Interesting hotfix for all you SCCM administrators running SCCM 2007 SP2.
This hotfix adds the following platforms to the list of supported platforms:
Hotfix can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2489044/en-us
This download comes as a pre-configured Virtual Hard Disk (VHD). It enables you to evaluate System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2008 R2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b23c540-9b9f-4d41-a05d-d4b216061957
I had this one particular case where FEP did not download the definition updates automatically even though I had already created an auto-approve rule in WSUS for that.
If you would manually initiate the definition updates, they would come from the MS update, not the SCCM server.
In the clients’ eventviewer I could see a lot of events 2001 with either error 0x80072f78: The server returned an invalid or unrecognized response or error 0x800b0003 : The form specified for the subject is not one supported or known by the specified trust provider. these same errors can also be found in the windowsupdate.log file
Then I went over to the SCCM server and found these interesting errors logged:
event 364:
and
In the WSUS console I noticed that effectively the definition updates had not been downloaded (here is my explanation why I could not get them automatically … )
rightclicking on the definition updates and pushing on ‘Retry Download’, resulted in again an error in the eventviewer.
Then I came to this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922330 where I used the WSUS 3 equivalent command of method 1. After that restart the WSUS service.
After a while I could succesfully download the definition updates from the WSUS console and a few minutes later I noticed that some clients began to pick them up also.
mission achieved!
Today I have been searching to get the SUP role running in SCCM ’07 R3. doublechecking ports and proxy settings did not advance me much.
the thing is the initial synchronization kept on giving error 6703: UssCommunicationError: WebException: The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel. —> System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: The remote certificate is invalid according to .
Source: Microsoft.SystemsManagementServer.SoftwareUpdatesManagement.WSyncAction.WSyncAction.SyncWSUS.
The operating system reported error 2147500037: Unspecified error
windowsupdate.log: cached cookie has expired
making sure the SCCM server was not applying the GPO with the ‘regular’ WSUS settings enabled.
when I tried to check for updates on the server I kept recieving the message : error 80072f8f or better 80072efd
solution: went to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931125/en-us and downloaded/installed the rootsupd.exe on my sccm server. after that I was able to check for updates on the server itself and the sync finally started
can’t remember completely how I got to that point..
Problem solved!
SCCM Client Center is a wonderful tool to manage Clients in your ConfigManager environment. But if your Active Directory has a policy to often change passwords (it should be!), then you could have a user list like this:
SCCM Client Center - SMSCliCtr User Manager
As there isn’t a way to clean up the User list in the GUI, this is an annoying issue in SCCM Client Center. But there is a way to delete user accounts in Client Center!
In Windows 7 browse to %APPDATA%, go back one level and goto the LOCAL folder, next open the SCCM_Tools folder. In here there should be one folder starting with MSCliCtrV2.exe_ followed with some random charakters. In here there is a folder correspondig the SCCM Client Center version. Open the file user.config in your favourite text editor.
Remove user accounts from SCCM Client Center - user.config file
Remove the User accounts selected in the screenshot, and save the user.config file.
This should remove all users from the SCCM Client Center User Manager:
SCCM Client Center - Removed user accounts
Last week the SCUG community held an event covering all major System Center products. The first part was all about System Center Service Manager; implementing, customizing, and extending the product. Also a project overview about integrating Service Manager into an environment. The next topic was more about our interest: SCCM & PowerShell by Kim Oppalfens. Kim demonstrates how to add new computers to a collection using PowerShell with less lines and easier to read than VBScript. He showed the use of PowerShell in Task Sequences. And something we all love; code examples. The SCCM 2007 SDK contains tons of PowerShell examples which we can reuse! Take look at this blog post on Technet as a start.
Next runner up was Wally Mead, who we met before on a previous SCUG event. He talked about the similarities and changes in Software Distribution with Configuration Manager vNext. This was a very informative session, with working demos and some typical Wally Mead jokes 
From his session, we learned some of the new features and the slight different approach in vNext’s software distribution. An user-centric approach that is, giving users more flexibility to switch between multiple devices and networks.
A part of this user-centric approach is a better integration with App-V, to deliver applications to users, instead of limiting software delivery to computers. For example, an owner of a computer will get his software deployed like before. But if he logs on to another machine, not all his software will be deployed to that computer. He will be presented with the virtual version of his software (through App-V or RDP/TS), which is a time and bandwidth saver.
Like I said above, vNext has an option to tie user(s) to a computer (User Device Affinity). This can be used in combination with Requirements and Conditions, to deliver software for example.
User Device Affinity provides the ability to define a relationship between a user and a device. It allows the admin to think “user first”, while also ensuring the application not being installed everywhere the user logs on.
Configuration Manager v.Next supports:
The system allows both the administrator and user to define this relationship. It can be set in different ways. Based on usage threshold on the client, using an import file from external system, as part of the OSD, end-user through the Software Catalog and manual by an Administrator.
User Device Affinity allows the deployment of software-based on the nature of the relationship between the user and device. Each software can have multiple “installation-scenarios”. For example, we created 3 scenarios on how to install Outlook:
When a user logs on to his computer where he is the owner of, you use scenario 1 and install the MSI. When a user logs on to a computer of his colleague, we don’t want to install outlook on the pc. Here we use scenario 2. And when he logs on to a computer, where he is not the owner of and no AppV-client is installed, we create a shortcut that leads him to the OWA or a RDP session to a TS (scenario 3).
So it doesn’t matter where the user logs on, he can always use his software and check his email.
A big improvement in vNext is that you can control exactly when to install the software.
Wally also showed us On Demand Software installation via a webportal. This way users can request software, and a manager must approve this request. This saves time for both the users and the IT staff.
You can find all sessions at the bottom of this post, we can suggest Wally’s session about vNext, it’s worth the time!
vNext official name will be System Center Configuration Manager 2012 so let’s start using this name.
We would like to thank the SCUG-team to organize this kind of events. Good Job!
Stijn & Ben.
08.30 – 09.00
Keynote by Alexandre Verkinderen & Kenny Buntinx
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-belgium-keynote.aspx
09.00 – 10.15
Implementing, Customizing, and Extending System Center Service Manager by Travis Wright
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-customizing-and-extending-service-manager.aspx
10.30 – 11.30
Pre-assessment of System Center Service Manager by Kurt Van Hoecke & Ricardo Noulez
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-pre-assessment-of-system-center-service-manager.aspx
11.30 – 12.30
SCCM and that overrated Dos-box replacement by Kim Oppalfens
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-sccm-and-that-overrated-command-prompt-replacement.aspx
13.30 – 15.00
Software Distribution in Configuration Manager v.Next – Similarities and Changes by Wally Mead
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-configuration-manager-v-next-application-management.aspx
15.00 – 16.00
R3 power management : Lessons learned from the field by Kenny Buntinx
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-configuration-manager-r3-lessons-learned-from-the-field.aspx
16.15 – 17.15
System Center Data Protection Manger 2010 in the datacenter by Jason Bufington
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-data-protection-manager-dpm-2010-deep-dive.aspx
17.15 – 18.00
System Center in the Datacenter by Alexandre Verkinderen & co
http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/edge/system-center-day-round-up-system-center-in-the-datacenter.aspx
Earlier this month the R3 release for SCCM 2007 came out. Untill then most of us thought this was all about new Power Management features.
Wrong! there are many other improvements that make R3 worth looking at
Besides Power Management, the following points illustrate all improvements you get after installing R3:
Before you can start with the installation of the R3 setup (about 25 MB), you must have the pre-R3 KB977384 hotfix installed. Note: the setup of this hotfix will also create a package and program for you. Create an advertisement and assign it to a proper collection, because this patch must be pushed to all existing clients (they must be rebooted afterwards).
The installation of the R3 itself is very straightforward.
I will describe briefly all improvements besides Power management that will be covered later on.
1) Improvements on the Collection side
After the installation of R3 collections will have a new checkbox called “Dynamically add new resources”. you can enable this where needed on the existing collections.
The result is that machines that have been newly discovered, will show up in the collections much faster. Unless you really created a new collection that still needs a full evaluation like before.
Thanks to this Delta Discovery, it will now take a minimum of 5 minutes before a newly discovered user or device in AD appears in Config Manager (before this would take a minimum of 24 hours).
Rightclicking on any collection will show you a new menu entry called “Add Resources”. this will bring up a dialog where you can search resources and create direct membership rules.
2) Improvements on the Administrative Console side
Rightclicking on a resource will present you a new menu entry called “Manage Collection Membership” with three Items:
No longer we have to install third party addons to provide us with these rather simple functionalities. The Product Team will further enhance and revamp the console in the future, thanks for that!
3) OSD – Prestaged Media
This feature is especially usefull when your pc distributor does the computer stagings on his premises with your customized wim file.
You can still use existing packages from Config Manager, and this also integrates with existing task sequences (you will now see a fourth option in the task sequence media wizard).
The Prestage Media will in fact have a hybrid image, containing the boot media and the OS wim file.
If you want to control the location of your packages instead of SCCM using the drive with the most available disk space, resulting in your packages being spread around several drives there are two options:
Thought I’d share this since I just used this method for the first time…
Grtz,
Steve.
The System Center Configuration Manager team would like to announce that the following has been released and available for immediate download:
Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Release Candidate (RC)The official Release Candidate for Configuration Manager 2007 R3 can be downloaded by navigating to http://connect.microsoft.com downloads section of the Configuration Manager 2007 Open Beta program. Please read the release notes, they are separate from the build and also located in the download section.
Support and Feedback:
- All registered Open Beta users can submit bugs and make product suggestions using the Feedback tools provided on Microsoft Connect. This feedback is triaged daily by members of the Product Group. It is your feedback that helps drive feature changes and improvements. See the help link on the ConfigMgr MSConnect homepage for more instructions.
- Newsgroups for ConfigMgr07 R3 can be accessed on Microsoft Connect, they are a great way to post questions and receive general support for specific R3 related questions and answers.ConfigMgr07 R3 was announced at the 2010 Microsoft Management Summit by Brad Anderson during his keynote. Power management is at the core of the R3 release, it addresses the need that many organizations have to monitor and reduce the power consumption of their computers. ConfigMgr07 R3 Power Management leverages the power management features built into Windows to apply relevant and consistent settings to computers in the organization. There are three major components to power management in ConfigMgr07 R3:
1. Monitoring and Planning: Power Management collects information about computer usage and power settings for computers in the origination. Reports are provided to allow the administrator to analyze this data and determine optimal power management settings for computers.
2. Enforcement: Power management allows the administrator to create power plans which can be applied to collections of computers. These power plans configure Windows power management settings on computers, and different power plans can be configured for peak and non-peak working hours.
3. Compliance: After applying power plans to computers in the organization, the administrator can run reports to validate that power settings were correctly applied and to calculate power and carbon footprint savings across collections of computers.
In addition to power management, ConfigMgr07 R3 will provide customers with enhanced scale and performance support (scale to 300K managed clients per hierarchy, Active Directory delta discovery, dynamic collection updates), as well as enablement of further capabilities for operating system deployment. A full list of the R3 features can be found on Microsoft Connect at the “What’s new in R3” post.
Navigate to Microsoft Connect today and download the ConfigMgr07 R3 Release Candidate (RC) product. Please review the Release Notes before performing any installation and the help (chm) file for specific deployment and supportability guidance.
If you experience any issues with the download or the ConfigMgr Microsoft Connect site please contact, sccmtap@microsoft.com
Regards,
The Configuration Manager Customer Team
RTM is scheduled to be released in December 2010
Last Wednesday we hosted our seminar “Managing the dynamic desktop? Windows 7 deployment”. This seminar not only listed many of the new features and functionality that are included in Windows 7 but also answered many deployment questions. Some of them were “how do I know which deployment system is best-suited for my organization?” and “how can I certify this to be my final mass deployment”.
The result can be found here:
http://seminar.the-d-spot.org/Windows 7 Presentation_part1.pdf
http://seminar.the-d-spot.org/Windows 7 Presentation_part2.pdf