Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Resource Kit & Virtual PC 2004 SP1 Released

The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Resource Kit consists of tools that can be categorized into the following categories:

 

· Management Pack Toolkit: Helps you create, test, deploy, customize, maintain and troubleshoot management packs.    

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Wizard: Creates a management pack to monitor business processes. By leveraging the BAM components of BizTalk Server, the wizard allows you to build a management pack using BAM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and raise alerts when these KPIs deviate from normal operating conditions.
Configure Action Account: Helps you configure management packs in a low privilege scenario.
Convert Management Packs to XML (MP2XML): Allows you to convert a Management Pack (AKM) file to XML.
Event Creator: Allows management pack authors to generate an event based on events that are currently registered to the NT Event Log.
Managed Code Response Utility: Makes it easier for you to configure managed code responses in MOM.
Management Pack Differencing Tools: Provides a report on changes from the source to the destination management pack.
Management Pack Version Checker: Verifies and compares version of imported management packs to the latest published ones.
Management Pack Wizard: Builds a management pack containing a monitoring role, components for the role and allows you to add state based rules to your management pack for monitoring Windows Services and Windows Performance Counters.
Remove Blank Names: Gives a unique name to rules that have no name so they can be imported.
Resultant Set of Rules: Gives you a way to view the resultant set of rules that are currently targeted to an agent.
Rule and Computer Group Toggle Utility: Allows you to enable or disable computer groups, rule groups, and rules from the command line.

· Infrastructure Management Solution Accelerators: Best practice guidance and tools to help you increase your operational efficiency with MOM 2005.

Alert Tuning
Autoticketing
MOM 2005 Service Continuity
Multiple Management Group Rollup
Notification Workflow

· MOM Product Connectors: Maintain awareness of your system and service availability monitoring across heterogeneous platforms and application environments.

· Troubleshooting Tools: Quickly repair problems or diagnose and collect all required information for PSS.

· MOM Power Toys: Helpful tools like    

Agent Helper: Automatically allows management of agents when there is no heartbeat present by restarting the agents and re-installing them as needed.
Operators Console Notifier: Alerts the operator through a pop-up tool.
Password Updater: Enables remote service account renewal.
SharePoint Web Part: Enables you to show MOM data from within SharePoint leveraging the MOM 2005 SDK tools.
Task Launcher: Launches MOM tasks from the command line

   

The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Resource Kit is available for download at https://www.microsoft.com/mom/downloads/2005/reskit/default.mspx

 

Check https://www.microsoft.com/mom/reskit for a quick synopsis for all the tools.

 

Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 Released

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains the latest software updates for Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 that improve the reliability, performance and manageability of Virtual PC. Updates have been made to improve the performance of Windows XP Service Pack 2 as a guest in Virtual PC, to improve the manageability of virtual machines when used with SMS 2003 Service Pack 1, and to provide support for running Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition as the host operating system.

Some of the fixes included with SP1 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one update.

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b07c9ef0-265a-4237-ae3b-25bc8937d40f&displaylang=en