Remote Configuration Manager Console cannot view advertisements

When you install Configuration Manager console on a remote machine, you will not be able to view the advertisements from the console.












Thanks to the following article which enlightened me on what I should do to rectify this issue.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2010/03/11/fix-no-advertisements-are-listed-in-the-sccm-console-on-a-remote-machine-but-they-do-show-up-on-the-site-server-itself.aspx

Apparently, a file AdminConsole.xml which defines the viewing rules for the SCCM console has an incorrect query to retrieve the Advertisements.

Incorrect Query :
SELECT * FROM SMS_AdvertisementInfo WHERE NOT (AssignmentID = NULL) ORDER BY AdvertisementName

Correct Query :
SELECT * FROM SMS_AdvertisementInfo WHERE NOT (AssignmentID IS NULL) ORDER BY AdvertisementName

Now instead of installing the hotfix, I did it in a much faster way since it's just modifying the xml file.

• Open the XML folder location eg:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\XmlStorage\ConsoleRoot

• Edit the AdminConsole.xml file (by opening it via NotePad)
  
• Search for the Incorrect Query (as mentioned above)
  
• Replace it with the Correct Query (as mentioned above too)
  
• Save the XML file
• Restart your console

Voila' ... the advertisement is being listed now.

Updates not deployed ... even after 1 hr !!!!!

Was building a lab image for my training class next week and somehow things was not as smooth as I would fancy. :(

It was supposed to be a simple Software Update deployment lab which I am preparing and what seemed to be a very routine step (yes, did this hundreds of times and it works all the time) but somehow my client machines is still not getting the software update after 1 hour ! ( triggered countlessly on the Machine Policy and Software Update Deployment Cycle actions)

Well, I took a look at the client's updatesdeployment.log and noticed that the advertisement is not activated yet ! Chaos mode !

Then took a look at the Deployment Management for the update, and noticed that my Time/Settings is set to UTC which is by default.

So the lesson learned here is, unless you are great with mathematics calculations of timezone/date, better stick with the Client Local Time options !

Installing of SCCM agent failed: WMI repository error

It's been a while since my last posting. Has been extremely tied up with work and community events of late. Anyways, I have something interesting to share with folks out there who has difficulties deploying their SCCM agents.

Was helping my colleague to deploy SCCM for a customer and suddenly we noticed that a couple of machines has problems when we tried to push the agents. A check on the log files showed that we have some problems with WMI repository:

- Failed to open to WMI namespace '\\.\root\ccm' (80041014) CcmExec 8/30/2007 2:25:09 PM 2148 (0x0864)
- CCMDoCertificateMaintenance failed (0x80041014). CcmExec 8/30/2007 2:25:09 PM 2148 (0x0864)
- Phase 0 initialization failed (0x80041014). CcmExec 8/30/2007 2:25:09 PM 2148 (0x0864)
- Failed to connect to CCM namespace CcmExec 8/30/2007 8:13:56 AM 2160 (0x0870)

Managed to find the solution from http://www.myitforum.com/forums/m_165955/tm.htm

What needs to be done is:
- On the client machines, shut down WMI service
- Goto C:\Windows\System32\WBEM and rename the repository to maybe "oldrepository". Basically what we do here is to rebuild the WMI repository.
- Restart WMI service and you should be able to see a new repository will be generated

ConfigMgr: Manually trigger auto-provisioning of vPro machine

I bumped into this whilst playing with Out of Band Management in ConfigMgr2007 SP1. My vPro machine just couldn't get provisioned by my ConfigMgr server. I was reading through the logs and the provisioning task failed once and did not resume even I ran the Refresh Machine Policy from my client.

Then my good friend from Intel Paul Haines and Ow Haw Kuang shared with me that the auto-provisioning only executes every 24 hours but then you can still trigger it manually using WMI to force the provisioning task.

This topic is covered in the following link:
http://communities.intel.com/community/openportit/vproexpert/microsoft-vpro/blog/2008/10/01/using-wmi-to-force-the-sccm-agent-to-check-for-its-amt-auto-provisioning-policy

I did the simple method of copying the following code into a vbs file and running it from the client machine and it works !

Option Explicit
Main
Sub Main()
Dim oLocator
Set oLocator = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")
Dim oServices
Set oServices = oLocator.ConnectServer( , "root\ccm\policy\machine\actualconfig")
Dim oObjectSet
Set oObjectSet = oServices.InstancesOf("CCM_OutOfBandManagementSettings")
Dim oObject
For Each oObject In oObjectSet
Wscript.Echo "Name: " & oObject.AutoProvision
oObject.AutoProvision = False
oObject.Put_
WScript.Sleep 500
Wscript.Echo "Name: " & oObject.AutoProvision
oObject.AutoProvision = true
oObject.Put_
Next
End Sub

ConfigMgrSP1 Lab: PreReq & Installation

Started building my ConfigMgr SP1 lab on the recently released RC version. Few things I would like to share out.

One being the preRequisites checker. Though this is a minor thing, but it can save you alot of time if you do things right at the first time. Get all the things prepared before you start installing else you will waste a lot of time finding/requesting them.

The other would be a trick (which I tried) which is to reuse the preReq components that was downloaded for the RTM version on SP1, again this might be a small thing to take note but it can save you alot of time if you get this ready as well.

Pre-Req for Installation of ConfigMgrSP1:

• .NET Framework 2.0
  • Standard preReq
• SQL Server 2005 Standard SP2
  • Standard preReq
• MS XML 6.0 Core Services Installed
  • Standard preReq
• Software Update KB 932303 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93927)
  • The WMI service may stop responding on Configuration Manager site systems with the .NET 2.0 framework installed.) IIS installed (with BITs and WebDAV installed and enabled
• WSUS 3.0 SP1 Installed (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79477)
  • Required for Software Update Point
• Windows Remote Management v1.1 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/KB936059)
  • Required for Out Of Band console and must be installed on the primary site
• Windows 2003-based schannel hotfix
  • Required for Out Of Band service point.
  • NOTE: * You need to request for this hotfix as it is not released for public download yet. Kindly visit (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942841/en-us) to request for the hotfix
• MMC Update for ConfigMgr (Software Update)
  • This software update addresses several MMC errors that may occur when running the Configuration Manager console. This update should be applied if any of the following occur: Configuration Manager console stops responding when the host computer is low on available memory, context menu errors on console home pages, or inconsistent display after drag-and-drop operations do not succeed.
  • NOTE: * You need to request for this hotfix as it is not released for public download yet. Kindly visit : (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98349) to request for the hotfix

Tips & Tricks

Question: Can I use the previous pre-Requisite Components that was downloaded into my local directory (e.g. C:\Downloads) and just download the updated copy ?

Answer: Yes you can, just rename the existing ConfigMgr.Manifest.cab file and re-initiate download. ConfigMgr will go and download the latest ConfigMgr.Manifest.cab file and you only have 4 files to be downloaded from internet compared to 89 files altogether which are:

• WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe
• WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe
• WindowsUpdateAgent30-ia64.exe
• ccmsetup.cab
  

That's it for now ...

ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 RC is out

For those who doesn't know about this, Release Candidate ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 is out.

https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=8163&SiteID=16

Notable thing to play with ... Out Of Band Management of course. If only I can find the machines that has VPro support ...

Important Note:

The previous Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Beta is not supported with this RC release of SP1. This means you cannot install R2 Beta on an SP1 RC site, and if you upgrade an SP1 Beta site with R2 Beta to SP1 RC, all R2 functionality will be lost as well. An updated R2 build compatible with the updated Service Pack 1 will be released later. So just hang in there !

As usual, realm of ConfigMgr 2007 has been extremely exciting off late. With Out Of Band Management (OOBM) and recently release Windows 2008 I can start planning to test both OOBM and NAP on my lab ...