SCCM CMPivot has been introduced in SCCM 1806 and it’s making its way to being a pretty useful addition. If you are not familiar with this new feature, you can read about it in our previous post which describes how to use it. The goal of this post is to give you a list of SCCM CMPivot Query Examples. From there you can get creative to create more complex CMPivot queries. When we began using CMPivot, we were a bit lost. We are pretty comfortable with various programming languages but CMPivot uses the Kusto Query language. data flow model for the tabular expression statement which was new for us. The official Microsoft documentation states : The typical structure of a tabular expression statement is a composition of client entities and tabular data operators (such as filters and projections). The composition is represented by the pipe character (|), giving the statement a … Read More
How to Manage SCCM IIS Log Files
After a couple of weeks of running an SCCM server, you may get the C:\ drive full. What are the best practices to save disk space on an SCCM server? The first thing we check is how much space is filled by SCCM IIS log files. Usually, it takes a couple of GB on the drive. It’s an absolute must to implement solutions to delete SCCM IIS logs files from your primary server. The SCCM IIS logs files are usually in C:\Inetpub\Logs\LogFiles and are increasing at a rapid pace. In my lab environment with 50 clients, it’s growing at about 1MB per day. Not much… but on an SCCM site, I’m actually managing with a couple of thousand clients, it grows 150 MB a day. It could fill up a drive pretty quickly. There are numerous ways to manage SCCM IIS log files : Delete the logs manually or use a scheduled task Use … Read More
How to move SCCM Move Content Library to another drive
One of the common mistakes we still see is having SCCM Move Content Library folders on many different drives, most of the time not on purpose. Usually, this will lead to the C drive being full, or the drive where the SQL database sits. This will then cascade into a series of errors all over SCCM. In this post, we will show how to use the SCCM Content Library Transfer tool to move distribution content folders Prerequisites If you are running SCCM latest build, the tool is now build-in the install folder If you are running a version older than Current Branch 1802, you will need to download the SCCM 2012 toolkit Move SCCM Move Content Library Find the drives where there are Distribution Point content folder that shouldn’t be there You can see the Content Library folder location in a registry key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\DP\ As stated in the limitation, the Distribution … Read More
SCCM PowerShell Script to Delete Unused Collection
Are you using an SCCM Script to Delete your collection? From all SCCM management activities, collections are arguably the most important object to know about. Collection evaluation, if not configured correctly can have a huge impact on your SCCM hierarchy. This Powershell script will detect and delete SCCM Devices Collections that have no members and no deployment assigned to them. This can be useful to delete unused/unneeded collections. We often see lots of these “orphan” collections after years of management. The less collection, the fewer evaluation task for your server. Why would you want to consume server resources on collections that are useless? Even worst, if you are using incremental collection refresh, it could slow down considerably your server. You can do the whole process manually but it will be difficult to identify and fastidious to delete all collections one by one. This is where Powershell becomes really useful and saves … Read More
How to Enable and Monitor SCCM BranchCache
In this post, we will cover how to configure BranchCache on your SCCM server SCCM clients. It’s quite straight forward and using BranchCache can significantly optimize network bandwidth during deployment. BranchCache is a bandwidth-optimization feature introduce with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. Each client uses a cache and acts as an alternate source for content that devices on its own network request. SCCM can use BranchCache to optimize network bandwidth during deployments. That way you decrease your request on your distribution points since your client act as the source for other clients. We won’t go into detail on all different SCCM Caching methods, this blog focus on enabling BranchCache but we suggest that you get familiar with the different caching options that are available. BranchCache Peer Cache Connected Cache Delivery Optimization Microsoft has an excellent article for Selecting the right peer caching technology and a great comparison post … Read More
Setup SCCM Cloud Management Gateway (SCCM CMG)
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
SCCM SQL 2019 Install Guide
In the first part of this SCCM Current Branch blog series, we planned our hierarchy, prepared our Server and Active Directory. Click the following link to see all supported SQL versions. For our post, we will install SQL 2019 locally on the same server where the Primary Site will be installed. SCCM SQL 2019 Install Guide Execute Setup.exe from the SQL installation media, select New SQL server stand-alone installation Provide the product key and click Next Review and Click Next Check Use Microsoft Update to check for updates and click Next Select SQL Server Feature Installation Select the Database Engine feature and specify the SQL installation directory. This is the directory for the program files and shared features Select Default instance and ensure that your instance is created on the SQL Volume Set all services to run as the SQL domain account that you created previously and set the services startup type to … Read More
How to detect Office bitness with MEMCM global condition
I recently came across an issue where a MEMCM) Global condition was detecting the Office bitness (architecture), but only to one specific version(example below). This lead to a requirement issue where the computer was running another version of Office that wasn’t covered by the global condition. With that said, we still needed a requirement only for the architecture of Office, while the version was not that important for now. I’ve uploaded a new script to Technet Gallery that returns the Office Bitness no matter what version is installed (from Office XP to the latest). In this post, I’ll describe how to use the script with a MEMCM global condition as a requirement for an application. MEMCM Global Condition Office Bitness Requirement Download the Office Bitness detection script from Github The script The script is looking at the Bitness registry key of Outlook. The script will return the value of Bitness. … Read More
Deploy Feature on Demand using SCCM
Beginning with Windows 10 1709, you can’t use WSUS to host Features on Demand and language packs for Windows 10 clients. Instead, you need to download them directly from Windows Update. This is the official Microsoft Statement… at the time of this writing, it’s still possible to download FoD on VLSC or MSDN. We are in a transition method but clearly sees where Microsoft is going. This blog post will show one method to install FoD using SCCM but there are alternative methods also when you download the file from VLSC or MSDN (hint : Use Dism). Features on Demand (FODs) are Windows feature packages that can be added at any time. When a Windows 10 PC needs a new feature, it can request the feature package from Windows Update. If you’re using SCCM or WSUS for your software update, you need to change a Group Policy setting that lets clients … Read More
SCCM Office 2019 Deployment
This blog post will describe how to Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM (using Click-to-run version). Beginning in Office 2019, Office client applications will no longer be available in MSI format. You can download an ISO on your volume licensing download center or use the Office Deployment Tool. We suggest using the Office deployment tool to have the latest available version. If you’re’ still confused about the differences about Office 2019 vs Office 365: Office 365 is a subscription that comes with premium apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (Publisher and Access available on PC only). The apps can be installed on multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, and Android phones. With a subscription, you get the latest versions of the apps and automatically receive updates when they happen. Office 2019 is a one-time purchase that comes with classic apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for … Read More