Ronni Pedersen's deployment ramblings

The built-in migration tool in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is a great tool to help you in the process of migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. It can migrate all your content like packages, drivers, Task Sequences, OS images etc. But if you’ve integrated the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1(MDT) in your current environment, the Task Sequence might have steps that can’t be migrated to the new version.

To migrate an MDT 2010 Task Sequence, you need to integrate MDT 2012 with the ConfigMgr 2012 site. But the wizard can only migrate MDT 2012 Task Sequences, so you need to upgrade the MDT 2010 installation first.

To migrate a MDT 2010 Task Sequence to a new ConfigMgr 2012 Site the following steps must be performed:

• Update the ConfigMgr 2007 MDT 2010 to MDT 2012
• Migrate the old MDT 2010 Task Sequence to MDT2012 (In the ConfigMgr 2007 environment)
• Install and Integrate MDT 2012 on the ConfigMgr 2012 Site
• Migrate the Task Sequence using the wizard

This is the process for the current release (ConfigMgr 2012 RC2 and MDT 2012 RC1), but I expect this process to be valid on the final release as well.

Happy migrating…

When troubleshooting OS Deployment in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, I really miss the state messages from the advertisement status in ConfigMgr 2007.

You can find the same information in reports, but for this scenario, I really prefer the Status Messages.

This guide will help you create a Status Message Query for a Specific Deployment ID.

First you need to get the deployment ID of the Task Sequence you wish to monitor.

Monitoring -> Overview -> Deployments. (The Deployment ID are not displayed by default).

Navigate to the Status Message Queries:

Monitoring -> Overview -> System Status -> Status Message Queries, and click Create Status Message Query.

Give the Status Message Query a name, and click Edit Query Statement…

Click Show Query Language.

Copy the following Query into the Query Statement, and click OK.

Replace the site code (P01) and the Deployment ID (P01200ED), in the query.

select stat.*, ins.*, att1.*, att1.AttributeTime from SMS_StatusMessage as stat left join SMS_StatMsgInsStrings as ins on stat.RecordID = ins.RecordID left join SMS_StatMsgAttributes as att1 on stat.RecordID = att1.RecordID inner join SMS_StatMsgAttributes as att2 on stat.RecordID = att2.RecordID where att2.AttributeID = 401 and att2.AttributeValue = "P01200ED" and stat.SiteCode = "P01" and att2.AttributeTime >= ##PRM:SMS_StatMsgAttributes.AttributeTime## order by att1.AttributeTime desc

Click OK, and complete the wizard.

Now we’re ready to launch the Query:

Select the date and time (default 1 hour ago), and click OK.

And now we’re ready to monitor the deployment like we did in the good old CM07 days J

Enjoy.

The group photo of the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager MVP’s attending the Microsoft 2012 MVP Global Summit in Redmond/Bellevue.

Looking forward to see most of you again at MMS in Las Vegas next month.

Saturday morning I’m leaving for the 2012 MVP Global Summit in Bellevue and Redmond.

A week with lots of technical breakout sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, where I can connect with other MVPs, build relationships with Microsoft program managers, and provide feedback on Microsoft products and technologies.

What more can you ask for?

So expect either blog silence or multiple blog posts about my week in Seattle. Either way I will enjoy the week.

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:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7075.system-center-2012-configuration-manager-survival-guide.aspx

Step into the System Center Virtual Labs for Free
No complex setup or installation is required to try out System Center running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks any time.

Right now the following labs are available:

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager:

• Introduction to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• Application Management
• Content Management
• Managing Clients
• OS Deployment Bare Metal
• Advanced Software Distribution
• Basic Software Distribution
• Software Updates
• Endpoint Protection
• Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007

System Center 2012 Operations Manager:

• Infrastructure and Application Performance Monitoring

System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager:

• Building Your Cloud Infrastructure
• Building a Service Template

All available labs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/bb539977

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:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4505.list-of-public-kb-articles-and-hotfixes-for-configuration-manager-2007-sp2.aspx

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.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/list-of-public-kb-articles-and-hotfixes-for-configuration-manager-2007-sp2.aspx

Microsoft is getting ready for a new System Center release, and the requirement for licensees has changed. Read all about it and make sure that you organization is ready for the changes:

Licensing details:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/1/11128EC7-2BE7-480C-9D46-4ECECA9E481A/System%20Center%202012%20Licensing%20Datasheet.pdf

Two month ago, I had the honor of presenting at Microsoft Campus Days 2011 in Copenhagen.

I had two sessions, and both sessions topics was about software distribution in System Center Configuration Manager 2012.

The sessions was recorded (In Danish), and is now available on Microsoft TechNet.

Session I15: System Center Configuration Manager 2012: Application Lifecycle Management Part 2 of 2

Download slides from the presentation here from.

Enjoy.