I'm Rob Marshall, a consultant who specialises in the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager product. I like to share, i do so by blogging and helping out when I can in the MS SMS newsgroups and participating in the ConfigMgr MVP program.
I was awarded and joined the program in 2009. It'd be an understatement to say it has to be one of the best experiences an IT engineer can have, if they really enjoy specialising in a product.
My biggest weapon for troubleshooting is, my formidable knowledge, no, only joking, you, the community. I find if I cannot answer a question, then I can usually find the answer from using Bing\Google, pouring over the documentation, and if that doesn't work, tinkering in mine or someone elses virtual lab.
The blogs pretty much about ConfigMgr, but it is also a platform for me to express my random urges to display something I've stumbled across, and that I imagine would entertain you or what not as equally as it did me.
I passed the 70-401 - Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 exam yesterday (13th June 2008). Wasn't as easy as the SMS2003 exam I have to admit. But, I passed with a score high enough to make me buzz all day. I found some of the questions to be really challenging, a lot of NAP and Software Udpates questions, a spread of what I'm calling generic question (applicable to SMS2003 and SCCM). Overall, I'd advise any SMS2003 administrator to book this exam and go take it.
I've got to admit, SCCM has grown on me and now, like with Win95 to Win2000, Win2000 to WinXP, and now WinXP to Win Vista i've getting to like it (I only go as far back as Win 95 to maintain our sanity!). SCCM OSD has a massive WOW factor, i'm truely amazed at the power of Image deployment, very slick Microsoft. Software Updates still seems hugely complicated, with loads of steps required, and reports needed to figure out where you are, but it does go a lot further than ITMU. Overal, the product has had a good tweaking and repaint. Looking forward to finding clients that will actually use it this side of 2008! I also wonder how many people will run in Native mode? Most if not all of the people I speak to will only go for Mixed mode for now. (check out the WMUG Native v Mixed mode poll!) I'd tend to agree with a mixed mode implementation to start with, then grow in to Native mode.
Anyone upgrading from SMS2003 to SCCM2007 and implementing in Native mode is hardcore
Anyways, here's the preparation guide from Microsoft for exam 70-401 get studying!