My SCCM stuff – and more..

Check out for conflicting records, if you have clients that fail to receive its policies og if you have Client is not registered in ClientIDManagerStartup.log

RegTask: Client is not registered. Sending registration request… ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:31 2724 (0x0AA4) RegTask: Client registration is pending. ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:31 2724 (0x0AA4) RegTask: Client is pending registration. Sending confirmation request… ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:31 2724 (0x0AA4) RegTask: Server requested reset. Restarting client registration ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:31 2724 (0x0AA4) RegTask: Initial backoff interval: 1 minutes ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:48 2724 (0x0AA4) RegTask: Reset backoff interval: 257 minutes ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:48 2724 (0x0AA4) Already refreshed within the last 10 minutes, Sleeping for the next 9 minutes before reattempt. ClientIDManagerStartup 24-01-2012 10:30:48 2724 (0x0AA4)

Packagesource:

Create a DNS Alias to be used when you set the packagesource for your SCCM packages.

Instead of setting the source path like \\<servername>\software\Microsoft\etc… then use the DNS alias \\SCCMSoftware\software\Microsoft\etc…

Where SCCMsoftware points to <servername>.domain.local

This will make life easier when you have to migrate to a new software share.

SQL server:

Follow the same steps, when you install the SCCM site server. Create a DNS alias for the SQL server and use this during installation.

This will make a SQL migration easier

I joined a session last Friday where Wally Mead from Microsoft talked about CM2012 Compliance Manager formerly known as DCM (desired configuration manager)
One of the major differences between DCM and Compliance manager is with Compliance manager it is not only possible to create compliance reports but also remediate computers that differs from the wanted compliance.

Here I would like to raise a warning or at least point out at potential risk of a remediation loop. Let me explain with an example.

A company uses group policy and group policy references to control machine and user settings.
This has been good practice for years, working just fine.
The GPO settings is maintained by group A in the company.

Group B in the company works with CM2012 and they implements Compliance manager with remediation for some settings that at the same time are already set by a GPO.
The problem is that Group B, has chosen to remediate to different settings than set in the GPO.

Now the remediation process and the GPO applying will fight forever to set the setting each one thinks is right.

So watch out and those carefully what settings you remediate with Compliance manager in CM2012.

This post is simple to good to be true!

Following this you will be able to have App-v integrated with SCCM to act as it was published through a standard streaming environment

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2011/09/21/disabling-user-program-notification-for-virtual-applications.aspx

Your SCCM users will appreaciate it

If you notice
that your database size grow very fast at your primary childsites, then
checkout this post. The solulution is given by Microsoft.

CI_SDMPackages  growing rapidly at Primary Site

>>Please  verify we have a SQL DB backup for the Site where we will run the Cleanup and
Shrink Command

>>Please check the Count

Select Count(*)  From CI_SDMPackages

>>Please  run below mentioned commands one by one

dbcc  cleantable(sms_ABC,ci_sdmpackages,0) (Once this is completed run the second command)

dbcc  shrinkdatabase(sms_ABC,10)

Where ABC is the  site code of the site where you are experiencing the table growth issue

Schedule those 2  steps at the SQL maintenance task in the SCCM console, if you want to run them
regulary!

Resently I had an error distributing a package to the Distribution points,
other package distributions was working fine, Hrmmmm!!

When I checked out the distmgr.log I saw this error:

RDC:Failed to create RDC signatures for source \\<Servername>\CCM_SWAP\Software\Sonatype\Nexus\1.6.0\ALL_ENUS_R1\SMS\Current
for package R0000292 version 1. Error = 2 SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 28-04-2010
19:19:50 13764 (0×35C4)

Failed to generate hash of package R0000292 SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 28-04-2010
19:19:50 13764 (0×35C4)

After some troubleshooting I saw that one of the sourcepath directories
contained a filepath of 263 characters, changing this to a path lenght lower
that 256 solved my distribution issue.

How to get access the SCCM console, even if your account is not granted!

Just had an issue, where a site server was installed in domain A and then  moved to domain B with no trust between the 2 domains. This resultet in no  access to the SCCM installation, because the user that installed SCCM is from  an untrusted domain. I considered to reinstall SCCM, but then i came in mind of  a nice feature with the AT command

Log on to the server and create a scheduled job from a command line:

• AT 09:00 /interactive cmd.exe (Win2003) you have to use scheduled task if your are runnning Windows 2008
• This will start a cmd.exe running the the context of NT Authority/System
• Start SCCM from the cmd line and clone the NT Authority/System user into a
  user from domain B and you’re done

If you are planning to use the enable collection specific restart settings  that are avaliable when you modify a collection and then chose the advanched  tap. You have to know if an object is member of more collections with enable collction specific settings enabled, then the collection with the lowest time setting wins!

One of my colleagues has been fighting the problem installing RS in a scale
out environment and he found a solution that works, but be aware it is not  supported by Microsoft!

Part #1

We had planned to use an
existing SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS) environment for our SCCM installation.

We installed a new SSRS  instance, which became instance number 4, in our existing environment.

When we tried to add the  Reporting Services role to SCCM, it picked the first instance, and apparently there where no way to indicate which instance should be used.

According to point 6 in this  BLOG: http://blogs.technet.com/configmgrteam/archive/2009/05/14/faq-sql-reporting-services-integration-with-system-center-configuration-manager-2007-r2.aspx, it is not possible to select which instance  SCCM will pick for a Reporting Services role.

We did a little testing, and found out that WMI used the following registry folder to enumerate the sites:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft
SQL Server\Instance Names\RS]

We ran an export of this registry key, and then deleted the 3 old instance name values.

Now, when we added the Reporting Services Role to the server, SCCM picked the new instance, that we wanted.

After that, we just imported the reg file again so WMI could see all 4 instances again.

Importing reports to the server now places the reports in the new SCCM Reporting Services instance, and not in our SCOM test instance.

THIS IS NOT an official Microsoft solution, so use it at your own risk, and definitely not mine.

Part #2

We had planned to use a SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS) Scaleout environment for our SCCM 2007 R2 installation.

According to Microsoft, this is not a supported option, they only supports multiple independent Reporting Services servers.

This would double the efforts of configuring reports, and demand users to have 2 different URL’s for reporting, and maintain their user configuration and jobs on both servers.

So we tried to setup two SSRS serves, and configured them for Scaleout, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159114(SQL.90).aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms156453(SQL.90).aspx.

Then we added the two servers as Reporting Services roles in SCCM, and pointing to one of the servers
imported the reports available.

Because Scaleout deployment uses a shared configuration database, all reports where immediately visible on
the other server.

We put a Cisco Content Switch (CSS) in front of the two SSRS servers, and our users now use a virtual address to run their reports on a available server. NLB could be used as well.

In the Configuration Manager Console, Site Database, Computer Management, Reporting, Reporting Services
there are now 2 servers availble, with all reports defined. When you select a report on one of the servers, that report will run on the selected server. So even from the console, you can select which server should run your report, in case of a disaster on the other server.

This works like a charm, but be aware!

THIS IS NOT an official
Microsoft solution, so use it at your own risk, and definitely not mine.

When connecting two SCCM sites and they reside in two domains with no trust between them, you have to create public keys using the preinst.exe tool.

This link from Microsoft explain
the procedure

Remember to use an account from the remote site as site connector account and virsa versa!