Today I passed the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist Exam 70-656: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Configuring (includes App-V 4.5).If you are considering taking the exam, it consists of 75 questions, is over three hours long, and I recommend that you make sure that you know each component of MDOP very well in order to pass the test.

I am so pleased that I succeeded , even as the exam was free for me as for the fist 500 who registered for the exam with the promocode “MDOP”.

Hope it helps ,

Kenny Buntinx.

Today , I ran into some issues to deploy the App-V 4.5 client with SCCM 2007 SP1 R2 .

If you have System Center Configuration Manager 2007 as a distribution system you can find information about How to Install the Microsoft Application Virtualization Client here.

The article is mentioning the following prerequisites that must be installed on the Configuration Manager 2007 client computer:

• Microsoft Application Error Reporting – For more information about installing Microsoft Application Error Reporting, seehttp://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=116684
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) – For more information about installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=116683

Is doesn’t mention Microsoft Core XML services (MSXML) 6.0 SP1 however, but if you have the SCCM Client already installed, this prerequisite will be already installed for you (if not already present).

To get this going , I have created a task sequence to fullfill my needs .

Unattended installation of App-V WD Client prerequisites:

1. Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 x86 Redistributable Package

VCREDIST_X86.EXE /Q:A /C:”VCREDI~3.EXE /Q:A /C:””MSIEXEC /I VCREDIST.MSI /QN”””

Note: The quoting in the above command line is critical.

If it is not working , extract the 2 files , called vcredist.msi and vcredis1.cab and launch the following command :

Msiexec /I vcredist.msi /QN

2. Microsoft Application Error Reporting

In order to install it you need to specify the GUID of the application that is installing it.Take the App-V Client Guid !

MSIEXEC /I DW20SHARED.MSI /QN APPGUID={4C1CE627-6B28-436E-BD12-3A881065FB20} REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS ALLUSERS=1

3. Unattended installation of App-V WD Client using setup.msi:

MSIEXEC /I SETUP.msi ALLOWINDEPENDENTFILESTREAMING=TRUE REQUIREAUTHORIZATIONIFCACHED=FALSE SWICACHESIZE=10240 SWIGLOBALDATA=C:\APPV\GLOBAL AUTOLOADTARGET=ALL AUTOLOADONLOGIN=0 AUTOLOADONLAUNCH=0 AUTOLOADONREFRESH=1 /QN

The example of my Task Sequence :

Hope it helps

Kenny Buntinx

When adding a new Distribution Point using the “New Site Roles” wizard; sometimes the “Branch Distribution Point” option is not available (grayed out) and the only option you have is to create a standard Distribution Point. Well, there can several reasons to this. Most times because the computer on which you are trying to install the Branch Distribution on, has no ConfigMgr Agent Host installed which is a requirement for BDP’s.

However, if your ConfigMgr site is configured in native mode, and the computer on which you are trying to install the BDP is configured for Internet Based Client Management (IBCM); the wizard will prevent you from installing a BDP on the computer, and as a result; the “Branch Distribution Point” option will not be available (grayed out).

The ConfigMgr documentation states that BDP’s are not supported on the internet, but also currently states that ConfigMgr will not prevent us from installation a BDP on a IBCM-enabled client…. But that is not the case; the wizard will actually prevent us from doing so

You can read more about this issue and how to workaround it on Carol Bailey’s blog post: http://blogs.technet.com/wemd_ua_-_sms_writing_team/archive/2008/07/23/cannot-select-option-for-branch-distribution-point-in-a-native-mode-site.aspx

Hope it helps ,

Kenny Buntinx

The technet forums have received a new update, with a new interface. The Server 2008 and vista forums have been using the new interface for a while, and today the configmgr forums were move to the new platform as well.

New functionality and annoyances fixed include (but are not limited to)

• You can now click the post button without scrolling down (this was a huge annoyance to me)
• Forums in general are faster
• You can tag posts into categories so you can save post for future reference
• Way better control over live alerts
• Live alerts available on the forum when logged in
• There is supposed to be thread support if multiple people are in one thread, but I haven’t figured that out yet.
• More flexible signature settings

Anyway here are all the new links:

Here’s the URL to list of forums (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/) although there are URLs to the individual forums as well. Here is each individual one if you are interested in only a single one:

• General – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrgeneral/threads/
• Announcements – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrannouncements/threads/
• Admin Console – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgradminconsole/threads/
• Asset Intelligence – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrai/threads/
• Backup and Recovery – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrbackup/threads/
• Desired Configuration Management – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrdcm/threads/
• Documentation – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrdocs/threads/
• Internet Clients and Native Mode – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgribcm/threads/
• Inventory – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrinventory/threads/
• Operating System Deployment – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrosd/threads/
• SDK – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrsdk/threads/
• Setup/Deployment – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrsetup/threads/
• Software Distribution – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrswdist/threads/
• Software Updates Management – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrsum/threads/

You’ll find me on a fairly regular schedule in the Operating system deployment and SDK forums, see you there.

“Everyone is an expert at something”

Kim Oppalfens Configmgr expert for lack of any other expertise.

http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm/default.aspx

The IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a deployment kit that extends Configuration Manager 2007 by providing IBM utilities, drivers, and custom tasks for creating automated deployment scripts for IBM target servers. The IBM extensions are available as built-in actions within the Configuration Manager menus.

The IBM Deployment Pack includes various IBM and third-party tools that are needed to configure items such as RAID adapters, management cards, BIOS settings, and other vendor specific settings that are required when deploying servers. While it is true these types of activities can be manually added to the operating system deployment (OSD) process, the Deployment Pack is a much simpler solution that puts everything in the right place for the user, so the tools are ready to use in a custom task sequence.

It also includes a custom boot image that is already prepared to work with Configuration Manager OSD. This tool is highly recommended and will save a huge amount of setup and preparation time for the deployment of x86 / x64 servers.

You can download :

1. The [View:/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/sccm.IBM/ibm_dp_sccm_v1_00.msi]
2. The [View:/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/sccm.IBM/IBM_DP_SCCM_v1.00_UsersGuide.pdf]

In the download section !

Hope it helps

Kenny Buntinx.

When you deploy a Windows XP SP3 reference image, and you use the Task Sequence to add certain soundcard drivers you might face the problem that your soundcard drivers are installed but at the end there is no sound.

Apparently if you do not log in without a user on your XP SP3 windows can’t detect a part of the soundcard device.

A possible solution that worked for me is installing the sound device manually and using the application drivermax (http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/) to capture the necessary drivers.

Import these drivers as a driver package in SCCM and deploy it with your task sequence.

Your problem should be solved . This tip was given by Patrick Moons – Thx Patrick

Hope it helps

Kenny Buntinx