Microsoft Support and Operations Management Suite

You probably have been in situation where you cannot resolve issue on your own. In that case you will usually contact the support team of the software vendor. When that contact is initiated usually results in uploading some kind of logs to the support engineer. It is slow and cumbersome process. Continue reading “Microsoft Support and Operations Management Suite”

Cumulative Update 3 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 is available

The most important part of this update is that adds support for Windows 8.1. It is not stated in the KB but I guess it adds support also to Windows Server 2012 R2 from client side of course. The full list:

Supported Platforms

This update adds support for Windows 8.1-based client computers in Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1. Windows 8.1 is added to the supported platform list for the following features:

  • Software distribution
  • Software update management
  • Compliance Settings
Issues that are fixed
Operating System Deployment

This cumulative update includes the following updates:

Additionally, this cumulative update fixes the following issues:

  • The reimaging of an existing client computer may result in a policy being invalidated. This issue can occur if the SMS Agent Host service restarts before all Data Transfer Service (DTS) jobs are completely processed. Additionally, the PolicyAgent.log file on the reimaged client will contain entries that resemble the following:

    [CCM_Policy_Policy5.PolicyID="ScopeId_GUID/Application_GUID/CA",PolicySource="SMS:PRI",PolicyVersion="1.00"] is pointing to invalid DTS job [{DTS_JOB_GUID}]. Will attempt to re-download.

  • Install Application Task sequences may take longer to complete if they are run from stand-alone media instead of a local distribution point. This issue can occur when multiple task sequences use large content files (for example, several hundred megabytes).
Windows PowerShell

This cumulative update fixes the following issue:

  • The Add-CMDistributionPoint cmdlet incorrectly sets the value of the ServerRemoteName parameter to the name of the first installed site server. This issue could lead to clients accessing content on the site server instead of the intended distribution point server.
Software Distribution

This cumulative update fixes the following issues:

  • Modern applications deployed to users of Windows 8 computers may fail if a non-administrator is logged on and has mapped a network drive. The AppDiscovery.log will contain entries that resemble the following:

    In-line script returned error output: Attempting to perform the InitializeDefaultDrives operation on the ‘FileSystem’ provider failed.

  • A deployment created at a child primary site and then deleted from the central administration site may remain active on the child primary site.
  • A pull-distribution point may crash when it tries to download packages. The PullDP.log stops recording any activity when this issue occurs.
  • Packages migrated from Configuration Manager 2007 to 2012 Configuration Manager may not download to pull-distribution points unless the Update Distribution Points wizard is used. Error messages that resemble the following are logged in the PullDP.log file:

    CPullDPPkgJob::LoadJobFromXML() could not load any content jobs from XML!
    CPullDPPkgJob::LoadJobFromXML() could not fully load job! Malformed or incomplete XML. Job has failed.

Windows Intune

This cumulative update fixes the following issues:

  • An ampersand (&) character in the Company Namefield of the properties of the Windows Intune subscription page prevents the creation of policy files. Additionally, error messages that resemble the following are logged in the Policypv.log file:

    XML Parsing: line 2, character 315, illegal name character

  • The TEMPDB folder for a site database may grow quickly after "Windows Intune Subscription and Connector" is enabled.
Endpoint Protection

This cumulative update includes the following update:

Site Systems

This cumulative update includes the following update:

Additionally, this cumulative update fixes the following issue:

Reporting

This cumulative update fixes the following issues:

  • Reports are not displayed when a user does not have EXECUTE permission on the fnGetSiteNumberobject. When this issue occurs, you receive errors that resemble the following:

    An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted)
    Query execution failed for dataset ‘FirstMatchingAppOrCollection’. (rsErrorExecutingCommand)
    The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object ‘fnGetSiteNumber’, database ‘database_name‘, schema ‘dbo’.

  • Computer Activity Data is missing from Power Management reports for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 clients.
Software Updates

This cumulative update fixes the following issue:

  • Software Updates for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 may have the Downloaded value incorrectly set to No on child primary sites, although the value is set correctly to Yes on the central administration site. This issue occurs because of a replication timing issue.

The update can be downloaded from here.

Monitoring Windows Server 2012 with SCOM 2007 R2 is Supported with Some Exceptions

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Update

Here is the WS2012 support matrix for OM2007 R2/SC2012 taken directly from SCOM Team blog:

Management Group Version

Management Server or Gateway Version

OpsMgr Agent Version

Agent OS Version

Supported Configuration?

2007 R2

2007 R2

2007 R2

Windows Server 2012

No

2007 R2

2007 R2

2012 RTM

Windows Server 2012

Yes

2007 R2

2007 R2

2012 SP1

Windows Server 2012

Yes

2012 RTM

2012 RTM

2012 RTM

Windows Server 2012

Yes

2012 SP1

2012 SP1

2012 SP1

Windows Server 2012

Yes

  • To use the SC2012 agent you have to be licensed for SC2012.
  • The SC2012 RTM agent requires .NET3.5 be installed on WS2012. (SC2012 SP1 agent does not have this requirement)
  • ———————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Microsoft release an clarification on Windows Server 2012 monitoring with SCOM 2007 R2. What Microsoft is saying in order to monitor Windows Server 2012 you have to install SCOM 2012 agent on such servers and as these agents can report back to SCOM 2007 R2 server we can actually monitor Server 2012 with such scenario. The only thing that is left to be clarified is if the Windows Server 2012 Management packs will be supported in SCOM 2007 R2 server. Full announcement is here.

Update:

Microsoft released 3 new management packs and one updated one:

  • System Center Monitoring Pack for Windows Server Operating System – Supported on SCOM 2007 R2 and SCOM 2012
  • System Center 2012 Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Windows Server AD CS 2012 – Supported only on SCOM 2012
  • System Center 2012 Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 AD RMS – Supported only on SCOM 2012
  • System Center 2012 Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Internet Information Service 8 – Supported only on SCOM 2012
  • So SCOM 2007 R2 will be able to monitor Windows Server 2012 if you implement certain scenario with the exception of some roles.

    Update: Kevin Holman also confirms that SCOM 2007 R2 can monitor Windows Server 2012 in specific scenario. Read here.

    SCOM 2007 R2 will not support monitoring of Windows Server 2012

    This week Microsoft posted supported scenarios for SCOM 2007 R2 / 2012 / SP1 with Windows Server 2012. The main surprise to me is that SCOM 2007 R2 will not be able to monitor Windows Server 2012. There are lot of benefits of upgrading from 2007 R2 to 2012 but not all companies can do that at this moment because of a lot of dependencies and Microsoft is not making this easier with this announcement. When such decision is announced I will definitely will want to know what is the reason behind it. There should be very good reason for this because SCOM 2007 R2 mainstream supports end in 2014 which means there are at least 2 years left for supporting. I am still hoping that Microsoft will change their mind and support for monitoring Windows Server 2012 via SCOM 2007 R2 will be provided.

    The full announcement is here

    Get ready for Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012

    Even though System Center 2012 is still not released officially Microsoft is starting to provide updates for fixing some issue (what a support Smile). The update includes fixing issues on VMM and App controller.

    Read the full KB article from here:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2686249/

    You can download the update also from the article.