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Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:41:51 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:41:51 PM

Here's a quick guide to installing MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1. There isn't much to the installation itself, and is intuitive enough not to need a guide but due to the two-step installation approach I thought I'd cover it, and the guide should apply to the final release.

Grab MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 here

Installing MDT 2012

Select Next

Click I accept the terms in the License Agreement and Select Next

Change the Path if needed then Select Next

Non-corporate labs I always let this this happen, if you're on a corporate network policy will dictate whether you can do this for lab or production systems. Select Next

Select Install

Select Finish to complete the installation, really easy.

MDT 2012 will now show the Start Menu now

Integrating MDT 2012 into the ConfigMgr 2012 Site server

Before you can begin using MDT 2012 you'll need to integrate it with the ConfigMgr Site server.

To do this simply launch the Configure ConfigMgr Intergration wizard:

Enter your Site server name and Site code then Select Next

Select Finish to complete the integration, that easy!

If you want to automate the integration the only way I've found is to reproduce the steps the wizard goes through.

To get the files needed just install MDT 2012 and integrate it once, the MDT 2012 wizards confirmation page shows what it did and using the creation date of the files you can track down what was deployed.

Add the files needed to the ConfigMgr Console folder

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin

Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll

Microsoft.BDD.CM12Wizards.dll

Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.dll

Microsoft.BDD.Core.dll

Microsoft.BDD.PSSnapIn.dll

Microsoft.BDD.Workbench.dll

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions

b0b9625f-7afe-409e-9b65-5cb973a82a2c (folder)

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_CreateBootImage

f428b123-4f99-49eb-babd-40fd3eb6ac4f (folder)

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_ImportTaskSequence

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\XmlStorage\Extensions\Forms

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_CreateBootImage

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_ImportTaskSequence

Generate the MOF File

Call the MOF file Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.mof, replace SITECODE with your site servers site code and SERVERNAME with your site servers FQDN:

#pragma namespace("\\\\SERVERNAME\\root\\sms\\site_SITECODE")

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe Scripts\\ZTISCCM.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,1,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionBDDPackage", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionBDDPackage"},

VariablePrefix("BDD")

]

class BDD_UsePackage : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIGather.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,2,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionGather", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionGather"}

]

class BDD_Gather : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

boolean GatherLocalOnly = false;

string RulesFile;

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIValidate.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,3,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionValidate", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionValidate"}

]

class BDD_Validate : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 ImageMemory = 512;

uint32 ImageProcessorSpeed = 800;

uint32 ImageSize;

string VerifyOS = "CLIENT";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIOSRole.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,4,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallRoles", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallRoles"}

]

class BDD_InstallRoles : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 OSRoleIndex;

string OSRoles[];

string OSRoleServices[];

string OSFeatures[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIOSRole.wsf\" /uninstall"),

ActionCategory("MDT,5,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallRoles", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionUninstallRoles"}

]

class BDD_UninstallRoles : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 OSRoleIndex;

boolean CompletelyRemove = false;

string UninstallOSRoles[];

string UninstallOSRoleServices[];

string UninstallOSFeatures[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureADDS.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,6,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureADDS", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureADDS"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureADDS : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string ReplicaOrNewDomain = "Domain";

string NewDomain = "Forest";

string NewDomainDNSName = "";

string ParentDomainDNSName = "";

string ReplicaDomainDNSName = "";

string ChildName = "";

string DomainNetBiosName = "";

string ForestLevel = "2";

string DomainLevel = "2";

string AutoConfigDNS = "No";

string ConfirmGC = "Yes";

string CriticalReplicationOnly = "No";

string ADDSUserName = "";

string ADDSUserDomain = "";

string ADDSPassword = "";

string ReplicationSourceDC = "";

string DatabasePath = "%systemroot%\\NTDS";

string ADDSLogPath = "%systemroot%\\NTDS";

string SysVolPath = "%systemroot%\\SYSVOL";

string SafeModeAdminPassword = "";

string SiteName = "";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_DNSZones

{

string Name;

string Type;

string MasterIP;

string DirectoryPartition;

string FileName;

boolean Scavenge;

sint32 Update;

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureDNS.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,7,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureDNS", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureDNS"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureDNS : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

boolean DNSServerOptionDisableRecursion = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionBINDSecondaries = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionFailOnLoad = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableRoundRobin = "true";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableNetmaskOrdering = "true";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableSecureCache = "true";

sint32 DNSServerOptionNameCheckFlag = 3;

BDD_DNSZones DNSZones[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_DHCPScopes

{

string SubnetMask;

string IP;

string Name;

string Description;

string StartIP;

string EndIP;

string ExcludeStartIP;

string ExcludeEndIP;

string OptionRouter;

string OptionDNSServer;

string OptionWINSServer;

string OptionDNSDomainName;

string OptionNBTNodeType;

string OptionLease;

string OptionPXEClient;

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureDHCP.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,8,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureDHCP", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureDHCP"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureDHCP : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string DHCPServerOptionRouter;

string DHCPServerOptionDNSServer;

string DHCPServerOptionWINSServer;

string DHCPServerOptionDNSDomainName;

string DHCPServerOptionNBTNodeType;

string DHCPServerOptionPXEClient;

BDD_DHCPScopes DHCPScopes[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPatches.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,9,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallUpdatesOffline", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallUpdatesOffline"}

]

class BDD_InstallUpdatesOffline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPatches.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,10,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallLanguagePacks", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallLanguagePacksOffline"}

]

class BDD_InstallLanguagePacksOffline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPE";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTILangPacksOnline.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,11,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallLanguagePacks", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallLanguagePacksOnline"}

]

class BDD_InstallLanguagePacksOnline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "FullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPowerShell.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,12,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionRunPowerShell", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionRunPowerShell"}

]

class BDD_RunPowerShellAction : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string ScriptName;

string Parameters;

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIExecuteRunbook.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,13,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionExecuteRunbook", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionExecuteRunbook"}

]

class BDD_ExecuteRunbook : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string OrchestratorServer;

string RunbookID;

string RunbookName;

string RunbookParameterMode;

BDD_RunbookParameters RunbookParameters[];

string RunbookServer;

boolean WaitUntilComplete = "true";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_RunbookParameters

{

string ParameterID;

string ParameterName;

string ParameterValue;

};

Compile the integration MOF file

Open a CMD prompt, navigate to the MOF fie and run the following command:

MOFCOMP Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.mof

That'll get MDT installed and integrated into your Site server.

To confirm that the manual steps have been performed correctly, rerun the wizard and you'll see that it recognises that MDT 2012 is registered and offers you the option to remove it.

Tags: automate

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:40:16 GMT

Revision 14 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:40:16 PM

Grab MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 here

Installing MDT 2012

Select Next

Click I accept the terms in the License Agreement and Select Next

Change the Path if needed then Select Next

Non-corporate labs I always let this this happen, if you're on a corporate network policy will dictate whether you can do this for lab or production systems. Select Next

Select Install

Select Finish to complete the installation, really easy.

MDT 2012 will now show the Start Menu now

Integrating MDT 2012 into the ConfigMgr 2012 Site server

Before you can begin using MDT 2012 you'll need to integrate it with the ConfigMgr Site server.

To do this simply launch the Configure ConfigMgr Intergration wizard:

Enter your Site server name and Site code then Select Next

Select Finish to complete the integration, that easy!

If you want to automate the integration the only way I've found is to reproduce the steps the wizard goes through.

Add the files needed to the ConfigMgr Console folder

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin

Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll

Microsoft.BDD.CM12Wizards.dll

Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.dll

Microsoft.BDD.Core.dll

Microsoft.BDD.PSSnapIn.dll

Microsoft.BDD.Workbench.dll

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions

b0b9625f-7afe-409e-9b65-5cb973a82a2c (folder)

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_CreateBootImage

f428b123-4f99-49eb-babd-40fd3eb6ac4f (folder)

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_ImportTaskSequence

Add the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\XmlStorage\Extensions\Forms

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_CreateBootImage

Microsoft.BDD.SCCM_ImportTaskSequence

Generate the MOF File

Call the MOF file Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.mof, replace SITECODE with your site servers site code and SERVERNAME with your site servers FQDN:

#pragma namespace("\\\\SERVERNAME\\root\\sms\\site_SITECODE")

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe Scripts\\ZTISCCM.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,1,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionBDDPackage", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionBDDPackage"},

VariablePrefix("BDD")

]

class BDD_UsePackage : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIGather.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,2,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionGather", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionGather"}

]

class BDD_Gather : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

boolean GatherLocalOnly = false;

string RulesFile;

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIValidate.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,3,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionValidate", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionValidate"}

]

class BDD_Validate : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 ImageMemory = 512;

uint32 ImageProcessorSpeed = 800;

uint32 ImageSize;

string VerifyOS = "CLIENT";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIOSRole.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,4,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallRoles", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallRoles"}

]

class BDD_InstallRoles : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 OSRoleIndex;

string OSRoles[];

string OSRoleServices[];

string OSFeatures[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIOSRole.wsf\" /uninstall"),

ActionCategory("MDT,5,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallRoles", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionUninstallRoles"}

]

class BDD_UninstallRoles : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

uint32 OSRoleIndex;

boolean CompletelyRemove = false;

string UninstallOSRoles[];

string UninstallOSRoleServices[];

string UninstallOSFeatures[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureADDS.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,6,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureADDS", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureADDS"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureADDS : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string ReplicaOrNewDomain = "Domain";

string NewDomain = "Forest";

string NewDomainDNSName = "";

string ParentDomainDNSName = "";

string ReplicaDomainDNSName = "";

string ChildName = "";

string DomainNetBiosName = "";

string ForestLevel = "2";

string DomainLevel = "2";

string AutoConfigDNS = "No";

string ConfirmGC = "Yes";

string CriticalReplicationOnly = "No";

string ADDSUserName = "";

string ADDSUserDomain = "";

string ADDSPassword = "";

string ReplicationSourceDC = "";

string DatabasePath = "%systemroot%\\NTDS";

string ADDSLogPath = "%systemroot%\\NTDS";

string SysVolPath = "%systemroot%\\SYSVOL";

string SafeModeAdminPassword = "";

string SiteName = "";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_DNSZones

{

string Name;

string Type;

string MasterIP;

string DirectoryPartition;

string FileName;

boolean Scavenge;

sint32 Update;

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureDNS.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,7,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureDNS", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureDNS"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureDNS : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

boolean DNSServerOptionDisableRecursion = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionBINDSecondaries = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionFailOnLoad = "false";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableRoundRobin = "true";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableNetmaskOrdering = "true";

boolean DNSServerOptionEnableSecureCache = "true";

sint32 DNSServerOptionNameCheckFlag = 3;

BDD_DNSZones DNSZones[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_DHCPScopes

{

string SubnetMask;

string IP;

string Name;

string Description;

string StartIP;

string EndIP;

string ExcludeStartIP;

string ExcludeEndIP;

string OptionRouter;

string OptionDNSServer;

string OptionWINSServer;

string OptionDNSDomainName;

string OptionNBTNodeType;

string OptionLease;

string OptionPXEClient;

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIConfigureDHCP.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,8,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionConfigureDHCP", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionConfigureDHCP"}

]

class BDD_ConfigureDHCP : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string DHCPServerOptionRouter;

string DHCPServerOptionDNSServer;

string DHCPServerOptionWINSServer;

string DHCPServerOptionDNSDomainName;

string DHCPServerOptionNBTNodeType;

string DHCPServerOptionPXEClient;

BDD_DHCPScopes DHCPScopes[];

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPatches.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,9,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallUpdatesOffline", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallUpdatesOffline"}

]

class BDD_InstallUpdatesOffline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPatches.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,10,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallLanguagePacks", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallLanguagePacksOffline"}

]

class BDD_InstallLanguagePacksOffline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPE";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTILangPacksOnline.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,11,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionInstallLanguagePacks", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionInstallLanguagePacksOnline"}

]

class BDD_InstallLanguagePacksOnline : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "FullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run:%1 cscript.exe %DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIPowerShell.wsf"),

ActionCategory("MDT,12,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionRunPowerShell", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionRunPowerShell"}

]

class BDD_RunPowerShellAction : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string ScriptName;

string Parameters;

[TaskSequencePackage, CommandLineArg(1)]

string PackageID;

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

[ CommandLine("smsswd.exe /run: cscript.exe \"%DeployRoot%\\Scripts\\ZTIExecuteRunbook.wsf\""),

ActionCategory("MDT,13,7"),

ActionUI{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions", "ActionExecuteRunbook", "ActionOptions"},

ActionName{"Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.dll", "Microsoft.BDD.Actions.Resources", "ActionExecuteRunbook"}

]

class BDD_ExecuteRunbook : SMS_TaskSequence_Action

{

string OrchestratorServer;

string RunbookID;

string RunbookName;

string RunbookParameterMode;

BDD_RunbookParameters RunbookParameters[];

string RunbookServer;

boolean WaitUntilComplete = "true";

string SupportedEnvironment = "WinPEandFullOS";

};

class BDD_RunbookParameters

{

string ParameterID;

string ParameterName;

string ParameterValue;

};

Compile the integration MOF file

Open a CMD prompt, navigate to the MOF fie and run the following command:

MOFCOMP Microsoft.BDD.CM12Actions.mof

That'll get MDT installed and integrated into your Site server.

To confirm that the manual steps have been performed correctly, rerun the wizard and you'll see that it recognises that MDT 2012 is registered and offers you the option to remove it.

Tags: automate, Beta 1, ConfigMgr 2012, Install, Intergrate, Manual, MDT 2012, Update 1

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– #3 Setting up the CAS

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:54 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:54 PM

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.

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!
Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.
When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place
A pristine default configured Active Directory is a good first start, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation. If you've done a lot of Group Policy and other finessing then this could lead to installation or operational failure. This is a very complicated product, don't be fooled by what appears to be a simple installation. That is what is so rewarding about specialising in it, there is always something new to learn
Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a CAS back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.
Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

For my lab I have a single forest and a single domain running on Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise at R2 functional level, as a Virtual Machine, with 512MB of memory allocated.

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Domain Controller

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 1024MB of memory

Post-build you can reduce this to 512MB if you want but it'll thrash the disk a bit if it becomes too active.

Configure a static IP address, do not use DHCP address for these Lab servers.

DC Promo the server to become a Domain Controller for a new forest\domain called SMSLAB.COM, or whatever you want to call your lab

This quick guide on how to DCPromo a server from Ilija Brajkovic should help you get this done if it’s the first time.

CAS

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 4GB of Memory

Microsoft recommends 32GB for the CAS, and 8GB of that should be set aside for SQL. Since we're in a lab and unlikely to service many Clients, we'll be fine with 4GB for the CAS and SQL restricted to using 2GB.

Configure a static IP address, do not use DHCP address for these Lab servers.

Join this server to your new Domain

Before we move on, let's cover hard drives. It is important to make it clear that we are not deploying to production, we wouldn't put a CAS in a VM if we were. So, since we're in a lab we can be a bit liberal when it comes to honouring best practices. Thus, all VM's for my Lab have a single disk, and for my lab server I use a Windows Server 8 Storage Pool containing x2 SATA3 disks to manage the Disk I/O. I would not implement any of this in production without honouring the hardware requirements of the product.

OK, once the Domain Controller has been built, you'll need to do the following to get the Active Directory forest and domain ready for ConfigMgr:

Task

Description

Create Domain User and Groups

Setup the following Domain Accounts and Domain Groups on the new Domain Controller

User

ConfigMgrAdmin

This will be our ConfigMgr administrator

Group

ConfigMgrAdmins

We'll add our ConfigMgr administrator to this group, and give the group full administrative access to the Site server once it has been installed

Group

ConfigMgrServers

We'll add our ConfigMgr Site servers to this group and permission it against the System Management container so that the Site servers can publish to Active Directory.

Extend the AD Schema

You can run ConfigMgr without extending your AD schema, but life doesn't have to be that hard in the lab.

Extending the Schema

This is the same procedure as you'd apply for SMS2003 and ConfigMgr 2007. This guide for ConfigMgr 2007 will help you along if you haven't done this before.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712264.aspx#BKMK_PrepAD

This is the same procedure since SMS2003, you either extend using the ExtADSch.exe utility, or you use the LDF file.

Both approaches yield the same result, but the option is there to choose which method you feel comfortable using.

It is pretty important to know what will happen when you extend the AD Schema, so take a look at the LDF file, and you'll see several classes defined and various attributes being created.

SMSSETUP\BIN\i386\ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf

Create the System Management Container

Create the System Management container and configure its permissions.

Creating the System Management container

This is the very same container used by SMS2003 and ConfigMgr 2007.

You cannot go wrong following the existing documentation on how to create this container

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712264.aspx#BKMK_CreateSMContainer

Setting permissions on the new System Management container

You can either permission each individual Site servers computer account for access to the container, or setup a group, add the

Site server computer accounts to the group, and permission the container with the group

Another guide from ConfigMgr 2007 which will help you along

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712264.aspx#BKMK_SetSMContainer

For this lab we've created a group called ConfigMgrServers and we'll be using this as the group mentioned above.

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the CAS.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Not all of the requirements for ConfigMgr 2012 can be installed using Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager, but those that we can install using this method are .NET Framework 3.51, BITS, Remote Differential Compression, WMI Management for IIS and Windows Deployment Services.

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type
Import-Module servermanager
To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A CAS will have Child sites, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

You can find the CMTrace tool on the ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Media in the Tools directory. Copy CMTrace.exe somewhere like C:\TEMP. If you've never used CMTrace before, and not sure what it does, read here and come back to continue.

Install SQL

ConfigMgr 2012 RTM supports SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6, which is great, as SQL 2008 R2 comes with a really nice edition of the Management Studio (SSMS). ConfigMgr has very strict SQL collation requirements, essentially only SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Something handy to know ahead of the installs is that you can use CMTrace to view the resulting log files from the RTM, SP1 and CU6 installations. Each execution creates a new folder on the following path called detail.txt:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

setup.exe /q /ACTION=Install /ERRORREPORTING="False" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,RS,AS,IS,SSMS,TOOLS,BIDS,ADV_SSMS,CONN /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /INSTANCEDIR="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /RSSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /RSSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /ASSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ASSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /ISSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ISSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASCOLLATION="Latin1_General_CI_AS" /SQLCOLLATION="SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" /TCPENABLED="1" /NPENABLED="1" /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

To do this the server itself has to have access to the internet because it uses Update Services to download the WSUS binary. To see the download activity for WSUS using Update Servers check out the Update Services log here %WINDIR%\WINDOWSUPDATE.LOG

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager
Click Add a new Role
Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name

Friendly Name

Web-Metabase

IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility

Web-Windows-Auth

Windows Authentication

Web-Asp-Net

ASP.NET

Web-Dyn-Compression

Dynamic Compression

Web-Static-Content

Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Well, if you make changes in the WSUS console you invalidate support with Microsoft as well as introducing unexpected behavior in ConfigMgr. There is a rare circumstance where you would go into the WSUS console, but, I mean rare, as in, rocking horse doo-doo rare for most of us.

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Central Administration Site

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Central Administration Site.

Fire up the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Assess server readiness

The prerequisite checker can be run independently of the splash screen using command line parameters, but, for now we'll stick with the clicky method.

One of these Warnings will always show, verify permissions, the SQL server warning is because I haven't allocated 8GB of memory to SQL server. Since we're a lab, we'll move on.

Note: If you have other warnings here, you haven't done something right, the kits and this guide all line up and as long as the same versions are used it'll work. Take a look back and see if there is anything you've missed.

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager Central Administration Site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Tea time!

There has been a major change in how language support for both the Console, Client, web-based Application Catalogue and SQL Reporting Services reports is implemented. Check out the following under Sites and Hierarchies \ Language Pack Support

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use AAA as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!
Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here
The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product
SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

Yep, you read that right, we have a new setup log, ConfigMgrSetupWizard.

The great thing about this new log is that we can see the sites progression through the installation in a summarised form, while the classical ConfigMgrSetup log gives us the actual detail.

I also think the ConfigMgrSetupWizard log was designed to control the output from the installation such that you shouldn't see any warning or error text unless something has gone wrong. The ConfigMgrSetup log is an example of very verbose output, you will see a lot of red scrolling past, It doesn't mean failure unless the installation stops prematurely as a result.

The installation time I'd say is pretty much dependent on your hard drive performance. I say that because the bulk of the installation time is spent dealing with WAIK and creating the new boot images for X86 and X64 architectures generates lots of disk I/O.

When I installed ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 into the lab it took 23 minutes and 17 seconds to complete the installation. It took 28 minutes and 35 seconds this time around for RTM, I put that down to having changed the Hyper-V hosts disk configuration by implementing a Storage Pool instead of allowing the VM to write directly to one physical disk.

That's it, the CAS is installed.

Open the Console and it'll connect to the new Site:

You can do a health check by passing over the Site Status, Component Status and running a Status Message Query to see what the last few hours worth of status messages are, but it should be good for supporting further guides in the series.

Next guide – Configuring the CAS

That covers the setting up of the CAS in the lab, we still have some way to go before looking fabulous with the CAS, enough that I thought I'd make it a separate guide.

Check out the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Documentation Library for further reading on the product.

Useful resources

SQL versions (SQLTeam.com)

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - #2 Do I need one

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:51 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:51 PM

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.

Let’s start with what CAS means:

Central Administration Site

This is not the same as the Central Site in previous versions of the products. This is literally a Central site where administration and operations for everything can be performed, for everything, everywhere. It is no more significant as that. The old model of partitioning administration using Primary Sites has gone. Folks implementing this product should pay careful attention to the new features, since they require a new way of doing things, such as RBA making administration partition using Primary Sites redundant, and the capabilities of the Secondary with it’s Database, and the Distribution Point with its Sender like behaviour all contributing and influencing the design.

The Configuration Manager Documentation team have laid out the basic reasoning for implementing a CAS in the online document, check out Planning for Sites and Hierarchies in Configuration Manager and under About Site Types in Configuration Manager is the Determine Whether to Install a Central Administration Site section you’ll find a bunch of bullets to guide you into making the decision.

Brian Mason Configuration Manager MVP * wrote a bunch of pros and cons on having a CAS which I think alongside the MS information, pretty much gives you the key points for taking the plunge, or not.

* Brian’s article can be found here on the Minnesota System Center User group website

I think it all just boils down to two questions, so I flowcharted them to make it even easier to decide when and when not to use a CAS:

Starting out with a Central gives you centralised management and reporting, but means a whole lot of complexity. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages wisely. Choosing a CAS and finding out you didn’t need it isn’t that painful or restrictive at the end of the day.

Before we wrap up, there is another important design decision to be made, which edition of SQL to use.

It’s not that important to understand how SQL Partitioning works, but its impact should be understood. It is important to gauge now whether you’ll ever go over 50,000 Clients for the life cycle of the entire hierarchy. If you think you’ll come close to 50,000 Clients and choose the wrong edition, you won’t see a 50,001th Client without a rebuild (2012.05).

And thus, another simplistic flowchart follows:

Next guide – Setting up the CAS

That covers the reasoning for a CAS well enough, in the next guide I’ll begin installing the CAS for the lab. I’ve elected to implement a CAS so that we can cover as much of the feature stack as possible for the guides.

Check out the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Documentation Library for further reading on the product.

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #6 CMTrace

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:47 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:47 PM

I thought I’d write some stuff about CMTrace, the Configuration Manager free log tracing tool. I still find folks who don’t know how useful this tool is, not just for Configuration Manager logs, but during your daily admin tasks.

We’ve seen a few versions of this tool appear over the last decade, SMSTace, Trace32 and now we have CMTrace. This is a 64-bit only version of the tool, which means it’ll be useful for checking out logs while in WinPE X64, but won’t be very useful on an X86 only OS. I can live with that.

CMTrace What does it do

CMTrace reads log files in real time. It was designed to look at Configuration Manager log files, which happens to have quite a few log files available to cast a beady eye over. Not that exciting, unless you’re life consists of opening log files and re-opening them after something has made a change, then you get to appreciate the luxury of having this tool around. I also call it Trace.

It also gets a nice new logo!

CMTrace Where to get it

CMTrace is included on the Configuration Manager installation ISO in the <ISO>:\SMSSETUP\TOOLS folder. I suggest you copy it out to a local HDD

CMTrace wants you to sign away your logs

No seriously, when you first run CMTrace, it’ll try to register itself to handle all .LOG files that are opened. This is per user profile, not system.

Configuration Managers log files are in a new format, so you’re going to need CMTrace to view them. Older versions of the tool won’t do it. I need to find out what the new format is all about, if I do I’ll write it up here and try to write some stuff about the encoding format being used

CMTrace version

This first release gives us the following version number: 5.0.7711.0000 (64-bit)

CMTrace logs

We’re going to use the Windows Update Agent and Component Based Servicing log files so we can take a quick run through of the CMTrace features.

No errors here, but we do have a warning, UpdateNow is complaining and the line has been highlighted automatically. If anything said error we’d see a red highlight. The point of the highlighting is it draws your eye to problem areas quickly.

The tool has a few pretty nifty features that make it a good fit for looking at logs in general, automatic line highlighting, typical search capabilities which I’ll skip over, additional highlighting, a filtering feature, error lookup, and finally the ability to view several log files in one CMTrace window in real-time.

Let’s begin by using the highlighter,

CMTrace automatic highlighting

CMTrace will automatically highlight in Yellow or Red depending on whether the words warning or error respectively are present on the line being displayed.

CMTrace Highlighter

Open the Tools menu and select Highlight… and lets highlight anything written about SQM

The tool lights up the lines containing SQM

CMTrace Filtering

As you move around the log files, sometimes it’s easy to filter out noise\chatter by only displaying lines that meet certain criteria. We will use the most commonly used option which is Filter when the Entry Text, and then choose to be very specific by using is\is not equal to or contains\does not contain option. We choose contains and type in SQM:

Now we get a filtered view of the log, only lines containing SQM are rendered:

We still have the highlighter on, looking for SQM, so let’s modify it and look for the word failed

Now we see lines for SQM and any contained the word failed are highlighted:

We can also filter on Component, Thread and Time which may be useful depending on how you want to carve the view up.

CMTrace error lookup

CMTrace has built-in error lookup tool, just open it via the Tools menu or press Ctrl-L and punch in an error you’ve seen in a log, most times you’ll get something useful back:

CMTrace multiple log files

CMTrace can handle multiple windows being opened at the same time, they can be cascaded, tiled vertically, or the most useful, tiled horizontally (edit: doh I wrote them back to front).

We can also open multiple log files into just one window, pretty cool when we apply a Filter for a specific string that’ll get matches across all the documents:

These two won’t merge, one is not in a compatible format, but you can open multiple Configuration Manager log files.

You can also tell it to ignore existing lines, which means it’ll begin monitoring only new content to the logs which speeds up their load time if you’re not looking for historical data. Some of these log files are 5-10MB each and processing them into the view can take a few moments.

CMTrace preferences

There’s not much in here, two interesting options are Update Interval and Refresh Interval, the first can be used to reduce how frequently CMTrace checks the log file for updates, and the the second can be used to update the windows actual content after a certain amount of lines, the default is 0 so it is switched off.

That's pretty much it, we’ve covered its features now. CMTrace is only 655KB in size, and can really help speed up log file analysis, I recommend it and use it daily.

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:39 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:39 PM

Following on from my previous article on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager where I talked about installing the Central Administration Site, we will implement the Primary now and get the full spread of functionality from having a Hierarchy.

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Pretty much all VM's in this series will have a single disk unless the situation requires additional drives. I've stopped using Windows 8 server Beta Storage Pools, the Disk I/O was lousy, now I use Hardware SATA2 RAID controller using x2 SATA disks to reduce the Disk bottlenecking that happens when multiple VM's start hammering the disk. I would not implement any of this in production without separating out things across multiple and distinct drives.

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

setup.exe /q /ACTION=Install /ERRORREPORTING="False" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,RS,AS,IS,SSMS,TOOLS,BIDS,ADV_SSMS,CONN /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /INSTANCEDIR="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /RSSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /RSSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /ASSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ASSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /ISSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\System" /ISSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Disabled /ASCOLLATION="Latin1_General_CI_AS" /SQLCOLLATION="SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" /TCPENABLED="1" /NPENABLED="1" /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

To do this the server itself has to have access to the internet because it uses Update Services to download the WSUS binary. To see the download activity for WSUS using Update Servers check out the Update Services log here %WINDIR%\WINDOWSUPDATE.LOG

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

After this point the account running the wizard will need to have enough permissions to join this Primary to the CAS. Make sure you are using the domain administrator account to run the wizard as required for this series. There is no need to setup any local group memberships or even create an address, the wizard now does all this work for you.

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

TIP: If you were installing into production, you would put the NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS flag file onto the root of the drives you don't want the product to use. This should stop the Distribution Manager component from setting up shop on any of your large drives. For the lab we don't need to consider this.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

When I installed ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 into the lab it took 23 minutes and 17 seconds to complete the installation. It took 28 minutes and 35 seconds for the CAS, and 22 minutes for the Primary. It looks like the installer time levels out at around 20-22 minutes even on very fast hardware. If you get faster installs let me know in the comments!

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #1 The Lab

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:33 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:33 PM

This guide kicks off my tour of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, and we begin with the foundation of your testing platform, the lab hardware.

Now the SC12CM product, along with the OS, IIS and SQL requirements, is hugely memory and CPU hungry. The more hardware you can throw at these puppies, the better they will perform. Yep I know, the relationship between software performance and hardware has always been there, but today, we have a far more scalable product that really does take advantage of the hardware it is sitting on; The more memory, CPU and fast disk you can throw at it, the larger the scale of your Client base can be, although there are recommended limits from Microsoft, the more hardcore your server hardware, the better.

Memory

Put a large chunk of your cash into memory, for not just obvious reasons such as being able to give your VM’s more memory, but so that you can have more in-memory, and add in more VM’s when needed without having to shuffle things around by turning others off or just lowering existing VM’s memory allocations.

CPU

If you buy something like an reasonably high end Intel i7, and a decent motherboard, your CPU shouldn’t be the bottle neck in your lab

Disks

I have two Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB drives which I have placed in a couple of configurations, starting with the Windows Server 8 Storage Pool feature, and then using Hardware RAID.

These are not the best for performance, but they are cheap in the UK at the moment, and suited for the lab. They should have an extended life-time from switching off when not in use. Eventually I might replace them, but to be honest if I'm looking for bang for bucks I'll be heading to the SAS drives.

Windows 8 Storage Pools

If you've followed the development of NT you'll recall the ability to create Software RAID for quite some time, and when Windows 8 arrived with a feature that sounded very much the same. I was put off from using it initially, but after reading that this time the implementation is different and it is suppose to perform well I thought I'd take it out for a drive so set my system up as below:

Which gives me 3.64GB of fast and cheap disk to store my VMs on

I didn't keep this setup. I switched to Hardware RAID as it just wasn't delivering good enough performance - Technically it should, it is as I said a new implementation of Software RAID, to be fair I'm using it in a Beta so it may perform well on release.

Hardware RAID

My motherboard supports SATA2 Disks in Hardware RAID so I switched to using that now. I was put off doing so as I'd read about the specific board I have receving a lot of compliants on disk compatibility and robustness\reliability, but for the performance it delivers I've set it up, roll the dice ...

File System

I’ve got a bunch of OCZ Agility SSD’s, I’m not really using them much. I find they are not big enough for hosting VM’s or for my ISO library so I’ve been dropping Camtasia temp files there instead. Make sure you have a large disk for your ISO library and a good fast drive for your VM’s. I’ve gone for Storage Pools to see how it stands up to 9 VM’s accessing the allocated drive.

Make sure you’ve downloaded and stored your ISO’s in a convenient location. You’re going to need the OS and the required products such as SQL, Windows 2008 R2 and SC12CM. I’ve been collecting ISO’s for a while now, shot below shows you a sample of the kind of kits you end up with.

Virtualisation

Unless you’ve got 6 or more highly spec’d physical machines laying around, you’re going to have to use a Virtual Server. This is our weapon of choice, it gives us snapshotting and rollback, and frees you up to test things out without costing you any more time than it takes to apply a previous snapshot. My Virtual Server is Hyper-V, the Host OS is Windows Server 2008 Beta Datacenter.

Now how you use Hyper-V depends on if you have Virtual Machine Manager on hand, if you do then you can use VMM to create VM templates and turn out a lab rather quickly. I build lab infrastructure consisting of ConfigMgr, Orchestrator and Virtual Machine Manager that come together to build a disposable lab on-the-fly. Using VM Templates and unattended files can pretty much reduce the time involved massively.

Virtual Machines

Now put together a bunch of VM’s, set aside one for the CAS, a Primary, a Client and for any other roles you’re interested in. I’ve under spec’d the memory on a few of these, the CAS and two primaries will get 4GB each once they are built. 9 VM’s which forms a mini Hierarchy, with remote roles and two Clients.

Each VM OS is Windows 2008 R2 with the latest Service Pack. I hold off on patching them until CM12 is built so I can sync it with Microsoft Updates and setup Software Updates to handle further updates and for EP protection.

A different way to build your VM', but which comes pro's and con's, is to use Hyper-V 3.0 Differencing disks. Prepare a GOLD image for each type of Operating System you want to deploy and use that as the Parent disk for your new VM's. Build time reduced to minutes as a result and the image is ready for use. It's pretty easy to build a GOLD VM with the type of OS you are after, making some customisations such as turning off the firewall (gulp! it's a lab!), turning off UAC and IE Security then running SYSPREP (lots of guides on the web) to prepare it. Everything that was turned off can be turned back on using Group Policy, and ideally since this lab has it's own domain controller you should utilise GPO to enforce security where it is needed.

Setting a few things up

It took nearly two hours for all of these VM’s to complete their build when using a Windows 8 Storage Pool, but less than 10 minutes after using differencing disks and Hardware RAID.

Once built I renamed the OS, provided an IP, rebooted and created the first snapshot for each VM. This is the farthest back I’m likely to go, and If I roll any or all of my VM’s back to this snapshot I have a fresh lab. Keep this approach in mind as you add roles, features and install products. I do this all the way through the build process for each VM, it eats up disk space, but I have more than enough.

I DCPromo the VM destined to be the domain controller, create a forest and a domain called LABXSMSLAB and join all my VM’s to the new Active Directory Domain. They all get another snapshot once this is done and I have a “domain ready” rollback point *.

* There are some drawbacks to this, but the effort to get the VM’s talking on the domain after a long term rollback isn’t a big deal.

Next guide – CAS – Do I need one

That setups us up nicely for the next guide, which will go over the reasons for having a CAS, and walk through whether you need one for your environment. Not everyone does. To accomodate the series wide scope, we'll be building and using a CAS.

Check out the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Documentation Library for further reading on the product.

Rob Marshall - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:39:05 GMT

Current Revision posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:39:05 PM

Welcome to my System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

I'm Rob Marshall, a Configuration Manager MVP and I really dig this product. It has to be the best System Management product out there, and being one of the core pillars of the System Center product range from Microsoft, it is just plain awesome how much ground it can cover in a company on its own or in partnership with the other products in the System Center suite.

I plan to complete three series for ConfigMgr 2012, and as I create each article for the series I'll add it to the series guide below.

I create these guides to help both those seeking to evaluate the ConfigMgr 2012 product, and those that would like to develop their knowledge and refine their break\fix skills with the product.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, point out things I've done wrong or to praise my awesome screenshotting skills.

ConfigMgr 2012 Building and Preparing the Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #1 The Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - #2 Do I need one

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– #3 Setting up the CAS

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #6 CMTrace

ConfigMgr 2012 Features

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Deep Geek

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Break\Fix Warrior

Not there yet!

Tags: ConfigMgr 2012

Rob Marshall - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:34:21 GMT

Revision 7 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:34:21 PM

Welcome to my System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

I plan to complete three series for 2012, and as I create each article for the series I'll add it to the series guide below.

I create these guides to help both those seeking to evaluate the ConfigMgr 2012 product, and those that would like to develop their knowledge as well as refine their break\fix skills with the product.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, point out things I've done wrong or to praise my awesome screenshotting skills.

ConfigMgr 2012 Building and Preparing the Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #1 The Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - #2 Do I need one

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– #3 Setting up the CAS

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #6 CMTrace

ConfigMgr 2012 Features

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Deep Geek

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Break\Fix Warrior

Not there yet!

Tags: ConfigMgr 2012, Guides, Marshall, Rob

Rob Marshall - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:34:02 GMT

Revision 6 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:34:02 PM

Welcome to my System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

I plan to complete three series for 2012, and as I create each article for the series I'll add it to the series guide below.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, point out things I've done wrong or to praise my awesome screenshotting skills.

ConfigMgr 2012 Building and Preparing the Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #1 The Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - #2 Do I need one

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– #3 Setting up the CAS

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #6 CMTrace

ConfigMgr 2012 Features

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Deep Geek

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Break\Fix Warrior

Not there yet!

Tags: ConfigMgr 2012, Guides, Marshall, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:26:31 GMT

Revision 13 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:26:31 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Rob Marshall - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:23:33 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:23:33 PM

Welcome to my System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Lab Guides

I plan to complete three series for 2012, and as I create each article for the series I'll add it to the series guide below.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, point out things I've done wrong or to praise my awesome screenshotting skills.

ConfigMgr 2012 Building and Preparing the Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #1 The Lab

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - CAS - #2 Do I need one

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager– #3 Setting up the CAS

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #5 MDT 2012

ConfigMgr 2012 Features

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Deep Geek

Not there yet!

ConfigMgr 2012 Break\Fix Warrior

Not there yet!

Tags: ConfigMgr 2012, Guides, Marshall, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:20:37 GMT

Revision 12 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 3:20:37 PM

Following on from my previous article on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager where I talked about the installing the Central Administration Site, we will implement the Primary now and get the full spread of functionality from having a Hierarchy.

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:52:08 GMT

Revision 11 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 2:52:08 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:48:31 GMT

Revision 10 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 2:48:31 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:47:55 GMT

Revision 9 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 2:47:55 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:47:24 GMT

Revision 8 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 2:47:24 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the Primary.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:19:06 GMT

Revision 7 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 1:19:06 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the CAS.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:18:06 GMT

Revision 6 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 1:18:06 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the CAS.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Install SQL

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

You can read a bit more about SQL 2008 R2 logging over on MSDN.

Begin by installing RTM, SP1 then finally CU6.

SQL 2008 R2 RTM - version 10.50.1600.1

To kick off the silent installation, open a CMD prompt, navigate to the SQL 2008 R2 media directory, then paste the following command line into the prompt:

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - version 10.50.2500.0

Next up, the Service Pack, as before paste the following command line into the prompt

SETUP.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU 6 - version 10.50.2811

Finally, Cumulative Update 6 needs to go on, and as before simply paste the following command line into the prompt

SQLSERVER2008R2-KB2679367-X64.EXE /Q /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

Configure SQL 2008 servers Maximum server memory

Once SQL 2008 R2 is installed, we need to change the maximum allowed memory setting for the SQL engine, there are two ways to do this

Method 1

Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and set maximum allowed memory to something other than the default

Method 2

Use OSQL to make the change to the maximum allowed memory

Open a CMD prompt and type OSQL -E

Paste the following

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

RECONFIGURE

sp_configure 'max server memory', 1024

RECONFIGURE

WSUS

We install WSUS so late in the process due to it requiring a SQL database, it can go on.

There are two ways to install WSUS on Windows 2008 R2:

The server has access to the internet and is activated

Launch Windows 2008 R2 Server Manager

Click Add a new Role

Choose Windows Server Update Services

No internet access but you have the installation binary

Firstly install all the WSUS prerequisites needed for WSUS, these are:

Short Form name	Friendly Name
Web-Metabase	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
Web-Windows-Auth	Windows Authentication
Web-Asp-Net	ASP.NET
Web-Dyn-Compression	Dynamic Compression
Web-Static-Content	Static Compression

You can translate the short form names into friendly names here

I found a really cool one-liner PowerShell command to perform the installs (from the One Bored Admin website)

Get-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS | select -exp DependsOn | Add-WindowsFeature

Now run the standalone WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 installer and begin the installation.

Either way, when the WSUS wizard appears, go through making the selections shown below and accepting all the others:

Database Options	Use an existing database server on this computer
Web Site Selection	Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Web site

Using a custom website will force WSUS to use ports 8530 and 8531.

Once the WSUS wizard has completed it'll load the Configuration wizard, cancel this.Why?

Install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server

Now it is time to install the ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site server.

Start the ConfigMgr 2012 Splash by running D:\splash.HTA

Select Next

Before we move on, let's look at what the wizard is offering us

Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site

We can either go for typical installation options, or perform a custom installation and specify some installation options

Install a Configuration Manager central administration site

This is how you would install your CAS

For more information on Sites and Hierarchies, especially the CAS, follow this link

Upgrade an existing Configuration Manager 2012 installation

It's there, but for now we don't need it. This will be used to upgrade an existing site when a service pack comes out

Recover a site

We can perform Site Disaster Recovery using this option

Perform site maintenance or reset this site

This is how we perform a site reset, move the provider etc

Uninstall a Configuration Manager site

If we want to remove the product, we'd do it from here

Select Install a Configuration Manager primary site

Select Next

Enter your product key if you have one, or go for the 180 day evaluation (This is a lab build and we wouldn't expect it to have much of a life time for an evaluation, so 180 days is ample)

Select Next

Accept the agreement and Select Next

Accept more agreements and Select Next

You should already have these prerequisites available, so select "Use previously downloaded files", navigate to and select the folder containing the files, and Select Next

Doesn't take long to churn through the folder containing the prerequisite files

Select Next

Enter your site code, your site name (display name) and the installation folder.

We'll use BBB as the Site code, and as usual accept all defaults

Keep Install the Configuration Manager console ticked and Select Next

Enter the FQDN of the CAS

Select Next

Accept the defaults but note the following:

The server name uses the FQDN and not just a hostname!

Instance name, if we had created our own instance on SQL server, we would specify it here

The database name is formed exactly the same way as it was in previous versions of the product

SQL Server Service Broker port number, keep it at the default of 4022

Select Next

As in previous versions of the product, we need to install the SMS provider, and in this case we'll be installing it locally so accept the default here.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Select Next

Now you can install a Management Point and a Distribution Point to service your Clients.

Select Next

We should always opt-in and give the Product Group some telemetry on the products use if at all possible. Its all anonymised and really helps the Product Group.

Review what we're about to do and then Select Next

Select Begin Install and the installer will begin working through the list of tasks it needs to perform to complete the installation.

It's worth noting that a configuration file will have been written to %TEMP% called ConfigMgrAutoSave.ini, so you can automate a similar Site server build next time.

Keep an eye on the ConfigMgrSetup and ConfigMgrSetupWizard log files in the root of the System Drive, and the Setup screen itself for installation completion.

That's it, the Primary is installed.

Launching the Console immediately and until replication completes successfully you'll get this message

Select OK to proceed to the console

If you go to the Monitoring space on the navigation pane you'll see Database Replication, select and you'll see the state of the link between the CAS and the Primary

Give it a little while, I think about 10 minutes for my system and the link should become active

That pretty much wraps up the installation of the Primary. The next guide will be about configuring this new Hierarchy and turning on the ConfigMgr 2012 Features one by one.

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob

Lab - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - #4 Setting up the Primary

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:17:37 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Articles Pages by Rob Marshall - MVP on 7/18/2012 1:17:37 PM

Some basic rules:

Download all the kits mentioned below before you begin. If you use the kits mentioned and keep things in their vanilla state, and follow the guide exactly, you should have a fruitful evaluation!

Since we’re installing into a lab there are a huge set of assumptions made based on being in a virtual environment. We won't be following configuration or security best-practices aside from keeping the firewall up, this guide is not entirely fit for production usage. The Online documentation Library (and the offline documentation) lays everything out in amazing detail, pretty much all the answers are there.

When installing anything in this guide, if I don't specifically start talking about the installation process, it is because the defaults just need to be selected. Keep this in mind, and don't fiddle around choosing random "that looks interesting" tick boxes and some such, head straight for a solid and usable first build, then later on refine your own installation process. This way you'll get through to the end of the guide without being interrupted by any lengthy remediation that needs to take place

An already configured Active Directory (see other guide) is a requirement before moving on, and will lead to less problems occurring during your evaluation.

Perform VM snapshots after major milestones, OS, SQL, WSUS, ConfigMgr, as rollback points. Be aware, don't roll a Primary back without rolling everything attached to it back as well, or you may\will lose information or even sites.

Make sure you are logged in using the domain administrator account all the way through this guide to keep the experience smooth

Download kits and Virtual Machine Requirements

We are going to be installing the following installation kits, you will need to download and extract them first

Media	Download
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx
WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64	If your Windows 2008 R2 server does not have internet access you will need to download WSUS 3.0 SP2 X64 edition manually http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5216
.NET 4.0	http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
SQL 2008 R2 RTM	I'll leave it up to you to get RTM
SQL 2008 R2 SP1	http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26727
SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679367
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM	http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_5
ConfigMgr 2012 RTM Prerequisites	Check out my guide on downloading these here

The following Virtual Machines will need to be assigned and built:

Purpose

OS for the LAB

Usage and configuration recommendations for this LAB guide only

Primary

Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Assign 2GB of Memory

Join this server to your new Domain

Once all the above is ready, you can begin preparing the CAS.

Preparing Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Use the PowerShell Server-Manager module to install these ConfigMgr product requirements

Open a PowerShell prompt and type

Import-Module servermanager

To install the features run this command line in the PowerShell window:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,BITS,RDC,Web-WMI,WDS

Once done if you open Server Manager you'll see the following:

Install .NET Framework 4.0

Pretty simple installer, takes a while, install this next.

Configure the Windows Firewall

A Primary will have a Parent Site server, the CAS, and thus, SQL replication will need to take place across ports 1433 and 4022.

We will need to open these ports, one way is to use NETSH:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022

The rules should both be accepted with an OK message:

You can check out the Windows Firewall console to see the rules have been created:

Get a copy of CMTrace for log viewing

Tags: 2012, ConfigMgr, Guide, Hierarchy, Marshall, Primary, Rob