ConfigMgr 2012

Retire or wipe mobile devices via PowerShell

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This blog post will be about a new tool, written in PowerShell, to retire and/ or wipe a mobile device. Let’s start with the fact that I know that it’s possible to retire and/ or wipe a mobile device through the ConfigMgr console, but that didn’t stop me from creating this tool. The reason for that is related to how mobile devices are managed and who is usually responsible. In most cases the service desk is responsible for helping end-users with their mobile devices. Now what if a company rather not provides the ConfigMgr console to the service desk, or a company wants to prevent the service desk from wiping a mobile device? That’s were this tool comes in place. >> Available via download here …

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Troubleshooting Windows Phone 8.1 enrollment – Part 2

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A few months ago I did a blog post about How to troubleshoot Windows Phone 8.1 enrollment via Microsoft Intune. By then that was the only method to get log files from a Windows Phone 8.1 device for troubleshooting, but that has changed. A few days ago Microsoft released a document describing a different and easier method to get log files from a Windows Phone 8.1 device. This method is all around the, recently released, Field Medic app. As I previously wrote about troubleshooting Windows Phone 8.1 enrollment, I thought it would be good to do a short follow up with this easier method. Steps Let’s go through the required steps on a Windows Phone 8.1 device, to get the required logging. It’s pretty straight …

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The MDM distribution point

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This blog post will be about the MDM distribution point. The MDM distribution point is the distribution point that’s added after completing the Microsoft Intune integration. To be honest, I didn’t even know that the distribution point was named MDM distribution point. Also, I don’t know if it’s the official name, but I do know that it’s being referenced like that in every related log file. In the rest of this blog post I’ll describe the high level flow of a package to the MDM distribution point. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER The SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER is the default component for handling all the content notifications. Once a distribution point is added to a package, the SMS_DATABASE_NOTIFICATION_MONITOR drops a notification file in the distmgr.box and by that triggers the SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER to …

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Updated Configuration Baseline and Hardware Inventory for Windows Phone 8.1

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Microsoft has started with releasing the GDR2 update for Windows Phone 8.1. The good thing from a management perspective is that this update contains new management features. There are seven new additions to the PolicyManager configuration service provider (CSP). As I created the Windows Phone 8.1 configuration baseline and the Windows Phone 8.1 hardware inventory extension, I’ve updated both of them with these latest additions. This blog post will describe the newly added settings and a reminder about the download locations. Note: Another new feature that comes with the GDR2 update is bulk enrollment. Even though it’s not part of this post, I thought it’s definitely worth mentioning. For more information see the Windows Phone 8.1 MDM Protocol document. New settings The newly added settings …

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Installing the Microsoft Intune client directly after a task sequence

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This blog post will be about a bit strange scenario, it will be about deploying a device via a task sequence of ConfigMgr and ending up with the Microsoft Intune client. There are some cases in which the customer elects to manage some devices through Microsoft Intune, instead of ConfigMgr, but still wants to deploy the operating system via ConfigMgr. In those cases creativity is required to get the Microsoft Intune client installed. The ConfigMgr client and the Microsoft Intune client can’t coexist on one device and it’s not possible to remove the ConfigMgr client during the task sequence (without breaking the task sequence).  That’s were the SMSTSPostAction task sequence variable comes in place. This variable can be used to trigger an (unmonitored) action after …

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Key configurations steps for implementing the ability to deploy certificate profiles with ConfigMgr 2012

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This blog post is about key configuration steps, which are often forgotten, for implementing the ability to deploy certificate profiles with ConfigMgr 2012. By key configuration steps, I’m talking about the key configurations of every component used for creating the ability to deploy certificate profiles. That means Internet Information Services (IIS), Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES), the Certificate Registration Point site system role, the Configuration Manager Policy Module and even Web Application Proxy (WAP). To understand these steps, knowledge of certificates, IIS and ConfigMgr is required, because it’s not a step-by-step configuration guide. Good step-by-step information can be found in the More information section of this blog. Internet Information Services The first component I would like to mention is probably the most known component, which …

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Permissions required to use Retire/Wipe in ConfigMgr 2012

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The idea of this blog post is similar to my blog posts about the permissions required to use Edit Primary Users/Devices and my blog post about the permissions required to use Resultant Client Settings that I both did a couple of months ago. The difference this time is that the permissions, for using the Retire/Wipe option, are not that weird, but it might be good to know what the results will be of providing an administrative user with the required permissions. Also, I’ve seen some questions around the web lately regarding the possibilities to differentiate in the permissions for using the Retire/Wipe option. In the results of this blog post I’ll provide some information about the impact of these required permissions. Introduction In this blog …

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Windows 10 device enrollment

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Updated May 21, 2015: Yesterday Microsoft released a new technical preview build of Windows 10 (build 10122). Within this build the look-and-feel of the enrollment process changed. I’ve updated the enrollment process to reflect these changes. After the release of Windows 10 Technical Preview 2 (build 9926) I knew my next blog post would include Windows 10. So far I’m really liking the new start menu, the search, the notifications, the settings and I could go on like that for a while. Blogging about these subjects wouldn’t add something new as it’s already be done by many over the last week. Even the deployments of Windows 10 via MDT and/ or ConfigMgr are already done and covered in blogs. That’s why I looked further, to …

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Verify the role-based administration model via PowerShell

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Let’s switch back to pure ConfigMgr and PowerShell this week. It will be a relatively short blog post, but in this post I’ll go through WMI and show how to get the right information about the role-based administration model. I know that this information is also available through the console, but what if I want to verify the configured role-based administration model. In that case I don’t want to go through the console, in that case I want to automate it. That way I can schedule it every now and then. SMS_Admin To get the information that I’m looking for I have to look at the SMS_Admin class in WMI. This class represents all the different administrative users. The first step is quite easy and …

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Windows Phone 8.1 Kiosk mode: Inside AssignedAccessXml

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Let’s start my first blog post of this new year with a nice story about a XML that can be used to configure a Windows Phone 8.1 device in a kiosk mode. This XML can be applied on a Windows Phone 8.1 device via OMA-URI settings. As it’s now possible to configure OMA-URI via Microsoft Intune and via Microsoft Intune integrated with ConfigMgr 2012, the information in the post is applicable to both scenario’s. I have to admit that it’s not as simple to configure as kiosk mode for an iOS device, or an Andriod device (via Microsoft Intune), but it does provide a lot more options to configure. In this blog post I will go through the different required elements of the XML and …

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