ConfigMgr 2012 Application Creator v1.0 - PowerShell tool

Hello Guys

It feels good to write a post aster a quite a long time. Recently i have been learning PowerShell and created a new tool to create a ConfigMgr application on your command. I am gonna stop the useless talks right here and walk you through the tool.

ConfigMgr App Creator V 1.0

             ConfigMgr App Creator is a wrapper tool for ConfigMgr 2012 which can be used to create ConfigMgr application, Dt and deployment on the go without even lanching the ConfigMgr console and going through a lenghthy object creation wizards.

            This tool will be really helpful for the packaging team who tends to take control over the application packaging  as well as application delivery to the deployment tool.

Pre-Requisites

The following applications must be present in the computer on which the tool is launched.

1. ConfigMgr 2012 R2 console
2. net framework
3. PowerShell 3.0 or higher

Look Of the Tool

Site Code: Module which connects the tool with the ConfigMgr WMI provider and import required PowerShell modules.

Expected Values / Action = the user is expected to enter the 3 dig ConfigMgr site code and client on connect

 Installer File: Module with a browse button to browser and select the *.vbs or *.msi installer.

Expected Value / Action = the user is expected to click on the browse button to select the installer file, and the complete file path will be populated in the text field.

 Application Name : name of the application that needs to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: the User is expected to give name of the application. If the installer is a MSI this filed will be automatically be populated from the MSI property.

Publisher: Publisher of the application that needs to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: the User is expected to give publisher of the application. If the installer is a MSI this filed will be automatically be populated from the MSI property.

Version: version of the application that needs to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: the User is expected to provide the version of the application. If the installer is a MSI this filed will be automatically be populated from the MSI property.

Installation Program: Installation command line of the DT to be created for the created Application within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: This filed will be automatically populated based on the installer file that the user selects. This can be edited.

 Uninstallation Program: Uninstallation command line of the DT to be created for the created Application within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: This filed will be automatically populated based on the installer file that the user selects. This can be edited.

Content Source Path: Content source of the application to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: This filed will be automatically populated based on the installer file that the user selects. This can be edited.

 Installation Collection Name: Name of the collection to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: This filed will be automatically populated based on the installer file that the user selects. This can be edited.

Deployment Name: Name of the Deployment to be created within ConfigMgr

Expected Value / Action: This filed will be automatically populated based on the installer file that the user selects. This can be edited.

Target: to specify whether the collection is going to be a user based or Device based.

Expected Value / Action: By default the “Device” radio button will be selected. This can be changed.

Purpose: Purpose of the deployment to be created.

Expected Value / Action: By default the “required” radio button will be selected. This can be changed.

Create Collection / Deployment: The check boxes can be used to select if collection or deployment should be created.

Expected Value / Action: On successful connection to the ConfigMgr site both this check boxes will be checked. This can be changed.

 Read: This button validates if all the fields are correctly populated. If any of the field is not populated, this will populate it with default values. On successful validation this will enable the create button.

Expected Value / Action: The user is expected to click and validate the fields before clicking on create button.

Create: This button triggers the script execution of creating application in ConfigMgr. This will be enabled only after the successful validation.

Expected Value / Action: The user is expected to click this button after validating the fields.

Log Field: the status of each and every step that the script performs will be recorded here.

Expected Value / Action: The user is expected to observe this field to verify the successful creation of the application.

Author / Website: Information field

Version: Information filed

Link to Download the Tool

Download Link

TechyTipz

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HotFix to ConfigMgr 2012 ads the ability to send client notifications to users and Speeds up remote wipe from Days to Minutes

Hey guys I'm back with a new update on sccm 2012 R2. We now have an Hotfix which will add the ability to push notifications to clients and will also greately reduce the time taken to do a remote wipe on managed mobile devices.


Link to Hotfix : http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2990658

This hotfix adds the client notification component to Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. This component provides fast channel communications that a Configuration Manager administrator can use to notify clients to start time-sensitive tasks as soon as possible.

The above is quated from microsoft website and from that i see that we can send notification messages to users. Wouldn't that be nice if you can send notifications to users advising to allow important ConfigMgr client activities to happen?. Surely this looks a greate add on to COnfigMgr 2012.

Additionally, this hotfix greatly reduces the time that's required to execute a successful retire or wipe of a Mobile Device Management (MDM) device. Without this hotfix, retire and wipe operations could require 24 hours to run successfully. After you apply this hotfix, retire and wipe operations are pushed to the following MDM device types:

• iOS
• Android
• Windows 8.1 

 This, this is definately going to be a showstopper. And this is going to retire the Old saying "patience is a virtue while working with ConfigMgr" for sure.

Looking forwar to install this hotfix in my lab and see how this is working for myself. Will keep you guys posted on this when i get some time this week end.


                                                                                                                                        Techytipz

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How to solve "Cannot set the current Drizzle Role status for the DP" - ConfigMgr 2012 DP

Hey guys, Here i come with another issue i ran into when i was trying to setup a Remote DP in a Configmgr 2012 Hierarchy. It starte like this, i had to place a remote DP in one of the branch location in the customer environment. I initiated the DP installation through DP configuration wizard in sccm 2012 console.
But as always, it did not go through. I was not able to distribute any packages to that DP. when i just gone through the distmgr.log i found the below snippet of error messages. and this is the first tiem i'm gettign this error message.

   STATMSG: ID=2344 SEV=E LEV=M SOURCE="SMS Server" COMP="SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER" SYS=PRIprdsccmappdb.Rexelusa.com SITE=PRI PID=5756 TID=7752 GMTDATE=Tue Mar 11 05:47:54.280 2014 ISTR0="["Display=\\sccmdp.test.local\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=PRI"]\\sccmdp.test.local\" ISTR1="" ISTR2="" ISTR3="" ISTR4="" ISTR5="" ISTR6="" ISTR7="" ISTR8="" ISTR9="" NUMATTRS=1 AID0=404 AVAL0="["Display=\\sccmdp.test.local\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=PRI"]\\sccmdp.test.local\" SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 7752 (0x1E48)
Cannot set the current Drizzle Role status for the DP. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 7752 (0x1E48)
Error occurred. Performing error cleanup prior to returning. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 7752 (0x1E48)
Cancelling network connection to \\sccmdp.test.local\ADMIN$. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 7752 (0x1E48)
DP thread with array index 0 ended. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
DP thread with thread handle 0000000000001B7C and thread ID 7752 ended. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
Only retrying local DP update for package PRI00003, no need to replicate package to child sites. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
StoredPkgVersion (1) of package PRI00003. StoredPkgVersion in database is 1. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
SourceVersion (1) of package PRI00003. SourceVersion in database is 1. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
STATMSG: ID=2302 SEV=E LEV=M SOURCE="SMS Server" COMP="SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER" SYS=PRIprdsccmappdb.Rexelusa.com SITE=PRI PID=5756 TID=11504 GMTDATE=Tue Mar 11 05:47:54.856 2014 ISTR0="Configuration Manager Client Upgrade Package" ISTR1="PRI00003" ISTR2="" ISTR3="" ISTR4="" ISTR5="" ISTR6="" ISTR7="" ISTR8="" ISTR9="" NUMATTRS=1 AID0=400 AVAL0="PRI00003" SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
Failed to process package PRI00003 after 29 retries, will retry 71 more times SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
Exiting package processing thread. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 1:47:54 AM 11504 (0x2CF0)
Failed to configure IIS virtual directories on the distribution point RHUPRDSCCMHQDP.REXELUSA.COM SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 3/11/2014 5:50:06 PM 11156 (0x2B94)

I ran into google with this message, all blogs and technet websites pointed me to troubleshoot IIS. But in that server IIS was working exceptionally well and i couldnt find any uissues with that. and it drived me crazy.

I tried to reinstall the DP role on that server several time and all my efforts went in vain. While i was going through the virtual directories of default website i found that the physical path updated on the virtual directory SMS_DP_SMSPKG$ refered to a folder in a drive where the drive letter doesn't even exist. i change the physical path of that virtual directory and started the installation again. Voila the DP is up and running again.

to summarize, Make sure the virtual directories SMS_DP_SMSPKG$ and SMS_DP_SMSSIG$ exists and the physical path of those virtual directories are referring to a valid drive and path.

Hope this helps.!!

                                                                                                                                        Techytipz

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ConfigMgr 2012 Licensing - Calculations explained for Dummies

Hi.. Recently i had to calculate the number of licenses required for a ConfigMgr 2012 R2 Hierarchy to project that to my management.

The design was like with single primary and multiple remote DP's to support Few K workstations and few servers.

 I've gone through the Licensing documents provided by microsoft and i over read it as always. It confused me a lot. So i decided to raise a thread in technet and Gerry Hampson was able to clarify few things about the licensing.

From what i've taken from the thread i decide to make this post about ConfigMgr 2012 Licensing in a very simple manner.

The first that i missed from the document is

"License required only for endpoints being managed. No additional licenses are needed for management servers or SQL Server technology."

So that it, We dont require license for ConfigMgr CAS, Primary, Secondary, DP's and any other functional roles installed in a ConfigMgr Hierarchy

we require license only if you are going to manage those servers through ConfigMgr.

We have Two kind of Client management license to address specific needs.

1. ConfigMgr 2012 Workstation client licenses
2. ConfigMgr 2012 Managed server Licenses

ConfigMgr 2012 Workstation Client Licenses

  This license is required for all non Server OS ConfigMgr clients that is Workstation clients. But it's not limitted to Windows clients. The number of license required is calculated based on "Per License Per Client". The product name of this license is "Configuration Manager Client ML" and it cost $62 per license

 Suppose if you have 20K no server clients in your environment you would require 20K Configuration Manager Client ML to manage those client through ConfigMgr.

ConfigMgr 2012 Managed Server Licenses
SML's (Server management Licenses) cannot be purchased for ConfigMgr alone and it's for the whole system center.

SML's are needed to manage Server clients through ConfigMgr. And to address the virtualization complexities microsoft introduces another licensing method and it has two Editions.

1. Microsoft system center 2012 R2 Datacenter
2. Microsoft System center 2012 R2 Standard

components that are covered aunder two editions are shown above.

The differences in the supported numbers and cost of the editions are shown above.

From the above image, it's clear that the Standard edition is apt for physical servers and the datacenter edition is apt for virtualized servers.

Let's do the calculation now.

Environment :

1. 2 Physical servers with two physical processors each
2. 1 virtualized server with 10 OSE's running on it through Hyper-V (Google it to know about OSE)
3. 1000 Workstation clients.

License requirement

1. A standard edition license will support two physical processors and each server has two physical processors we require two Standard SML's ($2646)

2. As in the virtualized server there are 11 OSE's running on it, if we go for standard edition SML's, we would require (11/2 = 5.5 = 6) 6 standard edition of SML and that would cost us $7938. Instead if we go for Datacenter edition SML, a single datacenter edition SML is enoug to licence all the OSE's running on the server. So we would require 1 Datacenter SML and the cost is verymuch lesser when compared to Standard SML's (3607)

3. For 1000 clients we would require 1000 Client management licenses (1000*62=62000) $62000

The cost described above is based on the System center 2012 licensing anf if you have Service assurance or Enterprise agreement the cost will vary.

Hope this helps.
                                                                                                                                   Techytipz

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How to play MKV format videos in Sony Bravia LED TV or any other LED TV

  I recently bought Sony DAV TZ 215 DVD Home Theater System. But when i was running it for the first time i was really disappointed since it cant play MKV format videos. But all my HD movies are in MKV format.

  Later i found a way to make the HTS system play MKV formats with a little workaround. This workaround can be used for Sony Bravia and any other LED tv's

Let's see the procedure,

1. Go to http://www.videohelp.com/tools/tsMuxeR and download txMuxer latest version and extract it on your computer.
2. Double click on tsMuxerGUI.exe to open the tsMuxer
3. In the Input tab click on add to add the mkv file you want to convert
4. Select the output format as M2TS Muxing and change the video level if required
5. Click on Start Muxing, the out file will be saved in the output directory and that can be changed.
6. This process will take around 30 secs for 1Gb MKV file.
7. Copy the output file to a USB and your sony device must play that video format.

The screenshot below will show the options available

MKV is a container and M2ts is also a container, hence there is no loss in quality while transforming.

Hope this helps...

Other Supported Models : Sony BRAVIA KDL-43W800C

                                                                                                                                           S A Delphin

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Cannot edit the Object, which is used by - Admin console - SEDO - Serialized editing of distributed objects" - ConfigMgr 2012

Hello guys. yesterday one of colleague called me and wanted me to look into an issue while editing Task Sequence. The admin console did not let him edit the task sequence with a message "Cannot edit the object, which is used by Domain\admin at site 000". On seeing the message i was able to explain him that admin console is preventing this edit, since another admin is editing the same object from different site or computer. This feature of ConfigMgr 2012 is called SEDO - Serialized editing of distributed objects"

  In earlier 2007 more than one admin user can edit the same object at a time and whoever writes last wins and others changes will be dishonored. This may cause unexpected results. But in 2012 we have SEDO and with this only one admin user can edit an object at a time. This prevents unexpected results.

  So how does this work ?. Consider that i have two admin users named admin1 and admin2. Admin 1 opens ConfigMgr console and starts Task sequence edit to edit an task sequence named Task sequence1. Now the object Task sequence1 will be locked to edit. So if admin2 launches consolle and tries to edit task sequence1 the admin to will receive a message like this and he will have an option to open Task sequence1 in read only mode.

The lock will be released only when Admin one closes Task Sequence editor.

  For whatever reason if the Admin1 is not able to close the task sequence editor in a regular way (Admin console crashed or Admin1 went for a break or Vm crashed) the lock will remain for 30 more minutes on the object.

  If you dont want to wait for 30 mins you may have to release the lock manually through SQL management studio.The Lock state will be maintained on the table SEDO_LockState. By running

"SELECT *
FROM SEDO_LockState
WHERE AssignedUser = 'Domain\admin1' AND LockStateID = 1"

in sql management studio you will get the Lock_State information. If you want to remove the lock you will have to run this query in SQL management studio.

"DELETE FROM SEDO_LockState WHERE AssignedUser = 'Domain\admin1' AND LockStateID = 1"

Listed below are the SEDO enabled objects

• SMS_Application
• SMS_AuthorizationList
• SMS_BootImagePackage
• SMS_ConfigurationBaselineInfo
• SMS_ConfigurationItem
• SMS_DeploymentType
• SMS_Driver
• SMS_DriverPackage
• SMS_GlobalCondition
• SMS_ImagePackage
• SMS_OperatingSystemInstallPackage
• SMS_Package
• SMS_SoftwareUpdatesPackage
• SMS_TaskSequencePackage

Hope this helps..
                                                                                                                                S A Delphin

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