SCCM 2012 R2 Users?

[2k2jet]

Just wondering if we have any SCCM 2012 R2 users on LTT. Could be cool for some knowledge transfer/etc.. I myself, am part of a 3 man group, in the public sector. Managing ~40-50k computers. =)

 

Edit: Can an admin move this to Operating Systems and Software? Not sure why it got dumped in Tech News and Reviews.

[Adnanklink]

Yup! We use it at the University of Minnesota, United states. Granted our network has way more computers than that and we have a dedicated team managing it (Im not a part of that team), but I do use it regularly  for such things as software management, computer imaging, deployment, etc.

[2k2jet]

Awesome, yeah we do the Administration/Packaging/Deployments for our end-users. Do you have to deal with corrupt clients/troubleshooting/etc.. or do you just mainly push/deploy software?

[Adnanklink]

Awesome, yeah we do the Administration/Packaging/Deployments for our end-users. Do you have to deal with corrupt clients/troubleshooting/etc.. or do you just mainly push/deploy software?

That is essentially my job, deployment and troubleshooting for faculty. Also what do you mean by corrupt clients? If there is an issue that is something i cant fix (or simply would take too long to troubleshoot), ill just pxe boot and re image the machine from the sccm server.

 

Also are we including Active directory in this discussion? Cause we use that a lot too for administration, network drive access, privileges, etc.

[2k2jet]

Yeah, I agree. Most of the time it's just easier to just reimage the machines. However, sometimes it's just the Config. Manager client that get corrupt. Simply uninstalling/reinstalling tends to fix most of those deployment related scenarios. Now if WMI has become corrupt.. it's just easier to wipe it clean.

 

Well I guess AD could be intermixed in the convo. I don't manage our AD structure but tend to use it daily to make sure computers are in there correct places to get their desired policy's/etc..

[2k2jet]

Do you have some type of request/ticketing system implemented within your organization for reimaging, or are you able to just PXE boot any machine, at anytime, to reimage it. (If so, I'm guessing they use some sort of generic PXE password.)

[Adnanklink]

Its almost all managed by a ticketing system, where we have several tiers of support/ support staff where tickets are passed between tiers and campus zones depending on the problem or responsibilities. For imaging, i will ususally bring the machine back to my office and reimage it there so that i can keep an eye on it as well install any applications the user had on there or would want. I assume you also use some sort of ticketing system (imo i dont think support could be done without one for a big organization).

[2k2jet]

Correct, we also have a dreaded, awfully slow, ticketing system. I've just been kicking around the idea of setting up unique PXE passwords for each of our 40-something sites. Which would make it so that a tech could instantaneously image when they needed to instead of "requesting" , which seems like a waste of time to me personally, to do so. (I was maybe thinking you might be doing something similar to get some real world feedback from you. =D ) I guess there are advantages to the paper trial though.