Systems Management Overview

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) will get a major update in 2006. Code-named MOM v3, this version will use the company’s planned “Monad” managed scripting technology and support monitoring of services that span multiple servers, among other features.

SMS 2003 SP2 is due in early 2006, and a separate SMS 2003 R2 due later in 2006 will allow inventory scanning and patching of non-Microsoft applications, among other features. Finally, SMS v4, due in early 2007, will support the new image-based installation technology of Windows Vista, among other capabilities.

Microsoft’s Virtual Server virtualization product received an “R2” update in 2005 to support the AMD-developed x64 64-bit architecture, among other features. A 2006 update is planned to support Intel VT and AMD Pacifica virtualization hardware, as well as to ensure technical compatibility with Windows Longhorn Server. Windows Server will eventually incorporate “hypervisor” technology to enable computers to boot directly to virtual machines, rather than first loading a host OS and starting a virtualization layer like Virtual Server. The capability could appear in Windows Longhorn Server R2 in 2009, but it might appear earlier in a feature pack. Microsoft intends to provide a migration path from Virtual Server to the Windows Server virtualization technology.