System Center 2012 Self-Study Guide (Part 1 - System Center Overview)

I have received multiple requests for a study guide related to the newest versions of System Center Configuration Manager and/or System Center Operations Manager.  After doing a bit of research, I learned that it's no longer appropriate to think of these as separate tools since they all belong to the System Center 2012 Suite.  The components that make up this suite of products include the following:

  • Advisor
  • App Controller
  • Configuration Manager
  • Data Protection Manager
  • Endpoint Protection
  • Operations Manager
  • Orchestrator
  • Service Manager
  • Unified Installer
  • Virtual Machine Manager

Rather than come up with individual study guides for each of these, I thought I'd put together a multi-part study guide with an emphasis on material available for each of these individual components.  Obviously you don't have to implement all of these in your environment, since the setup process allows you to choose which components you'll install.  But because each of these is now bundled together as a logical unit, I thought it made sense to address them together.

Before we get started, let me recommend a very good blog that discusses installation of System Center 2012.  It contains a large # of screenshots so you can see the process of installation for each component yourself.  This blog entry can be found here:

Installing System Center 2012 using the Unified Installer

This blog entry should provide an excellent starting point as you begin looking at System Center 2012.  Beyond that, the further self-study material will also hopefully prove useful to you and your teams.

NOTE: Some of the study offerings are presented more than once to reflect the different formats in which they are available (webcast vs. podcast).

 

System Center 2012 Self-Study Guide (Part 1 - System Center Overview)

Top-level link for System Center 2012 is: https://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter

System Center 2012

In this section are study material related to System Center 2012 in general.  The data here represents the study material that does not fit neatly into one of the specific component categories.  Further sections will deal with the specialty components that make up System Center 2012

Microsoft Virtual Academy (free online courses and knowledge measures)

Training Videos and Webcasts

Podcasts

Virtual Labs

These are online simulations that allow users to experience System Center technology first-hand.

  • Guided Labs
    • Provide Resources through Self-Service Requests
    • Drive Consistent Service Delivery
    • Provision Additional Cloud Infrastructure
    • Delegate Cloud Resources
    • Create Consistency through Service Templates
    • Perform a Standardized Application Deployment to Test
    • Stage Application Resources
    • Self-Service Deployment of an Application to a Production Environment
    • Gain Insight and Visibility Through Reporting
    • Monitor Infrastructure
    • Taking Corrective Actions in the Infrastructure
    • reduce Time to Resolution with Application Performance Monitoring
    • Deploy and Update to a Service Instance
    • Explore Creating Dashboards

 Articles/Documentation

In this section are articles relating to System Center 2012, including the top-level TechNet site for all things relating to System Center 2012.

  • System Center 2012
    • App Controller
    • Configuration Manager
    • Data Protection Manager
    • Endpoint Protection
    • Operations Manager
    • Orchestrator
    • Service Manager
    • Unified Installer
    • Virtual Machine Manager

Useful Blogs

In this section are articles and guidance written by System Center 2012 technical experts.

Forums

In this section is al list of forums where System Center administrators can post comments, ask questions, and join in conversations related to System Center 2012.

Support for System Center 2012

The link below is a central page that provides a wide variety of resources and solutions to help System Center administrators resolve problems and issues.

There is no denying that the System Center 2012 Suite is massive.  Here I have only listed the top-level information that applies to System Center 2012 in general.  In the next part I'll begin exploring the study material available for each of the components themselves.