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Volume
10, Issue 21
13th November 2008
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Updates
from PDC and Tech Ed Conference for IT Professionals, 'Get Secure Now'
Seminar, Audit Collection Services Security Article, IT Pro Technical
Training
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I was away
all last week in Barcelona at my first Tech
Ed, and although PDC
slightly stole its thunder the previous week with some major
headlines around Windows 7 and Windows Azure, I was still very
impressed by the Tech Ed experience! Before I give you the run-down
on what went on in Barcelona, I first want to do a quick recap on the
unveiling of Windows Azure and showcasing of a Pre-Beta Release of
windows 7.
1. Windows
7 was announced as the formal name of the next Microsoft Client
Operating System. See a blog
post on why it's called Windows 7.
2. Azure
Services Platform and Windows Azure, offering unprecedented power
of choice and open connections for developers.
So what are the key things in the many announcements surrounding
Windows 7 Client and Windows Server 2008 R2 that are interesting for
IT pros? Here is a view on the top 5:
1. Introduction of DirectAccess, a capability that allows IT to
manage and update internet-connected remote PCs, even when they are
off the corporate network.
2. There is a new Powershell v2 and its graphical editor helps to
automate repetitive tasks with minimal scripting expertise required.
3. You have probably heard about BitLocker, with Windows 7 there will
be BitLocker to Go - allowing USBs to be protected.
4. Windows 7 will allow IT to control access by specific users to
specific applications.
5. Even more tools to help make deployment easier in your
organisations, such as Dynamic Driver provisioning, the Deployment
Image Service and Management tool, Multicast Multiple Stream
Transfer, and improvements to user state migration.
What about Windows
Azure? It has arrived and you may have seen previous stories
about codename 'Red dog' but its formal name was announced during
last week's PDC.
Moving onto Tech Ed...over 5,000 IT Professionals were at this annual
conference, a small portion of whom were Irish! The keynote delivered
by Brad Anderson, focused on the key to a 'Dynamic Enterprise in Changing
Business Conditions', in fact many of the sessions throughout the
week touched on Microsoft's Dynamic IT initiative.
Lucky for you if you didn't attend the conference, you can actually
catch the highlights on video @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/.
Some of the conference topline announcements worth mentioning are:
. New Windows Server 2008 R2 features: Live Migration; Branch Cache;
DirectAccess; and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) - the new name for
Terminal Services.
. System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta.
. Integrated Identity and Security Solutions - Identity Lifecycle Manager
2 RC and Intelligent Access Gateway SP2 (including virtualization
appliance).
. "Dublin" - codename for a set of extensions to the
Windows Server application server. "Dublin" will be
delivered as a separate out-of-band release, downloadable for use by
Windows Server customers; the first Customer Technology Preview (CTP)
was delivered at last week's Microsoft Professional Developer's
Conference in October 2008.
My personal highlights were any of the sessions delivered by Mark
Minasi (mostly Vista sessions) or Mark Russinovich - watch out for
the session entitled 'The Case of the Unexplained'. These guys were
brilliant presenters and actually managed to entertain as well as
teach! I also hear Steve Riley's sessions earlier in the week were
amazing. Again, check out the video highlights @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/
Finally, beyond all the news from the two conferences, this month I
am running with a 'Security' theme in the newsletter. As part of
this, I have an interesting feature article this week on Audit
Collection Services, written by Senior Microsoft Consultant, Sean
Rooney. Keep on reading also for news of the 'Get
Secure Now' seminar and keep an eye on http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/connect/
for more local Microsoft 'Security' stories and resources, including
local case studies and 'ask the expert'.
Thanks for reading!
Enda Flynn
TechNet Manager
Microsoft Ireland
'Get
Secure Now' Seminar
December 2008, Dublin - Register
Here
Come and hear from Microsoft's EMEA Security Manager and other
customers about how you can improve your security strategy and make
cost savings. You can also sign up for a Free Security Assessment!
Who Should Attend: The seminar is primarily intended for
technical decision makers including: CIO's, IT Directors and IT
Managers
Microsoft Unified Communications & Collaboration Seminars
20
November 2008, Belfast: 21st Century Communications and Collaboration
Register here.
Who Should Attend: The seminar is primarily intended for
technical decision makers including: CIO's, IT Directors and IT
Managers
Microsoft Licensing Clinics
Due to the continuing complexity of product licensing, Microsoft is
offering Licensing Clinics to help you get to grips with the
fundamentals. These clinics outline all the licensing options
available to you and the best solutions for your company. A brief
presentation is followed by a Q&A session. These morning sessions
will be kept to a small number to encourage discussion The clinic
will give a high-level overview on the following areas:
The various licensing programmes
How products are licensed
Software Assurance
Online licensing management tools
Overview on licensing virtual machines
The morning session is being held in Microsoft Ireland's atrium
building in Sandyford Industrial Estate, on the 16th December (register
here).
Microsoft Consultancy Services Presents: Microsoft Virtualisation
Technology Day
Microsoft Premier Support are delighted to announce a 1 Day
Technology Event focused on the Microsoft Virtualisation product
stack.
This event is aimed at providing skills to deploy and administer a
Virtualised Data Centre, using Microsoft Server Virtualisation
products and System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008.
It will be delivered by experienced engineers and consultants, all
whom have worked with Virtualisation in the field. Expect lots of
demo's, notes from the field and an opportunity to speak to and share
experiences with the team who have been designing, implementing and
supporting these Technologies!
There are a limited few number of places remaining for a delivery of
this seminar in December, however there is another date scheduled for
February. Please register your interest by emailing trcunnin@microsoft.com with
the subject line 'Microsoft Virtualisation Technology Day'
SharePoint User Group Launching in Ireland!
Once again, just a reminder that: SharePoint MVP, Stephen Cummins is
going to head up the Irish SharePoint User Group, which is due to have
its inaugural meeting on the evening November 17th! Stephen is
actually going to be the first speaker too - the opening topic is Planning
and setting up your first MOSS farm: Hardware, Software, Licences,
Capacity and Availability. Please see http://www.sugie.org/
for full details of meeting.
SQL User Group
Kimberly Trip is returning to Ireland on December 4th to speak
in the Auditorium in the Atrium at 18:00. I have no details on the
presentation yet. However, you can still register at http://sql.mtug.ie/Events/EventInfo.aspx?ID=166a7fcc-6003-4980-aaa0-efe7641875f3.
As you know, Kimberly is considered to be the #1 speaker in SQL
Server today.
Watch this space in future editions for news of forthcoming User
Group meetings...additional local User Groups are planned to launch
in the coming months too!
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Professional Training at reduced rates - places still available!
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24/11/2008, Cork (PFH): Implementing and Administering Windows® Small
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01/12/2008, Belfast (BT): Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server
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3 days, 400 euro. Register Your
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02/12/2008, Cork (PFH): Advanced SharePoint Development
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08/12/2008, Galway (New Horizons): Updating Your Skills from
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08/12/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Visual Studio 2008: Windows
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3 days, 400 euro. Register
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15/12/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge): Managing System Center
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15/12/2008 Dublin (New Horizons): Developing Web Applications Using
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Security:
Audit Collection Services
Author: Sean Rooney, Sean Rooney is as an Architecture
and Planning advisor and has worked for Microsoft Consultancy
Services for 2.5 years. His role, specifically, is helping customers
to realise maximum value from their investment in Microsoft
technology.
Hi I'd like to highlight a "hidden" feature of System
Center Operations Manager (SCOM) that you might not have been aware
of, but which could solve a problem for you and maybe even save some
time and money.
In a discussion with a customer recently it came up that they were
looking for ways to audit the activity taking place on their servers
and workstations. They were in the process of deploying System Center
Operations Manager and had been unaware of the facilities within the
product that could help them and maybe even save some money.
Audit Collection Services (ACS) is a feature of the System Center
Operations Manager product set. Each time you install an agent you
actually install ACS too, but for various reasons it is disabled on
install and will only start if enabled by the system administrator.
Some administrators are unaware that it actually exists.
We began discussions with the customer to see if the ACS
functionality mapped to their requirements:
1. Regulatory compliance - As a government department they were
mandated to hold security logs for 6 months. ACS was a perfect fit
for this. It monitors the security log on specific servers and send
new entries to a backend database for reporting and retention.
2. Security Log Integrity - There was a possibility that logs on
individual machines could be cleared by administrators in various
scenarios. Again ACS met the requirement. The agent takes each log
entry and passes it to secure database that normal administrators do
not have access to. Even if logs on the individual server are cleared
ACS will have a copy.
3. Security Policy enforcement - The department's security policy
mandates that key security events must be recorded and reviewed
periodically. ACS will take all security events or just a defined
subset and store in a database. Out of the box there are various standard
reports and there's a report designer option too. But there's also
some great partner management packs that complement the in-built
functionality.
4. Auditor Admin Separation - The customer wanted to ensure that
standard administrators would not have access to the secure database.
We were able to demonstrate various ways to configure ACS so that
only auditors would have access to the databases:
a. Separate Database from monitoring system
b. Separate Management Servers
c. Separate Reporting Servers
d. Creation of an Audit Domain
e. Use of VPNs
5. Admin Abuse Detection - It's critical that facilities are
available to monitor that administrators are using the "least
privilege" rule and not tampering in areas that they shouldn't.
ACS provided the ability to record actions and monitor key security
privileges.
We were sure that ACS was a fit.
The next step was to begin a limited pilot of the functionality. We
installed the ACS on a few domain controllers to monitor flows,
performance, data sizes etc.
We were able to demonstrate the ease of configuration and management.
Basically, you enable the agent on the server; configure it to report
to a management server and database. Presto, data begins to flow.
Obviously there's a lot more to consider when deciding to go into
full deployment, but what we've been able to demonstrate is that the
features of ACS meet their requirements. They have a secure mechanism
to ensure that security logs are managed and retained.
Most importantly the customer has been able to really extend the
value of their investment in System Center Operations Manager. This
had been bought for management and monitoring, but now the customer
is going to use it as their compliance and retention solution.
The customer followed best practice in this situation - clearly
defined requirements, controlled pilot of the functionality and are
now moving towards a formal design. It's been great to see them
exploiting their existing investment in SCOM and saving themselves a
lot of money in the long run.
I'll finish off now, but I'd encourage you to try out the ACS
functionality in your test lab. I know a lot of you are coming under
pressure to deploy compliance and retention solutions, so this might
fit the bill. If there's good demand or feedback I'll write a more
technical article around the design of an ACS system, but for now get
tinkering. I've included some links to get you going:
. Audit
Collection Services
. How
to deploy ACS
. Regulatory
Compliance Planning Guide
. Regulatory
Compliance TechCenter
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See a
selection of new
Knowledge Base articles on the TechNet website. Knowledge Base
articles feature an Article Translations box in the right column. You
can select a language from the drop-down list and read the article in
the language of your choice.
Also
available via RSS 
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