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    Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials
    Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials
    Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials
    Ebook281 pages2 hours

    Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials

    By Miguel Oliveira

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    About this ebook

    Design, implement, and improve your infrastructure administration with System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2's automation process

    About This Book
    • Learn about the components of Orchestrator, the design and implementation process, and the way it interacts with your environment to create outstanding automation processes
    • Gain an in-depth understanding of Runbooks, while exploring its security and troubleshooting aspects
    • Follow this step-by-step guide at your own pace and get yourself in the frontline of the Orchestrator world
    Who This Book Is For

    This book is targeted for those who want to gain time in their administrative tasks and profit from it to improve also their environment by reaching a more autonomous infrastructure. Experience with other System Center family products as well as Active Directory and other core datacentre components would be useful to help you understand and execute the information given in this book.

    What You Will Learn
    • Plan, assess, design, and implement Orchestrator 2012 R2 in a corporate environment
    • Master the Runbook Designer and discover all about the Runbook creation process
    • Import and integrate more technologies through new imported functionalities and learn what they bring to your environment
    • Extend your possibilities and interaction with your environment while you get a hand of the best practices for this system
    • Implement high-availability, security, backup, and recovery procedures and fine-tuning of the platform
    • Familiarize yourself with the Runbook design and its implementation with an insight into the methodology for a more dynamic Datacenter
    In Detail

    With the increasing complexity of systems in our infrastructure designs, administrating these systems has become more complex and repetitive. This ultimately translates into an inefficient environment and loss of time. System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 is the tool that can help you regain that time again, by simplifying repetitive tasks (or complex ones) into a simple one that will require minimum intervention from you, or even none.

    This technology will drive you one step forward towards a more dynamic infrastructure and can also be used to make a customized Private Cloud environment setup.

    Starting off with the fundamentals of Orchestrator, this book helps you to learn the configuration and deployment of the Orchestrator 2012 R2 in a corporate environment to successfully deploy and mitigate real-life issues that you might encounter. You'll learn the most used part of Orchestrator, the Runbook Designer, with all its components and mechanisms to help you efficiently design and implement your Runbooks from top to bottom. Additionally, you will also get familiarized with configuring key Integration Packs available for Orchestrator to extend its functionality and enhance the automation solution.

    Furthermore, you will explore the possibilities of extending and integrating Orchestrator with other parties and learn to set up core infrastructure administrative tasks that can save time and effort when automated with Orchestrator. You finally round off by gaining insights on the maintenance aspects of Orchestrator, while simultaneously covering the troubleshooting, backup, and recovery features.

    Style and approach

    Written in a step-by-step guide format, the chapters are organized in a sequence of what you need to know first to move on to the next component. Each chapter contains a broad explanation of what we are working on at that moment and the tips provided are based on real-world experience.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPackt Publishing
    Release dateAug 7, 2015
    ISBN9781785287848
    Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials
    Author

    Miguel Oliveira

    Miguel Oliveira is a versatile IT architect, system engineer, and information security enthusiast who has been living in Switzerland since 2012; before then, he lived in Portugal. During that time, Miguel worked mostly as an IT consultant, having worked with the major companies in Portugal (namely Novabase and Microsoft) with which he designed, developed, and implemented several System Center solutions across different clients, from the banking/financial industry to energy/oil companies. In Switzerland, he worked for international organizations and for a private company as an infrastructure architect and as a senior systems engineer at the time of publishing this book. Miguel's experience in IT started early as huge curiosity developed in him when he was very young, and it hasn't stopped ever since. The will to develop his knowledge was so strong that at the age of 16, he had his own server at home, and with it, he achieved the first step of his career as an IT systems administrator in 2003, making him an expert on Microsoft products today. He also has good knowledge of VMware, Unix, Network, and Security, which he uses in his daily tasks as an infrastructure architect providing insight and expertise for solutions that are requested by his company. This book is Miguel's first ever published book, and it has been an amazing and interesting adventure.

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      Book preview

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials - Miguel Oliveira

      Table of Contents

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials

      Credits

      About the Author

      Acknowledgments

      About the Reviewers

      www.PacktPub.com

      Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

      Why subscribe?

      Free access for Packt account holders

      Instant updates on new Packt books

      Preface

      What is Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2?

      What this book covers

      What you need for this book

      Who this book is for

      Conventions

      Reader feedback

      Customer support

      Downloading the color images of this book

      Errata

      Piracy

      Questions

      1. Configuring and Deploying Orchestrator 2012 R2

      An overview of the Orchestrator components

      Planning the Orchestrator architecture

      Deploying a single-server solution

      Deploying a multi-server solution

      Management Server

      Runbook Server

      Orchestrator console and web service

      Runbook Designer

      Summary

      2. Runbook Designer

      Runbook Designer overview

      Runbooks overview

      Naming, version management, and folders

      Smart links

      Published data and the Data bus

      Global settings

      Subscribe and Data Manipulation

      Looping

      Runbook Control

      Runbook design recommendations

      Creation of a Runbook

      Gathering requirements

      Activities selection

      Flowcharts

      Creating the Runbook

      The Runbook Tester

      Logging

      Summary

      3. Orchestrator Integration Packs

      Deployment Manager

      Integration Packs

      Registering Integration Packs

      Deploying Integration Packs

      Configuring the new categories

      Active Directory

      System Center Configuration Manager

      System Center Operations Manager

      System Center Virtual Machine Manager

      System Center Data Protection Manager

      Summary

      4. Extending Orchestrator

      An overview of the Orchestration console

      Deployment Manager

      The Orchestrator Integration Toolkit

      The web service

      Summary

      5. Runbook Examples

      Runbook for Active Directory User Account Provisioning

      Runbook for Active Directory User Password Reset

      Runbook for Automatic System Log Archival

      Runbook for Workstation Power Saving

      Program execution

      Runbook for Weekend Maintenance Routine

      Summary

      6. Maintaining an Orchestrator Infrastructure

      High Availability

      Scalability

      Security

      Troubleshooting

      Backup and recovery

      Fine-tuning Orchestrator

      The Best Practices Analyzer

      Summary

      Index

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 Essentials

      Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

      Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

      Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

      First published: August 2015

      Production reference: 1040815

      Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

      Livery Place

      35 Livery Street

      Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

      ISBN 978-1-78528-758-9

      www.packtpub.com

      Credits

      Author

      Miguel Oliveira

      Reviewers

      Ibrahim Aladwan

      Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen

      Commissioning Editor

      Veena Pagare

      Acquisition Editor

      Vinay Argekar

      Content Development Editor

      Nikhil Potdukhe

      Technical Editor

      Deepti Tuscano

      Copy Editor

      Merilyn Pereira

      Project Coordinator

      Vijay Kushlani

      Proofreader

      Safis Editing

      Indexer

      Tejal Soni

      Production Coordinator

      Melwyn D'sa

      Cover Work

      Melwyn D'sa

      About the Author

      Miguel Oliveira is a versatile IT architect, system engineer, and information security enthusiast who has been living in Switzerland since 2012; before then, he lived in Portugal. During that time, Miguel worked mostly as an IT consultant, having worked with the major companies in Portugal (namely Novabase and Microsoft) with which he designed, developed, and implemented several System Center solutions across different clients, from the banking/financial industry to energy/oil companies. In Switzerland, he worked for international organizations and for a private company as an infrastructure architect and as a senior systems engineer at the time of publishing this book.

      Miguel's experience in IT started early as huge curiosity developed in him when he was very young, and it hasn't stopped ever since. The will to develop his knowledge was so strong that at the age of 16, he had his own server at home, and with it, he achieved the first step of his career as an IT systems administrator in 2003, making him an expert on Microsoft products today. He also has good knowledge of VMware, Unix, Network, and Security, which he uses in his daily tasks as an infrastructure architect providing insight and expertise for solutions that are requested by his company.

      This book is Miguel's first ever published book, and it has been an amazing and interesting adventure.

      Acknowledgments

      I would like to thank my wife, Rita, for all her help and support during moments when I wasn't around due to writing this book. I would like to dedicate this book to my little girl, Alice, who has inspired me to do it. I also want to express my gratitude and thanks to Vinay Argekar for giving me the opportunity to author this book and all his patience with me; without him, this book wouldn't have been here.

      I also want to thank all my mentors and dear friends who helped me improve over the years: Adalberto Aguiar, Pedro Almeida, Jaime Pocinho, Alberto Nunes, and last but not least, Paulo Lopes. Without these gentlemen, I wouldn't have reached the point of excellence I am at today. Also, a word to my dear friends who kept pushing me to finish the book (you're too many to be listed): a big thank you!

      About the Reviewers

      Ibrahim Aladwan is a senior systems engineer at STS Jordan, working with Systems Management, Monitoring, Orchestration, the private cloud, and Data Center Virtualization. He has extensive experience as a design and technical expert for complex IT projects in Active Directory, Messaging, Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, System Management, Protection, and Storage Systems with all Implementation Scenarios and Disaster Recovery Solutions. Ibrahim has good training and presentation skills and has consulted, supported, and trained many IT professionals. In addition, he has his own blog and posts, which he feels will be helpful for IT professionals. Ibrahim is currently certified with several Microsoft technologies, such as MCSE:Private Cloud, MCSA:Office 365, Desktop Virtualization, Active Directory, Exchange, and Windows Server.

      Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen is a senior consultant, trainer, and chief developer at Coretech A/S, a System Center Gold Partner, and he is a member of the System Center Alliance. Since starting at Coretech in 2007, he has worked on scripting and development and has also worked on developing tools, extensions, and scripts for System Center. His primary focus is Automation, including Orchestrator, Service Management Automation, and Azure Automation. He has presented at TechEd and many other events. Jakob is the cofounder of the Danish PowerShell User Group (www.psug.dk). He has authored several courses and blogs at http://blog.coretech.dk/jgs.

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      Preface

      In the IT administration world, there has always been a huge demand for quicker ways of doing more with less (either time or material). An IT admin is constantly confronted with requests that either become a routine task and end up increasing their workload, or are just requests that bring a bit more inertia to the daily administrative process by adding either another component to manage, or requests to approve moving forward by looking into another console to monitor in order to take action to move forward. With technology always evolving and becoming more dynamic, IT administration becomes more difficult and demanding, which leads to newer software, tool implementation that will possibly need operations and tasks to be performed on a daily basis and information to be processed and debugged at several levels, exhausting the IT personnel resources on these administrative tasks and, or recurring actions that derivate from all this.

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 can bring added value and make the IT admin's life easier by cutting short recurrent actions and allowing the IT admin to be focused on other tasks while Orchestrator carries on with those recurrent tasks. We identify and orchestrate these tasks through a workflow in order to make it more autonomous and only intervene when the workflow is not able to work out the task in it.

      What is Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2?

      Microsoft System Center Orchestrator (SCORCH or Orchestrator, from now on) is a workflow automation software that allows IT administrators to automate monitoring and deployment tasks. Orchestrator's tasks are actually Runbooks that are designed through a drag-and-drop user interface and then translates them into .NET, PowerShell, or SSH commands to automate the tasks defined. It is possible to manage various System Center components, as well as AD and other technologies through the use of Integration Packs and can also be used to automate tasks in other operating

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