Speaker: Jeff Wettlaufer (Microsoft)

This rooms is packed.  Standing room only at this point. 

There will be support for 300,000 support.  Jan 10 2010, mainstream support for SMS 2003 ends.  Be aware of V.Next when planning your migration from SMS to ConfigMgr.

ConfigMgr 2007 SP2

SP2 adds support for Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2.  This allows them to be clients and allows those servers to host site roles.  Server 2008 R2 BranchCache is a game changer.  In MS they cut 90% of traffic to the Mexico office with this.

Improved Client Policy Evaluation:

• Faster processions.  Pre-SP2 there was a 2 minute delay
• More efficient s/w deployment configured to run at user logon
• There was a 10 minute delay pre-SP2
• User/Group targeted advertisements instantly available after logon with SP2

BranchCache Support:

• Integration with ConfigMgr reduces vastly WAN traffic and transfer loads on distribution points.
• Client downloads are faster (from local cache)
• Configuration Document guide available
• Requires R2 DP and Win 7 Enterprise/Ultimate clients

64 bit Support

• App-V x64 client
• Remote Control for x64 XP and W2003
• x64 performance counters
• Update to OpsMgr MP for 64bit OS
• x64 support for OpsMgr agent

Asset Intelligence

• Software Assurance not required
• The requirement for a cert has been removed for updates synchronisation

Intel vPro Technology

• Out of band wifi management
• Power state configuration
• Other stuff – vPro costs extra on the h/w side

KVM coming in the future.

OS Deployment

• Multiselect and delete drivers in the console
• Task sequence editor UI displays the package names as in the console.

Available as of Oct 22.

Now on to ConfigMgr 2007 R3

It’s still quite early in the engineering phase.  Support for power management – it’s the only thing they’ve talked about so far from what I can see. 

• Monitor power consumption
• Plan and create a power management policy and check for exceptions
• Apply power management policy
• Check compliance and remediate
• Report in power savings and costs savings and environmental impact

Collections will be used to apply power policies so some engineering required to group clients appropriately.

Demo:

The Power Management Client Agent has a dependency on the Hardware Inventory Client Agent.  With both configured (and with schedule noted on hardware agent) you’ll start getting data back.

In the collection you can enable power management settings in a new Power Management tab.  There is an option for a peak plan and a non-peak plan.  That allows the admin to select the Windows power plans, e.g. balanced, etc.  In the properties you can configure that Windows power plan in the ConfigMgr console, e.g. sleep after 5 minutes, etc.  This will support older OS’s because the core focus is on power down and hibernation but Win7 takes advantage of it more.