System Center 2012 Service Manager Unleashed

by Meyler, Kerrie; Van Hoecke, Kurt; Erskine, Samuel; Buchanan, Steve

• ISBN13: 9780672337079
• ISBN10: 067233707X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-09-26
• Publisher: Sams Publishing

Summary

This comprehensive resource will help you automate and optimize all facets of service management with System Center 2012 Service Manager.

Expert consultants offer deep “in the trenches” insights for improving problem resolution, change control, release management, asset lifecycle management, chargeback, and more. You’ll learn how to implement high-value best practices from ITIL and the Microsoft Operations Framework.

The authors begin with an expert overview of Service Manager, its evolution, and its new capabilities. Next, they walk through overall planning, design, implementation, and upgrades. Then, to help you focus your efforts, they present stepwise coverage of all topics in each feature area, linking technical information about Service Manager with essential knowledge about the technologies it depends on.

Whatever your role in deploying or running Service Manager, this guide will help you deliver more responsive support at lower cost and drive more value from all your IT investments.

• Leverage MOF and ITIL processes built into System Center 2012 Service Manager
• Plan and design your Service Manager deployment
• Install Service Manager or upgrade from earlier versions
• Efficiently administer work and configuration items
• Use connectors to integrate with Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center components
• Create service maps
• Enable end user access through Service Manager’s self-service portal
• Implement incident, problem, change, and release management
• Utilize workflows to automate key support processes
• Create service level agreements with calendars, metrics, and objectives
• Provide quick access to a standardized catalog of services
• Use notification to ensure that Service Manager items are promptly addressed
• Secure Service Manager and its data warehouse/reporting platform
• Perform maintenance, backup, and recovery
• Manage Service Manager performance
• Customize Service Manager

Author Biography

Kerrie Meyler, MVP, is the lead author of numerous System Center books in the Unleashed series, including System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed (2013), System Center 2012 Orchestrator Unleashed (2013), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed (2012) and System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Unleashed Supplement (2014). She is an independent consultant with more than 17 years of Information Technology experience. Kerrie was responsible for evangelizing SMS while a Sr. Technology Specialist at Microsoft, and has presented on System Center technologies at TechEd and MMS.

Kurt Van Hoecke, MVP, managing consultant at inovativ Belgium, focuses on the System Center product suite, including Service Manager, Configuration Manager, and Orchestrator. Kurt is a coauthor to System Center 2012 Orchestrator Unleashed (2013) and contributor to System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed (2011). Kurt has been working with Service Manager beginning with the beta versions and has a number of Service Manager deployments to his credit.

Samuel Erskine, MCT, MCTS, is an independent IT consultant specializing in Service Manager and Configuration Manager. He was the lead author of Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook (Packt, 2012) and Microsoft System Center 2012 Orchestrator Cookbook (Packt, 2013), and was a contributing author to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed (2012) With more than 18 years of IT experience, Samuel focuses on providing training and consultancy services in the United Kingdom and other locations and blogs at www.itprocessed.com.

Steve Buchanan, MVP, MCITP, MCSE, is a regional solution lead with Concurrency. Steve has worked in IT for 14 years with a focus on systems management. He coauthored Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1 (Packt, 2013) and authored Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 (Packt, 2011). Steve enjoys blogging about his adventures in systems management and cloud technologies at www.buchatech.com.

Table of Contents

1 - Service Management Basics

2 - What's New

3 - MOF, ITIL, and System Center

4 - Looking Inside System Center 2012 Service Manager

5 - Planning and Designing System Center Service Manager 2012

6 - Installing and Upgrading to System Center 2012 Service Manager

7 - The Service Manager Console and Portal

8 - Connectors

9 - Business Services

10 - Service Level Management and Services

11 - Service Manager Service Catalog

12 - Incident Management and Service Request Fulfillment

13 - Self-Service and Automation using Service Manager and Orchestrator

14 - Problem Management

15 - Change Request and Configuration Management

16 - Release Management

17 - Solution Accelerators

18 - Notification

19 - Service Manager Security

20 - Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance

21 - Management Packs

22 - Reports, Dashboards, and Data Analysis

23 - System Center Data Warehouse

24 - Customizing Service Manager

25 - Advanced Customization Scenarios

26 - Using PowerShell

A - Reference URLS

B - Available Online/on the CD