Download failed for content under context System, error 0x80070005

Last week I had a nasty issue, where a lot of clients didn't receive new packages and Windows/Endpoint Protection updates. Sometimes you where seeing new folders created in ccmcache, but they were deleted empty a few seconds later. When looking in Monitoring on the package the following status was seen: Failed to download update(s), error 0x80070005 (Access is denied) and Failed to install update(s), 0x80070005 (Access is denied). What's going on here?

Client Updates

 

Definition Updates

 

Looking in multiple logfiles I saw the following errors:

CAS.log
Download failed for content XYZ under context System, error 0x80070005
Download failed for download request {DCE900A1-B51F-46A6-B278-167C2F94C307}
User policy requested with no user credentials.
DataTransferService.log
Sending location services HTTP failure message.
Successfully sent location services HTTP failure message.
Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 401, status 'Unauthorized'
GetDirectoryList_HTTP('http://<FQDN>/SMS_DP_SMSPKG$/90812187-ade0-4dd8-b29f-66f5db5af2c1') failed with code 0x80070005.
UpdatesHandler.log
CAS failed to download update (6983a782-828c-40b8-bf9c-c8e381e25f5e). Error = 0x80070005. Releasing content request.
ContentAvailable notification received from CAS.

I did a lot troubleshooting the issue (ConfigMgr client repair, ConfigMgr cache clear, Update distribution point), but in the end it was IIS Security. On 3 of 6 remote Site servers, IIS security (Windows authentication) was missing. After installing the role feature, the issue was solved right away! Still strange how this could happen, because in the past everything worked fine. When having the 0x80070005 error in the future, verify that Windows authentication is installed.

Hope it helps!

Source: SCCM 2012 - client waiting for content

Automatically updating the Configuration Manager client

Great news! With the release of ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 and 2012 SP2 it's now possible to automatically update the ConfigMgr client. No need to use the client packages again (which are still created by default). The only thing needed is to have ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 or 2012 SP2 in-place, and make sure the automatic client upgrade feature is enabled on the Site server. After that all ConfigMgr clients will be upgraded to the new version, which is v5.0.8239.1203

Note: Select "Upgrade client automatically when new client updates are available". This is set on 7 days by default and is done on servers too. Just select "Do not update servers" if you don't want too.

Note: The new installation page is only present when the automatic client upgrade feature is enabled. Otherwise above screen will be skipped during installation. You can enable it after the update and then re-run the installer at a later time.

For operating system deployment (OSD) scenarios, you can still use the PATCH= parameter if you need the update applied right away. Otherwise, the installation of the update will take place at some random interval within the value specified.

After that clients will be updated within 7 days from installation time. Just great and handy to have this functionality now :-)

New: Veeam Management Pack v8 is now available!

Sponsor post

Driving sales and exceeding goals are easy when you’re selling a solution that drives better IT decision making for your customer’s Always-On Business.

Veeam Management Pack (MP) v8 for System Center provides data-driven insights into business-critical applications, allowing your customers to track performance trends, analyze operational metrics and ensure the delivery of predictable SLAs.

Veeam MP v8 makes selling effortless by providing your customers with:
-Complete visibility into their Hyper-V, vSphere and Veeam backup infrastructures
-Leveraged data through real-time, in-context dashboards and heatmaps with drill-down capabilities to proactively resolve problems and meet SLAs
-Cloud capacity planning with hybrid cloud forecasting reports to analyze onsite workloads and IaaS requirements to migrate those workloads to the cloud

Learn more

Cumulative Update 1 for ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 and 2012 SP2 released

Last month (August 4th) Cumulative Update (CU) 1 for ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 and 2012 SP2 is released. This update contains 25 fixes for various issues including an update version of the SCEP client, and contains all of the changes from prior cumulative updates.

Here's a list of issues that are fixed, there are quite a lot of them:
-Configuration manager client (2 fixes)
-Software distribution and content management (3 fixes)
-Operating system deployment (3 fixes)
-Administrator Console (2 fixes)
-Site systems (7 fixes)
-Microsoft Intune / Mobile Device Management (2 fixes)
-Reporting (2 fixes)

Additional changes that are included in this update:
-Asset Intelligence - An update for the authentication certificate in ConfigMgr Asset Intelligence is available
-Endpoint Protection - Revised February 2015 antimalware platform update for SCEP clients
-Endpoint Protection - The Citrix Connector Synchronization Task is unsuccessful when you install or use the Citrix Connector for ConfigMgr
-Operating systems other than Windows - Debian 8 is added to the list of supported platforms for software distribution

Just install it in your environment when experiencing problems described in this article. When not affected by these problems, Microsoft recommends to wait for the next service pack that contains this update. Great that CU1 is available now!
 
For more information or download the update have a look here:
Microsoft Support

What’s new in ConfigMgr and SCEP Technical Preview 3

Last week, ConfigMgr and SCEP Technical Preview 3 became available. Technical Preview 3 provides you with an early glimpse of the functionality that is planned for Q4 2015 (close to Windows 10), bringing with it full support for client deployment, upgrade, and management of Windows 10.

New features available in Technical Preview 3 include:

-Deployment of required applications to Windows 10 devices managed via on-premises mobile device management (MDM) – You now have the ability to deploy required applications to Windows 10 PCs and mobile devices managed via MDM with on-premises ConfigMgr infrastructure. (Intune subscription required)
-Cluster-aware settings – Servicing a cluster just became easier! With this third technical preview, you can deploy an update to a cluster while controlling the percent of servers that are online at any given time, and specify actions to run pre- and post-deployment. > Cluster-Aware Updating Overview
-High availability support with SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn – Using SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn Availability Groups, you now have improved support for both high availability and disaster recovery for the ConfigMgr database.
-Ability to run software update cleanup tasks – You can now schedule and run WSUS cleanup tasks from the ConfigMgr console. > Great feature!

Also included in this technical preview are features that were previously released in the first and second Technical Previews for ConfigMgr.

For more information and download have a look on:

TechNet Evaluation Center

Also, if you have a feature request, make sure to share your ideas on the new ConfigMgr UserVoice site.

Just download and enjoy this third Technical Preview!

Vacation time! (2015)

Today my vacation is starting for the next coming weeks. During my vacation there will be no new blogposts as you can guess :) So enjoy yourself (I will do also) and expect a lot of new information and knowledge later this year. There will be lot to write and share about upcoming and already available Microsoft products:

-Windows 10 :-)
-System Center 2016
-Microsoft Intune & Azure
-Enterprise Mobility Suite
-Windows Server 2016
-Windows 10 Mobile

Thanks for visiting my blog and see you later!

It's vacation time now!

Download Windows 10 (Multiple Editions) ISO's now!

Finally Windows 10 is there! I'm running it on Surface Pro 3 for a while and don't want to go back to Windows 8.1 anymore :) Microsoft has released Windows 10 for all customers worldwide now, using Windows Update or the ISO's available. Next wait is for Windows 10 Mobile which is expected somewhere in October this year.

Before you begin, make sure you have:
-An internet connection (internet service provider fees may apply).
-Sufficient data storage available on a computer, USB or external drive for the download.
-A blank USB or DVD (and DVD burner) with at least 4 GB of space if you want to create media.
-If you will be installing the operating system for the first time, you will need your Windows product key.

Download Windows 10 Home and Pro ISO's: Software Download
For Enterprise editions visit the Volume Licensing Service Center
For MSDN subscriptions visit the website: Subscriber Downloads
Download Windows 10 Enterprise 90-day evaluation: Windows Evaluations

Just enjoy the new Windows 10 experience!

How to reset your MDM authority in Microsoft Intune

When starting with Microsoft Intune, you must setup a MDM (Mobile Device Management) authority to continue. This MDM authority can be set on Microsoft Intune (using the SAAS solution), ConfigMgr (using the hybrid solution) or Office 365 (included with Office 365 commercial subscriptions). During a hybrid installation (which is ConfigMgr connected with Intune) the MDM authority was already set to Office 365. That way it isn't possible to connect it with ConfigMgr.

Unfortunately the only way to reset your MDM authority is to call Microsoft Intune support and wait 5 business days at maximum to get the job done. After that it can be configured for Intune or ConfigMgr again. Hope that Microsoft can simplify the process in the future, so that people can do it themselves. Very annoying to wait several days, when you know the action can be done within a few minutes.. 

When the reset has taken place (there may be no devices enrolled within Microsoft Intune), you can set the MDM authority again. Just make sure to choose the right one this time :-)

Note: Microsoft mentions that the reset is done in US only, so no luck for EMEA people who want to have a quick result.

Update: In the end it took almost 6 (!) days to reset the MDM authority. My project is delayed 2 months because of this.

Contact details:
Microsoft Intune support
Contact Assisted Phone Support for Microsoft Intune

The package list in content library doesn't match the one in WMI

When installing multiple distribution points, I received the following warning on some of them: Failed to retrieve the package list on the distribution point. Or the package list in content library doesn't match the one in WMI. Review smsdpmon.log for more information about this failure. Not that good when installing new distribution points.

Point is, during synchronization a few packages get removed. Therefore some warnings where displayed, but couldn't be deleted. Even after validation the warning still exists. On Microsoft TechNet there is feedback to open a Microsoft support case or run a PowerShell script. Let's have a look at the logfile first.

Within the logfile package ID's are found which causes the warning.

Within Distribution Point Configuration Status (Monitoring tab) the current. status is seen. Click on details to see more information.

I choose to run the PowerShell script instead of opening a Microsoft support case on this. I found two scripts which I start on the effected distribution points. These are found on TechNet Gallery and Liebensraum (extra script). 

$WMIPkgList = Get-WmiObject -Namespace Root\SCCMDP -Class SMS_PackagesInContLib | Select -ExpandProperty PackageID | Sort-Object
$ContentLib = (Get-ItemProperty -path HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\DP -Name ContentLibraryPath)
$PkgLibPath = ($ContentLib.ContentLibraryPath) + "\PkgLib"
$PkgLibList = (Get-ChildItem $PkgLibPath | Select -ExpandProperty Name | Sort-Object)
$PkgLibList = ($PKgLibList | ForEach-Object {$_.replace(".INI","")})
$PksinWMIButNotContentLib = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $WMIPkgList -DifferenceObject $PKgLibList -PassThru | Where-Object { $_.SideIndicator -eq "&lt;=" }
$PksinContentLibButNotWMI = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $WMIPkgList -DifferenceObject $PKgLibList -PassThru | Where-Object { $_.SideIndicator -eq "=&gt;" }
Write-Host Delete these items from WMI:
$PksinWMIButNotContentLib
Write-Host Delete .INI files of these packages from the PkgLib folder:
$PksinContentLibButNotWMI

After that (and another validation on the distribution points) everything was fine again. Happy with this easy solution, and scripts available! Hope it helps :-)

Have a look here for more information:
Troubleshooting Content Mismatch Warnings on a Distribution Point in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
Powershell script to fix ContentLib inconsistency in WMI for ConfigMgr 2012 R2
Content validation issues in SCCM 2012
The package data in WMI is not consistent to Pkglib - missing package
SCCM 2012 - How to delete packages from WMI

No accessible source location found for the content (software packages)

After a ConfigMgr 2007 migration where many software packages are migrated, deployment is not working anymore. Every software package deployed gives the same error message in execmgr.log on the client: No accessible source location found for the content. No content is downloaded in ccmcache at all. Still content is available on multiple distribution points.

When looking in deployment properties of software packages, distribution point settings are wrong: Run program from distribution point. Within ConfigMgr 2007 every package can be installed from a distribution point directly. Within ConfigMgr 2012 this is possible only when using Package share settings. When doing this content will be twice on the server, which is not recommended.

Better is to change the distribution point setting to: Download content from distribution point and run locally. That way it will be installed fine after all. Problem solved :-)

Fatal MSI Error - Management Point could not be installed (1603)

Recently I did a clean ConfigMgr 2012 SP2 installation at customer location. Because push installation was active, a ConfigMgr 2007 agent was installed on the new ConfgMgr 2012 server. During the prerequisite check an error was seen that the management point couldn't been installed: Client version on management point computer. After removing the ConfigMgr 2007 agent, the error message was gone, and installation went fine (I thought).
 
Bad part is, still no management point was installed after setup. The following lines were seen in mpsetup.log:
-mp.msi exited with return code: 1603
-Backing up C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\logs\mpMSI.log to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\logs\mpMSI.log.LastError
-Fatal MSI Error - mp.msi could not be installed.

I did a manual installation with the comment mention in the logfile:
mp.msi CCMINSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\SMS_CCM" CCMSERVERDATAROOT="P:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager" USESMSPORTS=TRUE SMSPORTS=80 USESMSSSLPORTS=TRUE SMSSSLPORTS=443 USESMSSSL=TRUE SMSSSLSTATE=0 CCMENABLELOGGING=TRUE CCMLOGLEVEL=1 CCMLOGMAXSIZE=1000000 CCMLOGMAXHISTORY=1
but this failed to compile on "CcmExec_Global.mof".

After running ccmclean.exe (SMS 2003 toolkit) a WMI repair was done. After that (manual) installation went fine again! The following lines were seen in mpsetup.log now:
-SMSMP already installed. Upgrading/Reinstalling SMSMP
-New SMSMP is the same product code. This is a minor upgrade.
-mp.msi exited with return code: 0
-Installation was succesful.

Happy with this easy solution! :-)

Overview: Technical Reference for the Prerequisite Checker in Configuration Manager

Using AfterBackup.bat within the ConfigMgr backup process

System Center Configuration Manager provides a backup maintenance task called 'Backup Site Server' that runs on a schedule and backs up the site database, specific registry keys, and specific folders and files. This task is intended to backup key elements of the Configuration Manager site that require synchronization, or other special attention. These are however not all files needed. Microsoft advises to backup other SQL databases and ConfigMgr files as well, making sure nothing is missing. This is described here:
Backup and Recovery in Configuration Manager

You can create a AfterBackup.bat file to perform post-backup actions automatically after the backup maintenance task runs successfully. The AfterBackup.bat file is most frequently used to archive the backup snapshot to a secure location. However, you can also use the AfterBackup.bat file to copy files to your backup folder and start other supplemental backup tasks. This file must be created manually and placed in the <ConfigMgr>\Inboxes\Smsbkup folder.

The following code can be added to the file (example):
- REM @echo off
- setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
- set target=\\SCCM01\C$\AfterBackup\%date:~0,3%
- If not exist %target% goto datacopy
- RD %target% /s /q
- :datacopy
- xcopy "\\SCCM01\Backup\*" "%target%\" /E /-Y

All this does is move the backup folder to a folder named the day of the week. If the destination already exists, then it is deleted first. Resulting in 7 days of backup. I recommend using a remote location for this, not on the local server. Better safe than sorry :-)

For testing purpose, you can start: SMS_SITE_BACKUP (in services or Configuration Manager Service Manager) manually.

More information can be found on the following websites:
Step-By-Step: Testing System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Backups for Restoration
SCCM ConfigMgr 2012 Primary Site Server and Database Recovery Part 1

Update 16-7:
For it seems above information is outdated and SQL Backup is the way to do it. No ConfigMgr backup and AfterBackup.bat is needed, but it works fine if you prefer. Just make sure you have a backup plan! :)

@jarwidmark - Use SQL Backup instead for SCCM 2012.
@henkhoogendoorn - The SCCM job synchronize between DB and Site control files, which seems to be better?
@jarwidmark - Nope, that's not correct, those are not used anyway. Never, ever use the built-in SCCM backup :)
@henkhoogendoorn - FYI Step-By-Step: Testing System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Backups for Restoration
@jarwidmark - I don't agree with that post, use SQL backup instead.
@NickolajA - Since ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 was released, SQL backups would be the prefered way.
@Steve_TSQL - Yes - read this :) SQL Server Backup Recommendations for Configuration Manager
@Steve_TSQL - While that post will work, using native SQL is better. With CM 2012 SP1 and later ConfigMgr 2012 Site Backup and Recovery Overview
@ccmexec - Agreed!! SQL backup is the way to do it!

Failed to download updates to the WUAgent datastore. Error = 0x800b0109

With Shavlik Patch it's possible to download and publish third-party updates within the ConfigMgr console. Other products with comparable functionality are Secunia and Lumension. During a Shavlik Patch implementation, third-party updates on Adobe Reader and Mozilla Firefox didn't want to install. Updates were published without issue but they fail to install on the client. The following error was shown in WUAHandler.log: Failed to download updates to the WUAgent datastore. Error = 0x800b0109

Trick is, you must publish Self signed certificates in the local computer Trusted Publishers and Trusted Root Certification Authorities store and you will need to enable 'Allow signed updates from an intranet Microsoft update service location' as well.

Import the WSUS self signed certificate to the client computer's Trusted Publishers and Trusted Root Certification Authorities and to change this setting in GPO.

Create a GPO which will import this certificate and enable 'Allow signed updates from an intranet Microsoft update service location'.

After creating the GPO and make the necessary changes, both Adobe Reader and Mozilla Firefox updates were installed successfully.

Just great to use ConfigMgr for both Microsoft and third-party updates, within the same console! As you can see Adobe Reader (11.0.11) and Mozilla Firefox (38.0.5) are installed successfully now.

What’s new in ConfigMgr and SCEP Technical Preview 2

Today, ConfigMgr and SCEP Technical Preview 2 became available. Technical Preview 2 provides you with an early glimpse of the functionality that is planned for Q4 2015 (close to Windows 10), bringing with it full support for client deployment, upgrade, and management of Windows 10.

New features available in Technical Preview 2 include: 
-Universal Windows apps support for Windows 10 – Side-load internally developed Universal Windows apps to Windows 10 devices.
-Peer cache support for Windows PE – Includes OS deployment scenarios for Windows PE, extending our existing Configuration Manager peer cache content management.
-Ability to manage Windows 10 PCs and mobile devices via MDM with on-premises ConfigMgr infrastructure – Manage Windows 10 devices using ConfigMgr integrated with Microsoft Intune (hybrid) without the need to store your data in the cloud. This is especially helpful for managing devices that are unable to connect to the Internet such as Windows IoT/Embedded devices. (Intune subscription required)

Also included are features that were previously released in the first Technical Preview in May:
-Support for Windows 10 upgrade with OS deployment task sequence – In addition to providing support for existing wipe-and-load (refresh) scenarios, the ConfigMgr Technical Preview includes enhanced upgrade support with in-place upgrade to Windows 10.
-Support for installing ConfigMgr on Azure Virtual Machines – Similar to how you can install ConfigMgr on Hyper-V today, you can now run ConfigMgr in Azure VMs. This provides flexibility to move some or all of your datacenter server workloads to the cloud with Azure.

For more information and download have a look on:
TechNet Evaluation Center

Also, if you have a feature request, make sure to share your ideas on the new ConfigMgr UserVoice site.

Just download and enjoy this second Technical Preview!

Learn PowerShell basics free tutorial course - Veeam

Sponsor post

LEARN POWERSHELL - From Basics To A Coding Star
With the release of Windows 2012, Microsoft's PowerShell has moved toward automation. Our courses are designed to help you become familiar with the powerful PS scripts. And it’s FREE! 

Kickstart your PowerShell experience
The first episode we will focus on taking your first steps into the PowerShell world (Understanding CMDlets, Storing Values, Looping, The Pipeline)
 
Getting stuff done with PowerShell
The second episode we will focus on some simple scripts and useful available options unique to PowerShell (Reporting, Job Scheduler, Creating your Own Scripts, Remote Execution)
 
Automate your Veeam Experience
The last episode we will focus on Veeam integration with PowerShell (Custom Reporting, Creating Jobs, Mass Job Updates, Custom Scheduling)

Join the FREE courses now!

This summer's hottest deal! 40% OFF - Jalasoft

Sponsor post 

We’re feeling very festive this month, so for a limited period of time we’re dropping our prices by an eye popping 40% OFF!! During the entire month of July, our customers and future customers can take advantage of this amazing promotion. There’s never been a better time to give our software a test drive and see what it can do for you. Give us a call at 1-888-402-6717 or click here and we’ll gladly prepare a Quote for you without any purchasing commitment which will include our July Discount. 

Or contact by e-mail: sales@jalasoft.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 experience after Windows 10 Build 10159 installation

Recently I upgraded my Surface Pro 3 to Windows 10 Build 10159. With Windows 8.1 Update 1 (which is default installed) the device was making a lot of noise when plugged in. Also with multiple programs open (most of time Internet Explorer and/or Adobe Reader) it was making a lot of noise too. After many firmware updates the issues was still not gone. In March this year, I wrote the following about this behavior:

As mentioned in the links below, this is being caused by the Windows Installer Module and the Windows Installer Module Worker, which start in the background at random times and cause the CPU to work at higher speeds. This causes the heat and the fans to kick into overdrive. When stopping these processes in Task Manager, my Surface is as quiet as on battery in seconds! Hope that this issue is fixed when moving to Windows 10 in a few months. Otherwise a hardware replacement may be needed to resolve this.

Last week I updated my device to Windows 10 Build 10159. After the update the issue is gone indeed. Even during a stress test (screenshot) at almost 100% CPU the fan makes less noise than before. Happy that this issue seems to be gone now! :-)

Downside is, Out of sleep (when in sleep mode, it will wake up. for it seems because of the keyboard?) is back again. This issue was solved on Windows 8.1 after installing a system firmware update.
Sometimes my device will go out-of-sleep, which is annoying because all open programs will be gone afterwards. Strange thing that no hibernation is used for this? For it seems the device stays on, till battery power is reached a critical state. After that the device turns down. Lucky me this happens around rarely and not always.

Furthermore I really like Windows 10, and hope to implement it many times this year already! Windows 10 (a.k.a. Windows as a service) is the new generation of Windows. No specials (issues or other things) to mention on Surface Pro 3.

Update 7-7: Still during installing updates (Windows 10 Build 10159 to 10162) my device makes a lot of noise. Next device will be a fanless one :-)

More information about the fan blowing:
Fix found for Microsoft's Surface 3 overheating issues
Excessively loud fan, constant overheating during idle and light tasks
Tools To Simulate CPU / Memory / Disk Load (for testing purpose)

More blogposts on this topic:
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 first experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 second experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 experience after 5 months

Deployment error on Apply Driver Package (DISM) step

Recently deployment went wrong on a few system types, part of a lot different system types. At every deployment it went wrong on the Apply Driver Package step. At earlier deployments all went fine, but now it stops working. Both were heavy HP workstations with 16GB and 32GB memory onboard. A lot of errors in SMSTS.log and DISM.log were seen.

SMSTS.log
-Dism failed with return code -2147467259
-Failed to add driver to driver store. Code 0x80004005
-Failed to provision driver. Code 0x80004005
-Exiting with return code 0x80004005
-Failed to find a matching version

DISM.log
Failed to find a matching version for servicing stack: E:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17592_none_0b0e4b4025cf4049\ [HRESULT = 0x80070490 - ERROR_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to find servicing stack directory in online store. [HRESULT = 0x80070490 - ERROR_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to open the registry root: n/a, key: Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to query for path to user profiles directory. [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to load the default user profile registry hive. [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to unload offline registry: {bf1a281b-ad7b-4476-ac95-f47682990ce7}E:/Windows/System32/config/SOFTWARE, the client may still need it open. [HRESULT = 0x80070005 - E_ACCESSDENIED]
Failed to load offline store from boot directory: '\\?\E:\' and windows directory: '\\?\E:\Windows\' [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]
Failed to initialize store parameters with boot drive: E:\ and windows directory: E:\Windows [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]

After some digging I found the following solution:
Deployment failures with Precision systems
Win2008R2/Win7: STOP 0xF4 during Task Sequence / OS Deployment
Corrupt Segoe UI font and .NET framework after OSD with 2012 R2 CU1

It mentions:
The issue in this case occurs because WinPE tries to compact the offline registry and fails to commit the registry hives back to disk. This problem only happen when you deploy Windows 7 and use WinPE 5.x 32-bit to deploy the image. Resolution is to set this registry value in the boot.wim using DISM or using a 64-bit boot image.

In my case I changed to use the 64-bit boot image, because of Windows 7 x64 deployment. Otherwise you need to edit the 32-bit boot image with the regkey. Very easy solution and no errors seen anymore :-)

Include ConfigMgr Client Cumulative Update during OSD

During deployment in ConfigMgr, you can install the ConfigMgr Client Cumulative Update immediately. There are multiple posts found where the PATCH= parameter is used. The Cumulative Update needs to be in a package or reference image (included for installation) for this. I see lots of times the PATCH= parameter is skipped, for different reasons. Let's have a look at another way to install the Cumulative Update. This one is not hard at all. It just works :-)

Just create ClientPatch folders in both ConfigMgr Client locations:
-Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Client\x64
-Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Client\i386
and copy the appropriate architecture (x64 and/or i386) from your hotfix to one of this folders. Do not forget to update your ConfigMgr Client Package to be sure using the Files with the Hotfixes.

That's it! No PATCH= parameter needed at all. It did work on my first try (CU4), so very easy to use if you ask me :-)

When using Client Push Installation it will be helpfull either. No need to apply the CU client update afterwards. It will be detected automatically:
-Detected 1 client patch files. Will apply them after client installation.
-Adding file 'configmgr2012ac-r2-kb3026739-x64.msp' to BITS job, saving as 'C:\Windows\ccmsetup\configmgr2012ac-r2-kb3026739-x64.msp'.
-C:\Windows\ccmsetup\configmgr2012ac-r2-kb3026739-x64.msp is Microsoft trusted.
-File C:\Windows\ccmsetup\configmgr2012ac-r2-kb3026739-x64.msp installation succeeded.
-Params to send FSP message '5.0.7958.1501 Deployment [DP]

Why this is a hidden/undocumented feature suprised me.
Can't be easier if you ask me :-)

Source: SCCMfaq.ch
Source: Systems Management and Automation

Update 6-7:
@jarwidmark - That method works for some, breaks for some, but either way, it is totally unsupported by Microsoft.
@rsjulsen - This method has totally worked for me :) But ofc.. Totally unsupported.. and totally, totally awsome :)

Update 24-8:
With Cumulative Update 1 for ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 and 2012 SP2 this isn't needed anymore. Source: Automatically updating the Configuration Manager client

No usage data found to generate software metering report

At customer location we want to implement software metering. This component in ConfigMgr tracks how many times an executable is started per user. You can access reporting to see how many times a program is started for multiple users. Peter Daalmans has a blogpost available on how to configure software metering in your organization. Problem is, it wasn't working in my installation because of multiple reasons. Looking in "mtrmgr.log" and "SWMTEReportGen.log" the following errors and warnings are shown:
 

-OpenProcess failed for process 4, error 80070005
-No usage will be tracked for proces 4, as failed to get owner info or executable file name 80070005
-GetShortPathName failed for \SystemRoot\System32\smss.exe, error 3
-GetFileVersionInfoSize failed for file \Systemroot\System32\smss.exe, error 2
-Program might not match metering rules, as version header was not read 

-No usage data found to generate software metering report

We did the following changes to implement software metering successfully:
-Disable User Account Control (UAC) on the client(s)
-Remove existing files in <ConfigMgr>\Inboxes\Policypv.box folder
-Start runmetersumm.exe <Site code> on the SQL server where the ConfigMgr database is found. This tool is part of the ConfigMgr 2012 R2 Toolkit

The purpose of this tool is to run the metering summarization task to analyze raw metering data. (runmetersumm.exe)

After that you will see that reports will be filled with information!

Sources used:
Clients not receiving new Software Metering Rules
Software Metering Reports Not Working
System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Toolkit