The Configuration Manager documentation team has recently published the survival guide on the TechNet wiki. The Survival Guide is a wiki topic meant to capture all the best information on the Web.
Check it out here:
Microsoft supports the use of the Site Repair Wizard to restore a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 site server from a 32-bit Operating System to a 64-bit Operating System as noted in the article About the Site Repair Wizard (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680393.aspx).
However, there are two possible issues that may occur on a site server restored in this manner. These issues will only occur if the site server was originally installed to the default \Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager directory on the 32-bit Operating System.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2667543/
List of Public KB Articles and Hotfixes for Configuration Manager 2007 SP2:
This is a list of System Center Configuration Manager public hotfixes and KB articles published after Service Pack 2.
Note: Some updates are required only under certain circumstances, please read hotfix description before installing them.
Really great post by Minfang Lv over at the System Center Configuration Manager Team Blog.
Read the full post here.
This post describes how and when you might see duplicate records when you use unknown computer support with Active Directory Delta-Discovery in Configuration Manager 2007 R3, what problems you might see, and some suggested workarounds.
Unknown computer support is an operating system deployment feature that was introduced in Configuration Manager 2007 R2. It allows you to find unmanaged computers so that you can install an operating system on them, and optionally, install the Configuration Manager client:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431374.aspx. Active Directory Delta Discovery is a new feature in Configuration Manager 2007 R3 that enhances the discovery capabilities of the product by discovering only new or changed resources in Active Directory Domain Services instead of performing a full discovery cycle: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff977086.aspx.
If you use these two features at the same time, you might see duplicate records for the unknown computer in Configuration Manager database. In this scenario, you will see two records in the Configuration Manager console that have the same name of the computer that installed an operating system by using unknown computer support: One record shows that it is a client and assigned; the other record shows that it is not a client and not assigned.
Continue here.
Today I was installing FEP 2010 at a customer. At the prerequisites verification page I got an error on a pending restart. Well… That’s not unlikely so I restarted the server, but I got the same result.
To work around this problem you have to modify the registry.
Open PendingFileRenameOperations key from “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager”. Delete (or copy its content to notepad) and save the key. Restart FEP 2010 Setup (or re-run the prerequisite checker) and then everything should be just fine. At least it for me J
Thank to Kenny Buntinx, for helping me out on this issue.
When running certain applications and commands through the “Run Command Line” task sequence in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for a 64-bit Operating System you might find that the task will fail. This is true for applications that don’t fully support 64-bit mode. Some commands are not available by default when running in 32-bit mode, for example “manage-bde.exe” or “winsat.exe.
To work around this issue, simply disable the “64-bit file system redirection” in the task sequence when running such applications or commands.
Jason T. Lewis has just announced the release of System Center Updates Publisher 2011. Read the announcement here.
I’m happy to announce that we have released System Center Updates Publisher 2011 to the web today. This release was primarily driven by customer feedback over the past year. It all started last year at MMS (2010) where we got a lot of great feedback regarding the existing product. Out of that feedback a plan was created to greatly improve the product for both customers and partners. Updates Publisher 2011 is packed full of new features and additions with just a few of them listed below.
New in System Center Updates Publisher 2011
- Simpler setup with no database installation
- An improved user interface that allows better control of managing software updates
- Improved applicability rule authoring experience
- Improved performance when importing and managing software updates
- The ability to create software update bundles
- The ability to define prerequisite and superseded updates as part of a software update definition
- A new “Automatic” publication type with which Updates Publisher 2011 can query Configuration Manager to determine whether the selected software updates should be published with full content or only metadata
- A new Software Update Cleanup Wizard that you can use to expire software updates that exist on the update server, but are not in the Updates Publisher 2011 repository
To download and learn more about SCUP from TechCenter visit here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/bb741049.aspx
Over the next few weeks come back to the blog for a series of screencast cover all aspects of Updates Publisher 2011.
Lets say you need to change/rename the volume name of the C: drive to the computername, as part of your OS deployment Task Sequence. This script will help you do that:
strComputer = "." Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network") Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colDrives = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk where DeviceID = 'C:'") For Each objDrive in colDrives objDrive.VolumeName = WshNetwork.ComputerName objDrive.Put_ Next
If you need to deploy Internet Explorer 9 using the Configuration Manager OSD Task Sequence, this is the command line that you should use:
ie9_package.exe /quiet /norestart /update-no
You should use the /update-no command-line option to prevent the Internet Explorer 9 package from checking for updates. If you do not use the /update-no command-line option, the Internet Explorer 9 package will require an Internet connection during installation.
To uninstall Internet Explorer 9.0 (unattended), run this command twice from an command prompt (cmd.exe) with admin rights:
FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-*9.*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"
this removes the IE9 with the help of the command line. Credits go to Nadine K. (German MS Support Engineer).
All versions of Internet Explorer 9 can be downloaded here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie-9/worldwide-languages
Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010, the next version of Forefront Client Security, is now RTM. Download is expected be available from the volume License site (VLCS) on December 29th.
Forefront Endpoint Protection builds on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and R3, allowing customers to use their existing client management infrastructure to deploy and maintain endpoint protection.
