure.
• Run Consistency Check on a protection
• Create a recovery point
• Inventory tape library

Conclusion
The new central console for DPM adds the much needed single managed interface to DPM. Especially for environment with multiple DPM servers this is a welcome added feature. It is also a next step in the integration of the System center products to a suit.

More info
This video DPM 2012 – Centralized Management : Troubleshooting using Scoped DPM Console shows how you can use the Troubleshooting Experience from the Central Console to isolate a failure and related backup jobs, backup items and servers from your overall backup environment.

System Center (DPM) 2012 CTP for Windows Server "8" Beta support

The CTP enables the Data Protection Manager component's repository and agents to run on Windows Server ‘8” as well as providing protection in Windows Server “8” environments. The CTP also adds protection for new features in Windows Server “8”:

• Hyper-V Virtual Machines on Cluster Shared Volumes 2.0 (CSV2.0)
• Hyper-V Virtual Machines on remote SMB share
• Files on De-Duplicated Volumes

More and download here

How can Tape management be improved?

Please take some time to answer the question of Robert. How can Tape management be improved in DPM?

Data Protection Manager 2010 Overview Poster

The Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 Overview poster was made to give an overview and quick reference to DPM's components, architecture, and DPM protection scenarios. It consists of system requirements, licensing, architecture, supported workloads, storage types, design quest.

Authors:

Yegor Statsev	Microsoft DPM MVP
Sean O Farrell	www.seanofarrelll.blogspot.com
Steve Buchanan	www.buchatech.com

Download: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Data-Protection-Manager-e1835980
Source: http://blogs.technet.com/

How Microsoft Does IT..

It is always interesting to read how Microsoft manages its own IT. Not for the last reason is because Microsoft is one of the world's largest companies. This is not (only) a commercial story, but also provides a inside to the Microsoft IT infrastructure,

Client Protection and migration to DPM2010 - Technical Case Study
How Microsoft Information Technology (IT) used System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 to create a client-server data backup and recovery solution.

Providing Client-Server Backup and Recovery at Microsoft with System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

Reducing Operational Costs, Improving Storage Utilization, and Increasing Scalability – Technical white Paper
This white paper is written specifically for enterprise technical decision makers, technical architects, and deployment managers who are considering deploying Data Protection Manager 2010. It is based on the experience of Microsoft,

Protecting Server Data with Data Protection Manager 2010

Protecting Client Data at Microsoft with System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 - Technical White Paper
As part of an ongoing effort to provide a comprehensive end user data management strategy for the company, Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) worked closely with the System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 product team on a five-month pilot deployment of the DPM 2010 client. The success of the pilot led to Microsoft IT's adoption of the DPM 2010 client as a supported backup and restore solution. DPM has become part of Microsoft IT's Client Corporate Data Management service portfolios.

Protecting Client Data at Microsoft with System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

Video: Managing Client Data Backup, Storage and Management at Microsoft
In this video, learn how Microsoft IT manages client data backup, storage and management with an emphasis on IntelliMirror Folder Redirection (User State Virtualization), System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) for Client data backup, and Virtual File Storage (VFS) service.



Managing Client Data Backup, Storage and Management at Microsoft

EUR not working in combination with DFS

It is not possible for users to restore (their own) files using EUR in situations where DFS (Distributed File System) is in place for the file servers.

Users receive the error message: "There are no previous versions available."

CausePrevious versions of a file or of a folder in a DFS share are not listed if you access the share through a nested DFS link from a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Hotfix
A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft for the following Operating Systems.

• Windows 7
• Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

The hotfix is available using this Support link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2466048

Our experienceThe support article describes that this issue only occurs when you try to access the share by DFS name. <\\DFS\fileshare> When you access the share by the file server name it should work. <\\fileserver\fileshare>. However we experienced the issue also when accessing the share using the server name. Both issues where solved by the hotfix.

More info about End User Recovery (EUR)

Replica inconsistent and insufficient disk space on BMR (Bare Metal Recovery) Backup

The problem is that sometimes the BMR backup "Bare Metal Recovery" is not working properly and fails with the message "Replica inconsistent" caused by "insufficient disk space".
Cause:
DPM 2010 does not calculate the size of BMR data source, but assumes 30 GB for all servers. Admins should change the value as per the size of BMR backups expected on their environments.

Read more

Windows Anti-Virus Exclusion List

One place on the web where you can find an updated list of ALL the AV exclusions you might want to configure for Windows Server.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/953.aspx

DPM 2012 Release Candidate available

This week Microsoft released the RC version of DPM2012. The RC was released as part of the Private Cloud Management Suit. This is Microsoft next step in offering a ‘all-in-one’ cloud solution, based on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 8 and System Center.

During this web cast Microsoft launched their Private Cloud Management Suit. In this session you will see how all System Center products come to getter in one suit that allows to manage your private cloud.

The Private Cloud Management Suit includes:

System Center 2012 App Controller	Provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager	Provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control
System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager	provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise
System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection	Built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection
System Center 2012 Operations Manager	Provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.
System Center 2012 Orchestrator	Provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of run books that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.
System Center 2012 Service Manager	Provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager	Provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.

System Center 2012 Unified Installer
Starting this release  Microsoft introduced one installer for all System Center (Cloud) management products the System Center 2012 Unified Installer. With the Unified Installer it's possible to install all System Center products as once, without the need to install a single product multiple times. That way products can be installed quicker and less screens are needed to install them.

You run the Unified Installer to deploy System Center 2012 components. After you select a System Center 2012 component to install, the Unified Installer prompts you for the prerequisites that the component requires. Then, the Unified Installer installs the component and its prerequisites.

Licensing
The licensing for the new System Center 2012 product suite will be fully renewed. The current System Center 2010 suite contains 110 licensing items. Where the new SC 2012 will only have 2 license types. , That is for the whole suite of SC products!

License required only for endpoints being managed. No additional licenses are needed for management servers or SQL Server technology.

Consistent licensing model across editions. Processor-based license, covering up to two
processors for server management. User- or OSE-license for client management.

All server management licenses (SMLs) include the same components and the ability to manage any workload. System Center 2012 SMLs will be released in two editions differentiated by virtualization rights only:

Datacenter: Maximizes cloud capacity with unlimited virtualization for high density private clouds

Standard: For lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads.

Full details: Licensing & Pricing Datasheet

Download
The release candidate versions of all the Microsoft System center products are now available for download. Start here.

More to read

Download the Microsoft Private Cloud Whitepaper

The Microsoft Private Cloud web site

Using the System Center 2012 Unified Installer

System Center 2012 Gets Generous Licensing Changes

Licensing & Pricing Datasheet

More to watch

Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud

Video: Thought Leadership Series – Enabling Private Cloud