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Hi All, Just wondering how people do there software updates for servers and workstations using SCCM 2012. Do you use ADR's to create a new update group each month after patch Tuesday, and have a separate one for out of bands updates? Do you then have several different collections for servers and workstations for pilot, dev and production phases? Just trying to get an idea as to how to create a software update plan for my environment.

I came to SCCM from managing software deployments via Group Policy, so the Active Directory environments I work in reflect my GPO-centric approach. For instance I'll create organizational units separated out by OS or CPU architecture, followed by physical location. Here's an example: mydomain.local - Windows 32-bit --- IT Office ------ PC1 ------ PC2 --- Marketing Office ------ PC3 ------ PC4 - Windows 64-bit --- IT Office 64 ----- PC5 --- Marketing Office 64 ----- PC6 This lets me deploy GPOs and other settings from the top down; I'd have a base set of defaults followed by specifics for a given location. My collections in SCCM will use the OU membership to tell which collection to put a PC in, usually as a consequence of migrating software deployments from GPOs to SCCM applications. When I introduce out-of-band management to this kind of AD tree, I'm not able to fit it. OOB Setup says I need to create or use an OU for OOB-managed PCs and ensure the appropriate SCCM servers have read/write access to that OU and can add and remove members to an AD group. But I have more than one OU set up; I can't pick them all. Say I pick "Windows 64-bit" as the OU that the OOB Service Point should use. As it discovers AMT-capable PCs it will create computer accounts in the root of this OU, so the resulting tree looks like this: mydomain.local - Windows 64-bit -- PC5$iME -- PC6$iME --- IT Office 64 ----- PC5 --- Marketing Office 64 ----- PC6 When SCCM does this though, the query rules that maintain my per-location collections will remove the original computer from its collection, and it will create new computer items named, for instance, "PC5iME" (without the "$") in that collection. If I don't have a collection for that OU, it will still have a computer object in the Devices list and it will appear in the All Systems collection, but with the new name. Hm, ok that isn't good. What if I created a new OU, and had SCCM's OOB service point create new computer accounts there instead? The resulting tree looked like this: mydomain.local - AMT-Managed PCs -- PC5$iME -- PC6$iME - Windows 64-bit --- IT Office 64 ----- PC5 --- Marketing Office 64 ----- PC6 ...only if I do that, the collections representing, say, "Windows 7 64-bit / IT Office 64" lose their computer objects entirely, and they don't appear in any other collection but "All Systems," and even then with the modified name like "PC5iME." I really don't want to destroy these OU trees just to accommodate AMT and OOB management, because I still have non-software GPOs that apply per-location, per-OS or per-CPU architecture. Or is SCCM the right tool for managing AMT in this environment? (By the way, why is "AMT" blocked as a search term?) --

I've just been informed that we will need the capability to power off machines in collections due to the probable rolling power blackouts that we experience here. Is this possible easily or will I need to install the Out Of Band Management point?

Hello everyone, I'm testing Out of Band feature of SCCM 2012. I have installed the proper site roles (Enrollment Point and Out of band service point); I completed all the pre-requesites as well, so all that has been taken care of. I was able to discover a machine with AMT (DELL Optiplex); the problem is that prior to using the 'discover' option; I had already made changes to AMT through the BIOS. So, in SCCM the AMT status for this computer shows 'detected', and when I right click on the device object, the only options under Manage OOB are: Discover AMT Status and Remove AMT Provisioning Data - all other options are grayed out. I went ahead and clicked on Remove AMT Provisioning Data on this object, but this didn't do anything - at least from what I can tell. I also, manually, cleared all the AMT setting from the BIOS on this computer (I don't know if this action messed things up with SCCM). How do I "Enable Automatic AMT Provisioning" on this device?