Chris Nackers Blog

Blog Has A New Home!

2012-01-24T00:48:31Z

If you have reached this blog, then you are viewing my old blog. My new blog is located here: http://www.chrisnackers.com...(read more)

Configuration Manager Port Information and Spreadsheet

2012-01-11T15:49:00Z

One of the "fun" tasks when working with clients is when we need to open the various ports on a client's network for Configuration Manager to work properly. I've had to sit down with many clients and go through the TechNet port diagram countless times, to only have to do it again a few months later. Eventually I said enough was enough. I have developed an excel spreadsheet that contains all the ports used. On the 2nd sheet, you can put in the names of the servers for the various...(read more)

PowerShell: Report / Check the Size of ConfigMgr Task Sequences

2012-01-10T19:43:39Z

Trevor Sullivan has created a nice post on checking the size of your Task Sequence's. This is useful, since there is a 4mb limit to your TS. If you have too many steps, you can run into this issue. Read the full post here....(read more)

2012 Microsoft MVP Award

2012-01-01T17:56:29Z

2012 Is off to a great start. Received my MVP renewal this morning. Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2012 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in System Center Configuration Manager technical communities during the past year....(read more)

Editing CM12 reports in the ConfigMgr console with SQL Server 2008 R2

2011-12-21T16:22:35Z

Fellow MVP Steve Thompson has created a nice post for reporting in ConfigMgr 2012. Read the full post here. Presently, if you have installed ConfigMgr 2012 with SQL Server 2008 R2, and attempt to edit a report from the console, you will get an error message that states “Report Builder not available”. The problem here, ConfigMgr 2012 is designed to work out of the box with Report Builder 2.0 as explained here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682105.aspx#BKMK_ReportBuilder Since you have...(read more)

The Hydration Kit for ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 is available for download

2011-12-20T16:45:03Z

Johan has posted a new hydration kit for 2012 ConfigMgr RC1. Deployment Research > Blog - The Hydration Kit for ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 is available for download Here is a download for deploying a complete ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 infrastructure in either Hyper-V or VMware: One Domain Controller and one ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 member server – Including pre-requisites like .Net Framework, SQL 2008 and IIS - all fully automated. Once configured, the total build time for the full ConfigMgr 2012 RC1 lab environment...(read more)

MDT 2012: New Features– GPO Packs - The Deployment Guys

2011-12-02T19:28:08Z

MDT 2012: New Features– GPO Packs - The Deployment Guys - Site Home - TechNet Blogs There are many new features of MDT 2012 but one that I particularly like is the ability to apply GPO Packs created using Security Configuration Manager (SCM) during the deployment process. SCM is a great tool that allows you to create and manage group policy baselines in an easy to use interface. These polices are then able to be applied at the domain level or as “Local GPO Packs”. MDT can now deploy...(read more)

MDT 2012: New Features – Hide Shell - The Deployment Guys

2011-12-02T19:27:53Z

MDT 2012: New Features – Hide Shell - The Deployment Guys - Site Home - TechNet Blogs Here is a common scenario. You are deploying an operating system using MDT Lite Touch, during the deployment you install some user specific applications. However the users think that the deployment is completed an they close the application installs or perhaps start messing with the machine while it is still logged in as the local administrator. Now you could simply inform the user that they should not touch...(read more)

MDT 2012 Beta 2–User-Driven Installation (UDI) Version 2

2011-11-16T21:05:47Z

MDT 2012 Beta 2–User-Driven Installation (UDI) Version 2 - Chris's Blog - Just weedin around Microsoft - Site Home - TechNet Blogs Great introduction to UDI V2 over on the TechNet Blogs by Chris Adams. ...(read more)

SCCM Guru webcast coming up soon - Michael Niehaus

2011-11-11T14:02:07Z

SCCM Guru webcast coming up soon - Michael Niehaus' Windows and Office deployment ramblings - Site Home - TechNet Blogs As part of the BDNA “SCCM Guru” webcast series, I will be presenting on November 17th from 11:00am to 12:00pm Pacific time. The topic of the presentation: Inside a ConfigMgr 2012 OS Deployment Task Sequence In this webcast with Michael Niehaus, Microsoft’s “Deployment Guy”, you will learn: The inner workings of a task sequence, showing the various steps in the process...(read more)

MDT 2012 Beta 2 Released

2011-11-11T13:59:46Z

MDT 2012 Beta 2 Released - The Deployment Guys - Site Home - TechNet Blogs The latest version of MDT is now available on Connect ( Join the MDT 2012 Beta 2 Connect program here! ) MDT 2012 Beta 2 offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012 as well as integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics. Key benefits include: Full use...(read more)

Announcing the Release Candidate of Configuration Manager Physical to Virtual Migration Toolkit | Microsoft Connect

2011-10-27T18:43:18Z

Announcing the Release Candidate of Configuration Manager Physical to Virtual Migration Toolkit | Microsoft Connect The Configuration Manager team is pleased to announce the Release Candidate (RC) of the Configuration Manager Physical-to-Virtual Migration Toolkit ! The Configuration Manager P2V Migration Toolkit was designed to assist in situations where there are remote Configuration Manager 2007 site servers that need to be retained during the side-by-side migration process to Configuration Manager...(read more)

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RCs Released!

2011-10-27T16:30:00Z

Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RCs ConfigMgr RC has been released today. Download from the link above! Here is the main product page: System Center Configuration Manager 2012 | New Next Version System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Release Candidate is Here! In the Release Candidate, we’ve introduced some additional and enhanced capabilities, including: Improved endpoint protection functionality...(read more)

Troubleshooting the PXE Service Point and WDS in Configuration Manager 2007–Updated

2011-10-14T19:42:31Z

Fantastic post over on The Configuration Manager OSD Support Team Blog. Troubleshooting the PXE Service Point and WDS in Configuration Manager 2007 - Configuration Manager OSD Support Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs One of the issues we troubleshoot the most in CSS are ConfigMgr PXE Service Point installs. This article is based on 4 years of experience troubleshooting hundreds of PXE Service Point installs. The end result is what we have found causes the majority of issues on PXE Service Points...(read more)

Configuration Manager–Recovering Stock Reports and Bulk Deleting Reports

2011-09-21T14:42:16Z

Recently was working at client, we caused ourselves a slight reporting issue. We had exported all the reports from a previous site, including custom reports. When we imported those into the new site, we overwrote the stock reports. What happens when you do this is that it breaks all the built in reporting links. You lose the links like this example below. In order to recreate the stock reports and ensure the appropriate links are there, we simply need to duplicate the process that...(read more)