Showing posts with label MY Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MY Notes. Show all posts

May 24, 2012

What information is collected by SCCM heartbeat discovery?

Hi Everyone,

As requested by one of my blog reader, would like to post the information on heartbeat discovery. Heartbeat discovery discovers all the machines within the network and ping them. It also tells whether machines is alive or not and client status as well. If client is installed on machine and it does not update the status on SCCM console it means DDR is not sent to the assigned SCCM site and that's why it will display the status as sccm client 'No'. Whenever heartbeat discovery agent runs on the machine, it provides us the below information-

  • Is the client installed?
  • Client type (Legacy, Advanced, or Device)
  • Client version
  • NetBIOS Name
  • Character encoding used by the client
  • Default system locale identifier (typically representative of the client’s language)
  • Date and time of the DDR
  • Date and time of last DDR
  • Short name of system
  • Currently logged in (interactive) user
  • FQDN of system
  • IP Network ID
  • Platform ID (this is an encoding of the OS version)
  • AD Site Name
  • IP Address(es)
  • MAC Address(es)
  • Domain name
  • Assigned (Primary) Site
  • Hardware ID
  • Identifying number (of the computer system)
  • Product name (of the computer system)
  • UUID (of the computer system)
  • Version (of the computer system)
Please do let me know your queries/doubts and I will try to help you to satisfaction level.

Cheers!

April 4, 2012

SCCM Administrative Checklist

I am happy to announce that my contribution to SCCM Administration is accepted by Technet Wiki and it has been published to the Wiki Portal.

Here's the link -
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/8989.sccm-administrative-checklist-en-us.aspx

Your feedback are welcome.

Cheers!

February 20, 2011

Clarifications on my previous posts

I started this blog for SMS Admins so that they can get all relevant information from here. Earlier, I was adding few important points of SMS 2003 from Microsoft technet library which have helped new admins working on SMS.

There are several blogs, tutorials and e-learning portals where people can have a look but they don't do so because of time constraint, I help them to see all relevant administrative tips on my blog portal.

If anyone has any comments about my blog, please let me know with your name and email id. I welcome your thoughts.

Anonymous comments would be treated as spam message and will be deleted immediately.

Cheers!

February 6, 2011

My Next Milestone 'Solutions Architect' by 2012

I am just understanding the responsibilities of 'Solutions Architect' and below are my findings about SA roles -
  • Assist in the refinement of business requirements
  • Respond to business requirements with feasible technical solutions
  • Provide an architectural design for the selected solution that:
  • Helps the customer verify that they're satisfied with what they're getting
  • Provides a blueprint for the project manager to plan with
  • Informs the constructors so that they can estimate cost & effort
  • Liaise with: 
    • The customer to ensure alignment with requirements
    •  The project manager to identify appropriate constructor engagement
    •  Constructors to validate feasibility & provide support throughout construction
    •  Write & present eloquently with the appropriate audience perspective in mind
    •  Build & maintain excellent relations with key stakeholders
    •  Apply their creative skills & talents in devising effective designs (a.k.a. thought leadership)
    •  Continuously expand their knowledge & specialisation of technology & design patterns
Finally, I can conclude that SA role is a Subject Matter Expert role who actively involves with Project Management team and helps Project manager to take decisions with expert judgement.

Cheers!

February 2, 2010

What is BranchCache? How SCCM supports BranchCache?

Microsoft introduced a new terminology in Windows7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 called BranchCache to reduce traffic load on wide area network called BranchCache. Network enabled with BranchCache cache data in branch and subsequent request to same data is served by cached stored in WAN branch. BranchCache optimizes traffic flow between Windows Server 2008 R2 servers and BranchCache-enabled clients; Windows Server 2008 R2 servers and computers running Windows 7 can be configured as BranchCache clients.

BranchCache operates in one of two modes:

1. Distributed Cache: In Distributed Cache mode, BranchCache-enabled clients cache copies of files downloaded from content servers across the WAN and send them directly to other clients when requested. Distributed Cache mode is especially beneficial for branch offices that do not have a local server.
2. Hosted Cache: In Hosted Cache mode, a Windows Server 2008 R2 server, known as the Hosted Cache, acts as the host for the cached content. BranchCache-enabled clients cache data that they have requested and downloaded from content servers locally and use the Hosted Cache to retrieve data that is not available from their own local cache. Clients know the identity of the Hosted Cache and retrieve data from the Hosted Cache. For data not available from the Hosted Cache, the client downloads the data from the content server and offers it for caching to the Hosted Cache. Hosted Cache mode is beneficial in organizations that want to audit access to content in the local cache, or larger branch offices that have local servers.

BranchCache Hosted and Distributed cache modes
BranchCache improves the performance of applications that use one of the following protocols:

a.Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). The protocols that Web browsers and many other applications (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer®, Microsoft Windows Media Player®, and more) use.
b.Server Message Block (SMB), including signed SMB traffic. SMB is the protocol used for shared folders on Windows networks.
c.Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). BITS is used to transfer files asynchronously between a client and a server. BITS is the protocol that System Center Configuration manager (SCCM) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) use.

January 26, 2010

What is difference between Obsolete and Inactive Clients?

I had to understand the difference as it was asked by the management and every administrator should know it.

Obsolete Clients

Obsolete client s are those that have been replaced by new ones. This usually happens during refresh OS deployments where the hardware stays the same and thus the hardware id is the same but the SMS GUID changes because the OS has been reloaded or the GUID is regenerated for another reason but the hardware remains the same.

Reasons - 
1. hard disk swapping
2. Renaming machines
3. Reimage OS
4. Reinstalling SMS/SCCM agent on the machines without proper uninstall.  

Inactive Clients

Inactive client s are those that have not been discovered recently by the heartbeat discovery. The definition of recently is defined in the delete task as a number of days. Please note that obsolete client s are also marked inactive. 

Reasons-
1. Offline machines
2. Machines having DNS issue/No name resolution
3. Machines are in inventory stock

Note: While I was trying to figure out why the some of the machines come under no status or waiting state, the above difference has helped me a lot.
I am putting some scenario here-

I have 100% healthy sms clients in the company's infrastructure and perform the activities like deleting obsolete clients, removing AD stale objects on daily basis. Inspite of this, I used to get some machines in "no status" and "waiting" category.

The reasons, I figured out, were:
offline machines/no name resolution machines were in "waiting" category and machines which were in IT stock or were inactive for a period of time, listed under "no status" category.

January 22, 2010

Explanation on SCCM Discovery Methods - What exactly they discover?

1. Heartbeat discovery
It pings all the machines existing in the network, i.e domain and workstation group machines are discovered automatically and shown under "All Systems" collection. If we enable Heartbeat Discovery, the discovery data is refreshed on a schedule that you determine. If we disable Heartbeat Discovery, the discovery data is refreshed only when another discovery method is invoked or run on a schedule.

2. Windows User Account Discovery and
It discovers all user accounts in same domain.

3. Windows User Group Discovery
Windows User Group Discovery is useful for creating group-based collections for software distribution

4. Network Discovery
Network Discovery discovers the client operating system only if the computer is configured to share resources. It discovers the following-
Topology
Topology and client
Topology, client, and client operating system

5. Active Directory User Discovery
It discovers the following:
User name
Unique user name (includes domain name)
Active Directory domain
Active Directory container name
User groups (except empty groups)

Note: We should run Active Directory User Discovery only on primary sites.

6. Active Directory System Discovery
It discovers the following:
Computer name
Active Directory container name
IP address
Assigned Active Directory site

Note: Polling performed by Active Directory System Discovery can generate significant network traffic (approximately 5 KB per client computer).

7. Active Directory Security Group Discovery
It discovers the following:
Domain Local Security groups
Domain Global Security groups
Universal Security groups

Note: We can run Active Directory Security Group Discovery only on primary sites. It polls Active Directory for all system resources in its database, including those discovered at child sites, and including secondary sites. Because Active Directory Security Group Discovery does not contact the computers directly, the computers do not have to be turned on to be discovered.

8. Active Directory System Group Discovery
It discovers the following:
Organizational units
Global groups
Universal groups
Nested groups
Non-security groups

Note: We can run Active Directory System Group Discovery only on primary sites. It polls Active Directory for all system resources in its database, including those discovered at child sites, and including secondary sites. Because Active Directory System Group Discovery does not contact the computers directly, the computers do not have to be turned on to be discovered.