MMS 2009 Presenation

So you either went to the session with Greg and me or you have watched it the recording.
I have a tools website that I slow been working on
www.sccm-tools.com


Here are some of the tools that I personally have created:
http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/2008/06/right-click-tool-status-messages.html
http://www.sccm-tools.com/tools/rightclick/rightclick-clientactions.html
http://www.sccm-tools.com/tools/rightclick/rightclick-Collectionaddcomputers.html

a good way to find tools online is to search with these parameters
"sccm tools"
"right click tools"
"Console extenstions"

update to www.SCCM-tools.com

Well I have made some changes to my site http://www.sccm-tools.com It should be more firefox friendly. I needed to make some changes to the CSS and the Ajax. Take a look and play with the site.

SCCM Tools

Well I have decided to launch my own website / community. Bascially I will host a site where users can request SCCM tools, download SCCM tools, and have discussions about creating tools.

http://www.sccm-tools.com

Is the URL. I hope to have the site up in the next few weeks. This site will be a beta test so people can just go wild on the site to see what needs to be improved. Then I will delete everything and launch the site. Lets hope it goes well. It isn't easy to launch and IT site for IT people, we are very picky. I can't match myITforum but I don't want to compete with them but work along side. I am hoping this fills a niche where people can locate tools. It seems to be a common question "Where can I find SCCM tools" Where there are my blogs and many places to get them. This won't house all the tools but will have links to those that we can't or don't want to host. There more diverse places you have to download programs the more likely you are to have an older version. So this way we can link to SourceForge or someother "original" location so the author doesn't need to police the we. Nor do we need to hunt for the latest release

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

SMS / SCCM Tools

I will see if I can keep this list update with some of the tools I have created:
Some of these are right click tools, stand-alone tools, others are pushed via an advertisement.



*Client actions for a collection
*Status Messages for a computer
*Change a client to Internet Based
*What collection is a user or computer in, does the collection have a maintenance window
*Add a computer to a collection (command line)
*http://www.sccm-tools.com/
*Add a computer to a collection (right click)

Vbscript behavior

Wscript Method wscript x.vbs



Cscript Method cscript x.vbs


Do you have right click tools that run in a command (DOS) box. And you have an "Enter" key function so it will stay open so you can see the data.

There are 2 things you can do.
1. Run with a wscript xxx.vbs
This will force it to use the wscript method and data will be placed in a nice popup box
2. Set the default method for vbscript to wscript
wscript /H:WScript
A popup will tell you that the default is now wscript do the same with a cscript to change it back


This will make some of the right click tools that display information alot easier to read and gives it a more professional look.

SMS OU to Collection Tool

Edit: 12/2008 I have the tool on myITforum under the beta section SCCM OU Collection Creator - Matthew Hudson

Well I have a new tool that I might give to the community to test. I have finished but it is very rough. The basic idea came several years ago when I was creating our SMS collections. We have a collection called Departments. In it I have the different OU represent so I can do limits or deployments. The problem is that we have many departments so I only make a collection as needed. The new tool will query your AD via LDAP. It will look to your SCCM control file for the correct ldap path. It will then give you the structure for you to click on for import. Once you have all your OUS you click import and about 4 to 6 seconds later you have your entire AD struction in SCCM with the queries written for it as well. I have a few bugs to work out but I hope to give it to some people for testing. I think it would be a good tool. Granted most people might only use it 1 or 2 times.

When it gets posted it will most likely be via MyITforum.

SMS tools and the Netbios name

Have you ever created a SMS tool that passes the NetBios name but realize that sometimes it doesn't work. Test after test shows the Netbios name not working.


"CommandLine"="wscript.exe \"c:\\Program Files\\xxx " ##SUB:NetBIOSName## "

If your right clicking on a query and it fails then you have a SMS_G_System in your query. You can only have items from SMS_R_System. Anything else and for some reason SMS can no longer pass the netbios name...