Saturday, 1 September 2012

What I have learnt about the automated console integration scripts for MS SCCM 2007 & Intel SCS 8


Hi All,

As some of you may know, I have been engaged by Intel to activate Vpro for 7 clients this financial year. We are focusing on clients with System Center Configuration Manager and integrating SCS with SCCM.

At this point, we have reached out to two major clients in Australia and assisted there internal IT team reach their goal of activating Vpro. (Video presentations from clients to come, watch this space)

I thought I would share my thoughts that I have learnt during the journey of activating Vpro and integrating it into SCCM.

If you haven’t had a chance, you should check out my previous blogs on Vpro.

I will also assume you have read and understood the Automated Console Integration scripts for MS SCCM 2007 & Intel® SCS 8

Ok, so here goes, these are only my views and not Intel’s or Microsoft’s.
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  • If you follow the manual and use the integration scripts, everything is automated. The systems will automatically be discovered and if they can be provisioned they will be placed in the Intel AMT Platforms Provisioned without ConfigMgr collection where they will be configured. All you need to do is enable the task sequence and include the username and password in the task sequence. 
  • Always provision the systems with SCS first, do not use the integration scripts to provision the systems until you are sure they can be provisioned with TLS and AD integration (SCCM requirements). It’s a lot easier to troubleshoot with SCCM not in the equation. Once you are happy with the SCS profile then include SCCM and the integration scripts.

  • Install SCS in database mode. It’s a really cool and powerful tool to manage your provisioned systems. Your support team will have a central location to troubleshoot from. SCCM is not a great tool for troubleshooting the provisioning the process. 

  • The method to provision the systems assumes you are not using SCS in database mode, if you use the manual’s method, the systems will not show up in the SCS server. To provision the systems so they show up in SCS, change the configuration.bat to look like this. (Section 4.3 Page 35 of the deployment guide) ACUconfig.exe ConfigViaRCSonly 192.168.0.15 ACMprofile /WMIuser vprodemo\AMTconfigService /WMIuserpassword P@ssw0rd 
  • The discovery advertisement created by the integration scripts defaults to all systems. You may want to create a collection based on all Windows 7 and XP machines and change the advertisement to this collection. 

  • The integration scripts provided by Intel for SCCM require you to edit the MOF files. The MOF files create new tables in the SCCM database specific to the management of Vpro. When you import the MOF files the new tables and fields will not show up until at least one client has reported in. 

  • The integration scripts create four collections. The collection queries are based on tables that aren’t created until the first client reports in with data. SCCM will report errors on the queries used for these collections until the new tables are created. The tables are only created when you have imported the MOF files and a client has reported in on that data. The data is only collected when the Discovery advertisement and hardware Inventory has completed. 

  • You cannot login to the Web GUI via http://myHost.myDomain.com:16992 or https://myHost.myDomain.com:16993 until you change the register as stated in this link

  • KVM control will only work with the on-board Intel Integrated Graphics. If you are running dual screens you are most likely not using the on-board video option, KVM will not work. I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work if you had the primary screen connected via the on-board Intel Integrated Graphics and the secondary screen via another method. I haven’t tested this. 

 If you would like help with your activation drop me a line. 

 For now, that’s all folks,

Blair
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