Dear NC,
is it possible to get rid of all these external Links on the App Controller Starting Page like Next Steps, Community or Blog Entries and Links to the Technet?
This is really nothing a Self Service User needs!

-Bernd

Hi Bernd,

Thank you for the feedback.

It is not possible to modify the content of the Overview page.

We are interested in feedback on this area though.

Do you want to be able to show this content to Administrators but not show it for Self Service Users?

Do you want the ability to show/hide each area, or is it OK to turn it all on/off?

Regards

Richard

Yes, both would be very nice!

And: If there are no Azure Public Clouds configured for Access this area could also been hidden to Self Service Users. The only thing they need is their Clouds and Services, maybe the VM Templates.

From my perspective it would be beneficial to display content selectively associated with user defined roles much the same way resources are allocated. In our case the current display seems to allow 'Joe User' to associate his personal Azure account with his private cloud and then deploy corporate servers into a public domain. Please tell me I'm wrong before my security team blows a gasket over the implications associated with this 'feature'.

I don't have an Azure account to test this on but from a security perspective this could easily be a deal-breaker for a corporate deployment. We could probably disable this (and all the external content) by blocking selective ports/outbound calls from the VMM server but I'm guessing we might wind up with errors displayed when users open the interface or click the Azure link. So much to test, so little time...

Agree that AppController main page display way to much informations that are useless to the standard self-service user. (ex: public cloud subscription, administration tips, ...)

Yes, both would be very nice!

And: If there are no Azure Public Clouds configured for Access this area could also been hidden to Self Service Users. The only thing they need is their Clouds and Services, maybe the VM Templates.

First question my clients asked when presented the app controller UI: "Where can I roll out a new workstation (image) ? There isn't a button for it."

In that respect does the self service portal of SCVMM give a cleaner experience for a Self Service User; it has a big button mentioning: New computer.

We also have more helpdesk calls with app controller.

For private cloud admins it is for sure a way cooler than old ssp. But for plain ssp scenarios in big companies to give users of certain departments access to deploy additional machines for testing an things like that app controller is a way to complex and overloaded.

An option for a reduced gui just to deploy and manage machines would be great.

I also don't understand why non admin users has to see things like kb artikels.

Dear Richard,

Thanks for your reply. I agree with the others here now that AppController is the only SSP possibility it looks way too complex for the average user. I was very content with the old ssp in SP0 as it had a very simple interface where my application support could stop, start and connect to their vm's.

If we could limit the user view to only https://server/#/Shell/VmsManagement this would help a lot. If we could set this through an options for a specific selfservice role we can easily allow who can only manage their vm's and who can manage other cloud resources.

This currently prevents me from going to scvmm sp1 (although i realy want to.... its getting very slow with 500+ vm's)

Kind regards,

Marco Lutters

Hi Marco L, Stefan SP,

Thank you for the additional feedback, it definitely helps us understand what people are wanting to see in App Controller.

Kind Regards,

Richard

Hi Richard,

we are just in the process of implementing Azure Public Cloud. I'm missing permissions for Azure Subscriptions. Permissions are all done via VMM, but how can we control which user / ssp user can access Azure subscription, or how to control permissions for certain Azure resources?

Best wishes Stefan

Hi Stefan,

Managing permissions for Azure subscriptions is done with user roles that are created in App Controller:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh221358.aspx

If you have created security groups to control membership of the user roles in VMM you can use those same security groups for the user roles in App Controller to control access to Azure subscriptions.

Kind Regards,

Richard

Hi Bernd,

I have been looking for a way to trim this console as well and found the folowing solution:

1. deeplink your landing page link to https://server/#/Shell/VmsManagement
2. remove the overview page by using the folowin steps:
3. backup this file C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\App Controller\wwwroot\Configuration\modulesCatalog.xaml
4. remove this piece of text from this file:

<ConceroModuleInfo
            Ref="UI.ProductOverview.xap"
            ModuleName="UI.ProductOverview"
            ModuleType="Microsoft.SystemCenter.CloudManager.UI.ProductOverview.ProductOverviewModule, UI.ProductOverview, Version=1.0.0.0"
            IsRequired="true">
            <ConceroModuleInfo.DependsOn>
                <sys:String>UI.Management.Core</sys:String>
            </ConceroModuleInfo.DependsOn>
</ConceroModuleInfo>

This way your users will be defaulted to the vm page and if they still klick the overview link, it will show a blank page. you can still configure new subscriptions through the powershell interface so you will not lose much functionality. 

I know its not the prettiest of solutions but it might help you trim what your users see.

Kind regards,

Marco

Hi Marco,

Please note that modifying the modulesCatalog.xaml is not a supported way to change the configuration of App Controller. Future updates may update this file and replace/corrupt any changes you've made.

Regards,

Richard