System Center Guide

ST. PAUL, MN–(Marketwire – March 3, 2010) – Shavlik Technologies, LLC, the market leader in simplifying and automating critical IT operations, today announced the Shavlik SCUPdates™ catalog which delivers update information from multiple vendors — like Adobe or Apple — to Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). More and more organizations today are leveraging the power of SCCM to assess, deploy and update Windows systems. By using the Shavlik SCUPdates catalog, SCCM users now have a single workflow for deploying updates for both Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications.

Read the full press release

Web Help Desk releases seamless out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft SCCM and SMS, providing IT professionals with up-to-date hardware and software asset details within the web-based help desk software. No table mapping configuration or SQL scripts required. In classic Web Help Desk style, simply choose your synchronization schedule, point to the SCCM/SMS deployment and select which SCCM/SMS data to be made visible, then carry on with your now enhanced service management operations.

Click here to learn more.

There are many occassions where we want to install software on only particular platforms such as desktops, laptops or servers. By using a combination of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, we can make this happen. Sadly, however, this hasn’t been very well documented and put into a step-by-step guide, so I’ve done that here.

The following 20 steps are what it takes to get Configuration Manager to use the MDT variables isDesktop, isLaptop, and isServer during an operating system deployment task sequence. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know.

1.  Download Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008, Update 1.
2.  Install MDT to site server.
3.  From the Start menu, select Microsoft Deployment Toolkit | Configure ConfigMgr Integration.
4.  Create a package for the toolkit using the “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit \Templates\Distribution” folder as the package source. No program needed – just create the package.
5.  Configure your packages distribution points, as normal.
6.  In the Task Sequence Editor, click Add | MDT | Use Toolkit Package. Select the package that you created in step 4.
7.  Move this task between Install Operating System and Setup Operating System.
8.  Again, click Add | MDT | Gather.
9.  Choose the radio button for “Gather only local data (do not process rules). 
10.  Move this new task beneath the Use Toolkit Package task.
11.  From the Task Sequence Editor Install Software section, select the software package you like to have installed only on laptops (VPN software for example).
12.  Click the Options tab.
13.  Click Add Condition.
14.  Select If Statement.
15.  In the If Statement Properties page, select All Conditions.
16.  Highlight the line you just added beneath the “This group/step will run if the following conditions are met:”.
17.  Click “Add Condition” again.
18.  Choose Task Sequence Variable.
19.  In the Task Sequence Variable properties page, type isLaptop for the Variable, leaving the Condition set to equals and type TRUE for the Value.Remember, you also have isDesktop and isServer options to use as well.
20.  Save your Task Sequence.

I hope you’ll find this useful. Enjoy!

Tip:

You must enable each program that is associated with a Task Sequence application installation (including the SCCM client) to be available during Task Sequence execution without an Advertisement. To do so, just select the properties for the appropriate program (most commonly Per System Unattented Installation) and tick the checkbox at the bottom of the resulting tab.

If this item isn’t selected, all applications intended to be installed during the Task Sequence will fail. No Microsoft Updates will be installed and the User State will not be migrated as the Configuration Manager client will not be present.

In short, yes. But, when I recent customer requested documented reference to that fact prior to canceling a subscription to another inventory solution, I had to go digging – deep!

What I was able to find is the True Up Guide on Microsoft’s website.

Page 3 of the document confirms that indeed you may use several of the built-in reports to support your True Up efforts. While it’s a little dated and references SMS and SCE, it’s well understood that it naturally would cover ConfigMgr as an inventory method as well.

Here’s a link to the guide for your reference:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/b/85b71ce5-2f4a-4984-a021-a24df9814b71/TrueUp_brochure_letter.pdf

P.S. Make sure you’re using a service packed version of ConfigMgr as the their were issues with the RTM release that showed free Office viewers programs as the full products in the earlier reports. This issue has been resolved in SP1.

While catching up on some of the myITForum discussion list threads, I saw a post by Jeff Gilbert (part of the SCCM writing team) regarding a unique approach to updating product documentation. They have, in effect, patched the existing offline help file (.CHM) to include updated content.

This method reminds me of the scene in Minority Report where Chief John Anterton (played by Tom Cruise) is on the lamb. Riding in an ultra-modern version of a subway, he looks towards a fellow passenger that is nose-deep into the “paper”. However, the “paper” is actually a high-gloss device that updates itself in real time. With only a moment’s notice, the front page changes – much to Anterton’s dismay. He looks on to see himself cited as the city’s most wanted man and sure enough he’s recognised within seconds.

Now, I’m not saying that the Microsoft documentation team is stealing ideas from Hollywood (although the reading might be more entertaining if they did), but the concept of truly living documents is an interesting one. Imagine having the confidence that every time you pressed F1 or clicked “HELP”, that you knew you were receiving the most timely and accurate information possible – with or without the use of an active Internet connection at the time.

I think this is a great idea and certainly one that I would welcome even further investments among the rest of the Microsoft product stack.

Read the teams blog entry regarding this