[sccm 2012] SCCM 2012

[Rozzer]

I have been playing around with it for a few months now looks pretty neat anyone else looking to move to it?

 

It did take me a good few weeks to get it fully working thats to certificates etc. There are quite a lot of good guides online worth following word for word!

[Quackers]

Did you use sccm 2007 before?, if so how does package deployment compare?

[Rozzer]

Been using SCCM 2007 for a year now and they have added application deployment and using package deployment as a legacy option. Its a bit more complex but allows you to do more checks before deployment. It also has a cool application catalog where you can allow staff to install applications based on security groups. You can also have a request bases so admins have to approve.

 

Ross

[Quackers]

Is it clever enough now to know when the workstation has had its OS re-installed and re apply all allocated applications that have been pushed out using BITS? Thats my only annoyance with SCCM2007, if its not in the task sequence it does not get installed.

[gshaw]

One thing for SCCM 2012... is it possible to set a software deployment to run before the user logs on (i.e. so it works like GPO package deployment)

 

It's always seemed an oversight that you either have to have the machine on the login screen (doesn't happen here) or the user logged on (and you either have to kill processes before beginning installs or hope the program isn't open if upgrading). Either a pre-login deployment option or a way to lock the workstation to the user while deployment is taking place would be a lot more useful.

[PeterH]

One thing for SCCM 2012... is it possible to set a software deployment to run before the user logs on (i.e. so it works like GPO package deployment)

 

Sadly it appears not. When you set up a deployment you can specify whether it should run when a user is logged out, logged in or both. The problem is that there is nothing I can see to prevent a user from logging in whilst an installation is in progress. And there is no visual indiciation on the screen that anything is happening. For some things that may not matter too much, but there are some installations that absolutely must finish before the user logs in and starts using their computer. Sims upgrades for example.

 

You can set up deployment windows which are timeslots during which software installations will take place. You can use WOL to start up computers overnight and update software for example. That's fine up to a point, but if the computer is not actually on-site (e.g. a laptop) it's not going to work.

 

One other thing you can do is to make application deployment part of a task sequence, so that it will happen as part of a new installation. If you do that, the tasks will complete before the login screen is displayed and there's a nice progress bar on screen that shows what's happening. That's fine for a new OS deployment and seems to work quite well. You can use a task sequence to deploy additional applications to an existing OS, but still no way of preventing users from logging on during installation as far as I can see.

 

We've been looking at SCCM 2012 for a few days now with a view to using it for software deployment. But this is a real show-stopper for us. It can do some clever things, but there are other simple things that seem to be missing. Unless anybody knows differently.

[Rozzer]

One thing which annoyed me was the forefront management. You don't have a great deal of control with the client.

[gshaw]

Sadly it appears not. When you set up a deployment you can specify whether it should run when a user is logged out, logged in or both. The problem is that there is nothing I can see to prevent a user from logging in whilst an installation is in progress. And there is no visual indiciation on the screen that anything is happening. For some things that may not matter too much, but there are some installations that absolutely must finish before the user logs in and starts using their computer. Sims upgrades for example.

 

You can set up deployment windows which are timeslots during which software installations will take place. You can use WOL to start up computers overnight and update software for example. That's fine up to a point, but if the computer is not actually on-site (e.g. a laptop) it's not going to work.

 

One other thing you can do is to make application deployment part of a task sequence, so that it will happen as part of a new installation. If you do that, the tasks will complete before the login screen is displayed and there's a nice progress bar on screen that shows what's happening. That's fine for a new OS deployment and seems to work quite well. You can use a task sequence to deploy additional applications to an existing OS, but still no way of preventing users from logging on during installation as far as I can see.

 

We've been looking at SCCM 2012 for a few days now with a view to using it for software deployment. But this is a real show-stopper for us. It can do some clever things, but there are other simple things that seem to be missing. Unless anybody knows differently.

 

Gah it's so frustrating that MS don't have the sense to think of this

 

Looks like 2012 has a couple of funky new features, a shiny UI but it's pretty much 2007 underneath with the same foibles that date back to SMS 2003 (and probably before that!)

 

Was talking to someone on Novell the other day and they showed me Zenworks... makes SCCM look amateurish in comparison with the granularity you get when deploying software!

Edited March 15, 2012 by gshaw

[synaesthesia]

Plenty of alternatives around but cost is almost entirely killed off by schools with EES licensing. We're moving to it, and as a result waiting patiently for it's release to make a start. Incidentally, MS are doing a virtual launch of SC2012 this Thursday (22nd March) with an online webinar : https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032505132&Culture=en-GB