When it all started Back then in November 2008 when I started this blog I never ever expected it to bring me so much. After all, that wasn’t the reason why I started to blog. All I wanted to do was to share my experiences with SCOM. Not to write about me, myself and I. No way! I am honored But as stated before, this blog brought me so much more. First the readers started coming in by numbers. The blog grew from one reader/visitor per month to 1.000+ per day! On top of it all Microsoft awarded me many times with the MVP award. On July the 1st 2018 I received the award for the 9th time! And last ..read more

As stated before, SCOM 1801 is really a new improved version of SCOM 2012R2/2016. Much has changed. So in order to know what exactly, one can read some (boring?) online documentation, OR one could join a webinar. This webinar is titled Migrating to SCOM 1801, hosted by Savision and presented by Aditya Goda, Program Manager at Microsoft, and MVP Bob Cornelissen (“SCOM-Bob”). Topics covered: HTML5 Dashboards Linux Monitoring Improvements Migration Planning and the new “Semi-Annual Channel Release” Model New Service Map Integration Updates and recommendations for third-party Management Packs Liv ..read more

Yes, it was about to happen, sooner or later. The highly famous Project Honolulu would stop someday and be replaced by something more official, and yet a bit boring. Meaning, Project Honolulu does have a nice ring to it, or not? Just imagine yourself there, right on the beach. Enjoying the sun, water and drinks with your loved ones, and in the mean time, managing your company’s servers, using Project Honolulu. Nice! But back to reality. Project Honolulu is over and replaced by Windows Admin Center. Somehow it has a different ring to it, compared to the previous name… But still, it’s what it ..read more

Azure is like a huge collection of Lego building blocks. You can do almost anything and everything with it. As such it’s very tempting for companies to move their current on-premise workloads as-is to the Azure cloud. Many times because it’s the way they always did their IT, so why change a winning team? Just rebuild your on-premise IT in the cloud and migrate. This is also called Lift & Shift migrations. Just do it and you’re in the cloud. Sure, you can do it. And yes, it will work. But you know, even though you’re in the cloud now, you’re missing out on tons of advantages which the cloud ..read more

Microsoft has released a new feature in OMS. It enables companies to set a daily volume cap and limit the daily ingestion for your workspace. It helps companies to manage unexpected increases in their data volume from managed resources and stay within the limit. Or the feature can simply help companies to limit unplanned charges for their workspace. This new OMS feature is deployed and available in all Azure regions. Want to know more? Go here. My two cents: This is a much awaited for feature, allowing a better adoption of OMS. As far as I am concerned their is still one showstopper, which are ..read more

A few days ago Microsoft launched the public preview of Windows Server 2019 (in order to download the preview version one has to join the Windows Insider program). The Windows Server Team posted an article about this public preview release on their blog, to be found here. Besides a high level overview of what’s new in this product (expected GA date second half of 2018), the same article makes this quite interesting statement: ‘…Finally, Window Server customers using System Center will be excited to know that System Center 2019 is coming and will support Windows Server 2019…’ SCOM 2019 or ..read more

The 1st of March 4 PM CET Savision organizes an online session, all about SCOM Reporting. This webinar is hosted by ‘SCOM Bob’, fellow MVP Bob Cornelissen and Savision’s Support Manager, Chris Malay. Many tips & tricks will be shared during this webinar, so you can take your SCOM Reporting skills to the next level. Topics to be covered are: Overview of the most useful types of reports for different stakeholders Tips and tricks to test your reports and make sure they work all the time How to avoid empty reports and other common SCOM reporting issues How to automate reports and receive them ..read more

For some time already (here and here for instance) Microsoft offers free Azure training resources. Since a few days Microsoft has updated the content of some of those offers, whereas existing  resources are extended. Here are the related links: Azure Training and Certification Develop Azure skills you need for your job and career. Explore free online learning resources, hands-on labs, in-depth training, or get your expertise recognized with great deals on Azure certification. Azure Essentials Watch, Learn, and Try. Jump start your Azure learning. With Azure Essentials, you can: Learn ..read more

Got this one from the blog of Robert Bird, senior Premier Field Engineer for Microsoft UK. So all credits go to him. When updating SCOM 2012 R2/2016 to SCOM 1801 you MUST install the SCOM Console (the UI, not the Web Console!!!) on the SSRS instance (the SCOM Reporting server) FIRST. Otherwise the upgrade of the SCOM Reporting instance will fail. And installing the SCOM Console AFTERWARDS (when the first upgrade has failed) and rerunning the upgrade won’t do. Go here for the original webposting ..read more

Too many times I hear from people that they don’t want to use Windows Defender. Why? ‘…Because it’s bad and/or because it sucks…’ Duh! Time to bust that myth since the reality is quite different. Before I take a deeper dive into it, let me show you this: Source: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/manufacturer/microsoft/ And: Source: https://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php As you can see, Windows Defender (version 4.12 specifically) performs very well. Moreover when you consider it’s FREE! Microsoft offers it for NOTHING, zip, nada! And still it delivers and performs! Awes ..read more