In this post, we'll look at another cause of ConfigMgr client upgrade failure - the SMS Task Sequence Agent service is running. It can sometimes happen that a task sequence gets 'stuck' and never completes, but the SMS Task Sequence Agent service (smstsmgr) is started and never stopped. Usually I have found that it 'freezes' … Continue reading Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 4)
Author: Trevor Jones
Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 3)
In this post, we'll start looking at some of the common reasons why client upgrades fail, and how to resolve them. Firewall Restrictions or Missing Boundaries If the client computer has the Windows firewall turned on and the required exceptions are not made, then it may report in the CCM.log on the site server that … Continue reading Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 3)
Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 2)
In this post, we'll run a Powershell script that will perform the client checks we discussed in the last post, against multiple machines that failed to install the ConfigMgr client. Note, all the scripts in these posts are designed to run in Powershell ISE. Create a Collection for Computers without the SCCM Client The first thing … Continue reading Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 2)
Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 1)
In this series of posts, I want to look at practical ways to troubleshoot ConfigMgr client migrations, and include a number of Powershell scripts to help in the process. These processes were tested on a client migration from ConfigMgr 2007 R3 to 2012 R2. In my experience the majority of client migrations work well using the … Continue reading Troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 Client Migration using Powershell (Part 1)
Getting all Members of all Collections in a Folder in ConfigMgr
In our SCCM 2012 environment, we have a subfolder of device collections that are used for Software Updates. I wanted to get a list of all the members of the different collections in that folder. I saw a recent post by Kaido Järvemets on how to easily list folder objects using Powershell, so I decided to … Continue reading Getting all Members of all Collections in a Folder in ConfigMgr
Quick Tip: Creating USB Standalone Media on a VMWare VM
Using USB media for a Standalone OS deployment is a great idea - you have greater storage capacity than a DVD, and the read speed is quicker, resulting in easier and quicker deployments. But what if your SCCM server is a VM? You can't physically connect a USB storage device to the server, but you … Continue reading Quick Tip: Creating USB Standalone Media on a VMWare VM
Creating an OS Deployment Summary Email with Orchestrator
System Center Orchestrator is very useful as complementary tool to OS Deployment. I use it for several things during deployment including adding computers to SCCM collections, adding computers to AD groups, moving computer accounts into different AD OUs, adding a description to the computer account etc. Previously, I had to use scripts to accomplish those … Continue reading Creating an OS Deployment Summary Email with Orchestrator
Creating an Email Distribution Group from an SCCM Query
Sometimes I want to create an email distribution list from the results of an SCCM query, so I can email all the members to advise them about the software I am deploying to their machines, especially if the end user must initiate the deployment from 'Run Advertised Programs' (SCCM2007) or the Software Center (SCCM2012). For … Continue reading Creating an Email Distribution Group from an SCCM Query
Installing and Configuring WSUS with Powershell
In setting up our SCCM 2012 infrastructure, I decided to patch our OS deployments using WSUS instead of SCCM Software Updates. Since we have multiple distribution points in different geographical areas, I decided to install a WSUS server in each location where we do deployments. Granted, installing and configuring WSUS is not the most technically … Continue reading Installing and Configuring WSUS with Powershell
An Alternative to Application Supersedence in SCCM
For some software applications, it's inevitable that you'll need to deploy a new version now and then. For example, you deploy an application, then a new version gets released and you want to upgrade all your clients. Application supersedence in SCCM2012 is a useful way to deploy a new version of an application - you … Continue reading An Alternative to Application Supersedence in SCCM