SCCM by Davis: “Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook – Book Review” plus 19 more

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook – Book Review
SCCM - OSD Failure when Installing Server Roles and Features with a Task Sequence
ConfigMgr SCCM 2012 Cumulative Update 2 a Quick Walkthrough
Cumulative Update 2 pour SCCM 2012
SCCM 2007/2012 - Apply Operating System Image step fails (0x80070490 Element Not Found) during deployment
SCCM ConfigMgr 2007 Software updates ReDownload Issue and Hotfix
SCCM: How to find computer model in commandline
Remove expired updates from SCCM
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Visio Stencils
OSDComputerName - Methods
Jay Connor wrote a new post, SCCM 2012: Removing a site system from the console that is no longer online
Brian Mason changed their profile picture
Brian Mason commented on the post, Server 2012 OSD Issues in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1
Michael Niehaus commented on the post, Server 2012 OSD Issues in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1
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Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook – Book Review

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:16 AM PST

After reading Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook I've managed to read another book about System Center 2012 component from the same publishing company. In front of my eyes was Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook.

Author of the book are Brian Mason and Greg Ramsey. Both are well respected System Center Configuration Manager specialists. The book follows the same style like the SCSM 2012 Cookbook so SCCM 2012 is introduced in series of mini guides (called by Packt Publishing practical recipes) that will show you how to do certain tasks in order to administer the System Center component. In fact the book is focused only in administering SCCM 2012 and the title infers that. If you expect to learn something about designing SCCM 2012 environment you should find another book. The book is divided in 8 chapters which cover only the basics of CM 2012. If you are looking for a book that will explain the architecture of CM 2012 than this book is not for you. This book is a more practical book and than theoretical. If you are looking for more theoretical information you can find it in Technet Library. In the book you will find step by step guides on administrative tasks in CM 2012. The length of the book is 208 pages but that is because there are not so many screenshots which is may be a good thing because that way the book drives you to try the software product while reading the book and test the mini guides. Even though I am reading and trying CM 2012 features for a long time I've managed to learn and try new things described in the book simply because Configuration Manager is a big product with a lot of features.

I can recommend this book to engineers who just start with Configuration Manager 2012 but of course before actually reading this book it is best to get to know the product by reading Technet Library. CM 2012 is the most well document System Center component of the family. I can also recommend this book to SCCM 2007 administrators who just start to learn about the new features of SCCM 2012.

If you think this is the right book you can find it in several stores:

You can know more about the book by clicking on the image below.

SCCM - OSD Failure when Installing Server Roles and Features with a Task Sequence

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 05:43 PM PST

I had a little trouble using the 'Install Roles and Features' action in SCCM task sequences. When installing certain roles, the TS would fail. The problem turned out to be that the TS action cannot properly stage reboots, so when you try to install certain combinations of roles and features using a single action, the TS fails.

The workaround is to use multiple 'Install roles and Features' actions. You'll have to play around to see what combinations work well for you.

ConfigMgr SCCM 2012 Cumulative Update 2 a Quick Walkthrough

Posted: 28 Nov 2012 03:36 AM PST

The Cumulative Update 2 (CU2) has been released for ConfigMgr / SCCM 2012 . All the fixes in the upd

Cumulative Update 2 pour SCCM 2012

Posted: 28 Nov 2012 12:47 AM PST

Le Cumulative Update 2 pour SCCM 2012 est disponible.

Il résout plusieurs problèmes dont entre autre :
-mauvais nommage des machines importées dans la console lors du déploiement par OSD (ordinateur nommé MININT -xxxxx)
-échec du traitement des DDRs contenant plusieurs OU dont le path dépasse les 220 caractères
-mauvais statut des MP qui reste à 0 KB en espace disque suite à l'installation du Cumulative Update 1
…

Lien vers le technet.

SCCM 2007/2012 - Apply Operating System Image step fails (0x80070490 Element Not Found) during deployment

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:49 PM PST

Recently, I was doing some testing on a newly captured Windows 8 image. I wanted to do some testing with creating a default Start Screen. The reference machine I used was one that I set up using a default installation of Windows 8. After installing, I did the customizations I needed and used Capture Media to capture the image. Everything was going well until I started my first deployment. The Apply Operating System Image step failed with a 0×80070490 error. Looking the error up, I could see that it was for Element Not Found. I took a look at the step again and discovered the problem: Since I used a default installation of Windows 8, a reserve partition was created for Bitlocker use. I had configured the Apply Operating System Image step to apply the image captured from the reserve partition and not the OS partition. I updated the step and was able to successfully deploy newly capture image.

Error Message

Task Sequence Step

SCCM ConfigMgr 2007 Software updates ReDownload Issue and Hotfix

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 10:53 AM PST

ConfigMgr administrators are struggling with patch re-download issue since end of October 2012. Ther

SCCM: How to find computer model in commandline

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 05:18 AM PST

To retrive the Computer model from commandline use the following command:

wmic csproduct get name

This is usefull when you are making model specified driverpacks i System Center Configuration Manager task sequence.

there is several wmic commands that you can use, for example to retrive serial number use this:

wmic bios get serialnumber

Remove expired updates from SCCM

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 10:21 PM PST

Trevor Sullivan has created an excellent PowerShell script for removing expired updates from:

SCCM Software Update List
SCCM Software Updates Deployment Management
SCCM Software Updates Deployment Packages

The script can be found at:
http://trevorsullivan.net/2011/11/29/configmgr-cleanup-software-updates-objects/

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Visio Stencils

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 10:12 AM PST

Here are some free SCCM 2007 Visio Stencils published by Jawad Qazi on the Technet Gallery.

OSDComputerName - Methods

Posted: 13 Nov 2012 02:09 PM PST

There are multiple ways to name a computer. Below are a few examples of which I have used in the past. There is not a right or wrong way to name a computer. It all depends on your needs and organization. Each section contains a complete solution. Each solution contains an input box that will allow you to verify the proper PC name is being generated.

Random Numbers

    Dim objRandom  Dim Max  Dim Min  Dim Random  Dim strName    Max = 999999  Min = 1    Set objRandom = CreateObject("System.Random")  Random = objRandom.Next_2(Min, Max)  Set objRandom = Nothing</pre>  strName = "AWESOME-" & Random  Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDComputerName") = Name  <pre>

    Dim Max  Dim Min  Dim Random    Max = 999999  Min = 1    Randomize  Random = Int((Max - Min +1) * Rnd + Min)  strName = "AWESOME-" & Random  Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDComputerName") = Name

Serial Number

You might notice I am stripping "-" and using only the last 15 digits of the serial number. Why? Because most chassis delivered in large amounts are going to have similar serial numbers for the first several digits. This is the batch information. We don't necessarily need that information but since we are using all 15 digits we'll probably get it anyways. You can always trim this script to only contain a subset of serial number information as well.

    Dim objWMI  Dim objSMSEnv  Dim colItems  Dim strNewName    Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\.rootCIMV2")  Set colItems = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Bios")  Set objSMSEnv = CreateObject("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")  For Each objItem In colItems   strNewName = UCase(Trim(Replace(objItem.SerialNumber, " ", "")))  Next  If Len(strNewName) > 15 Then   If InStr(strNewName, "-") > 0 Then   strNewName = Replace(strNewName, "-", "")   End If   strNewName = Right(strNewName,15)  End If    strName = strNewName  Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDComputerName") = Name    Set colItems = Nothing  Set objWMI = Nothing  Set objSMSEnv = Nothing

Chassis Type

Major props to Nick Moseley on his superb VB skills. This one is a great example of how to incorporate a chassis type into your Computer Name. I use many forms of his scripts with minor changes. Take a look at his Chassis Script to return chassis type as a Task Sequence Variable. The script below requires the use of OSDImageType.

  Dim strName  Dim objSMSEnv  Dim strChassis    Set objSMSEnv = CreateObject("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")    strChassis = objSMSEnv("OSDImageType")    strName = "AWESOME-" & strChassis    Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDCOMPUTERNAME") = Name  Set objSMSEnv = Nothing

Date

    Dim TodayMonth  Dim TodayYear  Dim Today  Dim strName  TodayMonth = DatePart("m", Now)  TodayYear = DatePart("yyyy", Now)  TodayYear = RIGHT(TodayYear,2)  Today = TodayMonth & TodayYear    strName = "AWESOME-" & Today    Set objSMSEnv = CreateObject("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")  Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDCOMPUTERNAME") = Name    Set objSMSEnv = Nothing

Put them altogether and you can come up with some great Computer Names.

</pre>  Dim strNewName  Dim objWMI  Dim objSMSEnv  Dim colItems  Dim TodayMonth  Dim TodayYear  Dim Today  TodayMonth = DatePart("m", Now)  TodayYear = DatePart("yyyy", Now)  TodayYear = Right(TodayYear,2)  Today = TodayMonth & TodayYear  Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\.rootCIMV2")  Set colItems = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Bios")  Set objSMSEnv = CreateObject("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment")  For Each objItem In colItems   strNewName = UCase(Trim(Replace(objItem.SerialNumber, " ", "")))  Next  If Len(strNewName) > 6 Then   If InStr(strNewName, "-") > 0 Then   strNewName = Replace(strNewName, "-", "")   End If   strNewName = Right(strNewName,6)  End If  strChassis = objSMSEnv("OSDImageType")  strName = "TR-" & strChassis & Today & strNewName  Name = inputbox("Please enter the new computer name. " ,"Prompt for Computer Name:",strName,400,0)  objSMSEnv("OSDComputerName") = Name  Set colItems = Nothing  Set objWMI = Nothing  Set objSMSEnv = Nothing

Jay Connor wrote a new post, SCCM 2012: Removing a site system from the console that is no longer online

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 12:32 AM PST

If you ever are in a situation where you have a Site System that has been decommissioned or failed in some way that isn't going to be restored you wont be able to remove the system from the console for at least 24 […]

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Brian Mason changed their profile picture

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 08:33 PM PST

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Brian Mason commented on the post, Server 2012 OSD Issues in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 08:27 PM PST

Just the sole provider on the CAS.

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Michael Niehaus commented on the post, Server 2012 OSD Issues in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 08:12 PM PST

Any chance you have multiple providers? MDT doesn't register the classes with each provider like it should.