SCCM – Page 7 – SCCMOG – Deployment Blog

3rd November 20165th November 2016

Remotely Start a Service with a list of Machines

So the other day I was on client site dealing with WES 2009 HP t510 thin clients. Now if anyone has ever dealt with WES 2009 and ConfigMgr (SCCM) then you will know it can be challenging.

Anyway the clients on the machines were failing the client check, this was because the Task Scheduler Service is not started by default in WES 2009. The Client Health check that the SCCM client performs on itself is started from a scheduled task, if that service is not started… Well there is your problem.

I needed a way to start that service on all the clients now without deploying to them as there was a write filter enabled or making a GPO change and rebooting them as users were working and on top, the next Maintenance Window was not for about 8 hours. So I came up with this very simple but highly effective for each loop. Firstly I wanted to double check they were all stopped so..

[code language=”powershell”]
foreach ($Machine in get-content c:\temp\Machines.txt) {cmd /c SC \\$Machine query Schedule}
[/code]

The text file must have a machine name per line and I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m using a CMD instead of PowerShell.. WES 2009 need I say more?

Once I was satisfied I changed one switch and hey presto it fired off the start command there and then to each machine.

[code language=”powershell”]
foreach ($Machine in get-content c:\temp\Machines.txt) {cmd /c SC \\$Machine start Schedule}
[/code]

For those who are not looking at WES 2009 here is the PowerShell command.

[code language=”powershell”]
foreach ($Machine in get-content c:\temp\Machines.txt) {
Get-Service -Name "Task Scheduler" -ComputerName $Machine | Set-Service -Status Running
}
[/code]

I did also change the GPO to auto start the service on the next reboot so I would never have to do it again 🙂

3rd November 20165th November 2016

SCCM PowerShell Script Detection Method

Ever wanted to know how to use the script detection method of an application in ConfigMgr with PowerShell, its quite simple really once you have been shown what ConfigMgr expects to be returned.

The detection method bellow is a PowerShell Test-Path statement. If the statement returns “True”, meaning the file is there, then the script shouts out to the ConfigMgr client to say the detection method is satisfied. You MUST keep the Else clause in the script empty or it will fail to evaluate although there is nothing to be run in it.

[code language=”powershell”]
if( Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Onedrive\OneDrive.exe" )

{
Write-Host "installed"
}

else
{
}
[/code]

Now as i’m sure you’ve guessed with the example this becomes really usefull when deploying applications that install in the users %LocalAPPDATA% as ConfigMgr currently cannot query that location as all installs run as system.

Here is another testing two paths.

[code language=”powershell”]
if( ( Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Onedrive\OneDrive.exe" ) -and ( test-path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6390.0509" ) )

{
Write-Host "installed"
}

else
{
}
[/code]

These examples should let you build all sorts of detection methods now. It doesn’t have to be test path either, it could be anything like checking if a registry entry value is “greater than or equal to”.

3rd November 20163rd August 2018

Deploy a PowerShell Script as a SCCM Application or Program

This is just a quick post to help those who are struggling to find the correct syntax to place into the program (CMD line) field when deploying a PowerShell Script as an application or program for that matter using SCCM.

For an “Application” “Deployment type” just place this into the Program line.

Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File Your-Scriptfilename.PS1

For a “Package” “Program ” just place this into the CMD line.

"%Windir%\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command .\Your-Scriptfilename.ps1

Note: When using MDT install applications step in you task sequence (Customsettings or MDT DB driven) to install programs this also works a treat!

You can add other properties also like -NoProfile but to be honest I have found this to work 100% of the time without the need for those extras. Just make sure you detection method is solid!

31st October 20165th November 2016

Deploying .Net 4.5.1 – 4.6.1 Silently With SCCM

So today I created a deployment for .Net 4.6.1 and 4.5.1 Windows 7 Enterprise.
.Net is notoriously difficult to deploy silently, I have done it before many times and every time I did it I would refer to a text file I had saved with the commands in it, let me add that finding those commands was a “that will be useful” moment and I didn’t save it to my normal One Drive archive!
So yes I lost it… Anyways I’m sure you’ve probably already skipped to the good bit and if you haven’t you are wanting me to stop blabbering and give you the command..
So here it is:

“dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe /q /norestart /ChainingPackage ADMINDEPLOYMENT”

Also in the deployment Type settings you must check the checkbox:

Run installation and uninstall program as a 32bit process on 64-bit clients.

Just place that into the command line box for the Application or Program, change the exe name to what you have, check the box and also make sure the quotes don’t copy over incorrectly if you are building a script.
Hope this saves some time!