Ravi Sankar Technology Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

DCM Overview Vision and core scenarios Terms and concepts DCM data flow diagram Admin Tasks Things to be aware of for 2007 Service Modeling Language (SML) DCM 2007 & the DCM Solution for SMS 2003 Resources

Overview: What is DCM? Vision DCM will enable customers to define configuration baselines identifying required and prohibited configuration items and audit compliance of Windows systems throughout their IT organizations against those defined baselines. Core Scenarios: Detect server configuration “drift” Improve Helpdesk (HD) troubleshooting and “time-to- resolve” (TTR) Regulatory compliance reporting Change verification

Configuration Item (CI) CIs are units of configuration that can be detected, applied, and removed from ConfigMgr managed machines. Application CI Operating System CI General CI Software Updates CI Configuration Baseline A configuration baseline is a complex type of CI composed of other CIs which are classified as required, optional or prohibited within the baseline. This is the primary unit of administrative work and can be assigned to collections for compliance monitoring.

Develop configuration knowledge Author new CIs and Baselines in admin console Author DCM Digests for import Import “best practice” CIs and Baselines Assign Baselines Review compliance reports Build query-based collections using DCM compliance state messages

Microsoft and other software vendors Download portal on Microsoft.com Solutions integrators, consulting services Line of business application developers IT personnel

DCM CIs / Baselines Baselines ConfigMgrAdminConsoleConfigMgrAdminConsole ConfigMgr Server WindowsServer2003CIWindowsServer2003CI 401KApplicationCI401KApplicationCI AntivirusSoftwareCIAntivirusSoftwareCI ConfigMgr Database 401(k) Application ServerBaseline ServerBaseline Configuration Manager Client Managed Client WMIWMI XMLXML RegistryRegistry IISIIS MSIMSI 1 Configuration Items created by importing valid CI documents 2 New Configuration Items authored 3 Configuration Baseline defined using CIs Configuration baseline assigned to collection 4 DCM discovers CIs and validates data against rules 5 Compliance state sent to ConfigMgr Database for reporting 6ScriptScript SQLSQL SoftwareUpdatesSoftwareUpdates FileFile ActiveDirectoryActiveDirectory ComplianceStateTablesComplianceStateTables

Author from scratch Operating System CI Application CI General CI Configuration Baseline Create Child CI Inherit from parent (and grandparent and etc…) Add new rules to inherited objects and settings Add new settings and objects Duplicate

Building knowledge – Parent/Child CIs Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Parent CI Imported from Microsoft Defines core settings/objects and “laws of physics” Woodgrove Bank’s Configuration for SQL Server 2005 Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Child CI Inherit definition from parent Add rules to parent settings and objects Add new settings/objects for this child CI only SQL Server for HR IT SQL Server for Sales IT Additional layers of inheritance as required. SQL Server for Sales Reporting Application Duplicate CI No link maintained to original. Full editing capabilities. Copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Duplicate CI No link to original. Inheritance from same parent as original.

Built on Service Modeling Language (SML): a modeling language built on XML standards that provides a rich set of constructs for modeling complex IT systems, including: Structure of the system: objects and relationships Desired configuration Administrative policies Management information such as events and performance counters, rules for determining the operational health of the system, etc ConfigMgr 2007 will consume the structure and desired configuration portions of SML models as they relate to a single computer system. SML runtime requires.Net framework 2.x

Prescriptive use of existing XML standards: XML Schema (XSD): Modeling language for type definitions and invariants Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT): Type discovery and instance document generation script Schematron: Instance validation rules using XPath queries and.Net regular expressions Extensible Markup Language (XML): Type instance documents and exception reports Run-time engine: Built on.Net 2.0 framework Orchestrates (1) type discovery and instance document generation; (2) instance document schema validation; and (3) instance validation to produce exception report In-memory type and instance store

“Best Practices” knowledge from Microsoft, other software vendors, solutions integrators and internal LOB developers. ServiceModelingLanguageXML DCM Digest XML (1)DCM Digest Fully-described DCM CI or Baseline Human-readable form DCM generates SML during import All DCM functionality unlocked for administrator (add to baseline, duplicate, create child) (2) Complete ConfigMgr CI Document (SML + DCM Digest) Author can perform more complex operations than can be authored in ConfigMgr admin UI while still exposing as much as possible in the UI Most DCM functionality unlocked for administrator (add to baseline, create child) (3) SML Only – No DCM Digest Author completely controls discovery and rule evaluation. Limited functionality in DCM (add to baseline)

Use wizard to assign baselines from Baseline or Collection node Choose baseline(s) to assign and target collection Set compliance evaluation schedule or use default schedule

Compliance results sent as XML attachment on state messages State message severity determined by greatest severity of any failed rule in CI/Baseline Use DCM Home Page for basic reporting Launch other reports from Home Page or Reports node Use Query-based collections based on DCM compliance data to deploy software, scripts, updates or task-sequences

Model-based and standards-based Type management & re-use Version control Derivation with parent/child CIs Composition into configuration baselines Integrated authoring, scheduling and evaluation Improved performance and scalability Knowledge ecosystem development DCM Solution to DCM 2007 conversion tool

Service Modeling Language

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