The ConfigMgr team is working really hard to make SCCM admins job easier for some of the key components of Modern Management. Starting with SCCM 1806 release, they ease a bit the setup of the SCCM Cloud Management Gateway (CMG). If you are new to the concept of SCCM Cloud Management Gateway, the main advantage is that it doesn’t expose your SCCM servers to the internet. The downside is that it requires an Azure subscription which brings recurring monthly costs. If you’re still unsure which method to use, you can read the Microsoft documentation and see our blog post about internet client management. Make sure that you understand the limitation of using internet clients. We strongly encourage to use the SCCM Cloud Management Gateway if you’ll be managing client on the internet since this feature will evolve with time and the traditional way support should go away. Here the available features … Read More
How to Update Windows ADK 1809 on a SCCM Server
Microsoft has changed the way the release of Windows ADK works with version 1809 of Windows 10. The Windows ADK comes now in two parts. One for Windows ADK tools and the other one for WinPE. With each major release of Windows 10, comes a new release fo the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. This means yet another product (now two!)to keep up-to-date in your environment. In this post, we will cover how to update an existing installation of a Windows ADK on an SCCM server. If you are looking for a history of Windows ADK versions, see our post here. In this blog post, we will detail how to update the Windows ADK along with the WinPE Addon. WHY SEPARATE DOWNLOADS FOR WINDOWS ADK AND WINPE From Microsoft, “Starting with Windows 10, version 1809, Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) is released separately from the Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). To … Read More
Create an SCCM Application Phased Deployment
SCCM 1802 phased deployment was introduced as a pre-release feature and was supporting only Task Sequence deployments. Beginning with SCCM 1806, it’s no longer a pre-release feature and it now supports application deployments. If you’re not familiar with Phased deployments, they allow orchestrating a software deployment based on certain criteria and condition. For example, you could use it to deploy an application to a pilot collection and then automatically continue the deployment based on success criteria. SCCM Application Phased Deployment Creation For now, it’s only possible to create a 2 phase deployment. Let’s go ahead and deploy 7zip : In Software Library / Application Management / Applications Right-click an existing application and select Create Phased Deployment On the General page, give the phased deployment a Name, Description and select Automatically create a default two-phase deployment Click Browse and select a target collection for the First Collection and Second Collection On the Settings page, … Read More
How to configure SCCM Cloud Distribution Point on Cloud Management Gateway
One of the new capabilities of SCCM Current Branch 1806, is to merge the Cloud Distribution Point along the Cloud Management Gateway. This provides an easier deployment method and also reduces the required certificates and cost of Azure VMs. Before SCCM 1806, a standalone Cloud Distribution point requires 2 Standard A0 VMs but with the new SCCM 1806 capabilities, only the requirements for the Cloud Management Gateway remains, which is one Standard A2V2 VM. The storage cost remains the same as before. Microsoft provides a calculator to help plan ahead. While our blog post is still accurate to install a Cloud Distribution Point standalone, using the Classic service Deployment, it should be considered the old way of doing this. We’ll have a blog post on How to install a Cloud Distribution Point using Azure Resource Manager Deployment in the near future. Prerequisites SCCM Current Branch 1806 or higher Azure Subscription A … Read More
How to use SCCM CMPivot
SCCM Current Branch 1806 is loaded with amazing features. In this post, we will cover the latest addition in the reporting space: CMPivot. SCCM has always been good with reporting and inventory of it’s managed devices but SCCM data is up-to-date at the last time the inventory has been run. SCCM CMPivot allows SCCM administrators to initiate a live query on selected computers on a specific topic. The result of that query can then be used to mitigate and fix potential issues. How many time were you asked “what is the current state as of NOW?” well, you’ll finally be able to answer appropriately with SCCM CMPivot. In this post, we will covert how to use CMPivot to create a basic query and how to use the result of this query. SCCM CMPivot Prerequisites SCCM must be Current Branch 1806 or higher SCCM clients must be running 1806 or higher Powershell v5.0 on target … Read More
Enable SCCM PXE Without WDS on a Windows 10 computer
SCCM 1806 bring a new exciting feature that will change the design and planning of SCCM sites. Before 1806, if you had a remote site with only 1 distribution point and wanted to do PXE boot and imaging, you’d have to use a server OS because Windows Deployment Service (WDS) was required. You could also use third party solution with additional cost. Now you can use a client OS (Windows 7,8,10) to respond to PXE request without WDS. This is a game changer as you could basically remove any server OS from remote sites if they were just acting as a distribution point. SCCM PXE Without WDS Limitation Note that there’s 1 limitation with SCCM PXE Without WDS. It doesn’t support Multicast, if you need multicast, you need to stick with Windows Deployment Service (WDS). Existing Distribution Point You can use the Enable a PXE responder without Windows Deployment Service option on a … Read More