WMUG

Using the Hydration Kit for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 in your own test domain.

Larus Milan Bulat — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:52:00 GMT

The Hydration kit is a fantastic way of saving time when building your own test lab, but as I prefer to use my own lab domain I needed to make few changes.

Hydration Kit for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 can be downloaded from here: http://www.deploymentresearch.com/Research/tabid/62/EntryId/82/The-Hydration-Kit-for-ConfigMgr-2012-SP1-with-Windows-Server-2012-SQL-Server-2012-is-available-for-download.aspx

List of changes that need to be made:

Server name, Domain, OU, password and IP in this file:
- Change “C:\HydrationCM2012SP1\ISO\Content\Deploy\Control\CustomSettings_CM01.ini”
CM2012 Install, cdkey and site paths here:
- Change “C:\HydrationCM2012SP1\ISO\Content\Deploy\Applications\Install - ConfigMgr 2012\ ConfigMgr2012Unattend.ini”
SQL admin in the SQL config file:
- Change “C:\HydrationCM2012SP1\DS\Applications\Install - SQL Server 2012\ConfigurationFileCM2012.ini”, traced in the log file “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\Log”
DomainAutoLogon, Typo I assume that will only be discovered when using different accounts:
- Change from "ADMINPASSWORD" to “DomainAdminPassword” in “C:\HydrationCM2012SP1\DS\Applications\Configure - Set Administrator Autologon in Domain\Configure-SetAdministratorAutologoninDomain.w s f”
“Set WindowsSource” Task Sequence step has a fixed path to the Operating System.
- Edit the path if you need to import your own.

WMUG reporting point role installed at MMS 2013!

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:00:06 GMT

Our very own WMUG representative is at this years most awesome MMS 2013, Simon Skinner, CDM MVP, who will be tweeting and such like across the week, letting us know all the exciting stuff taking place.

Check out the WMUG MMS 2013 dedicated page.

We link you back to the myITforum MMS 2013 Guide, worth keeping an eye on if you are at the Summit, or trying to keep up over this week.

WMUG Virtual Event

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:23:55 GMT

Another WMUG webcast, this time from Satisnet and Secunia, click through to get more information on the event and how to register.

Overview:
Secunia CSI provides highly detailed software inventory including both programs and plug-ins. This inventory is in turn mapped to security intelligence related to the individual programs and plug-ins as well as details about vendor supplied security updates. The software can then automatically repackage these patches and push them to SCCM, allowing you to control, manage, and monitor the …

Agenda:
19:00 – 19:10 – Welcome
19:10 – 19:45 – Overview of Secunia CSI and System Center 2012 Configuration manager integration
19:45 – 20:00 – Q&A Session

When:
10th April, 2013 at 7PM GMT (convert timezone here)

Visit here to register for the event

WMUG Event – Satisnet/Secunia – 10th April 2013 – Virtual

Raphael — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:00:53 GMT

WMUG is proud to announce a virtual meeting with Satisnet/Secunia, presented by John McCann and Morten Stengaard and hosted by Raphael Perez

Overview:
Secunia CSI provides highly detailed software inventory including both programs and plug-ins. This inventory is in turn mapped to security intelligence related to the individual programs and plug-ins as well as details about vendor supplied security updates. The software can then automatically repackage these patches and push them to SCCM, allowing you to control, manage, and monitor the deployment using SCCM. The Secunia CSI can further conduct scans of desktop and server systems to ensure that the updates are applied correctly and that all systems are fully compliant.
- Secunia have the largest 3rd party application coverage of all patching vendors as they leverage their award winning security research team, 300 applications covered
- Secunia will add any specific vendor applications if required, starting by their research team monitoring said app for any vulnerabilities and in parallel creating a signature to detect the application within an SLA of 2 working days
- They utilise the software Inventory Agent within SCCM to asset scan, so uses existing infrastructure
- Results are fed direct into SCCM console, so are presented in your existing SCCM GUI, no retraining required

About Satisnet Ltd:
Founded in 2004, Satisnet Ltd is a leading IT Security Integrator dedicated to providing the highest level of customer care and technical support.

Satisnet have developed high level partnerships with a number of industry leading IT Security vendors including Secunia, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Websense, AirWatch, VMware and Tenable. Together with our clients, we establish the most appropriate products and services to suit that particular organisations’ requirements, which would be dependent on factors such as industry, budget and compliance standards. We have a dedicated in-house technical team with the skills and expertise to fully support our products and services.

During this time our business has grown and we have established a strong professional reputation across a multitude of market sectors from Local Government, FTSE 250 to Financial and Charity organisations, with over 800 customers across Europe.

Find out more at http://www.satisnet.co.uk/

About Secunia:
Secunia is recognised industry-wide as a pioneer and global player within the IT security ecosystem, in the niche of Vulnerability Management. Their award-winning portfolio equips corporate and private customers worldwide with Vulnerability Intelligence, Vulnerability Assessment, and automated Patch Management tools to manage and control vulnerabilities across their networks and endpoints. A strong strategic vision of becoming number one is, and always has been, a founding pillar of Secunia. They deliver best-in-class solutions that have less superficial gift wrapping and instead contain true value. All Vulnerability Management products in Secunia’s portfolio provide proven endpoint protection against vulnerabilities, due to their special combination of unique application scanning, unrivalled expertise, and impeccable customer service. All of this is achieved by the dedicated efforts of the industry-renowned Secunia Research Team and enhanced by Secunia’s focused sales and support functions.

Find out more at http://www.secunia.com/

Agenda:
19:00 – 19:10 – Welcome
19:10 – 19:45 – Overview of Secunia CSI and System Center 2012 Configuration manager integration
19:45 – 20:00 – Q&A Session

When:
10th April, 2013 at 7PM GMT (convert timezone here)

Where
This is a virtual meeting using Microsoft Office Live Meeting, to register, click here

Who
Presenter bio:
John McCann, Director at Security Integrator, Satisnet, has been involved with IT for the last 30 years. He has worked in many environments ranging from a leading Defence company, through to Unisys, where he specialised in parallel processing solutions. For the last 20 years John has focused on working within the Information security industry, working for security vendors to include security startups , covering the ever evolving security challenges. In 2004 he founded Satisnet, a security integrator aimed at giving independent advice and on promoting best of breed technologies, while ensuring they operate and interwork with a customer’s existing infrastructure. Satisnet has some 800+ customers across Europe and has unrivalled expertise in implementing log management and SIEM for security and operational intelligence.

Morten Stengaard, is responsible for Secunia’s product management and QA function, defining Secunia’s product roadmap and ensuring that it is both commercially- and market-driven. In addition to this, he oversees Secunia’s Customer Support team who are responsible for delivering outstanding customer support. Prior to joining Secunia, Morten worked as Product Manager for the security software company BullGuard Ltd and Business Development Manager for the investment company Kukula Capital. He also co-founded a market analysis consultancy firm. Morten holds a B.Sc. in International Business (IB) and an M.Sc. in Finance & Strategic Management (FSM), both from Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

Host bio:
Raphael Perez is a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager MVP based in UK, he specialises in System Center Configuration Manager (including OS Deployment) and other System Center products (Operations Manager, Service Manager, etc.) and is a WMUG community leader attending the physical meetings and engaging with the community across forums, twitter, LinkedIn and his blog. He is RFL Systems‘ owner, a System Center specialized consultant and training services within the United Kingdom.

WMUG Event - Netwrix–Change Reporter Suite recording is available

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:05:37 GMT

This week we had a virtual event with Netwrix, where Aidan Simister and Danny Murphy demonstrated a selection of core modules from their Change Reporter Suite. A pretty good overview all-round, with Aidan introducing the company and the products, while diving into the use cases for the Change Reporter Suite and handing over to Danny for live demo.

The audio is a bit choppy in this one, entirely my fault! I plugged in a web-cam earlier in the week, it had a microphone which I didn’t realise was recording, tut tut, it introduced a lot of ambient noise, a but fortunately I was able to clean up a fair amount of it in Camtasia 8. Well done to Aidan and Danny for handling the occassion ambient noise spike and carrying on.

Check out the WMUG Event page containing the recorded video here - http://bit.ly/YvNvaR

WMUG Video–Niall Brady from Windows-Noob.com demo’s CM12 BitLocker front-end HTA

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:27:32 GMT

While I was out in Seattle enjoying a fantastic MVP 2013 summit, I came across my buddy Niall Brady who was getting all excited about his new CM12 BitLocker front-end HTA (new, I think he’s reached Iteration 3 so not so new …), and we agreed to meet up in the evening to go over it. This all went to plan, and in a bustling hotel bar in Seattle we sat down, with food, beer and laptops in readiness to go over Niall''s awesome toy when I got the idea of recording the whole demo! So, with no tripod, working around the waitress, employing extreme shaky-cam technology (my hand!) and a Samsung Galaxy SIII mobile phone we set about running through the demo. I think this format, very off the cuff, it’s all about the content and not a smart slick presentation style, we hope you agree and enjoy the content in this video!

The Hotel bar was a bit noisy, I’ve tried to remove all audio excesses and left everything else as it was. It’s certainly watchable.

Click here to visit the WMUG Event page to view the video

Enjoy!

Robert Marshall – MVP ConfigMgr

WMUG Event - NetWrix - 26th Feb 2013 - 7PM GMT–Virtual

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:04:00 GMT

WMUG has a last minute event up, this one is for NetWrix, see the dedicated Event Page for more information.

Overview:

This session will offer an overview of a selection of core modules from their Change Reporter Suite. It will provide a brief overview of their product architecture along with a live product demonstration of their unique approach to AD Auditing, Granular AD roll back Group Policy and Exchange auditing.

Agenda:

19:00 - 19:10 - Welcome
19:10 - 19:45 –Introduction to NetWrix and suite of tools followed by a technical demonstration.
19:45 - 20:00 - Q&A Session

Click here to visit the WMUG Event Page for this event

WMUG Event – SolarWinds – 13th February 2013 – Recorded

Raphael — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:13:51 GMT

Hi All,

thanks for Michael and Laurence from SolarWinds for the presentation yesterday as well as everyone that joined us.

If you could not attend, there is no problem, the meeting has been recorded and will be published soon....

thanks

WMUG Event - SolarWinds - Patch Management

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:30:55 GMT

We had to reschedule our event for SolarWinds due to technical reasons but it is now back on!

Still a virtual meeting, but now set for the 13th of Feb 2013 at 7PM UK time, check out the Event page for more information.

Looks to be a very interesting presentation, don’t miss it!

http://wmug.co.uk/hubs/wmug_event_content/w/wmug_event_content-pages/56.wmug-event-solarwinds-13th-february-2013-7pm-virtual.aspx

WMUG Event – SolarWinds – 13th February 2013 – Virtual

Raphael — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:24:38 GMT

Hi All,

after a test, we did manage to get the meeting working, however, we needed to change the "provider". This time we'll be using GoTo Meeting.

The events page will be updated shortly as you can get more info about the event there (http://wmug.co.uk/Hubs/wmug_event_content/w/wmug_event_content-pages/default.aspx)

In the mean time, this is the new info:

Date/Time: 13th Feb 2013 - From 7-8pm (GMT)
Livemeeting registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/800797665

hope you'll see you there.

WMUG Event – SolarWinds – 6th February 2013 – Virtual - Cancelled

Raphael — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:21:53 GMT

Hi All,

yesterday while we're doing a test we ran into a technical issue and due this reason, the livemeeting with SolarWinds has been cancelled.

We're testing another possibilities at the moment and confirming the availability of the presenters. We hope we'll be able to run this next week, but at the time being, we cannot commit.

We're really sorry and hope we'll have this issue fixed as soon as possible.

Happy new year & MVP 2013

Raphael — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:28:13 GMT

Hi All,

Happy new year and to start it nicely, i've got this e-mail today on my inbox...(or...let's say..spam box lol)

last year (yes, i'm talking about 2012) there were many things happening on the System Center world, including System Center 2012, SP1, etc...

i hope you have enjoyed all things myself, other mvp's and wmug had done for you and hopefully we'll be able to do even more this year...

anyway, thanks for everyone and hopefully our paths will cross this year somehome....

and keep tunned here as i'll be publishing much more things...

Re-awarded MVP ConfigMgr for 2013

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:26:44 GMT

The first day of the year at roughly the same time of the day I get a very exciting email. It’s not guaranteed, this is an invite-only renewed award so when it does arrive it makes my day:

2012 was a notable year indeed, so much happened, System Centre Configuration Manager 2012 arrived, we got two updates between RTM and SP1 and very soon we’ll all have SP1 (it’s on TechNet\MSDN but not Volume Licensing as of the time of writing), can you believe so much progress has been made by the ConfigMgr product team, like wow a new product, a wad of new features in SP1 and a stack of fixes in two new Cumulative Updates, Impressive year from just that alone. Way to go CM team!

A minor footnote in the year and best left buried in this paragraph was managing to get mutual agreement in the WMUG User Group to fell a tree that thought it could shake it’s leaves once a year while with us and do little else, major footnotes would be dropping contracting to open my own consultancy and training company focusing on the UK, primarily the City of London, working on short-term CM12 design and implementation engagements and providing training courses. Has worked out brilliantly, and I seem to be quite popular on the consultancy front. This style of work really fits with how I’ve developed over the years, but the really exiting thing that has my full attention right now is building out the training side of the company, I’m hoping to be both a training provider of other well-known and highly reputable courseware brands alongside my own training courseware.

My training is entirely bespoke and is purely for ConfigMgr, it is what I’m good at and I have so much knowledge collected over the years it’d be a crime not to form it up into something tangible and use it to train the way I want to do it. I’m pretty much done with the concept stage for both the content and the technical infrastructure required to facilitate the training, most of the hardware has been purchased and now I'm pretty much spending my time redefining the structure of the course and nailing the layout so that students get an amazing and very unique experience. Am hoping to have this ready for the second quarter of 2013 but don’t hold me to that, writing courseware is no easy thing! Massive time sink!

2012 was also the year I took on an apprentice. I’d like to introduce Jan Visnovec, currently not working in IT, but we’re building up his skills and hoping to get him ready for a career with ConfigMgr, building up his foundation skills, closing the holes in his knowledge, strengthening his observation and troubleshooting abilities. At the moment we’re focusing on SQL, WMI and a bunch of other non-CM related stuff in readiness for talking on the big boy product itself, ConfigMgr. Jan keeps a blog here, and over 2013 it’ll be fun to see how his journey towards attaining a career using ConfigMgr develops. I really enjoy teaching Jan, we pass around a lot of emails and every few weeks or maybe less depending on our availability we have a remote session where we cover hands-on stuff in mine or Jan’s lab and on the rare occasion a physical visit where we blow a few hours looking at stuff. He’s building up really well, and I’m looking forward to sharing more info and experience with him over the year; Keep an eye out for Jan at our physical events as he could be around. I got the idea of an apprentice from Microsoft who also run an apprenticeship, if you know someone who could do with some mentoring, why not define some boundaries and give it a go!

I’d like to thank the community as a whole for having problems that need fixing on the ConfigMgr Social Forums! They in turn may curse their luck but It is not only a place to help others but as an MVP (and this applies to them all) it is also a place for us to learn. Remember we may be pretty good with this product but we don’t know everything, we could during SMS2.0/SMS2003 days, but nowadays the product is just too complicated for us to understand every intimate detail. I think that is the buzz, it’s like a puzzle and our type are attracted to puzzles, our time on the forums is purely voluntary but we enjoy it and is why you see us responding so much. Also I’d like to thank those that read my blog and twitter tech spam, is a pleasure writing the guides and helping out where I can. This is why I enjoy working with this product after all this time, it pulls me in.

And finally, my thanks to my regional MVP lead, Claire Smyth, and her wonderful team for helping me make the most out of my MVP status, Wally Mead, my global MVP lead, you couldn’t ask for a finer technical role-model and group leader, and last but not least the product group themselves, thank you!

Enjoy 2013.

Robert Marshall

WMUG Virtual Event - Silect’s ConfigWise shoring up reporting

Rob Marshall - MVP — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:15:00 GMT

WMUG is holding another virtual event, on the 21st of November at 7PM GMT, this time a presentation from Simon Skinner (nubigenus) showing us Silect Software’s ConfigWise and how to get far more from your reporting on the Configuration Manager product.

Click here to find out more information on the event.

OSD Device Naming with UDA–Asset Check

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:08:00 GMT

Recently I had a Client who wanted to control the naming of their devices during the build cycle in OSD during New, Replacement and Upgrades scenarios, they also wanted to specify a User Device Affinity for some but not all devices. The mechanism had to leverage an initiative that was physically asset tagging all their devices and at the same time entering the tag into the devices SMBIOS. With all new devices being tagged like this on arrival, it meant a reliable relationship between the Asset Tag and a Device’s Name could be established and controlled.

The Client couldn’t of asked at a better time, John Vintzel from the ConfigMgr Product Team had blogged recently touching on the key elements needed to do this very task!

All I needed to do was have a control file containing the relationship data, which I call below the Asset Check Repository, and some VBScript to glue the processes together to A) identify the Asset Tag, B) locate a matching Tag in the Repository along with UDA if specified, and C) push these values into the appropriate Task Sequence Variables for the remaining Task Sequence steps to be processed.

I thought I’d finesse the mechanism a bit more then share with the community as its a cracking way to manage device naming and applying User Device Affinities within OSD.

Once you have your estate setup with SMBIOS Asset Tags, and have an entry in the Repository for each of them, you’ll be able to do BARE, REPLACE and UPGRADE builds while reusing the same device name, and managing any defined User Device Affinities so that Applications can be preloaded.

There are a couple of ways you can implement this yourself, the script instructions on how to set it up are below. It’s a long read but pretty much all my field notes and ideas are there. Enjoy and let me know if you get it working.

The format of the guide, was a bit freestyle, I just quickly built it up and tacked detail onto it in one sitting, so excuse me if it goes astray or I’ve missed something, I’ll edit the source post on Rob Marshall's WMUG blog as I see typo’s and add new content, I usually read it a few days later and tut, but I’m looking to update this mechanism, so a rewrite is inevitable!

Asset Check Script Features

I added in the ability to do automatic device naming, so, if the asset tag is found in the SMBIOS but not in the Repository it’ll continue and give the device a temporary name based on a prefix (currently set to TMP in the script) and the identified Asset Tag. These can then be seen in a ConfigMgr Collection with a query looking for the device name prefix (TMP% !), their Hardware Inventory will return the Asset Tag and you can then enter that into the Repository so it is named correctly at the next rebuild, hopefully creating a closed loop to capture any devices not in the Repository.

To toggle automatic naming, just edit the AssetCheck.vbs script and use TRUE (on) or FALSE (off) as highlighted in the screenshot above

If Automatic naming is disabled, custom errors are returned to indicate where in the process the error occurred:

9997 - Error setting the Task Sequence Variables

9998 – No Asset Tag Match in Repository

9999 – No Asset Tag found in SMBIOS

These can be viewed in Reports or in the SMSTSLOG.

Download the Asset Check Script

You can download the zipped AssetCheck.vbs file here from the WMUG website

So how do I configure my SMBIOS Asset Tags?

This is so out of scope it’s on another planet, no joking aside there are several ways to configure your SMBIOS settings but really this should be driven by some kind of device branding scheme, associating a devices physical Asset Tag with the SMBIOS digital Asset Tag. Ultimately somehow you need to do this association, physically or remotely, you’re going to need to figure out how to brand your existing estate.

The BIG ask - Asset Check Script - PowerShell or VBScript?

Put simply, when PowerShell is, by default, in all environments, as is VBScript, I’ll switch over to it completely, but we’re not there yet, almost, but not quite.

For ConfigMgr, we won’t get support for PowerShell in WINPE until ConfigMgr SP1 releases, this is because SP1 brings WINPE 4.0 support, which comes with WADK, and finally gives us .NET 4 and PowerShell packages which we can install.

The .NET and PowerShell WINPE 4.0 packages are not installed into any boot images by default, as is VBScript, hence why I feel PowerShell is not yet pervasive enough to replace VBScript entirely, and completely dominate engineering environments.

Eventually, PowerShell will become my scripting tool of choice, for all of my automation tasks, and if I was to take a stab at when this would be I’d say tail-end of 2014. By then I’d expect most people flitting through my guides to have PowerShell across their entire estate top to bottom, induced by OS upgrades (Win8, W2012), product upgrades (ConfigMgr SP1 for WADK, WINPE 4.0) and installing PowerShell onto older OS’s such as Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

I saw the same take-up and switch-over debates when VBScript was announced. It took a long time for us to move off of custom MSDOS boot media such as Floppies, CDROMS, we held out for a long time, but eventually Microsoft pushed us forward and into 32-bit bootable environments where VBScript could be run at will, which ultimately lead to almost complete adoption in engineering teams as the scripting tool of choice. I saw estates running a mix of stuff such as Kix95, MSDOS Batch and VBScript, and seeing growth of VBScript adoption grow and eventually it became dominant, and now the same cycle is repeating for PowerShell.

We’re almost there, modern Microsoft Operating Systems have PowerShell installed by default, and it can be retrospectively applied to older operating systems as well as our engineering tools becoming PowerShell ready; Quite a few environments are ready now, but not all are, and this is why the guides script was written in VBScript, for the majority to implement.

I left out a lot of boot media history there, at the very least I should make a token nod at Barts boot disk amongst many others.

Invoke Asset Check during Pre-start or Task Sequence?

The Asset Check script can be invoked from a pre-start command in boot media, or via a Task Sequence Run Command Line step.

We’ll choose the latter, Run Command Line.

It’s entirely up to you where you locate the Asset Check scripts execution, both have advantages and disadvantages, both produce the same result, execution, we sure are lucky to have options!

The Asset Check Repository

Asset Check depends on the Repository being accessible during execution of the Task Sequence. The file itself is simply a three column (no header) CSV, here is an example

Asset Tag Machine Name User Affinity – UDA

123456789A ,LON123456789A CONFIGMGR\ConfigMgrUser

Here is a live AssetRepository.CSV file that I used in my lab during the creation of this guide

The Asset Tags in the above example come from Hyper-V 3.0, my test machines are called BUILDA, BUILDB, BUILDC, and I have a single user defined for UDA testing, ConfigMgrUser

Wherever you store your Asset Check Repository, you’ll need to maintain it, and depending on if you implement this at the start of OS deployment or after the deployment has taken place, this maintenance will be frequent or occasional.

Adding, removing and amending entries is pretty easy, just open the file and make the edits, there is only one rule and that is that if no UDA is required that you still include the comma

The following is valid notation:

Asset Tag,Device Name,SMSLAB\User

Asset Tag,Device Name,

The following is invalid notation (missing the comma):

Asset Tag,Device Name

Where should the Asset Check Repository file reside?

The Asset Check Repository file, a 3 column CSV file, can be stored alongside the Asset Check VBScript in a ConfigMgr Package, or it can be stored on a Network Share.

Using a Network Share

Advantages

The Repository is centralised, and made available to the Asset Check script over the network

The Repository is not spread out between engineering script locations, the ConfigMgr Package source location and any or all Distribution Points

Changes can be made to the Repository on-the-fly, the meantime between edits and execution is immediate

Disadvantages

Storing the Repository on a Network Share is not scalable in an Enterprise environment. For the next version of the script I’ll make the Network Share configurable as a script parameter so that it is.

The Share permissions are topical, the script is currently not configured to map a network drive under a domain users credentials, this can be done and I’ll implement this in the next version. Currently the connection is made to the share using the ANONYMOUS USER token, not the ConfigMgr Network Access Account. If you think about it this is by design, OSD mapped to the Package containing the Asset Check script using the Network Access Account in readiness for its execution, but when it was executed we then made another connection but this time it wasn’t handled by the Task Sequence engine and established using the Network Access Account

The server hosting the Network Share has to have a local Policy applied to allow the share to be used by the ANONYMOUS LOGON token

Using ANONYMOUS LOGON exposes Asset Tag, device naming standard and actual machine names for all to see within the company network, you can hide the share ($) but it can be navigated into if found. Most production networks will not tolerate this.

Using a ConfigMgr Package

The advantages

The source location for the package acts as the master copy and is distributed to the Distribution Points in the Hierarchy

The OSD device does not need to contact the network before it can check the Repository

The Disadvantages

The Repository file will now exist in your Package Source folder structure, you’ll need to change some permissions to allow Asset Check Repository editors access and full control, thus adding a dependency on the security configuration of the Package Source folder

Changes made to the Repository are latent, the meantime between edits and execution depends on how long it takes to copy the new Package source to the Distribution Points

If Run from Distribution Point is selected for the Deployment Types deployment, you’ll need to select the Packages option to copy the content to a package share, no big deal really

For this guide we’ll be using a Network Share. To be more secure use a Package, or modify the VBScript to establish the connection to the Network Share using credentials.

Configure requirements, and Deploy the Asset Check components

We’ll setup UDA affinity for the site, go through the process of creating and deploying a new ConfigMgr Package containing the VBScript, create and permission the Repository share while handling the Local Policy requirement for ANONYMOUS, and then we’ll modify an OS build Task Sequence to invoke Asset Check.

Configure the PXE Distribution Point or Bootable Media to accept UDA assignment's

Pretty simple to do, for the PXE Distribution Point just open the Distribution Points properties, Select the PXE Tab

From the drop down menu for User device Affinity select Allow user device affinity with automatic approval.

Do this to all your Distribution Points.

For Bootable Media, start the Create Bootable Media Wizard

The wizard will provide you with the option to enable or disable UDA. Recreate your media and from now on always choose this option when creating media.

Create the Asset Check Package

Prepare the Asset Check Package Source Location

First let’s copy the Asset Check VBScript to a new folder in your Package Source location. This location will be the one you specify when you follow the instructions below to create the Package.

Our 7K VBScript file now has it’s own Package Source location.

Prepare the ConfigMgr Package

Enter the Name as Asset Check, Version as 1 and set the Package Source Location using UNC as in the above example

Select Next

Select Do not create a program

Select Next

Select Close

Find the new Package and open it’s Properties

Select Enable binary differential replication

Select Data Access tab

Select Copy the content in this package to a package share on distribution points

Select Distribution Settings tab

Select Distribute the content for this package to preferred distribution points

Select Automatically download content when packages are assigned to distribution points

Select Allow this package to be transferred via multicast (WinPE only)

Select OK

Now Distribute this package to your Distribution Points

Select the Package and choose Distribute Content

Make sure you’ve added your Distribution Points and proceed to complete the wizard, and check the Distribution Status to confirm it has deployed to all Distribution Points successfully.

Create the Asset Check Repository Network Share

You now need to locate a server that can host the Asset Check Repository Network Share. This Network Share requires ANONYMOUS LOGON rights assigned, and the server told to allow ANONYMOUS LOGON with that Network Share only. You may have to deal with this within Active Directory Group Policy, and a special Group Policy object applied to server hosting the Network Share, or you can override it using a Local Policy override which is what we’ll do shortly.

Create the Asset Check Repository folder anywhere on your server, I chose the root of my VM’s only disk, resulting in C:\AssetCheck-Repository

Right click the new folder and get to the Properties

Click Advanced Sharing

Select Share this folder, replace the Share Name, I shorten it to AssetCheck

Select Permissions

Select Add, enter ANONYMOUS LOGON, press OK

Make sure Read is the only option selected

Select OK, OK and Close to complete

Navigate to the newly created folder

And finally, copy the AssetRepository.CSV file to this new folder.

Configure Local Policy for Network Share ANONYMOUS LOGON

We now need to configure Local Policy to allow the new Network Share to be accessed by the ANONYMOUS LOGON token

Open Local Group Policy Editor on the server hosting the Asset Check Repository Network Share (Start\RUN\GPEDIT.MSC)

Navigate to Computer Configuration \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Local Policies \ Security Options

Locate and double click Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously

Enter the name of the Network Share, in our case it is called AssetCheck

Select OK and close the editor to complete

The Asset Check Repository Network Share and the Repository file are now ready to be accessed by your devices during build time.

You can test this by booting up in WINPE and trying to connect to this share without providing any credentials.

Amend the Build Task Sequence to include Asset Check

Now you need to add the Run Command Line step to your Task Sequence to invoke Asset Check. You can locate this step anywhere from the beginning of the Task Sequence all the way up to the Apply Operating System, step at which point the script must of executed or it’ll be too late.

Open your Task Sequence, add a Run Command Line step

Call the new step Asset Check

Enter the command line as cscript.exe AssetCheck.vbs

Tick Package and Select Browse

Select the Asset Check Package (Asset Check 1) and Select OK

The run this step as the following account is not an option as it cannot be used at this stage in the WINPE boot sequence

Select the Options tab

For Success codes enter: 0 9997 9998 9999

Tick Continue on error

Close your Task Sequence to commit the changes

That’s it, the Asset Check mechanism has been integrated.

Let’s fire up a VM and see it working. Make the VM boot from a PXE Point or from Bootable Media.

As soon as WINPE has finished loading press F8 (assuming you have debug switched on in your Boot Images)

Enter the following WMIC command to retrieve the existing Asset Tag

WMIC SYSTEMENCLOSURE GET SMBIOSASSETTAG

The SMBIOSAssetTag property is returned, if it’s blank, you’ll need to set it using a tool that’ll do the job on that device. The device will need a reboot after it is set

Now that you have the Asset Tag for this device, open the Repository and add it as new entry using the correct notation, providing the device with a device name and if you want to test UDA add a domain user in DOMAIN\USER notation. Save and close the Repository file.

If the Repository is in a Package, you’ll need to Update the Distribution Points before proceeding

Now let your device begin the Build Task Sequence

Wait until the Asset Check step has been processed

Now we can check out what happened without having to wait for the Task Sequence to complete. You can do this either by viewing the SMSTSLOG, or running a Report, we will run a report

As you can see, it is pretty clear what Asset Check did (click on the image above for larger view), it’s output is structured so you can determine what was configured, quickly. Here it shows that the three key Task Sequence Variables where set with valid values

Once the machine has completed the build, it’ll appear in the console as a Client

Oddly the Devices resource record UDA property Machine Assigned to User is set to False, I’m sure I saw this report another value before but things are still working evidenced by the shots below

If you specified a UDA relationship in the Repository for this Device and it was successfully created, the Device will have a Primary User associated with it

Perfect

And to make sure UDA was working Client-side, I setup the following deployment on the Site server

The 7Zip application (MSI) with a Deployment Type to Users Primary Devices

The 7Zip Deployment

There it is installed, before a domain user has even logged on

That’s pretty much it, I’ll work on a second version to smarten it up a bit more … if anything this shows how you can lasso together a few product elements to produce a very useful mechanism …

References

ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta Boot Image Optional Components by Rob Marshall

http://wmug.co.uk/wmug/b/r0b/archive/2012/10/07/configmgr-2012-sp1-beta-boot-image-optional-components.aspx

Retrieving Identifying Information by Using the SMBIOS

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee156543.aspx

Configuration Manager 2012: User Device Affinity and OS Deployment by John Vintzel

http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_osd/archive/2011/06/20/configuration-manager-2012-user-device-affinity-and-os-deployment.aspx

Wally Mead back in the UK presenting on ConfigMgr 2012 SP1

Rob Marshall - MVP — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:14:42 GMT

It’s becoming a regular annual feature now, and this year is no exception with Wally Mead joining WMUG for the day on the 10th of November 2012!

We’re back in Reading for this event, at the Microsoft UK TVP Campus. We have the Chicago room and can seat a 100.

Really stoked about this one, Service Pack 1 introduces some awesome tech, and although Wally won’t be able to cover it all, he’ll damn well try!

This years event is a bit special as we’ve had to go for a Saturday over a working week day which may make it difficult to attend, but I'll be hanging out there during the day along with a few of the WMUG gang, and the content is pretty much ConfigMgr Service Pack 1. This really is a not-to-be-missed--if-your-a-ConfigMgr-admin free event!

Click here for more information and how to book.

http://wmug.co.uk/hubs/wmug_event_content/w/wmug_event_content-pages/54.wmug-event-a-day-with-wally-mead-covering-configmgr-2012-rtm-and-sp1-on-10th-of-november-2012.aspx

WMUG Account registration - CAPTCHA implemented

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:03:20 GMT

We've had a fair few Bots registering on the site since we upgraded to Telligent 6.1, about 20-30 per day, all trying to get in so they can spam the site silly.

I've been manually processing these, even had some SQL code I could execute to mass-delete these puppies, but last night I finally got CAPTCHA to work with the WMUG account creation page.

I implemented this for Telligent 6.1: http://telligent.com/marketplace/m/marketplace/1353178.aspx

WMUG 1, Spam bot 0 !

Shame that wasn't England 1 Italy 0 huh! ... my only Euro 2012 reference ;-)

CM12SDK.NET - PowerShell SDK Community website

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:21:00 GMT

Kaido Järvemets, MVP in ConfigMgr, has just brought up his new Powershell SDK website CM12SDK.NET dedicated to using the PowerShell ConfigMgr 2012 SDK.

Worth the visit for the most excellent library of PowerShell applets Kaido has produced. This site will be huge, I see it becoming the No1 portal for PoSH scripts for ConfigMgr 2012 ..

Visit here

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– Setting up the CAS

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:49:00 GMT

Following on from my previous article on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager where I talked about the pro’s and con’s of having a Central Administration Site, we will implement the CAS to get the full spread of functionality from ConfigMgr during the walk-through ...

You can read this and more fantastic articles from Rob here

Week update

Raphael — Mon, 28 May 2012 09:33:40 GMT

Hi all,

Is has been a while since my last blog post, but this is nly because things are changing on my personal, professional and community life...

The interesting thing to talk here is the community life (as this isn't a gossip magazine, no one cares about my personal/professional life :))

As community, I'm proud to say that I'm a new member (with another Brazilian friend David Nudelman) of the WMUG "core team", and I have to say thanks to Rob for the invitation :)

The WMUG team is doing a lot and hopefully you'll enjoy everything we're doing. The first great thing was the website upgrade finished last week that added lots of new features to the website and shortly you all will be able to enjoy it.

As part of this, I also published a new project on codeplex about creating fake clients to cm12. If you haven't checked, it is time...(check my previous post :))

We're also working hard to build a series of meetings (either online and presential)...stay tunned...(and if you think you're a good speaker on any system Center technology (or related), contact us...

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - Do I need one

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Following on from my previous article on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager where I talked about setting up a good test last, we can now move on to whether we need a CAS for the company Configuration Manager is being installed into.

You can read this and more fantastic articles from Rob here

WMUG - Available Videos

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:01:00 GMT

We've got a bunch of videos building up on the site, thought I'd index them and locate in an easy to find place on the website. You'll find them in the following Group called Training Videos

Here's a list of the videos there today:

Wally Mead - Nov 2011 - ConfigMgr 2012 Technical Overview
Wally Mead - Nov 2010 - ConfigMgr 2012 Overview
Wally Mead - Nov 2010 - ConfigMgr 2012 Migration
Wally Mead - Nov 2010 - ConfigMgr 2007 R3
WMUG Recorded Event - Silect - MP Studio
WMUG Recorded Event - Shavlik SCUPdates
WMUG Recorded Event - 1e Nightwatchman Server Edition
WMUG Recorded Event - Sherry Kissinger on ConfigMgr 2007 Hardware Inventory
WMUG Recorded Event - Johan Arwidmark on MDT 2010
ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 2 Build 7561 - Creating a low rights user using RBA
ConfigMgr 2007 R3
Using DCM to evaluate ConfigMgr client self-signed certificates
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 24 - OSD Part III
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 23 - OSD Part II
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 22 - OSD Part I
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 21 - Endpoint Protection
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 20 - Software Update
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 19 - Application Management (Part II)
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 18 - Application Catalog
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 17 - Application Management (Part I)
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 16 - Reporting
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 15 - Collections
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 14 - Remote Tools
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 13 - Asset Intelligence
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 12 - Hardware Inventory
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 11 - Client Settings
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 10 - Client Health
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 9 - Client Settings & Installation
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 8 - Basic Settings (Discovery, Boundaries & DP)
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 7 - Site Roles (DP, MP, FSP)
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 6 - Installation - Validation
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 5 - Installation
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 4 - Download Setup Requirements
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 3 - Requirements
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 2 - SQL Server
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC Video 1 - Schema extension
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 01) - Training introduction
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 02) - MDT 2010 - Installation
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 03) - MDT 2010 - Importing Drivers
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 04) - MDT 2010 - Software
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 05) - MDT 2010 - Build & Capture Reference Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 06) - MDT 2010 - Capturing a Reference Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 07) - MDT 2010 - Deploying Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 08) - MDT 2010 - Installing compulsory software
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 09) - MDT 2010 - CustomSettings.ini
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 10) - MDT 2010 - Upgrade from XP to Windows 7
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 11) - SCCM - Adding boot images to Distribution Points
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 12) - SCCM - Importing Drivers (Part 1)
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 13) - SCCM - Importing Drivers (Part 2)
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 14) - SCCM - Adding drivers to a boot image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 15) - SCCM - Build and Capture Reference Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 16) - SCCM - Capture Reference Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 17) - SCCM - Deploying OS Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 18) - SCCM - State Migration Point
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 19) - SCCM - Upgrade from XP to Windows 7 using State Mig Point
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 20) - SCCM - Upgrade from XP to Windows 7 using Hardlink
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 21) - SCCM - WDS Installation
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 22) - SCCM - PXE Service Point
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 23) - SCCM/MDT-MDT 2010 Update 01 Integration with SCCM
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 24) - SCCM/MDT-Creating MDT boot Images
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 25) - SCCM/MDT-Installing & Capturing Reference Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 26) - SCCM/MDT-Deploying OS Image
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 27) - SCCM/MDT-Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 28) - SCCM/MDT-MDT Database Integration
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 29) - SCCM/MDT-UDI - User Driven Installation
SCCM 2007 & MDT (Part 30) - SCCM/MDT-Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 using P2V migration

That's a lot of content, probably over 24hrs of straight video to watch!

Reclaim diskspace when deleting updates from Update Package.

Larus Milan Bulat — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:48:00 GMT

SCCM 2007: Reclaiming disk space is of course important when you want to remove Expired Updates from a Update Package.

Deleting Updates from Update Package does not appear to remove the actual update files from the source directory, the wizard even allows you to update the Distribution Points which has no effect on the actual contents.

Workaround:
1. Delete Updates from the Deployment Package in the console, un-tick Update Distribution Points when asked.
2. Move all the individual update directories (Named with GUIDS) from the source directory to another location for safekeeping.
3. Select all the Updates left in the package and right click “Content Refresh”. (MMC might crash if there are more than 500, then just select 100 at a time)
4. Wait for the wizard to finish and for the Update directories to be re-created.
5. Right Click the Distribution Point folder in the package in console and select “Update Distribution Points”
6. Verify the deleted updates have been removed from the Distribution Points (this will take some time).

WMUG Video - Wally Mead - Technical Overview of ConfigMgr 2012 - Video now online

Rob Marshall - MVP — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:49:00 GMT

Took me a bit of time, but we just got the first of three videos taken at the recent WMUG November 4th 2011 event presented by Wally Mead.

This, the first of three videos, is a technical overview of the ConfigMgr 2012 product itself.

WMUG-Nov4-2011-WallyMead - Technical Overview from Rob on Vimeo.

Visit our events page for the event details.

Stay tuned for more videos!

Wally Mead - ConfigMgr 2007 R3 and ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 1 videos

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:49:00 GMT

Took me a while, but I managed to create three videos with runtimes of around 1hr 30min+ each from the days video taken at the WMUG November 1st 2010 meeting in London, England in which Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, gave us a run through of ConfigMgr 2007 R3 and two great sessions on ConfigMgr 2012 split up as overview and migration pieces.

Here's the link to the videos: http://wmug.co.uk/groups/wmug_event_content/pages/wmug-event-1st-november-2010.aspx

I used about 8 or so hours of my life, Camtasia, AVItoALL, PowerPoint, sprinkling of RobSkills(TM) and then hosted on Vimeo to get these to you. Thus, after all that effort I expect you to donate to the RobSkills(TM) fund for impoverished children (a charity front i use to launder money). Not going to donate? Well, I still hope you get some value from watching the videos and I will generate more for the community as I get them recorded.

Asset Tag	Machine Name	User Affinity – UDA
123456789A	,LON123456789A	CONFIGMGR\ConfigMgrUser