Don Hite at myITforum.com

System Center Essentials Post Installation Configuration

After you have successfully installed Microsoft System Essentials (SCE) 2007 the install opens to the SCE Overview page where you are presented with the Essential Configuration Incomplete page. Here you will find a list of tasks that must be completed.

The first task required is the “Configure Product Features” where you will be once again guided by a wizard to configure your SCE server. Follow the steps below to compete this task.

1. Click on the “Required: Configure Product Features” and select “Next” to continue with the wizard.

2. The Proxy Server task appears where you can select whether or not to “use a proxy server when connecting t the internet”. The default is NO but you can set it to use a proxy sever by selecting the “Yes” radio button. Then enter the Proxy “Server name” and “Port number”. If you wan to specify an account other than default account select the box to “Use the following credentials to connect to the proxy server:” and supply the “User name”, “Password” and the “Domain”. Then click “Next” to continue the wizard.

3. Next the Policy Type task appears where you can select to choose the policy type to use. If you are installing SCE as a user with Domain Administrative privileges choose the default option of “Yes, configure a domain-level Group Policy for me (recommended)” When this option is selected all the machines running SEC 2007 components (or agents) are automatically configured. If you are not installing SCE with an account that has Domain Administrative privileges select “No, use local policy to configure computers.” Then click “Next” to continue.

4. Next the Firewall Exceptions task appears where you can choose how SCE will use firewall exceptions. Select the default of “Yes, create Windows Firewall exceptions (recommended)”. If you select “No, do not create Windows Firewall exceptions” SCE will not be able to remotely install agents on your domain machines if their firewall is enabled and the exceptions are not configured. Then select “Next” to continue.

SCE incoming communication ports are listed below:

TCP: 135. 139 and 445

UDP: 137 and 138

5. Next the Configure Remote Assistance task appears where you can select whether or not you want to enable and use remote assistance for your agent resources. When you have made your selection click “Next” to continue.

6. Next the Error Monitoring task appears where you can select whether or not to  collect application errors on your managed machines. It is recommended to select the default of “Yes, collect application errors (recommended)”. Then enter the location of the error reports uploads to the SCE server. It is best to specify a location other than the operating system partition. You can also specify the port number to use when clients submit errors or accept the default of port number 51906. When completed select “Next” to continue.

7. Next the Configure Error Forwarding task appears. Here you can chose whether or not to “Automatically forward all collected errors to Microsoft”. When completed select “Next” to continue.

8. Next the Daily Health Report task appears. Here you can choose whether or not to receive a daily health report sent to a specified E-Mail address. You can change the default port number of 25 if needs and can allow an anonymous authentication mode or a Windows Integrated one. To use this feature enter the “Recipient Address”, “SMTP Server” name, “Port”, “Authentication mode”, and select a time to send the report the default is 7:00 AM. The click “Test” to test the configuration and then click “Next” to continue.

9. Next the Scheduled Discovery task appears. Here you can specify whether or not you want to have SCE use Active Directory (AD) to automatically discover and manage all of the computers in your domain. If you choose “Yes, automatically discover and manage all computers in my domain” set the “Run discovery daily at:” time interval. Make your choice and then select “Next” to continue.

10. Next select “Configure” and the Feature Configuration is in progress task is executed and checks your selected setup options. Then the Policy Configuration Results screens opens with pass or fail checks shown for each of the options. Click to “Close” to compete the Required: Configure Product Features and you will be returned to the Overview task list.

11. Next select the “Required: Configure Computers and devices to manage” task to configure the resource management tasks.

12. The Introduction task appears and select “Next” to continue with the wizard.

13. Next the Auto or Advanced task appears where you can select to “Automatic computer discovery” or “Advanced discovery”. Make your choice and select “Next” to continue.

Note: If you select the “Advanced discovery” option you can choose any of the following: Servers & Clients, Servers Only, Clients Only or Network Devices.

14. Next the Administrator Account task appears where you can choose to either use the Management Server Action account or specify another account to use to perform the scans and to install the agents. Make your selection and then select “Discover” to begin the process.

The Discovery Progress task is performed and will scan AD for computers and network devices to manage.

15. When the Discovery Progress task has completed the Select Objects to Manage task appears when you “Select the devices you ant to manage.” Select the discovered resources you want to manage and then select “Next” to continue .and at the summary task click “Finish” to begin the Agent Management Task. Here you can wait for the process to complete or select “Close” to return to the Overview page.

Note: Closing the window will not interrupt the task and you can go back at a later time and check the status of the task in the task status view,

16. Next from the Overview page select “Required: Configure Microsoft Update Settings” to begin the task. Click “Next” at the Introduction page to continue.

17. Next the Proxy Server task will appear where you can specify if a proxy server is needed for the updates. Make you selection and change the “Server name”, “Port Number” and the “User Name”, “Password” and “Domain” information if needed. When you are finished select “Synchronize” and the Synchronization Process task will be performed. When the task has completed the Products task will appear where you can select “Yes” to download updates for operating systems only or select “No, I will choose products from the list below”. Make your selection and then select “Next” to continue.

18. Next the Classifications task will appear here select “Yes (Recommended)” and then select “Next” to continue.

19. Next the Auto Approvals task appears where you can select “Yes. Approve these updates immediately after they re synchronized” which is recommended or you can select “No, I will manually approve all updates”. Make your selection and click “Next” to continue.

20. Next the Synchronization task appears where you can select to “Synchronize Manually” or “Synchronize daily at:” which is the default set to synchronize at 3:30:00 AM each night.

21. Finally the Summary task appears where you select “Synchronize updates when this wizard closes. Click “Finish” to complete the wizard and have SCE perform its synchronization.