Along the same lines of the Technet Virtual Lab I posted about here, there is also a site that allows you to take a tour of Microsoft’s management products in a lab setting.  The Microsoft Management Online Experience (https://microsoft.granitepillar.com/management) provides a “sandbox” environment using Microsoft Virtual Server to provide an installation of SMS 2003 and MOM 2000 and a walk-through of the products’ functionality and features.  Once you register for an account (you are asked for some sales related information), you can either choose to “Take It Now” depending on availability or “Schedule” your session for a specific date and time.  Some of the topics included are:

Security Patch Management with SMS 2003- Enterprises need to maintain the security of their IT environment. Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 delivers the necessary tools to enable enterprises to stay aware of the latest updates, identify software vulnerabilities, and quickly deploy patches in an accurate, verifiable and cost-effective manner. In this demonstration we will have a look at the steps involved in installing the SMS 2003 Office patch tools.

New Application Deployment with SMS 2003- Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 provides a comprehensive solution for application deployment and configuration management for the Microsoft platform. The tool enables organizations to deploy relevant software applications to designated users quickly and at reduced costs. In this demonstration we will walk through the steps required to deploy Microsoft Office 2003 using the latest release of Microsoft Systems Management Server.

Managing Exchange 2003 with MOM- Email is the most critical server workload for enterprises. If your communications servers fail, your business grinds to a halt. Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2000 SP1 is the event and performance monitoring tool that enhances Exchange server availability and maximizes system and application uptime. In this online lab, we will focus on setting up, configuring and using MOM to monitor Exchange 2003. Specifically, we will show how MOM allows you to stay aware of Exchange service levels and be accountable with performance reporting.

Monitoring Active Directory Services with MOM - MOM improves corporate operations, enhances performance and maximizes system and application availability. Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 SP1 now includes the MOM Connector Framework, additional and improved management packs, a new SDK, and more resource kit items. In this online lab we show you some of these new features and how they work with Active Directory Services.