System center configuration manager Upgrade to R3 version

R3 requirement and upgrade steps:

·         SP2 and R2 installation

·         Take the snapshot of Site Server if running as VM or backup the server files.

·         Check the health status of site server and verify the unresolved operational issues

·         Install critical updates on Site Server and site system

·         Install critical SQL server updates on Site Server

·         Disable SQL server database replication – To disable SQL replication

·         Install R3 hotfix for console on Site Server, site system and client computers - Download

·         Site Server and site system to ensure no actions are pending

·         Run R3 setup first on Primary site server

·         Reconfigure SQL server database replication - To enable SQL replication

·         To verify successful installation- Verify installation

Enhancements in R3:

·         Major enhancement in R3 is Power management. We can monitor, plan, apply and check the power management policy on systems

·         Improved efficiency of Active directory communication

·         Faster discovery of Active Directory changes to users or machines

·         Fast evaluation of new systems for rapid collection and population of newly discovered devices

·         Improved Administrator Console response times

·         Increased the number of supported clients to 300,000 per site

·         Managing Mobile devices through System center Mobile Device Manager

For detailed information of any step, please refer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff977048.aspx

Complete list of SCCM log files

Below is the link which has complete list of SCCM logs with their description.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lxchen/archive/2009/04/03/a-list-of-sccm-log-files.aspx

How to customize copy of user's profile using USMT 4.0

UEL option in USMT is to exclude user’s profile according to last logon date. We can exclude it by number of days, a specific date or any currently logged on user.

UE option allows us to exclude user profiles from being migrated based on their name. It supports both domain and local users.

E.g.:

• To exclude Sally user profile: SCANSTATE.EXE /ue:*\Sally
• To exclude test domain user named Sally: SCANSTATE.EXE /ue:Test\Sally*
• To exclude any profile not logged in more than 100 days: SCANSTATE.EXE /uel:100
• To exclude any profile those have not been logged on since 2010/06/01:                               SCANSTATE.EXE /uel:2010/06/01

How to migrate .pst and .ost through USMT 4.0?

By default, USMT 4.0 migrates PST files that are linked to a user’s outlook profile and does not copy those PST which are not attached with profile. USMT does not support .ost migration. E.g. PST’s stored on local drive but not actually attached to outlook will not migrate by default.

In order to migrate PST files, here is the working script which will gather all PST files from all fixed drives:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<migration urlid="http://www.microsoft.com/migration/1.0/migxmlext/pst">

  <component type="Documents" context="UserAndSystem">

    <displayName>All PST migrated from all fixed drives, regardless of location</displayName>

    <role role="Data">

      <rules>

        <include>

          <objectSet>

            <script>MigXmlHelper.GenerateDrivePatterns ("* [*.pst]", "Fixed")</script>

          </objectSet>

        </include>

      </rules>

    </role>

  </component>

</migration>

Paste this script into notepad and save as PST.xml. Now, the main idea behind this script is that it should be saved in System 32 folder before running Task sequence. Create a script that will copy the PST.XML file in %System 32% folder of the system and add /i:pst.xml switch to scan state and load state.

This worked fine for me and we have upgraded our whole environment from XP to Windows 7.

System restart cannot be completed while another software installation is in progress. Please allow the software installation to complete before attempting a system restart

User gets an error prompt "A system restart cannot be completed while another software installation is in progress. Please allow the software installation to complete before attempting a system restart."

 

Cause:

Under very specific conditions, the persistent job counter is not decremented when a job is finished. The coordinating system prevents these client computers from being restarted because it believes that a job is still running based on the JobCounter value.

Solution:

1.     Stop the SMS Agent Host (CcmExec.exe) service on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 client computer.

2.     Location the following registry subkey and change its value to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Sms\Mobile Client\Reboot Management\JobCounter

3.     Start the SMS Agent Host (ccmExec.exe) service on the client computer.

Microsoft URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970635/