Configuration Manager v.Next Beta 1 Released

On Monday Microsoft released the beta of the next iteration of Configuration Manager… v.Next. With Config Mgr v.Next there is shift towards user centric client management. It will be like going from Windows XP to Windows 7 as this release is going to have the longest development cycle since SMS 2.0. Since moving to v.Next is such a big step the only migration plan available is a side by side upgrade. Config Mgr v.Next will be fully 64-bit and include a completely new application delivery engine, a new UI (good-bye MMC console) based on the SCOM code base, SQL Reporting Services will replace SMS / SCCM reporting, and much more importance will be placed on the DCM engine. I was able to test drive v.Next at MMS and I was really impressed with what I saw. The v.Next beta is public so download it from Microsoft’s Connect site and get it into a lab.

Configuration Manager Dashboard

A great new addition to SCCM is the Config Mgr dashboard. The dashboard addition integrates with your SharePoint infrastructure so installation and configuration can be done in minutes. This highly flexible tool will allow you to customize near real-time information and display it in an interactive format. Access is all role based so it allows administrators to really tailor the information to their audience. There is a huge difference in the information required by a senior manager compared to someone on the Service Desk. Out of the box the dashboard is ready to display the top five day-to-day metrics:

• Software deployment metrics
• OS deployment metrics
• Software Update Management
• Asset Inventory Information
• Client & Server activity Information

You can download the dashboard add-on from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187322. Pre-requisites are a Configuration Manager 2007 site, SQL Server 2005 or above, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2, .NET 3.5 and Internet Explorer 7.0. For more information check out http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff369719.aspx

MMS 2010 - Viva Las Vegas

This post is long overdue – I’ve been back from MMS for a couple of weeks and feel that I’m still playing catch up at work. My first MMS was a great experience and I can’t for next year’s event. (Mandalay Bay March 21 – 25 2011) I attended every session that I could possibly fit into my schedule and brought back some fantastic information. Another bonus was a chance to meet other IT professionals that are either facing the same challenges that I am or have already worked through them.


Probably one of the most popular topics was Config Mgr v.Next. This is the next version of Config Mgr that is tentatively going to drop in 2011. Watch for a complete change in software distribution as we know it. It will be a user centric shift for Config Mgr.

One of my favourite types of session were the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. These small loosely organized sessions that are really more about being interactive than anything. I was able to end are really good session with Dell IT and their use of SCUP and a Q&A session with Microsoft’s Config Mgr development team.

Overall I was able bring back some incredible knowledge from MMS and I will be posting more details here in the upcoming days. Also, kudos to the Microsoft event staff as they did a fantastic job.

SCCM 2007 Site Server Installation: Failed to install component SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER on server…

Recently I set out to rebuild our SCCM 2007 lab environment as the entire lab infrastructure had just been replaced and Server 2008 R2 was now available. After our server team handed off the new site server I installed all of the required components without issue. However during my SCCM installation phase the MP Control Manager came with a status unknown warning but the SCCM installation log didn’t lead me to believe that anything went wrong. After the installation I opened the SCCM console to check the status of all my site components and not surprisingly my SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER status was full of errors.

SMS Site Component Manager failed to install component SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER on server “server name”

The WebDAV server extension is either not installed or not configured properly.

Solution: Make sure WebDAV is installed and enabled. Make sure there is an authoring rule that allow "All users" read access to "All content". Make sure the WebDAV settings "Allow anonymous property queries" and "Allow property queries with infinite depth" are set to "true" and "Allow Custom Properties" is set to false.

This error seemed odd as WebDAV was installed without any problems and both the authoring rules and configuration settings had been doubled checked.
• WebDAV enabled – check
• Authoring rule configured the required way error message solution suggested – check
• WebDAV settings configured the required way error message solution suggested – check
• Double checked with the following TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431377.aspx - check
• IIS logs clean – check
• Server rebooted - check

I decided to reinstall WebDAV just in case something had gone sideways during the original install. After removing WebDAV, rebooting the server (required), reinstalling WebDAV and reconfiguring it SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER reinstalled before I could even get the SCCM console open again.

SMS Site Component Manager successfully installed this component on this site system.

I couldn’t find a solid reason for why the component installation failed originally but sometimes the solution to your problem is not necessarily the most complex.

Windows Server 2008 R2 – Disable Enhanced Security Configuration

If you’ve ever tried to use Internet Explorer with Enhanced Security Configuration enabled you know what a pain it is. You spend more time clicking on security pop-ups than you do browsing the internet. In a production environment it’s not a big deal because I spend zero time browsing the internet from the console of a server – besides it’s a security best practice not too. However this week I spent some time in our lab trying to figure out a couple of things and needed internet access from my server. In Windows 2003 you simply went into Add / Remove programs and removed Internet Explorer Enhanced Configuration as a component. This is no longer the case in Server 2008 R2. To disable IE ESC on a Windows 2008 R2 machine follow these steps:
• Launch Server Manager
• On the main page click on Configure IE ESC (Bottom right-hand corner)
• Turn this functionality off for the required user group