Hoping to address the needs of midsize businesses that lack system management specialists, Microsoft is readying two system management products. The first, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) version 3.0, is an update to Microsoft's free tool for centrally authorizing and distributing Microsoft OS and application patches. The second, System Center Essentials (SCE), is a new fee-based management product for monitoring servers and critical workstations, patching, performing software distribution, and collecting hardware and software inventories. SCE is built on top of both WSUS 3.0 and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007, the upcoming successor to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005.

WSUS 3.0 Becomes Extensible

Because it is free, the current version of WSUS (version 2.0) is popular with organizations that have at least one IT professional whose duties include keeping PCs up to date with the latest Microsoft security patches and service packs. It gives an organization more control over which patches get applied and when patching takes place than they would get by configuring every PC to periodically update itself from the Microsoft Update Web site. WSUS is also less complex than Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, the company's flagship product for managing hardware and software assets. However, unlike SMS, WSUS 2.0 (and its precursor, Software Update Services) is not a general purpose inventory and software distribution tool and cannot be used to install applications on PCs.

Superficially, WSUS 3.0 looks like a modest upgrade from its predecessor, boasting an improved management interface, support for more complex topologies, and better reporting capabilities. However, under the covers WSUS 3.0 contains a strategic improvement; a new API that transforms WSUS into a platform that allows developers to extend it with add-on software that provides management functionality not contained in the free WSUS base product. SCE will be the first software to make use of the new WSUS API.

WSUS 3.0 is in public beta and is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2007.

New: System Center Essentials

SCE is a new product that unifies some of the capabilities of MOM, WSUS, and SMS into a single, easier-to-use product that targets businesses with between 50 and 500 desktops and at least one IT generalist on staff or have contracted IT administration to service providers.

Prior to SCE, organizations with 10 or fewer servers have had the option to use the low-cost MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition to monitor server health. This edition can run normal MOM Management Packs (MPs)—sets of rules and scripts that define healthy behavior of a system component or service and that incorporate knowledge that guides systems administrators on how to correct unhealthy conditions—but it lacks MOM Standard Edition's ability to generate reports and integrate with other management systems. However, the US$500 Workgroup Edition is one-twelfth the cost of MOM Standard Edition, and it will run on the free Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine (MSDE) rather than requiring the significant additional cost of a full SQL Server license. This made the price of Workgroup Edition attractive to small organizations with tight IT budgets, but unfortunately the product placed high technical and time demands on the system administrators who had to configure it.

When Microsoft releases the next version of MOM—SCOM 2007—in the first half of 2007, it will no longer offer a Workgroup Edition. SCE will take its place, plus its role will expand beyond health monitoring—SCE will use the WSUS infrastructure to provide inventory and software management for desktops and servers. Although Microsoft has not yet divulged pricing and licensing details for SCE, it's likely to have pricing and server restrictions similar to that of MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.

Microsoft claims that SCE will not be just a bundle of SCOM 2007 and WSUS 3.0, but that the functions of each will be fully integrated into a unified and simplified console, and that SCE will have some features not found in the component technologies. Also, SCE is designed so that service providers can provide offsite system management and monitoring services to small and medium organizations that don't want to have any IT personnel on staff.

SCOM 2007 will be the first version of MOM to make use of System Definition Models (SDM), and Microsoft claims that this will greatly reduce the amount of configuration and tuning necessary to eliminate false alerts, and will provide greater assistance to system administrators identifying a problem's root cause. The company hopes that this capability will make SCOM 2007 and SCE, which will include it, easier to maintain by IT generalists.

Unlike the free WSUS 3.0, SCE extends the new WSUS APIs to support general purpose software distribution and hardware and software inventories. Although Windows 2000 introduced Group Policy—based software distribution and installation using Microsoft's Windows Installer (MSI), many shortcomings limited its use. In contrast, SCE has enhanced software distribution capabilities, such as support for software that doesn't use Windows Installer, software transfers to clients using the network-friendly Background Intelligent Transfer Services (BITS), and status reporting. Like Group Policy-based software distribution, SCE supports targeting of patches and applications to computers in Active Directory security groups and Organizational Units.

The extended WSUS 3.0 functions in SCE overlap the functionality of SMS even more than did WSUS 2.0, but Microsoft is expecting that SCE won't significantly impact SMS sales. The company believes the target customers for SCE cannot justify the greater capabilities and cost of SMS and just want a more basic management product that can make limited IT staff more productive and increase system uptime.

SCE is in public beta and will ship in the second quarter of 2007. However, because it depends on WSUS v3 and SCOM 2007, any slip in the schedules of those products will impact the SCE schedule.

Resources

WSUS 3.0 information and links to the beta are available at www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updateservices.

SCE information and links to the beta are available at www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sce.

SCOM 2007 information and links to the beta are available at www.microsoft.com/mom/evaluation/beta/opsmgroverview.mspx.

The beta version of WSUS 2.0 was described in detail in "Free Software Update Technology to Cover All Products" on page 12 of the Feb. 2005 Update.

MOM 2005 details can be found in "More Polished Operations Manager Nearing Completion" on page 3 of the July 2004 Update.