Dario IT Solutions Blog

If you had to maintain a SCCM server in an offline environment you know it’s not a simple task. One of the steps you have to carry out is to download all the updates from the Internet or to copy them from another WSUS/SCCM SUP server that is connected to Internet and had already downloaded all the updates.

For the first method you can use this great post:

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2008/10/28/getting-required-updates-on-non-internet-connected-sups-part-1.aspx

and part 2:

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2008/10/28/getting-required-updates-on-non-internet-connected-sups-part-2.aspx

If you have another WSUS/SCCM SUP server that is online, the easiest way to get those updates is to copy them from the server. This is where it gets a little bit tricky:

The updates are found in the “WSUSContent” folder or in SCCM’s case in a folder share of your choice, the only problem is that they are scattered in different folders, This causes a problem because when you’ll need to provide the offline WSUS/SCCM SUP with the updates they will have to be in a single folder. For this purpose I found a little batch file that will get the job done (Credit goes to Rems):

@echo off
title WAIT !

Set "sourceDir=c:\1234"
Set "destinationFolder=c:\SHOEBOX"
Set "_report=c:\logxcopy.txt"

IF NOT EXIST "%sourceDir%" (echo.Could not find %sourceDir% &GoTo:done)

:: overwrite previous log
>"%_report%" (
      echo.%date% - %time%
      echo.---------------------------------------------------
      echo.
)

:: copy files
For /F "Delims=" %%! in ('Dir "%sourceDir%\" /b /s /a-d 2^>nul') do (
   @echo.%%! &(
   @xcopy "%%!" "%destinationFolder%\" /i /y /h /f /c >>"%_report%",2>&1)
)

:done
title,Done.......

echo.&pause>nul

This batch will copy all the files from a folder tree to a single folder.

More info about offline WSUS/SCCM SUP environment:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720512(WS.10).aspx

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/archive/2008/10/19/synchronizing-non-internet-connected-software-update-points.aspx

Enjoy!

The Search Folders that come with the software update point role in SCCM, provide an easy  and comfortable way to keep track of you’re update deployment status.

I personally use 3 folders to keep track of my updates status “All Updates”, “Deployed Updates” and “New Updates” , In this post I’ll show you how you can create them yourself.

Creating a search folder is very easy, just right click the “Search Folder” node and select “New Search Folder”, Now all you have to do is give it a name and specify it’s criteria:

1. “All Updates” – This will give you a view of all the the updates that are listed in your repository.

Criteria:

Update Classification – Choose all

Expired – Choose “No”

Mark the “Search all folders under this feature” checkbox

2. “Deployed Updates” – This will give you an idea of what updates are currently included in your software update deployment.

Criteria:

Update Classification – Choose all (or what interest you)

Deployed – Choose “Yes”

Mark the “Search all folders under this feature” checkbox

3. “New Updates” – This will give you an idea of what new updates were released and are not yet included in your software update deployment.

Criteria:

Update Classification – Choose all (or what interest you)

Deployed – Choose “No”

Expired – Choose “No”

Mark the “Search all folders under this feature” checkbox

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!

If you’re using Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), there may come a day when you need to move the updates to another drive. Once WSUS has been installed, the WSUS Administration tool doesn’t let you do this, but you can do it using a command line tool called wsusutil found in C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools. I’m running version 3.0 SP1.

The command is:

wsusutil movecontent logfile.log x:\WSUS

(where x: is the new destination)

If you have already copied the content (make sure you’ve set the correct permissions), you can run:

wsusutil movecontent logfile.log f:\WSUS -skipcopy

NOTE: This is separate to the WSUS database itself, this only applies to the actual patches.

To see the other uses of wsusutil, run it with no arguments:

C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools>wsusutil.exe
Windows Server Update Services administration utility. Try:
wsusutil.exe help checkhealth
wsusutil.exe help configuressl
wsusutil.exe help configuresslproxy
wsusutil.exe help deletefrontendserver
wsusutil.exe help listinactiveapprovals
wsusutil.exe help removeinactiveapprovals
wsusutil.exe help export
wsusutil.exe help healthmonitoring
wsusutil.exe help import
wsusutil.exe help listfrontendservers
wsusutil.exe help movecontent
wsusutil.exe help reset
wsusutil.exe help usecustomwebsite
wsusutil.exe help listunreferencedpackagefolders

(Taken from: http://www.chrisburgess.com.au/moving-wsus-server-updates/)

Installing ConfigManager 2007 onto a Windows Server 2008 based server can be a challenge. Having recently been through the process for my own lab environment I thought I’d share the process in the hope that it will save you some time when you need to create this configuration. Before you begin you will need to gather the following components:

• Windows Server 2008 RTM (x86) and Licence Key
• SQL Server 2005 and Licence Key
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and Licence Key

You will also need to download the following components:

• Microsoft WebDAV Extension for IIS 7.0 (x86) : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=036269fa-0040-4ccd-ad3d-78da1ee132fb&DisplayLang=en
• Windows Software Update Services 3.0 SP1: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/bb466190.aspx
• SQL 2005 SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=d07219b2-1e23-49c8-8f0c-63fa18f26d3a&DisplayLang=en
• SQL critical update 934458: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934458
• ConfigMgr 2007 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5AAE62E8-4B7F-4AF7-BE01-AEFAA4BF059A&displaylang=en

Step 1 – Install Windows Server 2008

Install Windows Server 2008 (x86) on a machine with the following minimum specification:

• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Disk 2 x 70GB disks

This could be a physical machine or a virtual machine based on Virtual PC, Virtual Server or Hyper-V

Step 2 – Configure Windows Server 2008

Once the Windows Server 2008 installation has completed, log in as Administrator and carry out the following initial tasks:

1. Set a static IP address for the server
2. Unbind IPv6 from the network card (this is not a full fix for removing IPv6 – look out for a future post on this subject)

Step 3 – Add Additional Windows Server 2008 Roles and Features

Additional Windows Server 2008 roles and features (through Control Panel > Programs and Features) are required to support the ConfigMgr 2007 installation:

1. Add the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) role with default settings (do not configure WDS as ConfigMgr will do that later)

2. Add the IIS role with the following settings:

          a. Add ASP.Net Role. Accept defaults.

          b. Add ASP (required for ConfigManager Reporting Point to function)

          c. Add Windows Authentication

          d. Add Static Content

          e. Add IIS 6 Management Compatibility and all of the sub-components of it.

3. Add the Remote Differential Compression feature

4. Add the BITS Server Extensions feature

5. Install the Microsoft WebDAV Extension for IIS 7.0 (x86) (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

          a. Use the instructions at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431377(TechNet.10).aspx to configure WebDav.

          You will need to follow Steps 4 and 5 in this document under the section “Install and Configure WebDAV”

Step 4 – Add Additional Non Windows Server 2008 Components

Now that Windows Server 2008 is configured to install ConfigManager 2007 we now have to add some additional software services for use by ConfigManager 2007

1. Install Windows Software Update Services 3.0 SP1 32bit (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

2. Install SQL 2005

3. Install SQL 2005 SP2 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

          a. Stop the SQLServer service in preparation for SP2 installation. This is to avoid a system restart.

          b. As suggested by SQL SP2 setup wizard, launch sqlprov

          c. Run services.msc and re-start the SQL 2005 service.

          d. Add a domain account to the SQL sysadmin role. (This is unique requirement in Server 2008 environment)

4. Install SQL Critical Update 934458 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

Step 5 – Install ConfigManager 2007

Now we are ready to install ConfigManager 2007 – this is a two stage process to first install ConfigManager 2007 RTM and then apply ConfigManager 2007 SP1 – if you have access to the SP1 slipstreamed version of ConfigManager 2007 then you can skip step 2 below.

1. Install ConfigManager 2007

          a. Extend the schema by running the \smssetup\bin\i386\extadsch utility. Run this under Enterprise Administrator credentials and review c:\extadsch.log for results.

          b. Either use an Internet connection (for auto-download) or a pre-staged folder for setup update files required by ConfigManager setup application.

2. Install ConfigManager 2007 SP1 (location for download listed at the beginning of this article)

          a. Either use Internet connection (for auto-download) or a pre-staged folder for setup update files required by ConfigManager SP1 setup application.

3. After installation, add the PXE service point and Reporting Point site system roles.

For those of you who want to install SCCM 2007 SP1 in native mode and have trouble with the certificates in Windows Server 2008, check out these lines:

• http://www.buit.org/2008/05/18/installing-sccm-2007-sp1r2-in-native-mode-on-windows-server-2008/
• http://www.buit.org/2008/05/22/installing-sccm-2007-sp1r2-in-native-mode-on-windows-server-2008-part-2/

For more details, check out source.

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool manages the workflow of updating large numbers of offline virtual machines according to their individual needs. The tool works with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (VMM) and with software update management systems (at present, either Windows Server Update Services 3.0 (WSUS) or System Center Configuration Manager 2007).

The following figure illustrates the workflow:

How information flows between the tool and other system components

The tool uses “servicing jobs” to manage the update operations based on lists of existing virtual machines stored in VMM. Using Windows Workflow Foundation technology, a servicing job runs snippets of Windows PowerShell scripts to work with virtual machines. For each virtual machine, the servicing job:

• “Wakes” the virtual machine (deploys it to a host and starts it).
• Triggers the appropriate software update cycle (Configuration Manager or WSUS).
• Shuts down the updated virtual machine and returns it to the library.

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool is straightforward to use. To use the tool:

1. Install the tool in your environment. A configuration wizard guides you through the process of connecting the tool to VMM and your software update management system.
2. Configure virtual machine groups. You have the option to group your virtual machines to simplify the process of creating servicing jobs.
3. Create and schedule servicing jobs. A servicing job specifies which virtual machines to update, what resources to use for the update process, and when to start the servicing job. You can schedule jobs to run immediately, or to run during low-traffic maintenance windows. You can also schedule servicing jobs to recur at regular intervals to keep your virtual machines up-to-date in the long term.

   Note   The tool works with Windows Task Scheduler to determine when to run the servicing job.

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.