System Center Configuration Manager: December 2011

SCCM/SMS has a very nice feature enabling you to extend its context menu. The first extension that I used was 'SMSSEND.VBS' for SMS 2003, it was a very useful tool kit which encouraged me to learn how to add some tools of my own. Since then many more tools were published on the net, a very good tools pack can be downloaded from Rick Houchins Blog.

My SCCM tool collection (those I collected and those I wrote) were based on VBS,Batch and HTA, so Shay Levy my friend and a PowerShell Guru suggested that I should write a new set of tools based on PowerShell and Windows Forms. I could not say no to such a challenge so I began working on my new project. My tool kit is divided to tree section : Site Tools, Collection Tools and Systems Tools. In this post I will discuss about the collection tools.

Collection tools are divided to three groups :

Client Actions – Remotely initiate actions on SCCM components which are currently installed on the remote system.

Hardware Inventory Cycle
Software Inventory Cycle
Discovery Data Collection Cycle
Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
Windows Installer Source List Update Cycle
Software Updates Scan Cycle
Software Updates Deployment Evaluation Cycle
Branch Distribution Point Maintenance Task
Software Metering Usage Report Cycle
AMT Auto Provisioning Policy
Software File Collection Cycle
SIDMIF file Collection Cycle
User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle

Client Tools – Tools which help maintain your clients in a specific collection, for example : enables you to add a list of systems to the selected collection.

Rerun Advertisement
Add Systems To Collection
Restart SMS Agent Host Service
Generate New SCCM GUID
Uninstall SCCM Client

System Tools – Tools that relate to operating system and network maintenance , such as ping command - ping all the system in a given collection.

Ping Collection
Wake on LAN

The Wake on LAN Tool is based on PowerShell GUY script. Follow this check list to enable WOL.

User Interface

All the tools run under the same user interface, which is invoked after right clicking a selected collection and selecting the desired tool :

Collection Name – The name of the selected collection. The tool will run on each computer in this collection

Collection Task – The name of the Task/Tool which will be run against the computer list.

Select Advertisement – Combo box for Advertisement selection. Only Available for "ReRun Advertisement" Task.

Entry structure - AdvertisementName [AdvertisementID] , where xxx = SiteCode

Computer List – List all collection members (System Names). If "Add Systems To Collection" task is selected the computer list is editable, so you can add your own name list.

Succeed List – All the systems that passed the task with success.

Failed List - All the systems that failed to run the task.

Action Button – After task completion ,or after pressing the stop button, the action button is enabled, and you can start/resume the task.

There is a delay of few seconds before execution, giving you enough time to cancel the operation

Action Log [Tab] – Display a detailed task operation log