How to: View all packages within your ConfigMgr 2012 R2 environment

When you have a Microsoft ConfigMgr 2012 or 2012 R2 environment, you definitely have a lot of packages and applications. This could be: tools, scripts, client packages, boot images, ISO’s, WIM files, different software applications, etc. When you have no idea where all these source files are located, you can execute a query within your SQL environment.

You can generate an overview of all your packages, with the package ID, description, name, source location, version, etc. Very helpfull and it saves you alot of time!!

1.) Open the Microsoft SQL Server Managent Studio
2.) Login with a user that has enough rights to execute queries
3.) Select the ConfigMgr database (in my example CM_PS1)
4.) Select “New Query”
5.) Type “SELECT * from v_Package”
6.) Select “Execute” or press F5 on your keyboard
7.) Now you’ll see a list off all the packages within your ConfigMgr 2012 environment
8.) Navigate to the table “PkgSourcePath”
9.) Here are your source files locates of all the different packages

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How to: Install ConfigMgr 2012 R2 hotfix KB2910552 during OSD

A few weeks ago Microsoft has released a update KB2910552 for ConfigMgr 2012 R2. This update fixes a lot of issues, but also speed up the OSD within ConfigMgr 2012 R2. I should highly recommend to install this hotfix in your environment. The hotfix is updating the site system automatically, but the client not. This blogpost will discribe how to install this hotfix during a OS deployment (OSD).

1.) First install the hotfix KKB2910552. The hotfix is vissible in the installation folder of ConfigMgr. In my example E:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix\KB2910552\Client
2.) Copy the content in this folder to your source directory.
In my example \\CM01\Sources\OSD\Hotfix\KB2910552\Client
3.) Add a new package and configure the source location to the right directory.
In my example \\CM01\Sources\OSD\Hotfix\KB2910552\Client
4.) Select “Do not create a program
5.) Distribute the package to your distribution point(s)
6.) Open the task sequence and add a new step “Run Command Line
7.) Select the right package and configure the command line
cmd.exe /c xcopy x64\*.* “C:\Hotfix” /E /H /C /I /Q /Y
This is for x64 systems only! Change x64 to x86 for deployment to x86 systems
8.) In the “Setup Windows and Configuration Manager” step, add the following installation properties
PATCH=”C:\Hotfix\configmgr2012ac-r2-kb2910552-x64.msp”
This is for x64 systems only! Change x64 to x86 for deployment to x86 systems
9.) Start the deployment of a x64 system
10.) After the deployment has finished, navigat to the control panel and Configuration Manager
11.) On the general tab you’ll see the new version number 5.00.7958.1104

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How to: Find MAC addresses using PowerShell

Today I had to install a new System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 environment. One of the features this customer is going to use is OS Deployment. In this environment we are using the Build & Capture task sequence voor deploying a Master Image of Windows 8.1. The Master Images will be deployed in Hyper-V. One of the important steps is to import the “Master VM” into the ConfigMgr database. Two things you’ve to know are….PC name and the MAC address. With this PowerShell command you can find all the MAC addresses very easy!

1.) Open Microsoft PowerShell on your Hyper-V server
2.) First list all the VM’s
Get-VM
3.) List the name of the VM, MAC address, Virtual Switch name and IP address

get-vm -Name SC2012R2-PC0002 | select -ExpandProperty networkadapters | select vmname, macaddress, switchname, ipaddresses

4.) Import the VM into ConfigMgr

 

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