The alternate title was going to be "Citrix Presentation Server (CPS) Configuration Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Desired Configuration Management (DCM) 2.0" but that was way to long. Saw this blurb on Doug Brown's site and I thought this was very interesting but not getting much play. Citrix has recently released a Configuration Pack that integrates with Systems Center (in particular the Desired Configuration Management module) to create a baseline configuration, then run audit reports against servers. Then you get a compliance report and in the same report get remediation steps to get back into compliance. I haven't messed around with this yet (I have been playing with SCOM but not SCCM), but this looks very promising for large organizations with large Citrix Presentation Server Farms.
VMware Sidebar - I know there are companies that are looking to provide SCOM and SCCM integration for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (ESX and VirtualCenter), but VMware needs to stepup here. Citrix has tried to let "3rd parties" add value for years and there is usually a lot of bad products or it takes years to develop something from scratch what Citrix could have done in months. Don't let this happen. Keep developing plugins for the most common management and configuration tools. I know Microsoft is a "competitor", but develop some plugins for SCOM and SCCM. A lot of companies are standardizing on it.
Excerpt from PDF available from download (along with the .MOF files) http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx115268
The Citrix Presentation Server (CPS) Configuration Pack is a tool which you can use to evaluate each Presentation Server’s configuration against predefined security and best practice guidelines. The Configuration Pack is designed to be used in conjunction with the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Desired Configuration Management (DCM) 2.0 module.
The DCM 2.0 module automates configuration management audits. DCM accomplishes this by allowing the user or Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to define desired hardware, operating system, and application configuration settings in multiple configuration data sources. Then, using the supplied auditing engine, DCM compares desired settings with actual settings and reports on configuration compliance. The DCM reports contain detailed information about which Presentation Servers are out of compliance and how to correct each configuration setting. Using this information, Citrix administrators can rectify the configuration issues on each reported Presentation Server, thus bringing the entire CPS farm back into compliance with Citrix Best Practices.
Excerpt from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680553.aspx
Desired configuration management in Configuration Manager 2007 allows you to assess the compliance of computers with regard to a number of configurations, such as whether the correct Microsoft Windows operating system versions are installed and configured appropriately, whether all required applications are installed and configured correctly, whether optional applications are configured appropriately, and whether prohibited applications are installed. Additionally, you can check for compliance with software updates and security settings.
Compliance is evaluated by defining a configuration baseline that contains the configuration items you want to monitor and rules that define the compliance that you require. This configuration data can be imported from the Web in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Configuration Packs as best practices defined by Microsoft and other vendors, or defined within Configuration Manager, or defined externally and then imported into Configuration Manager.