System Center Service Manager Survival Guide

Introduction

What is a survival guide? It is a page we created as a pointer to the best information on the web.  You can use the information below to learn the fundamentals; increase your current knowledge; or stay current on Service Manager and events.  And, if you think we missed some great article or blog post out there, please add it below!

This survival guide covers System Center 2012 - Service Manager, System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) - Service Manager and System Center 2012 R2 - Service Manager.  Many links take you to topics and articles that apply the both versions, or to lead-in topics that give you a choice to drill down into one version or another.

Getting Started  

• What's New in System Center 2012 SP1 - Service Manager
• What's New in System Center 2012 R2 - Service Manager
• System Center 2012 - Service Manager Parts
• Release Notes for System Center 2012 - Service Manager (choice between 2012 and 2012 SP1)
• Release Notes for the Authoring Tool in System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Glossary for System Center 2012 – Service Manager
• TechCenter Landing Page
• System Center 2012 Self-Study Guide (Complete Edition)
• System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• System Center 2019 - Service Manager

Planning and Deployment  

Service Manager 2012

• Supported Configurations for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Planning Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Deployment Scenarios for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Deployment Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Self-Service Portal for System Center 2012 - Service Manager

Service Manager 2016

• Planning for System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• Deploy System Center - Service Manager 2016
• Administrative tasks in System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• Day-to-day tasks in System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• Disaster recovery for System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• Author with System Center 2016 - Service Manager

Upgrade

• Upgrade Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Upgrade Planning for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Upgrade System Center 2012 R2 - Service Manager to System Center 2016 - Service Manager
• SCSM 2012 R2 Step by Step Install Management Server 
• Installing Service Manager 2016 with SQL 2016 on Windows Server 2016 
• Remove Default SCSM Tier Queues and Support Group Views 
• Scripted Service Manager Documentation 

HTML 5 Self-Service Portal

• Announcing new HTML5 based Self-Service Portal
• Deploy the New Self-Service Portal
• Deployment Scenarios and Troubleshooting
• Basic UI customization in the new Self Service Portal (HTML5)
• Installing Service Manager 2016 Self Service Portal 
• SCSM HTML5 Portal Prereq Script
• SCSM Self-Service Portal in Arabic

Operations \ Features

• Administrator's Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Using Management Packs
• Using Connectors to Import Data
• Using Runbooks
• Disaster Recovery Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Operations Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Managing Incidents and Problems
• Managing Changes and Activities
• Managing Service Requests
• Managing Release Records
• Service Level Management
• How to create a Basic Configuration Item View and Type Projection showing Computers with their Primary User and Custodian 
• Guide: Service Manager – Type Projections 
• Using Data Properties From the Parent Work Items in Activity Email Templates 
• Include Details from Parent Work Items in Notifications 
• Sample SCSM Report Queries 
• SCSM (System Center Service Manager) Custom Reports 101 with SQL Report Builder 

Authoring 

• Authoring Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Installing Guide SCSM 2012 R2 Authoring Tool - Basic Version
• Management Packs: Working with Management Packs
• Guide: SCSM – Extending Work Items to Add Custom Properties
• Guide: SCSM Authoring Tool - Form Layout Guide

PowerShell

• Cmdlets in System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• ScsmPx PowerShell module
• SMLets Community PowerShell CmdLets
• SMLets on GitHub

Tools

• Job Aids Download for System Center 2012 – Service Manager
• System Center 2012 – Service Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions
• Technical Documentation Download for System Center 2012 - Service Manager
• Windows Phone App: Service Manager Guide-To-Go
• List of Free Apps 
• List of Commercial Apps 

Some of the most downloaded SCSM Tools on TechNet Gallery::

• SCSM CSV Import Wizard 
• Test Lab Guide System Center Service Manager 2012 SP1 
• Service Manager Data Warehouse Architecture Diagram 
• Advanced View Editor 2.0 for SCSM 2012 Free Edition 
• Using Excel to create SCSM 2012 Custom Reports 
• Workflow Performance Troubleshooting Queries  
• SCSM Entity Explorer 

And some others that look interesting:

• Reviewer Portal - SCSM 2012 R2 
• SCSM - General Use SR Extensions 
• Current Activity Tool 
• Service Manager Environment Spellchecker 
• SCSM Version Checker v4 
• Basic Change Calendar View Library for Service Manager 
• Service Manager Monitor 
• Scheduling Work Items in SCSM Natively 
• PowerShell script to get a SCSM entity by Guid 

Troubleshooting

•  Top Support Solutions for System Center 2012 Service Manager

Blogs

• Service Manager Engineering Team Blog
• Marc Umeno's Blog
• Steve Buchanan (MVP)
• Maarten Goet (MVP) 
• Dynamic IT Management - Service Manager (German)
• Anton Gritsenko (MVP)
• Anders Asp (MVP)
• Marcel Zehner (MVP)
• Litware.se
• Nathan Lasnoski (MVP)
• Duncan Lindquist
• Christopher Mank
• Rob Ford
• Anders Bengtsson
• Stefan Johner (MVP)
• Mihai Sarbulescu (MSFT Support Escalation Engineer)
• Markus Klein (MVP)
• Oskar Landmann
• Jan Vidar Elven (MVP)
• Patrick Wahlmüller
• blog.scsmsolutions.com 
• systemcenter.ninja 
• contoso.se/blog 
• The Automation Guy 
• xapity.com/blog 
• Dieter Gasser 
• Coretech Blog - SCSM 
• zgc.se 
• systemcentertipps 
• LazyAdmin Blog

Community

• myITforum.com SCSM Forum
• System Center Central
• Community Group
• Community Content
• SCSM Weekly
• Email Discussion List
• System Center User Group Austria

SCSM LyncUp

• LyncUp Recordings
• LyncUp Summaries

Facebook

•  myITforum.com

LinkedIn

• myITforum.com

Twitter

• The System Center Twitter feed - All the latest System Center news and information
• SC Service Manager
• myITforum.com
• #SCSM Feed

Google+

• myITforum.com

Videos

• System Center All-Up Demo
• Service Manager Videos on Channel 9
• System Center 2012 Service Manager: Planning, Deploying, Managing on Microsoft Virtual Academy

TechNet Forums

A great place to ask questions and find out more about Service Manager. 

Advice when you do post a question:

• Always do a search first to see if the question or issue has already been posted
• Include as much detail as you can and be specific - you will get better responses if you do not ask general open-ended questions

Post your question\issue to the relevant TechNet forum:

• Service Manager - General
• Service Manager - Setup
• Service Manager - SDK and Authoring Tool
• Service Manager - Data Warehouse and Reporting
• Service Manager - ITIL and MOF
• Service Manager - Administration
• Service Manager - Connectors
• Service Manager - Portals
• Service Manager - Documentation
  

See also:

[[System Center 2012 Service Manager Developer's Survival Guide]]