SCE 2007 RC1 has been released on Microsoft Connect for public testing. SCE is the systems management solution for small to meduim sized enterprises, comprising the core functionality of Configuration Manager 2007 (SMS v4), Operations Manager 2007 (MOM 2007) and WSUS. It is intended for organisations with less than 50 servers and less than 500 desktops/laptops.
SCE 2007 should not only be considered by those organisations but also organisations who provide outsourced IT services, e.g. you manage a customer’s IT infrastructure on site or you host a small to medium infrastructure for a client. SCE 2007 can be cross certified with OM 2007 so that it forwards events to a central OM 2007 server. You can then monitor the health of all of your clients using a single OM 2007 console from the warmth and safety of your own network. You can then respond to events as they happen, often before the customer or client even knows there is a problem. Microsoft has a Managed Services Program where further information on this solution can be obtained.
New functionality included in the RC1 release includes:
- Support for upgrading from WSUS 2.0 and 3.0
- Emailed Daily Health Report
- Automatic scheduled discovery of computers from Active Directory
- Enhanced network monitoring of SNMP-enabled network devices including a network topology diagram view
- Remote Control support for remote control of managed client and server computers
- Ability to import Update catalogs from third-party software publishers
- SQL Services based reporting on monitoring, hardware and software inventory
- Setup experience improvements for SQL Server selection and file locations
- More management packs including support for Exchange 2003, Dynamics CRM 3.0, and Active Directory
- Enhanced Platform support
- Non-English US locales
- Installing Essentials on x64 servers
- Managing Windows Vista
- Managing x64 systems
- Support for managing systems in multiple domains in a single forest
There is no upgrade from Beta builds to RC1. You will have to uninstall and reinstall.