System Center Essentials 2007 - Asem Alhourani

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System Center Essentials 2007

Asem Alhourani

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When you’re going to deploy a new package with SCCM 2007, there are a few steps you need to follow. The easiest way to deploy a package is to follow the next steps: [Y] 1.) Collection 2.) Package 3.) Program 4.) Distribution Point 5.) Advertisement Before we are going to deploy Office 2007, we’ve to create a MSP file for customize the Office 2007 installation. You can start the Office Customization Tool using the following command: Run ---> setup.exe /admin. Save the file in the updates folder on your Office 2007 source directory Step 1, creating a collection: 1.) Create a new collection, to specify the computers where Office must be installed. 2.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, New Collection 3.) Give your new collection a name, for example “Office 2007 Enterprise” 4.) On the Membership Rules dialog box, Create a collection Packages can only be distributed to members of a collection. A collection can contain multiple computers, a single computer, a single user and members of a security group. Configuration Manager 2007 operates with two different types of collections. · Direct membership based. ü Click the computer icon, which opens the Create Direct Membership Rule Wizard. Click Next ü On the Search for Resources dialog box, click the Resource class drop-down menu and select System Resource. Then, click the Attribute name drop-down menu and select Name. In the Value field enter %, and then click Next ü On the Search for Resources dialog box, click the Resource class drop-down menu and select System Resource. Then, click the Attribute name drop-down menu and select Name. In the Value field enter %, and then click Next ü On the Collection Limiting dialog box, click the Browse button, select All Windows Workstation or Professional Systems, and then click Next ü Select the computer(s) you want to deploy Office 2007 and click Next.,, Finish · Query Based collections are use full when distributing software to a larger group of resources based on specific criteria’s Example, all workstations in Copenhagen or computers belonging to an Active Directory security group. Direct membership collections are use full when distributing software to a narrow group of resources e.g. 5 test pc’s. Step 2, creating a package: 1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Package, New Package 2.) On the General dialog box of the New Package Wizard, enter the Name, Version, Manufacturer, and Language. For example, Office, 2007, Microsoft, English (US) 3.) On the Data Source dialog box, select This package contains source files. Click the Set button, and then enter the path for the location of the source files in the Source directory field. For example E:\Software\Office 2007\, which contains a copy of the 2007 Office Enterprise installation CD. 4.) Click OK, and then continue to click Next and accept the default settings on all of the following dialog boxes: Data Access, Distribution Settings, Reporting, and Security. On the Wizard Completed dialog box. Step 3, creating a Program: 1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Programs, New, Program 2.) Give the new program a Name 3.) On the Command-line box, type in setup.exe 4.) On the Environment dialog box, click the Program can run drop-down box and select Whether or not a user is logged on. This will enable Run with administrative rights for the Run mode. Leave the default for Drive mode to Runs with UNC name, and then click Next (Because the customization file, CustomOffice.MSP, was placed in the \Updates folder, a command line option is not needed to reference its location) 5.) On the Advanced dialog box, select the check box for Suppress program notifications, and then click Next Step 4, Copy to Distibution points: 1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Distribution points 2.) Manage Distribution Points 3.) Select “Copy the package to new distribution points” 4.) Select the distribution points 5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes 6.) Check the status changing from Install Pending to Installed Step 5, creating the advertisement 1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Advertisements 2.) New Advertisement 3.) Give the advertisement a Name 4.) Select the package, Program and Collection 5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes 6.) On the client wait for the next Machine Policy Retrievel & Evaluation Cycle After the setup is finished, Office 2007 is deployed to your client(s) and is ready to use!

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SCE 2007: System Center Essentials 2007
Essentials 2007: System Center Essentials 2007

After a successful implementation of the new System Center Essentials 2007 I’ve done at one of our customers I would like to share some of the thoughts I have about the system.
The system is very user friendly and has this magnificent console that’s very logically organized. When you first open the console you will see the ‘Computers’ Tab which will lead you directly to the computers which were discovered by SCE 2007. Selecting one of the computers displayed in on the middle pane of the console; you can perform multiple actions on that certain computer like remote assistance.
When you go to the ‘Administration’ part of the console you can start administering the product through clicking on the “Configure Product Feature” link. I had this funny incident working over there, when I have added a recipient address for the daily health check to be as one of the customer’s IT candidates. It worked fine, but when I was trying to add a group of users like a distribution list, SCE wasn’t sending the e-mail of notification to users. After some tries it turned out to be the level of authentication which I’ve set to “anonymous” while it should be to “Windows Authentication”
The system was really carefully designed for small and medium sized customers. It supports up to 500 clients and 31 servers. However, it’s similarity to SCOM is still showing, for example the name of the agent deployed to clients is still ‘MOMAgent”
For sure the management packs used for SCE are the same management points used for SCOM 2007.

For more info about SCE 2007 please visit http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/essentials/en/us/default.aspx

I would come back with more feedback about it, but I really wanted to share this first.

Posted 02-09-2009 1:21 PM by Asem Alhourani

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