Shadow Protect Versus Stand Alone Task Media from SCCM

Hi All,

Shadow Protect is one of the best products I have used to recover systems and migrate to new hardware. It’s also an absolutely fantastic product for imaging new PC’s.

In an IT business it’s an efficient way to deploy operating systems for clients with their SOE. The process looks something like the following:

• Boot from Shadow Protect IT edition

• Apply Images

• Install Drivers

• Sysprep

• Activate Office & Windows 

• Join to Domain

Each PC will take about one hour and it’s hard to do multiple systems at the same time because it does require a lot of user interaction. 

I’ve often had conversations with IT consultants as to why SCCM it a superior solution to deploy client images. I lacked the justification, until I found out about Stand Alone Task Media.

This is how the task looks when using SCCM

• Boot from USB

• Type in Password

• Type in Computer Name

The benefits are:

• The task sequence will take care of everything including applying updates and joining to the domain.

• The process can take as little as 20 minutes

• The process requires minimal user interaction and can be performed by a user.

• You can do as many systems as you want 

• You can have a task sequence for all of your clients

• You do not need to setup SCCM at each of the client sites.

Investing in SCCM infrastructure is investing in a profit for your organisation. 

A SCCM report showing all compliant systems

Hi All,

The other reports I've written provide you with the information you need to ensure all your systems are up to date however, I haven't got a report that shows all the systems that are compliant.

Here is the query that will give you this report.

SELECT     TOP (100) PERCENT dbo.v_R_System.Netbios_Name0 AS [Computer Name], MAX(DISTINCT dbo.v_UpdateAssignmentStatus.ComplianceTime) 

                      AS [Time Checked]

FROM         dbo.v_UpdateAssignmentStatus INNER JOIN

                      dbo.v_CIAssignment ON dbo.v_UpdateAssignmentStatus.AssignmentID = dbo.v_CIAssignment.AssignmentID LEFT OUTER JOIN

                      dbo.v_R_System ON dbo.v_UpdateAssignmentStatus.ResourceID = dbo.v_R_System.ResourceID

WHERE     (dbo.v_R_System.Obsolete0 = 0) AND (dbo.v_R_System.Client0 = 1) AND (dbo.v_UpdateAssignmentStatus.IsCompliant = 1)

GROUP BY dbo.v_R_System.Netbios_Name0

ORDER BY [Computer Name]

Regards,

Blair

SCUP & SCCM & Vendor Updates

Hi Everyone,

One of the battles I have when installing SCCM for clients is convincing them to use SCCM instead of WSUS to manage updates.

I must admit, I have never used WSUS by itself. SCCM has many out of the box benefits that include centralised management, efficient remote distribution and customised reporting. However, it may require more administration then WSUS as you need to distribute the package to your Distribution points and manually clean deployment packages.

Well today I know another great reason why to use SCCM to manage updates. With the Integration of System Center Update Publisher 2011 (SCUP) you can now manage third party software updates.

For free, you can manage Adobe, HP, and Dell updates. If use the SCUPdates from shavlik you can manage many more third party vendor updates.

• You can use Kent Agerlund’s blog to download and configure SCUP:
• To get SCUPdates check out this link
• To see a list of supported applications check this out
• If you going to use the automatic updates feature this link is a must

Have fun. I’m glad I discovered this product.

Blair

A SCCM query showing a count of all active systems with their processor type and workstation model

I recently required a list of all active systems with their model number and processor type. Here is the query that will do it.


SELECT     TOP (100) PERCENT COUNT(SYS.Netbios_Name0) AS Count, Processor.Name0 AS Processor, dbo.v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Model0 AS [Computer Model]
FROM         dbo.v_R_System AS SYS INNER JOIN
                      dbo.v_GS_PROCESSOR AS Processor ON SYS.ResourceID = Processor.ResourceID INNER JOIN
                      dbo.v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM ON SYS.ResourceID = dbo.v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.ResourceID
WHERE     (SYS.Obsolete0 = 0) AND (SYS.Client0 = 1)
GROUP BY Processor.Name0, dbo.v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Model0
ORDER BY Count DESC