SCCM 2012 - Question before Considering

[garethEds]

Morning,

 

A quick question regarding SCCM2012 - it seems to do everything we are looking for in a product as well as integrating several of the things we already do. However is it true you can only have one SCCM server per enterprise domain?

 

Our LEA has each school running as an OU (with delegated admin rights) within an enterprise domain. We were told that only one instance of SCCM 2010 could run per domain, but that 2012 would remove that limitation.

 

Does this product deliver on it's promises? Those who use it or previous version - is it okay?

 

Anyone got an opinion on this?

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[sparkeh]

Actually I don't think that it is a problem to have more than one SCCM primary server in a domain as long as you configure the boundaries to be limited to your site (or rather your OU/IP scope). Have a read here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/da-DK/configmgrgeneral/thread/83e0e703-1b9c-46d9-98d5-52ea5e1f037b

As for using it, SCCM is awesome, a hell of a thing to setup and get working but well worth it.

[garethEds]

@sparkeh - Cheers Pal - any refrence websites or books you can tell me about?

 

Gareth

[Theblacksheep]

The Unleashed SCCM 2007 book is very good, better than the MS one. 2012 Unleashed book isn't out for a few months yet.

 

Principals are the same with the older product. I would say that SCCM can be overkill for some environments.

[sparkeh]

Sure! Windows Noob is the place you need: Portal - www.windows-noob.com

There is more info on 2007 here than 2012 for obvious reasons and are probably worth a read as I don't think the ideas are vastly different.

[Rozzer]

I posted a while back with some videos which were very helpful for our setup. - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/93279-sccm-2012-video-help.html

 

SCCM 2012 is a fantastic product but be prepared to lose some of your life while setting it up lol.

 

Ross

[sparkeh]

I would say that SCCM can be overkill for some environments.

Possibly, but as it peanuts for education and cals can be included in EES agreement its well worth it.

[rodtrent]

There's always the original System Center community, myITforum.com.

[garethEds]

Thanks everyone.

 

Does SCCM2012 need the AD schema changing? Our LEA are running Windows 2003R2 but have an AD Store for Windows 7 GPOs.

 

If we installed it to a server here will it affect the whole AD?

 

Gareth

[Norphy]

I don't know about 2012 but the Schema extensions for 2007 were just to aid the client detecting the server. There are other ways that this can be achieved so they're not compulsory.

[TheScarfedOne]

The schema mods for 2012 are the same as 2007. And... if you look behind the scenes of 2012 - there is a lot of the 2007 stuff there. Its not too bad - just the upgrade stuff is bugging me. The blogs ive been doing cover 2007, but the concepts are the same - and oddly, from some of the work ive been doing so far - you will find a lot of the same screens once you sus the new "Office 2010" menu format!

[sidewinder]

I would say that SCCM can be overkill for some environments.

 

I'm starting to think this...I'm at the stage where I'm about to start learning it...but then being that we only have 120 computers it does seem like overkill. MDT works, and we have Impero as well...so do we really need it?

[synaesthesia]

We're implementing it ATM, along with Impero. Two hugely powerful systems, combined to make our lives a piece of cake

 

For that scenario, I can't see it being an issue. You'd have the CAS (central administration site) at the top and the relevant primary SCCM servers for each OU domain controller. Setup is a fair bit different than 2007 and certainly more flexible for that sort of thing. Sites below the CAS can be as integral or separate from eachother as required.

[rich_tech]

Thanks for all your comments so far,

 

Gareth has pointed out in previous postings on edugeek, that we already run Impero here and MDT, but its the application rollout and Data Protection Manager stuff that has my interest peaked (were looking at a serious hyper-v platform to replace our existing ten year old RM hardware, amalgamating our applications from seperate servers to a more unified and multi app on a server setup) thats probably the main feature that interests me, application installation looks good because GPO which we use currently for app rollout only tends to work with .msi files and it seems a fair bit of hassle making up an msi file, especially with programs that get updated regularly - Quicktime, Java and Flash being the main culprits there apps wise.

 

Also I am obviously interested in DPM and HyperV elements for backing up the servers and controlling them within the platform we have planned, are there any issues with regards licensing and them ? we have an EES agreement within the school here at present, from what I can see we have access in the licensing side of it to all of the products we need also downloads wise, but im not sure about licensing for using them.