SCCM 1511 Installation Notes

Done a couple of upgrades from SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 to SCCM 1511 and they were straight forward as the prerequisites were in place already.  The notes below were taken doing a new install of SCCM 1511,  albeit into a Active Directory domain that already had the schema extended and appropriate user accounts in place.  In general the preparation required is very similar to doing a SCCM 2012 install.

Environment
  • All servers running Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM.
  • 1 x Standalone Primary Site Server
  • 1 x SQL Server 2014 Database Server (used for SCCM and WSUS databases)
  • 1 x Software Update Point Server
Preparation – all servers

As the servers were not to be exposed to the existing SCCM 2012 environment, including the 2012 SUP,  the following updates were applied to the servers in the stated order:

  • KB2919442  – this is a prerequisite for Windows Server 2012 R2 Update and should be installed before attempting to install the following updates
  • KB2919355
  • clearcompressionflag.exe
  • KB2919355
  • KB2932046
  • KB2959977
  • KB2937592
  • KB2938439
  • KB2934018

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=42334

Site Server
  • Server Features – .Net 3.5, .Net 4.5, Remote Differential Compression, BITS and WSUS 4.0 Remote Server Admin tool (Software Update Point going on a remote server so need Admin Tools on the Site Server).
  • IIS Settings
    • Common HTTP Features – Default Document, Static Content.
      Application Development – ASP.NET 3.5, .NET Extensibility 3.5, ASP.NET 4.5, .NET Extensibility 4.5, ISAPI extensions.
    • Security – Windows Authentication.
      IIS 6 Management Compatibility – IIS Management Console, IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility, IIS 6 WMI Compatibility, IIS
    • Management Scripts and Tools.
  • AD Schema already extended – add permissions against the Systems Management container for the new SCCM 1511 Site Server account (remember to allow for descendant objects).
    Obtain the SCCM 1511 source files.
  • Download the SCCM 1511 Install prerequisite files (manually by running ..\SMSSETUP\BIN\X64\setupdl.exe SaveLocation from the SCCM 1511 source files)
  • Obtain and install WADK 10 (not the 1511 version as there is a widely reporting issue with this version). Features required:
    • Deployment Tools, Windows Preinstallation Environment, Imaging and Configuration Designer and User State Migration Tool.
  • Obtain license key.
  • Add the Site Server account to the Database Server and SUP Server local admins groups.
SQL Server
  • Collation – SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
  • SQL Services – run as Local System, not defaults offered.
  • SQL Features – Database Engine and Management Tools (Reporting Service will be on remote server at a later time)
  • Allow the required SQL Server ports in Windows Firewall (1433 and port 4022)
Software Update Point Server
  • Server Role – Windows Server Update Services
    During install point to remote database and not Windows Internal Database.
  • After initial install, reboot and run Role Configuration from Server Manager (this bit creates the database etc.)
  • Do not configure WSUS itself – just do the automated Role Configuration.
  • Reboot and install KB3095113 – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3095113.
Install Notes
  • Ignore SQL Server-related warnings – only 4GB RAM allocated to my DB server in my lab.
  • No to new Service Connect Role (want to do this later)
  • Point to existing install prerequisites.
  • Don’t use a Site Code that has been used before in the test lab domain!
  • Ensure the account used to run the install has the appropriate permissions on the Site Server, DB Server and within SQL Server.

Acknowledgements and thanks for continued contributions to the SCCM community.
http://prajwaldesai.com/sccm-1511-quick-installation-guide/

https://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topic/13368-how-can-i-install-system-center-configuration-manager-current-branch/

SCCM 2012 OSD – There are no task sequences available for this computer

Seen this error message appear a few times during OSD.

  • Is the device in a SCCM Collection that has a valid Task Sequence available?
  • Check your boundaries – is the device within a configured boundary?
  • Is this device an existing SCCM client that is being rebuilt using the same Task Sequence?  If so delete the existing object from SCCM using the Admin Console.
  • Has the device existed in SCCM but you do not know the original name?  Look in the smsts.log – you will see the SMSBIOS GUID for the device that can then be searched for in the Admin Console and then deleted.
  • If it is an existing device that has never run the Task Sequence, clear Required PXE deployments using the device context menu in the SCCM Admin Console.

Installing the WSUS 4.0 Admin Console Manually on Windows Server 2012 R2 for SCCM 1511 Software Update Point

SCCM 1511 Site Server requires WSUS Admin Tools to be installed if the SCCM 1511 Software Update Server (SUP) is running on a remote server.

User PowerShell:

  • Install-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices-Ui

Or from the GUI.

  • Server Manager
  • Manage menu # Add Roles and Features
  • Expand Remote Server Admin Tools
  • Expand Role Admin Tools
  • Select Windows Sever Update Services Tools

VMware vSphere – Adding Disk to a new VM Fails – A general system error occurred: Failed to create journal file

Received this error when trying to add an additional disk to a VM.

A general system error occurred: Failed to create journal file providerFailed

Various other vSphere actions also failed with the same message including vMotion.

Problem – the vCenter server was running low on disk space on the drive containing this file: %PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\journal.

SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 Offline Servicing – Failed to install update: WIM::GetWIMImageCount returned code 0x80004005

Got this error when attempting running a scheduled update against my Windows Server 2012 R2 U1 image:

WIM::GetWIMImageCount returned code 0x80004005

Environment

  • SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 running on Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Server 2012 R2 U1 image created using MDT 2013 U1 running on a Server 2012 R2 U1 server.

Problem

  • SCCM server had WADK 8.1 installed.
  • MDT server running WADK 10.

Fix

  • Installed Windows Management Framework 3.0 (includes Powershell v3 – prerequisite for WADK 10) on the SCCM server.
    Updated WADK on the SCCM server to WADK 10.

Scheduled updates then worked OK.

Link to Windows Management Framework 3.0 download:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595.

Link to WADK 10:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/dn913721.aspx.

SCOM 2012 – Display the Active Directory Description Attribute in the SCOM 2012 R2 Admin Console

Overview

The objective of this procedure is to display the Active Directory (AD) description attribute in a State View in the SCOM 2012 R2 Admin Console.  The basic steps are:

  • Create a VB script to write the AD description attribute to a system environment variable called ADDescription.
  • Assign the script as a Group Policy Startup script.
  • Configure a new Custom Attribute in the SCOM console to read the ADDescription value from the registry.
  • Create a State View in the SCOM console and expose the column containing the value of ADDescription for relevant devices.

Prerequisites

The Windows Computer class has already been extended so that the Windows Computer_Extended class already exists and there is an unsealed management pack available to save custom settings to.

Procedure

Step 1 – The script

Option Explicit

On Error Resume Next

Dim WSHShell, strComputer, strDescription, objSysInfo, objComp

Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

Set objSysInfo = CreateObject(“ADSystemInfo”)

Set objComp = GetObject(“LDAP://” & objSysInfo.ComputerName)

strDescription = objComp.Description

WSHShell.RegWrite “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\ADDescription”, strDescription, “REG_SZ”

Step 2 – Group Policy

  • In the Group Policy Management console select the relevant OU against which the new policy object is to be applied, e.g.  the Default Domain Policy, and select Edit from the context menu.
  • In the Group Policy Editor navigate to Computer Configuration # Policies # Windows Settings # Scripts # Startup and assign the script created in Step 1.

Step 3 – Create a Custom Attribute in SCOM

  • Go to the Authoring workspace in the SCOM console.
  • Select Management Pack Objects # Attributes.
  • Create a new attribute using these settings:
    • Discovery Type – Registry
    • Target – Windows Computer_Extended.

Probe configuration

  • Key or Value Type – Value,
  • Path = SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\ADDescription.
  • Attribute type = String.
  • Query Interval – to suit the target environment.

Step 4 – Create the State View

  • Access the SCOM monitoring workspace.
  • Ensure the custom management pack used to save the ADDescription attribute to is viewable.
  • Create a new State View, setting the Object to Windows Computer_Extended and use the Display tab to select the relevant columns which will included the ADDescription.

 

Assigning AppSense Personalisation Server Access Rights

 

Assigning AppSense Personalisation Server access rights includes the ability to let users access the AppSense Environment Manager web interface and manage some of their own settings, such as rolling back specific settings from archived copies of their profile.

To configure access rights follow the steps below.

  • Open the Environment Manager
  • Select the User Personalisation workspace.
  • Connect to the required Personalisation Server.
  • Select Manage from the menu bar.
  • Click the Access Rights
  • Click the Add button – this will present the familiar Active Directory Select Users or Groups dialogue box.
  • Once a user is found the relevant access rights can be assigned using the dropdown box under the Roles column heading.

If assigning web roles, the user should be able to access relevant functionality via the EM browser interface typically:  http://PSServerName/EMBrowserInterface.