We already reported today that Microsoft released a beta version of Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM) which provides configuration management, hardware/software asset management and patch deployment tools for Windows desktops and servers.
Microsoft today also released other betas for the upcoming Service Pack 1 for the other System Center products making up the Microsoft Private Cloud solution stack.
The Beta which will provide support for installing the components on top of Windows Server 2012 and the SQL Server 2012 also includes updates and enhancements to the following System Center 2012 components:
- Virtual Machine Manager
- Improved Support for Network Virtualization
- Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
- Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
- Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
- Server App-V
- Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
- Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server
- App Controller
- Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines
- Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
- Data Protection Manager
- Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0
- Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share
- Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes
- Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
- Operations Manager
- Support for IIS 8
- Monitoring of WCF, MVC and .NET NT services
- Azure SDK support
- Orchestrator
- Support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
- Manage VMM self-service User Roles
- Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
- Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
- Service Manager
- Apply price sheets to VMM clouds
- Create chargeback reports
- Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Pricesheets
Since Service Pack 1 will provide support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, it’s much awaited by companies who want to start rolling out and manage Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 using the System Center Suite. Microsoft expects to release Service Pack 1 in early 2013, which is still 3 months away from now.
The documentation on Microsoft Technet has already been integrated with information about Service Pack 1.