Category: Microsoft SCCM 2007

By default System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) uses the drive which has the most free space left to store the packages. To avoid SCCM storing of packages on the system drive, you can create a file on the root of the system drive, called no_sms_on_drive.sms.

Now you’re sure that the system drive will not be used by SCCM!

Today I’ve installed a new System Center Configuration Manager 2007 environment. During the installation, I get the following error “The site server computer’s machine account does not have Administrator’s previleges on the SQL Server selected for site database installation. To install a Configuration Manager site, all servers must be in an Active Directory domain and the site server’s machine account must have Administrator’s privileges on the SQL Server”.

To fix this problem, you’ll need to do the following steps:

1.) On the SQL Server, right-click My Computer and select Manage to open the Computer Management console
2.) Expand the Local Users and Groups node and select Groups
3.) Double-click Administrators in the right-hand pane of the Computer Management console
4.) Click the Add… button to open the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box
5.) Click the Object Types… button and ensure Computers is selected in the Object Types dialog box. Click OK to return to the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box
6.) If the From this location field in the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box does not show the domain that the Configuration Manager site server is in, click the Locations… button and select the correct domain
7.) In the field labelled Enter the object names to select, type the computer name of the Configuration Manager site server. Click the Check Names to confirm that the name has been recognised
8.) Click OK

       

When you want to give some users permission to manage you SCCM 2007 environment, you don’t want to give them full admin rights. With the ConfigMgr User Wizard, you can add users and specify the permissions for this users based on classes and instances.

In this example i’ve added a new user with only permissions to read all the Packages.

1.) Open the System Center Management Console
2.) Navigate to the Site Database, Security Rights, Users, Manage ConfigMgr Users
3.) Add a new user, browse and select the new user
4.) Select “Add another right or modify an existing one”
5.) In this example the user has only the permission to read the packages
6.) Select in the Class box “Package”
7.) Select in the Instance box “(All Instances)”
8.) Finish the wizard

For remote connecting to the SCCM Site Server, you’ve to edit the DCOM security, otherwise you’ll receive an error when you try to open the System Center Management Console.

1.) Go to your SCCM Site Server
2.) From the Start menu, click Run and type Dcomcnfg.exe
3.) In Component Services, click Console root, expand Component Services, expand Computers, and then click My Computer. On the Action menu, click Properties
4.) In the My Computer Properties dialog box, on the COM Security tab, in the Launch and Activation Permissions section, click Edit Limits
5.) In the Launch Permissions dialog box, click Add
6.) In the Select User, Computers, or Groups dialog box, in the Enter the object names to select, in this example: markswinkels
7.) In the Permissions for markswinkels, select the check box to allow Remote Activation
8.) Click OK twice, and then close Computer Management

       

       

       

       

       

when you’re going to deploy a new package with SCCM 2007, there are a few steps you need to follow. The easiest way to deploy a package is to follow the next steps:

1.) Collection
2.) Package
3.) Program
4.) Distribution Point
5.) Advertisement

Before we are going to deploy Office 2007, we’ve to create a MSP file for customize the Office 2007 installation. You can start the Office Customization Tool using the following command: setup.exe /admin. Save the file in the updates folder on your Office 2007 source directory.

Step 1, creating a collection:
1.) Create a new collection, to specify the computers where Office must be installed.
2.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, New Collection
3.) Give your new collection a name, for example “Office 2007 Enterprise”
4.) On the Membership Rules dialog box, click the computer icon, which opens the Create Direct Membership Rule Wizard. Click Next
5.) On the Search for Resources dialog box, click the Resource class drop-down menu and select System Resource. Then, click the Attribute name drop-down menu and select Name. In the Value field enter %, and then click Next
6.) On the Collection Limiting dialog box, click the Browse button, select All Windows Workstation or Professional Systems, and then click Next
7.) Select the computer(s) you want to deploy Office 2007 and click Next

Step 2, creating a package:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Package, New Package
2.) On the General dialog box of the New Package Wizard, enter the Name, Version, Manufacturer, and Language. For example, Office, 2007, Microsoft, English (US)
3.) On the Data Source dialog box, select This package contains source files. Click the Set button, and then enter the path for the location of the source files in the Source directory field. For example E:\Software\Office 2007\, which contains a copy of the 2007 Office Enterprise installation CD.
4.) Click OK, and then continue to click Next and accept the default settings on all of the following dialog boxes: Data Access, Distribution Settings, Reporting, and Security. On the Wizard Completed dialog box

Step 3, creating a Program:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Programs, New, Program
2.) Give the new program a Name
3.) On the Command-line box, type in setup.exe (Because the customization file, CustomOffice.MSP, was placed in the \Updates folder, a command line option is not needed to reference its location)
4.) On the Environment dialog box, click the Program can run drop-down box and select Whether or not a user is logged on. This will enable Run with administrative rights for the Run mode. Leave the default for Drive mode to Runs with UNC name, and then click Next
5.) On the Advanced dialog box, select the check box for Suppress program notifications, and then click Next

Step 4, Copy to Distibution points:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Distribution points
2.) Manage Distribution Points
3.) Select “Copy the package to new distribution points”
4.) Select the distribution points
5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes
6.) Check the status changing from Install Pending to Installed

Step 5, creating the advertisement
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Advertisements
2.) New Advertisement
3.) Give the advertisement a Name
4.) Select the package, Program and Collection
5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes
6.) On the client wait for the next Machine Policy Retrievel & Evaluation Cycle

After the setup is finished, Office 2007 is deployed to your client(s) and is ready to use!

When you make any changes to your SCCM 2007 environment, the clients will polling for this changes by a interval. Default this is 60 minutes. If you want to force an Machine Policy Retrieval, you can use to following two options:

1.) Open your control panel
2.) Configuration Manager
3.) Action tab
4.) Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
5.) Initiate Action

The next option is to use the following script.
———————————————————————————————
on error resume next

dim oCPAppletMgr ‘Control Applet manager object.
dim oClientAction ‘Individual client action.
dim oClientActions ‘A collection of client actions.

‘Get the Control Panel manager object.
set  oCPAppletMgr=CreateObject("CPApplet.CPAppletMgr")
if err.number <> 0 then
    Wscript.echo "Couldn’t create control panel application manager"
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Get a collection of actions.
set oClientActions=oCPAppletMgr.GetClientActions
if err.number<>0 then
    wscript.echo "Couldn’t get the client actions"
    set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Display each client action name and perform it.
For Each oClientAction In oClientActions

    if oClientAction.Name = "Request & Evaluate Machine Policy" then
        wscript.echo "Performing action " + oClientAction.Name
        oClientAction.PerformAction
    end if
next

set oClientActions=nothing
set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
———————————————————————————————

When you make any changes to your SCCM 2007 environment, the clients will polling for this changes by a interval. Default this is 60 minutes. If you want to force an Machine Policy Retrieval, you can use to following two options:

1.) Open your control panel
2.) Configuration Manager
3.) Action tab
4.) Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
5.) Initiate Action

The next option is to use the following script.
———————————————————————————————
on error resume next

dim oCPAppletMgr ‘Control Applet manager object.
dim oClientAction ‘Individual client action.
dim oClientActions ‘A collection of client actions.

‘Get the Control Panel manager object.
set  oCPAppletMgr=CreateObject("CPApplet.CPAppletMgr")
if err.number <> 0 then
    Wscript.echo "Couldn’t create control panel application manager"
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Get a collection of actions.
set oClientActions=oCPAppletMgr.GetClientActions
if err.number<>0 then
    wscript.echo "Couldn’t get the client actions"
    set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Display each client action name and perform it.
For Each oClientAction In oClientActions

    if oClientAction.Name = "Request & Evaluate Machine Policy" then
        wscript.echo "Performing action " + oClientAction.Name
        oClientAction.PerformAction
    end if
next

set oClientActions=nothing
set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
———————————————————————————————

With this VBScript you can modify the client cache size of your SCCM 2007 clients.

————————————————————————————–
Dim ClientResource
Set ClientResource = CreateObject(“UIResource.UIResourceMgr”)
Set CacheInfo = ClientResource.GetCacheInfo
CacheInfo.TotalSize = 10000
————————————————————————————–

       

A System Center Configuration Manager + Application Virtualization infrastructure is comprised of the following components:

– Microsoft Application Virtualization Sequencer:
The Application Virtualization Sequencer ‘program’ is used to package virtual applications for deployment with Configuration Manager.

– Configuration Manager Site Server:
A part of the Configuration Manager Site hierarchy, the Configuration Manager Site Server manages virtual application distribution through
Configuration Manager Distribution Points to target systems, either as a streaming service, or as a locally delivered package.

– Configuration Manager Distribution Point (Distribution Point):
Configuration Manager Distribution Point site roles provide management services such as hardware and software inventory, operating system deployment, and software updates, as well as software distribution of both physical and virtual applications, to Configuration Manager target systems (often referred to as ‘clients’).

– Configuration Manager / Application Virtualization Clients:
Client devices include desktop/laptop PCs, terminal servers and Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) clients.  Configuration Manager Clients that receive delivery of virtual applications from a Configuration Manager infrastructure require both the Configuration Manager Advanced Client and Application Virtualization Client software to be installed and configured.  The Configuration Manager and Application Virtualization Client software work together to deliver, interpret and launch virtual application packages.  The Configuration Manager Client manages the delivery of virtual application packages to the Application Virtualization Client. The Application Virtualization Client executes the virtual application on the client PC.

 

Configuration Manager and Application Virtualization Software Requirements:

– A healthy Configuration Manager infrastructure:
It is critical to ensure that the customer’s Configuration Manager infrastructure is healthy before enabling Configuration Manager’s virtual application management features.

Below you’ll find a list of the minimum Configuration Manager infrastructure components required for virtual application management with System Center Configuration Manager R2.

– Primary Site:
A Configuration Manager Primary Site with Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 + Configuration Manager 2007 R2 installed

– Site Server:
A Configuration Manager Site Server configured with the following site server roles:
     – Site System
     – Site Server
     – Component Server
     – Distribution Point
     – Fallback Status Point
     – Management Point
     – Reporting Point

– Distribution Point Servers:
One or more standard Distribution Point servers or Branch Distribution Point servers.  The use of a Branch Distribution Point requires at least one standard Distribution Point

– Clients:
One or more Configuration Manager Client PCs

Below you’ll find a list of the minimum Application Virtualization 4.5 infrastructure components required for virtual application management with System Center Configuration Manager R2.

– Application Virtualization Sequencer
     – Required to sequence applications
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later

– Application Virtualization Client for Windows Desktops
     – Required to run virtual applications on desktop and laptop PCs
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later

– Application Virtualization Client for Terminal Services
     – Required to run virtual applications on Windows Terminal Servers
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later