The goal of this post is to describe the steps needed to implement SCCM Internet-based client management. With the increasing client working from home, this solution would allow you to manage your client on the internet. The other option would be to install a cloud management gateway (CMG) Download the step-by-step guide in the download section or directly here. For now on, this blog post won’t be updated. Only the document will be. In this scenario, SCCM 2012 R2 is installed as a stand-alone primary site. For security reasons, a second site server will be installed in the DMZ to respond to internet clients’ requests. Internet clients are laptops and tablets that are sometimes on the intranet (work network) and some time on the internet. Assumption : Your primary site server is up and running Site server is installed in the DMZ Site systems that support Internet-based client management must have … Read More
SCCM 2012 : Hardware Inventory ConfigMgr Error Object
The hardware inventory in SCCM 2012 has been designed for ease of configuration. The integration with the client setting concept also helps in problem solving. I had a problem this week with a client where a specific information was not replicated to the primary after a hardware inventory. My first reaction was to analyze the configuration.mof and confirm that the information was well inventoried in WMI. Everything was perfect. Checking the inventoryagent.log file during a hardware inventory scan found that no WMI query was executed the specific WMI class. I targeted the custom device setting and try to open the hardware inventory console. I get a ConfigMgr Error Object then crashed my console. WTF! ‘CSspInventoryReport::GetRealInstance: Failed to get item from database’ The problem of ConfigMgr Error Object is caused by data corruption within the policy. The solution is quite simple, delete and recreate. Technet Reference I tried to open the console again without issue. After the new policy … Read More
SCCM 2012 Role-Based Administration Viewer
SCCM 2012 R2 comes with 15 built-in roles. For most of you, this is plenty to fulfill your needs. However if you have custom needs, it’s possible to create your own. When creating your first role, you may be lost in all those security rights. Instead of doing your role directly in the console, I suggest to use the Role-based Administration Modelling and Auditing Tool which is available in the SCCM 2012 toolkit. This tool helps administrators to model and audit RBA configurations. It’s graphical, you can compare your custom based role with the built-in ones. You can see right away the impact visually in the console. Here’s an example. Let’s say I have someone in the company that need read access on the Application and packages only. Sure you can use the Read-Only Analyst role but this would let the user “see” much more than you want. Let’s open … Read More
SCCM deployment type cannot be deleted
In SCCM, you try to delete a deployment type and you receive the following error : sccm deployment type cannot be deleted. To delete this deployment type the following references must be deleted. An application has one or more deployment types. These deployment types include the installation files and information that are required to install software on devices. A deployment type also has rules, such as detection methods, and requirements. These rules specify when and how the client installs the software. You want to delete the referring object, you can’t find it because you have previously deleted it. Keep calm and do not cry… This can be resolve easily. The problem is that you created a deployment type, refer in another DT and then delete it. SCCM keeps a history of all changes in applications. Yes, each time you make a modification, SCCM records the change so that you can revert … Read More
OSD/MDT Supported Operating Systems
What OS can you deploy using the different SCCM/MDT version ? Pretty confusing ! One of the best deployment guy (Johan Arwidmark) has release this valuable information : ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CU3 – Supports deploying the following Operating Systems as OS Images Windows XP SP3 x86 Windows XP SP2 x64 Windows Vista SP2 Windows 7 Windows 8 Windows 8.1 (assuming a custom WinPE 5.0 boot image, and no MDT integration) Windows Embedded Standard 2009 Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (WinFLP) Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 WEPOS 1.1 with SP3 Windows Embedded Standard 7 with SP1 Windows Embedded POSReady 7 Windows Thin PC Windows Embedded 8 Windows Embedded 8.1 (assuming a custom WinPE 5.0 boot image, and no MDT integration) Windows Server 2003 SP2 Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012 R2 (assuming a custom WinPE 5.0 boot image, and no … Read More
SCCM Distribution Point Network bandwidth limitation
This post will explain how to handle SCCM Distribution Point Network bandwidth limitation. One of my clients wanted to limit bandwidth on their package distribution. Their reflex was to go in the DP properties and limit the available bandwidth. This was the way to go but their interpretation of the rate limit was wrong. This is one misinterpreted (and not well documented) feature of SCCM. Here’s what you see: Most people think “Hey I’ve got a 100Mbps link so let’s put 50% to limit SCCM to 50Mbps”… Wrong ! This is not how it works. Let explain how you should read it. I’ve found 2 really good article on external site about this: In resume SCCM will use the % you specify as to when it can use 100% of the available bandwith. In my example, I’m telling SCCM to use 100% of the available bandwidth 50% of the time (0 … Read More
Use SCCM CMTrace like a Pro (Part 2)
What are you doing when you want to troubleshoot SCCM client locally on a computer? Connect your USB card with the cmtrace.exe on it? Copy the executable file from a network directory? Do you want to be smarter? Create an application with a file detection method that will copy the executable file automatically on any SCCM clients. Download the file from Configuration Manager Toolkit. Step 1: Create a script to copy the executable file into the Windows directory Use this command ‘Xcopy /y cmtrace.exe %windir%’ in a cmd file. Enter the cmd file into the application program. Step 2: Add a detection method in the application properties Click on ‘Detection Method’ tab and ‘Add Clause’ to your application. The idea is to detect if the file is already copied. %Windir% will go automatically in the windows folder depending on the operating version. Step 3: Deploy the application to all desktop and server clients Technical supports, administrators and users will benefit from it. You … Read More
SCCM KB2905002 installation guide and Useful Information
The first hotfix for SCCM 2012 R2 is out and it’s time to install it.I’ll document a step-by-step SCCM KB2905002 installation guide and gives some useful information. For those of you that are used to update SCCM, you won’t be disorientated. The first thing you need to know is that this hotfix will update the site’s servers, the consoles and the clients. This means that you’ll need to update those after the hotfix installation. Rest assured, the hotfix will create 3 updates packages for you during the installation. Start with the higher site in your hierarchy. You can use the update package that will be created for the other site systems or manually rerun this setup on all site systems. I see the update process in 3 distinct phases : Installation, review, component update Step 1 – Installation Download : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2905002/en-us Technet Deployment guide : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj553405.aspx Once downloaded, extract the installation package to … Read More
SCCM 2012 R2 Application Uninstall Button is Grayed Out
I’ve found a bug in the latest SCCM release. SCCM 2012 R2 application uninstall button is grayed out An application cannot be uninstalled using Software Center when it contains more than one deployment type. I created an application to deploy Acrobat Reader using the msi The application contains 2 deployment type (Install for User) One DT has a requirement for English OS, the other DT is for French OS The installation is successful but it can’t be uninstalled using the Software Center (The uninstall button is grayed out) When a DT is deleted, the application can be uninstalled This scenario has been reproduce with other applications I recreated the same scenario in SCCM RTM version and the uninstall button is available even with 2 DT. I have submitted the bug to Microsoft through the connect portal, I’ll be following on this bug in this post. Stay tuned. Update Nov.18: Microsoft has … Read More
Add Server Requirement using Powershell
Before an installation of SCCM, you need to enable a couple of requirements in sccm 2012 server roles and features. You can add these using the server manager snap-in but since you are a good admin, you know that you can use Powershell ! Here’s the commands I use in the script to enable the required roles before my SCCM installations : Get-Module servermanager Install-WindowsFeature Web-Windows-Auth Install-WindowsFeature Web-ISAPI-Ext Install-WindowsFeature Web-Metabase Install-WindowsFeature Web-WMI Install-WindowsFeature BITS Install-WindowsFeature RDC Install-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Features Install-WindowsFeature Web-Asp-Net Install-WindowsFeature Web-Asp-Net45 Install-WindowsFeature NET-HTTP-Activation Install-WindowsFeature NET-Non-HTTP-Activ Run it in a PowerShell prompt and get a coffee while the magic happens, you earn it ! You can have more details here. sccm 2012 server roles and features