NWSCUG Meeting on Friday, April 22nd

HEADS UP! There are a couple changes for this meeting! The location and date are different than our regularly-scheduled meeting cadence!

Register now for our April meeting!

The next NWSCUG meeting is Friday, April 22nd at 10:00 am at the VIACode office in Redmond, WA (in the ThinkSpace Building. 8201 164th Ave NE, Redmond, WA). Below is the agenda. We look forward to seeing you there!

10:00 – Welcome, and Announcements
10:10 –Monitoring of the SQL Server and SQL BI with System Center – Roman Yuferev and Alex Andruschenko
11:15 – Windows 10 Deployment and Servicing: Digging Deeper – Michael Niehaus
12:30 – Lunch (Sponsored by VIAcode)
12:50 – Microsoft OMS and SCOM authoring from experts from VIAcode
1:40 – Moderated Discussion
2:30 – Closing Comments and Give-Aways

Monitoring of the SQL Server and SQL BI with System Center  – This is a session about the new release of the most popular System Center Operations Manager Management Pack for Microsoft SQL Server from the team, which knows that MPs better than anybody else. We’ll show you how new, improved dashboards can be used for monitoring all SQL Server components and roles. More than it – we’ll go beyond the SQL Server monitoring and demonstrate how these dashboards can be used for visualizing any workload monitoring including Windows, IIS, SharePoint, Exchange and more. We will talk about new monitoring scenarios, dashboards improvements (including multiple visualization styles) and other new features of the SQL MP. When you combine this with some monitoring best practices you will have a monitoring focused session that you will not want to miss!

Windows 10 Deployment and Servicing: Digging Deeper – We’ve talked about Windows 10 deployment and servicing in the past, back when this was still just a “coming attraction” for most organizations.  Now that many organizations are deeper into the process, let’s dig deeper into a variety of topics, including tools to help with Windows as a service, leveraging peer-to-peer distribution capabilities to minimize impact, the Windows 10 servicing rhythm, and general tips and tricks around upgrading to Windows 10.

Microsoft OMS and SCOM authoring from experts – VIAcode Manageability team is here to share with you valuable SCOM and OMS authoring hints and best practices. This session is full of live demos about our unique authoring and tuning tools, that allow us to provide the best custom monitoring solutions for our major clients such as Microsoft, McDonalds, Amazon, Violin Memory, etc. You will learn how to create powerful, efficient and high quality SCOM Management Packs and OMS Solutions.

Moderated Discussion – At our meetings, we have had a great lineup of presentations from industry speakers, as well as from Microsoft – now we want to add more community involvement. Attending a user group meeting is more than just listening to presentations. It’s also about getting to know others in the room, sharing war stories, networking, and helping each other out. We want to get our attendees networking more, so we want to try something new. In the moderated discussion, we’ll agree on some topics to discuss, split into smaller groups to discuss among yourselves, and then recap discussions with the larger group. This helps us learn from each other, and build lasting relationships. Bring your hot topics!

Register now for our April meeting!

The VIACode office is located at 8201 164th Ave NE, Suite 200 Redmond, WA 98052-7615

Parking: You can park at the guest parking area of the ThinkSpace (you’ll need to be registered at the frontdesk on the second floor) or you can use one of many free parking options nearby such as Park&Ride on 83rd St next to ThinkSpace (in front of Redmond Transit Center)

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NWSCUG Meeting on Friday, March 18th

Register now for our March meeting!

The next NWSCUG meeting is Friday, March 18th at 10:00 am at the Civica Building (205 108th Ave. NE, Suite 400) in Bellevue, WA. Below is the agenda. We look forward to seeing you there!

10:00 – Welcome, and Announcements
10:10 –Packaging Applications with Powershell, OneGet and Chocolatey – Keith Garner
11:15 – ConfigMgr Reporting using PowerBI – Tom Roe
11:30 – System Center 2016 Preview and Q&A from the Microsoft Product Group
12:45 – Lunch (Sponsored by Patch My PC)
1:15 – Perform 3rd Party Patching in ConfigMgr with Patch My PC!
2:00 – Ask the Experts – System Center (TBD)
2:30 – Closing Comments and Give-Aways

Packaging Applications with Powershell, OneGet and Chocolatey – Learn about the new OneGet Application packaging system built into PowerShell Windows Management Framework 5.0, and One Get Providers like Chocolatey.org. Learn how to create Chocolatey packages using PowerShell, and learn tips and best practices for application packaging in general.

System Center 2016 Preview and Q&A from the Microsoft Product Group – Our group has spent a lot of time talking about the new version of ConfigMgr. This session will focus on System Center 2016, which is the rest of System Center (SCOM, VMM, DPM, and more).

Ask the Experts – System Center – We will modify our normal moderated discussion this month to be an ask the experts session. Bring all your questions on System Center. Feel free to post them in comments on this blog post in advance too!

Register now for our March meeting!

Be sure to park in the parking garage at the Civica building, as Microsoft will validate parking.

 

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NWSCUG Meeting on Friday, February 19th

Register now for our February meeting!

The next NWSCUG meeting is Friday, February 19th at 10:00 am at the Civica Building in Bellevue, WA. Below is the agenda. We look forward to seeing you there!

10:00 – Welcome, and Announcements
10:10 – Strategies for living with Windows 10 and ConfigMgr (vNext) Servicing Options – Paul Thomsen
11:15 – Upgrading from ConfigMgr 2012 to ConfigMgr next (1511) and beyond! – Wally Mead
12:30 – Lunch (Sponsored by Squadra Technologies)
12:50 – Squadra Technologies Security Removable Media – Kevin Furgal
1:40 – Open Discussion
2:30 – Closing Comments and Give-Aways

Strategies for living with Windows 10 and ConfigMgr (vNext) Servicing Options – Our very own Paul Thomsen will present on the topic of Windows 10 Servicing in the Enterprise. Windows 10 Current Branch (CB), Current Branch for Business (CBB), as well as Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) present unique challenges for management and servicing. Paul will dive into the pros and cons of each branch, and strategies for how you can enable your customers with the best manageable branch for their job.

Upgrading from ConfigMgr 2012 to ConfigMgr next (1511) and beyond! – Our very own Wally Mead will present on the upgrade path to the new version of ConfigMgr, as well as follow the ConfigMgr Current Branch Cadence forward.

Squadra Technologies Security Removable Media Manager (secRMM) is Windows security software that monitors and controls files being copied from the domain to any plug-and-play storage device. This includes smartphones, tablets, usb flash drives, external hard drives, SD-Cards and CD/DVD. The secRMM architecture parallels the Microsoft endpoint protection products supporting Antimalware and Firewall. secRMM comes with a SCCM Console Extension for central configuration, status messages, out-of-the-box reports and an Excel AddIn for conveniently viewing the secRMM status messages. The SCCM secRMM integration rounds out SCCM’s coverage of Endpoint Protection by providing removable storage Data Loss Protection (DLP).

Moderated Discussion – A fairly new addition to our agenda, which we’ve received great feedback! At our meetings, we have had a great lineup of presentations from industry speakers, as well as from Microsoft – now we want to add more community involvement. Attending a user group meeting is more than just listening to presentations. It’s also about getting to know others in the room, sharing war stories, networking, and helping each other out. We want to get our attendees networking more, so we want to try something new. In the moderated discussion, we’ll agree on some topics to discuss, split into smaller groups to discuss among yourselves, and then recap discussions with the larger group. This helps us learn from each other, and build lasting relationships. Bring your hot topics!

Register now for our February meeting!

Be sure to park in the parking garage at the Civica building, as Microsoft will validate parking.

 

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