The "Black Friday" of software is coming to you

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Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) is unable to copy files

Yesterday I want to create a Boot media with Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. This Boot media came from ConfigMgr 2012 R2, which is based on Windows PE 5 (Windows 8.1). Everything seems fine, but creating the Boot media was getting stuck on 98%. Created the Boot media a few times again, but without any luck. Finally found a nice blogpost with more information about this issue.

This post explains why the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) is unable to copy the install files to the USB drive in some cases. It mentions: If you have problems Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool you can try the free alternative Rufus. Rufus is a small utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.

After using Rufus everything went fine, and USB Boot media was finally working. Hope it helps!

Ultimate New Year’s Resolution from Veeam

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New ConfigMgr 2012 R2 Policy Hotfix available

Yesterday a new ConfigMgr 2012 R2 Policy Hotfix is released. This because Per-computer task sequence variables that are defined for imported computers are filtered out of client policies. This prevents the variables from being read during task sequence execution. This problem does not affect per-computer variables that are defined for existing clients.

This update applies only to Primary sites.
Important Per-computer task sequence variables have to be recreated if they were created after System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager was installed but before this update is applied.

You can download the Hotfix here: Microsoft Support

Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8

When using Windows Intune for demo usage and want to test Windows Phone 8 a certificate is needed. This can be resolved by using "Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8". This tool facilitates Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager admins and Windows Intune admins to try out Windows Phone 8 software distribution scenarios during the Trial period.

The downloaded support tool contains a script that populates a sample Application Enrollment Token in the Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager environment, a sample Windows Phone 8 Company Portal app, and two sample applications that can be used for WP8 software distribution scenarios.

Operation is finished successfully

Download link and Install instructions: Microsoft Download Center

How to Set Mobile Device Management Authority

In Windows Intune you can choose to set the Mobile Device Management Authority for Mobile Device Management. The Mobile Device Management Authority can be set to Windows Intune OR System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM/ConfigMgr). Consider carefully whether you want to manage mobile devices by using Windows Intune only or SCCM with Windows Intune Integration. After you set the mobile device management authority to either of these options, this cannot be changed.

In Windows Intune you can set the Mobile Device Management Authority from within the Admin Console. More information about this choice can be found on Microsoft TechNet.

1.Open the Windows Intune administrator console.
2.In the workspace shortcuts pane, click the Administration icon.
3.In the navigation pane, click Mobile Device Management Setup.
4.In the Tasks list on the Policy Overview page, click Set Mobile Device Management Authority.
5.The Set Mobile Device Management Authority dialog box appears, and it prompts you to choose whether to use Windows Intune to manage the mobile devices in your account. Do one of the following: Click Yes to use Windows Intune to manage mobile devices for your account. If you set Windows Intune as the management authority, you must manage mobile devices by using the Windows Intune administrator console.
Important: If you plan to use SCCM to manage mobile devices for your account, do not set the mobile device management authority to Windows Intune. To set the mobile device management authority to SCCM, you must use your organizational account to create a Windows Intune subscription from within the SCCM console, and select the option to allow Configuration Manager to manage the subscription.

In SCCM you can set the Mobile Device Management Authority from within the Administration pane. More information about this can be found on Microsoft TechNet.

1.In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
2.For System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1: In the Administration workspace, expand Hierarchy Configuration, and click Windows Intune Subscriptions.
For System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager: In the Administration workspace, expand Cloud Services, and click Windows Intune Subscriptions.
3.For System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1: On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create Windows Intune Subscription.
System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager: On the Home tab, click Add Windows Intune Subscription.
4.On the Introduction page of the Create Windows Intune Subscription Wizard, review the text and click Next.
5.On the Subscription page, click Sign in and sign in by using your Windows Intune organizational account. Select the Allow the Configuration Manager console to manage this subscription check box. When you select this setting, you will only be able to manage mobile devices by using the Configuration Manager console. To continue with your subscription, you must select this option.
Important: Once you select Configuration Manager as your management authority, you cannot change the management authority to Windows Intune in the future.

In case of bad decision it's possible to contact Microsoft Support on this to reset the Mobile Device Management Authority for your account. In that case all managed computers and/or mobile devices must be removed from Windows Intune. After the reset it's possible to set the Mobile Device Management Authority again.

Reminder: Xian NM Webinar

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Just a  reminder to let you know that there's a Xian NM Webinar on Friday November 22nd at 10 AM EST. More information about this webinar wil be posted soon!

Join now for a change to win a Xian NM bundle.

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Visitors to henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.com

Today I'm using ClustrMaps for a year now! This because with Blogger it isn't possible how many visitors you get. Great to see where visitors are coming from. Let's have a look at statistics now.


Visitors last year

Visitors from all over the globe

Top 10 Visitors by Country

Hope to welcome more visitors next year!

SCEP updates pushed out to clients through SCCM 2012

Last week I had an issue on my ConfigMgr server with local WSUS installation. After fixing WSUS in a earlier blogpost, Definition Updates didn't install on my systems. This because of a Group Policy (GPO) which was set by a colleague ;) The following was seen in the WUAHandler log: Group policy settings were overwritten by a higher authority (Domain Controller). The GPO just had the server name and port (SCCM01:8530) and SCCM had the FQDN and port (SCCM01.Contoso.local:8530).

Sample from WindowsUpdate.log

 

Sample from WUAHandler.log

 
Lucky me I found the issue reading the following post:

EP updates pushed out to clients through SCCM 2012
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/forefront/en-US/a9bb6c1c-1473-4fe7-bf1d-a689792c8100/ep-updates-pushed-out-to-clients-through-sccm-2012?forum=FCSNext
It mentions: It looks like there was a conflict on how the WSUS server was defined in Group Policy versus what SCCM had (GP just had the server name and port and SCCM had the FQDN and port). Once I removed the GP setting all together and updated the policy etc then it seemed like things started to happen. In the UpdateDeployment.log I was seeing these errors:
Job error (0x87d00692) received for assignment ({76d342f7-e312-4c6d-9c60-29be10cc5212}) action
The setup recommends the short name for your GPO but I wasn't seeing deployments reach any of the endpoints. Changing to the FQDN of the server in the GPO fixed the issue and I'm now seeing percentage completed stats and deployments working.

What you have to do is use a GPO with only "Specify intranet Microsoft update service location" (FQDN) & "Allow Automatic Updates immediate installation". When using FQDN for update management above error messages are gone. This time it will work fine again!

WSUS Post Deployment Configuration Fails on Windows Server 2012

Last week I had an issue on my ConfigMgr server with local WSUS installation. The WSUS (Windows Update) service couldn't be started and Server Manager (in Windows Server 2012) RTM gives an error message also: The WSUS content directory is not accessible. In this case no (new) update management is possible anymore.


Sample from Event Viewer

Lucky me I found the issue reading the following posts:

WSUS Post Deployment Configuration Fails on Windows Server 2012
http://blogs.technet.com/b/reshard_sharps_blog/archive/2013/08/18/wsus-post-deployment-configuration-fails.aspx
It mentions: When using SQL for your database instance you must specify the name of your SQL server. One would assume if the database is local the wizard would find the instance without specifying the SQL server name. If you select Check Connection without specifying a server name it will return Successfully Connected to server. Despite this misleading result, it was not successful. The server name value it expects when running the Post Deployment step will be empty and will cause Post Deployment to fail.

WSUS install on Server 2012 Fails
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/91e45363-bbf7-414a-8932-779b1c170c3e/wsus-install-on-server-2012-fails?forum=winserverwsus
It mentions: I solved this issue by opening IIS Manager and deleting the old WSUS web site, then running the Complete WSUS Installation again.

What you have to do is uninstall WSUS, remove the IIS website manually, keep the WSUS database (it won't be removed after all) and reboot the server. After reboot install WSUS again, choose to check connection with the SQL server filled in, and start Post Deployment. This time it will work fine again!

New ConfigMgr 2012 R2 OSD Hotfix available

A few days ago a new ConfigMgr 2012 R2 OSD Hotfix is released. This because many customers couldn't PXE boot anymore. Have a look at these forums for more information about the issue:
Microsoft Technet, Windows Noob & MyITForum

This update resolves the following issues:
Issue 1
After you enable the PXE Service Point role on an instance of a specific distribution point, or you select the Deploy this boot image from the PXE-enabled distribution point property of a boot image, the Windows Deployment Service (WDS) stops running. Additionally, entries that resemble the following are logged in the Windows Application log:

Faulting application name: svchost.exe_WDSServer, version: 6.3.9600.16384, time stamp: 0x5215dfe3
Faulting module name: MSVCR100.dll, version: 10.0.40219.1, time stamp: 0x4d5f034a
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000005f61a
Faulting process id: 0xae4
Faulting application start time: 0x01cec5d767184634
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\bin\x64\MSVCR100.dll

Note This problem affects only distribution points that are installed on site servers.

Issue 2
When operating system image files are downloaded to Configuration Manager 2012 R2 clients, you may find that the download takes longer than it did in previous versions of Configuration Manager 2012 clients. You may see this behavior when the target client is running Windows PE or a full Windows operating system.

You can download the Hotfix here: Microsoft Support

Today: Xian Wings 2.0 webinar

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We will see the following topics:   

• Wings HD for iPad
•  Dashboards
•  Widgets
•  State details
•  Alert details
•  Performance graphs details
•  Remote PowerShell
•  Wings for smart phones
•  Summary screen
•  States view
•  Alerts view
•  Performance graphs view

 

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Creating multiple dashboards in OpsMgr 2012 R2

As mentioned before I did a Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2012 R2 installation already. One of the great items in OpsMgr (for myself) is creating dashboards. In OpsMgr dashboards can be created multiple ways. Some can be created in OpsMgr by default, some can be created with additional software needed. It's not my point to describe how to build them, but to point you in the right direction which is possible. Here we go!

Dashboards can be created mutiple ways, following is possible:
-Default dashboards (which can also be a Service Level Dashboard or Summary Dashboard)
-Microsoft Visio dashboards (which is published in SharePoint)
-Savision Live Maps (many possibilities, but additional licenses needed)
-Distributed Applications (chain monitoring of .NET applications)

Default dashboards are created with a layout and widgets. Widgets are powerful objects which can be used many ways. First decide how to build the framework, you can choose between:

-Column Layout (enables up to 5 vertical columns to displayed in a row)
-Grid Layout (allows layouts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 9 cells)
-Service Level Dashboard (shows the data for a pre-configured SLA)
-Summary Dashboard (adds 3 default widgets in a 3-cell configuration)

Widgets can be choosen from the following list:
-Objects by Performance Widget (sort of Top 10 dashboard)
-Object SLA Widget (group that has an SLA applied to it)
-Performance Widget (creates a performance graph)
-State Widget (can be based on multiple configurations)
-SLA Widget (shows the data for a pre-configured SLA)
-SLA Configuration (Service Level tracking)
-Alert Widget (allows the display of alerts)
-Details Widget (shows the details of selected alerts)
-Instance Details Widget (show details of a selected group or instance)
-SLA Configuration Note (monitor Service Level Objectives)

Microsoft Visio dashboards are created with SharePoint 2010 using Microsoft Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Extensions for System Center 2012. Just make sure you have SharePoint 2010 Enterprise edition installed, because only this edition has the Visio Web Service available. Within Visio a dashboard can be created and used in SharePoint with Extensions. That way a graphical dasboard can be created with OpsMgr Health Explorer access on all items. Have a look here for installation: http://blog.scomfaq.ch/2013/07/10/scom-2012-sp1-publish-visio-dashboard-in-sharepoint-2010-walkthrough/

Live Maps for System Center is the enterprise visualization solution for Microsoft System Center. Their interactive dashboards, maps and diagrams add business context to every alert and incident, making sure your limited resources can focus on the things that really matter to your business. Live Maps is ready for R2! The upcoming release of Live Maps is compatible with System Center 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. The release will be available on October 18. No SharePoint 2010 or Visio 2010 are needed with Live Maps. Just install the product and get started. All objects in OpsMgr will be automatically available for dashboard creation.

A Distributed Application in OpsMgr is an application that is comprised of multiple objects. These objects may be defined by different management packs and may be managed on the same agent or on different agents. The purpose of the distributed application is to provide an overall health for an application that is comprised of different objects. Distributed applications do not provide any additional monitoring for the objects in an application. Instead, they include objects that are already being monitored. The value of the distributed application is to provide a relationship between the health of objects that are part of a single application. You can create distributed applications using the Distributed Applications Designer in the Operations console.

A few examples on this:

Summary Dashboard in SharePoint 2010

 

A Distributed .NET Application

 

MAP View with Active Locations

 

Integration with Microsoft Visio

 

Performance Widget - Grid Layout

 

Service Level Dashboard

 

Network Monitoring

 

SLA Widget - Grid Layout

 

They look just great isn't it? Possibilities are many on this point.
Want to know more? Just leave a comment on this post.


Moving a Distribution Point to another Drive

In ConfigMgr packages on a Distribution Point are placed on the drive with most free space. Sometimes this can be the System drive also. This can be prevented by using a hidden file. More about that can be found here: Controlling Configuration Manager 2012 Using Hidden Files. But what to do when the Distribution Point is already placed on the wrong drive? Just follow steps in this blogpost for that.

Assuming that you're using ConfigMgr 2012 SP1, just download "System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 Component Add-ons and Extensions". When installed open "Tools Command Prompt" and go into the ServerTools folder. Enter ContentLibraryTransfer.exe -SourceDrive <current drive letter> -TargetDrive <new drive letter>. For Example: ContentLibraryTransfer.exe -SourceDrive C -TargetDrive D

It will take a while (depending of the size on the Distribution Point) but the tool will do ALL for you. Just wait till it's ready and you're done. Much easier then with ConfigMgr 2007 a long time ago ;)

After copying data, SCCM services are stopped, DP shares are deleted, Permissions are set, WMI and Registry is updated, SCCM services are started again, old DP content is removed, and virtual directories are updated. All is done by the tool, so no worry about that. Quite cool that one single tool and command is doing ALL for you.

Hope it helps!