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, couldnât 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, Iâm amazed that it ever worked at all. I didnât 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. Itâs 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 wonât get it all done in an hour. In all probability, if youâve never done this before, itâll take about a dayâs worth of effort. But donât be disheartened; ConfigMgr is a complex product, so it makes perfect sense that the procedure to get it up and running is also complex. Itâs also absolutely critical that you have an environment of your own to work with, and in the process of setting up the lab, youâll 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?
Iâll 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. Itâs 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.
Thereâs 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. Itâs 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, itâs also open-ended, providing many ways of arriving at your end goal. Even harder is that one method isnât necessarily superior to another. âIt dependsâ 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 youâre 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 youâre a systems administrator or a desktop administrator, responsible for deploying and managing Windows in a business environment, then this book is for you. If youâre familiar with application deployment or patch management but are tired of doing things manually, this book is for you. If youâre 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. Youâll 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 youâre unsure whether you meet some of the prerequisites, donât be discouragedâyou 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 thatâs not quite enough detail! The Month of Lunches series is designed so that you can consume one chapter a day while youâre 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 weâve 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, youâll be empowered to work with or implement whatever topic was covered.
By the end of the month, youâll have gained a thorough understanding of ConfigMgr, and in the last couple of lunches youâll 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 arenât 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 trendsâthe way of the future, in fact. These chapters will bring you up to speed on the latest ...