I have received multiple requests for a study guide related to the newest versions of System Center Configuration Manager and/or System Center Operations Manager.  After doing a bit of research, I learned that it's no longer appropriate to think of these as separate tools since they all belong to the System Center 2012 Suite.  The components that make up this suite of products include the following:

• Advisor
• App Controller
• Configuration Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Endpoint Protection
• Operations Manager
• Orchestrator
• Service Manager
• Unified Installer
• Virtual Machine Manager

Rather than come up with individual study guides for each of these, I thought I'd put together a multi-part study guide with an emphasis on material available for each of these individual components.  Obviously you don't have to implement all of these in your environment, since the setup process allows you to choose which components you'll install.  But because each of these is now bundled together as a logical unit, I thought it made sense to address them together.

Before we get started, let me recommend a very good blog that discusses installation of System Center 2012.  It contains a large # of screenshots so you can see the process of installation for each component yourself.  This blog entry can be found here:

Installing System Center 2012 using the Unified Installer

This blog entry should provide an excellent starting point as you begin looking at System Center 2012.  Beyond that, the further self-study material will also hopefully prove useful to you and your teams.

NOTE: Some of the study offerings are presented more than once to reflect the different formats in which they are available (webcast vs. podcast).

System Center 2012 Self-Study Guide (Part 1 - System Center Overview)

Top-level link for System Center 2012 is here

System Center 2012

In this section are study material related to System Center 2012 in general.  The data here represents the study material that does not fit neatly into one of the specific component categories.  Further sections will deal with the specialty components that make up System Center 2012

Microsoft Virtual Academy (free online courses and knowledge measures)

• What’s New in System Center 2012
• System Center 2012 Data Warehouse and Reporting
• System Center 2012 Licensing & Pricing - Overview
• Introduction to Systems Management & Service Delivery
  • Introduction to Systems Management & Service Delivery (video)
  • Systems Management Cheatsheet (PDF)
  • Value and Types of Service Management (video)
  • Policies & Processes, Scale & and Automation (video)
  • Metrics, Billing, Self Service (video)
  • Exam: Introduction to Systems Management & Service Delivery

Training Videos and Webcasts

• Deliver Flexible and Cost-Effective Infrastructure with System Center 2012
• Automated Remediation with System Center 2012
• Deliver Flexible and Cost-Effective Infrastructure with System Center 2012
• Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 1: Deploy Bare Metal Servers to Hyper-V with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 2: Multiple Hypervisors for Cloud Resources & Adding ESX Servers with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 3: Add Resources to a Failover Cluster with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 4: Service Template Creation & Deployment with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 5: Standardized Service Updating with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 6: Monitor Network Devices with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 7: Monitor and Automatically Resolve Issues in the Fabric with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 8: Create an Orchestrator Runbook and Integrate with Service Manager with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 9: Create Self-Service Request Offerings using the Service Catalog with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 10: Deliver Self-Service Request Offerings using the Service Catalog with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 11: Gain Insight & Visibility through Service Manager Reporting with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 12: Enabling Application Performance Monitoring with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 13: Creating an Application Performance Monitoring Dashboard with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 14: Deep Application Diagnostics & Insight with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 15: Managing Applications Across Private & Public Clouds with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 16: Managing Application Resources Across Private & Public Clouds with System Center 2012
  • Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 17: Self-Service Application Deployment with System Center 2012

Podcasts

• Deliver Flexible and Cost-Effective Infrastructure with System Center 2012
• Automated Remediation with System Center 2012
• Deliver Flexible and Cost-Effective Infrastructure with System Center 2012

Virtual Labs

These are online simulations that allow users to experience System Center technology first-hand.

• Guided Labs
  • Provide Resources through Self-Service Requests
  • Drive Consistent Service Delivery
  • Provision Additional Cloud Infrastructure
  • Delegate Cloud Resources
  • Create Consistency through Service Templates
  • Perform a Standardized Application Deployment to Test
  • Stage Application Resources
  • Self-Service Deployment of an Application to a Production Environment
  • Gain Insight and Visibility Through Reporting
  • Monitor Infrastructure
  • Taking Corrective Actions in the Infrastructure
  • reduce Time to Resolution with Application Performance Monitoring
  • Deploy and Update to a Service Instance
  • Explore Creating Dashboards

 Articles/Documentation

In this section are articles relating to System Center 2012, including the top-level TechNet site for all things relating to System Center 2012.

• System Center 2012
  • App Controller
  • Configuration Manager
  • Data Protection Manager
  • Endpoint Protection
  • Operations Manager
  • Orchestrator
  • Service Manager
  • Unified Installer
  • Virtual Machine Manager

Useful Blogs

In this section are articles and guidance written by System Center 2012 technical experts.

• The System Center Team Blog
• Steve Rachui's Manageability Blog
• System Center Weblog

Forums

In this section is al list of forums where System Center administrators can post comments, ask questions, and join in conversations related to System Center 2012.

• System Center Forums

Support for System Center 2012

The link below is a central page that provides a wide variety of resources and solutions to help System Center administrators resolve problems and issues.

• Support for Microsoft System Center

There is no denying that the System Center 2012 Suite is massive.  Here I have only listed the top-level information that applies to System Center 2012 in general.  In the next part I'll begin exploring the study material available for each of the components themselves.