Microsoft recently launched a feedback portal for you to file bugs and/or suggestions for the next version of Operations Manager - located here:  https://connect.microsoft.com/OpsMgr/Feedback - All you need to do is be registered on Connect.

Take advantage of the "Vote" feedback mechanism to help prioritize the features that you would like Microsoft to work on based on your feedback.  For example, the scheduling of maintenance mode is something that many people has asked for, for the past two versions of the product. This new system allows you to cast your vote for the features that you would like to see.

The OpsMgr product group wants your feedback to help them understand what’s important to their customers. If there is one thing that Microsoft is GREAT at it’s listening to customers, understanding and clarifying feature requests and turning those into new features and functionality.

I have to wonder why the SCCM 2007 Management Pack makes use of Custom Field 6 to display a generic string that doesn’t provide any noticeable value to the operator.

Again, focusing on MP Best Practices, it would be great to see a common, recommend use of the Custom Fields. These can be extremely helpful when mapping SCOM alerts to fields in other operations frameworks such as ticketing systems. One challenge in SCOM is to find a field that consistently presents the name of the server that the alert was generated on. This to me could be a great use for custom fields.

For this and more great in-depth technical information on SCOM, look to the System Center training available at www.infrontconsulting.com/training.php.

If you have worked with the SCCM 2007 MP for Operations Manager 2007, you have likely seen this alert. This is one example of where great strides could be made in certain Management Packs to update and improve the knowledge included in the rule. A smart way to handle this is how the Exchange product group handles this but placing links to external KB knowledge in their newer MPs. This allows the product group that is responsible for the Management Pack to update a single online repository and all existing MPs benefit. It would be great to see this incorporated in the MP validation that an MP is run through prior to release.

One example of this is the following alert:

Here you can see that the highlighted text refers to a concept that isn’t even a part of SCOM but was a component of MOM 2005 and earlier versions of the product. It would also be great to see the resolution steps updated to refer to the new debugging cmd files StartTracing.cmd and StopTracing.cmd found in %ProgramFiles%\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Tools.

For this and more great in-depth technical information on SCOM, look to the System Center training available at www.infrontconsulting.com/training.php.

Here we go again! Another slam dunk disaster from Microsoft Learning though they can’t be held 100% accountable as this is a courseware library course so it’s not really a Microsoft Learning course but it is what Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning have available to them to deliver. Some feedback on this course material from a recent delivery (thank goodness the instructor new his stuff, as our instructor scores where FABULOUS)…

“Exercises didn’t explain why we were doing certain tasks. A better explanation of the steps in the labs are needed for better understanding or the course material.”

“No page numbers on the course manual”

“This course needs two main things:

1. Short quiz’s after each chapter.

2. Explanations about what each step in the labs do.”

“Tons of typos and simply incorrect instructions. Also, rather than just step by step instructions, how about adding ‘this is why you do this step’”

The good news is that you too don’t need to be disappointed with the Microsoft training offerings on System Center, look to the in-depth, technical training from Infront Consulting Group to provide you with the real-world knowledge that you require to be successful.

Rory McCaw, OpsMgr MVP