SCCM Tips, Scripts and Tools

As a part of installing SCCM you must extend your AD schema. Below is the manual steps to do that.  1. Mount the SCCM Install Media to your primary site server. 2. Navigate to  SMSSETUP\BIN\X64  3. Run  extadsch.exe as an administrator 4. Check the log at  C:\extadsch.log to verify it finished successfully

Create the System Management Container   As a part of installing SCCM you need to create the System Management Container. Below is how you can do that manually. 1. Log in to your Domain Controller with a Domain Administrator Account 2. Open Server Manager click on Tools and find ADSI Edit 3. Click Action > Connect to 4. Click the radial "Select or type a domain or server" under Computer 5. Type the FQDN of your Domain Controller and click ok 6. Expand the Domain and Right click on CN=System and click New then Object 7. In the Create Object box select Container then click next 8. In the Value box type System Management then click next and finish 9. Right click on the container you just create and click properties 10. Go to the security tab and click Add 11. Under object types add computers 12. Add all servers you created for your SCCM environment and grant them full control. 12. Click apply then OK you are now done with adding the Sys

You can install SQL with a ini file by running from an elevated command line setup.exe /ConfigurationFile=Yourconfigurationfile.ini below is what I use for my own configuration file ; *************************************************************************** ; ; Created: 2017-01-21 ; Version: 1.0 ; ; Disclaimer: ; This script is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights and ; is not supported by the authors. ; ; Author - Kris Gross ; ; ; *************************************************************************** ;SQL Server 2016 Configuration File [OPTIONS] ; Agree to terms IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS="True" ; Specifies a Setup work flow, like INSTALL, UNINSTALL, or UPGRADE. This is a required parameter. ACTION="Install" ; Detailed help for command line argument ENU has not been defined yet. ENU = "True" ; Parameter that controls the user interface behavior. Valid values are Normal for the full UI,AutoAdva

Sometimes you want to create a query based on if a computer has a specific Application and version number. This type of collection is great for bushing out an update to application. In the example code I am using Adobe Acrobat version 9. To find a different application in your own query find the line in the code SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName like "Adobe Acrobat%" and change "Adobe Acrobat%" to the application you want. Remember you can use % in the beginning or the end of a statement to work like a variable.  Next is the version number, in the example code the line SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.Version >= "9%" The "9%" is the version, you can change this to anything that shows in the version column of add and remove programs. select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType, SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier, SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup, SMS_R

Sometimes you need to know what computer have not been rebooted in so many days. For example at my current employers out windows update do not force the computer to reboot after so many hours it is expected that each user to shutting down there computer each night. So I have used this query to see if that is actually happening. If you want to change the number of days that the computer has been rebooted in change the "2" at the end of the script to the number of days you want. select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name, SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup, SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where DATEDIFF(DD, SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.LastBootUpTime, GETDATE()) > 2

In my how to I reference a spread sheet that can help you to determine how much space you will need for SQL and to optimism your SCCM install. The sheet was created by Steve Thompson . Here is the original source for the worksheet but you do need an account to down load it. If you don't want to create an account I also have provided a link Here that you do not need an account to download.  

 As I have said in the past SCCM is a beast there are a lot of moving parts needed to make the system work. When you plan on installing SCCM you should take some time and step back to look at how you want your system to be set up. SCCM much like Active Directory can have multiple sub sites as apart of your primary site. In most cases you will only have a single site. An example of a user for multiple sites would be if you work at Food.inc and Food.inc owns Meat.inc, Veggie.inc and Grain.inc You could set up a Primary Site Server for Food.inc and a child Site server for each sub company. When you start to look at what hardware you are going to need you should be looking at Microsoft SCCM recommendations page . However since Microsoft doesn't always do a good job of always keeping information on there site I have a PDF version of the page saved. Below is a table right from the PDF that will help you to determine what you are going to need to set up your own site. Site details

The following Query can be used to create a collection of computer that are in 2 different AD OUs just replace "Food.com/Computers/Desktops" With your own domain OUs select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name, SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup, SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.SystemOUName = "Food.com/Computers/Desktops" or SMS_R_System.SystemOUName = "Food.com/Computers/Laptops"

Sometimes its hard to explain to other users how to add a device to a collection so I set up a script that will provide a GUI for a user to add a device to a collection. When you first run the script it will ask for the Site code if you don't want people to have to enter the site code each time they use the script comment out everything between # Begging of enter site code GUI and #end of enter site code GUI then where you see #sets the site variable to be used for the Set-Location command replace $site with your site code. NOTE: you must have access to the SCCM module location. If the sccm console is installed on the computer you are running the script from then there is nothing else you need to do. ############################################################################# # Add-DeviceToCollection.ps1 # Created by Kirs Gross # Krisgross@jackofalltech.org ############################################################################# Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms A

One challenge I have found with SCCM is how your  organi z ation  views it. If you are taking a job as new administrator you may quickly find that expectations are very low. SCCM is a beast all of its own and by its nature can  be   very difficult to maintain its very easy to mess everything up and not have it perform the tasks you want. If you came into an environment that was not well maintained or the previous administrator didn't know  what they were doing then chances are people will hate SCCM. Most of these issues are primarily related to the  organi z ation  is thinking of SCCM in the wrong light. In the past SCCM was known as SMS some administrators jokingly called it "Slow Moving Service". In some ways SCCM is still a "Slow Moving Service" that is all because in its roots SCCM is a tool meant to maintain compliance.                    With the main goal of SCCM being compliancy it performs things differently then we may think. A lot of  organi z ations