System Center 2012 Orchestrator Unleashed

by Meyler, Kerrie; Zerger, Pete; Oh, Marcus; Bengtsson, Anders; Van Hoecke, Kurt

• ISBN13: 9780672336102
• ISBN10: 0672336103
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-09-13
• Publisher: Sams Publishing

Summary

The first and only comprehensive reference and technical guide to Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012,"System Center Orchestrator 2012 Unleashed" joins Sams'market-leading series of books on Microsoft's System Center product suite: books that have achieved go-to status amongst IT implementers and administrators worldwide. This book is authored by an expert team of current and former Microsoft MVPs who wrote the industry's leading guide to Opalis 6.3, Orchestrator 2012's predecessor product. Almost entirely new, this book thoroughly illuminates Orchestrator 2012's massive improvements, demonstrating how to use this product to implement best-practice IT process automation in any environment, including new "private clouds." The authors'end-to-end feature implementation perspective will help readers optimize their deployments by covering all related topics, step-by-step, in each feature area. The authors begin with an overview of Orchestrator 2012's capabilities and goals; then move through architecture, installation, policy basics and design, activities (previously known as objects), integration with the rest of Systems Center, "Dynamic Data Center" solutions, and much more. Throughout, the authors share best practices based on their unsurpassed experience with Orchestrator, Opalis, and real-world IT process automation.

Author Biography

Kerrie Meyler, System Center MVP for Cloud and Datacenter Management, is the lead author of numerous System Center books in the Unleashed series. This includes System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed (2008), System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed (2009), System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Unleashed (2010), System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed (2011), System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed (2011), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed (2012), and System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed (2013). She is an independent consultant and trainer with more than 15 years of Information Technology experience. Kerrie has presented on System Center technologies at TechEd NA and MMS.

Pete Zerger is a consultant, author, speaker, and System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP focusing on System Center management, private cloud, and data center automation solutions. He is a frequent speaker at Microsoft conferences, and writes articles for a variety of technical magazines including Microsoft TechNet. Pete is a contributing author for several books, including System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed (2011), PowerShell 2.0 Bible (Wiley, 2011), and System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed (2013). He is also the co-founder of SystemCenterCentral.com, a popular web community providing information, news, and support for System Center technologies. In 2008, Pete founded the System Center Virtual User Group, a group dedicated to sharing System Center knowledge with users worldwide.

Marcus Oh, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, is a senior technical manager for a large telecommunications provider, running directory services and management infrastructure for ~30,000 systems. He has been an MVP since 2004 in System Center, specializing in Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, and Orchestrator. Marcus has written numerous articles for technology websites and blogs on Orchestrator and other System Center components at http://marcusoh.blogspot.com. He coauthored Professional SMS 2003, MOM 2005, and WSUS (Wrox, 2006), was a contributing author to System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed (2011), and coauthored System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed (2012). Marcus is also the president of the Atlanta Systems Management User Group ( http://www.atlsmug.com ) and a board member of the Deskside Management Forum.

Anders Bengtsson is a Microsoft senior premier field engineer focusing on System Center. He has written a number of System Center training courses, including the Service Manager 2010 and Operations Manager 2007 advanced courses for Microsoft Learning. He was a coauthor for System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed (2011). Before joining Microsoft, Anders was a Microsoft MVP from 2007-2010 for his work in the System Center community, including more than 10,000 posts in news groups and forums. Anders has presented and worked at numerous Microsoft conferences and events, including MMS and Microsoft TechEd NA and EMEA.

Kurt Van Hoecke, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, is a managing consultant at Inovativ Belgium. He focuses on the System Center product suite, including Orchestrator, Service Manager, and Configuration Manager. Kurt was a contributing author to System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed (2011) and blogs for System Center User Group Belgium and AuthoringFriday, where he shares his field experiences and discusses how to extend the built-in functionality of the System Center components.

Table of Contents

1. Orchestration, Integration, and Automation
2. What's New in Orchestrator 2012
3. Run Book Automation
4. Looking Inside Orchestrator 2012
5. Architectural Design
6. Installing Orchestrator 2012
7. Using Orchestrator 2012
8. Runbook Basics
9. Advanced Runbook Automation
10. Foundation Activities
11. Best Practices
12. Managing Orchestrator 2012
13. Orchestrator Integration Packs
14. Integration with System Center Operations Manager
15. Integration with System Center Service Manager
16. Integration with System Center Configuration Manager
17. Integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager
18. Integration with System Center Data Protection Manager
19. Integration with System Center Application Controller
20. The Dynamic Data Center
21. The Quick Integration Kit
A. Community Solutions and Tools
B. Reference URLs
C. Available Online