The Deployment Guys : Support

How to Setup ConfigMgr 2007 on Windows Server 2008

DeploymentGuys — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:32:09 GMT

Installing ConfigMgr 2007 onto a Windows Server 2008 based server can be a challenge. Having recently been through the process for my own lab environment I thought I’d share the process in the hope that it will save you some time when you need to create this configuration. Before you begin you will need to gather the following components:

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise RTM (x86) and Licence Key
SQL Server 2005 and Licence Key
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and Licence Key

You will also need to download the following components:

Microsoft WebDAV Extension for IIS 7.0 (x86) : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=036269fa-0040-4ccd-ad3d-78da1ee132fb&DisplayLang=en
Windows Software Update Services 3.0 SP1: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/bb466190.aspx
SQL 2005 SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=d07219b2-1e23-49c8-8f0c-63fa18f26d3a&DisplayLang=en
SQL critical update 934458: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934458
ConfigMgr 2007 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5AAE62E8-4B7F-4AF7-BE01-AEFAA4BF059A&displaylang=en
ConfigMgr 2007 R2 - available from your Volume Licence web site

Step 1 – Install Windows Server 2008

Install Windows Server 2008 (x86) Enterprise on a machine with the following minimum specification:

Memory: 2GB
Hard Disk 2 x 70GB disks

This could be a physical machine or a virtual machine based on Virtual PC, Virtual Server or Hyper-V

Step 2 – Configure Windows Server 2008

Once the Windows Server 2008 installation has completed, log in as Administrator and carry out the following initial tasks:

1. Set a static IP address for the server

2. Unbind IPv6 from the network card (this is not a full fix for removing IPv6 - look out for a future post on this subject)

3. Enable the AD role as a new domain controller for your chosen domain (not required for ConfigMgr - it's just that all my lab machines are DCs)

Step 3 – Add Additional Windows Server 2008 Roles and Features

Additional Windows Server 2008 roles and features (through Control Panel > Programs and Features) are required to support the ConfigMgr 2007 installation:

1. Add the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) role with default settings (do not configure WDS as ConfigMgr will do that later)

2. Add the IIS role with the following settings (carry out the tasks in the order shown below):

Add ASP.Net Role. Accept defaults.

Add ASP (required for ConfigMgr Reporting Point to function - thanks to Jens Ole Kragh for pointing this out)

Add Windows Authentication

Add Static Content

Add IIS 6 Management Compatibility and all of the sub-components of it.

3. Add the Remote Differential Compression feature

4. Add the BITS Server Extensions feature

5. Install the Microsoft WebDAV Extension for IIS 7.0 (x86) (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

Use the instructions at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431377(TechNet.10).aspx to configure WebDav. You will need to follow Steps 4 and 5 in this document under the section “Install and Configure WebDAV”

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WebDAV UPDATE: In some circumstances, WebDAV may not configure correctly when installed as per the instructions. This then causes the issue that clients cannot install via the push method. In this case follow these steps:

1. Open %windir%\system32\inetserv\config\applicationhost.config in your favourite text editor

2. Between the entries <add name=”optionsverbhandler…> and <add name=”staticfile…> (you will find these entries in the <handlers></handlers> section) add the following line

<add name="WebDAV" path="*" verb="PROPFIND,PROPPATCH,MKCOL,PUT,COPY,DELETE,MOVE,LOCK,UNLOCK" modules="WebDAVModule" resourceType="Unspecified" requireAccess="None" />

Your section should look like this:

<add name=”optionsverbhandler…...

<add name="WebDAV" path="*" verb="PROPFIND,PROPPATCH,MKCOL,PUT,COPY,DELETE,MOVE,LOCK,UNLOCK" modules="WebDAVModule" resourceType="Unspecified" requireAccess="None" />

<add name=”staticfile…....

3. Close the file and save it back as %windir%\system32\inetserv\config\applicationhost.config

I'm indebted to one of my MCS colleagues - John Husband for finding a fix for this issue and letting us know)

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Step 3 – Add Additional Non Windows Server 2008 Components

Now that Windows Server 2008 is configured to install ConfigMgr 2007 we now have to add some additional software services for use by ConfigMgr 2007

1. Install Windows Software Update Services 3.0 SP1 32bit (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

2. Install SQL 2005

3. Install SQL 2005 SP2 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article - carry out the tasks in the order shown below):

Stop the SQLServer service in preparation for SP2 installation. This is to avoid a system restart.

As suggested by SQL SP2 setup wizard, launch sqlprov

Run services.msc and re-start the SQL 2005 service.

Add a domain account to the SQL sysadmin role. This is unique requirement in Server 2008 environment.

4. Install SQL Critical Update 934458 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

Step 4 – Install ConfigMgr 2007

Now we are ready to install ConfigMgr 2007 – this is a two stage process to first install ConfigMgr 2007 RTM and then apply ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 – if you have access to the SP1 slipstreamed version of ConfigMgr 2007 then you can skip step 2 below.

1. Install ConfigMgr 2007

Extend the schema by running the \smssetup\bin\i386\extadsch utility. Run this under Enterprise Administrator credentials and review c:\extadsch.log for results.

Either use an Internet connection (for auto-download) or a pre-staged folder for setup update files required by ConfigMgr setup application.

2. Install ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article) and the ConfigMgr 2007 R2 components (if available via your licence agreement).

Either use Internet connection (for auto-download) or a pre-staged folder for setup update files required by ConfigMgr SP1 setup application.

NOTE: SP1 is the minimum requirement for running ConfigMgr 2007 on Windows Server 2008 - however ConfigMgr 2007 R2 will give you additional deployment features such as integration with Application Virtualization Management (APP-V), unknown computer support and multicast integration with Windows Deployment Services (Windows DS)

3. After installation, add the PXE Service Point and Reporting Point site system roles.

That's it - you are now ready to start using all the lovely features of ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 or ConfigMgr 2007 R2 based on a Windows Server 2008 platform - simple wasn't it? :-)

This post was contributed by Richard Smith a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.

Useful Script Number 5 - Adjusting the Default User Registry Hive

DeploymentGuys — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Michael Murgolo did a great post on the different ways to adjust default settings when building an image (Configuring default settings for Windows image deployment) and one of the options presented was to targeted changes to the Default User Registry hive and profile folders. I had to do this recently and put together a script that can be launched from the MDT task sequence because I was finding my customised Administrator profile wasn't being copied over correctly to the Default User profile as part of SysPrep.

As Michael mentioned in his post - there are three main processes...you first need to load the default user hive (NTUser.dat) - make the changes you require - then unload the user hive. I have reproduced the core part of my script that does this process for discussion.

The first section sets the two variables that will be used - one to store the temp key (sTempHive) that we will load to, and the second to hold the profile file and location that we want to load (sDefaultUserHive)

For Windows Vista the entry """%USERPROFILE%\..\Default\NTUSER.DAT""" refers to C:\Users\Default\ntuser.dat

sTempHive = """HKEY_USERS\Test"""
sDefaultUserHive = """%USERPROFILE%\..\Default\NTUSER.DAT"""
sSName = oUtility.ScriptName
set oshell = WScript.CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")

iZTIRetValue="1"

We then need to start logging - it's the law :-)

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Actions Start - Updating Default Profile",LogTypeInfo
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Loading the Default User hive",LogTypeInfo

The next section runs reg load to load the NTUser.dat file from the default user directory to the temp key (HKEY_USERS\Test) set in the first section - if there is an error the script fails and quits with a specific failure number or we log success.

oShell.run "reg load " & sTempHive & " " & sDefaultUserHive
If Err<>0 Then
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to load the registry hive " & sDefaultUserHive,LogTypeError
ZTIProcess=70
Exit Function
End If
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Default User Hive Loaded to " & sTempHive,LogTypeInfo
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Starting Registry Changes... ",LogTypeInfo

Now that the hive is loaded we can start changing stuff...as an example - I have set the code to change the wallpaper and the screen saver for the default user - again with error checking and specific failure codes

This codes sets the wallpaper (the file needs to be where you set the key to :-)

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting Default User Wallpaper",LogTypeInfo
RegPath = "HKEY_USERS\Test\Control Panel\Desktop\"
oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "WallPaper", "C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\CorporateWallpaper.bmp", "REG_SZ"
If Err<>0 Then
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update wallpaper file setting",LogTypeError
ZTIProcess=60
Exit Function
End If

...and this codes sets the screen saver (again - the file needs to be where you set the key to :-)

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting Default User Screensaver",LogTypeInfo
RegPath = "HKEY_USERS\Test\Control Panel\Desktop\"
oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "SCRNSAVE.EXE", "C:\Windows\CorporateScreensaver.scr", "REG_SZ"
If Err<>0 Then
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update Screensaver settings",LogTypeError
ZTIProcess=50
Exit Function
End If

Once all of the changes have been made - its time to unload the hive from its temp key - again with logging and error checking

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Unloading the Default User hive",LogTypeInfo

oShell.run "reg unload " & sTempHive
If Err<>0 Then
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to unload the default user registry hive",LogTypeError
ZTIProcess=40
Exit Function
End If
oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Actions completed",LogTypeInfo

The completed script can be added to your MDT task sequence towards the end - so that it runs before the machine SysPreps and reboots for capture.

The complete script - in MDT format (to include logging and access to classes from ZTIUtility.wsf) with a number of other changes included is available on the Deployment Guys SkyDrive:

This post was contributed by Richard Smith a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.

Windows Vista Product Guide (Updated for SP1) now Available

DeploymentGuys — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:25:06 GMT

For those that need (or want) to know the intricacies of what is included with Windows Vista, the newly updated (for SP1) Windows Vista Product Guide is available for download.

The 334 page Windows Vista Product Guide provides a comprehensive overview of the features and functions that make Windows Vista tick. This guide also provides information about the benefits Windows Vista offers diverse users, as well as information about the different editions available.

Download from here

This post was contributed by Jon Bennett - a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.

Getting help when you are really stuck

DeploymentGuys — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:42:00 GMT

A lot of people think that because BDD and MDT are free products they are not eligible for support from Microsoft. This question seems to crop up quite often and people are often surprised when I point out the truth!

So, in true A-Team spirit (i.e. "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."):

If you have a problem with BDD or MDT, if no one else has been able to help you, maybe you can try Premier Support!

It is simple, just call the support number which you can find here: http://www.microsoft.com/services/microsoftservices/srv_premier.mspx.

Make sure that you state that you have a BDD/MDT issue because if you talk about deployment you might be routed to a different queue. Also it is worth mentioning that Premier Support have a different style to the A-Team in that they don't use guns and explosions to fix things. Thanks to the MSDeployment guys who first highlighted this problem on their blog. Of course, please carrying commenting on our blog as well!

This post was contributed by Daniel Oxley a consultant with Microsoft Services Spain