SCCM 2012 SP1 How to boost PXE boot speed

This is a very simple trick I picked up to boost PXE boot, from the distribution point complete the following

From HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\DP

Add a QWORD value (for 64bit Server OS , I'm using Server 2012) and call it RamDiskTFTPBlockSize

Give it a Hexadecimal value of  "4000" or a decimal value of "16384".

I wouldn't advise you go higher than this, but you can drop it if need be.

PXE boot again and you will see a increase in speed. 

Enjoy

:)

SCCM 2012 SP1 Management Point error "Call to HttpSendRequestSync failed for port 80/443 with status code 500, text: Internal Server Error"

Tell you what, I have to blame my sales team for this error. Let me explain, they like to push the latest and greatest and that's fine, until you forget old trick of the trade as you have been working with Windows Server 2012 since before it was officially launched ...

So, SCCM 2012 SP1 Management Prole on Windows Server 2008 R2, you need to register ASP.NET v4 with IIS. If you don't you will see the error below in your mpcontrol.log or in the System State Messages in the monitoring workspace.

Call to HttpSendRequestSync failed for port 80/443 with status code 500, text: Internal Server Error

Now I would like to point out that with SCCM 2012 pre SP1 this was never an issue as it uses .NET 3.5.

P.S you don't have to run this on Windows Server 2012 as it used .NET v4 by default.

Solution:

Run the following elevated command prompt on the affected Management Point.

cd /d %windir%\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v4*
aspnet_regiis –i –enable

Any questions please ask.

Enjoy.

SCUP for Windows Server 2012 (SCCM 2012 SP1)

Good news, Microsoft have finally update their documentation to show that Windows Server 2012 and SCUP can now play ball together.

I have also managed to integrate this with SCCM 2012 SP1 and its working like a charm.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2013/05/14/support-announcements-for-may-2013.aspx

Enjoy

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error - SCCM 2012 SP1 - Windows Server 2012 - WSUS x64

Hello,

I noticed that I was getting a lot of red crossed under my site components and that my default website was chucking out the following error after a WSUS install on the local SCCM server.

HTTP Error 500.19 – Internal Server Error
The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

This was also the case when trying to access http://localhost/ccm_client and application portals.

I had a look at the ApplicationHost.config file and noticed that suscomp.dll was installed by WSUS.

Resolution
1. Go to C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config and locate the ApplicationHost.config file
2. Open it with notepad and look for the following lines below

scheme name=”xpress” doStaticCompression=”false” doDynamicCompression=”true”
dll=”C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\suscomp.dll” staticCompressionLevel=”10″
dynamicCompressionLevel=”0″ />

3. The following command needs to be run to disable the suscomp.dll that was installed when the WSUS server role was installed, Im not 100% sure but from what I could see compression schemes are in every application pool and when WSUS x64 was installed the suscomp.dll chucks out the 500.19 error when its trying to load the x86 application pool. So from an elevated command prompt running the following.

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /-[name='xpress']

4. If you need to re-enable this just change it slightly and run this command.

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /+[name='xpress',doStaticCompression='false',dll='%windir%\system32\inetsrv\suscomp.dll']

Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1

Hello,

Just to make everyone aware that CU1 for SCCM 2012 SP1 is available from here (this is also the source of the blog post) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817245

I would only ever recommend installing the update if you are affected by any of the issues below.

What Microsoft Fixed

Administration Console 

•  A Discovery Data Record (DDR) that contains organizational unit (OU) paths that are longer than 220 characters are not processed. The DDM.log file on the site server contains event messages that resemble the following:
• CDiscoverySource::ValidateSchema - array property User OU Name cannot expand size so rejecting.
• CDiscoverDataManager::ProcessDDRs - Unable to update data source 

• The "Allow clients to use a fallback source location for content" option is missing from the "Distribution Points" tab of the package properties

 Site Systems

• Replication Configuration Manager incorrectly reports the link status as Degraded, and then reports the status as Active one minute later
• Site replication fails after a site database is restored to a new server. Additionally, the Rcmctrl.log file contains the following error message:
• ERROR: Received unhandled SQL exception, printing info and throwing it again. This will be retried in next cycle.
  SqlException number: [8115]
  ERROR: Exception message: [Arithmetic overflow error converting expression to data type int.~~The 'spGetChangeTrackingMinValidVersion' procedure attempted to return a status of NULL, which is not allowed. A status of 0 will be returned instead.] 

•  System Center 2012 Configuration Manager does not support the Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion client. To obtain the Mac OS X 10.8 client, go to the following Microsoft Download Center website: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36212

Device Management

• The Configuration Manager client cannot be installed on devices that contain newer ARM processors. Additionally, the following error message is logged in the DmClientSetup log file:
• Fail to get the CAB file name because of unsupported processor type: 0

Software Updates

• The Allow clients to share content with other clients on the same subnet option in the properties of a Software Update Group Deployment is ignored. Additionally, the DataTransferService.log file contains the following message:
• Not using branch cache option.

• When a custom port is configured for software updates, an Internet only client may append the custom port to the URL for the Windows Update service. Additionally, when the custom port is set to 880, log entries that resemble the following may be logged in the DataTransferService.log file:
• UpdateURLWithTransportSettings(): OLD URL - http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update.cab
•  UpdateURLWithTransportSettings(): NEW URL - http://download.windowsupdate.com:880/msdownload/update.cab

• The Schedule Updates Wizard does not list content for Windows Server 2012. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2793237
• FIX: The Schedule Updates Wizard does not list content for Windows Server 2012 in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1

Client

• The MicrosoftPolicyPlatformSetup.msi file is now correctly signed.
• The selection of multiple targeted applications in Software Center will fail if the calendar region is set to Arabic (Saudi Arabia). Additionally, Software Center displays the following error message:
• Software Center cannot be loaded. There is a problem loading the required components for Software Center. You can try launching Software Center at a later time. If the problem continues, you can contact your helpdesk.

• The hardware inventory on a computer that is running a 32-bit version of Windows Server 2003 R2 may cause the Wmiprvse.exe process to exit unexpectedly. Additionally, when you view the results of the fault, the details of the fault resemble the following:
• Faulting application wmiprvse.exe, version 5.2.3790.4455, faulting module msvcr90.dll, version 9.0.30729.6161, fault address 0x00056b1d

• PXE support is added for IA-32 EFI computers.

Powershell

• When the Clear-CMPxeDeployment cmdlet is run, you receive the following error message:
• The method or operation is not implemented. 

• When the Update-CMDistributionPoint –DeploymentTypeName cmdlet is run, you receive the following error message:
•  Key not Found Exception.

• When the New-CMDeviceCollection cmdlet is run, the refreshschedule parameter is not defined in the NewByLimitName parameter set.
• When the New-CMDeviceCollection cmdlet is run together with the LimitingCollectionName option, the cmdlet is unsuccessful. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
• Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlArrayItems' to type'System.Management.ManagementBaseObject'.

• When the .GetType method is used for the object that is returned by the New-CMSchedule cmdlet, the method is unsuccessful. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
•  The adapter cannot get property "GetType" for instance of SMS_ST_RecurInterval.

•  When the Import-CMComputerInformation -CollectionName "All Systems" -ComputerName "Computer01" -MacAddress "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" command is run, the command is unsuccessful. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
• WARNING: The collection All Systems does not exist or is not suitable for adding the new device.

Help for PowerShell is updated for the cmdlets that are included in Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 and in this cumulative update. In a PowerShell environment, use the Update-Help –Module ConfigurationManager cmdlet to retrieve the latest Help information from Microsoft.

The following cmdlets are added to the PowerShell module:

• Add-CMDistributionPoint
• Import-CMAntiMalwarePolicy
• Import-CMDriver
• New-CMAppVVirtualEnvironment
• New-CMMigrationJob
• New-CMPackage
• New-CMSoftwareUpdateAutoDeploymentRule
• New-CMTaskSequence
• New-CMTaskSequenceInstallUpdateAction
• New-CMTaskSequenceMedia
• New-CMUserDataAndProfileConfigurationItem
• Remove-CMTaskSequenceInstallUpdateAction
• Set-CMTaskSequenceGroup
• New-CMTaskSequenceGroup
• Remove-CMTaskSequenceGroup
• Set-CMApplicationCatalogWebsitePoint
• Set-CMAppVVirtualEnvironment
• Set-CMClientPushInstallation
• Set-CMClientSetting
• Set-CMDistributionPoint
• Set-CMDriver
• Set-CMEndpointProtectionPoint
• Set-CMEnrollmentPoint
• Set-CMEnrollmentProxyPoint
• Set-CMHierarchySetting
• Set-CMManagementPointComponent
• Set-CMOperatingSystemImageUpdateSchedule
• Set-CMOutOfBandManagementComponent
• Set-CMReportingServicePoint
• Set-CMSite
• Set-CMSoftwareUpdateAutoDeploymentRule
• Set-CMSoftwareUpdatePointComponent
• Set-CMStateMigrationPoint
• Set-CMStatusSummarizer
• Set-CMSystemHealthValidatorPointComponent
• Set-CMTaskSequence
• Set-CMTaskSequenceInstallUpdateAction
• Set-CMUserDataAndProfileConfigurationItem
• Start-CMDistributionPointUpgrade

 I hope this was useful, it does resolve all the issues mentioned above, please just ensure that after installing the update you double check your site and site systems are all green in the monitoring pane.

As some more and more of the issues become visible after the installation I will document these as I find them

How to unisntall SCCM 2012 SP1 agent/client

Got a mail asking how to uninstall the SCCM agent, this is how ...

From the command promt type (Start>Run>cmd)

C:\Windows\system32> cd\
C:\>cd windows
C:\windows> cd ccmsetup
C:\Windows\ccmsetup>ccmsetup /uninstall

Keep an eye on the un-installation using the log files from C:\Windows\ccmsetup\ccmsetup.log

Once that's complete delete the following files in bold
C:\Windows\ccmsetup
C:\Windows\ccm
C:\Windows\SMSCFG.ini

My friend Matt also reminded me to remove the Machine Certs from the SMS store

To do this
Start>Run>MMC>Click File>Add/Remove Snap-in...>Certificates>Click Add>Computer Account>Local Computer>SMS

Delete the certificates in the SMS store.

Enjoy