Despool.log, MP has rejected a policy request

On some SCCM sites I have seen thousands of errors in despool.log about rejected policy. In some cases these are caused by an non-approved client but on one customer site all clients were approved and there were still 3000-3500 errors in the status every morning.

SCCM SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER Warnings GUID

All the errors came from one single GUID but in the log there was nothing about which Netbios name this client had so the solution was this query:

SELECT
   resourceID, netbios_name0, SMS_Unique_Identifier0
FROM
   dbo.v_R_System

Select all the results and paste them into Excel or something where you can make a search for the GUID you saw in the log.

I reinstalled the SCCM client on the error-burping server and the log was fine the day after!

Latest SCCM Client version is 4.00.6487.2157

The latest version of SCCM Client is right now 4.00.6487.2157 and to get there you need to grab the client installation files from a SCCM 2007 SP2 site and then add the R3 hotfix (KB977384).

Latest SCCM Client SP2 R3 version 4.00.6487.2157

I am right now pilot testing a huge enterprise deployment of KB977384 and it seems to go smooth and does not reboot the system during the patch/upgrade.

Hardware Inventory fails after client is migrated from SMS to SCCM

When a client computer is upgraded from SMS 2003 to Configuration Manager 2007 the hardware inventory scan might fail to run on the upgraded client computer. Entries similar to the following appear in InventoryAgent.log on the client computer:

Unknown error encountered processing an instance of class CCM_System: 80041013
Collection: Failed to process mandatory data item for class: CCM_System. Cycle abandoned !!   InventoryAgent
Failed to process instances of CCM_System: 80004005

Solution: Restart the client computer after migration!

Export SMS/SCCM data to CSV or TXT by using SQLCMD

I often do automation work and one nice tool when we talk about SMS or SCCM data is SQLCMD.exe.

SQLCMD export SMS or SCCM data

So how do I use it?

1. First I build a SQL query that gives me the data I want. I user query editor to find the right fields and then modify with functions etc.

2. I then normally store the query as a SQL view to make it more easy to call for.

3. Then I create a CMD file with SQLCMD.EXE command that calls for the view I created in step 2. SQLCMD has a lot of nice switches to format the data. See above!

4. When I get out the data in the correct format and into the right place (like to a file share where some non sms/sccm team can reach it) I create a scheduled task to run the CMD file with a user that both has SQL access and write access to the output folder.

Questions? Leace a comment!

Deploy Windows 7/2008R2 SP1 with SCCM

There are at least two different ways to deploy Service Pack 1 for Windows 2008 R2 and Win7 by using SCCM.

[Scenario 1]
Use SCCM SUP (Software Update Point) to deploy SP1 as an normal update.

Fast and Easy way but I prefer to have better control over Service Pack installations than normal Hotfixes/Monthly updates so I do not use this method my self.

[Scenario 2]
Build a normal software package with the just the Service Pack Binary and install it using quiet and unattend switches. Let the SP binary do the reboot and make sure that the program can run even if no user is logged on. Also make sure that the installation is allowed to run 180 minutes – it takes at least ONE hour to install Service Pack 1 on a fast server!

Then build a query based collection with all the systems in scope for the Service Pack and advertise the package without any mandatory time against this collection. I prefer to use Download and Execute on Service Pack Advertisements even if this uses the double amount of space.

Then pick some pilot systems in the collection and trigger the advertisement manually to see if everything works. The unattended switch shows you progress on the system console screen so be sure to connect as first user and to Console-0.

After this you can plan and schdule a controlled mass deployment of Service Pack 1 to all your servers/workstations in scope!

If you have any questions, please write a comment below!

New Mobile Template and Anonymous Comments activated in Blogger

I checked the blog settings and saw some things I wanted to change.

From now on this blog is looking better when read from a smartphone as Iphone, Samsung or HTC. Please test it and comment?

The next this was the blog comment feature that is now allowing also anonymous writers and I also disabled the secret word check so now you are free to give me feedback as much as you want!

Best Regards from your SlowMovingSoftware Admin!

Bug! MP installation fails even if WebDav=Ok

I have been installing a lot of new SCCM 2007 sites lately and used my step by step guide. In my guide I configure Webdav settings needed by SCCM before starting Configuration Manager installation.

SCCM 2007 Re set WebDav settings and Apply

When SCCM tries to install Management Point (MP) it fails and in the setup log it says that the WebDav settings are wrong even if they are set correctly?!

Solution is to re-set all the four needed values, apply settings and restart IIS services. Next time MP installation will retry it will success..

Corrupt GPO causes SCCM patch management to fail, solution here!

Some servers are having GPO problems and these problems makes SCCM unable to update the WindowsUpdate registry values so I made this Registry file and imported it to all systems having GPO issues.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"WUServer"="http://yyour_sccm_sup_server.xxx.xxx.xxx:80"
"WUStatusServer"="http://your_sccm_sup_server.xxx.xxx.xxx:80"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"UseWUServer"=dword:00000001

When the file is imported SCCM detects that there are GPO values and then makes his updates making SCCM patch management to start working.

SCCM LastStatusChangeTime updates every day

I run this below VBS script every day at SCCM customers to get better an more accurate patch installation status from clients:

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

Call RefreshServerComplianceState

' WScript.Echo "Finished"

Sub RefreshServerComplianceState()

    ' Initialize the UpdatesStore variable.
    dim newCCMUpdatesStore
  
    ' Create the COM object.
    set newCCMUpdatesStore = CreateObject ("Microsoft.CCM.UpdatesStore")

    ' Refresh the server compliance state by running the RefreshServerComplianceState method.
    newCCMUpdatesStore.RefreshServerComplianceState
  
    ' Output success message.
'    wscript.echo "Ran RefreshServerComplianceState."

End Sub

I took it from Microsoft msdn so it’s supported:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc146437.aspx

The only down side i have seen is that the LastStatusChangeTime is updated every time the script is run and therefore you can’t use this field to validate the patch installation date. I query “Add remove programs” table and the patch KB number for that.

LastStatusChangeTime in SCCM

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