Contact us today|info@ctglobalservices.com
FacebookXLinkedIn

Part 1: Uninstall Java (or any other software) with ConfigMgr Compliance Baselines

Compliance Items and Compliance Baselines in ConfigMgr is so powerful! And with some PowerShell magic you can almost use it to do anything you like on a Windows based computer – Only your imagination that will be the showstopper! Here I will show how you can uninstall software using WMI and Compliance Items in SCCM. However, it is important that you read the following articles as the uninstallation process uses win32_product WMI class which is known for its evilness. Thanks to Kaido, Jürg and Torsten for pointing this one out. A updated post as been created using a better and more [...]

By |2015-11-25T14:19:41+01:00november 25th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, Powershell|9 Comments
Læs mere

Troubleshooting: An error occurred when creating the WSUS Signing Certificate (Secunia)

Lately I have been doing some Secunia integrations with System Center 2012 R2: Configuration Manager (SCCM/ConfigMgr 2012). When you are setting up the connector between Secunia CSI and WSUS one of the first things the wizard is asking you to do is to Configure a WSUS Self-Signed Certificate, the WSUS signing certificate is required to create and install local packages. Without it, only packages from Microsoft Update will be installed. How-ever this time I got this error when trying to 'Automatically create and install certificate'  during the Connector Wizard: An error occurred when creating the WSUS Signing Certificate Now this [...]

By |2015-10-20T20:14:46+01:00oktober 20th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Security|1 Kommentar
Læs mere

How to: Create custom SQL- based Reports in System Center 2012 R2: Configuration Manager

A customer asked me  for a “how-to” on how to Create reports in SCCM 2012, so why not share with everyone. This post is not intended to show how to write or design queries, but show you have to create  a report based on a SQL query you might already have. Even-though we are skipping how to write SQL Queries for know, this post is still going to be a bit long. Time for that cup of coffee! First some requirements: You need to have an SQL Server instance for SCCM with SQL Reporting Services running You need to have [...]

By |2015-10-16T10:45:45+01:00oktober 16th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), SQL, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)|3 Comments
Læs mere

Upgrade System Center Configuration Manager Console with PowerShell

Since Service Pack 1 was released to SCCM 2012 R2 I have been upgraded several environments. A couple of customers wanted me to create a PowerShell script to uninstall existing ConfigMgr Console and install the new updated version with the latest cumulative updates and hotfixes. If you create a package to distribute it with SCCM make sure you point the Data source to the location of the Client installations files, Script, KB3084586-msp and kb3074857-msp. Installation command for the program will then be: PowerShell.exe -file "script.ps1". Remember to set PowerShell execution policy to "Bypass" under Client Settings. This will not affect [...]

By |2015-09-17T18:14:33+01:00september 17th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, Powershell, Scripting & Development|Kommentarer lukket til Upgrade System Center Configuration Manager Console with PowerShell
Læs mere

Coretech HTA

The main idea with this HTA is to assist small and medium sized organizations with an easy way to implement a custom OSD solution without having any developer or HTML skills. The HTA solutions can be used when booting directly into WinPE and to prestage computers. Why; You might ask, Why, do Coretech create this tool instead of using the built-in tools in Configuration Manager or using the UDI wizard in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit?  The answer is straight forward. We often run into customers who do not have the knowledge it takes to build custom solutions or use the UDI [...]

By |2014-01-30T16:16:21+01:00januar 30th, 2014|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|30 Comments
Læs mere

SCCM Client Actions Tool PowerShell Edition aka PoshCAT

Updated 28.08.2013 Description SCCM Client Actions Tool PowerShell Edition aka PoshCAT is a practical and simple PowerShell application for performing most common day-to-day administrative tasks on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Clients. The tool allows running actions remotely on one or more computers simultaneously. A list of computers can be provided either from a file (CSV, TXT) or loaded from Configuration Manager Collection importer or through Add Computer prompt. You can find the old version from here SCCMCAT - https://sccmcat.codeplex.com/ by Christjan Schumann. Please read the documentation first and blog posts! Please read this post how to install PoshCAT - [...]

By |2013-08-08T09:07:38+01:00august 8th, 2013|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell, Scripting & Development|70 Comments
Læs mere

New Content on CM12SDK.Net

I just posted new content on CM12SDK.net How to modify Configuration Manager Client Cache Size How to Create a Software Update Deployment Template How to Create/Add Alerts for Software Update Deployments How to invoke Client Notification actions Configuration Manager 2012 Developer Excel Sheet – I removed all the old Excel sheets and now I have only one Excel sheet which contains all the necessary things. If you are working with Configuration Manager, then a few weeks ago we released our first version of WMI and PowerShell Explorer and there is one special feature for Configuration Manager administrators which allows you [...]

By |2013-07-12T14:07:30+01:00juli 12th, 2013|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|2 Comments
Læs mere

Where are my Software Update state messages

My experienced ConfigMgr 2007 administratos are wondering how it can be that Software Update compliance reports are not showing states like “Waiting for Maintenance Windows” but only Enforcement State unknown or Compliant. The answer to that question can be found in the State Message detail settings for the software update deployment. By default only Error and success messages are reported. Example 1 – using the default software update state details settings:   Example 2 – Software Update deployment configured to send all state messages :   Controlling the state message detail level The correct way to configure the state message [...]

By |2013-05-31T13:13:53+01:00maj 31st, 2013|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info|3 Comments
Læs mere

PowerShell to the rescue – Clean up direct collection memberships

We where talking to a customer about how to avoid waiting for Active Directory group synchronization to occur and place a device in the correct collections faster than “until the next synchronization”. The main problem with this setup was caused by the fact that they used a group-in-group membership to identify collection memberships and apparently SCCM 2012 don’t include indirect changes to group membership as delta changes (I have not tested this in details yet). So we came up with the idea to just create a direct membership to place the device in the collections instantly to make sure that [...]

By |2013-03-12T12:31:15+01:00marts 12th, 2013|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell|3 Comments
Læs mere

Quick and Dirty Management Point check

If you have a big Configuration Manager environment and you don´t have a monitoring solution like SCOM or NAGIOS, then PowerShell can help you too.  This script queries all Management Points from SMS_SystemResourceList WMI class and it will check MPCERT and MPLIST website status. If you want to use this script then run it on your Central, CAS or Primary Site Server like this: Get-CMSMPStatus.ps1 -SiteCode PS1 -SiteServer Localhost -OutPut c:\Temp\MPStatus.csv. This will create a CSV Report (example below) This script should work with PSH v2 and v3. You can download the code example from here

By |2013-01-29T14:20:44+01:00januar 29th, 2013|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Powershell|2 Comments
Læs mere

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SQL recommendations

I have two SQL related question that comes up in all of my ConfigMgr 2012 projects. Those are:   · Where are we going to install the SQL server? · How are we going to configure SQL? Where are we going to install the SQL server Answering the first question often ends in a political discussion between the ConfigMgr. administrators on one side and the SQL DBA’s on the other side. Most of the ConfigMgr. administrators that I know, strongly believe in having a local SQL installation. I’m also a true believer of that for several reasons. Remote SQL installations [...]

By |2017-12-18T16:11:50+01:00august 18th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info|29 Comments
Læs mere

Awarded Configuration Manager 2012 MVP

This Sunday is a great day. Sitting in my hotel room in Zürich with a beautiful mountain view while writing on my upcoming book (title is System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Mastering the fundamentals) and in ticks this mail in my inbox: Dear Kent Agerlund, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2012 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in System Center Configuration Manager technical communities during the past year. I think it’s time to hit [...]

By |2012-04-01T17:16:04+01:00april 1st, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Personal|3 Comments
Læs mere

Enabling Email approvals for your requested applications in Configuration Manager 2012

By default application approvals must be done from within the ConfigMgr 2012 administrator console. If you have Service Manager 2012 you can use that to implement an approval process. For those of you who do not (yet) have Service Manager here is a tool that you can use. The solution consists of a Website and a Web Service. None of them have to be installed on the same server. Also there is no requirement to install any the components on the site server. Download our beta 0.9.8 version here How it works The Coretech Application Approval Server (CAAS) is installed [...]

By |2012-03-20T15:02:09+01:00marts 20th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, Tools|60 Comments
Læs mere

Global conditions in ConfigMgr 2012

One of the very need features in the new Application model is Global conditions. A Global condition is a requirement rule that is evaluated in real time by the client. The client will only start downloading the application if the global condition is true. ConfigMgr. 2012 ships with several global conditions like memory, operating system, primary user etc. Those conditions are pretty useful and can be used right out of the box. Besides the canned conditions, creating custom conditions can be very powerful and all you need is a few steps to get your started. In this post, I’ll explain [...]

By |2012-02-26T13:24:29+01:00februar 26th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|7 Comments
Læs mere

Creating the Reporting User role in ConfigMgr. 2012

Role based Security in ConfigMgr. 2012 is much different from ConfigMgr. 2007. The new version ships with predefined security roles like Administrator, Infrastructure Administrator etc. One role is missing though - the Reporting User role. Create the Reporting User role Open the ConfigMgr. Console, navigate to the Administration workspace and select Security, Security Roles Select the Read-Only Analyst role and click Copy on the ribbon. This role comes very close to our reporting only role. Name the Role Reporting User. Go thru all the security settings and remove all settings except Run Report. Click OK and save the custom role. [...]

By |2012-02-24T00:11:38+01:00februar 24th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Security|13 Comments
Læs mere

Multi forest support in ConfigMgr. 2012 Part I – Managing clients in an untrusted forest

One of the questions that I have had a lot lately, is how we configure Multi forest support in ConfigMgr. 2012. It’s my plan to document a few scenarios in terms of supporting sites, site systems and clients in remote forests. In this first part, I’ll explain how you can support clients in an untrusted forest without installing any remote site systems. Discover information from the remote forest To configure support for the remote forest: Configure credentials for discovering the “remote forest”. Configure Active Directory forest discovery to discover IP ranges and AD sites. Configure AD System discovery. In the [...]

By |2012-01-28T11:20:13+01:00januar 28th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|11 Comments
Læs mere

Attending TechEd EMEA in Amsterdam 2012

The TechEd EMEA 2012 website is open, and part of the exiting program has already been revealed. This year TechEd will start Monday 25th. of June with an opportunity to participate in one of the pre-conference Seminars.  I’m proud to announce that I will be hosting one of the seminars together with Johan Arwidmark. Our seminar is “User-Centric Application Delivery Rocks the World: Using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 a dazzling seminar on how to distribute software using Configuration Manager 2012. Learn about the new infrastructure changes in Configuration Manager 2012, how to upgrade from Configuration Manager 2007, and how [...]

By |2012-01-10T08:14:10+01:00januar 10th, 2012|Events|Kommentarer lukket til Attending TechEd EMEA in Amsterdam 2012
Læs mere

Error installing SQL Reporting Builder 3.0 in ConfigMgr. 2012

It has happen to me before, and it will happen again. I ran my ConfigMgr. 2012 administrator console without starting it as Administrator. When trying to edit a report I got the error message: Report Builder 2.0  is not installed as a click-once application on report server The error message is kind of funny, as I had already configured ConfigMgr. 2012 to launch Reporting Builder 3.0 and not the default 2.0 version. When I finally managed to start the Configuration Manager Administrator console as administrator I successfully launched Reporting Builder 3.0 for information about tweeking ConfigMgr. 2012 to launch report [...]

By |2012-01-04T20:21:22+01:00januar 4th, 2012|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)|Kommentarer lukket til Error installing SQL Reporting Builder 3.0 in ConfigMgr. 2012
Læs mere

Configure Client remediation in ConfigMgr. 2012 to monitor only using Settings Management

When you install the ConfigMgr. 2012 client, you also get a scheduled Windows task that run daily health checks on the client, and if needed remediates the client. That is a great feature for most our clients, but maybe not a feature you want to implement on all clients. On some servers you might not allow uncontrolled software installations, even if it is an attempt to reinstall the client. To prevent the client from being remediated configure the NotifyOnly registry key from FALSE to TRUE in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CCM\Ccmeval\NotifyOnly When knowing the registry key and value, it’s easy to configure a CI [...]

By |2011-11-15T21:34:04+01:00november 15th, 2011|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info|2 Comments
Læs mere

Understanding the new content library store in 5 minutes

Content management has somewhat been completely rewritten for this version and do require “a little getting used to”. Below are some of the changes related to the Content Library but first a quick recap of the new distribution point features. Distribution Points We only have one type of DP in ConfigMgr. 2012, no more branch DP’s, DP shares or hidden PXE shares - only a standard DP which can be installed on a Windows client (Vista SP2 and above) or a Windows server (Windows 2003 SP2 and above). You can control the bandwidth when sending content to a remote distribution [...]

By |2011-10-25T11:36:22+01:00oktober 25th, 2011|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|17 Comments
Læs mere