Wishlist for Features or Changes for System Center EssentialsWake On LAN I would like to se some sort of 'Wake On Lan' functionality built into the system. If the client system supports this functionality then this feature would be a fantastic bonus for sys admins. MAC addresses could be registered in AD and the WOL packets could be fired from the local SITE SCE server. Big Red Button I would like to see the ability to 'fire' SUS updates 'on demand' at a box and not rely on the client pulling once every 24 hours. Product Team Response: You can have the client check in immediately by selecting the computer in the Computers Space then clicking the task "Detect Software & Updates Now". Install & Configuration Steps for Small Business Server 2003 Product Team Response: Please view this link for steps to configure SBS 2003 Premium http://sce.editme.com/SBS2003Premium Request for SMS (SCCM) Features Product Team Response: Please provide the features you are looking for in the "Comments" section, and we can let you know what we can do. SCE is a simplified management tool. For instance, it contains all the functionality of MOM (Ops Manager 2007) and WSUS 3.0. with enhanced capabilities such as Software Distribution and Hardware/Software Inventory. Computer Inventory Annotation I would like to manually enter custom data for a computer in SCE like e.g. an inventory ID which is interesting for asset management in our accounting dept. Product Team Response: We have heard this request a few times, and are evaluating it for a future release. Its definitely on our radar. Custom-defined Inventory Also I would like to define custom queries to scan for certain files/folders (which may show their versions or date of last change) and registry values. It would be nice to see this info in the inventory to allow a comparison between different application/system settings. Product Team Response: This is very possible, and can be done using a Management Pack, but its not simple. We are looking at ways to make this simpler in a future release. Management of Macs I've always wanted to have a Software/computer management system, but one thing that is prohibitive is that your only taking into account a PC only shop. In a higher education enviroment we have good number of macintosh computers(about 40/60 mac/PC). It seems to be a lot of work to maintain and take care of the server, when it really doesn't do us any good with the half of our computers.
I don't really expect to be able to update software, but to see the basic information, i.e. this computer is OS X 10.4.2, 256mb ram, 30gb hd or any of the more simple pieces of information. Even if I had to install an application on each of the computers it'd be better than the way it is now. This obviously is a small market, so I can't totally expect microsoft to make a huge effort in this regard. Product Team Response: We are working on multi-vendor management for future releases, but can offer no details on supported platforms at this time. Your comment is well founded. Reboot Policies Rebooting network servers is a very great network management problem. When applying WSUS updates to our typical customer network, if all the servers/computers reboot at the same time, the network errors that occur are excessive and in some cases, some client/server systems may not recover due to system initilization timing differences. One simple example is rebooting all domain controllers and servers and client computers at the same time, may cause the loss of dhcp/dns/wins resources required for authentication to some device/computer that gets online before the network sub-systems are operational. This rebooting can also get to be VERY awkward when running VM2005 R2; We reboot Guest VM servers at 4:00 am, and only reboot HOST VM machines manually. To make certain that domain resources are available we reboot Domain controllers in shifts (some at 2:00 am and some at 2:30 am). These reboots are controlled by the deployed group policies for microsoft updates. We need to be able to specify SCE devices and either define WSUS reboot times or have the system "suggest" plausable re-boot sequences. Use of value parameters associated with computer containers, OUs, or individual computer devices would be most helpfull. Also the addition of a GUI abillity to apply a MS hotfix package and reboot at a specific hour of the day would greatly reduce the complexity of applying these fixes in a remotly managed network situation. My final "wish regarding reboot" is that a parameter exist that will "FORCE" the reboot even if a user session is logged into the terminal server or the server. The abillity to over-ride Disconnected sessions, and force the reboot this Sunday night at 3:00 am would be an excellent enhancement for those of us that currently use MOM and/or WSUS or SCE Beta2. Product Team Response: These are great ideas for reboot policy management. We are evaluating this for future releases. Support for Non-domain-joined Devices I would like to see provision for the management of non-domain connected PCs even if it offers a limited subset of the functionality available to domain-connected machines. I would envisage a manually-installed client-side component/service that either listens or polls the SCE server for tasks to be run such as the execution of scripts and files. Examples would be the installation, configuration and removal of software; enumeration and uploading of hardware and software inventories; log and system health details, etc... In addition the management or monitoring of thin client devices would be nice. HP T5000-series devices for preference as we have dozens of them! :) Support for OneCare Virus Signature Distribution I would like to see that the SEC can manage machine that got Windows live one care install, so the client can get virus signature and performance tune schedule forn SEC server and the SEC report on client anti-virus status | 