You are now ready to dive into one of the
most important configuration steps of ConfigMgr—client deployment.
(Actually, just about every step of configuring ConfigMgr is the most
important step!) By this point, you have completed many critical tasks,
such as installing a site, selecting boundaries, configuring site
systems and components, and discovering potential clients. The next
sections present several alternatives for deploying the ConfigMgr
client agent. More than likely, your environment will require at least
two of these methods, and probably more.
Site
boundaries are a very important part of client deployment. Your
potential clients should be part of a boundary (IP subnet, AD site, IP
address range, and so on), and have access to a server locator point
(SLP) or Active Directory .
Once these settings are configured, client deployment will flow quite
nicely. For further reading, review Microsoft’s documentation on sample
assignment scenarios for Configuration Manager primary sites at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680334.aspx.
One
more document worth mentioning is Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article
925282, “How to Troubleshoot Advanced Client Push Installation issues
in Systems Management Server 2003,” at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925282.
Although it is an SMS 2003 document, the client installation process is
the same as ConfigMgr 2007. Jeff Gilbert also provides a great blog
post describing Client Push Installation and common scenarios with
primary and secondary sites at http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2007/02/22/sms-2003-client-push-installation-method-explained.aspx.
As you will see throughout all installation methods, command-line options are required to install the ConfigMgr client properly.
1. Command-Line Properties
When
you install the ConfigMgr client, you have more than 50 command-line
properties to choose. This section covers the most popular commands.
The article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680980.aspx provides a complete list.
ConfigMgr
uses CCMSetup.exe and CCMSetup.msi as the main programs for client
installation. Other files are required (Windows Update Agent, XML
Parser, and so on), but only CCMSetup.exe and CCMSetup.msi are called
directly with command-line options.
In
almost all scenarios, you will call CCMSetup.exe with the appropriate
command-line options. CCMSetup.exe then downloads and installs the
required components and launches CCMSetup.msi with the proper
command-line options. The only exception to this is when you are
deploying the ConfigMgr client using Active Directory. Table 1 lists popular command-line options for CCMSetup.exe, and Table 2
lists popular command-line options for CCMClient.msi. As mentioned
previously, you generally will not call CCMClient.msi directly; you
will simply execute CCMSetup.exe and pass command-line options for both
CCMSetup.exe and CCMSetup.msi.
Table 1. Popular CCMSetup.exe Command-Line Properties for Client Installation
| Property | Description |
|---|
| /noservice | By
default, CCMSetup runs as a service logged on as the local system
account, which may not have access to network resources during client
installation. Use the /noservice switch to force the installation to occur running as the user who launched CCMSetup.exe. |
| /uninstall | Uninstalls the ConfigMgr client. |
| /mp: | Specifies a valid ConfigMgr management point that CCMSetup will use to download required installation files. |
| /native: | Use the /native switch to install a client for Internet-only communication. |
Table 2. Popular CCMSetup.msi Command-Line Properties for Client Installation
| Property | Description |
|---|
| CCMALWAYSINF | Set this property to 1 to configure the client to always be an Internet-based client. Use CCMHOSTNAME when CCMALWAYSINF is used, to specify the FQDN of the Internet-based management point. Also, review the information for CCMCERTSEL and CCMCERTSTORE in the ConfigMgr integrated help. (CCMALWAYSINF=1) |
| CCMHTTPPORT | Specifies an alternate HTTP port for client communications. Unless specified, the default port of 80 is used. (CCMHTTPPORT=357) |
| CCMHTTPSPORT | Specifies an alternate HTTPS port for client communications. Unless specified, the default port of 443 is used. (CCMHTTPSPORT=483) |
| CCMDEBUGLOGGING | Use CCMDEBUGLOGGING=1
to enable debug logging. Use this for troubleshooting. Due to the large
amount of data logged when in debug logging mode, avoid making this a
standard for client installation. |
| DISABLESITEOPT | Set this value to true (DISABLESITEOPT=TRUE)
to prevent all users (including local admins) from changing the
ConfigMgr-assigned site through the Configuration Management control
panel applet. |
| DISABLECACHEOPT | Set this value to true (DISABLECACHEOPT=TRUE)
to prevent all users (including local admins) from changing the
ConfigMgr cache size through the Configuration Management control panel
applet. |
| SMSCACHESIZE | Specifies the maximum size of the client cache in either MB or as a percentage (if used with PERCENTDISKSPACE or PERCENTFREEDISKSPACE). If you do not specify the SMSCACHESIZE option, the default value of 5,120MB is used. (SMSCACHESIZE=2048) |
| SMSSITECODE | Specifies the site in which to assign the client. Use a valid three-character site code, or use the word AUTO to auto-assign the site. Do not use AUTO if the client will find its default MP using DNS. (SMSSITECODE=AUTO or SMSSITECODE=BXL) |
| SMSSLP | Specifies the SLP for site assignment. (SMSSLP=BLUEBONNET.SCCMUnleashed.COM) |
| FSP | Specifies the fallback status point for clients to send state messages in regard to client installation success or failure. (FSP=Mockingbird) |
One
other aspect of client installation that is consistent is the client
installation logs ccmsetup.log (appears when ccmsetup.exe is used to
install the client) and client.msi.log (appears for every client
installation). Review these log files in the %windir%\system32\ccmsetup folder for x86 systems, and in %windir%\ccmsetup\
for x64 systems. Also, check ClientIDManagerStartup.log to verify that
the client has successfully registered with its site. A client will not
successfully pull policy until it is registered with the site.
Additional information on common registration issues is available at
http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2009/01/14/configmgr-2007-client-registration-fails-and-clients-cannot-pull-any-policies.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938009
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961663
