System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed

09/28/2012 · No Responses

This is the comprehensive reference and technical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012. A team of expert authors offers step-by-step coverage of related topics in every feature area, organized to help IT professionals rapidly optimize Configuration Manager 2012 for their requirements, and then deploy and use it successfully. The authors begin by introducing Configuration Manager 2012 and its goals, and explaining how it fits into the broader System Center product suite. Next, they fully address planning, design, and implementation. Finally, they systematically cover each of Configuration Manager 2012’s most important feature sets, addressing issues ranging from configuration management to software distribution. Readers will learn how to use Configuration Manager 2012’s user-centric capabilities to provide anytime/anywhere services and software, and to strengthen both control and compliance. The first book on Configuration Manager 2012, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Unleashed joins Sams’ market-leading series of books on Microsoft’s System Center product suite: books that have achieved go-to status amongst IT implementers and administrators worldwide.

From the Back Cover
The comprehensive reference and technical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012.

Foreword by Wally Mead, Microsoft Corporation

Leading System Center experts offer step-by-step coverage of every feature area, organized to help you rapidly optimize ConfigMgr 2012 for your specific requirements, deploy and use it successfully, and gain even more value by integrating it with the rest of System Center.

Extensively revised to reflect major improvements in Configuration Manager 2012, this book fully addresses planning, design, and implementation, offering best practice processes for everything from software distribution to client security. Drawing on their unsurpassed “in-the-trenches” experience, the authors show how to use Configuration Manager 2012’s user-centric capabilities to provide anytime/anywhere services and software, and to strengthen both control and compliance.

Understand Configuration Manager 2012’s key concepts and components
Plan your architecture, and design supporting network infrastructure
Install Configuration Manager 2012 and integrate it with existing systems
Leverage Configuration Manager 2012’s major improvements in security and scalability
Manage operations and clients through the new Outlook-style console
Efficiently create, manage, distribute, deploy, and update applications
Centrally manage all your mobile devices
Simplify client security management with new Endpoint Protection capabilities
Query and report on configurations throughout your enterprise
Implement reliable backup and recovery
Establish security accounts, groups, and requirements, and safely delegate security rights

Table of Contents
PART I: Configuration Manager Overview and Concepts
Chapter 1. Configuration Management Basics
Chapter 2. Configuration Manager Overview
Chapter 3. Looking Inside Configuration Manager

PART II: Planning, Design, and Installation
Chapter 4. Architecture Design Planning
Chapter 5. Network Design
Chapter 6. Installing System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
Chapter 7. Migrating to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

PART III: Configuration Manager Operations
Chapter 8. The Configuration Manager Console
Chapter 9. Configuration Manager Client Management

PART IV: Software and Configuration Management
Chapter 10. Managing Compliance
Chapter 11. Packages and Programs
Chapter 12. Creating and Managing Applications
Chapter 13. Distributing and Deploying Applications
Chapter 14. Software Update Management
Chapter 15. Mobile Device Management
Chapter 16. Endpoint Protection
Chapter 17. Configuration Manager Queries
Chapter 18. Reporting
Chapter 19. Operating System Deployment

PART V: Administering System Center Configuration Manager
Chapter 20. Security and Delegation in Configuration Manager
Chapter 21. Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance

PART VI: Appendixes
Appendix A. Configuration Manager Log Files
Appendix B. Extending Hardware Inventory
Appendix C. Reference URLs
Appendix D. Available Online