Changing the Deployment Package linked to an Automatic Deployment Rule in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I want to devote a post to changing the Deployment Package, which is linked to an Automatic Deployment Rule. I came on this subject as I got and read some questions about it. Actually it was not just that, also the fact that the answer was usually, that it’s not possible, at leas not via the console. As I couldn’t imagine that it’s not possible I went on a small research to see where it’s stored and how we can change it. XML and WMI Let’s start with where it’s stored. In WMI it’s stored in the class SMS_AutoDeployment and then the property ContentTemplate. Here it’s stored in XML format, like this: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-16″?><ContentActionXML xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”><PackageID>PTP00027</PackageID><ContentLocales><Locale>Locale:9</Locale><Locale>Locale:0</Locale></ContentLocales><ContentSources><Source Name=”Internet” Order=”1″/><Source Name=”WSUS” Order=”2″/><Source Name=”UNC” Order=”3″ …

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Just Released: Import Computer Form v0.7

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Today I released a public version of my Import Computer Form. Many has been written about scripts to Import Computer Information in ConfigMgr 2012, via PowerShell, but there was never a worked-out example (like all the different HTA’s there where for the previous version). That’s why I thought it would be nice to post an example form to just simply Import Computer Information in ConfigMgr 2012. Again, like with my Approval Manager, I did NOT use the PowerShell Cmdlets for ConfigMgr 2012, but just PowerShell to WMI. The main reason for that is, still the same, that using WMI, via PowerShell, is much friendlier for remote usage. Import Computer Form This public version gives the user the possibility to perform the following actions, without the …

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Updated: Approval Manager v0.8

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After I released the first public version of my Approval Manager, last week, I’ve got some nice comments on it. One of these comments was that it would be very handy to built-in some alerting. And that’s what I did in this updated version! Approval Manager This updated version gives the user the possibility to perform the following actions, without the need of access to and/ or a locally installed ConfigMgr console: Select a User from the specified Collection. Show only Approval Requests, for the selected User, that are Pending Approval. (NEW!) Show an alert when new Approval Requests, are Pending Approval, for the Users of the specified Collection. Approve, the selected, Approval Request. Deny, the selected, Approval Request. Close the form. Alerting As mentioned, …

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Just Released: Approval Manager v0.7

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Today I released a public version of my Approval Manager, which I mentioned a few weeks ago in my post about Managing Approval Request in ConfigMgr 2012. The biggest difference, and maybe even a contradiction with what I mentioned in that post, is that I did NOT use the PowerShell Cmdlets for ConfigMgr 2012 in this release. The main reason for that is that using WMI, via PowerShell, is much friendlier for remote usage. Approval Manager This public version gives the user the possibility to perform the following actions, without the need of access to and/ or a locally installed ConfigMgr console: Select a User from the specified Collection. Show only Approval Request, for the selected User, that are Pending Approval. Approve, the selected, Approval …

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Using Global Conditions to check the State of a Service with ConfigMgr 2012

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This week my post will be about using a Global Condition to check the State of a service. I came to this, as I was once again deploying my UE-V Agent, like here, but this time via a normal Deployment. This installation will only run, without failure, when the Offline Files Service (CscService) is running. So a Requirement for the Deployment Type should be that the service is running. As I like to find ways to do things without the need of scripts/ scripting, I came to using a standard Global Condition. Configuration Now lets take a look at how we can configure a Global Condition, in such a way, that it checks for the State of a service. During the configuration steps I will …

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Managing Approval Requests in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I want to devote a post to managing Approval Requests in ConfigMgr 2012. I’m not going to discuss whether the current model works, or not, I’m just going to say that in general it won’t work. The reason for that is simple, because it’s just one big list for everyone and every single Approval Request. To fill a small gap here, there is the Application Approval Workflow (solution accelerator), but for that also System Center 2012 – Service Manager and – Orchestrator are required. This just doesn’t fill the gap for everyone and/ or every company. So where does this leave us? Approval Manager Instead of complaining about all this, something that’s in a humans’ nature to do, we can also look at …

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Deployment of Configuration Baseline failed with error ‘Script is not signed’ in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week my post will still be a small one, as my time is still limited during the move to our new home. In between I was still doing some work and trying to find a subject for a presentation/ demo. During that I was working with the Configuration Baseline of UE-V. That baseline is completely based on one Configuration Item, which consists of eight script setting types and those scripts are all written in PowerShell. The deployment of the baseline resulted in error 0x87D00327, which translates to ‘Script is not signed’ (see picture). Solution In most cases it’s not possible, or allowed, to change the execution policy for PowerShell on the system. So just let the ConfigMgr client “manage it” and then the solution …

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Preventing initiation of available deployments on specific systems with ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I want to devote a small post to a question that I read on windows-noob.com. The question came to the point whether, or not, it is possible to deploy applications via a task sequence, but only allow administrators to actually run it. This question triggered me to look a bit better into the different Client Settings and then specifically the setting of Install permissions. This setting gives us the possibility to prevent the initiation of available deployments via the Software Center and the Application Catalog on specific systems. So in this post I will show that setting by only allowing administrators to initiate available deployments. Configuration Now lets start with the configuration, which is actually very easy, but like always it’s all about …

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Troubleshooting Windows app package deployment on Windows 8 with ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I was planning on doing a post about deploying a Windows app package (.appx) on Windows 8, until I saw that Keith Mayer already just posted a Step-by-Step for that. As that post is, from a ConfigMgr perspective, already very complete, I changed, from my original plan, to troubleshooting the deployment of a Windows app package (.appx) on Windows 8. The deployment of a Windows app package (.appx) on Windows 8 requires two specific settings and in this post I will describe those settings and the errors that will appear when these settings are forgotten. Import the root certificate as a Trusted Root Certification Authority The first setting is that the app package has to be signed with a certificate chain that can …

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Quickly catch Active Directory Group Membership changes in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week my post will be about catching Active Directory Group Membership changes. I choose this subject, because I still see and get questions about how long does it take before a group membership change is active in a collection. The short answer would be, based on default settings, between 1 till 10 minutes. In the rest of this post I will show a longer answer on why it’s like that. The main reasons are that the Delta Discovery and the Incremental Updates are working now. Configuration The most important part to quickly catch Active Directory Group Membership changes, is a good configuration. For that two configurations are very important, the Active Directory Group Discovery and the collection settings. To show how, and how fast, …

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