Author: Eswar Koneti

Software update groups in Configmgr 2012 simplifies lot of administrative work ,which simply  contains list of updates (must be downloaded before you add any updates) merged to single deployment (can have multiple deployments for single software update group). Coming to the subject line, It is necessary (during cleanup activity) to find software updates that are downloaded but not in any software update group (I said software update group but not deployment group ..there is little difference with these two). If you want to get software updates that are downloaded but not in any deployment group ,you can refer Stephen blog…

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  Recently ,I have got a request from the business unit manager on the reboot of computers due to patch management (applicable to Applications as well) .The Custom client device setting ‘ Display temporary notification to the user ' (shown below) set with 480 minutes across the enterprise workstations but specific department (ex: Engineering), not happy with this setting  due to the nature of their business. So ,we have agreed to have custom reboot settings . Creating Custom device settings and applying it onto collection is not that much difficult but the deal here is,creating a device collection using user…

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  Microsoft released Technical preview 4 (TP4) for Configmgr Vnext ( System Center Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection ) .The previous technical preview was Technical preview 3 with updated version 1510 (YYMM). Microsoft haven’t updated the TechNet documentation with capabilities available with this release (TP4) for now but soon to be updated here on https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn965439.aspx. This technical preview must be installed as new installation on server box with all the prerequisites met .Upgrading to SCCM Configmgr Vnext TP4 from a previous version of SCCM Configmgr Vnext TP3 is not supported. Upgrading from TP4 4 to a later version of SCCM…

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Few days ago,I had an issue while reading log files using Configmgr CMTrace tool.I tried opening the .log file to read the content but it failed to display the content and instead,it keep prompting me error message ‘The file either does not exist or could not be accessed.Do you want to continue anyway’. for other users who logged into the same computer,it works good. So I suspect,this could be user profile issue ? but I cannot recreate profile for this issue. It may requires some troubleshooting on this part. Below is what I get message after opening the log…

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There are many blog post online ,that discuss about Configuration manager client cache ,how it works, also many questions about content cleanup from ccmcache folder,cache size is increasing beyond the Cachesize limit etc. when you install Configuration manager client,by default it choose the cache location as %windir%\ccmcache with default size 5GB unless you explicitly specify.you can read the post about Client Cache from my previous blog here. How to change the configuration manager client cache size using script http://eskonr.com/2013/07/script-to-change-sccm-configmgr-change-client-cache-size/ Recently ,I was monitoring the patch compliance results at my customer and found that ,many of the clients have failed…

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While Creating SSRS reports for configuration manager ,I use lot of expressions through the report definition. These expressions (formula filed) are used frequently in reports to control content and report appearance. Expressions are written in Microsoft Visual Basic, and can use built-in functions, custom code, report and group variables, and user-defined variables. Expressions begin with an equal sign (=) syntax. These expressions can be used in reports to present data like calculate values for parameters, queries, filters, report item properties, group and sort definitions, text box properties, bookmarks, document maps, dynamic page header and footer content etc. SQL Expressions Optimizes…

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  There are instances (you might want to get list of required patches by server ,so can download and install in DMZ who do not have internet or for patch compliance checking for specific computer and many) , where you might be searching for list patches of required by specific computer/computers and generally ,we look at default reports if there is any report which can give me the required information. If you look at default reports,there is no exact report give you the list of patches required by specific computer with targeted,required,when was it released and other information. You can…

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Microsoft is bringing exciting features into Configuration manager product and making things more and more easy in all aspects to manage the infrastructure.Last month (September 2015) ,Microsoft has introduced new features into Configuration manager (expecting it would be called 2016 )technical preview 3 (Version 1509 ) called ‘Updates and servicing (this replaces the need to install separate service packs, cumulative updates, or Extensions for Microsoft Intune)’ and New look /update for Software Center (Apps that are published to users will be available in software center as well). On October 14th 2015 ,Microsoft released another update for Configuration manager Technical…

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