Superfreak3

I haven't forgotten about this or given up no creating the test lab. I've been bogged down with some work and hope to get back to it soon.

I do want the test lab, not only to test my theories, but to become better acquainted with SCCM as a whole. I'll follow this... http://www.windows-n...by-step-guides/ ... Standalone Primary Server Like I said earlier, get ready for the questions!

OH, and we need the 64 bit piece for some third party apps we integrate with. They require some registry entries/files in native 64 bit locations.

Ah, great question and I have thought about it quite a bit. I would love to simply create a native 64 bit installer for a native 64 bit app, but we can't get there. Apparently we use a 32 bit toolkit of some kind that cannot be compiled for 64 bit. There is fear of placing 32 bit application pieces in the native 64 bit file system as results may be undesirable - among other issues. So, my solution is a complete hack to jump these hurdles. The issue was only appearing on 64 bit systems and sporadically. The one company I was working with seemed to have a problem with one laptop. They did something to the laptop and all then worked so that may have been a machine issue. Setting up the environment would enlighten possibly disprove my theories.

Well, I do only want to test my application installation via SCCM. It that means I only need one machine (Server) to set up, great. However, if there are multiple ways to deploy and .msi installation package, I would like to see or learn the different methods. If there are multiple ways to do this, I'm not sure what approach our end users are using. So testing any available methods would give a clearer picture as to what works and what doesn't. If you haven't seen my issue already, here's a brief summary. We have a 32 bit installation package that calls a 64 bit installation package near the end of its processes on that architecture. This all occurs via a widget that waits asynchronously for the 32 bit Windows Installer process to clear, then fires the 64 bit installer. In other words, the monitoring widget runs while the 32 bit install process goes on to completion. What seems to be happening on some machines is that the 64 bit install package is not installing/running. What I think might be happening is that the 32 bit install completes and the SCCM settings contain a reboot. That would kill the waiting widget/64 bit install initiation. I just want an environment to test various SCCM package configurations and how they effect our installation. I'm not sure if that sheds light on what I might actually need by way of a test environment or not. I do want to learn as much about SCCM as possible, while not overburdening myself too much.

I was going to just have a Windows 7 or 8 client image premade and not deploy through SCCM. The only reason I'm really setting this up is to test deployment of our software package through SCCM. I'll get started on the Server VMs as described. Thanks for the help so far!!

I was just going to dump 2 Server VMs and a Client VM (Win 7 or 8) on an external drive. I guess I just need to know what needs to be installed on the AD Server and the Configuration Manager Server. I was going to go with Server 2012 for those if that will work. Does anything need to be installed on the Client or it only needs to be seen on the network?

I haven't had the time to start looking through the guides yet, but is there a basic outline of what needs to be installed on each of the two Servers? I shouldn't say I don't have the time, but for some reason, the site doesn't function properly when accessing from work. Must be blocked on our side for security reasons. So, I jump on the site sporadically when I have the chance. Anyway, I was hoping that my VM environment can be self contained in that it operates in a bubble and doesn't need to access anything on my work network. They get antsy when they see new machines popping up on the network. I'm not sure if your guides lead to that end or not. ?? Thanks for willingness to help as well!!

Awesome, I will definitely pursue the two VM model. I'll check out your docs, but I'm sure I'll have questions. Is the two VM standalone setup basically a server and client/workstation?

Hi there, I was directed to this forum from a post in another forum... http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/8764d915-4bc6-4a45-96e7-409add6949a0/sccm-2012-test-lab-setup-questions?forum=configmanagergeneral In short, I've downloaded the guides mentioned in the above post and had some questions. I'm a bit confused as to how many VMs I will need to create the test lab, if some can be used for several purposes, etc. I need to set up an SCCM test environment so I can troubleshoot issues some our seeing with our application installation package. Since I was directed here, I'm wondering if this is a good place to start... http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4045-system-center-2012-configuration-manager-step-by-step-guides/