This week I had the opportunity to check out Microsoft's System Center Essentials (SEC) 2007. I thought I would share this with all of our IT geek's out there.
System Center Essentials basically replaces a previous IT management application Systems Management Server (SMS). In my previous IT positions I was never privy to SMS so I cannot do any type of comparison but I can tell you about SEC. With SEC IT administrators can handle their entire network with one unified console. You can monitor your workstations, servers, network, software deployments, and MS updates all from one application. I can barely scratch the surface as I am now just testing this out for the first time. But I will let you know… if you're working on a completely Windows based network … this is a dream management tool. For now I will give you some screen shot on what I have learned this puppy can do. In the future I will be sharing more of my experiences and tricks you can use with it!
First of all SCE includes most of the functions you would want such as real time monitoring of you hardware, software, and other "smart" networking devices. You can really go into a lot of detail and become 'one' with your network.
One of the first features that really jumped out at me was the unified reporting ability in SCE. It is bases on the SQL 2005 engine and includes 30 preconfigured reports right from installation. Below is a screen of some of the preconfigured reports which you can have emailed every day if you need them. I am not sure yet but I would think (and hope) there is some type of customized reports you can run also.
Next is a look at some of the actions you can do with the servers or workstations on your network. This is just a sample shot … to realize the enormity of options you really need to dig in and start playing. One annoying this is … when you choose a task under Actions.. there is a pop up screen that has little to do with anything… the you have to run it … I was running the default options so hopefully that can be eliminated.
There is entirely way too much to cover about SCE in just one post. As I begin to work with this system more I will be including a lot more detailed information related to specific tasks. If any of you have used either SMS or SCE 2007 by all means please comment and let us know your experience. I am definitely a noob to this one.