[Today's post is contributed by The Configuration Manager Writing Team]
Have you noticed that the Configuration Manager documentation on TechNet now supports community content? If you scroll down to the bottom of a topic, you'll see the community content area where you can add your own information that relates to that particular topic, and you can read information that other customers have provided. When you view a topic that currently has no community content published, it looks similar to the picture below:
Click the ? button and you'll find a short description of this feature with some additional links:
The Community Content feature for Microsoft documentation provides the ability to add and edit content notes, similar to a wiki. Examples include code samples, tips, undocumented scenarios, links to additional resources, etc. Anyone is welcome to contribute or edit content. To get started, we require you register and agree to code of conduct and licensing agreements. At that time, you choose a display name that is used to identify your contributions across this site. More details are available on the Community Content FAQ.
We already have an example of good community content added to How to Configure Windows Server 2008 for Site Systems:
Don't use community content to ask technical questions but instead use the TechNet forums for this: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/
If you want clarification about something that's documented, or want to report a problem with the documentation, send an e-mail to the documentation team (SMSDocs@Microsoft.com) rather than using community content so that we can provide you with a personalized reply. We can't contact you as a result of community content you post, because although this requires that you log in, we do not have access to your e-mail address. The same is true when customers enter feedback comments using the Click to Rate and Give Feedback popup at the top of each topic. Sometimes customers ask us to reply to their questions, or the information they've provided needs clarification. Without an e-mail address we can't action the comment. This is sometimes really frustrating for us! As an example, "It doesn't work" doesn't tell us whether that person found an error in the documentation (and if so, where) or they have a technical support problem (which might be a problem with the product or simply a misconfiguration).
We hope to add the SMSDocs@Microsoft.com feedback link to our topics in the near future so that customers who want a response from us will use this method to communicate directly with the documentation team.
In the meantime, we are watching to see what great additional information you can share with other customers by using the community content feature.
--The Configuration Manager Writing Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
[Rob Stack from our UA team has provided today's post]
SQL Reporting Services in Configuration Manager 2007 R2 offers a number of advantages over traditional Configuration Manager reporting methods. One of the major advantages of this new feature gives users who may have little knowledge of SQL Server the ability to easily create reports using SQL Server Report Builder. Report builder allows the report author to drag and drop view items from the database to easily create ad-hoc reports. However, before the report author can create reports, you must define the views and objects within these views which will be presented. The items that will be presented to the report author are stored in a report model.
In this post, you'll discover how to create new SQL report models to enable report authors to create reports. The post covers only one possible scenario and you are encouraged to experiment with your own scenarios. Report Builder contains many more features than those listed in the post, such as the ability to create graphs and charts.
Creating a report model is a fairly lengthy procedure that is too long to be presented as a blog post, so you will find the tutorial attached to this post as a Word document. Please click the AuthoringReportModelsForCM2007R2.docx attachments link below to read the remainder of this post and feel free to post any comments or suggestions.
--Rob Stack
[Today's Post is provided by the Configuration Manager Writing Team.]
The Configuration Manager documentation library (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680651.aspx) has been updated on the Web and the following information lists the topics that are new or contain significant changes since the February 2009 update. All topics that have been updated have Updated: March 1, 2009 at the top of the topic.
Most of the documentation changes in this update are a result of customers contacting us with questions, requests for clarifications, and notifying us of omissions and even the occasional typo - so thank you for helping to improve the documentation for others. We do value your feedback and try to incorporate it when possible. Although we can't promise to make the docs perfect for everybody, we are committed to continual improvement. So, keep that feedback coming, and contact the documentation team on our usual address of SMSDocs@Microsoft.com.
What's New in the Configuration Manager Documentation Library for March 2009
The following information lists the topics that are new or contain significant changes since the February 2009 update.
How to Deploy a Branch Distribution Point
- Updated with customer feedback that the documentation for this procedure should include information about using protected boundaries.
Problems Editing Configuration Data in the Configuration Manager Console
- Updated to clarify the first troubleshooting entry that configuration baselines and configuration items that were not created at the site will display with a lock symbol and cannot be edited.
AMT Provisioning Issues for Out of Band Management
- Updated with the new troubleshooting entry "Configuration Manager Fails to Provision Computers Because the Active Directory OU or Container Does Not Exist". The help for the dialog box Out of Band Management Properties: General Tab has also been updated with the information that the Active Directory container value will not be dynamically updated if the previously selected OU or container has been renamed or deleted in Active Directory Domain Services.
Configuration Manager and Name Resolution
- Updated to reflect that DNS is required for name resolution when you are using the SP1 feature, out of band management. This requirement has also been added as an external dependency in Prerequisites for Out of Band Management.
How to Remove the Trusted Root Key
- Updated with the corrected information that the trusted root key must be removed or replaced before you can successfully reassign a Configuration Manager client from one hierarchy to another hierarchy, even if the new site is published in Active Directory Domain Services. As an alternative to removing the trusted root key from the old hierarchy, you can reinstall the client with the trusted root key for the new hierarchy, for example, by using client push from the new site, or by specifying the SMSPublicRootKey property with CCMSetup.exe.
Determine Whether You Need to Enable Certificate Revocation Checking (CRL) On Clients (Native Mode)
- Updated to clarify that CRL checking for clients is enabled by default when the site is installed in native mode, and disabled by default when the site is installed in mixed mode and then migrated to native mode. Previously, the documentation just stated that this setting was enabled by default. There are several other topics that have also been updated with this clarification.
Prerequisites for Internet-Based Client Management
- Updated and revised for the verbs that are required for each Internet-based site system. This information might be required for firewall configuration.
Determine the Ports Required for Internet-Based Client Management
- Updated with specific information about the communication between servers running the software update point - for example, the Internet-based software update in the perimeter network and the active software update point in the intranet. Another scenario is when the software update point that accepts connections over the Internet synchronizes metadata with the active software update point in the parent site. This information is included in a number of topics related to Internet-based client management.
-- The Configuration Manager Writing Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.
[Today's post is provided by Bhaskar Krishnan]
I started off writing a post on a rather powerful functionality provided in SQL Reporting Services called Data Driven Subscriptions, but then decided to expand it to include a tutorial on how to create Configuration Manager 2007 reports using SQL Reporting Services 2008 Report Builder 2.0. The report we create in this tutorial forms the basis for creating a data driven subscription which will be described in Part 2 of this post. This post attempts to highlight some of the powerful authoring functionalities in Report Builder 2.0 and how it can be leveraged to author Configuration Manager reports.
I have included the tutorial portion of this post as an attachment since it carries quite a few illustrative screenshots which would potentially make this post a bit too long. Please click the CreatingCM2007ReportsUsingReportsBuilder.docx attachments link below to read the remainder of this post and let me know your comments and queries. Also stay tuned for Part 2 of this series since it explores another neat functionality offered by SQL Reporting Services - Data driven subscriptions.
--Bhaskar Krishnan This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
[This post was originally published on our sister blog Chinese Configuration Manager R&D Team Blog by team members Gordon Jiang, Martin Li and Andrew Loh. Yumin Guo has kindly provided us with the English translation for our readers. The original Chinese version of this post can be read here.]
Configuration Manager 2007 OOB Management Series - Part I
Out of Band (OOB) Management is gradually becoming one of the mainstream IT management technologies. This blog series focuses on introduction and discussion around the Out of Band Management feature in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to help you better understand and use this feature. This series of blog articles will cover overview, usage and troubleshooting, etc.
Out of Band Management is a management technology that does not rely on an operating system to manage target machines. Currently, both Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) and DMTF's Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) support Out of Band Management. In ConfigMgr 2007 SP1, we have integrated AMT technology into the product - this becomes the so called Out of Band Management feature.
Remote wakeup is a very practical functionality of OOB management. It tightly integrates with the most frequently used and powerful features of ConfigMgr 2007 - Software Distribution, Software Update Management, and Operating System Deployment. With OOB management support, these widely used features become more powerful and precise. IT administrators can bring up tens of thousands of machines while they are in powered off state at night, install desired software (e.g. Microsoft Office) or patches on those machines and automatically shut them down after installation completes. As such, IT administrators can freely choose the appropriate time to install software or patches, without hindering or interrupting employees' work during the day time.
Nowadays more and more enterprises own a huge number of machines and have geographically distributed sites. For example, a company headquartered in the US may have branches in China or Singapore. For such companies, it is crucial that internal IT engineers are able to provide remote IT support; but when the target remote machine has no operating system or its operating system has crashed, traditional remote IT support technologies can hardly be effective. In such scenarios, OOB management becomes the killer app; reducing significant amount of expenses for the company, like travel expenses or on-site troubleshooting expenses, etc.
Let's look at a real world example: an employee in Singapore cannot startup his Windows computer to do his work because the operating system of his desktop computer is damaged. Unfortunately, there is no local IT support in Singapore, as it is a relatively small branch site. So this employee contacts an IT engineer in US headquarters. The IT engineer locates this problematic computer in the Configuration Manager console and opens up OOB management console, as shown in figure 1. Then he selects BIOS boot option under Power Control tab, and click Restart Computer to reboot the system and enter BIOS.
Figure 1
After that, the IT engineer can remotely check the BIOS settings, as shown in figure 2. If there is anything wrong, he can instantly correct the BIOS setting to help recover the target computer system.
Figure 2
The IT engineer confirmed that all BIOS settings are correct, but because the operating system is damaged, the system still cannot boot into the original OS. In such situation, ConfigMgr's IDE Redirect feature can let the remote system load an OS image from a remote server. As shown in figure 3, the IT engineer selects a bootable recovery image, which will boot the target system into an emergency operating system. After that, he can continue to remotely control the system and repair the damaged operating system or backup important files.
Figure 3
Enterprise IT administrators can utilize the asset management capabilities of OOB management to more effectively and accurately manage computer systems in the enterprise. Administrators can get real-time and accurate hardware information about targeted computers via Configuration Manager's OOB Management Console, as shown in figure 4. Therefore, administrators can timely discover any lost or damaged hardware assets and more effectively maintain company's assets.
Figure 4
In addition, administrators can leverage the powerful reporting capabilities of Configuration Manager 2007 to generate effective and clear reports against the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, machines in the enterprise, based on the information collected by the OOB management feature. This enables administrators and IT managers to get an effective and clear view of corporate assets, to get accurate statistical data, and to make the right decision.
Figure 5
This article provides a simple overview of the major functionalities of OOB Management. In the following series of articles, we will introduce how to use the OOB management feature and how to troubleshoot problems. We hope these articles will provide practical knowledge to IT administrators. You may also leave comments below to let us know what kind of content you would like to see in future. Your valuable suggestions will be important references for our incoming blog articles.
-- Gordon Jiang, Martin Li and Andrew Loh
[Today’s post is provided by Ben Yim]
A common client deployment issue that I’ve seen over the years involves running ccmsetup as a service. In most cases running ccmsetup as a service should be fine. However, there are scenarios where doing so will have some unintended consequences, which will in turn cause client deployment failures. This post will go over some of the consequences of running ccmsetup as a service and how this can cause client deployment failures.
When ccmsetup launches, it can run under one of two modes - it can either run as a service or as a standalone executable. In many cases, such as client push installations, ccmsetup runs as a service by default. When ccmsetup runs as a service, installation occurs over a couple of different phases. In the first phase, ccmsetup copies itself to %windir%\ccmsetup for 64-bit computers or %windir%\system32\ccmsetup for 32-bit computers and it registers itself as a Windows service. It does this so that there is a built in retry mechanism during the client deployment process. Should the client installation fail because the client computer is restarted during the deployment process, ccmsetup will retry the client installation after the reboot is completed. In ccmsetup.log, this phase will look something like this:
==========[ ccmsetup started in process 2348 ]========== ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:10 AM Version: 4.0.6221.1000 ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:10 AM … Downloading c:\myinstalldir\ccmsetup.exe to C:\Windows\ccmsetup\ccmsetup.exe File download 43% complete (262144 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM File download 87% complete (524288 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM File download 100% complete (602112 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM Download complete. ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM Successfully created the ccmsetup service ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM
==========[ ccmsetup started in process 2348 ]========== ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:10 AM Version: 4.0.6221.1000 ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:10 AM
…
Downloading c:\myinstalldir\ccmsetup.exe to C:\Windows\ccmsetup\ccmsetup.exe File download 43% complete (262144 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM File download 87% complete (524288 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM File download 100% complete (602112 of 602112 bytes). ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM Download complete. ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM Successfully created the ccmsetup service ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM
From the log file you can see that ccmsetup copies itself to the Windows directory and creates a Windows service. It then exits the initial ccmsetup process and relaunches as a Windows service. You can see evidence of this because ccmsetup.log shows that the process restarted. For example, the next line in ccmsetup.log should look something like this:
Download complete. ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 Successfully created the ccmsetup service ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM ==========[ ccmsetup started in process 2608 ]========== ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM Version: 4.0.6221.1000 ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:11 AM
The key thing during this transition is that when ccmsetup relaunches as a service, it will run under the Local System context of the client computer rather than the context that ccmsetup was originally launched under. Again, this information can be found in ccmsetup.log and would look something like this:
Running as user "SYSTEM" ccmsetup 3/4/2009 11:16:32 AM
This transition can become an issue during client deployment if the Local System account on the client computer does not have access to client installation binaries. For example, let’s say that you run ccmsetup from a network share that contains all of the client binaries. Your user account may have access to that network share while the Local System account of the client computer does not. When you launch ccmsetup, phase 1 will complete and ccmsetup will be able to copy itself from the network share to the Windows directory because it will be running under your user account. However, when ccmsetup relaunches to download other client binaries, the Local System account may not have access to that network share, preventing ccmsetup from downloading the files that it needs. When this is an issue, you’ll typically see a message that looks something like this:
Failed to access source file (…). Waiting for retry...
There are several ways to work around this, but one of the simplest ways to do so would be to run ccmsetup as a standalone process rather than as a service. When ccmsetup runs as a standalone process, the entire client deployment process runs under one account. Thus, if your user account has access to that network share, ccmsetup will have access to that network share for the duration of the client install.
You can explicitly set how ccmsetup runs using a couple of different switches. If you pass a /service switch to ccmsetup, ccmsetup will always run as a service. Conversely, if you pass the /noservice switch to ccmsetup, ccmsetup will always run as a standalone process. For those of you familiar with SMS 2003, the /noservice switch effectively does the same thing as the /useronly switch in SMS 2003. The /useronly switch was explicitly renamed to /noservice for Configuration Manager because people kept getting the impression that /useronly meant that the client installation would happen under low rights, which was never actually the case.
--Ben Yim
[Today's post is supplied by Carol Bailey]
DNS publishing was introduced in Configuration Manager 2007, and perhaps because of the vagueness in the term ("to publish" simply means to make available), we see a number of customer questions and confusions about this option - what it is and when it should be used. This post addresses the commonly asked questions and confusions that we've seen around this option.
First, let's confirm what DNS publishing does not do, so that we can eliminate the common confusions. DNS publishing in Configuration Manager Does NOT:
That's a long list of what DNS publishing in Configuration Manager doesn't do. So what does it do and what is it for? DNS publishing in Configuration Manager provides an optional, alternative service location method by which clients can find their default management point when this isn't possible with Active Directory Domain Services - perhaps because they are workgroup computers, or clients from another forest, or because the site is not publishing to Active Directory Domain Services.
There are two other methods that clients can use to find their default management point, so why add this new method? The other methods are to use WINS and the server locator point. One of the reasons for adding DNS publishing was for clients in native mode that couldn't use Active Directory Domain Services for service location. These clients cannot use WINS to locate their default management point (although they can use WINS to locate a manually added record for the server locator point, and for name resolution). Additionally, for native mode clients to use a server locator point, they must be configured with an option that weakens security so that they can use HTTP in addition to HTTPS. The other reasons included increased reliability and scalability. In large-scale networks, replication of WINS records or a non-joined up WINS solution can result in problems when you are relying on this method for service location. In comparison, DNS is better suited to highly distributed and more complex networks, which includes a disjointed namespace.
How DNS publishing works in Configuration Manager is by the client looking for a service location resource record (SRV RR) in DNS, which contains its assigned site code, in a particular domain. The SRV record can be automatically created by Configuration Manager (enable the option "Publish the default management point in DNS (intranet only) in the site properties, Advanced tab) or it can be manually created by the DNS administrator.
Configuration Manager 2007 supports RFC 2782 for service location records, which have the following format: _Service._Proto.Name TTL Class SRV Priority Weight Port Target. Within this record, the _Service field uses _mssms_mp_<sitecode>, where <sitecode> is the management point's site code (which is why you cannot use auto-site assignment, because you might have more than one site in a single domain). The Target field specifies the FQDN of the management point, which is why you must have an additional host record to resolve that name to an IP address.
How does the client know which DNS zone to use to look for this record? Because the client is configured with the domain suffix of its default management point - either by using the CCMSetup option DNSSUFFIX, or the UI option of "Specify or modify a DNS suffix for site assignment below" on the Advanced tab of the client properties. Yes, I know that this wording says it's used for site assignment, but it's inaccurate. However, the F1 help for this tab and option is accurate. Unfortunately, we didn't find this discrepancy until it was too late to change it. Site assignment uses Active Directory Domain Services or the server locator point, not management points. However, clients cannot be managed until they find their default management point in their successfully assigned site, so the net result is very similar.
Hopefully, by explaining how DNS publishing of the default management point works, you can now see why it doesn't do some of things on the Does Not list. Let's run through them one by one with an explanation. DNS publishing in Configuration Manager does not:
For more information about DNS publishing in Configuration Manager, and how service location works, see the following in the Configuration Manager documentation library:
For customers already using DNS publishing of the default management point and wondering why the port field is not 80 or 443 as expected, see this blog post: Why is My Management Point Published in DNS with Port Number 79 - or No Port Number?
-- Carol Bailey
[Today's post is provided by Michael Cureton]
Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) is planned for release on the Microsoft Connect site for an open Beta at the end of May 2009. I wanted to reach out to our customers with a sneak peak at what is coming in SP2. This service pack release is focused on enabling support for new scenarios in out of band management and adding Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 support for operating system deployment and site server roles.
We would love your support in our open Beta this spring. Download it, try it out, and send us feedback via the Microsoft Connect site. We want to hear from you!
At a high-level the following is planned for the release:
The Technology Adoption Program (TAP) is now open for nominations and customers can register to participate through the Open Beta site on Microsoft Connect. Look for future news about SP2, including when it becomes available and more details about what is included in the release, on Microsoft Connect and the Configuration Manager Team Blog.
--Michael Cureton
[Recently Ken Pan did an interview for the Chinese Configuration Manager R&D Team Blog. Our team members Jae Kim and Yumin Guo have graciously provided us with the English translation of an excerpt of that interview. The entire interview in Chinese can be read here.]
Ken Pan is the driving force behind the System Center Configuration Manager team. As the Principal Product Unit Manager, he is responsible for all engineering and product development functions associated with the product.
In December 2008, on one of his frequent trips to the Configuration Manager R&D team in Shanghai, we took the opportunity to chat with Ken about the past, present, and future of Configuration Manager.
Question: SMS (Systems Management Server) was a new product in 1992. What was the initial motivation for Microsoft to create this product?
Answer: In the very beginning, SMS was not an independent product. In 1992, to promote Windows NT 3.1, a program manager in the Windows team had an idea to add a new feature to manage hardware assets, like hard disks, memory and etc., for computers in a domain. When the idea was demonstrated to a group of high-level managers, the managers found that it could be a better idea to create an independent product. That was the birth of SMS 1.0. However, during the product's infancy, the management team debated between keeping it as an independent product and merging it as a feature of Windows NT. The discussion repeatedly resurfaced every six months until the annual revenue of SMS 2.0 reached $100 million.
Question: SMS 2003 was a significant release. Revenue started to really take off at this point. What were the key success factors behind this?
Answer: Actually, the first breakthrough happened when we released SMS 2.0. At that time, most companies around the world encountered the Y2K scare. To address the looming problem, a lot of companies purchased SMS 2.0. Our product played a critical role to help those companies to avert disaster and ultimately realize huge cost savings. After deploying the product, they discovered that it also had much more useful functionality that improves IT management efficiencies. Since then, SMS has gradually been acknowledged as a critical piece of their IT management priorities by our customers and has become increasingly more popular.
For SMS 2003, the main reason behind the breakthrough was the success of software updates management. At that time, software viruses and worms were a big threat to IT security. Ensuring that every computer in the enterprise had the latest available patch became an important responsibility of IT professionals. WSUS (Windows Software Update Service) did not exist yet, so due to the software updates management capability in SMS 2003 it became the first choice of IT managers in the fight against software viruses and worms.
When we develop our product, customer requirements are always our top priority. We listen to what they say, understand their pain points, and think from their perspective when making decisions. By following these simple guiding principles, we're able to satisfy the most important requirements of our customers when releasing each version of our product. Solving the potentially costly Y2K issue, providing software updates management in SMS 2003, and introducing the popular OSD (operating system deployment) feature in Configuration Manager 2007 all contributed to continued success of the product.
Question: Can you tell us what the market share looked like with each of our releases?
Answer: Prior to the release of SMS 2.0, various competing products existed but no dominant player existed in the market. By the time SMS 2003 was released, the market was eventually dominated by few products such as SMS 2003, Altiris and LanDesk.
Question: What exciting features can customers expect in the next release of Configuration Manager?
Answer: In the next generation of Configuration Manager "User Centric" will be the principal theme. IT Administrators used to distribute software, apply software updates based on computers, while employees are likely to have several computers or mobile devices for their work. The new challenge for IT administrators is to build an infrastructure so that users can work on any of their computers or from anywhere to easily get the applications they need to do their job. The next version of Configuration Manager will help administrators to handle these challenges.
Question: How do you think the current economic downturn will impact Configuration Manager in the market?
Answer: There is a positive side and negative side. On the positive side, more and more customers will think of saving costs, which is one of the benefits of our product. On the negative side, customers may reduce their budget for upgrading to new operating systems. This will slow down the uptake of the new version of Configuration Manager. If we combine both the positive and negative, the overall result may not be significantly impacted but we'll have to wait for precise data to see the real effects.
Question: A consistent brand is important to have. So why did we change the brand of our product when going from SMS 2003 to System Center Configuration Manager 2007?
Answer: After becoming a part of the System Center brand, it would have been clumsy to say "System Center System Management Server," so we changed the name. Creating a unified brand which consists of a number of products is helpful to revenue and image building. Microsoft Office is the most successful example.
Question: Let's change gears a little. You've spent your entire career at Microsoft during which you have worked on the same product the entire time. Could you share with us both the highest and lowest moments of your career?
Answer: Most of time it is enjoyable. This job gives me a lot of enjoyment. The most disappointing moment was when we released SMS 2.0. Back then, our quality control standards were not as good as they are today. It wasn't until SMS 2.0 SP2 released that we had achieved the kind of quality that our customers expect from us. Our team worked around the clock to test and fix the bugs. In the peak period, hundreds of testers sat in a hall to manually test our product. After that, we continuously improved our process by increasing the percentage of automation test.
Question: With such a long history in the same group, could you share with us any interesting tidbits that many customers would not be aware of?
Answer: Numbers can be interesting. Let's take a look at the following numbers.
[We got a reader request for information about the versions of SQL Server supported by Configuration Manager 2007. Martin Li has provided the answer in today's post.]
As part of the planning considerations for Configuration Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr for short) deployment, we need to determine which version of SQL server will be used to host the site database. Before the release of SQL Server 2008 and later SQL Server 2005 SP3, the only SQL Server version supported to host the ConfigMgr site database was SQL Server 2005 SP2.
With the release of SQL Server 2008, the SQL support scenarios became a little complex. Hopefully, this post will clear things up and help you to figure out the right deployment or upgrade strategy.
Following is an overview of the Configuration Manager 2007 support for the different SQL Server versions:
SQL Server 2005:
SQL Server 2008:
If you plan to use SQL Server 2005 for your site database implementation, the story is simple and easy. ConfigMgr RTM and SP1 can use SQL 2005 SP2 to host the site database with their original release - no hotfix is required. The only exception is ConfigMgr R2, where the client status reporting feature requires hotfix 959975 to work with site database in a SQL named instance.
Now, let's talk about using SQL Server 2008 to host the ConfigMgr site database.
SQL 2008 was released in August 2008, several months after the release of ConfigMgr SP1. We started to test SQL 2008 Beta and RC (Release Candidate) while ConfigMgr SP1 was still under development. Several issues were identified and were fixed in SP1, including three issues in the site server setup program.
So, the ConfigMgr SP1 setup program works correctly with a SQL 2008 site database; but the ConfigMgr RTM setup program does not. That's why ConfigMgr RTM does not support fresh install using a SQL 2008 site database.
In order to get ConfigMgr RTM to work with SQL 2008, you will need to have an existing ConfigMgr RTM site with a SQL 2005 site database. You install hotfix 955229 and upgrade SQL 2005 to SQL 2008. You can choose to install the hotfix either before or after you upgrade SQL. This single hotfix addresses a status summarizer issue, a distribution manager issue, and an admin console OSD driver management node issue.
The OSD driver management node issue was discovered after SP1 was released. So if your ConfigMgr SP1 site uses SQL 2008 to host the site database, you need the hotfix 955262 to address the OSD driver management node issue. This applies for both a fresh SQL 2008 installation or one upgraded from SQL 2005, when used to host the ConfigMgr SP1 site database.
Finally, we had the ConfigMgr R2 release which brought us the lovely SQL reporting services (SRS) and a client status reporting tool, among other great features. The hotfix 957576 addresses a SQL reporting services problem where you see error messages about SRS in system status. This error does not affect the functionality of reports, although it generates false notifications.
Update to original post: Installing the hotfix 957576 resolves error ID 7404 appearing in status messages. If you see error ID 7403 in status messages, but you are not experiencing any problems with SQL Reporting Services in Configuration Manager, install the Cumulative Update 4 for SQL Server 2008 R2.
If your site database resides in a SQL named instance, the client status reporting feature requires hotfix 959975. This is true for both SQL 2005 and SQL 2008.
Please note that this blog post is not the official support statement. You may find the official support statement here.
--Martin Li