http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteronline/archive/2007/09/28/introducing-microsoft-asset-inventory-service-ais.aspx

What I’m not sure of is how this compares to SMS 2003 SP3’s Asset Intelligence feature. AIS sounds like repackaging the AssetMetrix product, taking your inventory offsite to be manhandled and presented back in a logical form, whereas Asset Intelligence sounds like it brings that same intelligence into SMS.

Either way, this could really be some cool stuff. SMS doesn't provide the easiest reporting at times, and being able to more definitively understand what is installed on the computers in your realm is a major task that needed more clarity. AssetMetrix did this as a service, where you loaded an agent on the machine and it sent inventory data to AssetMetrix, who crunched it and presented web based, friendly information to the asset managers. AIS looks like the Microsoft rebranding of that software they acquired. But Microsoft has since brought that intelligence into SMS 2003 SP3 and made it avaialble in Web Reporting. Since AIS is only available to those who have MDOP, and I would guess that most who have MDOP have SMS...what's the market for this? *shrug*

On the heals of the WSUS 3.0 release today, Microsoft also announced Systems Management Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 3. Presumably the non-R2 version will also be announced shortly.

Short post - Install your critical update MS07-017 now, either by letting Automatic Updates do it's job or visiting Microsoft Update. This one is already being exploited.

For those security minded folk, the Microsoft Security Reponse Center blog has a great article about what this is, how clients can be impacted, and why this was an out of band release.

(link to Redmond Magazine)

Something that I've been hanging onto for a long time, and since I'm purging physical files, I thought I'd share. It's dated December 2005, mentions information about SMSv4 and not System Center Configuration Manager 2007, but there's still good info in it. The concept of a reverse collection is interesting, especially if you want to have a reverse collection of machines that don't have the approved antivirus, for example.

Remember how I was pondering when SMS became a category within WSUS? Well, yesterday Microsoft released SMS SP2 to WSUS. Now, through WSUS, you can update your SMS environment.

There's just something wacky about that...

The upside of this, though, is that I think we can actually push out the revised SMS console to machines via WSUS when the service pack is applied to the server. Of course, why you would ever do that function that way I don't know...

http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2006/09/26/459194.aspx

Hey everyone, Craig Gehre here. We’re in the process of releasing out of band update MS06-055 to address the VML issue. At the moment, Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Autoupdate are live. We’re in the process of publishing the bulletin, associated packages, and updated content for WSUS, MBSA1.2.1, EST, and MBSA 2.0 to the Microsoft download center and normal locations and those should be up shortly. Until that time the links might not work in the bulletin until the packages appear on the download center. The WSUSscan.cab for SMS and MBSA 2.0 users is also in process and will be published soon. We’ll provide a follow-on blog post shortly once we get everything up.

We're also re-releasing MS06-049 for Windows 2000 users and will have that information up shortly as well.

-Craig

Meant to put this out yesterday to y'all, but ran out of time. Yesterday, Microsoft released their monthly battery of security updates, and one of them is fairly ciritical. The exploit of this vulnerability would allow anonymous users to be able to run anonymous code, and according to Microsoft, there is already exploit code available. I figure it's only a matter of time before that code becomes automated and results in a nasty virus. So if you run a moderm Windows operating system (Windows 2000, XP, or Windows Server 2003), do yourself a favor an get to Microsoft Update and apply the security updates -- specifically MS06-040 (KB921883). If you are system admin, start testing with WSUS/SMS/manual technologies, and get this to your clients.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/26/678149.aspx

That's right. IE 7 will be able to be implemented through Automatic Updates as a Critical patch, planned for later this year. Presumably, this also means WSUS will get this. I'm curious about how SMS 2003's ITMU will address this. At this time, XP SP2 is the target for desktop -- no plans for W2K SP4 or XP SP1. Vista will have this bulit in would be my guess. On the server side, it's Windwos Server 2003 SP1, again with no plans for W2K or Windows Server 2003 RTM. Presumably, Longhorn will have this built in.

From TFA:

We are also providing a Blocker Toolkit for our enterprise customers who may want to block automatic delivery of IE7 in their organizations; this blocker has no expiration date. Enterprise customers can download the free Blocker Toolkit from the Microsoft Download Center today. We’ve also made additional information for IT administrators available at the Windows Update/Microsoft Update site on TechNet.

Further, regarding the Blocker Toolkit, from the download site:

Organizations do not need to deploy the Blocker Toolkit in environments managed with an update management solution such as Windows Server Update Services or Systems Management Server 2003. Organizations can use those products to fully manage deployment of updates released through Windows Update and Microsoft Update, including Internet Explorer 7, within their environment.

I'm needing to do a presentation about the SMS Web Reporting, and want to have a slide-deck as a backup. Well, the thing we all know about PowerPoint presentations is that the text needs to be LARGE to be read correctly. Get, I'll just launch IE, change the View, Text sixe option to Large or Largest. No biggie, right?

Wrong.

The wonderful people at Microsoft have implemented their SMS Web Reporting in such a way that you can't change the text size using Internet Explorer, which is the only browser allowed to communicate to that website.

*bangs head against wall*

SELECT DISTINCT
v_R_System.Netbios_Name0, v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR.DHCPEnabled0, v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR.IPAddress0,
v_R_System.ResourceType
FROM v_R_System INNER JOIN
v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR ON v_R_System.ResourceID = v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR.ResourceID
WHERE (v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR.DHCPEnabled0 = 0) AND (NOT (v_GS_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGUR.IPAddress0 IS NULL))

I've been fighting an issue with both my Automatic Updates service and Background Intelligent Transport Service stopping on client machines. Automatic Updates is failing with Event ID 7023 from Service Control Manager, with the description "The class is configured to run as a security id different from the caller" and BITS is getting an Event ID 7024 also from Service Control Manager, with the description "The Background Intelligent Transfer Service service terminated with service-specific error 2147500053 (0x80004015)."

This could also be related to SMS agents not downloading policy from the associated Management Point.
( More techy-talk inside the cut )