I just dedicated a page on my blog on my favourite Deployment and System Center related books. My top 10 based on what I have read and going to read in the next couple of months.

My top 5 is as follows:

1. Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
2. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Mastering the Fundamentals
3. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed
4. Mastering System Center 2012 Operations Manager
5. Deployment Fundamentals, Vol. 3: Deploying Windows 7 Using System Center Configuration Manager 2007

The complete top 10 can be found here. If you have tips for other books to read, please drop  a line

When planning a Configuration Manager 2012 environment it is wise to also plan the anti-virus scan exclusions for the servers.  Adding exclusions to your anti-virus solution will give you a better performance, since the online access scanner will not scan every logfile or file in the Configuration Manager inbox folders. Based on the Configuration Manager 2007 blog of the ConfigMgr Team with the knowledge of Configuration Manager 2012 I created the exclusion list below, feel free to supply information if you are missing something.

I did not include the standard Windows and SQL Server exclusions. You can find these here at the Technet Wiki.

ConfigMgrInstallDir = <driveletter>:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\

Configuration Manager 2012 processes that can be excluded are:

• Smsexec.exe
• Ccmexec.exe
• CmRcService.exe
• Sitecomp.exe
• Smswriter.exe
• Smssqlbbkup.exe

For the configuration manager clients the following exclusion can be added:

• %windir%\ccm\cache\

Please leave a message if you think something is missing or needs to be changed!

In an earlier blog I wrote already about how to delete applications from Configuration Manager 2012. Since it was written while beta 2 was just released, it is maybe time to see if deleting applications in Configuration Manager 2012 is still the same or that is changed for the best If I am allowed to guess, I think it is changed for the best

When selecting an application, you will notice the delete option that has been added when you right click the application object.

Delete option is there

When selecting delete, Configuration Manager will check if there are dependent applications, active deployments and dependent task sequences like shown below. Deleting an application is not dependent of any revisions anymore. You can delete an application after fixing the dependencies with all the revisions in one time.

Unable to delete the application because of dependencies

In this example we need to get the properties of the Application and browse to the References tab to see the dependent applications.

Look for the dependent application

Browse to that application and delete the dependency in one of the deployment types. Be sure to also delete revision of the dependent application, because otherwise the dependency will be brought up as shown second figure of this blog. After deleting all revisions with the dependency, the Number of dependent applications will show 0. It sounds logical to delete all revisions with a dependency first because otherwise you could run into trouble when restoring a revision.

Delete the dependency

Next you need to delete the deployment that is associated with the application. After deleting the deployment you will need to find the task sequence which is installing the application as a task. Do Go to the task sequences and look at the reference tab of each task sequence to see if the application is in the reference list.

Look for the reference

After locating and deleting the task you are able to delete the application from Configuration Manager 2012.

Delete the application!

For this example I used an application with dependencies, but when you install an application without any dependencies you only need to delete the deployment or the task sequence reference before you are able to delete the application. It will help you to maintain a clean Configuration Manager environment.

In an earlier blog I already wrote about the great new alerting feature in Configuration Manager 2012. Today I want to point out two options that you can use when browsing to the Recent Alerts view in for example the Overview screen of the Assets and Compliance workspace of the Configuration Manager console. You are able to quickly configure the definition of the alert or postpone the alert for an hour.

When you go to the Overview screen of any workspace and you see alerts in the Recent Alerts section you are able access some shortcuts. With these shortcuts you are able to postpone the monitoring of an alert, or able to configure the definition of the alert that is active, like shown below.

Postpone an alert

 Looking at the postponed alert shows you information about the alert itself but also about the postponed alert date and time. You are only able to postpone an alert when it is active.

Postponed alert

 When being in the alerts view, you are also able to configure the alert definition in one click, by clicking on the Configure Definition link. This allows you to alter the definition values of the alert.

Configure definition

Like I Twittered this morning, our book Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is being shipped to Amazon and is available for delivery. (even though the release date is set to May 8th) Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager will help you design, plan and implement  Configuration Manager 2012 for your needs.

If you live in the Netherlands, you are able to pre order the book, which will be available at Bol.com as from May the 22nd of this year.

To get a view of what the book will bring you, you can check some earlier blogs that I have been written before:

• Sample chapters Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• Table of Contents Mastering ConfigMgr 2012 available
• General information about the book

Check also www.masteringsccm.com or www.masteringsccm.nl or follow us via @masteringsccm or Facebook

Since System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is finally officially released and general available, it is time to write some blogs about this great product. Today I want to look at the installation prerequisite check before you install Configuration Manager 2012 on your server.

The installation prerequisite check is a very use full tool when you want to make sure that the installation of SQL Server is done the right way. After choosing “Assess server readiness” option from the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Setup the installation prerequisite check will start. The installation prerequisite check will assess several items on the Operating System and environment and report if they apply for Configuration Manager 2012.

Some of the checks are related to SQL Server and its configuration. The following will be checked:

• SQL Server version
• Configuration for SQL Server memory usage
• SQL Process memory allocation

SQL Server version:

The assessment tool will check if the SQL server applies to the following:

• SQL Server 2008 SP2 with Cumulative Update 9
• SQL Server 2008 SP3 with Cumulative Update 4
• SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Cumulative Update 6

Configuration for SQL Server memory usage:

The SQL Server is configured for unlimited memory usage. You should configure SQL Server memory to have a maximum limit.

SQL Process memory allocation:

Configuration Manager requires SQL Server to reserve a minimum of 8 gigabytes (GB) of memory for the central administration site and primary site and a minimum of 4 gigabytes (GB) for the secondary site. This memory is reserved by using the Minimum server memory setting under Server Memory Options and is configured by using SQL Server Management Studio.

Other checks:

Especially the sizing guideline are a very nice addition to the following other SQL checks:

• Verify and confirm connectivity to this SQL Server.
• Verify and confirm if the SysAdmin rights are configured
• Verify and confirm the SQL Server security mode
• Verify and confirm SQL Agent logon settings.
• Verify and confirm SQL Agent service status.
• Verify and confirm the firewall settings for SQL Server accessibility.
• Verify and confirm that the SQL Server is configured as not case sensitive.

If you want to check the system from the command line, you are able to assess the server with the following command line please check an earlier blog about the tool in the RC version of Configuration Manager 2012.

Check for more information about the sizing of your SQL Server this link which directs you to the Technet Documentation of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.

Sunday the day began great, normally you should have a nice and quiet Sunday, but this is Vegas and MMS so you need to catch up with friends and meet new friends along the way. That’s what’s MMS is all about, meeting your peers from all over the world. So I had a busy day meeting lots of new people which ended with a very long diner with some of my fellow Configuration Manager MVPs, guys from Dell, 1E and Microsoft.

Yesterday the Microsoft Management Summit has been kicked off for me with an early Private Cloud exam and three sessions about the new Configuration Manager 2012 and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 and one preparation session for another exam that I will take at Thursday. After finishing the exam I learned how to secure your environment with the compliance settings feature within Configuration Manager 2012. Nice was to finally meet two guys (Santos Martinez and Brett Bennet) which I worked with on the Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager book. Can’t wait until it hits the market on May the 8^th on Amazon!

The second session of the day was a session about customizing the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. Was a really good in-depth session from Keith Garner, got some nice tips and tricks.

The third session of the day was a really nice session from Citrix about the integration of their products (XenApp and XenDesktop) with the System Center 2012 suite (Configuration Manager, Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager).

The Configuration Manager 2012 integration of XenApp looks really good, XenApp will be a deployment type within the new Application Model. This way you can manage your applications from one console, the Configuration Manager 2012 console. Users can start their applications from the Application Catalog, depending on the requirement rules it will fire up a XenApp application or another deployment type. More on this in a later blog!

The last session of the day was an exam cram session for the exam which I will be taking on Thursday. In one hour a 5 day course flew by

In less than a week the event of the year will be held in Las Vegas. Yes it is time to attend the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 again. Next week will be packed with very interesting System Center related breakout sessions, exams, meetings and network events. Like last year there are to many interesting sessions and so little time to attend them all. So I had to make a selection again, which is subject to change

Besides the schedule, which you find below, I am looking forward to meeting my fellow ConfigMgr MVPs, peers from the community and Microsoft. It is going to be a superb week in Las Vegas!

As from today Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is on presale on Bol.com, the biggest online (book) webshop of the Netherlands. You are able to preorder the book, which will be available at Bol.com as from May the 22nd of this year.

To get a view of what the book will bring you, you can check some earlier blogs that I have been written before:

• Sample chapters Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• Table of Contents Mastering ConfigMgr 2012 available
• General information about the book

Check also www.masteringsccm.com or www.masteringsccm.nl or follow us via @masteringsccm or Facebook

The release of our book Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager comes closer and closer. Just after the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 in Las Vegas, early May, the book will be available on Amazon and in the shops.

Today I found out that the table of contents and the index of the book is also available for download. After the sneakpreview of Chapter 3 and Chapter 7 you are able to see the rest of the contents before you (pre) order the book Also check out the great sessions presented by some of the authors.

Check out the files below:

• table of contents
• index

If you want to meet the authors, some of them are presenting great sessions, see the sessions of:

• Kent Agerlund
• Santos Martinez
• Steve Rachui

See ya in Vegas!