50373: Configuring and Managing Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 (2 Days)
About this Course
This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to install, configure, administer and troubleshoot a System Center Essentials 2010 infrastructure. The course focuses on configuration and administration in the Essentials 2010 console. The optional third day includes additional in depth information on Essentials 2010 architecture and troubleshooting, as well as management pack authoring.
Audience Profile
This course is intended for IT professionals working with or planning to use System Center Essentials 2010.
At Course Completion
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Deploy System Center Essentials 2010 in a live environment.
- Perform the initial configuration tasks required for full product functionality.
- Configure and use the update management feature in Essentials to manage update deployment to client and server computers.
- Use the software deployment feature to deploy and upgrade Windows applications, such as MS Office 2007.
- Manage and configure virtualization hosts using the virtualization management feature in Essentials 2010.
- Configure and tune application, server, client and network monitoring.
- Modify and optimize Essentials 2010 configuration settings as needs change.
Course Outline
Module 1: Installing Essentials 2010
This module describes the architecture of System Center Essentials 2010. It goes on to discuss hardware and software requirements, as well as the Essentials 2010 installation process.
Lessons
- Understand features, functionality and architecture of System Center Essentials 2010
- Learn the prerequisites, hardware and software requirements for Essentials 2010 installation
- Discuss Essentials upgrade and installation options, as well as common installation issues
Lab : Installing System Center Essentials 2010
- Exercise 1: Join the Essentials 2010/Hyper-V host computer to the lab domain
- Exercise 2: Install Essentials 2010
- Exercise 3: Verify Your Essentials 2010 Installation
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Describe the features and functionality available in Essentials 2010
- Discuss the underlying architecture leveraged by Essentials
- Describe the prerequisites required for installing Essentials
- Explain upgrade options and identify unsupported configurations
- Demonstrate how to install System Center Essentials 2010
Module 2: Configuring Essentials
This module explains how to perform the initial configuration tasks after installing System Center Essentials 2010.
Lessons
- Understand how to perform initial product configuration tasks with the Configure Essentials Wizard
- Learn how to perform additional configuration tasks, such as: adding managed virtualization hosts; importing management packs; configuring alert notification
- Discuss how to troubleshoot common configuration problems
Lab : Configuring Essentials 2010
- Exercise 1 Run the Configure Essentials Wizard
- Exercise 2: Configure Global Settings in Essentials
- Exercise 3: Deploy Agents to Domain-based Clients
- Exercise 4: Deploy Agents to Workgroup-based Clients [OPTIONAL]
After completing this module, students will be able to: Identify the tasks that must be performed after installing Essentials 2010
- Understand the available options in the Essentials configuration wizards
- Understand the global settings that can be configured
- Different methods to discover and install the Essentials Monitoring Agent on computers targeted for management
- Configure virtualization hosts for management in Essentials
- Import Management Packs
- Configure Notification
Module 3: Managing Computers
This module explains how to prepare, add and group computers for management with Essentials 2010. It goes on to demonstrate how to retrieve settings and inventory of managed computers.
Lessons
- Understand how to create and manage computer groups
- Discuss how to access hardware and software inventory data
- Explain the virtualization management tasks available in the Essentials console
- Review the tasks and reports available in the Computers space
Lab : Managing Computers
- Exercise 1 Create a Dynamic Group for Update and Software Deployment
- Exercise 2: Create Computer Group Based on Computer Criteria
- Exercise 3: View Hardware Inventory for a Managed Computer
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Describe the features and functionality available in the Computer space
- Explain options for creating computer group
- Demonstrate how to retrieve hardware and software inventory
- Discuss the virtualization management functions available from the Computers space
- Describe reports accessible directly from the Computers space
Module 4: Managing Updates
The module explains how to approve and deploy updates with System Center Essentials 2010. It includes information on how to automate the update management process if desired.
Lessons
- Understand the importance of managing updates and characteristics of a good update management plan
- Learn how update management in Essentials 2010 can facilitate proactive and automated update management
- Understand how to work with update management in Essentials 2010 and troubleshoot common issues with as update management
Lab : Configuring Update Management
- Exercise 1: Add a Local Update
- Exercise 2: Import 3rd Party Partner Catalog
- Exercise 3: Import Content from Microsoft Update Catalog
- Exercise 4: Configuring Multiple Auto-approvals
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Describe the features and functionality available in the Updates space
- Explain options for viewing and approving updates
- Demonstrate how to automate approval and deployment of updates
- Demonstrate how to verify the progress of update deployment
Module 5: Deploying Software
This module explains how to install, update and uninstall software to managed computers with System Center Essentials 2010.
Lessons
- Understand how to install and uninstall software using Essentials 2010
- Learn about the supported features, installation options and installer formats
- Understand how to monitor deployment results and troubleshoot common issues
Lab : Deploying Software with Essentials
- Exercise 1. Install Software for a Group of Computers
- Exercise 2. Customize and Deploy Office 2007
- Exercise 3. Uninstall an Application for a Specific Computer
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Explain Essentials software deployment features and functionality
- Explain how to deploy software packages
- Discuss options for customizing package installation
- Upgrading and Uninstalling Software Packages
- Describe how to monitor deployment results
- Demonstrate how to troubleshoot software deployment
Module 6: Monitoring Concepts
This module explains how to configure, administer and optimize the monitoring functionality in Essentials to monitor Windows computers and network devices.
Lessons
- Learn about management pack components and architecture
- Explain how to target monitoring according to Microsoft best practices
- Understand how to tune monitoring using overrides
- Learn about the Client Network Device Monitoring in Essentials 2010
Lab : Monitoring Configuration and Tuning
- Exercise 1. Discover an SNMP-enabled Device [OPTIONAL]
- Exercise 2. Create an Unsealed Management Pack
- Exercise 3. Create a Dynamically Populated Management Pack Group
- Exercise 4. Create an Override
- Exercise 5. Create an Agent Task
- Exercise 6. Create a Custom Alert View
- Exercise 7. Create a Custom Simple Windows Event Unit Monitor
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Discuss the architecture and components of management packs in Essentials
- Describe how to use overrides to tune management packs
- Explain best practices for targeting monitoring and overrides in Essentials
- Demonstrate how to obtain new management packs and related documentation
- Describe network and client monitoring functionality in Essentials
Module 7: Reporting
The module describes the architecture and functionality of the reporting feature in System Center Essentials 2010. It goes on to describe the data retention and grooming settings in the reporting feature.
Lessons
- Understand Essentials 2010 reporting architecture, features and limitations
- Learn about reports available in management packs for Essentials 2010
- Learn how to produce reports in the Essentials console
- Understand how database maintenance, grooming and backups are handled by Essentials
Lab : Producing Reports
- Exercise 1: Create an Availability Report
- Exercise 2: Create an Inventory Report
- Exercise 3: Create an Update Deployment Report
- Exercise 4: Create a Configuration Change Report
- Exercise 5: Create an Alert Report
- Exercise 6: Create an Event Analysis Report
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Explain the features included in reporting System Center Essentials 2010
- Understand how to create a variety of reports offered in System Center Essentials 2010
- Explain the differences between reporting in System Center Essentials and the enterprise Operations and Systems Management products offered by Microsoft
- Understand the limitations of Essentials reporting and how to identify when transition to MS enterprise products may be appropriate
- Describe the grooming and data retention for Essentials reporting data
Module 8: Virtualization Management
The module describes the architecture and functionality of the virtualization management feature in System Center Essentials 2010.
Lessons
- Learn about the capabilities of the virtualization management in Essentials 2010
- How to add and manage virtualization hosts for management with Essentials 2010
- Understand the function and importance of Integration Services for virtual machine guests
Lab : Virtual Machine Management
- Exercise 1: Change Virtual Machine Properties
- Exercise 2: Add a Virtual Hard Disk to the Library
- Exercise 3: Manage Virtual Machine Snapshots
- Exercise 4: Install Virtual Guest Services on Virtual Machine
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate how to add a virtualization host to Essentials for management
- Describe supported virtualization platforms and scenarios
- Recount the common management tasks available in the Essentials console
- Discuss the importance and function Integration Services in virtualization management
- Explain the function of Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO)
Module 9: Virtual Machine Templates and Provisioning
This module describes how to create virtual machine templates to streamline the provisioning process. It goes on to explain the process for converting an existing VMware virtual machine to the Hyper-V platform.
Lessons
- Understand the virtual machine provisioning and conversion options in Essentials 2010
- Learn how to create and manage virtual machine templates with Essentials 2010
- Understand the virtual network configuration options available in Essentials 2010
- Learn how to perform a virtual machine migration (V2V) to convert VMware guests to the Hyper-v platform
Lab : Virtual Machine Provisioning and Migration
- Exercise 1: Create a Virtual Machine Template
- Exercise 2: Provision a Virtual Machine from a Template
- Exercise 3: Convert an Existing Virtual Machine to Hyper-V
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Explain how virtual machine templates streamline the migration process
- Demonstrate how to create, modify and delete virtual machine templates
- Describe how to sysprep a virtual machine for use as a template
- Demonstrate how to perform a virtual-to-virtual migration
- Demonstrate how to find physical servers that are candidates for virtualization
- Discuss how to convert a physical server to a Hyper-V guest
Module 10: Advanced Monitoring and Management Pack Authoring
This module describes the advanced monitoring functionality available in System Center Essentials 2010. You will also learn important management pack authoring concepts for creating custom management packs for your line-of-business applications.
Lessons
- Understand advanced monitoring features in Essentials 2010, including, Self-tuning
- Thresholds, Synthetic Transaction and Distributed Application Monitoring
- Learn about management pack authoring concepts and methodology using the Essentials 2010 console
Lab : Management Pack Authoring
- Exercise 1: Create a Custom Attribute
- Exercise 2: Creating an Aggregate Rollup Monitor
- Exercise 3. Create a Basic Service Monitor
- Exercise 4. Create a Recovery
- Exercise 5. Create a Custom Management Pack Group
- Exercise 6. Create a Web Application Monitor
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Describe the advanced monitoring functionality in Essentials, such as self-tuning threshold monitors, synthetic transaction monitoring and distributed application monitoring
- Explain concepts related to management pack design, such as service and health models and their components
- Discuss the requirements for implementing health rollup in a management pack
- Demonstrate how to create custom monitoring in the Essentials console
Module 11: Advanced Troubleshooting and Log Analysis
This module covers the log files, tools and techniques to troubleshoot System Centers Essentials 2010 issues in depth. The troubleshooting processes for common scenarios related to Essentials features are described in detail.
Lessons
- Understand how to identify and troubleshoot common issues in Essentials setup and configuration
- Become familiar with log files and tools for troubleshooting client and server side issues
- Learn how to perform detail error data collection and analysis for Essentials 2010
Lab : Producing Reports
- Exercise 1: Troubleshoot Automatic Updates Client Communication
- Exercise 2: Identify source cause of failures using Essentials Setup Logs
- Exercise 3: Identify source cause of failures using WindowsUpdate.log
- Exercise 4: Troubleshoot Software Deployment Failure
- Exercise 5: Troubleshoot WinRM Communications
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Discuss common issues encountered when deploying and using Essentials
- Describe which logs are of interest in troubleshooting a specific issue
- Explain how to analyze a specific log to identify source cause of a problem
- Demonstrate how to verify communication and configuration between Essentials and virtual machine hosts
- Determine the source of inventory and deployment issues to managed computers
- Demonstrate how to collect data for detailed analysis by Microsoft Support
- Describe the grooming and data retention for Essentials reporting data
Module 12: Essentials Internals
This module presents information on Essentials core functions and integration with its foundational technologies (WSUS, SCVMM 2008 R2 and OpsMgr R2) in greater detail. It examines internal functions such as group synchronization behavior between Essentials and WSUS, WSUS certificates and how they are leveraged in Essentials, deployment and inventory functions.
Lessons
- Understand how Essentials 2010 integrates with the some of the foundational technologies upon which it is based
- Understand how prepare to recover an Essentials 2010 infrastructure after infrastructure or disaster
- Learn how WSUS Certificates are leveraged in Essentials publishing and deployment processes
- Learn about Essentials 2010 management pack rules in which important background tasks are implemented
Lab : Producing Reports
- Exercise 1: Reset Essentials Configuration Settings and Re-run Configure Essentials Wizard
- Exercise 2: Understanding Group Synchronization
- Exercise 3: Run SCVMM 2008 MPS Reporting Tool
- Exercise 4: Perform a diagnostic trace in Essentials 2010
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Discuss Essentials integration with foundational technologies and related key internal processes
- Explain how scheduled agent deployment automates the computer discover and agent configuration process
- Describe how software and hardware inventory are collected, and what data sources are included in inventory collection
- Describe data that must be backed up in order to recover an Essentials installation after server failure
- Discuss how Category Overrides are implemented to limit the amount of rules and monitors that are enabled in Essentials by default
Before attending this course, students must have:
- Completion of Course 6430A, Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Servers, or have equivalent knowledge of administrative tasks.