I was trying to setup New Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 build on Windows server 2012 with SQL Server 2012 SP1 installed .Everything went fine except Windows server update services .It keeps saying error with restart needed.Here is what i get every time when i install WSUS after Restart needed.

“The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed. the operation cannot be completed because the server that you specified requires a restart.”

Why does it fail every time though server is restarted as stated from above screen ?

Go to event viewer ,windows logs-system ,you see below error message:

The MSSQL$MICROSOFT##WID service was unable to log on as NT SERVICE\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##WID with the currently configured password due to the following error:
Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer.
Service: MSSQL$MICROSOFT##WID
Domain and account: NT SERVICE\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##WID
This service account does not have the required user right "Log on as a service."

User Action
Assign "Log on as a service" to the service account on this computer. You can use Local Security Settings (Secpol.msc) to do this. If this computer is a node in a cluster, check that this user right is assigned to the Cluster service account on all nodes in the cluster.
If you have already assigned this user right to the service account, and the user right appears to be removed, check with your domain administrator to find out if a Group Policy object associated with this node might be removing the right.

How do i fix this ?

You need to Assign the Log on as a service user right to NT SERVICE\ALL SERVICES.

This can be implemented via GPO.

Go to your group policy management console,edit default domain policy

Computer Configuration—>Policies—>Windows Settings—>Security Settings—>Local Policies—>User Rights Assignment

Note: It is not mandatory to edit the default domain Policy to enable this setting.You can also create new GPO and ensure to have Enforced (running on Server 2012) option is selected which can not be overwritten by Default Domain Controller.

Go to properties of Logon as Service,click on Add user or Group,Enter NT SERVICE\ALL SERVICES ,click ok.

Now move onto the server,open command prompt and type gpupdate /Force to apply the GPO settings.

To check if the settings are applied or not,you can run rsop.msc from the run command and see the changes applied or not.

Once you confirmed the settings are applied,Start the installation of WSUS role again,this time It should be okay.

Hope it Helps!

Do you remember the Powershell script posted by SCOMFAQ  to download required MMS 2012 Sessions last year

Once again he come up with easy way to download all the required MMS 2013 sessions using Powershell script.

This basically contains 2 power shell scripts :

• Create-MMS2013SessionFile.ps1 –> This file creates the sessions.txt file OR You can create sessions.txe and add all the Sessions codes for Ex:DC-B309.wmv and save the file.
• MMS2013_Downloader.ps1 –> This file downloads the sessions which you have given in sessions.txt file.

Download the scripts from Sky drive,save it in one folder.I have listed out all SCCM Configmgr 2012 Sessions codes here,save it in same folder where you placed the scripts.

If you get any error like “script cannot be loaded”while running MMS2013_downloader.ps1 script to download the sessions,you may have to try setting execution policy to unrestricted.

Command line : Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Try running the script now.During this process,it may prompt you security warning,Press Y.

Next it ask for path to download the sessions with folder creation inside it called MMS2013Sessions.

Read Complete post Via http://blog.scomfaq.ch/2013/04/10/mms-2013-download-sessions-offline-viewing/

Enojy !

Configuration Manager Queries SQL Server views in the Configmgr site database when retrieving the information displayed in reports .Configmgr database contains large information about computer,User related resource and other components as well.

If you are looking for some particular information while creating reports and if you are not sure which table the information has,you will stuck there else you will have guess the table/view to get what is desired.

SQL views contain the information you need for your reports to make reporting easier.

I cont find any document or related resources for SCCM 2012 SQL views .

Russ from Microsoft replied on the forums to get SQL views in SCCM 2012.

Here is the SQL query to get list of views with its columns Available in Configuration Manager 2012 Database.

Select distinct table_name,COLUMN_NAME From Information_Schema.columns

where table_name LIKE (‘v_%’)

Order by table_name

Download the excel sheet exported with Pivot Table from here

Creating Custom Reports By Using Configuration Manager 2007 SQL Views http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22052

MMS 2013 is getting nearer , (Apr 4-Apr 8) with loads of technical sessions on newly released products with hands on lab. More info here

From Apr 4-8,total of 300+ sessions happening on various technologies .

Many folks who works on Configuration manager like me, look for what content catalog.

Here is the pdf file listing out all SCCM 2012 related stuff which might help you to follow up .

download MMS 2013 SCCM 2012 SP1 Content Catalog

These configuration manager Sessions will generally be available for streaming around 24 hours after the session is complete.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013?sort=sequential&direction=desc&term=Configuration%20Manager

How to participate in MMS 2013 even if you aren’t going http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2013/04/03/how-to-participate-in-mms-2013-even-if-you-arent-going/

If you are planning to migrate your SCCM 2007 environment to SCCM 2012,you may have to think about your packages,collections,OSD and other stuff.

you cannot migrate all collections from SCCM 2007 to SCCM 2012.Couple of things to note before you migrate them.

Points to note  on collection migration:

1. Collection can contain only either devices or users but not both.

2.  Every collection must have Limitation.

3.   Sub collections are no longer exists instead you have folders.

blogged couple of posts on archiving/removing packages not been used for X days that will help you to not migrate them to CM12.

In this blog,will show you how to identify the collections that has both users and computers member of it  to look at the collections if you want to take of users/Computers query before you go on migration.

Configmgr Report:

select
fcm.CollectionID ‘Collection ID’,COLL.Name
from
v_FullCollectionMembership fcm,v_Collection COLL
where fcm.CollectionID=coll.CollectionID
group by
fcm.CollectionID,COLL.Name
having
count(distinct fcm.ResourceType) > 1

Long ago ,written SCCM report to list packages not used for 6 months as part of Package Archival process http://eskonr.com/2012/11/sccm-configmgr-package-archival-process-cleanup-activity/ .This report tells you to take further action to clean or move to Archive folder to wait for some more months before it goes for Deletion.

What next ? Delete these packages from Assigned DPs to get some disk space ?

You may find several scripts to do this task on the internet but, i  find this is easy for me to get this activity done.

Identify list of package which you want to remove ,pipe them to notepad .You can do more customizations if needed.

‘Script to delete packages from its assigned Distribution Points.

strComputer =inputBox("Please Enter the SMS provider OR Site where the packages are created" , "SCCM Server name")
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set packages=fso.OpenTextFile("C:\PACKAGESTODELETE.txt",1,true)
Set objoutputfile=fso.OpenTextFile("C:\DP_results.txt",2,true)

Do While packages.AtEndOfLine <> True
    ‘read the next line
    package = packages.Readline

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\SMS\site_CEN")
if err.number<>0 then
    msgbox "server connection failed"
    wscript.quit
end if
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM SMS_DistributionPoint where packageid=’" & Package & "’")
For Each objItem in colItems
        ‘Wscript.Echo "ServerNALPath: " & objItem.ServerNALPath
objoutputfile.WriteLine ( package & vbTab & " will be deleteting from" & VBTAB & objItem.ServerNALPath)

objitem.Delete_

If Err.number <> 0 Then

objoutputfile.WriteLine ( "Failed to delete" & vbTab & package & "from" &  vbTab & objItem.ServerNALPath)
      End If
    Next

loop

msgbox "Done"

Note: Please Replace the quotes.

Old post but useful to share from J.C.HornBeck .We all know there are some hidden files(they are kind of secret files) which are available since Since Many years( I would think from SMS 2003 or may be from 2.0) in order to activate or deactivate some features in SMS/SCCM 2007 /SCCM 2012 (now) on client side or server side, such as preventing Software Inventory for a particular folder or preventing the installation of ConfigMgr files on a machine. Here’s some information on some of those files and how you might use them to control your Configuration Manager environment. The files are as follows:

• NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS
• ARCHIVE_REPORTS.SMS
• SKPSWI.DAT

So what do these files do?

SKPSWI.DAT

This file can be used for skipping the Software inventory Process for a partition or for a folder. If you want to prevent software inventory on a drive/partition or folder you can create a hidden file named SKPWI.DAT and place it on the root of the drive/partition/folder.

When do you, or can you use it?

In order to avoid the overhead of running software inventory on large disks with a large number of files that you do not need collected, you can create a hidden file named Skpswi.dat and place it in the root folder of each disk drive that you want excluded from software inventory. From that point forward, no software inventory will occur for those drives or folders unless the Skpswi.dat file is removed.

The Skpswi.dat file can also be used to avoid a software inventory collection rule. For example, if you have a rule to inventory "\WINDOWS", that entire folder tree will be skipped on any Configuration Manager client that has a Skpswi.dat file in the \ WINDOWS folder. Disks with a Skpswi.dat file are not scanned to find files that are to be collected.

You can also place this file in the root of any folder structure you want to exclude from software inventory. This procedure can be used to disable software inventory on a single workstation or server client, such as a large file server. Software inventory will not inventory the client drive again unless this file is deleted from the drive on the client computer.

For more information see the following:

How to Exclude Folders From Software Inventory: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632671.aspx

ConfigMgr (SCCM) – Skip Software Inventory : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/6568.configmgr-sccm-skip-software-inventory.aspx

ARCHIVE_REPORTS.SMS

This is a client side file and is used when hardware/software inventory troubleshooting needs to be done.

When troubleshooting ConfigMgr client software or hardware inventory, you might want to retain the XML files that contain details on what the latest scan discovered (regardless whether the scan was a full scan or just a delta). In order to do this, we have to create a file named “archive_reports.sms” within %systemroot%\system32\ccm\inventory\temp\ or within %systemroot%\SysWOW64\ccm\inventory\temp\ depending if the machine is x64 or x86. Normally, on a regular client this would be as follows: C:\WINDOWS\system32\CCM\Inventory\temp\

Read the rest of the post http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2012/09/17/controlling-configuration-manager-2012-using-hidden-files.aspx

SCCM Configmgr 2012 SP1 is already out to All Customers (General Available) brining several cool features ,several fixes, improvements. However, due to a recent problem (Installation error 0x800b0101 and binary installation Endpoint Protection for Linux and iOS.) on this component,Microsoft just review the ISO SCCM 2012 SP1 and launched it again, duly corrected. So if you downloaded the ISO before the day 25.01.2013,It would be recommend to download again.

If you already in Production with Configmgr 2012 SP1 media released before the date,you should have already applied the fix to correct the issue and there is no need to Deploy this new media.

But is there any  information to fix issue with Endpoint protection for linux and Ios except downloading the New ISO ?

Download the New SCCM Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 ISO via below links :
·         Microsoft Volume Licensing Services (MVLS)
·          TechNet Subscriptions (Must have subscription)
·          MSDN Subscriptions (Must have subscription)
·          TechNet Evaluation Center (For Evaluation)

Configuration Manager 2007 gives you an option to create New folder (kind of Custom reports folder ) with New Category to create your Own reports what you required But in Configuration Manager 2012,i don’t see way to create New folder to create all the custom reports for your reference.

Creation of Custom folder is not available in configuration Manager 2012 ,the only option left out is to go with Category .

How do you create New Citatory ? If you right click on reports node from Configuration Console,you don’t get such option to create one.

You will have to go with web reports with enough rights to create it.

Open IE with SSRS report manager website : http://SCCMServername/reports

Click on the Report Folder (Configmgr_Sitecode)

Click on New Folder which is actually a Category to create reports underneath.

give A Name what you would like with some Description and click ok

the custom category what we created You see it below :

Now open the Console and go to monitoring node—>reporting–>reports

Now we can create our Custom reports in Custom Folder But how ? you don’t get an option to create new report under Custom Category.

Right click on reports node and select Create Report

Enter the right name for the report and then select the path where you want to store the report under ?

Once you are finished with the report,you will be prompted with Report Builder to enter the SQL query and more customizations.

Hope it Helps!

Yesterday Microsoft announced the general availability of System Center 2012 SP1! While the RTM bits have been available for a few weeks already to TechNet/MSDN subscribers and volume licensing customers, today marks the broad availability of System Center 2012 SP1 to all customers.

This includes All system center products includes Windows 8 RTM server. All products available to download from here

I have extracted the link to download SCCM Configmgr 2012 SP1 RTM only and available from here

If you are looking for SCCM Configmgr 2012 SP1 VHD to save time in installation,there is VHD available here

The System Center 2012 SP1 release is chock full of new features to light up the new functionality found in Windows Server 2012. The combination of System Center 2012 SP1 with Windows Server 2012 provides the foundation of what we call the ‘Cloud OS’.

You can read more about the Cloud OS and how System Center fits into the solution in these other articles:

What is the Cloud OS?

Transform Your Datacenter with System Center 2012 SP1

Official System Center 2012 SP1 Release Announcement

Cloud OS Vision