Reserved names as site codes in SMS 2003 SCCM 2007 or System Center 2012 - Configuration Manager

When it comes to choosing site codes you have 3 characters to play with, and while crafting a new site code you should be aware there are a bunch of reserved site codes that cannot be used, these are AUX, NUL, PRN, CEN.

There is a KB for this, it has applied to all versions of the product since inception. You can find the KB here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279868

Its very tempting to use CEN for your CENtral, and PRN may match a region if you use those airport code or location codes.

Hope this will help you :)
Amarpal Singh Sandhu

Configuration Manager 2007 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager now support Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2

1. Configuration Manager 2007 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager now support Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2.

The following table lists the roles/features that are supported for each product with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2.

Product	Roles / Features Supported
Configuration Manager 2007 SP2	Site Database
Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and R3	Reporting Services Point Client Status Reporting
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager	Site Database Secondary Site Database (with SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP2)

No software updates are required.

Hope this will help you
Amarpal Singh Sanhhu
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights

Configuration Manager 2007 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 now support Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1

Microsoft will be announcing support changes for the following releases. These changes will be reflected in the Configuration Manager 2007 Supported Configurations and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Supported Configurations within the next month.

1. Configuration Manager 2007 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 now support Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1.

 

The following table lists the roles/features that are supported for each product with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1.

Product	Roles / Features Supported
Configuration Manager 2007 SP2*	Site Database
Configuration Manager 2007 R3*	Reporting services point Client status reporting
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1	Site database Secondary site database**

*For Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 and R3, hotfix KB2676776 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2676776 is required.

** For a System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 secondary site, you can use SQL Server 2012 SP1 or SQL Server Express 2012 SP1.

No software updates are required for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1.

Note:  System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RTM (no service pack) does not support SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2012 SP1.

2. Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (FEP 2010) now supports SQL Server 2012 SP1.

 

Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 now supports upgrading an existing Forefront Endpoint Protection database and reporting database to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1.

To use SQL Server 2012 SP1 with Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010, you must upgrade the existing instance of SQL Server from SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012. It is not supported to install new Forefront Endpoint Protection components on an existing or new instance of SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2012 SP1.

The following update is required to use Forefront Endpoint Protection with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and 2012 SP1.

Forefront Endpoint Protection data warehouse and reports fail to get new data on SQL Server 2012 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2683558

3. System Center Security Monitoring Pack for Endpoint Protection now supports System Center 2012 Operations Manager SP1.

  No software updates are required.

Hope this will help you.
Amarpal Singh Sandhu

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.

SCCM 2012 Right Click

SCCM 2012 Right Click :)


Manny of us were missing this in SCCM 2012 and it is here now.....

Credit for this tool gose to Rick Houchins .





See Updates Below…….
Install the Main installer and the latest update for your version of SCCM.


Project Description :

Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is a powerful tool that can tame even the most chaotic desktop environments. Unfortunately, out of the box, the administrative console has some holes. Over the last few years, I have tried to correct this oversight and make life much easier for system admins by releasing the SCCM Right Click Tools.

The SCCM Right Click Tools are the combination of the original Systems Management Server (SMS) Console Additions but with many added features that have been requested by the community over the years.  Special thanks to Dan Ireland for his work in the past.

Prerequisites
The tools require that the SCCM Admin console be installed before the installation can complete.

Installation Procedures
Unzip the file and extract the contents to a folder.  Run the Install.exe and choose the Configuration Manager RCT Install from the menu.

Main Installer

1. Initial Installation Files

• • This install will support both SCCM 2007 and 2012 from the same media.

Updates for 2007

1. Update 1.0

• • Fixes the issue with the interactive command prompt on the client tools

Updates for 2012

1. Update 1.3

• • Fixes the issue with restarting the ConfigMgr Agent Host on the client tools
  • Fixes the issue with performing an Application Deployment Evaluation Cycle on both clients and collections
  • Fixes the issue with files being copied to the wrong location.

Hope this will help you :)
Amarpal Singh Sandhu

(These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.)

ConfigMgr 2012 Powershell Right Click Tools

Right Click tool is the once of the best tool which we always integrate to Configuration manger to get most of the task at once shot. During my troubleshooting search i found the the right click tool thought to share the same with your guys :)

Credit for this tool : Ryan Ephgrave

Link to download the right click tool :

SCCM 2012 Right Click Tool

Feature :

Open log folders – Now they check to make sure the computer is on first, and will search for the folder in three locations.  This should make them find almost all the logs.

Rerun Advertisement – Recoded to be much easier to read.  You can now sort the list also.

Ping System – After the first ping, it now gives you the option for a continuous ping

Running Processes – Shows memory usage of processes as well as all the other data

System Info – HUGE update here.  Tab one gives you all the information listed previously.  Tab 2 gives you Add/Remove programs, with the ability to uninstall programs right there.  Tab three gives you the Execution History of the computer, Tab 4 gives you the application install states of all applications targeted to that computer, and Tab 5 lists all services and gives you the ability to start / stop them or disable / enable them.

Wake On LAN – Now does directed broadcasts.  Let me know if this change messes anyone up and I’ll put together a pack without this.

Reboot/Shutdown – Now has a few options.  If a user is logged into the computer, you have three choices.  Reboot/Shutdown the computer, skip it, or give the user the option to cancel the shutdown.  You can customize the message and time before the shutdown also.

Collection Tool Changes:

Each GUI is much more responsive and neater.

The changes to Wake on LAN and Reboot/Shutdown are also in the collection tools.  You have the reboot/shutdown options here also, and WOL does directed broadcasts.

Originally Posted On : http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2012/10/23/configmgr-2012-powershell-right-click-tools-update/

Hope this will help you :)
Amarpal Singh Sandhu

(These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.)

How Distribution Point Work IN SCCM 2012

HOW Distribution Point Work in SCCM 2012 :

As we all know that DP playes most important role in configuration manger. There are lots of improvement in DP the way it use to work in  sccm2007.

The mager change that  microsoft maid in DP role is that they have merged all the distribution points (Standard, branch dp and server share) into a single DP role, the fact that you can select any machine (vista SP2 and above) to be a DP and Single Instance Storage. :)

The other major improvemnt t they’ve rolled is the merging pxe service point up into the DP so now instead of two roles, you can rely on the DP to pxe boot clients.

MS has introduce the new concept name "Single Instance Storage" for DP as I think this is a great feature. It allows you to only store a single instance of a unique file even when it is referenced by multiple packages. This is great! It means a largely reduced DP as it doesn’t have to replicate content into their separate directories. This has two direct benefits of using less disk space and less content replication traffic if your DP’s are over the wire in a branch office somewhere.

The change does mean that SCCM 2012 now uses a directory called the “content library” (SCCMContentLib) which contains three components, file, data and package library and this replaces the old method of using the SMSPKG shares as the default directory structure to host your packages and content.

 

The only real issue with this is because we now use single instance storage, grabbing a package from a DP manually can be a bit of a complicated as previously all we needed was the packageID and we could just match that up. Now the files are broken up in the three areas of the content library.



The datalib directory (Data Library) references the metadata of the file; its attributes and hash. The hash value will identify the file in question you are looking for.

The filelib directory (File Library) will host the actual file as well as data referencing which packages are linked with that relevant file.

The pkglib directory (Package Library) will tell you the details of that package in SCCM 2012 such as the version number/revision of that package etc.

When it comes to distribution time, SCCM will use all these pieces of data from the content library and “recreate” the package.

Howard Hoy writes a pretty in depth explanation of this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/hhoy/archive/2012/05/31/an-adventure-in-the-sccmcontentlib-single-instance-store.aspx

Hope this will help you :)
Amarpal Singh Sandhu

(These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.)