Many of our existing Configuration Manager customers are used to thinking in terms of installing and configuring sites, and then configuring individual features, such as hardware inventory, software distribution, and software updates. This reflected the product evolution and our internal development teams, as functionality was added over the years. It was also reflected in the management console, with new nodes for each feature. As the product grew, the number of nodes in the console increased and made it challenging to navigate.
The new design of the Configuration Manager console in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager changes that, with the focus on common scenarios and grouping similar tasks. Although you still have nodes under each of the workspaces (Assets and Compliance, Software Library, Monitoring, and Administration), they no longer necessarily map to features. Many features now overlap and share common terms and functions, to provide a more consistent administration experience.
For example, we use the word “deploy” to send anything to clients, such as settings, packages and programs, and software updates. In the past, we used “assign”, “distribute”, and “deploy” for these similar client management functions, depending on the feature used. The goal for Configuration Manager and the System Center components is “a single pane of glass” where the administration experience is reduced in complexity to minimize your administrative overheads. You can then focus on what’s important – managing computers – rather than spending time learning and remembering the different vocabulary and configuration variations for the different features.
The documentation library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager reflects this change of thinking from features to scenarios and management tasks. Customers have often told us that they want documentation that better reflects how they manage computers, rather than be forced to know how these map to our features. So when we designed the new documentation library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, we divided the documentation into these guides that group similar administration and management scenarios:
Guide
Description
Getting Started with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide helps you get started with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager with an introduction to the product, what’s new and changed since Configuration Manager 2007, basic concepts, and some frequently asked questions.
Site Administration for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide provides the information to help you plan, install, configure, and maintain System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.
Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide provides information about migrating an existing Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.
Deploying Clients for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide provides information to help you plan, install, configure, and manage client deployment in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.
Deploying Software and Operating Systems in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide provides information to help you plan, configure, and manage the deployment of software and operating systems in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.
Assets and Compliance in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide provides information to help you manage your devices (computers and mobile devices) in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.
Security and Privacy for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This guide contains security-related information from the other Configuration Manager guides and privacy statements for the product.
Within each of these guides, you will often find sections that relate to the features that are you familiar with. For example, in the Deploying Software and Operating Systems in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide, you will find the section Software Updates in Configuration Manager. But you will might also find sections that are you not expecting, such as Content Management in Configuration Manager, which is not a feature name that you’re familiar with, but an underlying infrastructure for deploying all software to clients – whether that’s applications, packages and programs, software updates, or operating systems.
Customers have also asked us where to find documentation for the reporting feature. Because reporting spans all client management functions as well as the configuration status of Configuration Manager itself, the Reporting in Configuration Manager section is in the Site Administration for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide.
The one guide that probably most closely maps to feature names that you’re familiar with is the Assets and Compliance in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide, where you will find the familiar names of features that describe their functionality, such as remote control, and inventory. Even here, we’ve tried to group similar tasks so that hardware inventory, software inventory, and Asset Intelligence is grouped under Inventory.
A potential downside of this rearrangement is that existing customers sometimes have a hard time finding the documentation that they need, because they expect it to be organized and named by feature area. We see this most often with mobile devices, which are now so similar to manage as you would computers, that we have integrated this information throughout the different guides.
For example, installing the mobile device client and managing mobile devices that connect to Exchange Server is integrated into the Deploying Clients for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide. After mobile devices are enrolled by Configuration Manager, configuring hardware inventory and deploying applications is the same as for client computers, so you will find this information in the inventory section and application management section of the Assets and Compliance in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide and the Deploying Software and Operating Systems in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager guide respectively. Ironically, the downside to the “single pane of glass” can make it harder to find this information.
In addition, the documentation does not cover every single aspect of the product. We provide documentation as supplemental to the product when it’s needed, rather than for the sake of having documentation. We expect that the new design and adding need-to-know text in the product itself reduces the need for a lot of documentation. The less documentation you have to wade through, the quicker you can get the job done.
As an example, you might have seen demos and presentations for the new search functionality that is used throughout the console to help you quickly find objects. You will not find documentation in the library about how to use search; this functionality should be intuitive. If you are turning to the documentation because you are having problems using search, please provide this feedback to the product group by using Microsoft Connect, so that they can address this in future versions.
Similarly, we haven’t documented every single option that you can configure. We worked with the product group to make configuration options intuitive to understand, and provide need-to-know text in wizards and dialog boxes. We kept the documentation for when there wasn’t enough room in the UI for you to make an informed choice, or there was a level of complexity involved that wasn’t suitable for the UI.
When you think a particular option that isn’t documented needs additional information, let us know by emailing SMSDocs@Microsoft.com. We can incorporate that feedback with our documentation updates, and let you know about updates and revisions by using documentation announcements on this blog.
For customers who are more used to thinking in terms of feature documentation, we’ve now added some “Where is the documentation for …?” entries to the Frequently Asked Questions for Configuration Manager page, and we supply links to the main topics for these areas. In our January documentation update, we added entries for Setup, role-based administration, and mobile devices. If you are having problems finding the documentation for a feature that you were familiar with from Configuration Manager 2007 or covered in a blog post or presentation for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, email SMSDocs@Microsoft.com.
And if you have any other feedback about the documentation library design or content, we’ll be happy to hear that and respond to it as well!
-- Carol Bailey
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
The Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library and the Documentation Library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager have been updated on the web and the latest content has Updated: January 1, 2012 at the top of the topic.
New this month, we’re publishing prerelease documentation for the Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Physical to Virtual Migration Toolkit – also known as the P2V Toolkit. Download the release candidate for this toolkit from the Microsoft Connect site to migrate Configuration Manager 2007 to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager in a branch office scenario where migration over a wide area network (WAN) connection is not feasible and where hardware resources for a side-by-side migration are limited. This toolkit virtualizes the site server instance so Configuration Manager 2007 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager can run on the same physical server in an environment where you can perform a side-by-side migration.
Documentation updates for this month includes customer feedback for Configuration Manager 2007 and updates the support information for SQL Server that was previously announced on this blog in September. We have some updates and clarifications for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, and we’ve also added notification to the Forefront Endpoint Protection 2012 beta documentation that this is now updated and replaced with System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection. You cannot use the beta version of FEP 2012 with the release candidate versions of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, so expect this beta documentation to be retired in the near future.
In addition, for FEP 2010 customers, we’ve updated Prerequisites for Deploying Forefront Endpoint Protection on a Client to include information about how Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 installs the Forefront Endpoint Protection client and definition updates to write filter-enabled devices.
We value customer 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 feel free to contact us about anything related to the documentation by using our usual address of SMSDocs@Microsoft.com.
What's New in the Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library for January 2012
The following information lists the topics that contain significant changes since the July 2011 update.
Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Supported Configurations
- Updated for the following SQL Server versions: SQL Server 2008 SP3, and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1. Windows Embedded support now includes Thin PC, Windows Embedded POSReady7, and Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1.
About Network Discovery
- Updated to clarify how Network Discovery finds the subnet mask.
How to Monitor Wake On LAN Activity
- As a result of community content, clarified that the reference to the Performance utility is the same as Performance Monitor. On some versions of Windows, and depending on how you access it, you will see just “Performance” and then “Performance Monitor” in the window title when you actually run it.
How to Install Configuration Manager Clients Using Group Policy
- As a result of community content, reworded for publishing rather than assigning the Configuration Manager client to users by using Group Policy.
Ports Used by Configuration Manager
- As a result of community content, added TCP port 53 in addition to UDP 53, for DNS.
Software Distribution Security Best Practices and Privacy Information
- Removed the reference to enabling Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and RTSP over TLS (RTSPS) for application virtualization streaming–enabled distribution points. This protocol is not supported by Configuration Manager 2007.
What's New in the Documentation Library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, January 2012
The following information lists the topics that contain significant changes since the December 2011 update.
Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager
- Updated the table in the Site and Site System Role Scalability section to include more site system roles, and to update the number of clients that site system roles at a secondary site can support.
Technical Reference for Accounts Used in Configuration Manager
- New topic that lists the groups and accounts that are used by Configuration Manager. Note that as a result of a publishing problem with angle brackets that denote a variable, the group names that end in _<sitecode> are currently listed in this topic as _[sitecode]. We hope to correct this soon.
What’s New in Configuration Manager
- Updated to clarify that NLB management points are no longer supported and this configuration is removed from the management point component properties.
Planning for Communications in Configuration Manager
- Updated with the new behavior of Internet-based clients that first try to download software updates from Microsoft Update when Configuration Manager detects these clients to be on the Internet. Only if this fails, do they then try to download them from Internet-based distribution points. The cross-forest table information is also updated to clarify the supported scenarios.
Step-by-Step Example Deployment of the PKI Certificates for Configuration Manager: Windows Server 2008 Certification Authority
- As a result of customer feedback, updated the procedure for the web server certificate to clarify that when you specify a subject alternative name (SAN), the subject value remains empty. When a SAN is specified in a PKI certificate, Configuration Manager does not use the certificate subject, which is why it can remain empty.
Introduction to Client Deployment in Configuration Manager
- Updated with a new section “Considerations for Managing the Configuration Manager Client in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure”, for customers who are using VDI.
Prerequisites for Client Deployment in Configuration Manager
- Added the information about the hotfix KB2552033, which must be installed on site servers that run Windows Server 2008 R2 when client push installation is enabled. Also added the required security permissions to configure enrollment for mobile devices, and to manage enrolled mobile devices.
About Client Settings in Configuration Manager
- Updated to clarify that the client setting Agent extensions manage the deployment of applications and software updates applies to only software updates and required applications. This setting has no effect for available applications and users can still request them in the Application Catalog. This setting also does not apply to packages and programs, or task sequences.
How to Enroll Mobile Device Clients in Configuration Manager 2012
- Updated with the information that remote wipe from the Application Catalog uses user device affinity, which is automatically configured for mobile devices that connect to an on-premise Exchange Server computer. For mobile devices that connect to Exchange Online, you must manually configure the user device affinity.
Introduction to Application Management in Configuration Manager
- Updated with the clarification that when an application with multiple deployment types is deployed, each deployment type is evaluated in order. The deployment type with the highest priority that meets the specified requirements is installed.
How to Manage User Device Affinity in Configuration Manager
- Updated with the recommendation to configure the client setting of User device affinity threshold (days) to a value of at least 7 days. This minimum value helps to avoid situations where an automatically configured user device affinity might be lost while the user is not logged on, for example, during the weekend.
Operating System Deployment in Configuration Manager
- This section has been updated for the following topics:
Introduction to Out of Band Management in Configuration Manager
- Added new section, “Extending Out of Band Management in Configuration Manager” for information about Intel support and their applications that extend out of band management for vPro computers.
Prerequisites for Endpoint Protection in Configuration Manager
- Updated to clarify that the Endpoint Protection point site system role must be installed on a central administration site, or where there is no central administration site, on the primary site that is at the top of the hierarchy.
How to Configure Endpoint Protection in Configuration Manager
- Updated to clarify the schedule for definition updates.
Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Privacy Statement
- Minor updates and a new section for Setup Updates.
Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Privacy Statement - Mobile Device Addendum
- Updated with the notification that this end-user privacy information is now available in additional languages from the Microsoft Download Center.
Frequently Asked Questions for Configuration Manager
- Updated with new entries that include the following:
-- The Configuration Manager Writing Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.