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SCCM Collection based on Active Directory Organisation Unit (OU) Membership

You may want to create a Configuration Manager Collection based upon an Active Directory Organisation Unit. To do this you can use the following WQL code and then simply amend the last part to be the Organisation Unit that you want to base the Collection on: SELECT SMS_R_USER.ResourceID, SMS_R_USER.ResourceType, SMS_R_USER.Name, SMS_R_USER.UniqueUserName, SMS_R_USER.WindowsNTDomain FROM SMS_R_User WHERE SMS_R_User.UserOUName = “LOCALDOMAIN.COM/COMPANYNAME/TECHYGEEKSHOME” More Queries …

Guide / System Center

Show Distribution Point in use during Task Sequence

by Andrew Armstrong - 1 Comment

We recently came across issues where our Configuration Manager Operating System Deployments (OSD) where running extremely slowly and we could not figure out why. After some investigation, we found out that one of our remote Distribution Points (DP) was not working correctly and that rebuilds on one of the sites where actually pulling the image and application data from another …

Guide / System Center

Orchestrator Not Showing Newly Created Folders or Runbooks

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

This is a re-post of a guide that we posted about two years ago, but this happened to us again thisweek so thought it would be good to share again… We ran into an issue where our newly created folders and runbooks in Orchestrator were not showing up in our SCCM (MDT) Execute Runbooks task sequence. We started to run …

Guide / System Center

How to deploy AutoCAD using SCCM

by Andrew Armstrong - 21 Comments.

This is going to be quite a lengthy guide but one that we think you might find very useful. Introduction We have previously shown you how to report Autodesk serial numbers using SCCM and this has led to a number of questions being sent to us on how to deploy AutoCAD using SCCM and in turn, using the software catalog. …

Guide / System Center

SQL Reporting Services Error – Maximum request length exceeded

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

When running or trying to create a large report in SSRS, you may come across an error stating the below: Error 2: There was an exception running the extensions specified in the config file. Maximum request length exceeded. It took us a while to figure this one out but it is actually very simple. After speaking to our SQL and …

System Center Configuration Manager SCCM

Guide / System Center

System Center Technical Preview VHD Downloads Available

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

Microsoft have recently released the System Center Technical Preview Evaluation VHD’s for you to to take a look at and launch using your Hyper-V environment. DOWNLOADS You can download the VHD’s using the links below for the following products: Data Protection Manager Evaluation VHD Operations Manager Evaluation VHD Orchestrator Evaluation VHD Service Manager Evaluation VHD Virtual Machine Manager VHD COMMENTS …

System Center

Configuration Manager 2012 R2 CU3 Released

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

Microsoft have released Cumulative Update 3 for System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. The hot fix download is available using the link below: Configuration Manager 2012 R2 CU3 The full details of the update are below: Issues that are fixed Software distribution and application management Content distribution from a Central Administration Site (CAS) to remote distribution points can take longer …

System Center / Guide

Configuration Manager – How to Change the Approve/Deny Status of an Application Catalog Request

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

If you are a Configuration Manager administrator, the chances are that you are using the Application Catalog to allow users to install their own software.A great feature of this is that you can put in specialist or licensed software and add a “Request” button. This means that your end users will only get the software if you approve it. To …

Guide / System Center

SCCM Query – Report on Distribution Point Statuses

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

In Configuration Manager 2012, there is a section under the Monitoring ribbon called Distribution Status. This will give you a lot of information about your distributions and your distribution points. If you look at Distribution Point Configuration Status, this gives you a good understanding of whether your drivers, packages, applications and images have deployed correctly to your local or remote …

Guide / System Center

SCCM – Report on Outlook Archive PST files on Devices

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

If you want to report on machines that have Outlook archive (PST’s) on them, where they are and how big they are, then you can use this guide to create a report that will do this for you using Configuration Manager. First of all, you will need to tell your Software Inventory to look for PST files on machines. To …

Guide / System Center

SCCM – WQL Query for Devices with Configuration Manager Client Installed and no System Center Endpoint Protection Installed

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

We have had a report that one of our WQL queries has not been working correctly, this is the one for devices that have Configuration Manager client installed but do not have System Center Endpoint Protection installed on them. The original post is here: WQL Query for Devices without Endpoint Installed So, we have looked into this and found the …

Guide / System Center

Configuration Manager 2012 – How to Capture Task Sequence Error Logs to a Network Share

by Andrew Armstrong - Leave a Comment

We have recently been doing some big OSD projects and with testing for such big projects comes the point where some of your testing will fail, so to find out why a test sequence fails, the first thing you should look at is your log files. However, ConfigMgr makes this an annoying process as the log files move about during …