System Center Configuration Manager : SCCM, ConfigMgr

Citrix Connector for System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:48:25 GMT

Hi everyone, in case you had not seen anything on this, we have recently jointly released the Citrix connector for ConfigMgr 2007. Through this release, the ConfigMgr SDK has been used to extend and support the management of application services through XenApp. Very cool indeed.

Some resources for you:

Jointly authored whitepaper is available here
A Video Demo can be viewed here

Read the full story here.

Coming Soon! Configuration Manager v.Next Beta

Ronni Pedersen — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:07:40 GMT

The Configuration Manager v.Next Beta is planned to release in May 2010 and will be available to download on Connect. You can now join the Open Beta. As a member of the Open Beta, you will receive an announcement informing you of when the download package is available for your review.

System Center Configuration Manager v.Next gives IT a powerful, user-centric way to provide seamless work experiences for people – from anywhere, on the devices they choose – while helping to reduce cost and complexity of delivering those services through a unified management infrastructure.

Please use the following link to access this connection and sign up for the Beta: https://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=4346&InvitationID= VNXO-DFPW-G6HD&SiteID=892

Don’t forget to sign-up for the next SCUG Event, where we’ll talk about and show demos of some of the great new features in ConfigMgr v.Next, including User-Centric Administration, Role Based Access Control (RBAC), the new Application Model and lots of other cool features.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1 Beta - ready for download‏

Ronni Pedersen — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:05:49 GMT

The Beta version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1 is now available for download on connect. MDT 2010 Update 1 includes Office 2010 support, the ability for users to initiate and customize their own deployments using Configuration Manager (codename Modena), key enhancements in Windows 7 driver support, and much more.

Download the beta here: https://connect.microsoft.com/site14

Enjoy.

Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Beta

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:13:58 GMT

Yesterday at the Microsoft Management Summit, Brad Anderson announced during his keynote the release of ConfigMgr07 R3 Beta. Power management is at the core of the R3 release, it addresses the need that many organizations have to monitor and reduce the power consumption of their computers. ConfigMgr07 R3 Power Management leverages the power management features built into Windows to apply relevant and consistent settings to computers in the organization. There are three major components to power management in ConfigMgr07 R3:

1. Monitoring and Planning: Power Management collects information about computer usage and power settings for computers in the origination. Reports are provided to allow the administrator to analyze this data and determine optimal power management settings for computers.

2. Enforcement: Power management allows the administrator to create power plans which can be applied to collections of computers. These power plans configure Windows power management settings on computers, and different power plans can be configured for peak and non-peak working hours.

3. Compliance: After applying power plans to computers in the organization, the administrator can run reports to validate that power settings were correctly applied and to calculate power and carbon footprint savings across collections of computers.

In addition to power management, ConfigMgr07 R3 will provide customers with enhanced scale and performance support (scale to 300K managed clients per hierarchy, delta AD discovery, dynamic collection updates), as well as enablement of further capabilities for operating system deployment. A full list of the R3 features can be found on Microsoft Connect at the “What’s new in R3” post.

Navigate to Microsoft Connect today and download the ConfigMgr07 R3 Beta.

Download: https://connect.microsoft.com/site16

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1 vs. Modena

Ronni Pedersen — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 10:14:55 GMT

Microsoft is currently preparing for an update for MDT 2010 that will add some new enhancements to the product. One of the most exciting ones is the new “user-driven OS deployment task sequence template”, which will enable “self-service OS deployment” with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2.

The idea for user-driven OS deployment was first developed by Microsoft IT under the codename “Modena” (http://blogs.technet.com/osd/). Modena was first “announced” to the public at Microsoft Management Summit 2009 (MMS) in Las Vegas, where Chris Adams delivered one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen at MMS.

According to several rumors and now this blog post by Michael Niehaus, MDT 2010 Update 1 will adopt atleast some, if not all of the OSD Modena features.

So if you’re an OSD guy attending MMS 2010 in Las Vegas next week, I would highly recommend that you don’t miss the following session:

BG01 MDT 2010 Update 1 + ConfigMgr 2007 OSD: Even More "Better Together"
Thursday, April 22 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM, Veronese 2501A
Speaker(s): Chris Adams, Michael Niehaus
Track(s): Microsoft IT, Systems Management
Session Type(s): Breakout Session
Products(s): Configuration Manager 2007, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Windows Client

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 integrates with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to provide additional functionality over and above the standard OS deployment features. In this session, we will quickly review this additional functionality, and then will focus on the new enhancements coming in MDT 2010 Update 1, including:

Support for ConfigMgr R3's OEM pre-staged media
The new user-driven OS deployment task sequence template
Offline user state capture from Windows PE
Other miscellaneous enhancements and fixes

We will also hear how Microsoft IT leveraged the user-driven OS deployment task sequence template internally to enable self-service OS deployment with ConfigMgr.

Configuring USMT 4.0 for Configuration Manager – Part 1

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:28:02 GMT

If you want to migrate settings and data when migration from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7, you need to use the User State Migration Toolkit 4.0 (USMT). USMT is a free download that is part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK or WAIK) for Windows 7. Windows AIK for Windows 7 is included in Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 RC, so if you've installed Service Pack 2, you don't need to download and install Windows AIK.

The Windows AIK for Windows 7 can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en

In previous versions of USMT, you needed to create both a package for 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems, and there was no really "nice" way of dealing with a clients in mixed environments. That has changed with version 4.0. Now we only need to create a single package.

Creating the USMT Package

When Windows WAIK is installed on site server, it's pretty straight forward to create the package.

	In the Configuration Manager console of the primary site server, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Software Distribution / Packages.
	Right-click Packages, click New, and then click Package to launch the New Package Wizard.
	Fill in the Name, Version, Manufacturer and Language details of the product. Name: User State Migration Toolkit Version: 4.0 Manufacture: Microsoft Language: ENU Click Next.
	Select This package contains source files, and click Set... Optional: Select the Enable binary differential replication checkbox to enable replication of only changed package content.
	Select Local drive on site server, and click Browse…
	Select C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\USMT, and click OK. Notice that this folder contains both an amd64 and a x86 folder.
	Click OK.
	Click Finish, to go the package creation summary page.
	Review the summary page and click Next.
	Click Close, to exit the wizard.

Replicating the USMT Package to distribution point(s)

	In the Configuration Manager console of the primary site server, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Software Distribution / Packages.
	Expand packages, and right-click the USMT package and click Manage Distribution Points to launch the Manage Distribution Points Wizard. Click Next.
	Select Copy the package to new distribution points, and click Next.
	In the list of available distribution points, select all distribution points that should have a replica of the package. Click Next.
	Click Next.
	Click Close.

This completes the first part of "Configuring USMT 4.0 for Configuration Manager". The next part will explain to install and configure a State Migration Point, and how to use the package to migrate settings and files.

Announcement: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Ronni Pedersen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:17:46 GMT

Microsoft has just released information about System Center Configuration Manager R3. Configuration Manager 2007 R3 will release as a beta at the end of October 2009, with a targeted release of late Q1 calendar 2010.

Regards
Ronni Pedersen

Upgrading ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 BETA to RC

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:56:33 GMT

This scenario is NOT supported, but I did it anyway, and so far everything seems to be running just fine. This upgrade was done in test environment and I don't recommend doing this in production, unless you're a TAP customer.

Uninstalling Windows Automated Installation Kit

Before running setup, you need to uninstall the previous RC version of Windows AIK.

	Click Start, and type Programs and Features, and press Enter.
	Select Windows Automated Installation Kit, and click Uninstall.
	Click Yes.
	Click Allow.
	Click Yes to restart the server.
	Log in as Administrator.

Installing System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 RC

	Click Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, to start the installation.
	Click Continue.
	Click Next.
	Click Next.
	Select I accept these license terms, and click Next.
	Click Next.
	Click Next.
	Specify the Alternate path, and click Next. The folder must exist and should be empty.
	Get some coffee.
	Click OK.
	Click Next.
	Click Yes.
	Click Begin Iinstall.
	More coffee...
	Click Next.
	Click Finish.

Updating the Boot Images

	Start the console and navigate to Operating System Deployment and Select Boot Images.
	Right-Click the Boot image (x86), and click Properties.
	Select the Images tab, and verify that the OS version is 6.1.7600.16385. (Otherwise click Reload).
	Select the Windows PE tab, and select Enable command support (testing only), if required. Click OK.
	Click Yes.
	Click Next.
	Click Close.
	Repeat this step on the Boot Image (x64).

That's is… You are now running a fully unsupported version of Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 RC… :o)

ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 Release Candidate available on connect

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:46:50 GMT

Configuration Manager Service Pack 2 release candidate is now available for download for all customers on connect. Service Pack 2 delivers new platform support for both Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2.

For many of my customers, support for Windows 7 OS Deployment will be the primary reason to upgrade, and I think we'll see the fastest adoption of a Service Pack in production environments ever… Everyone want to start deploying Windows 7 but they really need a supported deployment platform.

Another great feature in Service Pack 2 is the Branch Cache Support that enables support for scenario's where Windows Server 2008 R2 and/or Windows 7 clients, can cache packages for distribution on the local subnet. This will reduce the number of required Distribution Points and (hopefully) the need for Branch Distribution Points.

To download the release candidate, just sign-up on connect right here:
https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=16

Happy testing… And don't forget to provide feedback to the product team :o)

TechNet Webcast: Automating Windows 7 Deployments Using System Center Configuration Manager (Level 300)

Ronni Pedersen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:31:40 GMT

Event Overview

We focus on automating Windows 7 operating system deployments using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager in this webcast. First, we cover how to automate hardware and software inventory using Asset Intelligence to determine what applications and hardware are needed for deploying Windows 7. Next, we examine deploying Windows 7 packages, and we discuss how to add Windows 7 packages to System Center Configuration Manager and then the deploy packages to bare metal machines and existing Windows Vista clients across the enterprise.

Presenter: Kevin Remde, Senior IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

Signup: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032416867