Author: Anders Rødland

Anders Rødland started his IT career in 2006. My main focus is MS Configuration Manager and client management, and I have passed 17 Microsoft certifications since then. My main expertise is on client management with Microsoft Endpoint Manager: Intune and Configuration Manager. I also do a lot of work on the security side with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. In addition to my Microsoft certification, I also have an ITIL v3 Foundation certification. This is my private blog and do not represent my employer. I use this to share information that I find useful. Sharing is caring.

SCCM Performance Tuning – How to Fix Slow SCCM – Part 1

June 5, 2016June 9, 2016 Anders Rødland 1 Comment

This series will go through SCCM performance tuning and look at typical issues that may slow down your SCCM server. These are the same guidelines I follow when I install and configure SCCM for my customers.

It is my impression that many SCCM installations are done with default settings, and no maintenance tasks are configured on SQL or the server to increase performance. The result is a horrible slow console to work with. These are things we will look at in this series.

When your brakes fail and lock on your car, a bigger engine is not the solution. A hardware upgrade for your SCCM server may not be the solution to a slow and unresponsive SCCM console. Read More

Powershell Execution Policy Explained

May 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

Powershell execution policy is misunderstood and often looked upon as a security feature that stops you from running your scripts. But it’s not intended as a security feature, and it was not designed to make your life hard. In this post I will explain what Powershell execution policy is, how to set it, and finally how to bypass it. Read More

Review – Surface Pro 3 Work Computer

May 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I have used a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 work computer for almost more than a year now. My desk at the office have a docking station with a keyboard, mouse and headset with microphone connected. I also have two 24″ monitors connected in addition to the screen of the Surface. The docking station for the Surface Pro 3 only have 1 mini display port but a USB 3.0 graphics adapter was all I needed to set up the second monitor. My Surface is not joined to the domain and is treated as bring your own device.

Here are my experience with my Surface Pro 3 work computer.

Inplace Upgrade Configuration Manager 2012 R2 SP1 to Current Branch – Step by Step

May 24, 2016June 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

How to upgrade Configuration Manager 2012 R2 SP1 to Current Branch. This guide is based on my experiences after upgrading several ConfigMgr installations to Current Branch and is a step-by-step guide with everything you need to know to perform a successful upgrade.

This guide applies to the following Configuration Manager 2012 versions:

SCCM 2012 SP1
SCCM 2012 SP2
SCCM 2012 R2
SCCM 2012 R2 SP1

SCCM Configuration Manager Build Numbers

May 13, 2016May 27, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

Here is a list of the current version and Configuration Manager build numbers, both current branch and 2012 R2.

I recommend using the Microsoft System Center 2012 Servicing Extension to find your current CU version.

SCCM Report primary device for user

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland 2 Comments

So a customer of mine wanted a report from configuration manager to list primary devices for their users.

Here is the SQL query I used to create this report.

SCCM Report That Counts Internet Explorer Versions

April 29, 2016May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I wanted a report in SCCM that shows the ammunt of of internet explorer versions I have, and see that for each operation system.

This report includes the following fields:

Filename (iexplore.exe)
OS
IE Major Versoin
Count

Here is the SQL query needed.

SCCM report of computers with serial, user and last login time

April 28, 2016May 18, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I created a custom SCCM report that has the following inforation:

Computername
Serial number
Last logged in user
Last logged in time

Here is the SQL query needed for the dataset in Report Builder.

Intel Bluetooth Driver Silent Install

June 23, 2015September 8, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

This is the silent install parameters for the intel bluetooth driver used for various HP models
Read More

Windows 10 Technical Preview

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I have just installed Windows 10 Technical Preview on my laptop that I use for work and I plan to share my experiences with it here. So far so good even tough I miss some drivers. Even tough Lenovo hasn’t released a single driver for Windows 10 yet, there are only minor issues which is nice.

SCCM PXE DHCP Options

December 12, 2013May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

These are the DHCP options you need for PXE boot to work with SCCM across different networks.

DHCP Option 66: Boot server hostname or IP address. (sccm.domain.com). If you use hostname, you must use the fully qualified domain name (sccm.domain.com)
DHCP Option 67: Boot file name. \SMSBoot\x86\wdsnbp.com

SCCM Clients Stuck In Provisioning Mode

October 25, 2013May 31, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I have seen sccm clients stuck in provisioning mode several times during OSD deployment. The typical symptoms of clients stuck in provisioning mode are:

Client shows: client certificate none, it should be self-signed or PKI
Client does not receive any policy
The computer have just been installed with a task sequence.

To verify if it is actually stuck in provisioning mode we need to take a look at the registry of the client.

Add Computer to AD Group Script

October 25, 2013May 31, 2016 Anders Rødland 1 Comment

I got this script from Microsoft that adds a computer as a member to a security group in Active Directory. As we want to automate everything, this script can be very useful during deployment. A typical scenario can be to enable the computer for Direct Access or wireless network.

Click the title to read the full post Read More

Java Silent Install for SCCM The Right Way

October 24, 2013May 27, 2016 Anders Rødland 1 Comment

Thanks to Jesse Walter, I now have an easy way to do a Java silent install and update Java with SCCM. I tested this today at a customer and it worked very nicely. Whenever a new version of Java is released they can now quickly update their SCCM package without any hassle.

Remove the CD and do not boot from CD – extra restart during deployment

September 24, 2013September 24, 2013 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

Deployment took an extra restart after selecting which task sequence to use. This happend because multiple task sequences where published to the computer and the boot image for the selected task sequence where not used initially when booting.

I fixed this by making the task sequences use the same boot image. I know this might not be the ideal solution for everyone but the problem with this extra reboot is different version of bootimages beeing used.

How to upgrade ConfigMgr from evaluation version to full version

September 2, 2013May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

This is how you upgrade from evaluation version to full version of configmgr 2012. You enter the product key during the install phase of configuration manager 2012.

Run configuration manager setup from the start menu. This ensures that setup is run wil the latest updates.
Select perform site maintenance or reset this site.
Select Convert from Evaluation to Full Product Version and enter the key.

Setup Windows and Configuration Manager – ccmcore.dll missing

August 28, 2013May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I had a weird problem with a customer during deployment of Windows 7. Deployment of the image went fine but during the phase “Setup Windows and Configuration Manager” I would get the following error message: TSMBOOTSTRAP.EXE The program couldn´t start, becuase ccmcore.dll is missing. Read More

Compact a VHD disk in Hyper-V

August 28, 2013May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

I have a lab environment with System Center using Hyper-V on my Windows 8 laptop. This is how I compact the virtual disks using powershell when they get too big. Read More

WDS not working with SCCM 2012. No SMSPXE.LOG

July 6, 2013March 29, 2017 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

Today I did some work for a customer who had already installed configuration manager, but they had not set up deployment. I enabled PXE on the distribution point but the clients did not get a repsonse when trying to pxe boot. The first place I check is the SMSPXE.LOG to see what happends but the file did not exist.

How to manage Windows Server 2008 in Server Manager

June 4, 2013May 13, 2016 Anders Rødland Leave a comment

The new server manager in Windows Server 2012 can also manage Windows Server 2008. This is how you set it up in 3 simple steps:

Windows Server 2008 with SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1

Install .NET Framework 4.0 (Download from Microsoft)
Install Windows Management Framework 3.0 (Download from Microsoft)
Run the following command in powershell to enable and configure Windows Management Framework “winrm quickconfig“