Anyone setup SCCM 2007 SP2?

m4cc45

m4cc45

m4cc45

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Joined
10 Mar 2003
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Hi,

As topic really. Just looking for good guides. After a lot of messing about I finally got it installed, all fine and dandy, but I'm thinking there must be post install tasks (obviously creating boundaries, software distribution, windows deployment, etc.) that I would rather have a quick read about rather than attempting blindly, so to speak.

So if you have any useful links, etc. then please let me know.



M.
 
Think I had a decent link saved at work for this, I'll check tomorrow but take a look at the myitforum site and blogs for anything.

Also worth searching for sms to sccm upgrade articles as they might also contain anything you might want to do.

Off top of my head you'll want to setup your site roles, boundaries, discovery methods, and senders to other sites if you're running with more than one site, the db tasks.

For instnace I always like to set my distribution point role to use a specific drive/directory as by default (well in SMS anyway) it would pick any of the drives on the server depending on which it deemed most suitable. Didn't want it doing that so told it ot only use a specific directory.

Basically just go through each of the settings screens under the node in the console that has all the site settings in :)
 
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I've done this - twice. One thing I'd definitely suggest is keeping the site database on a different server to the SCCM installation. I found everything going very slowly with the site database on the same server.
 
I've always found, and prefer, the opposite. Always prefer my main db on the site server, never had any problems that way.
 
Yeah I'm chucking the DB onto a SQL cluster so that's no problem. I had a nightmare trying to get it to install on Windows 2008 because of Webdav problems (even though it was installed - ended up reinstalling it and IIS then it was fine).

We have an old SCCM server which is running really badly (hearbeat service isnt running) and the permissions have been setup incorrectly so rather than fix this I'd rather start again which means I have a problem of updating clients to new site code, etc.



M.
 
I've got to replace our primary site soon as wanting to get it onto some tasty hardware I've got spare, just been putting it off :p

Nothing wrong with what we've already got, but seems a waste of a some nice blades going spare, and means we can get rid of another physical box (it's currently on a DL380 G4).

Not had much time lately to fiddle with all my sccm stuff, hopefully with R3 out soon I'll get some time to play again :)
 
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Yeah I'm looking forward to it - I would prefer to start with nothing but the clients out in the field pointing to the old server so when I change it over it's probably going to cause issues no doubt.

The setup is possibly the worst installer I've ever used and it's only by sheer persistence that I've gotten it actually to install - the guides on the net were a little flakey to say the least.

Hopefully R3 will address these issues. I'll report back with anything I notice whilst going through it.

The really 'hard' thing, if you like, is going to be configuring WDS via SCCM - it should be okay from what I've read but, again, it's something that will need thoroughly testing.


M.
 
Any reason you don't just move your existing site to new hardware? The hardest bit about that is moving the database - just make sure you keep the collation the same on the databases.

On the 2008 note - I found it a lot better on 2008.

WDS is easy to configure :) Just make sure you get permissions right on the distribution points.
 
Never found the installers to be bad tbh, always worked fine for me :) That's with fresh installs, upgrades, and new servers.
 
Well the main reason is that it was put in by someone who didn't know what they were doing. No offence to the people involved but the permissions are all over the place and it simply doesn't work (heartbeat service doesn't run, etc.)

Rather than fix it I'd rather start again and make sure it's done properly.



M.
 
You need to be careful when you are setting up a completely new installation - there are a number of posts on the Microsoft forums regarding this - for example things you should do prior to the new installation.
 
m4cc45 said:
Well the main reason is that it was put in by someone who didn't know what they were doing.
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I've seen this time and time again, and to a certain extent it's the reason I'm in my job now!

I don't get it though, it's not a hard product to setup use, pretty damn simple really.

Yet it seems to be popular for cowboys to mess up.

The guys who were contracting at my place before I came in and fixed their mess were on £500 a day for the pleasure!!

On the plus side though if it's something you know there are some nice jobs around for SCCM work, not many though but then again not many people who do just this.
 
brainchylde said:
You need to be careful when you are setting up a completely new installation - there are a number of posts on the Microsoft forums regarding this - for example things you should do prior to the new installation.
Click to expand...

Ignore me - I was thinking about a site upgrade!

Having said that - when you re-install the site I'd try to keep the same site code and server name.
 
Sadly we can keep neither as the new server has to be put in parallel and then the clients migrated to the new server. I can't really work on the pxe side either as that needs to also be seemlessly migrated.

It's a little bit of a nightmare but good experience I guess once it's done.

I did find the installer bad mainly because it says that BITS / Webdav / etc. are not installed when they are and rather than it just getting on and installed the pre-reqs it just puts up an ambigious error message and then you're off to google!

Apart from that it's been fine - I'll report back with anything I find if anyones interested.



M.
 
Already have the Administrators Companion book - which is okay but not brilliant. Especially on the pre-req stuff which I thought was very important but it barely touches on.

I'll see how I go with this anyway!



M.
 
Ev0 said:
I've always found, and prefer, the opposite. Always prefer my main db on the site server, never had any problems that way.
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MS also recommend keeping the DB on the same server iirc.

SCCM is fantastic - the biggest battle we've found is client health, particularly at our sites with incompetent admins.
 
PAz said:
MS also recommend keeping the DB on the same server iirc.
Click to expand...


Do you know why, out of interest? My server (fairly high spec) was slowing down a lot (to the point the console was click-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-result. When i moved to new hardware I ensured I moved the database onto our database cluster.

In addition - I can't imagine people with larger deployments would have their database on the same server as their DP etc.
 
Having now gone through the install and initial client deployment to a couple of test clients I still think it's an evil installer. Had to edit DCOM settings just to get people to be able to access the console which I think is fairly poor. The initial collection scan is 1 day as well which didn't help with testing.

Just seems to have been put together quickly rather than with ease of use and quality in mind. My DB is on another server which seems fine at the moment (see how that goes later) I've had no speed issues, etc. Just issues which should have been sorted out in the installer and wasted around 4 hours of my time.

I'll update tomorrow when I have a lot more clients on there!
 
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