Using Task Sequence Variables to make life a bit easier in ConfigMgr 2007

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Sometimes you think you’ve got it all, so you start looking for things to make it better and easier. Well…, to be honest I’m not even close to having it all, but I am looking to make things better and easier. This is why I started looking more on using Task Sequence Variables, because they can make life a whole lot easier. In this post I will use a Task Sequence Variable to prevent the need of building two separate Task Sequences. Let’s start with telling the scenario. I have a Task Sequence that I use for a computer-refresh by using hard-links (take a look at thisprevious post). Now I want to use the same Task Sequence to perform a clean install. Of course it’s …

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Data Source Settings of the Reporting Services in ConfigMgr 2007 are grayed out

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Since the release of ConfigMgr 2007 SP2, I’m running ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 R2 (in Native Mode) on Windows Server 2008 R2. After installing the ConfigMgr Reporting Services Point I noticed that I couldn’t configure the Reporting Services, because the Data Source Settings where grayed out. After doing some research and searching online I came on the FAQ about Reporting Services from the ConfigMgr Team. For those FAQ’s take a look at this link: http://blogs.technet.com/configmgrteam/archive/2009/05/14/faq-sql-reporting-services-integration-with-system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r2.aspx One of these FAQ’s is the following: Do we support https enabled report server instances? There are known issues in the R2 release with https enabled report server instances. There are some methods in the reporting services webservices  API that are inherently secure  methods and if SSL is configured on a …

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Error trying to open the ConfigMgr Console

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Last week I had some problems with opening the ConfigMgr Console. The weird part was that the error only appeared for one user. This was the error I got: MMC cannot open the file <driver>:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\bin\adminconsole.msc. This may be because the file does not excist, is not an MMC console, or was created by a later version of MMC. This may also be because you do not have sufficient rights to the file. Then I figured that, because the ConfigMgr Console is a MMC snap-in, it creates a version in the user profile. Because I use Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 it is located at: <Drive>:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC\adminconsole.msc. So after deleting the version from the profile and restarting the ConfigMgr Console it …

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ConfigMgr 2007 and Binary Differential Replication

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In a previous post I already mentioned Binary Differential Replication (BDR). In this post I will also show how to configure it. ConfigMgr 2007 can use BDR to update package source files with a minimum of additional network traffic. When ConfigMgr 2007 updates the source files for a package, and uses BDR, it sends the parts of the package that have changed since the last time the package was sent. So BDR will work after the source files have already been distributed. This minimizes the network traffic, especially when the package is large and the changes are small. A file is considered to be changed if it has been renamed, moved, or its contents have changed. BDR will work as long as a site has …

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ConfigMgr Client failed to download policy

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Sometimes it happens that a client cannot get its policies and the only errors you can find are that the Download of policy [PolicyID, PolicySource, PolicyVersion] failed (PolicyAgent.log) and that the DTSJob is in state ‘Error’ (DataTransferService.log). The weird part in here is that the client can connect to the Management Point (MP). By looking at it with BitsAdmin it shows that not all the policies can be downloaded. The errors that it shows, look like there are problems with WMI. Now that the problem is located it is easy to solve. The only thing that has to happen is to repair WMI and to re-register the WMI Services. How to repair and re-register WMI Stop the WMI Service (winmgmt), Remove the folder Repository in %systemroot%\system32\wbem, …

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Compatibility of different types of Distribution Points

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I noticed that it can be handy to know which types of Distribution Points are compatible with each other. For example, if you want to setup Multicast you can NOT use a Server Share. There is documentation about this, but for me it was hard to find. This is why I posted the most important part of this article (the compatibility table) in this post.   Server Server Share Branch Standard BITS-Enabled Protected Mobile Device Support Internet Based Clients Streaming Multicast Server N/A No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Server Share No N/A No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Branch Yes No N/A No No Yes No No Yes No Standard Yes No No N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes …

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Distribution Point Groups in ConfigMgr 2007

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This time I want to devote a post to Distribution Point Groups in ConfigMgr 2007. The most important thing to understand is that Distribution Point Groups are NOT meant to balance the load. Distribution Point Groups are meant to facilitate the processes of copying packages to Distribution Points (DP). Packages can then be sent to a Group of DP’s rather than to a single DP. One important thing to remember is that if you add a DP to an existing Group of DP’s, the new DP does not automatically receive packages that are previously copied to that Group. Create a Distribution Point Group by following the next steps: Open the Configuration Manager console and browse to System Center Configuration Manager > Site Database > Site …

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ConfigMgr 2007, USMT 4.0 and using Hard-Links

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One of the coolest new functions of USMT 4.0 is the new hard-link migration store (only for computer-refresh scenarios). These migration stores are stored locally on the computer that is being refreshed and can migrate user accounts, files and settings. This way it will save time and space during a computer-refresh (and you do not need a State Migration Point!). When you create a default Task Sequence it will create the steps Request User State Storage and Release User State Storage. These steps are needed to interact with the State Migration Point (SMP) to get available space and to tell that the action completed successfully. So these steps are not needed anymore when you are using hard-links! This is why these steps are grayed out …

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Copy logs from a failed Task Sequence in ConfigMgr 2007

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I like to do multiple things at a time… So I don’t like to wait on my Task Sequence, after I made a a few changes, to see if it doesn’t fail. This is why I searched for some sort of error catching in a Task Sequence. During this search I found this great article of Steve Raichu: http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2008/07/15/capturing-logs-during-failed-task-sequence-execution.aspx In this article he explains the following important steps that are needed for an automatic error catching: Use a top group in a Task Sequence that is set to Continue on error. The rest of your functioning Task Sequence has to be added under this group. In this way the Task Sequence will continue to the following group if a part of the Task Sequence has …

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