ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 Migration - Upgrade Clients

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Note that the term "upgrade client" is a misnomer. There is no upgrade. The ConfigMgr 2007 client is uninstalled as part of the process and then the 2012 client is installed. There are various methods to install the 2012 client.

 

1. Manual client push
2. Automatic client push
3. WSUS
4. Group Policy script

 

When you are migrating from ConfigMgr 2007 to 2012 it is very important to avoid overlapping boundaries - it is supported for content location but not for site assignment. Therefore do not configure your boundary groups for site assignment and avoid using the automatic client push until you are finished your migration.

The simplest way to install the 2012 client is to use the manual client push using the option "Install the client from a specified site". In this way no further configuration is necessary.

 

 

 

 

I like to carry out the migration on a site by site basis (clients and DP at the same time) and thoroughly test as I go. You can also migrate all the clients before the DPs as the DPs can be shared between the 2007 and 2012 clients. It's your choice.

 

 

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 migration - Sharing Distribution Points fails with 0x80131509 error

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I had this issue during a customer migration from ConfigMgr 2007 to 2012. I got the error while sharing distribution points. I enabled DP sharing which initiated the Data Gathering process. However if failed with the following errors in the migmctrl.log.


ERROR: [Worker]: System.InvalidOperationException: Column 'DisplayName' does not allow DBNull.Value.
ERROR: [MigMCtrl]: FAILED to EXECUTE job. error = Unknown error 0x80131509, 80131509

I looked at the properties of the 2007 boundaries. The “Description” box was empty in some cases. The Data Gathering process did not seem to like this. Once I entered a description the job completed successfully.

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 Migration - Share Distribution Points

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During the migration from ConfigMgr 2007 to 2012 you can "share" your 2007 DPs as follows:

• DPs are still owned by the 2007 environment
• Content can be provided to the 2012 clients
• Provides a mechanism to perform in place upgrades of DPs to 2012 (including migration of 2007 Secondary Sites to 2012 DPs)

Open the properties of the Source Hierarchy

Enable Distribution Point sharing for the Source Site. This is a site-wide configuration and cannot be done for individual DPs.

 

Enabling this setting starts a “data gathering job”. This job will synchronise details of the 2007 DPs so that they will be available in the 2012 environment.

 

View job in console

Verify progress using the migmctrl.log file.

On completion of this job the shared DPs are available in the SCCM 2012 console.

Note the column “Eligible for Upgrade”

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 SP1 Step by Step Guide Part 15a: Software Updates Notification behaviour

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Part 15a of my ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Step by Step Guide describes the notification behaviour and user experience of software update deployments. Please read in conjunction with Part 15 of this guide - Software Updates (Microsoft).

The following screenshots show the behaviour using ConfigMgr 2012 default settings.


Client Settings
Open Client Settings > Computer Agent

See options

Deployment deadline greater than 24 hours – remind user every 48 hours

Deployment deadline less than 24 hours – remind user every 4 hours

Deployment deadline less than 1 hour – remind user every 15 minutes

See restart options

Display temporary notification to the user that indicates the interval before the user is logged off or before the computer restarts – 90 mins

Display a dialog box that the user cannot close which displays the countdown interval before the user is logged off or before the computer restarts – 15 mins

Deployment

I like to choose the option above when deploying the updates - show all notifications to the user and show in software center.

I also like to configure update deployments with a deadline of 1 week away (this is the default setting).

Updates available

When the device retrieves policy the user is notified that updates are available. 

User receives notification. The user is invited to "Click here for options".

If the user "clicks for options" they are informed that updates are available with a deadline of 1 week. They are invited to "Apply all required changes now" or can click to "Remind me later". Most users will choose "Remind me later".

The software update information is available in the Software Center. 


Deadline

When the deadline arrives the updates are downloaded to the computer cache. Note that this does not happen exactly at the deadline time.

It is not a great idea to deploy updates to thousands of machines at exactly the same time. Therefore each client adds a random time of up to two hours to the installation specific deadline time. This random additional time isn't configurable. (Note that Deadline Randomization is now disabled by default in SP1).

Restart

Now the restart countdown commences (90 minutes by default). 

The user is notified.

The required restart can be seen in the Software Center

Click the balloon notification to see the dialog box. The user can Hide the notification at this time. Note that even when the balloon notification disappears the restart timer remains in the system tray. The user can click on the restart timer icon in the system tray at any time to open the dialog box (assuming of course you haven't hidden notifications in the system tray).

User receives additional notification of pending restart, which can be hidden.

Countdown has entered last 15 minutes. The user is notified by a dialog box and the notification cannot be hidden or minimised. It will remain in the foreground until the computer restarts. All other applications remain in the background - no excuses for the user.

Failed to sync update. Error The Microsoft Software License Terms have not been completely downloaded and cannot be accepted

I had this tricky problem last week.

ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CU2
Windows 2012
SQL 2012

NO Proxy between ConfigMgr server and Windows Updates sites

I had 3 independent (or so I thought) issues:

1. I could not browse to \\ConfigMgr_server\F$ from remote computer
2. I could connect to http://ConfigMgr_server/reports from a remote computer but the page did not render properly and reports could not run. This was OK runninghttp://localhost/reports locally on the server. I also could not run reports from a remote Admin console
3. Updates issue: Failed to sync update. Error The Microsoft Software License Terms have not been completely downloaded and cannot be accepted.

I couldn't understand as I had deployed the exact same combination of products several times before with no issue. Then I found this KB

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2811670

The KB desribes this issue:

When you use a VMWare guest system, some SCSI drives are recognized as removable storage. This can affect applications that are installed on nonsystem drives.

Symptoms like mine:

Windows Cannot Access \\Servername\Sharename

You cannot access an Internet Information Services (IIS) website that is hosted on a removable storage device

The WSUS content directory is not accessible.
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'drive:\WSUS\WsusContent\anonymousCheckFile.txt' is denied.
The server is failing to download some updates.

These issues were resolved by a Cumulative Update released in April 2013, and then I realised why I was having the issue. I had been unable to fully patch my Windows Server 2012 box (due to customer network constraints).

I installed the update and it resolved problems 1 & 2 instantly. I then re-installed WSUS and my Software Update Point - problem 3 resolved, and all updates successfully synced.

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 Migration - Object Migration

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There are three types of object migration:

Collection migration. With this option you can migrate everything that's related to collections. This include collections, packages, virtual packages, software updates, OS packages, images and boot images, task sequences, configuration baselines and configuration items.
Object migration: All objects that can be migrated except collections. This include boundaries, packages, virtual packages, software updates, OS packages, images and boot images, task sequences, configuration baselines, configuration items, Asset Intelligence and Software metering.
Previously migrated object migration: with this option you can re-migrate objects that have been migrated before.

The screenshots below describe the process of a collection migration:

Administration > Migration, right click on Migration jobs

Select Create Migration job

Enter a name and choose the job type. Click Next

Choose a collection. Also select "Migrate objects that are associated with the specified collections".

Select to migrate all the available objects

Verify the Source and Destination sites

Choose the default security scope

Click Next

Click Next

Review the migration job information

Choose to run the job now

Close the wizard

Right click and start the migration job

Migration job is now running

Progress is monitored using migmctrl.log file

Migration job has completed

Objects have been migrated to ConfigMgr 2012. Packages are now available.

Summary of migration job.

Unfortunately the migration job does not distribute the content to the 2012 DP. You have to do that yourself.

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 Migration - Source Hierarchy

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The first step in the process is to configure a Source Hierarchy. This provides the link between the two environments, over which objects can subsequently be migrated.

In Administration > Migration section configure the hierarchy as follows:

Select Specify Source Hierarchy

Enter an account with full permissions in the ConfigMgr 2007 site, click to Verify the connection.

Enter the ConfigMgr 2007 Primary Site Server name and click OK.

The initial Data Gathering job starts to run. Information about objects in ConfigMgr 2007 now become known in ConfigMgr 2012. Note that no objects are migrated at this point.

 Job has now completed

Successful data gathering status

ConfigMgr 2012 / SCCM 2012 Migration - Pre-Migration tasks

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The following tasks should be carried out before attempting to migrate ConfigMgr 2007 objects to ConfigMgr 2012.


1. Collections: Collections containing both users and systems or devices are not supported in ConfigMgr 2012 and can't be migrated – create separate collections


2. Software Updates: add the WSUS role and the Software Update Point as described in this section:

http://www.gerryhampsoncm.blogspot.ie/2013/04/sccm-2012-sp1-step-by-step-guide-part.html

Classifications and products must match the ConfigMgr 2007 environment and be successfully synchronized. If a single update is missing from an entire update package the migration of that package will fail. 


3. Package Source Directory: copy your source share to the new server (using your favourite file copying software), while retaining folder structure and permissions.

If you are using local paths (F:\Sources\Microsoft\Office\2013) as your package source directories you are in good shape. The packages should migrate with no bother. 

However if you have used UNC paths (\\Server\Sources\Microsoft\Office\2013) you will need to change this for all the affected packages (\\NewServer\Sources\Microsoft\Office\2013).

Luckily Coretech have provided a free utility to help you to do this. 

You can download the Coretech Package Source Changer here

http://blog.coretech.dk/jgs/coretech-package-source-changer

Extract the files to a folder 

Run PackageSourceChanger.exe as administrator

Accept the License Terms

This is the generic startup screen. You must configure for your environment. Select "Configuration".

Enter your ConfigMgr server name and Save. Select List to see the configured paths 

The list of configured paths is displayed. Select the one you have to change and click OK.

Enter the new package source and click Select Packages.

Select all the packages and Save

Click Start to change the Source Path of the selected packages.