Eswar Koneti's Blog

Overview :

This Community Technology Preview (“CTP2”) enables System Center customers to jointly evaluate System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate. CTP2 includes updates and enhancements to the following System Center 2012 components:

• Virtual Machine Manager
  • Improved Support for Network Virtualization
  • Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
  • Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
  • Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
• Configuration Manager
  • Support for Windows 8
  • Support for Mac OS clients
  • Support for Linux and Unix servers
• Data Protection Manager
  • Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0
  • Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share
  • Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes
  • Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
• App Controller
  • Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines
  • Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
• Operations Manager
  • Support for IIS 8
  • Monitoring of WCF, MVC and .NET NT services
  • Azure SDK support
• Orchestrator
  • Additional support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
  • Manage VMM self-service User Roles
  • Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
  • Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
• Service Manager
  • Apply price sheets to VMM clouds
  • Create chargeback reports
  • Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Price sheets
• Server App-V
  • Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
  • Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

For system requirements , click here to download the content http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30133

For detailed instructions about using each component, see the component documentation at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=254803.

The Product Group have recently announced the Beta of ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 at TechNet 2012 North America.

You can view the announcement at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/MGT309

Kent blogged about new enhancements over http://blog.coretech.dk/kea/configmgr-2012-sp1-announced-teched-2012/

Enhancements include:

• Platform Support:
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 8 tablet (Intel SoC) support
  • Mac OS X
  • Linux and Unix
• Operating System Deployment: Windows To Go support
• Application Delivery:
  • Win 8 apps
  • Deep link applications
  • Network Cost Support
• PowerShell Provider
• PowerShell Cmdlets:
  • Tasks exposed in the Administration Console
  • Suitable experience for administrator (not the SDK)
  • Align with PowerShell general contentions
• Bitlocker changes:
  • TMP and PIN
  • Used Space Bitlocker
• Prestaged media now supports additional content
  • WIM, Applications, Drivers, Package/Programs
• Flexible hierarchy management:
  • Ability to add a new Central Administration Site
  • Migration between ConfigMgr 2012 hierarchies
• Hierarchy easier to control:
  • Schedule replication for a given link
  • SQL Server distributed views
  • Compression for SQL Server data
• Software Updates Management:
  • Fallback to Windows Update for content
  • Definition updates 3x/day
• Endpoint Protection
  • Real-time administrative actions
• Settings Management: User Profile and Data Management
  • Client Side Caching
  • Roaming User Profiles
  • Folder Redirection

Via http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrdogs/archive/2012/06/14/configmgr-2012-upcoming-enhancements-in-sp1.aspx