Looking SCCM - which version?

[mdrabble]

Long story short.... looking at possibly deploying SCCM for imaging, updates, packages etc..... when I redo the network from scratch ready for September.

 

Heard lots of interesting things about SSCM but have never seen or used it.......... or am I better avoiding it and sticking with MDT, WSUS, etc....

 

I have access to SCCM 2012r2 Standard, SCCM 2012r2 DataCenter, and SCCM2012r2 Client Management Suite.

 

Some kind soul point me in the direction most suitable for a Secondary School.

 

Also.....anyone recommend any training providers for SCCM (Manchester area preferably)

 

Cheers

[localzuk]

As far as I'm aware, there's just the one "server" version - the different licenses cover different server management licenses. Eg. SCCM Datacenter covers all the VMs on a physical server (we have datacenter licenses which cover our Hyper-V nodes), the standard license covers a single install (we have them for our "standalone" type servers, one per box).

 

When you go into those options, which are listed individually on the licensing service center. For SCCM, you want "System Center 2012 R2 - ConfigMgr and EndpointProtection Multilanguage" which you can get under either the Standard or Datacenter options (they both point to the same download).

[mdrabble]

Ah, that makes more sense...

 

Only just started at this school and looking at making some changes.

 

According to our MS Licensing Agreement we have 1 Stnd SSCM License, 1 DataCtr License and approx. 90 SCCM ConfigMgr Licenses.

 

So..... If I want to cover 4 HyperV nodes I am going to need another 3 DataCtr Licences and more Stnd Licenses for any physical servers I may have.

 

I'm assuming the ConfigMgr Licenses cover the workstation bits? which would make sense as we have approx. 90 full time staff.

[localzuk]

Yeah, that's right. I'm assuming you use EES for licensing, in which case the 90 ConfigMgr licenses cover all your client machines (as you pay only for the FTE staff), like with Windows and Office.

 

You only actually need the standard and datacenter system center licenses if you will be managing the servers with it anyway - if you don't, then you don't need them.

[tmcd35]

SCCM licencing is one of the weirdest and hardest to undestand IMHO. You don't actually need to buy any licences (other than OS) for the server you are physically running it from, the host if you will. You don't even need to buy an SQL server licence. You only need to buy the management licences for the clients you wish to use SCCM with. The server ML's are for if you want to use SCCM to manage windows installs, updates, anti-virus, etc on your servers. So you might buy a SCCM server ML for your domain controller, or file server, or print server, etc. Likewise you need client ML's for each desktop computer you want to manage.

 

The licencing for running the SCCM server and 1 standard edition SQL server for use with SCCM, is included with the client management licences.

 

For most the easiest way to license SCCM is through EES since it's included as part of the Core-CAL suite. This would give you everything you need for your desktops computers. You only need to purchase server ML licences if you want to use it to manage any of your servers.

 

Again there is actually no SCCM server licence per se, and you don't need to purchase the required SQL license to run it either. It's all inclusive with the client ML's.

Edited January 7, 2015 by tmcd35

[mdrabble]

Thanks guys

[Norphy]

Also.....anyone recommend any training providers for SCCM (Manchester area preferably)

 

Cheers

 

I have nothing to add about ConfigMgr licensing but I've taken these two courses:

Administering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - Training course catalogue - QA

Deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - Training course catalogue - QA

 

and they were well worth it.

 

ConfigMgr is one of the most complex products that Microsoft produces. It's well worth getting the training for it because it'll expose you to the entire product in a way that just playing with it would never do. It will also show you the correct way of doing things as well.

[sparkeh]

This is a great resource to get you up to speed with SCCM 2012: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Step By Step Guides - Configuration Manager 2012 - www.windows-noob.com

 

My only caution is that these guides were written pre-R2 so some of the screens aren't exactly the same but its not difficult to work out where things differ.