Basic Overview of System Center Configuration Manager

Disclaimer: SCCM Articles are purely based on the testing. Article from www.exchangeserverinfo.com is sharing our thoughts and knowledge so in real time production environment there might be change in the configuration level what we are doing in test environment . If anybody feels that we need to add some more recommended points in SCCM articles please feel free to contact us. We are just beginner in the SCCM.



                                                            System Center Configuration Manager 2007

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the upgradation and next version of SMS 2003. It assists organizations to provide relevant software and updates to users quickly and cost-effectively.
Those who are already having SMS experience\knowledge they know how important it is. In SCCM 2007 almost we have the same feature as like we had in SMS. So inorder understand what is SCCM 2007, let see why we need an SCCM 2007 like some of the common feature..
1) SCCM 2007 is used for collecting the hardware and software inventory.
2) It is used for distributing and installing the software updates, software applications.
3) Deploying an operating system.
4) Used for Metering Software Usage.
5) It can be used for remotely controlling the computers for accessing.

One more interesting point about SCCM is we can restrict one specific computer if it is not meeting specific requirement but it will be supported in windows 2008.

Note : For windows 2008 & windows vista with sp1 require SCCM 2007 sp1.

How this SCCM 2007 will work?
Well we will have  dedicated servers which can be Central\Primary and Secondary Site Server (secondary site server is optional) and these servers will have the actual application installed and the computers which is going to be monitored or distributed or managed by these servers , will have client software installed. The source server who is monitoring can be Central or primary or secondary and target servers can be a Server Platforms, Client Platforms and mobile devices as on. When we install client software it will add one service called as SMS host who is responsible to give the details of our client computer to source server. (Just a basic overview).

Requirement for installing SCCM 2007:
There are many prerequisite while installing SCCM 207 which you will see in my next article.
Ø      But one of the major requirements is to have SQL Database for Primary or Central Server. You can have one separate SQL Server for this SCCM 2007 or you can have it in one server.
Ø      Installation of WSUS 3.0 only for primary or central site server.
Ø      If you are installing Secondary Server you did not require to have a SQL Server for secondary, all you need is redirecting to Primary Server which is done automatically.
Ø      As far as License is concern you need to have license for having Central and Primary Server, no need to have license for secondary server.

Configuration Manager 2007 Console:

As like in Exchange 2007, we need to open configuration manager 2007 by MMC console 3.0 only – rich text format. I like the way of snap-in as compare to SMS. SCCM 2007 contains the object in the hierarchy format tree. And when you open the console you will see three panes, the left one is the hierarchy object pane, the middle pane is the result pane where you will get the output when you click on hierarchy object and the right end side pane is called as Action Pane, which nothing but what sort of action you can perform based on the result pane.

Figure1:
 

Right end side : Hierarchy Object.
Middle Pane : Result Pane
Left Pane : Action Pane.

In the above diagram you can see we have System Center Configuration manager under that we have site database then site management, computer management etc to know what is the function of these object click on this link

SCCM is configured purely based on site configuration. Site configuration is nothing but it defines the scope of administrative control which includes server, client and other resources. This site uses boundaries for detecting the respective client of their own boundaries.

There are several types of sites:
Primary Site: This is the server where you will install SCCM 2007 and this SCCM site configuration will be stored in the SQL database which is called as Site Database. By default your first server will be your primary site.

Secondary Site: Secondary site is nothing but child of the primary where you will install SCCM but you will not have any console installed on this server, inorder to access the configuration of secondary site you need to open the console either from primary site or central site. Moreover it does not require any SQL database, whenever any updates happen in secondary site it will redirect to primary site. Thus it won’t require any license as well.

Central Site: It is going to Central management point which will be taking an update from all primary sites. This Central Site concept can be good if you have different sites where you need to have multiple primary and secondary sites and one dedicate centralized server. Central site is nothing but it is as same like primary site, and primary site will be under this central site.

Site Server: Site Server is the server where you have installed SCCM 2007 and it hosts the required service of SCCM 2007.

Site System: Site System can be any server which holds the role of SCCM 2007 like –

•  Site Server – Where you have installed SCCM 2007 successfully
•  Site Database Server: It is your primary server or central server which is connected to your SQL Database Server.
•  Configuration Management Console: your SCCM 2007 MMC console.
•  Distribution Point: Through this you can distribute the package
•  Management Point: Through this only client will come to know to which server it needs to give an update regarding their status. It can be your Primary or Secondary Server
•  PXE Service Point: This place from where you will distribute your operating system package.
•  Software update Point: Microsoft updates distribution place

The above are some of the example.

This is just a basic overview about SCCM 2007 which I got for you. Reason for publishing this information is just to have basic idea to know about SCCM 2007 and how it works because in my upcoming articles you will see the lab environment on SCCM 2007 deployment which will talk about the above terminology.

Reference Link:
Getting Started with Configuration Manager 2007

Upcoming Article:s on SCCM 2007:

Thanks Giving: The data which i collected for preparing this article is not just because of my lab but even there were many hands who helped me in accumulating this stuff. Firstly i would like thankful to Microsoft (inventor), technet and Microsoft forums, Myitforums because of them i came to understand about the troubleshooting at the time of configuration, most of their suggestion was a good learning stuff for me. Very special thanks to my companys (UGSI) Packaging team experts - PS Lakshmi & Benjamin who helped me to make me understand about the basic of SCCM keeping in mind of SMS. And I am very much thank ful to my mentor -  Henning Lescher, Architech Specialist because of his encouragement only i am able to publish the articles on SCCM, as he believed that I can do it. Thanks Henning for drafting the SCCM deployment idea in my mind.