ConfigMgr with Smart Windows Installer Source Location Manager

Recently in one of my customer environment, Application packaging team encountered issues with the deployments which required application upgrade or self-healing property. During Application upgrade or repair it prompted for source files. This location was network location which no longer exist and some of them referred CCM Cache which got removed or deleted during ConfigMgr 2012 client migration. In this post we will see how ConfigMgr can handle this issue.

Let’s take the example of chrome package which was installed from file server directly earlier and when tried to repair now it prompted for source files on file server which no longer exist anymore as shown below.

In this scenario to correct the source file location from offline file server to ConfigMgr Distribution point we need to update the product Code as shown below for the application properties.

After updating Windows Installer product code as above, Windows Installer source list update cycle need to be initiated manually as shown below otherwise it will take a while to update automatically.

Verify the log C:\Windows\ccm\logs\SrcUpdateMgr.log and confirm the Install Source URL location is updated as shown below.

Verify the log C:\Windows\ccm\logs\SrcUpdateMgr.log and confirm the Install Source URL location is updated as shown below.

Verify the below registry path and confirm new Key ‘URL’ is created automatically and appended with the DP’s holding ‘Chrome’ package as shown below.

HKLM\ Software\Classes\Installer\Products\\SourceList\URL

Now as seen below I am able to repair the chrome and it is not prompting for the source location...J........Thanks to ConfigMgr Windows Installer Source Location Update Manager

SCCM 2012 Console Manual Installation methods

We can install Console from the SCCM 2012 installation Setup wizard or by using the stand alone tool - Consolesetup.exe

Let’s see the options

1. As Shown below we have to enable the check box to get SCCM console installed along with SCCM installation.

 

 

or



 

2. in case if we miss to enable the above checkbox or if we need to install console in other PC’s then we have can use stand-alone tool called consolesetup.exe.

Prior to Console Installation make sure you have admin right on the computer and .net framework 4 is installed.

We can find stand-alone tool called consolesetup.exe in 2 locations

(1) From SCCM 2012 installation media files -  ConfigMgrSourceFiles>\smssetup\bin\I386

(2) From the site server - \tools\ConsoleSetup

 

Copy 2 files - AdminConsole.MSI file and ConsoleSetup.exe from any of the above mentioned location to local system (as shown below I coped it to folder D:\consolesetup).We can trigger the installation from any of the above file either exe or msi but I noticed ConsoleSetup.exe is better option because it created console installation log file in the location C:\ by default.

 

Let’s start the installation using consolesetup.exe.

 

There are many switches that can be used for unattended installation. For more details refer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712320.aspx#BKMK_InstallConsole

Click Next...

As shown below Supply the FQDN of the SCCM site server to connect...Example – SCCM12.one.com

Mention the installation path as show blow...

 

Troubleshooting logs:

SCCM console installation log can be found on C: \ drive - ConfigmgrAdminUISetup.log. This log will help to troubleshoot issues related to console installation.

 

 

Most of the Issues with the SCCM console connectivity can be traced in the SMSAdminUI.log file. The SMSAdminUI.log file is located in the \AdminUI\AdminUILog directory. This Log will help to troubleshoot any SCCM console connectivity issue with Server.