Publish Cumulative Updates of ConfigMgr via System Center Updates Publisher

by

There are a multiple methods to deploy the Cumulative Updates (CU) of ConfigMgr, to all the different components (console, client and server). The most common used method is the old-school packages that are created during the upgrade of a site server. This blog post will be about another less often, but definitely not less effective, method of deploying a CU is via System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP). In this post I will go through the steps required to deliver a CU, via SCUP, to ConfigMgr as a software update. Prerequisites Before I will go through the steps, it’s important to know that this post does not describe the installation of SCUP itself. In case SCUP is not yet installed, the following posts provide some good …

Read more

Create a WQL query setting for a Configuration Item in ConfigMgr 2012 via PowerShell

by

Before I start with this blog post I have to give some (read: a lot) of credits to Dexter. He helped me a lot with understanding the SDMPackageXML of a Configuration Item (CI) and also blogged about that experience. Also, this blog post won’t go into the details he already mentioned about modifying the XML and writing it to a CI. Now let’s really start with this blog post. This blog post will be about creating a WQL query setting for a CI and more specifically the road to creating a WQL query setting for a CI. Step 1: Locate the method to create the WqlQuerySetting The first step is to locate the method that can be used to create the WqlQuerySetting. During the installation …

Read more

How the settings in ConfigMgr translate to the command line in USMT

by

The last couple of days I’ve seen and read a few situations in which it was clear that it’s not always that obvious what the USMT command line will be based on the settings in ConfigMgr. This blog post will be about the different settings in a task sequence for capturing and restoring the user state and how they translate to the command line for USMT. Capture User State Let’s start with two basic capture settings and continue from there. These basic settings are Capture all user profiles by using standard options and Copy by using file system access. These settings combine to a command line like this C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Packages\PCP00001\amd64\scanstate.exe C:\_SMSTaskSequence\UserState /o /localonly /efs:copyraw /l:C:\WINDOWS\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\scanstate.log /progress:C:\WINDOWS\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\scanstateprogress.log /i:C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Packages\PCP00001\amd64\migdocs.xml /i:C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Packages\PCP00001\amd64\migapp.xml. Based on that command line we can see …

Read more

Verify SQL version via Compliance Settings in ConfigMgr 2012

by

This time I will do a short post about verifying the SQL version(s) via Compliance Settings. I think everybody knows the inventory post for SQL version by Sherry Kissinger, but what if you simply want to know if all your devices are compliant with the company standard (of for example SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU5). Well, this blog post will provide a simple answer to that question, by providing a SQL query –type Configuration Item. Configuration Item The configuration is actually quite simple, as I can simply take advantage of the SELECT @@VERSION query statement. One small thing to take into account, is the fact that the configuration item requires a column to be specified and this queries doesn’t use/ create a named column. The …

Read more

New tool: Show memberships of software updates to deployment packages and software update groups

by

Actually since the first release of ConfigMgr 2012, I’ve seen and got question about software updates. Besides, of course, questions about setting it up, these questions are mainly focused about the memberships of software updates. Simple questions like “In which software update group is this software update?” or “In which deployment packages are the updates of this software update group?” are not that simple to answer. This is all going to change, starting today! I created this simple tool that can perform searches based on a specific software update, a software update group, or a deployment package. Simply specify the Name (in case the of a software update the article id), select the Type (software update, software update group, or deployment package) and click Execute. …

Read more

Install computer-targeted application during OS deployment via PowerShell and ConfigMgr 2012

by

A few months ago I did a blog post about installing user-targeted applications during operating system deployments via PowerShell and ConfigMgr. This time I will do a similar post, on request, about installing computer-targeted applications during operating system deployments. Yes, I know it might be worth a discussing about why someone is still using computer-targeted deployments, but that will not be a part of this blog post. Script A big part of this script, and by that also this post, might look familiar, as it’s based on the previous script for user-targeted applications. Just like with that previous script I will go through all the key steps of the script. The following five steps make sure that I only get the applications that are required …

Read more

Verify SSL Configurations of Site Roles via Compliance Settings in ConfigMgr 2012

by

This will be a short blog post about the locations in the registry where the SSL configurations are stored for the different site roles. This can be very useful in larger environments, with many sites, site systems and multiple administrators. These registry keys can be used as Configuration Items in a Configuration Baseline. This makes it easier to keep track of the SSL configuration of the environment. Registry Before providing the different locations, I think it’s good to note that the most site roles simply use 0 or 1 as values for a SSL configuration. Exceptions on this are the management point and the distribution point. These site roles can have different values based on the connection configuration (intranet and Internet, intranet-only, Internet-only) and CRL …

Read more

Unexpected results: Use role based administration to provide different access to specific applications in ConfigMgr 2012

by

This time I want to address a specific scenario around role based administration. This scenario will be focused on providing different levels of access, for a user, on different applications. I’ve seen this question on different forums over the last year(s) and also had this same question with a customer recently. Scenario This scenario is about a enterprise customer that uses ConfigMgr for managing their laptops. Nothing special, so far, not even the fact that they have around 100k laptops spread over the globe. What makes this customer special is the fact that they have a global IT department and a local IT department per country. The global IT department is responsible for making the generic applications available and the local IT department is responsible …

Read more

Quickly get an overview of the client agent times in ConfigMgr 2012

by

This time it will be a really short blog post, about showing the client agents and their times. Normally, to see the times of the different client agents it’s necessary to look at the properties of a device, but that’s really time consuming for multiple devices. Also, these agents and their times are shown in two different rows as two different arrays. The only one that can be shown in the console is the Heartbeat Discovery. This should be possible in an easier way and also providing a better overview. Script Actually, this is pretty easy to do in PowerShell. The following PowerShell function gets a list of all devices within ConfigMgr, After that it will loop through all the devices and per device loop …

Read more

How to install clients on Linux computers, when the Site Roles require HTTPS communication in ConfigMgr 2012

by

About four years ago I did a post about installing the ConfigMgr client on a WORKGROUP computer, when the ConfigMgr Site is in Native Mode. On the certificate side of it, this post will have a lot of similarities with that post. Installing a ConfigMgr client on a Linux computer is a nice challenge, when the ConfigMgr site is configured to require HTTPS. I think I am not the only one working with ConfigMgr and only uses a little tiny bit of Linux. So to make this process for everyone a bit easier I wrote down these four steps for implementing the correct certificates and installing the ConfigMgr client on a Linux computer. Of course these same certificate configuration steps can also be used for …

Read more