A collection of changes to the Collections in ConfigMgr 2012 B2

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In this post I will try to give an overview of the changes made to the Collections in ConfigMgr 2012. The first notable changes in the Assets and Compliance workspace are: The Collections are now divided in User Collections and Device Collections. It’s now not possible anymore to have users and computers in one Collection. It will always be an User Collection OR a Device Collection. The standard Collections are now limited till, All User Groups, All Users, All Users and User Groups, All Desktop and Server Clients, All Mobile Devices, All Systems and All Unknown Computers. Both, the All Users and User Groups –and  the All Systems –Collections, are not editable. These Collections are used as the base for all of the other Collections. …

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The NEW Distribution Point in ConfigMgr 2012 B2

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I already tweeted last week that I really, really like the new Distribution Points in ConfigMgr 2012. Around that time they started writing some really good posts at the ConfigMgr OSD Blog about the new Distribution/PXE Point and Content Management. Even though these posts give really good information I still feel like I have to write down what I really, really like about it. So in this post I will sum up some of the cool new features/ properties of the new Distribution Point in ConfigMgr 2012.  Distribution Point Role: The Distribution Point Role is now merged into one single type that can be used on workstations and server. Also there is now the ability to choose (and prioritize) two drives for the use of …

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ConfigMgr 2012 BETA 2 is available!

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For those who didn’t read it on Twitter, Facebook or mail yet, ConfigMgr 2012 BETA 2 is available for download! For more information, read here the mail of Microsoft Connect: The Configuration Manager Team is pleased to announce the release of Configuration Manger 2012 Beta 2!  It is now available on Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=34794 Please reference the Supported Configuration Document and Release Notes which can be found on: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/4/5/54508737-EB00-4B65-8DB3-F0D810FA3A9F/Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 Supported Configuration.pdf http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg703318.aspx A few notes before you get started: Please use only SQL Server 2008 SP1 and CU 10 or 11 (SQL 2008 SP2 or SQL 2008 R2 is not supported) Ensure site server computer has internet access to download pre-requisites or run setupdl.exe from an internet connected computer Ensure Windows Firewall …

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Asset Intelligence Reports are not showing correct data since the upgrade to ConfigMgr 2007 SP2

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This blog post is going to be a short explanation about why the Asset Intelligence (AI) Reports are not showing the correct data after an upgrade to ConfigMgr 2007 SP2. The cause of not showing data was actually more logic then I first thought. One of the items on the checklist for an upgrade (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee344152.aspx) is the following: If you have customized the default SMS_def.mof hardware inventory reporting file, you must create a backup of this file before upgrading the site. When upgrading a site, customizations made to the existing SMS_def.mof file will be overwritten. Maybe this still doesn’t make sense, but it will after the following piece of history about enabling AI in ConfigMgr 2007. In the ConfigMgr 2007 RTM version AI had to …

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Migrated my blog from BlogEngine.NET to WordPress

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It took a lot more effort then I hoped/ expected, but as you all can see my blog has changed. The most important part is that it went from BlogEngine.NET to WordPress. This means that the lay-out has changed and everything is just a little bit different, but as always you will get used to it! The downside of this move is that WordPress sets the links to the posts on a different way then BlogEngine.NET did. This means that if you had a direct link to an article it probably won’t work anymore… There are two possibilities to still go to the correct post: Remove the .aspx from the end of the link to the post Go to Archive as all the posts can …

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ConfigMgr 2007 and clearing a Computers’ Last PXE Advertisement by script

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In a previous post I showed a script to remove a computer from a collection. This post will be an add-on to that previous post. As we are removing the computer from the collection anyway, we can as well perform a Clear Last PXE Advertisement –action. By doing this, it’s not necessary to perform a manual action the next time the computer needs to be re-imaged. An easy way to do this is to run a script at the end of a Task Sequence that will clear the last PXE Advertisement. This makes sure that a computer can get re-imaged as soon it gets added to the correct collection. For this you can use the script from this post. The usage of this script is …

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ConfigMgr 2007 and Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010

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Let’s start this post with a simple question. What’s the reason why the new version of Microsoft’s Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2010 is so kewl? Well, it’s the same reason why I’m blogging about it, it’s because it fully integrates with ConfigMgr 2007! In this post I will go through the installation and the integration of FEP 2010 with ConfigMgr 2007 in three parts. (PART 1) Integration with ConfigMgr 2007 – How to install For the installation I will go through a Basic topology installation and its prerequisites (the installation has to be performed on a Central/ Primary Site server). (Optional) Install Windows Installer 3.1. (Optional) Install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. (Optional) Install ConfigMGr Hotfix KB2271736. Run the serversetup.exe of the DVD and the Microsoft …

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ConfigMgr 2007 and removing a Computer from a Collection by script

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I have to admit that it’s just really easy/ handy to create scripts to make life a bit easier. This also counts for this scenario… A customer wants to prevent, at all costs, that a computer can’t get re-imaged “by accident”. It already happened a few times that somebody by accident did a Clear Last PXE Advertisement on a Computer, or even on a Collection. An easy solution for this scenario is to run a script at the end of a Task Sequence that will remove the Computer directly from the Collection. This makes sure that a computer can’t get re-imaged, as it’s not a member of the collection anymore. For this you can use the script from this post. The usage of this script …

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ConfigMgr 2007 and changing the Package Source Directory by script

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Sometimes there is a good reason to get out of your comfort zone. One of those reasons is moving the Source Directory of all packages to a different server/ share. This means there has to come a script to change the Source Directory of all packages, as it is not a job that you want to do manually, and scripting is not really my thing… But as it cost me some time to create something nice of it, I will share it so everyone can “enjoy it”. I created three subroutines, one for connecting to the SMS Provider, one for changing the Package Source Path and one for change the Content Source Path. The Package Source Path counts for all the different types of packages …

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Installing and enabling Remote Server Administration Tools with ConfigMgr 2007

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It took me a while to figure out something that is actually very simple and logical… I couldn’t get the different parts of the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enabled by command-line on Windows 7 x64… On Windows 7 x86 it’s pretty straight forward, as it can be done with the default DISM commands. But on Windows 7 x64 it is kind of hard to get it to use the correct version of DISM. This is all because the ConfigMgr client is 32-bit application and whenever a 32-bit application wants to access %windir%\System32, it will be redirected to %windir%\SysWOW64. I tried everything, even specifying the whole path to the DISM executable, but it all didn’t matter… Until I finally figured out that there is just …

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