Roger Zander at myITforum.com

SCCM Client Center Event Monitoring through Windows Firewall

rzander — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:39:00 GMT

There is a great article on MSDN on how to allow asynchronous WMI calls through a Windows Firewall: <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa389286(VS.85).aspx>

Client Center does require asynchronous WMI connections for Event/Process Monitoring actions. It’s important that the callback function is configured correctly on the Firewall otherwise you may get an Error like “RPC Server Unavailable” (0x800706ba) if you enable Event Monitoring…

A summary of the required Actions to open the Firewall on the Admin PC (where Client Center is installed):

netsh firewall set service RemoteAdmin enable
netsh firewall add portopening protocol=tcp port=135 name=DCOM_TCP135
netsh firewall add allowedprogram program=%windir%\system32\wbem\unsecapp.exe name=UNSECAPP

All target Clients do require the following setting:

netsh firewall set service RemoteAdmin enable

Update Adobe Reader with System Center Update Publisher

rzander — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:03:00 GMT

System Center Update Publisher (v4.5) is only able to deploy Updates made as a single file (EXE, MSI or MSP) and there are some known Issues with MSP Files, like the Adober Reader 9.3.1 Update… :-(

To make an update that is compatible with SCUP, I recommend to create a self extracting Executable with IExpress. You don’t know IExpress ?!? Just run IExpress.exe on your machine…

The following Screenshots show how to create an AdobeReader9.3.1 patch executable (you can download the Adobe patch binaries from: <ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/>)

Install Program:msiexec.exe /p AdbeRdrUpd931_all_incr.msp /q REBOOT=ReallySuppress

As a result, IExpress will create an Executable that can be deployed with SCUP:

Here you are; Now you can Sync with SCCM to deploy the AdoberReader9.3.1 Patch over SCCM Patch deployment…

The same procedure can be used if you want to have an update with more than one file (like MSI and a Transform File…)

Regards

Roger

Source Files: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rzander/AdobeRdr931.zip

Cleanup expired updates in a SCCM Deployment Management

rzander — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:40:00 GMT

You have some expired patches (gray icon) in a SCCM Deployment Management and you want to clean them up ?

You don’t have to pick the expired updates one by one… you can just add an additional column by opening the menu “View” in the header of the console and select “Add/Remove columns…”, select the column “expired” and you will get an additional, sort able column with the expired flags…. sort it,select all expired patches and delete it…

Status MIF may prevent program from retrying

rzander — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:17:00 GMT

A great article from Armin Denzler about the behavior of Status MIF Files and SMS/SCCM retry exit codes:

<http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2009/12/07/rerun-of-failed-advertisements-does-not-work-as-expected-when-you-use-status-mif-files-generated-by-windows-installer.aspx>

I didn’t realized that before…

SCCM Client Center V2.0.2 released

rzander — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:49:12 GMT

The SCCM Client Center Public Version 2.0.2 is published on: http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr/

Changes:
- AppV Plugin updated
- CustomCMD is now part of Plugin.Default.dll
- Kill running process feature added
- Fixed: Execution History Issue (Remote Registry)
- Additional "adhoc" inventory can now be configured in smsclictrv2.exe.config
- MSInfo32 feature implemented (Request: 2800161)
- Override Service Window feature added (per Advertisement)
- New Form to create and define Maintenance Windows start-time and duration added
- … and some more …

Some Client Center links:
- minor updates and System Center Update Publisher (SCUP) 4.5 catalog: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/update/
- click once setup: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/
- smsclictr.automation library documentation: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/smsclictr.automation/

MonitorDetails WMI Provider updated

rzander — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:38:00 GMT

An updated Version of the WMI Provider "Monitor Details" is available for download (contains some bug fixes).

This WMI Provider does create a WMI Class (root\cimv2:Win32_MonitoDetails) to list the Model, MonitorID, PnPID and Serial Number of all attached monitors.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required.

Creating Data Discovery Records (DDR) from .NET

rzander — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:50:00 GMT

Version 1.1.1.11 of the SMSCliCtr.automation library does include new functions to create a Data Discovery Record (DDR) File from .NET (no access to SMSRsGen.dll required).

Example (C#):

DDRFile oDDRFile = new DDRFile("System", "CustomDiscovery", "C00");
oDDRFile.DDRAddString("Name", "MyComputer", 64,
DDRFile.DDRPropertyFlagsEnum.ADDPROP_KEY |
DDRFile.DDRPropertyFlagsEnum.ADDPROP_NAME);
oDDRFile.DDRWrite("c:\file.ddr");

The complete source-code (GPL License) can be found in the SVN Repository of the SCCM Client Center Project.

Querying Model Name on Lenovo Computers

rzander — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:14:00 GMT

(The following content was provided by Richard Braitsch)

If you try to determine the Lenovo computer model in SCCM2007 you will see that Lenovo publishes its 7 digit model number in the "model" attribute instead of the clear text model name you would expect. Eg. instead of "ThinkCentre M58p" you will see "6234A1G". This is not incorrect, but quite cryptic for common daily needs and would require a translation table to associate this number with the corresponding model name.

But there is a simple way of querying the clear text model name in WMI.

Lenovo has tucked it away in the "version" property. Here you see the instance of Win32_ComputerSystemProduct as shown in WBEMTEST:

The following vb-script will deliver the information you are looking for:

' Query Lenovo computer model string

Option Explicit

Dim strComputer, strVendor, strModel ' As String Dim objWMIService, colItems, objItem ' As Object Dim Counter ' As Integer

strComputer = "."

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2") Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM

Win32_ComputerSystemProduct")

Counter = 0

For Each objItem in colItems

If Counter = 0 Then

strVendor = objItem.Vendor

strModel = objItem.Version

End If

Counter = Counter + 1

Wscript.Echo(strVendor & " " & strModel)

Set objWMIService = NOTHING

Set colItems = NOTHING

Apply XP MassStorage Drivers from SCCM OSD Task-Sequence

rzander — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:29:00 GMT

A nice feature of SCCM is the ability to inject MassStorage drivers on Windows XP installations.

The Problem is that the Storage Drivers will not be detected automatically with Plug&Play, so you have the specify which driver has to be loaded...

But there is an option to simulate Plug&Play... by defining WMI conditions based on the Plug&Play ID:

The Target machine will go through each action and applies only StorageDrivers for existing hardware devices...

Attached an example of such a Task-Sequence section for some Intel drivers:

MassStorageDrivers.zip

Thanks to Richard Braitsch for enumerating all the Device ID's ...

DDRPropertyFlagsEnum missing Flag in SCCM SDK

rzander — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:58:00 GMT

Within the SCCM SDK, the enumeration DDRPropertyFlagsEnum is documented, but the list is not complete.

enum DDRPropertyFlagsEnum
{
    ADDPROP_NONE = 0x0,
    ADDPROP_REPLACE = 0x1,
    ADDPROP_GUID = 0x00000002,
    ADDPROP_GROUPING = 0x00000004,
    ADDPROP_KEY = 0x00000008,
    ADDPROP_ARRAY = 0x00000010, 
    ADDPROP_AGENT = 0x00000020,
    ADDPROP_NAME = 0x00000044,
    ADDPROP_NAME2 = 0x00000084
};

There is an additional value (I named it ADDPROP_REPLACE) with a value = 0x1 
that defines that any existing values in the DB will be replaced with the 
new value(s).

This is an important Flag if you want to cleanup or update array values...

"SCCM Client Center" and "Collection Commander" updated

rzander — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:01:00 GMT

"SCCM Client Center" Version 2.0.1 can be downloaded from :http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr
or as update from: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/update/

"SMS Collection Commander" Version 1.3.2 can be downloaded from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/smscollctr/
or as update from: http://smscollctr.sourceforge.net/update/

A SCUP (System Center Update Publisher) Catalog is available at: http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/update/WinWorkers.cab

RemoteAssistance Plugin for SCCM Client Center

rzander — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:35:00 GMT

A special thanks to Mattias Benninge who has created a Plugin to offer RemoteAssistance from SCCM Client Center.

The Plugin can be downloaded from : http://smsclictr.sourceforge.net/Plugin_OfferAssistance.dll and must be copied to "%commonprogramfiles%\SMSCliCtr\Tools\".

WMI Provider to list the Monitors Serial-Nr. and Model-Name

rzander — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:43:00 GMT

My latest OpenSource Project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/wmimonitor/) is a simple WMI Provider written in C# (.NET 3.5 SP1 is required) to list the Serial Number and Model name of the attached Monitor(s).

It creates a new WMI Class "Win32_MonitorDetail" in the WMI Namespace root\cimv2:

wmic:root\cli>path win32_MonitorDetails
Model MonitorID PnPID SerialNumber
DELL 2405FPW DELA010 5&13b1d479&0&10000084&01&00 M67545xxxxxx

You can extend the SMS/SCCM Hardware Inventory to include this class in the inventory.

Check out the source code (150 Lines) at : http://wmimonitor.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wmimonitor/DisplayInfoWMIProvider/WMIProvider/WMIProvider.cs?view=markup

Program Exit-Codes

rzander — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:52:00 GMT

Al list of all predefined SMS/SCCM Exit-Code:

Success:
0

Reboot:
1604
1641
3010
3011

Retry*:
4
5
8
13
14
39
51
53
54
55
59
64
65
67
70
71
85
86
87
112
128
170
267
999
1003
1203
1219
1220
1222
1231
1232
1238
1265
1311
1323
1326
1330
1618
1622
2250

*) A retry exit code will force SMS/SCCM to rerun the advertisement after a timeout of 10 minutes.

PreInst.exe /DelSite Issue...

rzander — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:18:00 GMT

It seems that PreInst.exe does have an issue with SMS Permissions assigned to security groups....

PreInst.exe /DelSite does generate the following error message, if your account does get the permission on the class "Site" over a security group:

"<SiteCode> is not a known Site"

Grant your account at leaset "read" permission to the class "Site"... wait a while... and run PreInst.exe /Delsite again.... surprise, the site could be deleted....

I've seen this Issue on:
- SCCM2007 RTM
- SCCM2007 SP1