The Mobile Device Manager Support Team Blog

Microsoft Enterprise Product Roadmap Webcast

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:18:04 GMT

Please join us for a high level discussion into Microsoft software investments designed to cover most of the major product lines. This will be a 35,000 foot view into the following areas:

Windows Family
Virtualization
Office System
Unified Communications
IT Management
Security

This particular webcast is scheduled for Friday, January 20 at 1:00pm Pacific Time although others are scheduled as well. See this link for more information.

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

NOW LIVE: The Microsoft TechNet Gallery

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:52:50 GMT

As many of you probably already know, for a long time the Script Repository (a special-purpose gallery) has been an engine of great content and community engagement on TechNet. Well starting last week it was upgraded significantly and launched as the new TechNet Gallery, supporting not only just scripts but many other technical resources for Microsoft products including App-V, Exchange, and System Center.

Also of note is that in addition to English, the new gallery is available in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Korean, Czech, Polish, and Turkish. Individuals’ contributions and engagement with the TechNet Gallery are tracked in their TechNet profiles and fully integrated with our reputation system which is also fully localized.

If IT resources like scripts, management packs, utilities, and extensions are important for your success, you’ll definitely want to bookmark this one.

TechNet Gallery

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

System Center Unlimited - All your favorite System Center posts, together in one central place

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:05:34 GMT

If you’ve been following the blogging efforts of the System Center support and product teams for any length of time then you know we have quite a few different blogs based on the technology or product we focus on. For example, we have the App-V blog, the DPM blog, the ConfigMgr 2007blog, Nexus SC plus many many more, and we do that because sometimes maybe you want DPM info but don’t care about App-V (or vice versa), but what if you’re like so many of our customers and actually do use most of the System Center products together and you want an easier way to track all the content we publish? Well that’s a common request that we get so I decided to setup a single site that mirrors all of the feeds from our most popular System Center sites all in one place. Now by subscribing to a single site you can get all of your favorite System Center content pushed right to your desktop. Here are the feeds I’m mirroring:

I named this blog System Center Unlimited mainly because that’s kind of what it is, an unlimited view into the official System Center universe, so if this sounds like something you’d like then check it out at the link below and let me know what you think:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcentertech

And don’t forget, you can still get all this same information by following me on Twitter or by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Meet a couple of our System Center engineers

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:54:29 GMT

I just wanted to let you know about a couple of our System Center support engineers that were recently profiled on Microsoft’s Customer Service & Support (CSS) People First blog. There’s a chance that you might have talked with one of these guys if you’ve worked with any of our System Center products and needed to call us for help with an issue, so if you ever wondered what they look like or where they come from then here’s your chance. And even if you haven’t had the pleasure of working with either, they offer some great insight into what it’s like working in our CTS support organization and at Microsoft as a whole.

The first is Rich Pesenko, a Senior Support Escalation Engineer who specializes in Operations Manager and Mobile Device Manager: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/peoplefirst/archive/2011/04/20/profile-richard-presenko.aspx

Also profiled is our virtualization lead Steve Thomas (aka The Mad Virtualizer) who is also a Senior Support Escalation Engineer and he specializes in App-V, MED-V, VDI and SCVMM: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/peoplefirst/archive/2011/05/06/profile-steve-thomas.aspx

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

The System Center Blog Aggregator app is now available on Android

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:59:34 GMT

A few weeks back I announced the System Center Blog Aggregator app for Windows Phone 7 and today I wanted to let you know that it was now available for all you Android users out there as well. I won’t go into all the details as you can read that at the link above, but here are a couple screen shots to give you an idea of what it looks like. It’s essentially the same app except for the addition of the Nexus SC blog and the blog for Microsoft Server Application Virtualization. Look for the original Windows Phone 7 app to be updated shortly.

After you load and start The System Center Blog Aggregator you see the main screen that defaults to loading the Nexus SC System Center site:

From there you simply click the list button and you’ll see the option for all of our other blogs:

From there you can select and read any blog you like. So there you have it, an app that allows you to follow our content quickly and easily right on your Android phone. If you have an Android phone you should load up The System Center Blog Aggregator and check it out. It’s free after all so what do you have to lose? You can find it here.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Quick Fix: You are unable to install the System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Admin Tools if Windows Powershell was upgraded

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:46:16 GMT

Attempting to install the System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (SCMDM) Administrator Console or the Software Distribution console on a server or workstation fails with the following error:

Setup detected a missing prerequisite.

Windows PowerShell 1.0 or higher is required to install the Mobile Device Manager Management Console

and the Mobile Device Manager Software Distribution Console.

This error can occur even if Windows Powershell is installed on the server.

Cause

The Setup program looks in the following registry key to determine if Windows Powershell is installed:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\PowerShellEngine\PowerShellVersion

If the registry value of PowerShellVersion is not 1.0, the Prerequisite checker will fail validation.

Resolution

Remove Powershell 2.0 from the server or workstation and install Powershell 1.0. If the Windows Management Framework Core package (KB968930) is installed, Powershell 2.0 can't be uninstalled separately so the entire package must be uninstalled.

The WMF Core package, or Windows Powershell 2.0, can be reinstalled after the SCMDM Admin tools have been installed.

Rich Pesenko | Senior Support Escalation Engineer

FYI: Integration of TechNet Blog User Account with TechNet Forums Profile

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:25:53 GMT

For those of you who sign-in to comment on the TechNet Blogs, there is a change coming on January 27^th 1:00 pm (PST) regarding user accounts and profiles. Please click here to read about this change.

If you have questions please leave a comment on the linked blog post so that the TechNet Blogs platform team can reply to you directly.

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

New solution: System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 SP1 device certificate renewal request fails after 12 months

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:14:39 GMT

After being enrolled for a year, a System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM) managed device may fail to renew its client certificate. As a result it will fail to connect to the SCMDM VPN successfully.

Additionally, the issuing Certificate Authority Application Event Log contains a warning similar to the following:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: CertSvc
Event ID: 53
Description:
Certificate Services denied request 97 because The request contains conflicting template information. 0x80094802 (-2146875390). The request was for CN=device.contoso.com. Additional information: Denied by Policy Module 0x80094802, The request specifies conflicting certificate templates: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.21.8.13101452.6590778.3820446.1524682.2069567.226.1027488195.1669196290/SCMDMMobileDevice(MDM1).

This can occur if there is a space in the template name. When the SCMDM managed device requests to renew its client certificate, the space character in the template name is dropped. As a result, the certification authority cannot process the request and results in the above error.

For the latest information on this issue including the resolution, see the following Knowledge Base article:

KB2273458 - System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 SP1 device certificate renewal request fails after 12 months

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

New KB: A manually requested System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 GCM certificate cannot be saved to the computer store

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:20:26 GMT

In some situations, an administrator of System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (SCMDM) must manually request a Gateway Configuration Management (GCM) certificate from the Certificate Authority's (CA) web enrollment page. If the server hosting the web enrollment page has been updated with the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article KB922706, the option to "Store certificate in the local computer certificate store " will not appear.

This is because the hotfix changes the web enrollment page to support clients using Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and later clients. The underlying ActiveX control invoked by the "Store certificate in the local computer certificate store" checkbox no longer runs when the fix is applied, even if the client requesting the certificate is running an OS prior to Windows Vista.

For all the latest information and the current workarounds see the following Knowledge Base article:

KB2142221 - A manually requested System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 GCM certificate cannot be saved to the computer store

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Need personalized help implementing a Microsoft product or solution? Our new ProAdvisory service may be for you

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:50:07 GMT

I know this isn’t necessarily specific to Mobile Device Manager but I wanted to let you know of a new support offering that we're rolling out.

I am sure many of you have contacted Microsoft for support in the past and are aware of our various support offerings. We have Consumer support, Professional support and various levels of Premier and Alliance Support. Premier level support is based on hourly contracts, but is most likely not economically feasible for smaller businesses, which is where Professional level support comes in. Pro support as we call it has a set cost per incident, and the problem is worked until resolution for that one price.

However, all of this applies to what we call break-fix issues.

If a customer does not have something that is broken that needs fixing, but instead wants a walkthrough or assistance in getting something set up, we call that Advisory Services. For Premier customers, this is really not a big deal, as they already have hourly contracts and whether an hour is spent on break-fix or advisory is really only important on the bookkeeping end. However, for a small company or individual who uses Professional pay-per-incident support, there was really no good avenue for them to obtain advisory services.

That is where Pro Advisory Support comes in. We now offer advisory services on an hourly basis without having to have a Premier contract and working through Microsoft Consulting Services. The service is still in pilot, and only covers certain specific scenarios, but more are being added all the time. Each group has their own supported scenarios, and there are too many to list here, but this is a small sampling of what my group has to offer at this point:

· Monitoring agents in an untrusted domain or workgroup using Operations Manager 2007

This Advisory offering assists customers in deploying agents in untrusted domains or workgroups and configuring Operations Manager 2007 so that those agents can be successfully monitored.

· Installing System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

Assist customers with the initial installation of a Data Protection Manager 2007 Server, including requirement evaluation, installation of all prerequisites and both local and remote installations of SQL Server.

There are of course more than just these, dozens in fact, and more are being added as the documentation is completed. Keep in mind also that this is still just the pilot; when the service goes into full production we will have a great many more supported scenarios that you can get our assistance with.

You can get more information on the various scenarios that are available at the Pro Advisory web page:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=advisoryservice

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

New KB Solution: A manually requested System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 GCM certificate cannot be saved to the computer store

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:18:20 GMT

Just a quick heads up on a new Knowledge Base article we just published. This one describes an issue where in some situations an administrator of System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (SCMDM) must manually request a Gateway Configuration Management (GCM) certificate from the Certificate Authority's (CA) web enrollment page, and if the server hosting the web enrollment page has been updated with the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article KB922706, the option to "Store certificate in the local computer certificate store" may not appear.

For more details on the issue including the cause and a couple workarounds see the KB article below:

KB2142221 - A manually requested System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 GCM certificate cannot be saved to the computer store

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

The Microsoft TechNet Wiki has launched

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:44:31 GMT

I know I've mentioned this here before but in case you haven't seen the TechNet Wiki or had a chance to play with it, let me tell you, you should definitely check this out. So what makes the TechNet Wiki so different? Well for starters it's community driven, meaning that it's not just a forum for a bunch of MS people to post docs in a one-way fashion, but it's a way for you, the IT Pro, to post articles yourself. You can even comment and edit docs written by others, including yours truly. But don't take my word for it, our very own Keith Combs has a fantastic post covering just about everything you'd want to know. You can check out his post here.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Welcome to the TechNet Wiki Beta!

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:55:17 GMT

What began a few years ago as an idea is now in front of you. Through the grassroots efforts and work of many, the TechNet Wiki has landed and the way we view content will never be the same. It is an experiment designed to increase the breadth, depth and immediacy of technical content and evolve the way we work with content.

This is a grassroots effort led by you and us: we, the community. We don't have all the answers. There will be kinks in the system, lessons to learn with the community, features to hatch and processes to evolve. And there will be content. Lots of great content written by all of us.

Join. Help us. Contribute boldly!

What is TechNet Wiki Beta?

The TechNet Wiki is a library of information about Microsoft technologies written by the community for the community. Whether you write code, manage servers, keep mission-critical sites up and running, or just enjoy digging into details, we think you will be at home in the TechNet Wiki.

This is a community site. For official documentation, see MSDN Library, TechNet Library or contact Microsoft Support.
The Wiki is focused on Microsoft technologies. The community will edit or remove topics that get too far off track.
We are inspired by Wikipedia.
Anyone who joins can participate and contribute content.

For more information including how you can participate see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

A quick note on the SCMDM administrative template

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:05:47 GMT

The System Center Mobile Device Manager administrative template adds Windows Mobile Settings that can be applied to Windows Mobile Devices. Although the Group Policy Object Editor does show the other Windows GPO options, these are not applicable to the Windows Mobile Devices. The only GPO options applicable are those found in the Windows Mobile Settings in the Computer and User Configuration.

The settings for Windows Mobile devices are found in both the Computer Configuration and User Configuration . In the Computer configuration they are found in two places, in the root and under Administrative Templates, and both are labeled as Windows Mobile Settings. In the User Configuration section of the GPO editor the Windows Mobile Settings are found in the Administrative Templates only.

Ellis George | Senior System Center Support Engineer

Support for Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 ends on July 13, 2010

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:15:21 GMT

I know this isn't necessarily Mobile Device Manager specific but I figured that some of you may still have some old Windows 2000 or Windows XP SP2 systems running out there and would appreciate the heads up.

As the title says, Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional are reaching End of Support (EOS) on July 13, 2010 (and Windows Vista RTM End of Support is on April 13, 2010). This means that regular Microsoft support and free access to security updates will come to an end for those products on those dates.

To help with planning your migration strategy to Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, we have the Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center which is a fantastic place to start. It has information on planning your move, migrating clients and server roles, Small Business Server, Application Compatibility and much much more. It's a definite must-see site and you can check out all the details at http://support.microsoft.com/win2000.

For more information see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy.

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

A hotfix rollup package is available for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

Last week we released a new hotfix rollup package for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 as Knowledge Base article 976623.

This article describes the Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 issues that are fixed in this System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 hotfix rollup package.

This rollup package resolves the following issues.

Issue 1
Consider the following scenario:

Display names of user accounts in Active Directory are displayed in the "surname, first name" format. "Eggs, John (UK)" is an example of a display name.
You have two user accounts that have the same surname. For example, "Eggs, John (UK)" and "Eggs, Terry (UK)" are the display names for the two user accounts.
You use the Pre-enrollment Wizard to create a pre-enrollment record for one user account.
You use the Get-EnrollmentRequest command to retrieve the enrollment record that you created.

In this scenario, the Get-EnrollmentRequest command returns pre-enrollment records for both user accounts. However, you created a pre-enrollment record for only one user account.

Issue 2
A pre-enrollment request for a user account fails when the common name (CN) of the user account contains a slash mark (/). Additionally, the following event is logged to the enrollment log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Enrollment
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2241
Date: <Date>
Time: <Time>
User: N/A
Computer: <Computer name>
Description: Unknown error in enrollment administration service: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80005000): Unknown error (0x80005000)

Issue 3
When System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 collects certificate details from Windows Mobile devices, some devices send the list of installed certificates two times. This behavior causes the connection to the System Center Mobile Device Management Server to fail.

Issue 4
Sometimes, you receive an exception in the microsoft.mobile.managementservices.common.servicedriverhost.exe application. Then, the following event is logged in the Application log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: <Date>
Time: <Time>
User: N/A
Computer: N/A
Description: Faulting application microsoft.mobile.managementservices.common.servicedriverhost.exe, version 1.0.4050.0, stamp 4924b674, faulting module mscorwks.dll, version 2.0.50727.1433, stamp 471ed580, debug? 0, fault address 0x00000000001e565c.

Note "<Date>" represents the date that the event is logged.
"<Time>" represents the time that the event is logged.
"<Computer name>" represents the computer name.

For all the details and to download the hotfix see:

KB976623 - A hotfix rollup package is available for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP) Now Available!

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:09:03 GMT

I know this isn’t Mobile Device Manager specific but I thought it was something you’d appreciate hearing about nonetheless. The Solution Accelerator team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP). Designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments, this tool provides a quick and complete inventory of the current IT environment of any organization, hardware and device compatibility assessment, and actionable reporting of recommended hardware upgrades for migration.

The MAP Toolkit 5.0 CTP includes these new features:

· Heterogeneous Server Environment Inventory for Technologies including Windows Server, Linux, UNIX and VMware.

· Ability to determine usage of deployed System Center Configuration Manager, a member of the Core Client Access License Suite.

· Readiness assessment for migration or upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010.

Over 800,000 Microsoft customers and partners including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Pella Corporation have already downloaded and used this toolkit to help plan for their server and PC deployments.

Additional MAP Toolkit Features include:

• Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment.
• Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation.
• Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests.
• Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance.
• SQL Server Instance Discovery.
• Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation.
• Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment.

To give you a quick sample, here are a couple MAP 5.0 Inventory and Assessment Wizard screenshots:

Here’s what the System Center Configuration Manager Server Report looks like:

Next Steps

· Register for the MAP Toolkit 5.0 CTP and download. (Live ID required)

· Want to influence the future of MAP? Complete the survey and receive a free 4GB Solution Accelerator branded Memory Stick.* (Live ID required)

· Download other Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Solution Accelerators for your IT planning, deployment, and management needs.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Automatic FixIt: You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:24:37 GMT

I asked the FixIt team for this a while back and they have delivered. Now if you ever run into the symptoms below the chances are good we can automatically fix it with just a few clicks of the mouse:

The Symptoms: When you use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or a custom host header to browse a local Web site that is hosted on a computer that is running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 or a later version, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

HTTP 401.1 – Unauthorized: Logon Failed

Note You only receive this error message if you try to browse the Web site directly on the server. If you browse the Web site from a client computer, the Web site works as expected.

Additionally, an event message that resembles the following event message is logged in the Security Event log. This event message includes some strange characters in the value for the Logon Process entry:

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Logon/Logoff
Event ID: 537
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Logon Failure:
Reason: An error occurred during logon
User Name: User_Name
Domain: Domain_Name
Logon Type: 3
Logon Process: Ðùº
Authentication Package: NTLM
Workstation Name: Computer_Name
Status code: 0xC000006D
Substatus code: 0x0
Caller User Name: -
Caller Domain: -
Caller Logon ID: -
Caller Process ID: -
Transited Services: -
Source Network Address: IP_Address
Source Port: Port_Number

The Cause: This issue occurs when the web site uses Integrated Authentication and has a name that is mapped to the local loopback address.

The Fix: If you happen to come across any symptoms like this then take a look at the following Knowledge Base article:

896861 - You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version

The cool part is that this KB article contains a link to a Wizard that will fix this issue for you automatically. All you have to do is download and run it. This Loopback issue impacts almost any product that uses IIS, including your very own favorite, System Center Mobile Device Manager.

Jarrett Renshaw | Content Quality Program Manager

Software Distribution 8041 warning

Rob Davies — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:39:00 GMT

Here’s a problem which we’ve seen a couple of times which can be caused by bad packages in software distribution. This problem can arise when Software Distribution is being used, and you notice that devices don’t seem to be getting packages, nor getting updated in the Software Distribution console. As well as this, the following message is logged in the MDM event log on the Device Management Server:

Event Type:        Warning
Event Source:    Device Manager
Event ID:              8041
Description:
Software Distribution service received insufficient query results from device {DeviceSID}.
Missing LocUri ./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData.

You will also notice that in the Device History tab in the ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ URI will have returned a status of ‘Failed’.

Firstly, let’s look at what this means. ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ is part of the Download Configuration Service Provider, which you can find documented at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc563003.aspx. This is described as “Parent characteristic for the components that are ready to download or are in the process of downloading”. So this stores information about packages which are in the process of being distributed, before they have finished installing.

The Device management server is requesting this information, so it can know which packages are in the process of being downloaded. In this situation, the data returned is showing an error – so we know the problem occurs on the mobile device itself when we ask for this info.

This situation can typically occur in situations such as:
- A package is distributed which requires user interaction, for example to click a button or agree to some terms. If the user cancels this or ignores it, the install may fail.
- A package is distributed which restarts the mobile device forcefully, before the install process has completely finished.

When a scenario like these happens, the package distribution process doesn’t finish installing the software and cleaning up the download list. Therefore, the device gets left in a state where the software installer has finished, but the data at ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ hasn’t been cleared up. We then get left with some orphaned information left in the download list, which causes the error which you see on the Device Management Server.

How to fix it

To stop the error & to get software distributing again, you need to do two things. Firstly, you need to clear up that orphaned data, then check your software packages to see which is the culprit.
To clear up the download list, we can use some provisioning XML:
- Download the _Setup.xml file which is attached to this entry
- Use ‘makecab.exe’ to convert this into a .cab file. The easiest way to do this is to load up the Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and run:
o Makecab _setup.xml SWDist.cab
- Now you need to install this cab on the devices. The easiest way to do this is to import the cab into the SCMDM Software Distribution console.
- Once it’s imported, click on the ‘File Information’ button & copy out the ‘File URI’.
- Email this link out to the mobile devices, click it & run the file!

After this has been applied to the devices, you should see software distribution working again & ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ will start reporting success in the MDM console. Remember to go and test out your packages afterwards!

Please note: As this change removes information about packages which are downloading, this process shouldn’t be done at the same time a new software deployment is being pushed out.
Rob Davies | Senior Support Engineer

The System Center Online Desktop Manager beta is coming soon

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:41:52 GMT

You’ve heard about it and read about and now you’ll soon have the chance to try it out yourself. The System Center Online Desktop Manager beta is coming soon: The System Center Online team has been working hard in preparation for its next beta release...(read more)

Information on using Mobile Device Manager in a locked down environment

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:42:00 GMT

The System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) includes three templates that you can apply to MDM servers to help enhance security by disabling functionality that is not required for the servers. The SCW is an attack...(read more)

New MDM KB article: Code Word policy for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied when disabled

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:03:47 GMT

Just an FYI that we published a new Knowledge Base article for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 last week.

I mentioned this issue here last week but we now have an official KB documenting it as well:

KB974680 - The Group Policy setting "Code Word" for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied to Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices when the policy is Disabled

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

New MDM KB article: Code Word Frequency policy for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied when disabled

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:14:02 GMT

Just an FYI that we published a new Knowledge Base article for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 last week.

I mentioned this issue here last week but we now have an official KB documenting it as well:

KB974606 - The Group Policy setting "Code word frequency" for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied to Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices when the policy is "Disabled"

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Group Policy setting “Code Word” for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied to Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices when the policy is Disabled

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:00:55 GMT

When you disable the Group Policy setting Code Word by using Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM) 2008 Group Policy management functionality, some Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices may continue to use the previously set code word.

This group policy setting affects this Windows Mobile registry key when applied to the device:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\Security\LASSD\CodeWord

When this policy is set to Enable the Code Word value is set in this registry key, however when this policy is set to Disable the registry key is deleted. When the registry key is not found, the Windows Mobile device continues to use whatever code word was set previously.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem has not been corrected at the time of publication of this article.

The only workaround at this time is to not disable the policy. Using the Group Policy Management Console, rather than set the policy to Disable, always set it to Enable and specify your desired code word.

Note: Special thanks to our very own Dave Hattaway for contributing the preceding information.

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

The Group Policy setting “Code word frequency” for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied to Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices when the policy is “Disabled”

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:03:47 GMT

When you disable the Group Policy setting Code word frequency by using Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manger (MDM) 2008 Group Policy management functionality, some Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices may continue to ask the user to enter a code word after a number of incorrect password attempts.

This group policy setting affects this Windows Mobile registry key when applied to the device:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\Security\LASSD\CodeWordFrequency

When this policy is set to Enable the frequency value is set in this registry key, however when this policy is set to Disable the registry key is deleted. When the registry key is not found, the Windows Mobile device reverts to the default behavior, which is to ask the user to enter a codeword after 8 incorrect password attempts.

This issue is fixed in System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Service Pack 1 but the following workaround is also available:

Important: The following workaround applies only to the English version of Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manger 2008. There are no workarounds for other language versions of the product at this time.

Warning: Serious problems might occur if you modify system files incorrectly. These problems might require that you reinstall server software or components of server software. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the system files at your own risk.

Important: The following workaround requires you to modify an important system file. Make sure that you back up the referenced file before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the system file if a problem occurs. Do not proceed with the following procedure if you do not know how to back up and restore a file. Revert to the original file if you encounter any problems with the workaround.

The following steps modify the ADM template file that includes the Code word frequency Group Policy setting. When you have successfully modified the file, you can use the Code word frequency Group Policy setting to correctly update managed devices.

1. On the computer on which you have installed the MDM Administrator Tools, navigate to the %windir%\INF folder.

2. Type the following at a command prompt to make a backup copy of the mobile.adm file:

copy mobile.adm mobile.adm.bak

3. In a text editor, such as Notepad, edit the mobile.adm file to change the MIN setting for Policy_CodeWordFrequency

REPLACE:

        POLICY !!Policy_CodeWordFrequency
        EXPLAIN !!Explain_CodeWordFrequency
        PART !!Part_CodeWordFrequency NUMERIC
            KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Mobile Settings\Registry\HKLM\Comm\Security\Policy\LASSD"
            VALUENAME "CodewordFrequency"
            MIN 1
            MAX 4294967295
            DEFAULT 8
        END PART
    END POLICY ;;!!Policy_CodeWordFrequency

WITH:

        POLICY !!Policy_CodeWordFrequency
        EXPLAIN !!Explain_CodeWordFrequency
        PART !!Part_CodeWordFrequency NUMERIC
            KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Mobile Settings\Registry\HKLM\Comm\Security\Policy\LASSD"
            VALUENAME "CodewordFrequency"
            MIN 0
            MAX 4294967295
            DEFAULT 8
        END PART
    END POLICY ;;!!Policy_CodeWordFrequency

4. Save the file and exit the text editor.

5. Using the Group Policy Management Console, instead of setting this policy to Disable, set it to Enable and set the value to 0.

To apply the new setting to managed devices, you must update the Code word frequency Group Policy setting in MDM. To refresh the setting in MDM, in MDM Console, run the following cmdlet:

Update-MobilePolicyCalculation <device>

Where <device> is the managed device on which you want to update the Group Policy setting. New settings are pushed down to managed devices during the next synchronization with MDM.

Note: Special thanks to our very own Dave Hattaway for contributing the preceding information.

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer