What’s new in System Center Orchestrator 2022?

With System Center Orchestrator 2022, Orchestrator has undergone the largest update since Microsoft bought it in 2010. This has massively extended its longevity for on-premise IT teams across the globe, this release comes with extended support until 2032.  In this blog, we’ll explore what’s new in System Center Orchestrator 2022; what this means for existing PowerShell scripts; presently deployed integration packs; and finally, which integration packs are being converted to Orchestrator 2022 (and what to do about those that aren’t).

Move from a 32-bit application to a 64-bit application

The standout difference is System Center Orchestrator 2022 is is the first version of Orchestrator which is a native 64-bit application and is therefore more compatible with the modern 64-bit versions of Windows Server.

The advantage of this is:

• The longer-term viability of the application
• Orchestrator is now leveraging the modern 64-bit Dlls, SQL drives and latest .Net Framework
• The above also helps with security as the underlying components are modern and being constantly tested and enhanced which ultimately Orchestrator benefits from
• Extended Orchestrator product support out to 2032
• Direct access to all PowerShell Cmdlets most of which are 64-bit. As the application is in the same memory space it is now easy with no more stepping out of Orchestrator into the OS or target server to execute 64-bit PowerShell (and dealing with all the security headaches that caused)

Orchestrator 2022 also has a completely new Web Console and Web Service which does away with the dependency on IE and Silverlight and the security issues the legacy Silverlight code posed.  If you used the console then this is good news, even if you didn’t use the console, to get access to the Web Service the setup installed the Silverlight components so that is now removed from the server build.

Powershell scripts in Orchestrator 2022

Historically running PowerShell scripts in Orchestrator had always been challenging because Orchestrator was a 32-bit application, and most PowerShell is 64-bit. It was challenging to trigger most PowerShell cmdlets from within a script running in the .Net Script Activity, as these were in a different memory space to Orchestrator. With System Center Orchestrator 2022, this memory space challenge has been resolved but has also brought a new challenge. Older versions of Orchestrator only supported PowerShell 1 and 2. Suppose old PowerShell is present in deployed runbooks, these are unlikely to work when migrated to SCO 2022 because new operating systems use newer versions of PowerShell, and there are some syntax incompatibilities.

Orchestrator 2022 supports the modern PowerShell versions supported by the Server OS, typically four and above. The syntax of PowerShell subtly changed between PowerShell 2 and the more modern versions, which means that old scripts that worked in Orchestrator 2019 may not work in Orchestrator 2022. The reasons for the scripts not running can be very obscure, and a complete rewrite of the script is often the fastest way to fix the issue.

Orchestrator 2022 Integration Pack compatibility

Integration Packs written for Orchestrator 2019 and earlier ARE NOT compatible with Orchestrator 2022 because they are all 32-bit applications, as such, these will not work with the 64- bit Orchestrator 2022 and MUST be rewritten for automation runbooks to continue to work as they did in the previous version of Orchestrator.

Kelverion has produced 64-bit versions for the majority of our Integration Packs, which allow Orchestrator runbooks (using our Integration Packs) to be converted directly into Orchestrator 2022 runbooks check out Kelverion’s download page for the up-to-date list. However, many organizations have used Integration Packs from other sources, which will need to be checked for Orchestrator 2022 compatibility.

Many people have historically used Community Built a.k.a. CodePlex Integration Packs in their Orchestrator Runbooks.  The issue with these integration packs are they were always unsupported and are unlikely to ever be updated, particularly as the open source site CodePlex was closed by Microsoft in 2017.    Basically, if you’re using any kind of community-built integration, you need to look at alternatives.

I’ve upgraded to System Center Orchestrator 22 and my integration pack doesn’t work. What do I do?

The truth is, the integration pack won’t even install on the new 64-bit version. So it’s necessary to find an alternative integration pack.

Microsoft Integration Packs for Orchestrator 2022

Some integration packs have been updated or migrated across to SCO 2022 by Microsoft, the table below provides an overview of the status for each integration:

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Integration Pack is no more…

A question we’ve encountered a few times is, ‘is the Microsoft FTP integration packing being updated to Orchestrator 2022?’. The short answer is no, it’s not. The File Transfer Protocol integration was used in older versions of Orchestrator to transfer files between locations. This is a fairly old-school approach known to be insecure; because of this, the FTP IP is unlikely to be updated.

So what can you do about it if you need a File Transfer Protocol alternative? Well, the Kelverion services team can definitely help, once we understand what you are looking to do, it’s more than likely that we can help with implementing some runbooks which will mimic the output your organization is looking for. Contact us to find out more about how we can help and for a no-obligation chat with one of our resident techies.

What about the VMware vSphere Orchestrator 2022 IP?

Although Microsoft hasn’t updated VMware vSphere to a 64-bit version, Kelverion has developed an Orchestrator 2022 IP for VMware which supports the latest versions of VMware 6.7, 7.0, 8.0. Read more about the capabilities of the vSphere IP in this blog.

Migration to System Center Orchestrator 2022

For organizations looking to upgrade from 2016, 2019 or earlier versions of Orchestrator to Orchestrator 2022, there are several things to be aware of before considering migration, as outlined above, Orchestrator 2022 is a major change to the system with a significant move from a 32-bit to a 64-bit application. Whilst this is great news from a supportability and product longevity viewpoint, it does cause challenges for customers looking to migrate from older versions to Orchestrator 2022.

If you’d like some more information about migrating to System Center Orchestrator 2022, check out our recent webinar, which takes a deep dive into migration challenges and how to get it right.