System Center Configuration Manager 2007 : Distributing Packages - Creating Advertisements (part 1) - Forefront Advertisement

Using an advertisement ties these concepts together. There are multiple ways to create an advertisement:

• Navigate to the Advertisement section of the ConfigMgr console (Site Database -> Computer Management -> Software Distribution -> Advertisements), right-click, and select New Advertisement. This process starts the New Advertisement Wizard, where you need to specify all the settings for the advertisement you create.

  Tip: Using the New Advertisement Wizard for More Control

  This section discusses using the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard to deploy software. Several options are not available when using this particular wizard, including setting priority, rerun behavior, how to interact with distribution points, whether to allow manual interaction with the advertisements, whether to use a custom countdown, and configuring security. As a result, most advanced ConfigMgr users recommend using the New Advertisement Wizard to provide more control for these types of configurations. This chapter recommends the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard to provide a solid starting point for how to deploy software, but as you spend additional time distributing software, you may decide the New Advertisement Wizard is your preferred method to use.

  
  

• Navigate to the Packages section of the ConfigMgr console (Site Database -> Computer Management -> Software Distribution -> Packages), right-click, and select Distribute Software. This starts the Distribute Package Wizard, which will pass the package information and thus require less configuration information.

• Navigate to the collection previously defined for the software distribution in the ConfigMgr console (Site Database -> Computer Management -> Collections -> Forefront Client Deployment), right-click, and select Distribute Software. This starts the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard, passing the collection information, again saving you from inputting much of the configuration information.

It is really a personal preference as to which approach to use, but the authors’ preference is to use the last method to create the advertisement, as long as the collection that will be used for targeting is already defined. To create the advertisement in this manner, perform the following steps:

1.	The Distribute Software to Collection Wizard starts with a Welcome screen and then prompts for package information. Because this example will distribute the Forefront Client Security Agent package already created, choose Select an existing package. Then use the Browse button, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Choosing the package for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard
2.	The next screen specifies the distribution points where clients will access this package. Both distribution points are unchecked by default (see Figure 2). Check both and continue with the wizard. Figure 2. Choosing the distribution points for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard
3.	The Select Program screen, shown in Figure 3, displays the program created for the Forefront Client Security agent (if multiple programs are available for this package, choose the program to run from the list displayed with the package). Figure 3. Choosing the program for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard
4.	The following screen defines the Advertisement Name setting, which defaults to a concatenation of the name of the package (Forefront Client Security Agent) followed by “–” and then the name of the program (FCS Client Installation). This is followed by “to” and the name of the collection (Forefront Client Deployment). This makes the full name for this advertisement Forefront Client Security Agent – FCS Client Installation to Forefront Client Deployment. Next, on the Advertisement Subcollection screen, you choose whether the advertisement will apply to subcollections or only to the specified collection. Although no subcollections exist at this time, to avoid the chance of distributing the software to unexpected systems, select the option Advertise the program only to members of the specified collection, as displayed in Figure 4. Figure 4. Advertisement Subcollection options for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard
5.	The Advertisement Schedule screen (shown in Figure 5) specifies when an advertisement becomes available, when or if it expires, and whether content is downloaded and run locally. The fields on this page include the following: Advertise the program after— Use this field to make an advertisement available beginning at a future point in time. The field defaults to the date and time the advertisement was created. For most packages, the default configuration is preferred; but this setting allows you to configure a specific time to advertise those packages requiring a later time. Expiration— Two options are available: “No, the advertisement never expires” and “Yes, the advertisement should expire.” The default is No, and is the preferred situation unless there is a reason why the program would no longer be viable after a certain date and time. If you choose the expiration option of Yes, define the expiration date and time here. Download content from unprotected distribution point and run locally— By default, this option is checked. When checked, this specifies that when the program is advertised it will download to the client before ConfigMgr attempts to run it. This option applies when the client and distribution point are connected on a fast (LAN) network boundary. Figure 5. Advertisement Schedule options for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard Note: Client Cache Settings Configuration Manager 2007 uses the client cache if a program is configured to download and run locally to the system. The cache folder is stored on the same partition as the operating system, by default in the %windir%\System32\CCM\cache directory. The default size of the client cache has increased in ConfigMgr 2007. It is now 5GB, and allocates space as required in the cache. If less than 5GB of free space is available, ConfigMgr uses a percentage of the available free space. Take the default time to advertise the program, select no expiration date, and check the option for the content to download and run locally. See Figure 5 for these selections.
6.	The Assign Program screen specifies whether a program is assigned and how the assignment is configured. The fields on this page include the following: Assignment— The two options are “No, do not assign the program” and “Yes, assign the program.” This defaults to the No option, making the advertisement available for users to install, although it does not force installing the software package. The unassigned approach is useful for programs that are not mandatory and during package testing phases. Depending on the configuration of the Advertised Programs Client agent , users may be notified that there is software available to install. When connecting to remote systems via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), you must be logged in to the console session to see these notifications. Assign after— Configures the date and time when the advertisement is assigned to the systems in the collection. Enable Wake On LAN— Specifies whether to send a Wake On LAN transmission to wake up the client computer before the advertisement occurs. This option defaults to unchecked. Ignore maintenance windows when running program— If this option is checked, the program will install regardless of any defined maintenance windows. If this option is unchecked, the software will not distribute until a maintenance window occurs. Maintenance windows are defined on the collection level. To configure a maintenance window, right-click the collection and choose Modify Collection Settings. This option defaults to unchecked. Allow system restart outside of maintenance windows— If this option is checked and the program requires a reboot, the system will restart regardless of any defined maintenance windows. This option defaults to unchecked. The example in Figure 6 will deploy antivirus software as assigned, effective the time the advertisement was created. ConfigMgr will ignore any maintenance windows when running the program, although it is not using Wake On LAN and system restarts outside of the maintenance window are not allowed. Figure 6. Program assignment options for the Distribute Software to Collection Wizard

After completing the wizard process, you have distributed your first software package using Configuration Manager 2007! The next logical step is to track how the package and advertisement are functioning. You can monitor the status in the ConfigMgr console by navigating to Site Database -> System Status section. Perform the following steps:

1.

The first step is to check on the status of the package being distributed. You will want to know whether the package was sent successfully to the specified distribution points. In the System Status screen, open the Package Status -> Microsoft Forefront Client Security Agent package. Here, you can track the status of the package and whether it deploys correctly to the distribution points. Figure 7 shows two targeted distribution points and two installed distribution points, meaning the distribution points successfully received the software package. Figure 7. Software package distribution point status If issues are referenced on this screen (such as distribution points in a retry or failed state), right-click and choose Show Messages to track either information, warning, error, or all messages related to the push of this software package to these distribution points.

2.

The next step is to check on the status of the advertisement because the package was verified as successfully sent to the distribution points. Do this from the System Status section of the ConfigMgr console, this time opening Advertisement Status -> Forefront Client Security Agent. From here, you can see how many systems have received the advertisement, how many have failed, how many have started, and how many have program errors or successes.