Introduction xxiii
Chapter 1 • Overview of Service Management 1
Understanding IT Service Management 1
Exploring the IT Infrastructure Library 2
Select ITIL Functions and Processes 5
Exploring the Microsoft Operations Framework 9
Select MOF Service Management Functions 10
Overview of System Center Configuration Manager 12
Configuration Manager Features 12
Summary 20
Chapter 2 • Planning a Configuration Manager Infrastructure 21
Gathering Deployment Intelligence 21
Determining What You Need to Accomplish 22
Describing the Network 23
Describing Your Migration Needs 23
Planning the Configuration Manager Environment 24
System Requirements 24
Extending the Active Directory Schema 37
Hierarchies and Sites 38
Site Boundaries and Boundary Groups 44
Site System Roles 45
Best Practices for Site System Design 47
SQL Considerations 49
Site Communications 50
Site Security Mode 51
Discovery of Your Resources 51
Client Settings and Client Deployment 52
Content Management 52
Role-Based Administration 53
Migration 54
Disaster Recovery 56
Designing
I have to give some props -- usually, when Microsoft releases a large update like the R2 releases for System Center products and Windows, it takes a long while for MS to release books and guides like these, like roughly 6-9 months. This time it was around 4 months. Hopefully this is a trend Microsoft will continue.
The book is quite good, as was its predecessor. My main faults with the book is that a bunch of sections are ripped directly from the previous gen's book, Mastering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (which I also have). For instance, in Chapter 4, when they're describing how ConfigMgr implements its single-source storage for applications, the R2 version copies word-for-word the pages in the older 2012 book. This wouldn't be a problem, if the images matched up. But they don't, and what's already a somewhat hard-to grasp concept becomes more difficult because the GUIDs don't match.
Otherwise, the book does very well in detailing the new features Microsoft placed in ConfigMgr 2012 R2, especially with mobile devices and supporting other OSes, like Mac and Linux. A couple of the authors are also fantastic resources on keeping up with ConfigMgr, like Peter Daalmans -- his blog is available at configmgrblog.com
Since the glaring issues are few and far between, the book gets a solid 4 stars. By the way, for those who didn't know/see, Microsoft also released a updated help guide for ConfigMgr R2, which can be quite useful, find it here: microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29901
By Quentin Gerlach