Tag: System Center Configuration Manager

SCCM 2012 Management Pack Review

Review of the SCCM 2012 MP for SCOM by Kevin Holman.

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook – Book Review

After reading Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook I’ve managed to read another book about System Center 2012 component from the same publishing company. In front of my eyes was Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook.

Author of the book are Brian Mason and Greg Ramsey. Both are well respected System Center Configuration Manager specialists. The book follows the same style like the SCSM 2012 Cookbook so SCCM 2012 is introduced in series of mini guides (called by Packt Publishing practical recipes) that will show you how to do certain tasks in order to administer the System Center component. In fact the book is focused only in administering SCCM 2012 and the title infers that. If you expect to learn something about designing SCCM 2012 environment you should find another book. The book is divided in 8 chapters which cover only the basics of CM 2012. If you are looking for a book that will explain the architecture of CM 2012 than this book is not for you. This book is a more practical book and than theoretical. If you are looking for more theoretical information you can find it in Technet Library. In the book you will find step by step guides on administrative tasks in CM 2012. The length of the book is 208 pages but that is because there are not so many screenshots which is may be a good thing because that way the book drives you to try the software product while reading the book and test the mini guides. Even though I am reading and trying CM 2012 features for a long time I’ve managed to learn and try new things described in the book simply because Configuration Manager is a big product with a lot of features.

I can recommend this book to engineers who just start with Configuration Manager 2012 but of course before actually reading this book it is best to get to know the product by reading Technet Library. CM 2012 is the most well document System Center component of the family. I can also recommend this book to SCCM 2007 administrators who just start to learn about the new features of SCCM 2012.

If you think this is the right book you can find it in several stores:

You can know more about the book by clicking on the image below.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Visio Stencils

Here are some free SCCM 2007 Visio Stencils published by Jawad Qazi on the Technet Gallery.

System Center 2012 Configuration Pack for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization

The System Center 2012 Configuration Pack for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) provides a way to monitor and remediate configuration of the UE-V clients across an enterprise. You can download the pack from here.

Runbook Commander 2.0 released

Second version of this helpful tool is released. Here are the changes compared to version 1.0:

Support for Configuration Manager 2007 – RBC 2.0 now supports both Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012 Configuration Manager. Additionally when deploying Runbook Commander bundled with pre-created XML files the installer will determine what version on Configuration Manager Console is being used and appropriately stage the XML extensions files.

New XML Generator Tool – RBC requires custom XML files to be created for each environment. These XML files controll which Orchestrator Runbooks are available for execution from the Configuration Manager environment. The new XML Generator tool handles the XML creation for Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012 Configuration Manager. This tool now also allows saving off XML files for use in a pre-staged deployment (see next bullet point). Finally the XML GEN tool has been redesigned for an easier interactive experience.

New Installer – with RBC version 1, the installer basically staged the computer for use with RBC. It was then up to the individual to run the XML generator tool on each machine in order to create the console extension. Alternatively the XML files could have been manually (or scripted) copied to the appropriate location on the target computer. New to version 2, the console extensions XML files can be pre-created and then deployed with RBC allowing for a single and automated installation experience across many computers.

Replace XML Application – RBC 2.0 includes a new application that can be deployed to computers which will replace the console extensions XML. In the situation where new Runbooks need to be added to RBC or old Runbooks need to be removed from RBC, the custom XML would be created using the XML generator tool and then deployed to all machines with the Replace XML application. The replace XML application will appropriately replace the console extension XML and at next launch the Configuration Manager console will be loaded with the updated set of Runbooks.

Console Extensions to the Program Node – RBC Version 1 had support for consoles extensions for devices and collections. I had received a request to add programs which has been completed. I will add more console items as time permits with priority going to those requested.

Drop Down Lists – Added to version 2.0 is the ability to dynamically create drop down lists as parameter values. This will allow the Runbook administrator to provide a list of values on the actual Runbook. These values will then be available from RBC at execution time from the Configuration Manager console. I will detail the creation of these in the soon to complete full documentation.

Fixed IIS Paging Limitation – The Orchestrator Web Service contains a paging mechanism which allows only 50 Rubooks (or other objects) to be retuned at query time. With RBC V1.0 the XML Gen tool would not return all available Runbooks without making modification to the IIS Web Service application settings. The XML GEN 2.0 includes code that gets around the paging feature and will now present all Runbooks at execution time.

Removed Start Menu Shortcuts – As RBC is for the most part initiated from within the Configuration Manager console all start menu shortcuts have been removed. This does mean that if using the XML generator application you will need to navigate to the installation folder and execute directly. This process will be detail in the forthcoming configuration and deployment guide.

Download the new version from here.