OS deployment monitoring in ConfigMgr 2012 R2

When doing OS deployment in ConfigMgr 2012 R2, which is one of main features, it seems nice to start monitoring on that. Especially when on a remote location and using Zero Touch installation (ZTI) to do the job. In older versions of ConfigMgr I used reporting for that. Within 2012 R2 it's possible to have a recent view in deployment monitoring. Let's have a look at functionality first.

When in the ConfigMgr console, go to the Monitoring tab. There you find Deployments. Within deployments you will find all packages, task sequences and update jobs which has an deployment on them. When looking at OS deployment monitoring, select the task sequence job running, and "View status". Have a look at "Summarization time", and click "Run summarization" when not recent. Click "Asset details" and "More details" to open a new window.

 

Within the new window, select status to see an overview of OS deployment steps. Unfortunately it's needed to sort them on Execution time and maximize the window every time when opening. Also the monitoring window is not dynamic so you need to "Run summarization" multiple times, and open the window again. Every time the window opens you need to sort on Execution time and maximize the window. At last it's not possible to start anything else in the Console as long as the monitoring window is active.

Let's recap. I really think OS deployment monitoring is great. Maybe Microsoft can create an dynamic monitoring window which saves the configuration? Customers are asking for this type of window also. For a first version it looks great but not complete yet. Hope this can be arranged in a new ConfigMgr update. Thanks!