Hello, I'm in a position where I should recommend SCCM as it would fulfil a number of needs. · Silent software deployment · On demand software deployment · Replacing WSUS · Software inventory · Replacing some group policies. Can anyone with SCCM installed tell me if the latest version will allow me to independently administer these areas please? Novell Zenworks is the currently used deployment system but I'm encountering a few things that it just won't do as well or won't do at all. There's about 10000 workstations and about 500 servers. About 40% of the servers are Linux based. Suggestions very welcome. Thanks
Hi Darragh:
The latest (1606) build of SCCM has gotten a lot better in terms of accessibility. I am not going to lie and say its perfect, there’s still a lot of work to do, but you can now navigate lists and the tree, and you can get to areas you couldn’t before. The ribbon needs a lot of work, but I’d suggest throwing up a test environment and seeing how it works for you.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Thanks for getting back to me Ryan,
It isn't all that straight forward to run up a test environment. I would need to do the following which constitutes a major use of time and resources.
1. Make the benefits of SCCM known to the IT director.
2. Provision test servers. Our test and dev platform is undergoing a major redesign at the moment.
3. Implement a test domain. Again, we don't have this at the moment. The plan for the implementation of this is under way.
4. Install SCCM and integrate it with AD.
5. Test SCCM for accessibility.
All this work would take a minimum of a full day. I don't have the capacity to undertake this yet.
I have asked MS before if a VM with a test SCCM machine could be made available for testing accessibility enhancements between versions as this is not a tool that you can just spin up when you want to test it. Especially if you are just looking at implementing it for the first time into an environment.
Regards
Darragh
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: Thursday 22 September 2016 04:30
To: Blind sysadmins list
Thanks for getting back to me Ryan,
It isn't all that straight forward to run up a test environment. I would need to do the following which constitutes a major use of time and resources.
1. Make the benefits of SCCM known to the IT director.
2. Provision test servers. Our test and dev platform is undergoing a major redesign at the moment.
3. Implement a test domain. Again, we don't have this at the moment. The plan for the implementation of this is under way.
4. Install SCCM and integrate it with AD.
5. Test SCCM for accessibility.
All this work would take a minimum of a full day. I don't have the capacity to undertake this yet.
I have asked MS before if a VM with a test SCCM machine could be made available for testing accessibility enhancements between versions as this is not a tool that you can just spin up when you want to test it. Especially if you are just looking at implementing it for the first time into an environment.
Regards
Darragh
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: Thursday 22 September 2016 04:30
To: Blind sysadmins list
Hi Darragh:
I certainly understand where you’re coming from as I’ve been faced with the same issue. It definitely is a time issue and I can see that. If it helps at all, when I had to do that very thing, I was able to build a Windows Server 2012R2 VM on my laptop, download all the SCCM install bits onto it (including the client prereqs it asks about during the install.) I then removed all network access from the VM, promoted it to a domain controller, installed SQL server and then the version of SCCM. Again I won’t lie, it did take about a day to do, but at the time it was my best option, so I just had to shrug and do it.
One option you might look at is the Hydration Kit for Configuration Manager. It is basically a way to build a lab through automated deployment scripts. This is not an MS solution but I know it has been used quite successfully by several people:
http://deploymentresearch.com/Research/Post/485/Hydration-Kit-for-ConfigMgr-...
You’ll need two VMs, either Hyper-V or VMWare. But this should do everything for you from install the base OS to create the domain and then install Config Manager. It does require some eyes to start with but then can be left alone.
I know MS does offer some pre-built VMs of trial software, but I think that’s mainly operating systems, I don’t know of Config Manager is included. Who did you talk to at MS before about this request?
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
I spend a fair bit of time in the SCCM console; we are running 2012 R2 SP1,
possibly build 1606. I can confirm that this version is at times a pain to
use but is almost completely accessible at this point. I typically
administer SCCM from a Windows 7 workstation with the console installed
locally. My screen reader of choice is Window-Eyes. I should give NVDA a
shot though.
SCCM can certainly do the things you need. We have 3000 workstations and 700
servers in our environment and we handle software deployment, software
updates, compliance reporting, desired state configuration, etc.
My team recently completed a migration from SCCM 2007 to 2012. 2007 was
definitely more accessible (except for reporting--that's much better with
SQL 2014/SCCM 2012).
Fortunately for me, our test environment was already in place, setup by
another part of our infrastructure team. My team got to go in, setup a new
SQL instance, install SCCM, test interoperability with SCCM 2007, and then
blow it away when done.
There are benefits to working in a larger IT environment==--sometimes.
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan
Shugart
Sent: Thursday, 22 September, 2016 21:56
To: Blind sysadmins list
participants (3)
-
Darragh Ó Héiligh -
matt.bsa＠wh1t3.net -
Ryan Shugart