ConfigMgr 2012 : Microsoft

Best of MMS UK – Tuesday 21st of May 2013

Rob Marshall - MVP — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:44:36 GMT

The Best of MMS UK registration is closed now and there will be an epic amount of folk there as well as partners. I’ll be attending so if you see me and want to say hi just pull me up, always happy to chat and meet.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2013/05/10/reminder-the-best-of-mms-uk-2013.aspx

MS KB2823324 patch could cause loss of OS on next reboot if deployed

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:07:29 GMT

Lots of chatter out there on the web on this, Microsoft has pulled a patch, KB2823324, that is reportedly causing Windows OS’s not to boot properly or for application to not function correctly.

If you haven’t got this out into production yet, think it’d be a sensible precaution to remove it from any Deployment Packages and prevent any production instability until it is all resolved.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2823324

MVP Summit 2013

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:27:56 GMT

I’m about to head off to London Heathrow Airport for todays10 hour flight out to Seattle, visiting the MVP 2013 Global Summit on the Microsoft Redmond Campus. It’s become a holiday-conference combo, it is supposed to be a conference but myself and other ConfigMgr MVP’s have kind of gone overboard and booked loads of activities like Snowboarding, iFly, GoKarting and trips to various geek stores as well as dining out at John Howies with Wally Mead and the rest of the CM MVP’s!

Brain and laptop prepared for a week of talking to the ConfigMgr Product Group, seeing what they are up too, where they are going, but most of all chilling out with them!

This has to be the most valuable conference someone at my level can attend, direct access to the folks that code the product that I specialise in, and surrounded by my MVP peers just doesn’t get any better than that.

ConfigMgr 2007/2012 now support SQL 2012 SP1

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:40:10 GMT

Over on the ConfigMgr team blog they made an announcement that ConfigMgr 2007 and ConfigMgr 2012 now support SQL SP1 support. There Is another reference in the announcement that the Endpoint Protection client will also support SQL 2012 SP1 and Operations Manager 2012 SP1.

You’ll see the documentation library updated in the coming month for this.

As a ConfigMgr admin you should bookmark the ConfigMgr Team Blog and the invaluable Documentation Library for this kind of announcement, keep your finger on the wire so to speak.

System Center 2012 SP1 RTM's - ConfigMgr SP1 is here

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:27:33 GMT

Our first service pack for ConfigMgr is now fully available!

Check out these MS announcement links

Delivering Unified Device Management with Windows Intune and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1

Microsoft Advances the Cloud OS With New Management Solutions

Download Microsoft System Center Private Cloud Evaluation Software

Enjoy!

Install guide for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta and RedHat Client

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:08:00 GMT

Welcome to my guide for installing the ConfigMgr 2012 Client onto RedHat 6 Enterprise Linux

ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta brings cross-platform support, and here I'll show you how to setup RedHat and then install the ConfigMgr Client

There have been third-party extensions to achieve this before, especially from well-known company Quest (they do AD PoSH too, very nice) that allowed you to extend ConfigMgr 2007 into the Linux\UNIX estates, but now we have for the first time this built-In to the product

Before we begin you will need to download a few items off the internet and configure a few VM's

Download Cache

Download the following content

Linux Integration Services Version v3.4 for Hyper-V

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34603

Download the ISO and the PDF

The PDF states:

This version of Linux Integration Services supports the following guest operating systems:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7, 5.8, 6.0-6.3 x86 and x64

Download RedHat 6 Enterprise Server (was 6.3 at the time of writing)

Visit www.redhat.com and go through the registration process to get an evaluation of the OS

Go register at RedHat and get yourself either RedHat Enterprise server V6 (latest is 6.3 - Santiago), V5 or V4

Go get the RedHat Client

Go make yourself a ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 1 Site using this guide, or the myriad of others on the web (also requires downloads)

RedHat Client for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34609

Virtual Machines needed to work through this guide

You'll need to setup a few VM's to assist with the lab, most importantly a VM to contain a ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta Site server, another to act as a Domain Controller for the Site server and another to receive the RedHat installation so that we can test the Client

ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 1 Site server

Use this guide

Note: Make sure the Site is set to automatically approval all clients, otherwise the RedHat client which is effectively a workgroup-mode client won’t be able to register, and in this SP1 Beta release the agent has a bug which can cause policy processing issues stopping it from working

Domain Controller

In the following guide you'll see help on setting up a Domain Controller if you don't already have one

RedHat Enterprise 6 Beta Linux

You need to go through a multi-stage registration with RedHat to get access to the 30 day evaluation. Once you are through you can download the ISO and build your VM using this guide

Configure this VM with

1GB of Memory

Legacy Network Adapter

Create a VM with 1GB of memory, reconfigure so it has the Legacy Network Adapter, and insert the RedHat ISO. I use Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 RTM to do this

Begin installing RedHat

Once the VM is ready, boot it up

Press Enter to proceed

Select the language you want to use for the OS here, for this guide I'll use English

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Select the keyboard layout

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Tab around until you can select Basic Storage Devices

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Press Alt-Y to Select Yes, discard any data

Give it a name

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Press Alt-S to Select System clock uses UTC

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Enter a password for the administrator account called root

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Press tab until you can select Use All Space

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Panic! Run for the hills!

It's asking us to set up the disk partitioning and there is a lot there that a Windows Administrator won't be overly familiar with, fortunately for us it already configured so all we need to do is ...

Press Alt-N to Select Next

More Panic!

It really just wants to format the disk so …

Press Alt-F to Select Format

Press Alt-W to Write changes to disk

It'll format, configure the disk and create the partitions with the Ext4 file system

Once it's done keep the defaults

Press Alt-N to Select Next

Tab until you can select Desktop

Press Alt-N to Select Next

The installation process will start now. It'll doesn't take too long, I logged 14 minutes with 1096 packages needed to be installed

Press Alt-t to Select Reboot

Now we need to finish off the second stage of the installation before arriving at the desktop

Press Alt-F to Select Forward

Press Alt-Y to Select the License agreement

Press Alt-F to Select Forward

It won't be able to setup updates right now so …

Press Alt-F to Select Forward

Punch in some details for your first user account, Unix\Linux like to separate the Administrator and User at this stage

Press Alt-F to Select Forward

Configure the date and time, it should already be current

Press Alt-F to Select Forward

I've only given it 1GB of memory

Press Alt-O to Select OK if it appears for you

If kdump is installed it introduce a reboot before bringing you back here

Press Alt-F to Select Finish

The installer will now reboot and bring up the GUI

We need a Shell to mount the ISO and then install the Integration services

Press Ctrl + Alt + F2

Tap in root and press enter

Tap in the root password

Integration services

Now insert the Linux Integration Services Version v3.4 for Hyper-V ISO into the VM so it can be mounted from within the VM

The PDF describes in detail how to install and I repeat here

Enter the following commands

mount /dev/cdrom /media

cd /media/RHEL63

./install.sh

reboot

It just takes a couple of minutes to install

Now log into the GUI

There's a list of the shortcuts available for the Gnome desktop here

http://www.redhat.com/magazine/011sep05/features/shortcuts/

At this point I log in as root, this is a very bad practice, but for this lab guide I'll cut right through it with administrator privileges by default

Tap in root and press enter

Tap in that password for the root account you entered earlier

Oh yeah baby, be careful not to step on the grass …

We can use the mouse from now on, instead of keyboard shortcuts

Tick Do not show me this again

Click Close

The Desktop being used is called Gnome. There are loads of guides on how to use it so I'll stop short of providing any, open a web search and you'll discover them

We now need to give the server an IP address

Configure the IP

Really straight forward, and not entirely necessary if you have functioning DHCP with valid DNS name servers.

You can either click the icon that looks like the one above, it is located top right of the Gnome desktop, it will only show up if you chose the Legacy Network Adapter, or visit System > Preferences > Network Connections

Enable networking for eht0, setup static IP address with correct DNS name server address and domain search order details

Get the Client files over to the RedHat 6 Enterprise server

Several methods for moving the new agent files across, SAMBA, FTP, ISO, I'm sure there are many more, but I'll settle for the two easy ones

Mount a Windows Network Share

In Linux\Unix you mount devices to folders and then navigate into the folders to view the mounted devices content. This means you'll need a new directory in the /mnt folder to act as the destination for the mount of the Windows share. To get things going ...

Open a shell window

mkdir /mnt/<the share name>

mount -t cifs -o username=<>,password=<> //servername/share /mnt/<the share name>

Note: Above is an example of accessing a Windows 2012 server's d$ administrative share

Now view the contents of the newly created folder using the shell command ls /mnt/labd, or use the File Browser and browse to /mnt and you'll see your Windows Share contents

File Browser

Shell

Use an ISO

Put the folders for each additional client onto the root folder of an ISO and mount it in the VM then mount it in the OS.

When creating the ISO put the RedHat Client into a root folder called RHEL, and do the same for any other additional clients you are going to be testing like /RHEL, /SUSE, /MAC etc

Open a new shell window

Enter the following commands

insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_piix.ko

mount /dev/cdrom /media

cd /media/RHEL

insmod is required because of a change made by integration services. Now you have access to the installation mechanism called 'install' via the ISO or Windows Share.

Install the Agent

The documentation is a bit out of skew with the SP1 Beta release, it includes incorrect log path references as well as incorrect switch syntax and some missing steps here and there. During the evaluation a few times you'll need to wander off into the wilderness (Plenty of web search and RTM) and figure out a Linux\UNIX issue before you can proceed, if you've used Linux/UNIX before then you'll sail through quickly. This will all be sorted by RTM time, as many of us MVP's and non-MVP's are feeding back suggestions for change to smsdocs@microsoft.com, so that the docs team can add them to their existing change list if the issue hasn't already been discovered

Here is the Microsoft documentation for installing the RedHat 6 Enterprise (RHEL) Client

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj573939

To install the client enter the following commands in a shell based on if this is from an ISO or from a Windows Share

From the ISO

cd /tmp

sh /media/RHEL/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar

From a Windows Share

chmod +x /mnt/labd/install

sh /mnt/labd/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar

Note: In the above example command lines you will need to replace the FQDN and the Site Code with your site servers FQDN and Site Code

The Agent is installed now. The rest of the guide was written with ConfigMgr 2012 Site servers Site Mode set to automatically approve clients in trusted forests\domains, which means the Client cannot complete it’s registration immediately which then induces a bug that we try to deal with in the steps below. If you’ve already set your site to approve everything, then you can ignore the sections about the Agent not being approved and whizz through to invoking your first Hardware Inventory.

Check out the Client Resource record

Over on the ConfigMgr SP1 Beta Console you will see the Client Resource record appear, click refresh if it doesn't show

The properties for this new clients Resource record show that it registered using the MP and has sent a Heartbeat

The actual resource record will show as Not approved, and as a result this induces catastrophic failure on the beta Agent. I initially discovered this while putting the Agent onto SUSE and filed it as a bug on Connect. I was fortunate enough to see an answer on this one coming from Microsoft. The workaround to stop this happening before Agent installation is to set the Site servers Site mode to approve everything. The bug does not appear then. By default not everything is approved, only Clients from trusted forests\domains

Previously you could see in the Console that the Client is not approved, it's a known issue and to work around it we first have to select the resource record and Approve it (Ribbon or Right-Click on the Resource record)

Click this icon on the Ribbon or get to it via a right-click off the Resource record

Select Yes to approve this RedHat Client

Fix Policy and Inventory processing (Beta issue)

Back to RedHat and a shell

First stop the Agent service (Daemon in Linux\UNIX speak)

/opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec -s

Delete the policy cookie which seems to be causing the issue

We now need to visit a folder that is used by a service called Nanowbem, which as it’s name implies reproduces WMI on Linux\UNIX

Delete the cookie file using the following command

rm -f /opt/microsoft/configmgr/root/ccm/policy/servercookies.xml

Now start the Agent service

/opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec -d

The log file should show a lot of policy activity now, far more than you saw previously

Force Policy download and evaluation again

ccmexec -rs policy

The log file should show a lot of policy processing now, this is the equivilent to a Windows Client receiving its first Machine Policy (User Policy is not supported on Linux\UNIX)

Force an out-of-schedule Hardware Inventory

Note: If you’ve already enabled approve everything for the Site servers site mode then you can jump back into the flow here, and initiate a Hardware Inventory

ccmexec -rs hinv

Hardware Inventory will now be compiled and sent to the Management Point

View the Hardware Inventory using Resource Explorer

Now we can view the Hardware Inventory using Resource Explorer

Back to the Site server, select the RedHat Client resource record and on the Ribbon select Device\Start\Resource Explorer

The Inventory payload arrived and was processed successfully

List of log files for RedHat 6 Enterprise Linux

/var/opt/microsoft/scxcm.log

This is the Shared Cross-platform Client log file where you’ll see start-up, regular operations, Policy retrieval and processing and Inventory processing and transmission.

/opt/microsoft/nanowbem/scxcmprovider.log

This is the Provider log file showing the operations for nanowbem

List of CCMEXEC switches

To get a list of CCMEXEC switches type the following in a shell

/opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec --help

Summary

The Client is now ready for deployments to take place. You just need to setup the Network Access Account since the Client is treated as an Internet client, so that it can get access to content on the Site servers DP without having to be in the Active Directory domain that the Site server resides in.

I'm writing part II of this guide now to run through deploying an application to this new RedHat Client, I hope this guide or accelerator gets you reviewing the new cross-platform client for ConfigMgr 2012 on RedHat 6

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update 1–Deploy using Software Updates

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:03:41 GMT

I wrote here about installing the first update bundle for ConfigMgr called System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update 1, and skipped over deploying using Software Updates, well here’s how to get the CAB file the cumulative update 1 creates when you install it, and deploy to your Clients using Software Updates

I’m running everything locally, everything on the one Primary, only external reference is Microsoft Updates and a Client. Keep it simple and it’ll happen first time

OK, first, install the required WSUS 3.0 SP2 patch on to your Site server

Select Next

In my lab I just accept the default paths unless I need it somewhere else

Select Next

Select Finish

Now go launch the Updates Publisher console

You should arrive at the Overview screen

Select Configure WSUS and Signing Certificate

Select Test Connection

We’re going to use a self-signed certificate as it is just for a lab

Select Create

Now we have a self-signed certificate in the WSUS Security store, open MMC.EXE and add Certificate for SYSTEM

Now cut over to this Microsoft TechNet guide for a run down on how to get this certificate out to your clients so that they accept the published patches

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh134732

OK great, assuming that you have the certificate setup correctly, let’s move on

Select ConfigMgr Server

Tick Enable Configuration Manager integration

Select Test Connection

Select OK twice to finish up configuring Updates Publisher

Now import the CAB from System Center 2012 Configuration Manager 2012 Cumulative Update 1

Select Import Software Updates Catalogs

Select Specify the path to the catalog to import

Navigate to the CAB that the cumulative creates after it’s installed

You should find the CAB file here: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix\KB2717295\SCUP

Select Next

Select Accept

Select Next

The four updates were imported successfully

Select Close

In the Updates Publisher console select Updates and expand out Microsoft – Local Publish, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and we’ll see the four patches listed

Highlight them all and Select Publish on the ribbon

Select Full Content

Select Next

You’ll get these prompts, one for each patch, this could be averted by trusting the publisher but four clicks later the wizard will move on

You can see the patches being processed

All done, now select Close

In the Update Publisher console you can see that the Date Published shows for all four patches

Looks like our WSUS metadata has been updated, groovy

We need to tell the Software Update Point to sync locally published packages before any magic can happen

Now go to the ConfigMgr console

Select Administration, Sites, choose the site

Select Configure Site Components on the ribbon, select Software Update Point

Choose the Products tab, scroll all the way to the bottom and tick Local Publisher

Select OK

Let’s initiate a sync with WSUS

Go to Software Library, Software Updates, All Software Updates, select Synchronize Software Updates in the ribbon

On the Site server the WSYNCMGR.log will show the sync taking place and should show the update titles we’re interested in

A few moments later they will show in the ConfigMgr Console

The next time the Windows Update Agent on the ConfigMgr Clients update its catalogue the client will scan for these four patches

After a while like clients have scanned and returned some results, we now see a couple of systems that require the console and client patches, with the server patch installed on the single primary site server

As a test, let’s deploy the Console patch to one of those systems with the RTM Console installed

Create a collection or find a collection that has a target system as a member

I created a collection called Infra - ConfigMgr 2012 RTM CU 1 – Console and added the target systems

In the console, Software Library, All Software Updates, enter ‘2012 configuration manager’ in the search field

Select all four patches

On the ribbon, select home then select Download

Enter a descriptive name for the deployment package along with a source location where the files will end up

Select Next

Add the deployment package to at least one Distribution Point

Select Next

Configure the package settings

Select Next

Let it download from the internet if you can, otherwise download the update and put it in a path you reference here

Select Next

Choose the languages for the patch, English

Select Next

It’ll download the patches into the deployment package which we can reference now in a console patch deployment

Select Close

We now have a new deployment package with the patches present and downloaded

Create a Software Update Group for the Console patch and only add the following patch

Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RTM (KB2717295) console

Above, the Software Update Group and the single console patch it contains

Highlight the Software Update Group and then select Deploy on the ribbon

Enter a descriptive name for the deployment

Select Next

Keep Type of deployment as Required

Select Next

Select As soon as possible for availability and deadline

Select Next

You can leave this page at the defaults or configure as shown

Select Next

Select Generate an alert …

Select Next

Select Download software updates from distribution point and install for both deployment options

Cool feature allowing clients to share content with each other, deserving of another write up

Select Next

Select Close to finish setting up the deployment

Now, on one of the target machines bring up the following logs

PolicyEvaluator.log (CM Client log for policies)
ScanAgent.log (CM Client log for the scan agent)
WindowsUpdate.log (Windows Update Agent log)

On that target machine open the ConfigMgr Client applet and force a Machine Policy retrieval & Evaluation Cycle action (do this remotely, locally your choice)

The Policy Evaluator log will show a new policy arrive and it will be applied. If you’re Client has done a retrieval before you got there, it may have already retrieved the Software Updates deployment that should be there

Now perform a Software Updates Deployment Evaluation Cycle by selecting it and selecting Run Now

It should start getting busy right away, the patch is required and scheduled to install as soon as possible and, depending on how you have configured interaction, you should see a balloon popup from the system tray notifying you that the patch is installing

Open the Windows Update Agent log file

The Windows Update Agent log shows the patch being installed

Open ConfigMgr Software Center

ConfigMgr 2012 Software Center will show the patch has installed

The console patch was delivered

Go to deployments, select our deployment, select View Status on the ribbon

We’re done deploying the console patch

You can do the same with the other patches, if you’re in a Hierarchy with a CAS then work your way down the hierarchy patching the servers, patch the clients and the consoles. Incredibly easy to do as you can see from the above

Here’s the Update Publisher 2011 documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh134742.aspx

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update 1

Rob Marshall - MVP — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:05:00 GMT

Literally two days ago I wrote a quick blog post about the ConfigMgr 2012 cumulative update servicing model, but didn’t have an update\cumulative bundle to install so pretty much just blogged what I took from the documentation, well what do you know, a day later the first cumulative update bundle releases, so here’s a run through installing it along with my comments

Firstly before you install you need to do a couple of things:

Download the Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager from here (KB2717295)

Make a backup of your Site server. Never apply a cumulative update without having some kind of recourse for recovery, and nothing beats a valid ConfigMgr backup produced from the Backup Site server Maintenance Task as a free get out of jail card. Copy the backup to an alternative location to make it safe and out of harms way (backup runs again, wipes your important backup folder for example)

Now let’s install the cumulative update

Visit a Site server, I've chosen a Stand-alone Primary Site server, all actions below should be performed there locally

Launch the executable and choose the folder to expand the cumulative update into

Visit the newly created folder and launch the cumulative update file ConfigMgr2012-RTM-CU1-KB2717295-X64-ENU.EXE

It seems obvious but I’ll call it out, note the cumulative update has a unique KB ID

Right away we’re told where this cumulative update can be applied in its current form (notice that the Console and Client are not listed), and it also shows what type of targets the update applies too (which does include the Console and Client)

Select Next

Tick I accept these license terms

Select Next

A prerequisite checker is included, it validates the current system the patch is running on and gives me the OK to proceed

Included is a button for the installation log file, which has already been created by the update. If you have CMTrace registered, which you should, then click the log button to open the log file for viewing

This is what the log file looks like

Put the CMTrace window to the side and return to the Cumulative Update wizard

Select Next

Now, all the patches in the cumulative update can be uninstalled except for the SQL update. To roll out the SQL update you will need to restore a backup, which explains why backups should be treated with care and consideration. Make sure you have a backup in case the database update goes wrong. We do get the option to bypass the database update at this point, so that it can be performed manually at a later time, very hands on, gives us more options around dealing with the database

Select Yes, update the site database

Select Next

The cumulative update is going to help out by creating a bunch of packages so that you can deploy this cumulative update to Site servers, servers running a remote SMS Provider and Clients

Make sure all systems types are selected

Select Next

These updates are destined for systems, not users, so packages are created instead of applications

We get the option to define the package properties for the cumulative update going to Site servers and remote SMS Provider servers

Notice the path for the source files: \\labicm12.smslab.com\SMS_INF\hotfix\KB2717295\Server\x64

Select Next

Same again for systems running the Console

Select Next

And finally the package for the Clients

Select Next

Here’s what it spat out:

Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RTM (KB2717295)

More Information: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2717295
SQL Script: Yes
Run script during update installation: Yes
SQL Server: labicm12.smslab.com
SQL Database: CM_INF
Software Catalog: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix\KB2717295\SCUP\2717295.cab

Deployment packages for clients will be created:
Package: Cumulative update 1 - x64 client update - INF
Program: Cumulative update 1 - x64 client update install
Package Source: \\labicm12.smslab.com\SMS_INF\hotfix\KB2717295\Client\x64

Package: Cumulative update 1 - x86 client update - INF
Program: Cumulative update 1 - x86 client update install
Package Source: \\labicm12.smslab.com\SMS_INF\hotfix\KB2717295\Client\i386

Deployment package for consoles will be created:
Package: Cumulative update 1 - console update - INF
Program: Cumulative update 1 - console update install
Package Source: \\labicm12.smslab.com\SMS_INF\hotfix\KB2717295\AdminConsole\i386

Deployment package for servers will be created:
Package: Cumulative update 1 - server update - INF
Program: Cumulative update 1 - server update install
Package Source: \\labicm12.smslab.com\SMS_INF\hotfix\KB2717295\Server\x64

Ok we’re ready to install

Select Install

We’re treated to a cool monitoring page showing us the status of each of the tasks needed to complete the update installation on the Site server

Select Next when everything has finished, I assume you get no errors at this point and that all tasks are a success

Install complete, Select Finish

Return to the updates log file

It shows us that the process completed, however the Site server is now buzzing with activity

Monitor the Site Component Manager log (SITECOMP.LOG) file on the Site server until all the components have been reinstalled

The SITECOMP log activity should settle down and look like this

Done, will take some time, 10 minutes or so

Now open the ConfigMgr 2012 Console

Visit the Software Library, expand Packages and expand the Configuration Manager Updates folder

Here are the four cumulative update packages, one for the Console, one for the Server, but two for the Client (X86 and X64)

The cumulative update package source files basically consist of a Windows Installer MSP file for the Console, an MSI for the Site server and MSP for the Client in both X64 and X86 forms

All four packages programs invoke typical MSIEXEC command lines such as

msiexec.exe /p configmgr2012ac-rtm-kb2717295-x64.msp /L*v %TEMP%\configmgr2012ac-rtm-kb2717295-x64.msp.LOG /q REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=mous

You can deploy these packages to custom collections to target your systems

On the Site server and in the ConfigMgr installation folder you’ll find another folder called hotfix containing a folder for each update bundle applied

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix\KB2717295

Listed in there are the files for the cumulative update, including a very handy CAB file for import into SCUP, so that you can deploy the updates as literal updates via the Software Updates feature (Software Update Management\WSUS\WUA)

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix\KB2717295\SCUP\2717295.cab

I’ll check out importing this into SCUP and deploying via Software Updates in another blog post

I opened the Site server MSI to see what lives in there

SMSAPPINSTALL.EXE, along with DLL’s, SQL, MSI and MSP files. I didn’t see a setup.vbs as mentioned in the documentation for the servicing model feature

In the ConfigMgr console under Administration \ Sites and select your Site server, the properties of the site show the major version information only

Check out Sites properties

The version hasn’t changed, 5.00.7711.0000 is the RTM version string

This is no mistake, even the registry key for version is the same, thanks to John Marcum for confirming this on his lab build

The article for KB2717295 shows what versions the touched files will move too

If you go to your Site servers bin\x64 folder and check out the properties for SMSPROV.DLL, you’ll see the right version listed

If you visit Control Panel \ Programs on the Site server the cumulative update was just applied too, select Uninstall a program and finally select View installed updates you’ll see the cumulative update has been installed

Now if you run a Hardware Inventory on the Site server just patched, you’ll see the cumulative update appearing in Add/Remove Programs (X64)

Not sure why the version hasn’t changed, assume that the updates are not significant enough to update the product minor version number

Enjoy

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Configuration Pack Released

Rob Marshall - MVP — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:50:00 GMT

Must be the summer of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, few days ago the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Configuration Pack was released.

The pack checks the Software Update Point and Management Point roles, Site Servers and WSUS Configuration settings. The Pack will only return compliance on Roles that are installed, essentially a script is used for the DCM Configuration Items Detection Methods which senses the presence of the role and avoids running the Item if the role isn’t installed.

Installing the pack is a breeze, we’re essentially going to let the installer place a CAB into a folder on the Site server which we can then import via the ConfigMgr Console to produce a Baseline and a bunch of Configuration Items, which just leaves us to deploy the Baseline to a collection.

Start by launching the installer

Note and accept the default path unless this really means something to you

select Next

Select Next

Select Close

Open the ConfigMgr 2012 Console, navigate to Assets and Compliance, expand Compliance Settings and select Configuration Baselines

Select Import Configuration Data on the Ribbon

Select Add and navigate to the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Configuration Pack installation folder

Select Next

the Wizard lists the Baselines and Items

Select Next

Select Close

Back to the ConfigMgr 2012 Console, navigate to Assets and Compliance, expand Compliance Settings and select Configuration Items

We get four Items

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Software Update Point

Windows Server Update Services configuration for Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Software Update Point

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Management Point

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Site Server

Select Configuration Baselines

We see one Baseline

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Server Roles

This baseline needs to be assigned to a Collection. I’ve already created a Collection and selected Deploy on the Ribbon

Notice the Remediate noncompliant rules when supported, very handy feature!

Select OK

Now visit one of your Site servers that is present in the Collection you chose when deploying the baseline, open the ConfigMgr Client applet in the Control Panel

Select the Actions Tab and Select Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle to contact the Management Point for new policy representing the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Configuration Pack’s Baselines and Configuration Items

If you open the Policy Evaluator log on the Site server you chose, then you’ll see the Client receive new policy and apply it

This is the DCM Baseline and its Configuration Items being processed

Nip back to the ConfigMgr Client applet and select the Configurations Tab, you’ll see the baseline ready for evaluation

Wait for evaluation to take place, fall asleep, or click Evaluate to speed things up

Non-Compliant, something in the Baseline returned a non-compliant status

Click View Report

Spells it out pretty much, one of the Rules in a Configuration Item returned a non-compliant status. The rule for Big Green Button failed, BGB is there for System Center Endpoint Protection 2010, so that the Site server can reach out to Clients and force a definition update within minutes rather than on schedule. Bit light on documentation for this feature at present

If we chase down the error we get to see some interesting stuff about the Configuration Item that failed the compliance evaluation, so, return to the ConfigMgr Console and bring up Configuration Items

Select the Properties of the Management Point Configuration Item

Select the BGB firewall port is open rule and Select Edit

Select Properties

As you can see above, there is no remediation script for this rule but it does have a discovery script which is used to figure out the BGB firewall rule response value

In the Discovery section Select Edit Script

In the script above we get to see the value this rule will return based on those script functions as Port Open or Port Closed

Click Cancel and return to the Rule list

The condition for BGFB firewall port is open Rule is Equals Port Open

The rules in each of the Configuration Items are full of ideas that you can reuse, sure is worth taking a look over them.

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30710

Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012

Rob Marshall - MVP — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:55:24 GMT

Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 has been released.

You can fetch the downloads from here (KB2706783)

A stack of fixes, best to visit the link the full descriptions.

Also check out Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft System Center 2012 here (2686249)

There is also a preview SP1 for System Center 2012 called CTP2 (plus documentation), but keep in mind it is not for production use and cannot be upgraded when SP1 is finally released.

Guide to Surviving with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

Rob Marshall - MVP — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:15:23 GMT

If you’re studying up on ConfigMgr 2012 at the moment, make this your homepage!

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Survival Guide

Lots of people are contributing links and content so you’ll see this grow rapidly … there's a stack of awesome videos on there already, check ‘em out!

System Center 2012 - No longer cloudy (sorry couldn't help myself!)

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:44:00 GMT

Check out the Microsoft System Center keynote (Brad Anderson and Satya Nadella), big reveals in there! Universal installer ...

Watch the video ... Still trying to work out what the 'vision' is? Read on ...

http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232400396

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2012/jan12/01-17MSPrivateCloudDayPR.mspx

http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/datacenter/microsoft-unveils-release-candidate-of-system-center-2012.html

Interesting story about how Microsoft handled their Courier tablet

Rob Marshall - MVP — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:29:00 GMT

Makes for interesting reading,

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/

Sourced from CNET

Nokia and Microsoft move beyond pillow talk

Rob Marshall - MVP — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:02:00 GMT

Looks like Microsoft and Nokia have formed an alliance with Nokia using Windows Phone OS for its devices ...

Tons of info over the web about this development, my jumping off point this morning was: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12427680

Windows 7 phone confirmed to be available on all five UK mobile operators

Rob Marshall - MVP — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:14:00 GMT

Caught this announcement on Engadget today that Windows 7 phones will be sold through all five mobile operators in the UK.

Instead of just o2, who got exclusivity on the iPhone in the UK.

This is real good news for competitive data plans, and a better handset price. Competition has a habit of doing this sort of stuff.

Steve Jobs may of missed a trick here by being so selective network-wise. I think they, Apple, shot themselves in the foot by being so selective. One operator, o2, cannot really cope with the amount of iPhones on their network so the experience becomes degraded. I read that the phones software isn't kind to the Cells that o2 shares\rents out with the competition either.

I guess with this Windows 7 phone being spread across five operators, things are going to get very interesting soon :-)

ConfigMgr 2012 : Microsoft

Best of MMS UK – Tuesday 21st of May 2013

MS KB2823324 patch could cause loss of OS on next reboot if deployed

MVP Summit 2013

ConfigMgr 2007/2012 now support SQL 2012 SP1

System Center 2012 SP1 RTM's - ConfigMgr SP1 is here

Install guide for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta and RedHat Client

From the ISO

cd /tmp sh /media/RHEL/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar

From a Windows Share

chmod +x /mnt/labd/install sh /mnt/labd/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update 1–Deploy using Software Updates

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update 1

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Configuration Pack Released

Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012

Guide to Surviving with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

System Center 2012 - No longer cloudy (sorry couldn't help myself!)

Interesting story about how Microsoft handled their Courier tablet

Nokia and Microsoft move beyond pillow talk

Windows 7 phone confirmed to be available on all five UK mobile operators

cd /tmp

sh /media/RHEL/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar

chmod +x /mnt/labd/install

sh /mnt/labd/install -mp lab1cm12.smslab.com -sitecode L01 ccm-RHEL6x64.1.0.0-1510_20120827.1.tar