Now Available: SMS 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring Version 2.0

DCM v2.0 automates the configuration management audits between desired or defined configuration settings and actual configuration settings. DCM accomplishes this by allowing the user to define desired hardware, operating system and application configuration settings in multiple configuration data sources and then using the supplied auditing engine, DCM compares desired settings with actual settings and then reports configuration compliance. SMS 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) Version 2.0 now supports configuration monitoring of desktops and servers.

DCM Version 2.0 continues to monitor configuration settings in the Microsoft Active Directory, Window Management Instrumentation (WMI), Metabase, file system, and registry and extends DCM Version 1.0 by adding support for the SQL Server data source, Windows desktop, x64 and .Net Framework 2.0. DCM Version 2.0 also adds predefined baseline Configuration Items for many Microsoft products and customizable SMS web reports.

As a highlight to the solution update, DCM Version 2.0 includes a redesigned user interface (UI) to reduce the time needed for defining Configuration Items. The new user interface supports complex rule definition with the Advanced View and adds a wizard-based simplified UI for defining simple rules as the Standard View. The new UI also includes common rule templates and enables users to define common rules specific to their organizations. In addition, CI rules can now be viewed and edited in a table format. These changes dramatically reduce the time needed to define and edit Configuration Items when using DCM.

Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) is a functional extension to SMS 2003 to provide system configuration definition and monitoring functionality. This solution was designed to provide a framework today to begin exploring the power of DCM prior to the release of System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2007. ConfigMgr 2007 will offer a fully integrated and supported implementation of these capabilities.

DCM was developed in collaboration with the Microsoft Operations and Exchange Centers of Excellence and is applied internally at Microsoft. Microsoft IT uses SMS 2003 DCM to monitor Exchange and Windows Core Services (AD, DNS, DHCP, and WINS) configurations. The core set of baseline configurations available with the DCM Version 2.0 solution are intended to help users get started with DCM. Microsoft Services offers a complete implementation service for DCM using configuration management best practices and includes expanded Configuration Items for core Microsoft products. For details about Microsoft Services offerings using DCM, please contact opsleads@microsoft.com.

You can download DCM v 2.0 here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=72132.