SccmAutoDoc by OSCC goes Beta 1
What is SccmAutoDoc?
SccmAutoDoc is a command-line utility that documents a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 site in a human-readable format. Much effort has been put in making the document resemble closely to what you see in the Configuration Manager admin console. SccmAutodoc in other words documents your Site Configuration.
Additionally the goal is to document only relevant settings, and to not include items that are irrelevant. For example if the software inventory client agent is disabled, than it doesn't make much sense to document the software inventory agent schedule.
What are the software requirements to be able to use SccmAutoDoc?
SccmAutodoc requires a machine with Word 2007 installed and access to the ConfigMgr site server and ConfigMgr Sms Provider. Word 2007 does NOT need to be installed on the Site server/SQL server or Sms Provider computer. The program can perfectly work from a remote machine running windows xp, Vista or Windows 7.
Word 2007 does need to have the primary interop assemblies installed, but these are part of a default word 2007 install. If you don't have the primary interop assemblies for office 2007 installed, you can always download them here: <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=59DAEBAA-BED4-4282-A28C-B864D8BFA513&displaylang=en>
What permissions do I need to run SccmAutoDoc?
SccmAutoDoc requires a user with Read permissions on the site object of the Configuration Manager site to be documented. The commandline allows you to optionally pass a user and password as arguments to perform the documentation. If you don't specify a username and password than the currently logged in credentials are used.
Where can I get SccmAutoDoc?
SccmAutoDoc beta1 can be downloaded from http://scug.be/media/g/sccmautodoc/default.aspx
How do I use SccmAutoDoc?
Just unzip the zipfile to a folder (the zip contains sccmautodoc.exe 2 dll's and an xml file).
Then execute SccmAutoDoc from a command prompt, which will display the Usage statement.
Sample commandlines:
Ex1: sccmautodoc -sitecode S01 -server sccm01
This command documents the site with sitecode S01 on server sccm01 with the user
account that launched SccmAutodoc
Ex2: sccmautodoc -sitecode S01
This command documents the site with sitecode S01 when running locally on the server.
Ex3: sccmautodoc -sitecode S01 -server sccm01
-username Contosso\sccmadmin -password P@ssw0rd
This command documents the site with sitecode S01 on server sccm01 with the user
account Contosso\SccmAdmin and password P@ssw0rd
Where can I send bug reports/feature request/suggestions?
All comment/bug reports/suggestsions/feature request are more than welcome at mailto:sccmautodoc@oscc.be .
Unless I am swamped with suggestions, I will do my utmost to respond to any inquires you might have.
If you send a bug report, please include the error you are receiving and a copy of the document created by the execution that errored out.
Is SccmAutoDoc freeware?
SccmAutodoc is not freeware, at present it is beta software, that eventually might end up as a reasonably priced documentation tool.
Preliminary plans around licensing are around creating a ConfigMgr Site, ConfigMgr hierarchy, Consultant/Consultancy firm license.
When does this beta Expire?
This beta version expires on the 15th december 2009. At which point a new version (Beta 1.5 of Beta 2) should be available.
What does SccmAutoDoc currently document?
SccmAutoDoc currently documents everything you see in the ConfigMgr Admin Console underneath the Site Settings node, with some small exceptions listed below:
- Address schedule and Bandwidth limiting configuration.
- Certificates node
- Status Filter Rules
For a sample on what SccmAutoDoc documents have a look at SccmAutoDoc-1.125-Sample at:
http://scug.be/media/g/sccmautodoc/default.aspx
SccmAutodoc currently has no plans to document "volatile" data. In other words, packages, programs, advertisements, ... Will Not be documented. It is determined that this data changes to often, which would require SccmAutoDoc to run several times a day. Additionally the documentation would then become quite large making it lose its purpose as a Site Configuraiton document.
What are some of the known issues so far with SccmAutoDoc?
SccmAutoDoc errors out if you open up a focus-capturing box in Word while the program tries to write data to the document.
How does SccmAutoDoc work?
SccmAutoDoc works by querying WMI and parsing the results to look like they appear in the ConfigMgr Admin console. The main engine behing SccmAutoDoc is the included XML file which lists the queries that are executed.