Learn System Center Configuration Manager in a Month of Lunches

Covers SCCM 1511 and Windows 10

James Bannan

• Publisher: Manning
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781617291685
• eBook ISBN: 9781638353171
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Business Intelligence
• Index: Computer Science

Summary Learn System Center Configuration Manager in a Month of Lunches is a super-practical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. In this book, you'll cut to the chase and learn the administrative procedures and techniques that will keep your systems humming smoothly. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. About the Technology Businesses rely on a complex patchwork of client computers, physical and virtual servers, middleware, mobile devices, and cloud services. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) sits in the middle of this mix, providing a single administrative control center to deploy and manage Windows servers and applications across your entire infrastructure, including cross-platform management of Mac OS X, Linux, and UNIX. To get up to speed with the day-to-day tasks of managing a system with ConfigMgr, all you need is this book—and a quiet place to eat your lunch. About the Book Learn System Center Configuration Manager in a Month of Lunches is a super-practical guide to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. In this book, you'll cut to the chase and learn the administrative procedures and techniques that will keep your systems humming smoothly. Whether you're a new sysadmin or you already understand the inner workings of Active Directory and Windows Server, you'll be productive immediately as you work through the 22 self-contained lessons in this handy tutorial. What's Inside

• Covers the latest build of Configuration Manager
• How to simplify updates, operating system deployment, and reporting
• Cross-platform and mobile management including Linux, OS X, and Windows
• Smart application delivery

About the Reader No prior experience with System Center Configuration Manager needed. About the Author James Bannan is a Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP based in Australia. Table of Contents

• Before you begin
• Setting up your lab environment
• Making ConfigMgr aware of your environment
• Managing ConfigMgr devices and users
• Organizing devices and users
• Configuring ConfigMgr clients
• Creating and configuring applications with the AppModel
• Deploying applications and packages to ConfigMgr clients
• Ensuring that ConfigMgr clients can access content
• Keeping ConfigMgr clients patched
• Preparing to deploy Windows
• Deploying Windows
• Advanced deployment of Windows with ConfigMgr and MDT
• Managing Linux clients
• Deploying to Linux and Mac clients
• Managing anti-malware with ConfigMgr
• Making sure clients are healthy
• Reporting in ConfigMgr
• Keeping an eye on your clients
• What to do when things go wrong
• Securing ConfigMgr
• All engines full steam ahead

Chapter 1. Before you begin

I still remember vividly my first foray into Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. I was working as a network and systems administrator, and the IT team that I was a part of had just made an unfortunate discovery. Our fleet of desktops and laptops had increased fourfold in a short space of time, and the deployment techniques we were using, which were just about satisfactory for a small environment, couldn’t possibly scale and were now shown to be completely impractical. Even worse, we were facing a hardware refresh of nearly a third of the fleet, with no streamlined way to achieve it.

I jumped online and researched options, and Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) came up time and time again as the best-of-breed solution for Windows deployment. The next day I spun up a server and spent the next two weeks trawling through TechNet articles and blog posts about how to set it up, configure it, and get Windows deployed.

When I look back at how I set up that first ConfigMgr environment, I’m amazed that it ever worked at all. I didn’t know any of the best practices or finer nuances of the product and made some stunning, cringe-worthy errors in the bargain. Despite all of that, ConfigMgr got me and the business where we needed to be, and the whole experience ignited something of a personal zeal to learn as much as I could about the product, and to help educate other administrators who are in the same position as I was.

This book is the result of my experiences with ConfigMgr, the designs, implementations, troubleshooting, and yes, all the mistakes as well. It’s the sort of book I wish I had access to when I was first learning to use ConfigMgr to deploy and manage Windows on an enterprise scale. This chapter covers what ConfigMgr is and why you should use it, what you should know before getting started, and how to set up your lab environment.

One word of warning before you get started: setting up ConfigMgr is a lengthy process, and you won’t get it all done in an hour. In all probability, if you’ve never done this before, it’ll take about a day’s worth of effort. But don’t be disheartened; ConfigMgr is a complex product, so it makes perfect sense that the procedure to get it up and running is also complex. It’s also absolutely critical that you have an environment of your own to work with, and in the process of setting up the lab, you’ll learn a lot about how ConfigMgr works, all of which will be incredibly useful as you progress through the book.

1.1. Why Configuration Manager?

I’ll go out on a limb and state up front that Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is objectively the best product on the market for deploying and administering Windows in the enterprise. It’s designed to deploy and manage desktops, laptops, and servers from the moment they arrive in your environment to the moment they leave, handling operating systems, applications, patching, compliance, antivirus, and reporting, just for starters.

There’s even more under the hood

Configuration Manager has a rich and varied functionality set covering many aspects of system deployment, management, and reporting.

Take a few minutes to read the official list of capabilities online: www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/configuration-manager-2012-capabilities.aspx.

ConfigMgr is a mature technology, tracing its roots back to Systems Management Server 1.0, which was released in 1994, as you can see in table 1.1. Given such a history, Microsoft has had a significant amount of time to develop and improve the technology to reflect customer needs based on ever-shifting industry trends: physical to virtual servers, tablets, slates, mobile devices, application management, patching, inventory, and now user-centric computing. It’s the product that Microsoft uses to deploy and manage its own global fleet of servers, workstations, and applications, and it has a widespread and dedicated community of administrators and specialists.

Table 1.1. A timeline of Microsoft Systems Management

Year released	Product
1994	Systems Management Server (SMS) 1.0
1995	Systems Management Server (SMS) 1.1
1996	Systems Management Server (SMS) 1.2
1999	Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0
2003	Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003
2006	Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 R2
2007	System Center Configuration Manager 2007
2008	System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
2009	System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2
2011	System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
2012	System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1
2013	System Center 2012 Configuration Manager R2
2015	System Center 2012 Configuration Manager R2 SP1
2015	System Center Configuration Manager (Build 1511)

As good as it is, ConfigMgr also has a dark side. Although it provides a deep and powerful framework, it’s also open-ended, providing many ways of arriving at your end goal. Even harder is that one method isn’t necessarily superior to another. “It depends” is a phrase you get used to when dealing with ConfigMgr.

This book will give you processes that work, while endeavoring to inform you about the most common administration scenarios that you’re likely to encounter. ConfigMgr is a big beast, but tackle it head-on, and the rewards will be substantial.

1.2. Is this book for you?

If you’re a systems administrator or a desktop administrator, responsible for deploying and managing Windows in a business environment, then this book is for you. If you’re familiar with application deployment or patch management but are tired of doing things manually, this book is for you. If you’re looking for a way to gain full, proactive visibility over your entire managed Windows environment, this book is for you.

ConfigMgr is an enterprise-grade infrastructure solution, so getting to grips with it requires a reasonable level of preexisting knowledge. You’ll need to know how to set up and configure virtual machines, as well as have a decent working knowledge of both Windows Server and Windows clients. A grasp of networking concepts is essential, especially Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addressing, as well as being comfortable enough with Active Directory (AD) to create and modify users and groups.

If you’re unsure whether you meet some of the prerequisites, don’t be discouraged—you almost certainly know more than you think you do! My advice is to just get stuck in.

1.3. How to use this book

Turn the pages, read the words, marvel at the diagrams, become enlightened.

Hmm, perhaps that’s not quite enough detail! The Month of Lunches series is designed so that you can consume one chapter a day while you’re consuming lunch. Parallel consumption, if you like. Each chapter should take only about 40 minutes to read, giving you an extra 20 minutes to finish your sandwich or practice what we’ve covered.

1.3.1. The main chapters

Each of the main chapters in this book covers a major section concerning the administration of ConfigMgr. Each chapter is constructed so that by the time you reach the end, you’ll be empowered to work with or implement whatever topic was covered.

By the end of the month, you’ll have gained a thorough understanding of ConfigMgr, and in the last couple of lunches you’ll look at how it can be used in future, advanced scenarios. For example, not many companies are using ConfigMgr for management of Mac OS X or Linux platforms at the moment, whereas others aren’t making use of Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Intune. Avoid any temptation to skip these chapters, because centralized cross-platform management and cloud integration are strong industry trends—the way of the future, in fact. These chapters will bring you up to speed on the latest ...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Brief Table of Contents
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About this Book
• About the Author
• Chapter 1. Before you begin
• Chapter 2. Setting up your lab environment
• Chapter 3. Making ConfigMgr aware of your environment
• Chapter 4. Managing ConfigMgr devices and users
• Chapter 5. Organizing devices and users
• Chapter 6. Configuring ConfigMgr clients
• Chapter 7. Creating and configuring applications with the AppModel
• Chapter 8. Deploying applications and packages to ConfigMgr clients
• Chapter 9. Ensuring that ConfigMgr clients can access content
• Chapter 10. Keeping ConfigMgr clients patched
• Chapter 11. Preparing to deploy Windows
• Chapter 12. Deploying Windows
• Chapter 13. Advanced deployment of Windows with ConfigMgr and MDT
• Chapter 14. Managing Linux clients
• Chapter 15. Deploying to Linux and Mac clients
• Chapter 16. Managing anti-malware with ConfigMgr
• Chapter 17. Making sure clients are healthy
• Chapter 18. Reporting in ConfigMgr
• Chapter 19. Keeping an eye on your clients
• Chapter 20. What to do when things go wrong
• Chapter 21. Securing ConfigMgr
• Chapter 22. All engines full steam ahead
• Index
• List of Figures
• List of Tables