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ConfigMgr 2007 to ConfigMgr 2012 Migrations steps

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:33:27 +0100

So I finally got the time and opportunity to write a few experiences coming through our ConfigMgr site Upgrades and Migrations so far ...

Before we even go at that level, I just want a make a few notes on the key features which got changed from SCCM 2007 to SCCM 2012 - So, In SCCM 2012 no longer uses mixed or native site modes. Instead, it supports multiple management points on the same site, where a management point can be configured to support secured HTTPS client communication using PKI, and other management points can be configured to support unsecured HTTP communication. Load balancing a management point using Network Load Balancing (NLB) is no longer needed. Microsoft does not support performing an in-place upgrade from SCCM 2007 to SCCM 2012. To upgrade, you must perform a side-by-side migration. This is due to SCCM 2012 now being a native 64-bit application and changes in site types and site relationships.

In SCCM 2012, you can't change the parent relationship of an active site. You can make a site a child of another one only when installing it as a new site. This is due to the new database replication model.

When a CAS site is deployed, a primary site must also be deployed to manage systems and users (normally in the same location as the CAS). Having a CAS also allows you to deploy additional primary sites. If a CAS site isn't installed because you are working on a small deployment, then the first site deployed in the hierarchy is a primary site. You can't install additional primary sites if you don't have a CAS server. However, you can install secondary sites as child sites of the single primary site server.

A primary site in SCCM 2012 is similar to primary sites in SCCM 2007. A primary site is no longer needed as a boundary for client agent settings or security or for network bandwidth control. In SCCM 2012, instead of creating different sites to manage clients, you create different collections. You can configure custom client agent settings using collection-based targeting.

Secondary sites in SCCM 2012 provide the same functionality as in SCCM 2007. Microsoft has introduced a new technology in SCCM 2012 that provides the ability to remove secondary sites. This is the capability of distribution points to implement bandwidth throttling and scheduling.

Secondary sites can no longer be installed from the SCCM setup. They must be installed from the console. These are the available options presented by setup.

SCCM 2012 sites can now publish site data to Active Directory (AD) trusted forests for improved support to clients there. Although beta 2 supports clients in workgroups, it does not support clients in untrusted forests.

Upgrading SCCM 2007 to SCCM 2012 is not supported
Due to changes introduced in SCCM 2012, if you want to keep your SCCM data and objects, you have to do a side-by-side migration. This was common when going from SMS 2003 to SCCM 2007 but now Microsoft provides built-in tools to assist with the migration. Before you use these tools, you have to have the new SCCM 2012 hierarchy deployed and functioning. SCCM 2012 introduces no new changes to the Active Directory (AD) Schema from SCCM 2007, so if your AD schema has already been extended for SCCM 2007, you don't have to extend it for SCCM 2012. Just make sure that you don't have overlapping boundaries in AD from the SCCM 2007 and the SCCM 2012 hierarchies. On the SCCM 2012 console, there's a Migration page where you'll specify the Source Hierarchy, which is the SCCM 2007 hierarchy that you want to migrate data and objects from.

Source Hierarchy
For the source hierarchy you specify the top-level site of the ConfigMgr 2007 hierarchy (must be at SCCM SP2 level). If you have child sites on your SCCM 2007 hierarchy, you can then configure them as additional source sites so you are able to select objects to migrate from them. You can migrate objects from multiple sites into one SCCM 2012 site, allowing you to consolidate sites. You can even migrate data from more than one SCCM 2007 hierarchy and from untrusted AD forests, with the limitation of migrating one hierarchy at a time. Site codes on source and target sites and hierarchies must be unique. You can't re-use site codes from a source hierarchy to the new one.

Distribution Points
A Distribution Point now has throttling and scheduling features. The PXE service point role has been moved as a component of a distribution point. Now Distribution Points can also be installed on workstations that are members of the AD domain.

Secondary Sites
If you need to control SCCM traffic from a site server to another location, you can now use the SCCM 2012 distribution point, which includes throttling and scheduling features. You would only need a secondary site if you also need to control traffic sent from client systems to the site server, as the secondary site has a Management Point. The PXE server role is now part of the Distribution Point. Secondary sites and other system roles have to be manually uninstalled from the SCCM 2007 hierarchy and redeployed on the SCCM 2012 hierarchy.

Collections
Collections containing both users and systems or devices can't be migrated. If you have these collections in SCCM 2007 and you need to migrate them, start separating users from systems. This also applies to linked or sub-collections that may have resources of a type different than the parent. Empty collections are migrated as an organizational folder of the same name. If you select to migrate a collection that is linked to another one or has sub-collections, the dependent collections are automatically selected for migration. Because collections in SCCM 2012 are global data, they are evaluated at each site in the hierarchy. Plan to limit the scope of a collection after it is migrated (by limiting the members to another collection) to avoid having unanticipated members that could be unexpected targets of advertisements targeting the collection. Collection-based migration jobs disable advertisements targeting the collection by default, but this option can be disabled during the migration job configuration.

Packages
Packages and Programs, part of Software Distribution, can be automatically migrated (the metadata of the package objects). For content migration (binary files) see the "Shared Distribution Points" section below. Most of the time, a package setting includes the package source. Ensure that all your packages in the SCCM 2007 hierarchy are using a UNC path as the source file location. App-V packages are converted to applications during the migration but a deployment needs to be created afterwards. Distribution Point Sharing does not apply to App-V packages.

Server Locator Point
This is no longer a site system role. The functionality of the Server Locator Point (SLP) has been included in the Management Point (MP).

Software Update Point
If you are going to migrate Software Update objects, you must have first deployed a Software Update Point (SUP) on your new SCCM 2012 hierarchy. The new SCCM 2012 SUP must contain the same updates as the SCCM 2007 SUP before the migration. You can use wsusutil.exe to assist you with this. The migration supports converting Update Lists to Update Groups, migrating Deployments to Deployments and Update Groups, and migrating Software Update Packages and Templates.

Reporting Point
The standard Reporting Point role (Web reporting) is no longer supported in SCCM 2012. Only the Reporting Services Point, based on SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), is supported. Migrating SCCM 2007 Web reports or SQL Server Reporting Services reports from SCCM 2007 to SCCM 2012 is not supported. Due to this, you may want to start using SQL Server Reporting Services on SCCM 2007 now because you can export these reports to an RDL file and then import it into your SCCM 2012 hierarchy. You can copy your standard Web reports in your SCCM 2007 hierarchy to SQL Reporting Services on the same hierarchy to help you prepare.

Shared Distribution Points
One of the migration tools offered by Microsoft is to be able to share Distribution Points (DP) from the SCCM 2007 hierarchy with the SCCM 2012 hierarchy. This way, you can deploy software to clients that have been migrated to SCCM 2012 without having to push the content of packages to an SCCM 2012 DP, as they can obtain content from the shared SCCM 2007 DP. Once the migration completes, it is not supported to keep sharing the DPs as a DP can be shared only when the SCCM 2007 hierarchy where the shared DP belongs to remains as the active source hierarchy. The exceptions to what can be shared from an SCCM 2007 DP are boot images and App-V content. Note that upgrading an SCCM 2007 DP to SCCM 2012 automatically is supported (except branch DPs) as long as the DP is the only SCCM role on the system and there's sufficient free disk space as used space will be doubled during the upgrade from the old SMSPKG$ share to the SCCM 2012 content library. You can also manually upgrade an SCCM 2007 DP by uninstalling it, then deploy it in the SCCM 2012 hierarchy and use the new pre-stage content feature to get the content of packages to it.

Upgrading Clients
The minimum operating system requirement for the SCCM 2012 client is Windows XP SP2 (x64) and SP3 (x32). The documentation may call it an upgrade but really the SCCM 2007 client is not upgraded to the SCCM 2012 client. The SCCM 2007 client is actually uninstalled, and then the SCCM 2012 client is installed. The client's inventory data is not migrated so once the SCCM 2012 client is installed, it has to send full inventory data to the SCCM database. Due to this, plan to migrate the clients in controlled phases as to not to overload your network. The SCCM 2012 client is now x64 platform but x32 is supported. The .Net Framework 4.0 is a requirement for the SCCM 2012 client, and it is installed automatically during the installation of the client. Because the installation of the .Net Framework 4.0 takes some time, you may want to pre-deploy it to the clients. The client's SMS GUID and execution history is kept during the uninstall/reinstall so the system with the new SCCM 2012 client does not rerun advertisements that it has already run. Client's historical inventory data is not kept. If you need this historical data, you would need to keep an SCCM 2007 site active after migration until this data is no longer needed.

Config Mgr SP1 CTP1 Build Upgrade in our infrastructure

Sat, 05 May 2012 03:00:40 +0100

As we were upgrading our infrastructure to Config Mgr SP1 CTP1 Build, I just wanted to list items on a over all phases we went through the up-gradation. We first ran a pre-upgrade task list as below, to make sure all the items are in place, before we apply the build (Up-gradation).

Task

Status

Server Suppression

SCCM Backup

SQL Backup

Export SCEP Policies

Export Boundary Configuration

Share Export Permissions

Copy Installation Bits

Uninstall WAIK

Install ADK

Run QC Checker

Enable Power Management Settings

Verify .Net 4.0 is installed

Verify sites are running on a supported SQL collation

Run Windows Update

Preinst /deljob only remove the job files and SRQ files will still remain

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:28:35 +0100

When we run preinst /deljob multiple times on the child sites. We can see the JOB files and TOSEND box will be cleared, however the SRQ files will still remain. We can find the orphaned SRQ files are still processing in the schedule.log (for example below).

Send Request 39OL14PA   JobID: 00208615   DestSite: ABC   FinalSite:      State: Pending   Status:            Action:    None   Total size:        0k   Remaining:        0k   Heartbeat: 16:38   Start: 12:00   Finish:   12:00   Retry:        1/01/2010 4:38:51 AM       5504 (0x1580)
    Checking send request 39OL14PA        1/01/2010 4:47:55 AM       5504 (0x1580)
        Send request is pending.      1/01/2010 4:47:55 AM       5504 (0x1580)

We generally sometimes see this issue, when we do a DELJOB. We have to manually remove the SRQ and Instruction files by using a PowerShell script which searches for the deleted site’s SITECODE(Be sure to chance the sitecode before running the script)...

$xyz = gi "I:\SMS\inboxes\schedule.box\tosend\*.*"
#$xyz = gi "d:\temp\*.*"
foreach ($x in $xyz)
{
$Path = $x.DirectoryName +'\'+ $x.name
$a = select-string -pattern "SITECODE" -path $path -casesensitive
if ($a)
{$a.filename

List of ConfigMgr Post SP2 Hotfixes

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:12:32 +0100

We have a few list of ConfigMgr Pot SP2 Hotfixes that are listed below.

NOTE: It is not suggested to install each and every hotfix one after the other - it is recommended only to install them if you are experiencing the problem described.

978022 Memory leak in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 if the distribution point role is enabled High

981640 The “Backup ConfigMgr Site Server” task fails on a ConfigMgr 2007 site server High

977056 The memory allocation for the Wmiprvse.exe process keeps increasing when you update the membership rules of a collection frequently on a computer that is running System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 or SP2 High

982399 A System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server randomly stops processing status messages High

978914 The enroll.exe utility for Windows CE 5.0 mobile devices does not read the user name and password you entered in the enroll.cfg file that is used for authentication Low

978588 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 does not support mobile devices that are running Windows CE 6.0 Low

981796 Japanese characters are displayed incorrectly in the Configuration Manager console after you use ConfigMgr Site Repair Wizard in ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 Low

978759 The Compliance Evaluation report is not localized correctly on the Japanese version of the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 client Low

978021 The Distribution Manager that is in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 does not honor the “Number of retries” and “Delay before retrying (minutes)” retry settings Medium

978754 You cannot import a driver into an OSD image if the driver is signed for only the Windows 7 operating system in SCCM 2007 SP2 Medium

977203 User state migration fails on a SCCM 2007 SP1 client or on a SCCM 2007 SP2 client after you install security update 974571 Medium

979199 Files are collected incorrectly by Software Inventory or by File collection if the “Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes” option is changed Medium

976073 The Windows Deployment Service stops responding when you use a PXE service point on a computer that is running a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 or SP2 site server Medium

980488 Asset Intelligence does not collect the “SMS_InstalledSoftwareMS” reporting class on an SCCM 2007 client in a Windows 2000 operation system Medium

980270 The computer associations are not created by the import computer information wizard in SCCM 2007 Service pack 2 Medium

978757 The second Search paths may not discovered when you enable the Active Directory System Discovery method or the Active Directory User Discovery method that runs on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server Medium

978756 Error message when you try to change a deployment template in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 or in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2: “You do not have security rights to perform this operation” Medium

982203 The SMS Agent Host service crashes on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 client computer if you connect the client to a network that has the NAP feature enabled Medium

983511 Description of a hotfix that increases the number of Asset Intelligence custom labels in System Center Configuration Manager SP2 Low

2176220 The memory usage of a Wmiprvse.exe process keeps increasing on a computer that has System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 installed High

982212 A long time is required to apply a change to the properties of a direct membership collection in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Medium

981797 The handle count and memory usage of Smsexec.exe keeps increasing in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 High

983514 Some OUs are not discovered in Active Directory System Discovery or in Active Directory User Discovery on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server Medium

982400 A long delay occurs when you click “Refresh” to view the latest membership in a dynamic collection on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server Low

2263826 Hotfix rollup for Asset Intelligence in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Low

2205131 The deployment package is not available for an assigned client in a protected boundary for a branch distribution point if you enable a certain option in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Medium

2278119 The Systems Management Server (SMS) Agent Host service (Ccmexec.exe) stops responding on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 client computer High

2276865 The “Date modified” attribute for each file is changed after you deploy the files to a client computer by advertising a task sequence from a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server Medium

2213600 ”You cannot import a driver package into a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site if one or more driver files in the package are already imported into the site
“ Medium

2345551 ”The Active Directory system discovery process cannot detect a client if the DNS suffix of the client differs from its DNS domain name in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2
“ Medium

Microsoft's Vision for System Center in the Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:24:02 +0100

Cloud Computing – 1. The New Platform For Next Generation Business There has been a lot of hype in the industry around cloud computing, also we have been hearing,observing& experiencing a proliferation of cloud service providers claiming to provide infrastructure, platform and application services consumable via the “cloud”.

What does this really mean from an IT perspective? Microsoft believes the industry is going through a significant transformation across the entire stack:

Datacenter and Hardware Model – Microsoft is looking out for a significant advances and standardization in the Datacenter and associated IT equipment/hardware. From large monolithic datacenters that take significant time and cost to build out, various alternative models including containerized and modular/ pre-assembled datacenters are emerging. Hardware is becoming incredibly efficient and delivers large computing power at a fraction of the cost.
Application Model – Cloud computing provides the ability to quickly deliver highly-available, secure and infinitely geo-scalable applications and services while offering a rich end-user experience from anywhere and any device.
Operational Model – Cloud services have inherent resilience to hardware or software failures due to redundant/self-healing service models combined with deep integration between ops & development/ test. These factors make it easy for operations to run & manage cloud apps with 24x7 availability without having to be “lights on” always.

2. Business Benefits Offered By Cloud Computing

Once these cloud driven transformations become mainstream, enterprise IT will experience breakthrough business benefits, many of which Microsoft has been advocating as part of its multi-year “Dynamic IT” vision:

· Increased business agility – Applications and services can be delivered to market in an extremely agile manner with the end-user & developer empowerment that cloud computing unleashes.

· Costs/Operational Efficiencies – Cloud apps/services will be significantly cheaper and efficient, be it capital expenses (e.g. hardware/datacenter) or operational expenses (e.g. service management).

· IT Maturity – Standardization will lead to much greater levels of IT maturity thus transforming the relationship between IT and the business from that of service provider to trusted advisor.

Microsoft’s Approach To Help Enterprises Realize Cloud Computing Benefits: Microsoft has been providing industry level thought leadership to all of the above (based on running our cloud services out of our data centers) and is investing in product capabilities so you can derive these benefits within your data centers in the future.

3. Private Cloud

There has been a lot of recent excitement around the potential benefits enterprise IT can derive by implementing a private cloud (or internal cloud) within their firewall. To better understand this aspiration, let’s look at some characteristics of Microsoft’s cloud services (e.g. Windows Azure) that we operate out of our data centers:

· Standardization – Homogeneous infrastructures with vertical integration across server, network, storage and OS. This is achieved by implementing a shared pool of virtualized hardware pools with centralized administrative control over apps/workload additions.

· Service Focused – It’s all about delivering the application or service that the business demands and not the component services (e.g. infrastructure).

· Automation - Significant levels of automation, based on cloud principled philosophies like resiliency, scalability and elasticity.

· “Lights out” Operations – Scale through the app design and abstraction from infrastructure.

· Utilization based charge back

Evolving Your Datacenters To Derive Cloud Like Benefits Today(28/01/11)

Microsoft customers can begin their journey to the private cloud today(28/01/11) by deploying the Microsoft products and technologies they know and trust. We have recently made Opalis and Service Manager available as part of System Center to help customers build deeper orchestration and IT process automation for their private cloud environments. As mentioned in earlier sections, Microsoft is fully committed to deliver richer private cloud capabilities mentioned above as part of the Windows Server and System Center roadmaps.

Presently, Microsoft is enabling customers build the foundation for a private cloud infrastructure using the Windows Server and System Center family of products with the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit (availability currently scheduled for June 2010). This will allow you to further leverage your existing investments in the Microsoft infrastructure platform while maturing your IT capabilities to consume advanced cloud capabilities in the future.

The Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit is a free, partner-extensible solution that will enable datacenters to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage resources to enable Infrastructure as a Service. Whether you’re an enterprise customer, a systems integrator, or an independent software vendor, the toolkit will help you create agile, virtualized IT infrastructures and enable business agility, reduced management complexity and operational efficiencies.

Some key Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit capabilities:

· Automation and Guidance - To assess, plan and design your private cloud foundation infrastructure

· Customer/business unit on-boarding - Automated workflows to onboard LOBs to your virtualized shared resource pool

· Dynamic provisioning engine – To rapidly provision virtualized infrastructure in conjunction with System Center and Hyper-V

· Self-Service portal – To empower consumers of IT request infrastructure for their apps/services.

· All the above principles will remain true whether it’s your assets or if you’re working with a service provider (e.g. a Microsoft hosting partner) or deploying to Microsoft’s datacenters (e.g. Windows Azure).

Only Microsoft has the developer tools, management, server and cloud assets to achieve the above described consistency between private and public cloud solutions.

Package Replication Issues

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 04:58:03 +0100

Below post will guide you on how to troubleshoot issues that may arise during the replication of packages assigned to Distribution Points (DPs). If a package is targeted to a child site, the Package Distribution process includes replicating the package files to the child site, decompressing them, and copying them to the appropriate locations on the child site. The Distribution Manager manages the replication of package definition files and package source files to child sites. If there is a child site to replicate the package, the Distribution Manager creates the package replication file in the appropriate directory. If a compressed version of the package source files does not exist, the Distribution Manager compresses the package source directory into a temporary directory and stores the compressed copy of the package in the relevant directory.

If Distribution Manager must replicate a package to a child site, it creates a package replication file in Replmgr.box file. At the child site, it copies source files to its distribution points, updates the site database, and distributes objects to the appropriate inboxes.

When package replication fails, error messages appear on the Site Server Console. Alternatively, error messages may appear in the System Status → Package Status → Component Status tree for any of the components related to package distribution. In addition, error messages may also appear due to insufficient disk space. When package replication fails, you need to complete the following steps to implement the workaround procedure:

Verify package status at central site
Verify package status at destination servers
Enforce package distribution

Verifying Package Status at Central Site

To verify the package status at the central site, perform the following steps:

1. In the SMS Administrator Console, navigate to Site Database ® System Status ® Package Status.

2. Select the required Distribution Point within the package.

3. If the package status is “Install Pending,” right-click the Distribution Point (within the package) and select Show All Messages to view the package details. Alternatively, you can open the distmgr.log file and view the package details. The “Install Pending” state denotes that the package has been running since a long time.

4. Open Site Status tree and select the required Distribution Point.

5. Open Component Status to verify the SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER status messages.

6. If the description of the status displays “SMS Distribution Manager failed to process package” message, verify the .PCK file size from SMSPKG directory and compare it with the destination .PCK file.

7. Open the distmgr.log file at the site server. If the description of the status displays “Failed to decompress package,” verify the free disk space availability on the source drive. If the package status displays the “Installed” message, it denotes that the package was successfully sent to the Distribution Point. To confirm, verify the package folder of the Distribution Point.

Package(s) in Hung State

Check if there is enough disk space.

2. From CS Server, remove the Package from the Site Server it is failing on.

a. Open ConfigMgr Console

b. Locate the Package and Alt Click and select Manage Distribution Points

c. Click Next, Select Delete the package from Selected DP and click Next

d. Check the box next to the servers experiencing the issue and click next two times

e. Wait 15 minutes before proceeding to step 3

3.Update package source version in the CS ”Central server” and PS “Primary server” (Use PS that the child site server reports to) SCCM Databases. Do the following for both Databases.

a. Open SQL Server Management Studio.

b. Run a new query against the SMS_<SITE> database.

c. Run the following query to check the current SourceVersion of the stuck package:

select * from pkgstatus

where sitecode = '<SiteCode>' and id = '<ID>' and location like ‘%<site server name>%’

Replace <> items with the appropriate values as used in the prior query.

d. Run the following query to reset the SourceVersion of the stuck package to 0:
update pkgstatus

set SourceVersion = '0'

where sitecode = '<SiteCode>' and id = '<ID>' and location like ‘%<site server name>%’

Replace <> items with the appropriate values.

4. On the site server experiencing the issue, rename package.pck files.

a. Browse to SMSPKG location and search for <PACKAGEID>.PCK

i. Alt click and rename to <PACKAGEID>.PCK.OLD

b. Browse to DISTMGR.BOX and for <PACKAGEID>.PCK

i. Alt click and rename to <PACKAGEID>.PCK.OLD

c. Wait 15 minutes before proceeding to step 5

F 5. From CS Server, add the Package to the Site Server it is failing on.

a. Open ConfigMgr Console

b. Locate the Package and Alt Click and select Manage Distribution Points

c. Click Next, Select Add the package to Selected DP and click Next

d. Check the box next to the servers experiencing the issue and click next until the end.

3. 6.On site server, open DISTMGR.LOG and monitor for the entries pertaining to the specified package id.

Troubleshooting ConfigMgr Reporting Site Link Performance Issues

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 04:29:20 +0100

This post describes the procedure to troubleshoot the SMS reporting site link performance issues.

firstly, let's observer what will be impacted if there are performance issues with SMS reporting site link, you will not be able provide ready access to additional data.

· For example, you might link a report that lists all site codes to another report that lists all recent error messages for a given site code. The source report passes a specific site code to the target report based on the line item in the source report that the user chooses to obtain more information. SMS reports are created in the SMS Administrator Console. They are assigned security and are available for use by anyone with the URL and a Web browser. The reporting site is the ASP code running SQL queries against views in the SQL database, providing fast performance and no client-side software. In addition, if charting is desired, Office Web Components can be added to the reporting server, allowing the reports to include charts and graphs of the SMS data.

The reporting site home page provides a hierarchy of reports, and only the reports that a user has been granted rights to are shown. The reports can be simple (select, click display, and view), or can have prompted values (select, enter values, click display, view). The simple (no prompted values) reports can be gathered together into dashboards, which is a single page with multiple reports displayed.

When the SMS report URL is unresponsive or slow, perform the following procedure: Recycle WMI. If that does not help, recycle the SMS services. This should resolve the issue. If the issue is not resolved even then, verify if IIS is up and running. Also, verify whether SQL database is accessible or not. Even in case the issue still persists, don't worry we have another step - reset the value of AspBufferingLimit in the file located at C:\winnt\system32 \inetsrv\metabase.xml. After performing the above steps Users should be able to view the Reports.

WSUS 3.0 : Connecting, Managing and Moving SUSDB as Internal Database

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:38:01 +0100

You might be knowing that, WSUS gives you the choice, at the moment of installation, to choose a database instance where you would like to keep the WSUS database (SUSDB): Internal database (formerly known as SQL Server embedded), an existing database or an existing database on a remote computer.

Sometimes, for example if you are just spiking about WSUS and you don’t want to install any version of SQL Server, you best choice would be the Internal Database option. But what happens if you change your mind later and you want to change the location of that internal database to a different drive? Or simply executing other tasks on the database, like generating a backup or shrinking?

Fortunately there’s a way to connect to that DB without having to re install WSUS:

Using SQL Server Management Studio

Note: If you don’t have it, you can download the stand alone tool for SQL 2005 version: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express; or you can download SQL Server 2008 Express Edition (the latest of the free SQL Server versions, includes among the tools the SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express).

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio. In my case, I’m using SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.

2. Using the connection window, connect to this instance:
\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query

3. You should see now in Object Explorer the database instance connection. Right-click on SUSDB –> Tasks –> Detach

4. Check the options for “Drop Connections” to remove all active connections to that DB. Click OK.

5. A message saying that the DB is not accessible should appear. Click OK.

6. Move the database files to the new drive or location where you are planning to keep it.

7. Back to the instance connection. Right-click Databases –> Attach.

8. Click on “Add” and select the .mdf folder where you relocated the database.

9. Click OK to attach it again.

10. Your database should be working now on the new location.

Using SQL functions / SQLCMD

Note: If you want to use SQLCMD command line utility you can download it from the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, where you’ll find plenty of SQL utilities.

1. Run “cmd” and locate it where the sqlcmd executable is. Usually: %Program Files%\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\binn.

2. Type in “sqlcmd -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query –E” press Enter.

3. You are now connected to Internal Database instance. Type “EXEC sp_detach_db @dbname = ‘SUSDB’”.

4. On the next query line, type “GO” and press Enter.

5. Exit the SQLCMD utility. Type “EXIT” and then type “GO”.

6. Move the database files to the new file location.

7. Reconnect to the Internal Database instance: “sqlcmd -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query –E”.

8. Attach it again: “EXEC sp_attach_db @dbname = ‘SUSDB’, @filename1 = ‘<path>SUSDB.mdf’, @filename2 = ‘<path>SUSDB_log.ldf’”.

9. Exit the SQLCMD utility. Type “EXIT” and then type “GO”.

Even though you would now be knowing how to access the internal WSUS database, I would recommend to migrate this internal database to a SQL Server database if you have the chance, and remember that you can use the light and free version of Microsoft database engine: SQL Server Express Edition (2005 or the 2008 version).

VB Script to find a service status on mutiple server list

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:46:30 +0100

Below is the script to know a service status, whether it's Installed\running\stopped:

Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

'filenames for input/output
strComputerList = "Servers.txt"
strDefaultLogFile = "Service Details.log"
strCSVFile = "Services.csv"

set input = WScript.StdIn
set output = WScript.StdOut

set wshobj = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set source = fso.OpenTextFile(strComputerList, ForReading)
Set target = fso.CreateTextFile(strDefaultLogFile, ForWriting)
Set CSVTarget = fso.CreateTextFile(strCSVFile, ForWriting)
CSVTarget.WriteLine "NetBiosName" & "," & "Servicename Status"
' Read the list of computers to check
Do While source.AtEndOfStream <> True
strComputer = source.Readline
'Target.writeline "Computer Name: " &strComputer
'CSVTarget.WriteLine "Service Name" & "," & "WU Service Status"
CSVTarget.WriteLine strComputer & "," & Services(strComputer)

Loop
target.close
source.close

Function Services(strComputer)

On Error Resume Next
strServiceState = ""
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & _
  "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _
  strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
  Services = "Error"
  Wscript.Echo "Error Connecting to Machine."

  Target.writeline "Error Connecting to Machine."
  Exit Function
End IF

Set colServiceState = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("SELECT * FROM Win32_service where Name = 'Servicename'")

For Each objServiceState in colServiceState
  strServiceState = objServiceState.State
  wscript.echo strServiceState
  Target.Writeline "Servicename Status: " &strServiceState
  Target.Writeline "####################"
  Target.Writeline
Next

Services = strServiceState
End Function

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where "Servers.txt" is the text file which contains the list of server names you like to know the service status and you should replace the "Servicename " field with the name of the service you would like to find the status.

SCCM 2007: What are Inboxes, How to monitor inboxes in Configuration Manager 2007

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:33:07 +0100

The inbox folders in the \inboxes subdirectory of the ConfigMgr 2007 install directory temporarily store files before they are processed to the site database or transferred to another site or site component. Monitoring inbox folders on a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 can help you troubleshoot problems with different ConfigMgr components.You should periodically examine the Configuration Manager 2007 inbox folders for a backlog of files that wait to be processed, as this can indicate that a component is not running or is experiencing a problem.

Inbox Folders in Configuration Manager 2007: You can monitor inbox folders on a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 site to help troubleshoot problems with different components. Below are the some of the Configuration Manager 2007 inbox folders. You should periodically examine the Configuration Manager 2007 inbox folders for a backlog of files that wait to be processed. The inbox folders temporarily store files before they are processed to the site database or transferred to another site or site component. A backlog of files can indicate that a component is not running or is experiencing a problem. For example, when the Microsoft SQL Server database runs out of space, a backlog of files occurs until the files are processed to the site database.

Inbox Folders

\Auth: This folder and its subfolders are used by Configuration Manager 2007 sites, management points, and clients. Configuration Manager 2007 uses these folders to temporarily store hardware, software, and discovery data records (.ddr files).

\Auth\dataldr.box: This folder stores .mif files that represent hardware inventory data for Configuration Manager 2007 client computers. This folder also stores IDMIF files for custom architectures. A backlog of files can indicate problems accessing the site database. Examine the status messages for the Inventory Data Loader for possible problems. You can also examine the Dataldr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\dataldr.box\process: This folder stores .mif files that are in process. A backlog of files can indicate problems accessing the site database. Examine the status messages for the Inventory Data Loader for possible problems. You can also examine the Dataldr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\ddm.box: This folder temporarily stores .ddr files after a client or server agent generates a discovery record. Examine the status messages for the Discovery Data Manager (DDM) for possible problems. You can also examine the Ddm.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\ddm.box\BAD_DDRS: This folder stores .ddr files that are corrupted. A backlog of files can indicate a network corruption problem or a problem with the DDM. Configuration Manager 2007 automatically deletes .ddr files that are older than 25 hours. Examine the status messages for the Discover Data Manager component for possible problems. You can also examine the Ddm.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\sinv.box: This folder stores client software inventory files (.sic and .sid files) that are copied from the management point. A backlog of files can indicate that the Software Inventory Processor cannot connect to the site database or that too many files were received. Examine the status messages for the Software Inventory Processor for possible problems. You can also examine the Sinvproc.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\sinv.box\Orphans: This folder stores hardware and software inventory that cannot be processed. Inventory files that are moved to this folder are retried later. A backlog of files can indicate problems with specific clients, with management points, or with the network that could cause data corruption. Examine status messages for the Software Inventory Processor for possible problems. You can also examine the Sinvproc.log file for errors or additional information.

\Auth\statesys.box: This folder stores information related to state messages. For more information about state message backlogs, see Troubleshooting State Message Backlogs.

\Compsumm.box: This folder contains component status summary messages from child sites. A backlog of files can indicate that the Component Status Summarizer cannot process the volume of messages. Examine status messages for the Component Status Summarizer for possible problems. You can also examine the Compsumm.log file for errors or additional information.

\Dataldr.box: This folder stores .mif files that represent hardware inventory data for Configuration Manager 2007 client computers. This folder also stores IDMIF files for custom architectures. A backlog of files can indicate problems accessing the Systems Management Server (SMS) database. Examine status messages for the Inventory Data Loader for possible problems. You can also examine the Dataldr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Dataldr.box\Badmifs: This folder stores corrupted .mif files for hardware inventory or custom IDMIF files. A backlog of files can indicate a bad custom MIF file or that a client computer cannot transfer the file correctly. Configuration Manager 2007 automatically deletes all files in the \Badmifs folder that are older than 14 days. Examine status messages for the Inventory Data Loader for possible problems. You can also examine the Dataldr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Ddm.box: This folder temporarily stores discovery data records (.ddr files) after a client or server agent generates a discovery record. Examine status messages for the Discovery Data Manager (DDM) for possible problems. You can also examine the Ddm.log file for errors or additional information.

\Ddm.box\BAD_DDRS: This folder stores .ddr files that are corrupted. A backlog of files can indicate a network corruption problem or a problem with the DDM. Configuration Manager 2007 automatically deletes .ddr files that are older than 25 hours. Examine status messages for the DDM for possible problems. You can also examine the Ddm.log file for errors or additional information.

\Despoolr.box\Receive: This folder stores the data that is received from a child site or a parent site. Typically, files are processed and moved as soon as Configuration Manager 2007 receives the instruction file (.ins file). Examine status messages for the Despooler for possible problems. You can also examine the Despool.log file for errors or additional information.

\Inventry.box: This folder temporarily stores hardware inventory files from management points after clients transfer their hardware inventory to the management point. The Inventory Processor converts the .nhm file to a binary .mif file and then moves the file to the \Dataldr.box folder. Examine status messages for the Inventory Processor for possible problems. You can also examine the Invproc.log file for errors or additional information.

\OfferSum.box: This folder receives summarization messages (.sum files) for advertisements from child sites and processes the files to the site database. A backlog of files can indicate a performance problem that is caused by a large number of messages. Examine status messages for the Offer Status Summarizer for possible problems. You can also examine the Offersum.log file for errors or additional information.

\policypv.box: This folder temporarily stores policy changes for the Configuration Manager 2007 components. Whenever the policy of Configuration Manager 2007 components change, a notification file appears in this inbox, causing the policy provider to regenerate the policies. A backlog of files in the policypv.box folder indicates that the policy provider component is not running. The policy provider component might not be able to read the site control file, or the component cannot write to the database. You can examine the Policypv.log in the \Logs folder on the site server for errors or additional information.

\Replmgr.box\Incoming: This folder receives files from the SMS despooler after processing files from other SMS sites. The SMS Replication Manager determines whether the file is transaction-oriented and then verifies that the serial numbers are correct. If the file is not transaction-oriented, no additional verification is performed. The Replication Manager transfers the file to the recipient component for final processing. Examine status messages for the Replication Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Replmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Replmgr.box\Outbound: This folder temporarily stores files that are destined for another site. This folder also contains three outbox subfolders that correspond to the priority of the files. For example, this folder can contain \High, \Low, and \Normal folders. When the Replication Manager detects files in one of the outbound directories, the Replication Manager waits for additional files before moving the files to the \Process subfolder and then to the \Ready subfolder. Examine status messages for the Replication Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Replmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Replmgr.box\Ready: This folder stores files that are compressed for transmission to remote sites. The files are moved to the Scheduler for transmission. A backlog of files can indicate that the Scheduler is backlogged or is already processing files of the same priority. In this scenario, the Scheduler has to wait for the transmission to complete. Examine status messages for the Replication Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Replmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Schedule.box: This folder stores mini-job files (.job files) that were created by the Replication Manager. The Scheduler turns the .job files into Sender jobs. A backlog of files can indicate that the Sender cannot connect to or cannot transfer data to another site. A backlog can also indicate that the Scheduler cannot process the mini-job files because files are missing from the \Schedule.box\Uid folder. Examine status messages for the Scheduler for possible problems. You can also examine the Sched.log file for errors or additional information.

\Schedule.box\Outboxes: This folder contains the outbox folders for each installed sender. In the sender's outbox folder, you can find send request files (.srq files) or send request status files (.srs files). A backlog of .srq files indicates that the sender cannot process the number of jobs scheduled for that sender or that the sender cannot connect to or transfer data to another site. Examine status messages for the Scheduler for possible problems. You can also examine the Sched.log file for errors or additional information. Also examine the sender log file (Sender.log) for any errors when it tries to communicate to the remote site.

\Schedule.box\Requests: This folder stores the initial send request files before the Scheduler transfers the files to a sender. This folder also stores send request files that are returned when the sender cannot connect to the target site. Examine status messages for the Scheduler for possible problems. You can also examine the Sched.log file for errors or additional information. Also examine the sender log file (Sender.log) for any errors when it tries to communicate to the remote site.

\Schedule.box\Tosend: This folder stores package and instruction files before they are transferred to another site. Package and instruction files start with .p00 and .i00 file name extensions, and the file name extensions increment numerically. The files are removed after the sender has copied the files to the remote site. A backlog of files can indicate that many send requests are not completed or that the Scheduler has not yet deleted the files. Examine status messages for the Scheduler for possible problems. You can also examine the Sched.log file for errors or additional information. Also examine the sender log file (Sender.log) for any errors when it tries to communicate to the remote site.

\Sinv.box: This folder stores client software inventory files (.sic and .sid files) that are copied from the management point. A backlog of files can indicate that the Software Inventory Processor cannot connect to the site database or that too many files were received. Examine status messages for the Software Inventory Processor for possible problems. You can also examine the Sinvproc.log file for errors or additional information.

\Sinv.box\BadSinv: This folder stores corrupted software inventory files. A backlog of files can indicate problems with specific clients, with management points, or with the network, causing data corruption. Make sure that there is not a backlog of zero-byte files in this folder. If zero-byte files exist, manually delete them. Examine status messages for the Software Inventory Processor for possible problems. You can also examine the Sinvproc.log file for errors or additional information.

\SiteStat.Box: This folder receives summarization messages (.sum files) for site system status from child sites before the files are processed to the SMS site database. A backlog of files can indicate a performance problem. Examine status messages for the Site System Status Summarizer for possible problems. You can also examine the Sitestat.log file for errors or additional information.

\Statmgr.box\Futureq: This folder stores status messages (.svf files) from remote systems (clients or site systems) if the date and time of the message is in the future compared to the site server's clock. The Status Manager does not process these messages until the computer clock matches the date and time when the status message was created. The date and time when the status message was created might be different from the date and time stamp of the file. A backlog of files can indicate that some site systems' clocks are not synchronized with the site server. Examine status messages for the Status Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Statmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Statmgr.box\Queue: This folder receives status messages from SMS Executive components on the site server if the in-memory queue is not available. A backlog of files can indicate a problem with the Status Manager or that the component is trying to process too many messages. Examine status messages for the Status Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Statmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Statmgr.box\Retry: This folder stores status messages that could not be processed to the site database. A backlog of files can indicate problems with the connection to the computer that is running SQL Server. Examine status messages for the Status Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Statmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\Statmgr.box\Statmsgs: This folder stores status messages from site systems and from Configuration Manager 2007 clients before the messages are processed by the Status Manager. A backlog of files can indicate a problem with the Status Manager or that the Status Manager is trying to process too many messages. Examine status messages for the Status Manager for possible problems. You can also examine the Statmgr.log file for errors or additional information.

\swmproc.box: This folder and its subfolders are used to temporarily store software metering information from Configuration Manager 2007 clients. A backlog of .sum and .sur files can indicate that the Software Metering Processor component cannot connect to the SMS database. Examine the status messages for the Software Metering Processor component for possible problems. You can also examine the Swmproc.log file for errors or additional information.