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Hi, I first want to say thank you, for all of your articles they are wonderful and spot on. thanks i appreciate it ! Is there a reason to run this as "run another program first" versus the 1st thing in the task sequence? yes the reason we run another program first is because we don't want to 'start' the task sequence unless we are ready to do so, and therefore it's chained to the wrapper, i.e. the wrapper must exit with a code of 0 (no error) in order for the task sequence to start, also task sequences run as SYSTEM (not user) account, and this requires that the user is logged on and interacts (to defer)

Introduction Microsoft recently release System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802. You can read the official announcement here and for a detailed list of what’s new, please see the following blog post. I blogged about how you can do the upgrade from start to finish here. If you want to get started with learning about System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 you can follow my multi-part guide here, or even try labs for yourself using the 1802 eval media available at Microsoft’s eval site. The eval media is locked down to 180 days so it’s not suitable for use in Production. You can download the eval media from here. After signing up you can download the EXE and extract it. Click on Splash.hta to to start the installation wizard. Note that you’ll need the prerequisites installed and SQL server setup. You can follow my multi-part guide to help you with that. Once installed it will appear like so. Note: Do not confuse this media with the Baseline version media on VLSC. VLSC does not yet offer the production ready 1802 baseline version media at time of writing. Recommended reading How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 1 How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 2 Download eval version of System Center Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection (current branch – version 1802) What are Baseline versions in System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch)

no problem I want this to work as well as it possibly can so any feedback and ideas are welcome, I think i'll put together another blog post with the remove computer from collection and update machine policy steps added (time willing)

did you use the same username each time ? and if you remove the computer from the collection and update machine policy it should not occur as you experienced,. but it's good feedback

so then it's doing what it should, exiting with code 99 as it sees that you are already at the desired build, if it exited with exit code 0 in this case then the task sequence would run again and you don't want that, so in an ideal scenario, if the build is less than what it should be, it will exit code 0, and then run the task sequence, and drop from the collection before running the wrapper again the next day, you ran it manually and it correctly exited with exit code 99 as the build was already sufficient, if you look at the previous deployment history it would have been exit code 0 the reason it exit's with code 99 is because this program (the wrapper) is chained to the task sequence and must always run before the task sequence, therefore if you don't want the task sequence to run unnecessarily it exits with exit code 99

zip up and attach the logs in C:\ProgramData and i'll take a look at why it launched again, did you use the same frequency in the deployment as i recommend (once a day @ 11am ?) ?

hi Christian, it should send error code 0, but what this probably means is you've run the wrapper again after having succeeded and haven't fallen out of the collection yet (which you should do when on the right build) you could add a step at the end of the task sequence to delete the computer from the collection, or update the collection membership rules/update frequency to exclude the desired build, that way you'll get the right exit code reported.

hi Christian i'm glad to hear it and good luck with this !

have you tried adding this (the charset) <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"/> i've just tested it and it works fine with Swedish characters

hi Christian, I don't see why not, have you tried ?

Altaro just released a new version of their popular Altaro VM Backup and below is a list of what's new. Continuous Data Protection (CDP) With Altaro VM Backup 7.6, users can switch from running daily backups to a continuous data protection model yielding an improved Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of up to 5 minutes. When CDP is enabled, VMs can be backed up as frequently as every 5 minutes or the maximum frequency permitted by the backup location and environment. This ensures that in a data loss scenario only a few minutes of data would be lost. This dramatically reduces the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RPO is the point in time to which VMs are restored by a backup solution in case of a disaster. With CDP in place, users’ RPO is optimized to up to 5 minutes, instead of the hours of data loss faced in cases where users are simply running daily backups. NOTE: CDP is currently only available for Hyper-V; it will become available for VMware soon Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) Archiving Altaro VM Backup 7.6 introduces GFS, enabling users to choose to archive the backup versions over and above their continuous and daily backups instead of deleting them (local backups only). Now you can easily set up separate backup cycles to store a new backup version every week, every month and every year. Normal Retention Policy: High frequency CDP Backups for 4 hours A maximum of one backup an hour until the Retention Policy ends With GFS Archiving enabled, Altaro VM Backup also keeps the following backups, with the time periods shown all starting from the time of the last successful backup: 1 backup per week for 12 weeks 1 backup per month for 12 months 1 backup per year for 2 years CBT v2 for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 CBT refers to Change Block Tracking and allows users to take fast incremental backups without having to scan the entire virtual machine (VM) for changes each time. This can reduce backup duration down from hours to minutes. When CBT is not available, a lengthy full scan for changes is required. This release addresses an issue in Altaro VM Backup 7 CBT for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 where CBT is disabled and a full scan for changes is required in the following scenarios: Altaro VM Backup or one of the Hyper-V Host agents is updated Altaro VM Backup services or one of the Hyper-V Host agents is restarted A Hyper-V Host is restarted A Virtual Machine on a Failover Cluster migrates between nodes. Altaro VM Backup 7.6 addresses this and the above scenarios do not require that a full scan is taken. Link to KB Article: http://support.altaro.com/customer/portal/articles/2918930 Concurrent Retention, Restore, Backup and Offsite Copy operations on the same Virtual Machine In previous Altaro VM Backup Versions only one operation could be performed on a Virtual Machine at the same time. This caused the following pain points for our users: If a retention policy takes quite long to complete then backups and restore operations are queued until retention is complete If an Offsite Copy to Azure takes days to complete, especially for the initial backup; then backups and restore operations for that VM are queued until it is complete If a Restore, File Level Restore or Boot from Backup operation is active then no backups for that Virtual Machine could take place until they are completed. Each of these limitations have been addressed in v7.6 , allowing users to restore and take Offsite Copies without delaying any scheduled or CDP backups whether scheduled or CDP. Link to KB Article: http://support.altaro.com/customer/portal/articles/2925967 If you are interested in checking out Altaro please click on the banner beneath this article, cheers niall

hi Jake, the purpose of this multi-part guide of blog posts is to share scripts and methods for building a new SCCM 1802 lab from scratch, if you have something to share then please do, in another thread so as not to confuse others on this one, thanks

glad to hear it Vincent

all explained nicely here

you are welcome Mark

email me at niall@windows-noob.com and i'll assist

hi Mhedden94, contact me at my email and i'll get you to try something out to fix it

hi, just to clear one thing up, there is no such thing as SCCM 2016, it's System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802, as regards PXE booting the vm, when you try, what (if anything) do you see in the SMSPXE.log, hint: search for the MAC address of the network card on the virtual machine cheers niall

i'm happy to get it looked at via PG if you send me those logs in zip format, niall@windows-noob.com

first things first, are you using hyperv gen 1 or gen 2 vm's ? also what version of SCCM are you using exactly ?

thanks for the update !

hi, can you please zip up and attach your cmupdate.log and dmpdownloader.log ?

Hi - Excellent notes. Look forward to part 3. thanks ! i don't see why not, but make sure to backup your db first and then using the same version of SQL that you have on your primary (on a virtual machine for example) run a testdbupgrade on a copy of the backed up db first to see how it goes, create a plan for the sql upgrade and you should probably stop all SCCM related services prior to upgrading SQL

Where is part 3? Once the media is released on VLSC *soon hopefully*, then I will write Part 3...

This multi-part guide will show you how to install the latest baseline version of Configuration Manager from Microsoft. The latest available baseline version is System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 as of March 29th 2018. How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 1 How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 2 How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 3 How can I install System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) version 1802 on Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2017 – Part 4 You can use this multi-part guide to get a hierarchy up and running on Windows Server 2016 using SQL Server 2017. The concept behind this is to guide you through all the steps necessary to get a working Configuration Manager Primary site installed (for lab use) using manual methods or automated using PowerShell. This gives you the power to automate the bits that you want to automate, while allowing you to manually do other tasks when needed. You decide which path to take. PowerShell knowledge is desired and dare I say required if you are in any way serious about Configuration Manager. I will show you how to do most steps via two methods shown below, it’s up to you to choose which method suits you best but I highly recommend automating everything that you can, using PowerShell. Method #1 – Do it manually Method #2 – Automate it with PowerShell In Part 1, you configured Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) on AD01, then joined the Configuration Manager server (CM01) to the newly created domain. You then created users, usergroups and OU's in Active Directory and created the System Management Container. Finally you delegated permission to the Configuration Manager server to the System Management container. Step 1. Install Roles and Features on CM01 Note: Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server (CM01) as a Local Administrator To support various features in System Center Configuration Manager, the setup wizard requires some server roles and features preinstalled. On CM01, login as the username you added to the Local Administrators group and start Server Manager. Method #1 - Do it manually The role and feature requirements for ConfigMgr are listed here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/plan-design/configs/site-and-site-system-prerequisites. On CM01, login as a user with administrative permissions on the server. Start Server Manager. Click on Add roles and features, on the Before you begin page click Next Choose Role-based or feature-based installation In the Server Selection screen verify CM01.windowsnoob.lab.local is selected and click Next On the Server Roles screen select Web Service (IIS) and when prompted to add features for Web Server (IIS) click on Add Features Click Next and on the Features screen select the .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) feature Expand the .NET Framework 4.6 Features and select HTTP Activation under WCF Services, answer Add Features when prompted. Select Message Queuing (MSMQ) Activation and when prompted select Add Features Select Named Pipe Activation and TCP Activation and under Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) select IIS Server Extension when prompted to add features click on Add Features Scroll down and select Remote Differential Compression Click Next and on the Web Server Role (IIS) screen click Next on the Select Role Services verify that the following are selected Click Next and point to the Installation Source by clicking on Specify an alternate source path Enter the path to the media eg: E:\Sources\SxS Click Install when ready, at this point you could export configuration settings for later automation Click on Close when the feature installation has succeeded. Method #2 - Automate it with PowerShell Note: Make sure your Server 2016 media is in the drive specified in the script or edit the script to point to the new location of the media. To install the roles and features needed, start Windows Powershell ISE as a user with administrative permissions on the server, edit the variables as appropriate and run the install roles and features.ps1 script. The script will automatically stop and prompt you to correct things, if it cannot find the XML file or the Windows Server 2016 installation media. 1. Extract the scripts to C:\Scripts on CM01 and load the install roles and features.ps1script located in C:\Scripts\Part 2\CM01 2. Edit the variables (lines 18-19) as desired before running. 3. Start Windows PowerShell ISE as Administrator and run the script by clicking on the green triangle. Step 2. Download and install Windows ADK and install WDS Note: Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server (CM01) as a Local Administrator When you deploy operating systems with Configuration Manager, the Windows ADK is an external dependency that is required. The ConfigMgr prerequisite checker will check for various things, including ADK components such as USMT and Windows Preinstallation Environment (among others), therefore you need to install Windows ADK on your server. System Center Configuration Manager version 1802 supports Windows ADK 1709 as I've explained here. Method #1 - Do it manually Go to this link and download ADK 1709. You'll be prompted to save or run ADKSETUP.EXE, select Run. When prompted for the path, accept the defaults...(or change it to something else if you wish) Select your privacy settings Accept the ADK EULA Make sure to have selected at least the following ADK features Deployment Tools Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD) Configuration Designer User State Migration tool (USMT) and click Install to start the download and Installation of the Windows ADK, version 1709. Once the ADK installation is complete, click Close. To install WDS, open Server Manager, select Add roles and features and select the Windows Deployment Services role. When prompted click on Add Features to include management tools. and click through the wizard until completion, close the wizard when done. Method #2 - Automate it with PowerShell To download and then install Windows ADK 10 version 1709 with the components needed for ConfigMgr, start Windows Powershell ISE as Administrator and run the setup ADK and WDS.ps1 script. This script not only downloads and installs ADK 1709, but it installs the Windows Deployment Services role. Tip: If you've already downloaded ADK 1709 and want to save yourself some time, copy the Windows Kits folder and all files/folders within to the source folder (eg: C:\Source\Windows Kits) and the script will skip the download. 1. Extract the scripts to C:\Scripts on CM01 and load the setup ADK and WDS.ps1 script located in C:\Scripts\Part 2\CM01 2. Edit the variable (line 17) as desired before running. 3. Start Windows PowerShell ISE as Administrator and run the script by clicking on the green triangle. Step 3. Install SQL Server 2017 Note: Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server (CM01) as a Local Administrator Method #1 - Do it manually Configure the firewall as described in https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=94001. After configuring the firewall, browse to the drive where the SQL Server 2017 media is, and run setup.exe. The SQL Server Installation Center wizard will appear. Click on Installation and then choose New SQL Server standalone installation or add features to an existing installation. Enter the Product Key or use the evaluation version if that's what you want to use. The product key will be automatically filled in for licensed media downloaded from Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center. Accept the EULA Make your Microsoft Update choices and review your Install rules, select the SQL server instance features you need and if necessary change the drive letter where you intend to install it And configure the Instance Configuration or just leave it as default Verify the Service Accounts settings and for Collation, make sure the collation is set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS For Server Configuration, click on Add Current User After configuring Data Directories, TempDB and Filestream settings you are Ready to Install Click on Install to start the installation of SQL Server 2017, and once it's completed, click Close. After installing SQL Server 2017, download SQL Server 2017 SSMS from here and install it. Method #2 - Automate it with PowerShell Note: Make sure your SQL Server 2017 media is in the drive specified in the script or edit the script to point to the new location of the media. The script and accompanying INI file have the path pointing at D:\Program Files, please change the variables as appropriate. To install SQL Server 2017 use the Install SQL Server 2017.ps1 script. The script will create a ConfigurationFile.ini used to automate the installation of SQL Server 2017, and after it's installed the script will download the SSMS executable (Management Studio) and install it. Then it will download Reporting Services and install it. If either of the EXE's are in the download folder, it will skip the download and just install. SQL Server no longer comes with the Management Studio or Reporting Services built in, and they are offered as separate downloads, don't worry though, my PowerShell script takes care of that for you. 1. Extract the scripts to C:\Scripts on CM01 and load the Install SQL Server 2017.ps1 script located in C:\Scripts\Part 2\CM01 2. Edit the variables [lines 17-76] as desired before running. 3. Start Windows PowerShell ISE as Administrator and run the script by clicking on the green triangle. Step 4. Restart the Configuration Manager Primary Server Note: Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server (CM01) as a Local Administrator Open an administrative command prompt and issue the following command: shutdown /r Step 5. Install the WSUS role Note: Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server (CM01) as a Local Administrator Now that SQL server is installed, we can utilize SQL Server for the WSUS database. To install WSUS and configure it to use the SQL server database instead of the Windows Internal Database, do as follows: Method #1 - Do it manually Using Roles and Features in Server Manager, add the Windows Server Update Services role. When prompted to add features for the WSUS role, click on Add features. When prompted for the Role Services, uncheck WID Connectivity and add SQL Server Connectivity instead. When prompted for Content location, enter a valid path When prompted for Database Instance Selection, enter the server name and click on Check Connection On the Confirm Installation Selections screen, click on Install. and finally click close. After installing the WSUS role, in Server Manager, click on the yellow exclamation mark and choose Launch Post Installation Tasks. When the tasks are completed Optional: The WSUS database (SUSDB) can be observed using SQL Server SSMS. Method #2 - Automate it with PowerShell Browse to the location where you extracted the scripts, C:\scripts. Start Windows PowerShell ISE as administrator, open the Install roles and features_WSUS.ps1 script, edit the $servername variable and replace CM01 with the ServerName your are installing ConfigMgr on (SQL server). Note: Make sure to have your Windows Server 2016 media in the path referred to by $Sourcefiles. 1. Extract the scripts to C:\Scripts on CM01 and load the Install roles and features_WSUS.ps1 script located in C:\Scripts\Part 2\CM01 2. Edit the variables [lines 22-25] as desired before running. 3. Start Windows PowerShell ISE as Administrator and run the script by clicking on the green triangle. Downloads The scripts used in this guide are available for download here. Unzip to C:\Scripts on both servers. The scripts are placed in the corresponding folder (Part 1, Part 2 etc) and sorted into which server you should run the script on (AD01 or CM01). Scripts.zip Summary Using PowerShell to automate things leaves more time for yourself and it's fun. Please join me in Part 3 of this multi-part guide when you will install System Center Configuration Manager version 1802 (Current Branch).