Useful Information from MMS 2013 Las Vegas

Last week I was at Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas. I've done a lot of sessions which I want to share with you. More about my experience can be found in this blogpost. Hope you can find something useful in it! 

Here's the information I have gained partly during MMS:
 

Keynote

- Ruben Spruijt first person speaking in MMS 2013 keynote opening video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L0JocNPZeJE
- Video about Domino's Pizza, having 15.000 VM's managed with System Center http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MIcvsQ71YA&feature=player_embedded
- 99% reduction in helpdesk calls to Domino’s Pizza since they moved to Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012
- System Center Advisor integration in SCOM/OpsMgr 2012 to show active alerts
- System Center Advisor is free usage, showing alerts on Windows Server 2012 and other Microsoft products
- In Windows Azure Microsoft's doing 50.000 changes a day
- Windows Intune is used or in trial about 35.000 customers right now
- Video on Toyota using Windows Intune for software deployment and monthly updates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiSOXTIUW0&feature=youtu.be
- Enable People-Centric IT with Windows Azure Active Directory and Windows Intune
- With the SCCM/ConfigMgr 2012 Intune connector role, cloud-devices can be managed in the ConfigMgr console
- Secure your data with Windows Server 2012 permissions for mobile devices
- System Center is more powerful when using when using multiple components

Windows Server 2012 - Easy to setup, just 6 clicks needed (or PowerShell) for VDI setup
- Choice between pooled (stateless) and personal (stateful) desktops (VDI)
- User Profile Disk, store user data and settings on a seperate VHD
- High Availability with active/active broker, SQL cluster needed
- Rich user experience with RemoteFX, 90% reduce traffic possible
- RemoteFX agressive rendering for images, text is displayed immediately
- RemoteFX media streaming for QuickTime, Silverlight, flash, html5
- RemoteFX USB device redirection for all configurations
- Optimized for Windows 8 (better/faster caching) 

Windows 8 (VDI)
- Always leave the 350 BitLocker partition in place (not for VDI)
- Project VRC mentioned during ‘Optimizing Windows 8 VDI’ session for anti-virus purposes
- Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise? For RemoteApp ‘Enterprise’ is needed
- 32-bit or 64-bit? It depends, 32-bit small footprint but 4GB memory max
Memory, recommended minimum in VDI: 1GB
- ‘DoNotCreateExtraPartition=Yes’ in MDT (no 350MB BitLocker partition)
- VDI optimizer (AutoIT) for Windows 7 (no Windows 8 support yet)
- VDIConfig_1.1-Win8 script http://blogs.technet.com/b/jeff_stokes/archive/2013/04/09/hot-off-the-presses-get-it-now-the-windows-8-vdi-optimization-script-courtesy-of-pfe.aspx
- Windows Performance Monitor (part of Windows ADK)

Windows To Go
- In reality Windows To Go needs to be domain joined
- Choose between an online or offline domain join (includes all certificates and policies)
- Direct Access is preferred for remote access with WTG
- Add drivers in the WTG image for storage, graphic and network. Other drivers will be installed by using updates
- Use Generic (oem-oem) drivers for Windows To Go
- You need a Windows To Go certified device, require 2 partitions
- Using roaming profiles with WTG is not the best solution. USB stick full within 45 minutes
- Windows To Go creator in ConfigMgr application catalog available

MDOP 2013
- MDOP 2013 is RTM (MBAM 2.0, SP1 on AGPM 4.0, DaRT 8.0, App-V 5.0, UE-V 1.0)
- ConfigMgr 2012 SP1, App-V 5.0 and UE-V 1.0 can be used together for rich management
- MBAM 2.0 has support for Windows 8 and Windows To Go
- MBAM 2.0 can be used standalone or integrated in ConfigMgr for BitLocker
- Upgrade process (MBAM 1.0 to 2.0) keeps recovery keys intact
- MBAM will encrypt one volume at a time, volumes are displayed before encryption
- MBAM integrated in task sequence for client deployment (BitLocker)
- UE-V is used for application and Windows settings on desktops, sharing the same user experience
- UE-V can be incorporated into master image as it is installed in a dormant state by default
- Settings in Active Directory home directory or storage share
- UE-V agent on the desktop is needed, not on the management server
- Use in-box templates for applications and Windows settings
- Settings management with GPO, PowerShell or Registry possible

Windows Intune
- Unified Device Management solution (cloud solution)
- Android features supported through the Exchange Connector only
- Setup single sign-on for users (AD synchronization needed)
- Directory sync configuration tool download (needed once)
- When synchronization is done for Office365 no need to sync again
- Platforms and certifications/keys are needed per Mobile device solution
- When using ConfigMgr, don't go in the Windows Intune admin console at all
- Remote retirement is removing ‘management’ from the device only
- Settings management for Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 and iOS 5.0+
- For privacy reasons, Microsoft do not collect app inventory for apps installed
- One security policy for all kind of mobile devices. System figures out for each platform
- Retirement possible only for Windows Phone and Windows RT
- Wipe effects depend on the platform, iOS and WP8 are best platforms
- Android support is minimal, maybe future support (because of custom ROMs)
- When there's no policy set, users can retire the device itself
- No Windows Intune app for iOS and Android, but only a web based portal
- Applications in the company portal will be visible with a 5 minutes delay

System Center
- All ConfigMgr upgrades must be top-down (starting with the CAS)
- System Center integration with OpsMgr, SCOrch, ConfigMgr, Service Manager
- Great integration: provisioning user creation from SCSM and creating the user through an SCOrch workflow
- Create a new VM with a SCOrch runbook in just 3 steps
- Application approval workflow with SCSM, SCOrch and ConfigMgr possible
- SCOrch and OpsMgr are the base of system center installations
- Always use an dedicated SQL server installation for OpsMgr
- Use second OpsMgr management server for a better performance

Endpoint Protection
- Merge antimalware policies in SCEP to only 1 policy (best practice?)
- SCEP offers integration with UEFI trusted boot, early-launch antimalware
- Automatic failover when using multiple SUPs (supported in SP1)
- Common antimalware platform, it's ALL the same client (Essentials, Defender, Intune, Azure)
- Secure boot loads anti-malware early in the boot process, better in Windows 8 now
- Dynamic collection with query: antimalware infection status = pendingofflinescan
- Run a Windows Defender Offline Scan using ConfigMgr 2012 OSD

For next year there is no information yet if there's an MMS again. Hope it will be mentioned soon! #mms2014

No MMS 2014 next year anymore?

Rumors are saying there's no MMS next year anymore. This because no new date and location were mentioned during MMS 2013. Still there were 5,200 attendees this year, and it was almost sold out. I hope it will be continued next year, because MMS is the best event for System Center geeks! Let's wait for an official statement first.

This year MMS would be taking place in June in New Orleans. Then TechEd America is scheduled also. Because of community reasons Microsoft decided to split-up both events again, and schedule MMS for Las Vegas. For community reasons Las Vegas is still the place to be! For me it can be any place, as long there is space enough for networking and community! We'll see :-)

The MMS 2013 Keynote Opener Video

This year the MMS keynote was started with a video. The first person showed up in this video was Ruben Spruijt from PQR, which is my colleague! Just have a look at this great video to see Ruben, and other MVP's from all over the world speaking about new Microsoft solutions based on Private Cloud and System Center.

In case you missed it: The MMS 2013 Keynote Opener Video 

Have fun watching the video!

Back from MMS 2013 in Las Vegas

Back again from the best event on Device management and Microsoft Cloud solutions. MMS 2013 was great on networking and community too. Very nice to meet a lot of people who are known and not known to me. This year the event was hold in Mandalay Bay, which is placed at the very end of the Las Vegas strip. I stayed in the hotel where the event was hold (Mandalay Bay); that's better to walk and meeting people after session time is easier also.

First some information about the event. This year there were 5,200 attendees which is almost full house. There is (most of time) space for 5,500 attendees, which was reached last year in The Venetian. Then System Center 2012 was released, and many announcements were done. This year there was no big announcement to make; the only one known to me was MDOP 2013. Let's have a look.

This release includes Service Pack 1 updates of AGPM 4.0, DaRT 8.0, App-V 5.0, and UE-V 1.0. However, the biggest new addition is the official release of MBAM 2.0 which include a Self Service Portal for end-users with common PC support tasks and automation of BitLocker encryption for Windows 8 based computers. MBAM can be used standalone or integrated in ConfigMgr (which I prefer).

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) is used for application and Windows settings, which brings a seamless experience when using multiple systems. Both application and Windows settings are saved immediately after changing, so no need to logoff first. Settings will be saved in AD home directory or on storage share. Settings management is done with GPO, PowerShell or Registry. Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) provides enterprise management capabilities for BitLocker and BitLocker to Go.

Video: MBAM 2.0 Overview
TechNet: MBAM Information

Most of sessions I've done are on SCCM/ConfigMgr, Windows Intune and Windows 8 (VDI). Expect additional blogposts about that topics later this week. There's a lot to tell about these solutions! 

MMS is (besides of doing breakout sessions and labs) the place for having party's also. I visited two Microsoft party's (Dutch party & Closing party at the XS Nightclub at the Wynn Resort) one 1E Pre-conference party and one myITforum party as well. This year I had the luck to visit this party, where 350 attendees can meet and geek. That way it's possible to party every night and meet geeks after sessions also! Much better then a daily walk on the strip :-)

Expect a lot of blogging next week(s) on MMS 2013!

Next week in Las Vegas for MMS 2013

Next week I will be in Las Vegas for Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2013. For me it's the third time for this great event. Nothing better than MMS for me :) Just have a look at the MMS website for more information: http://www.2013mms.com/

Expect a lot of information next week on twitter @HenkHoogendoorn and this blog. Hope I have some spare time during the week to write some blogposts. When there's no spare time follow twitter and a blogpost is coming after the event.

Topics for me this year are Client device management with SCCM/ConfigMgr and Windows Intune for Mobile device/application management. Also I will do a few sessions on Monitoring (SCOM/OpsMgr) and MS Private Cloud, Server 2012.

Stay tuned for more information next week!

MMS 2013 Dates Announced

Today the final dates for MMS 2013 has been announced:
MMS returns to Las Vegas, NV April 8-12, 2013!
That means the date mentioned on MMS 2012 last year:
June 2013 in New Orléans, isn't valid anymore.

Be one of the first to know when registration opens: sign up to receive MMS news & updates. We hope to see you in Las Vegas in April!

For those who have never been on MMS before:
At Microsoft Management Summit the brightest and most skilled IT professionals from around the world meet to increase their technical expertise through deep hands-on technical training, sharing of best practices, and interaction with innovators and pioneers in desktop and device management and datacenter and cloud technologies.

Expect to have a lot of Microsoft Private Cloud and System Center 2012 (SP1) sessions there!

And yes, I hope to be at MMS next year again! :)