Friday, June 27, 2008

OU collection tool update

Edit: 12/2008 I have the tool on myITforum under the beta section SCCM OU Collection Creator - Matthew Hudson
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Well I had 2 people beta test my collection tool and it work for both of them! I still need to make some more adjustments before I call it ver .2. I would hope that once it is all done and working I can release it to the community for further testing and use. Obviously it will come up short in someones enviroment. I can't test every kind of SCCM structure. If you missed what the tool does:

Running from any computer the program will hook to SCCM and the AD. The user will have the option of selecting any OU tree. Once submitted the program will build the OU struction, with queries, directly into SCCM.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

SCCM unable to deploy patches to SMS 2003 clients

If you noticed that your 2003 clients were not receiving their patches then you should check out this KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954474

This affects only 2003 clients attached to a 2007 architecture.

"You use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 or Configuration Manager 2007 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) to deploy updates to Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients. In this scenario, the Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Offline Scan Catalog cab file (Wsusscn2.cab) may not correctly synchronize with the site server database when you use the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU). This problem may prevent the June 10, 2008 security updates from being deployed to SMS 2003 clients."

I am sure there are many of your pulling your hair out wondering...what did I do wrong!!!!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

SMS 2003 Right click tools on Queries

If you are using SMS 2003 (not SCCM 2007) you have the ability to perform a right click on query outputs. First you must have the Resource ID and Resource Type in the query output. Next you can ONLY have "System Resource" (SMS_R_System) queries. If you use SMS_G_System then the right click will not pass the parameter ###Sub:xxxx## to your application. In SCCM it just won't show you the right click menu correctly.

If you want to use a query to right click and start Resource Explorer/Remote tools you must that the Resource ID and Type in your query.

SCCM Right Click Tools by Rick Houchins

Rick over at MyITforum (a place I love to visit) has updated his Right click tool program.

Version 1.7 (6/17/2008)
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rhouchins/archive/2008/04/09/sccm-right-click-tools.aspx

I will update this page as he updates the application. It is a very nice collection of tools. I suggest you check it out.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Client actions for an entire collection

This page still isn't displaying correclty.
Here is a link on the SCCM tools website
http://www.sccm-tools.com/tools/rightclick/rightclick-clientactions.html


Ok I have deleted this whole section since I re-wrote this tool...

Files: (files names are case sensative)
clientactions.vbs : File that controls everything
Clearcache.vbs : Client clear cache file
Inventory.vbs: Client HW/SW inventory file
Policy.vbs: Client machine policy refresh
Computer.XML : This will be the xml file for right click on a computer
Collection.XML: This will be the xml file for right click on a collection
C:\Program Files\MCNS\ClientActions\ : Location where all the files are stored on the server

7ba8bf44-2344-4035-bdb4-16630291dcf6 - computers
fa922e1a-6add-477f-b70e-9a164f3b11a2 - this GUID is for first-level collections
dbb315c3-1d8b-4e6a-a7b1-db8246890f59 - this GUID is for all subcollections
---
x:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions
Under this folder create the guid and place the appropriate XML file
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
******Clientactions.vbs***************

******Clearcache.vbs***************



******Inventory.vbs***************



******Policy.vbs***************



******Computer.XML***************



******Collection.XML***************

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Right click Tool: Status Messages

This will work for both SMS or SCCM. This is a neat trick. We will use the status message viewer from Microsoft to look at a computer but with a right click. No longer do you need to run through the MMC.

<ActionGroups>
<actiondescription class="Executable" displayname="Status Messages" mnemonicdisplayname="Status Messages" description="Display machine status messages">
</executable> <filepath>D:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\bin\i386\statusmessages.exe <parameters>##SUB:Name## </actiongroups>

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions\7ba8bf44-2344-4035-bdb4-16630291dcf6\Tools.xml

This needs to go into your XML file in the previous folder. Please consult the MS documentation. This is only the inset not the whole file. You will need to change the location of the file path to C, E, or whatever your drive it.

To make this work in SMS see my section on SMS tools and the MMC registry. You only need to add the path and sub:netbiosname to the script. Now you can right click on a client and get the status messages very easily now. Be aware that this will pull in ALL messages so you will need to click stop or you will be there all day.

If the application has problem the first time you run it then you need to just double click on StatusMessages.exe and type in your server name and ok. Then the tool will work correctly the next time for you.

[Update June 2009]
Well I created this back in 2005 when I first started working with SMS. Well Robert Mitsch has an update which I think is great

The changes are as follows
<FilePath>C:\xxxxxxx\AdminUI\bin\i386\statview.exe</FilePath>
<Parameters>/SMS:Server=\\##SUB:__Server## /SMS:Path=##SUB:__Namespace## /SMS:System=##SUB:Name##</Parameters>

update blog entry: http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/2009/06/right-click-status-messages.html

Friday, June 6, 2008

Disclaimer

I wanted to make sure I put this on my blog as many people are getting in trouble with their blogs these days:

This blog represents my views and opinions and not those of my employers. Use all code and instructions on this blog at your own risk. There is no warranty or documentation other than what is represented on this site.

A now our feature presentation :)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Collections with the same name

In SMS 2003 you probably noticed that you couldn't have the collections with the same name unless they were linked collections. Through one of the tools I was creating I discovered that you can create as many collections with the same name (different IDS) as you want in SCCM 2007. This poses a problem if you have a tool that is searching for a collection name. Now you could have 2 or more collections that have the same name and different IDs.