just for the record

I will post at greater length my personal comments about sessions later, there have been WAY too many to keep this thing current. I just wanted to throw this out there... Steve Riley, you're my hero! I've had the privilege of going to two of his sessions, and am in awe. Again, I will post details later, but he's the BOMB. Oh, and Mark Minasi isn't half bad either!!

tshirts = 23?

added a virtual teched, ocs 2007 and an iis7 shirt

tshirts = 20

only added one more today from devexpress, so total's up to 20! Lot's of other good swag though, hats, usb drives, slinky, golf balls, pens, starbucks, etc...

tshirts, tshirts, get your tshirts!

So added tonight are...

SQL server 2005

Configuration Intelligence

compuware

microsoft trial software (xxl for you ernie!)

msdn/technet virtual labs

microsoft MDEC

net advantage

brocade

bringing the total to... 19!

 

tshirts = 11

Here's the scoop from round 1 today...

office communications server 2007

microsoft communities

technet magazine

microsoft business intelligence

double-take software

telerik (.net superstar)

and finally, can you code?

 

So that brings my grand total to 11, I think...

the swag bag overfloweth

Egh, I've got two bags right now, both are full!! I'm going to have to drop off a load before returning later tonight. I've gotten several cool prizes so far including a full sweet of XML tools to give to my developer!

tshirts

Wow, I can't even count how many tshirts I have in my bag right now! I'll post an updated number later tonight.

I'm up to like 5 hats though, fairly surprising!

keynote highlights

christopher lloyd aka 'doc' from Back to the future proclaimed himself
the "ms vs bs"

There's an overwhelming 70/30 split on maintenance vs new development
resources within companies.

Optimizing your environment.
basic
standardized
rationalized
dynamic *end goal*

unified & virtualized, process-led model driven, service-enabled, user-focused
foundations are federated, interopable, and secure

need to focus on economics (drive cost down), quality of service
(management based on policies, all services don't need 5 9's), agility
(infrastructure is dynamic).- infrastructure & operations maturity.
ask company what agility means, and apply that to it.

focus on process, technology & culture in order to mature.

jeff woosley- ms virtual server. clustered, quick migration. vm conversion.

tshirt update

Picked up two more at party with Palermo tonight, one for infragistics (kinda cool shirt) and one for wrox (programmer to programmer). Woohoo! Pretty sweet party, got a hat too! So we're officially up to 4 shirts before the 'start' of conference!

TechEd tshirt count...

Seeing as every vendors favorite swag is tshirts, I figured I'd post a
running tab of how many I collect. So far the count is 2. The official
teched shirt and a shrink-wrapped office 2007 shirt with the chance
for a free copy of office ultimate 2007. Bring on the SWAG!

SCOM database security enhancements

The Ops Management team has also put a lot of thought into the database security with version 2007. There is an overwhelming standard of zero/limited access to the operations database. The SDK is also known as the 'gatekeeper' for all access to the database. The agents and gateway servers have NO access to the database. The management server has limited access to the database. Finally the root management server has database access through the SDK. So although it might be scary storing all the information that MOM (now SCOM!) stores in a single database, the security measures that the team has put in place should help you sleep better at night.

In addition to all the other updates, they have also made Role Based security groups accessable in SCOM. That way you can leverage the exisiting group infrastrucure you have, and assign security based off of that. This is a huge sigh of relief for those of us who LOVE to use security groups!

SCOM security

It warms my heart to say that Ops Manager will now incorporate the
security model of Defense in Depth. Mutual authentication is now
always ON, and kerberos is the default method (certificate based can
be enabled as well). The channels are always encrypted now. The client
access to the SDK service is set to always authenticate and is
encrypted. Drum roll please... the service accounts will also run off
of least privilege!

SCOM 07- Audit Collector

Woohoo! Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 comes with a new 'toy'... Audit Collector. *FINALLY* it'll be easy to pull all security event logs from domain controllers and servers. It's built pretty smooth and with security in mind. It keeps the security logs in a separate database, sends over an encrypted channel and does it in real-time in case there's a bad admin who's trying to delete security logs. I'm excited to get this loaded up because right now I only am able to retain about a day on each domain controller due to space. So now I just have to come up with SQL space so I can send ALL security logs! The reporting built into it will make it all worth it... :)

TechEd swag bag

The swag bag looks very similar to the picture that got release. It's pretty cool, lots of space. Can be a hand bag, backpack, shoulder bag. The did take off the rainbow logo leaving just the circle with the TechEd 2007 in it. (wonder if they were watching blogs & posts!)

it has begun!

I'm an hour into my preconference session on System Center Operations Manager at TechEd. These guys are pretty good, lots of big names from the Ops team at MS. Can't believe TechEd has finally started. Looks to be a great week!