Wally Mead

Overview of System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

Agenda

• Discussion of exciting features that would provide benefits to upgrading to Configuration Manager 2012 R2

• Demonstrations where appropriate

Updates to Configuration Manager 2012 R2 Features• Features that will benefit everyone

• Role-based administration in reports• Distribution point updates• Resultant set of client settings• Software update specific maintenance windows• Updates to automatic deployment rules• OSD enhancements

Role-Based Administration in Reports• In Configuration Manager 2012 RTM/SP1, RBA only

extended to the actual reports that an admin could see• When running an available report however, the results

displayed often showed objects not available to view in the console

• This causes some people to have separate sites

• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, the results of the reports, whether viewed in the console or Report Manager, filter based on RBA security• The console and reports should now match

Distribution Point Updates• Ability to redistribute failed distributions or cancel

an in progress distribution from the console• Better performance when sending to multiple DPs,

especially over various WAN connections• More DP threads• Better scalability and status for pull distribution

points• Distribution point usage report!

Resultant set of Client Settings• Clients can receive multiple client settings, such

as Default Client Settings and one or more custom settings• In these cases, it can be hard to identify the exact set of

policies that are implemented on the client• The ConfigMgr 2012 Toolkit PolicySpy tool could

enumerate those through WMI

• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can view these from the Configuration Manager Console• Easy ability to find what is implemented on the client!

Software Update Specific Maintenance Windows

• Often, you have maintenance windows on collections to control software distribution

• Computers can be members of multiple collections, so may have multiple maintenance windows• This can lead to not really knowing when software

updates are to be applied

• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can now configure maintenance windows that are specific to software updates

Automatic Deployment Rule Updates• Some admins didn’t trust the automatic

deployment rule in Configuration Manager 2012 RTM/SP1• Weren’t sure what updates would be added to the

software update group• So they disabled the ADR deployment, or didn’t use them

• Now with Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can view the updates the filter criteria selects during the ADR creation

• Can also change package configuration of the ADR

Operating System Deployment Updates• Support for deploying Windows 8.1 and Windows

Server 2012 R2• Support for importing down-level boot images

• Moving from the WAIK to the ADK caused some issues for some customers due to WinPE incompatibility

Operating System Deployment Updates (2)

• We now support integration of a few native MDT actions in our task sequences• Check Readiness, Set Dynamic Variables, Run PowerShell

Script

• You can also create virtual hard drives from the Configuration Manager console• Create, modify, upload to Virtual Machine Manager• Requires Hyper-V installed on the same computer as the

Configuration Manager console

Updates to Configuration Manager R2 Features

• Features that will benefit select environments• Ability to reassign clients between sites• Multiple Network Access Accounts per site• MAC client installation wizard

Client Reassignment• Can now easily reassign clients from one

Configuration Manager 2012 R2 primary site to another Configuration Manager 2012 R2 primary site in the same hierarchy• Does not work between versions• Is not appropriate for failed site server scenarios• Can multi-select clients if desired

Multiple Network Access Accounts per Site• With the limitation of one NAA per primary site in

Configuration Manager 2012 RTM/SP1, some environments required additional primary sites to support remote untrusted forests

• With Configuration Manager 2012 R2, a site now supports up to 10 NAAs• Clients will remember the ‘best shot’ account for future

connections• SP1 clients can still only use one account

MAC Client Installation Wizard• Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 required two

command lines to install and enroll a MAC client• Not everyone was comfortable with running sudo

commands

• With Configuration Manager 2012 R2, the MAC client download now includes a wizard to install the client• Initial running allows you to install the Configuration

Manager client• Client reboots

• Wizard runs again to enroll the client

Summary• Configuration Manager 2012 R2 adds many new

benefits that make upgrade a desired operation• Role-based administration for reporting is a key• Multiple network access accounts helps a lot of customers• Distribution point changes are great for some• Everyone wants the “Distribution point usage” report• Maintenance windows specific to software updates are

very important• Great enhancements to operating system deployment• Others

http://www.microsoft.com/workstylehttp://www.microsoft.com/server-cloud/user-device-management

More Resources:

System Center 2012 Configuration Managerhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_33

Windows Intunehttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windowsintune/try-and-buy

Windows Server 2012 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server

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