SCCM Client Not Finding Correct MP (Doesn't even exist!)

[Scottpowers82]

Hello,

Ok, I am trying to figure out a somewhat wierd issue that I've been having for sometime now that I think I finally have a handle on as to what is causing my issues.  I'll try to be breif...

Several months ago, we moved from SCCM 2012 to current branch (on 1710 now).  During that move, I was also asked to migrate the server from one host to another with a new server name (old one was just "SCCM", new one is "WCSSCCMS01") along with a new IP address.  I did a fresh install of Windows Server 2016 along with the CB of SCCM and migrated the data over from the old server using the Migration tool built into SCCM (under the Administration tab on left in the console).  Since then though, I've seemed to have "odd" issues that I never could explain.  Task sequences that worked flawlessly before now had issues sometimes finishing or taking much much longer than before.  Some deployments of software would never seem to get to machines.  Things of that nature.  I had noticed that many of my migrated objects stilll had the Package ID of the old server as well and, thinking that may have been part of the problem, I proceeded to recreate my task sequnces entirely on the new server thinking it would help.  However, I have noticed that, while a machine will finish imaging and boot to Windows, the client seems to be corrupt.  In fact, when I go into the Control Panel, the Configuration Manager isn't even listed!  My fix has been to reinstall the client from the SCCM console and force to uninstall/install the client with the option to specify the site checked.  This does some to work 85-90% of the time.

Now for the strange part...I had to image a fresh machine today out of the box and realizd that I hadn't given it the right name during imaging and, upon booting into Windows, I proceeded to change the name.  Since the config client hadn't installed and I just renamed it, I knew it wouldn't show up in SCCM just yet to push the client to it, I thought I'd just go into the SCCM folder on teh server and install the client from there by double-clicking the ccmsetup.exe file as I had done before in my old setup.  It went ahead and installed "some" of the client. It only listed 6 tabs at the top (General, Components, Actions, Site, Cache, and Network).  Additonally, the only actions available were "Machine Policy Retreival" and "User Policy Reteival."  Odd I know...but the oddest part was that, under the General tab, it shows my assigned management point as being my old server!  It even shows the site code of the old setup as well.  That old server doesn't even exist anymore and has been deleted from AD completly at this point as well as it's DNS entries. 

My guess is that when it goes to install the client during a task sequence, it is somehow trying to pull MP of the old server and that is likely causing my wierd issues with sequnces not finishing and software not depoying correctly as I likely have several corrup installs out there.  Anyone out there have a clue on how I can fix this?  I don't even know where to start looking on this one...

Thanks in advance for anyone who can assist...

[SMoRZ3]

Check the registry at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Mobile Client" and see if there are any registry keys starting with "GPO". If there are that means you have GPO settings defining your old site code which will prevent your clients from connecting properly to the new SCCM site. If you find GPO settings defining your site, disabling the GPO will only prevent the registry keys from being made, it wont remove them. You will need to remove the keys manually or create a new GPO to delete the registry keys the other GPO was creating.

I would also recommend installing the client using the command prompt and switches to at least define the management point Example: "ccmsetup.exe /mp:sccmsiteserver.domain.com" otherwise it will try and find a site which your environment might still have pointers to the old. Also, when installing the client, it will only install the minimum until it connects to the site server, gets its policy, and installs any other features it may need based on the policies. Its not too strange to only have a few actions when its first installed.

Also check ADSI for your old site code. Under CN = System, CN = System Management. If its listed there that might be why clients are trying to use the old site still.

As always, have back ups and use caution when editing the registry or making system wide changes with AD / GPO etc.

[Scottpowers82]

SMoRZ3,

I think you may be onto something here...

I didn't find the registry entry you mentioned.  However, when looking at ADSI in the System Management container, I am seeing references to the old server.  I've used ADSI in the past, but not too often...am I ok to probably just delete all of the references to the old server and old site code in there?  If I remember correctly when I first setup SCCM (several years ago), I had to give ownership I think to this container somehow.  Do you know the steps for that?  Or is it just a matter of giving the comptuer name of my new server full rights over that folder?

 

Thanks again!

[Martin Bengtsson]

Yeah, you just right click the container and select delegate permissions. Select the computer object of the site server, full permission. Boom. (a good practice is to actually delegate permission to a group containing the computer object, this way you can swap objects in/out of the group, without the need of touching the permission on the system management container)

[Scottpowers82]

Thanks everyone for your help!  I just deleted all of the entries in my System Management container that refered to the old site code and then gave full permissions over the container to my new server.  We'll see if that does the trick.  

On the same note though, a quick question to anyone out there...if I have installations out there of the client that are looking for the old Site code and, therefore the old server, do you think they will now automatically pick up the new site code?  Or would they also need a reinstall of the client?  I'm hoping for the former, but I can work with the later if need be...

[Scottpowers82]

So, it looks like my clients that are pointing to the old system won't automatically pick up the new one from wha tI have seen so far on a machine I am testing.  In fact, when I got into "Site" tab on my test machine that didn't even have an entry for the "currently assigned site code", I tried hitting the Find Site button and it didn't seem to find my site automatically.  Once I manually typed in my site code though and applied the settings, the correct information populated in the General tab.  At least now it is pointing to the right site code and I can get access to the machine from within the config console.  Does anyone know of a script or something I could use that would re-assign my client computers to insure they are pointing to the correct site code?

[Scottpowers82]

So looks like I didn't need the script after all.  Never realized that SCCM does in fact with ADM files so you can use them for your GPOs to assign a management point.  They are located in the Tools folder under your install path of SCCM. I just my setting in place, so we'll see if that fixes the issue, but thought I'd post this in case in is usefull for anyone else looking for them...

[SMoRZ3]

I would be careful using the GPOs for site assignment. I only say that because its something outside of SCCM that is forcing a SCCM type settinging which might not be too obvious in the future.

When i migrated from my old SCCM instance to a new one, it was those GPOs that caused a lot of my clients to not migrate. And then I had to delete those reg-keys with a different GPO to get them migrated. It was a mess but eventually it got sorted out. You gotta do what you gotta do but as a new admin taking over the SCCM it cause me a lot of confusion as to why my clients kept reverting back to the old site code.

[Lynkd34d]

I realize this is an older thread but I wanted to thank all of you who participated and updated with information to see it through. We're migrating company systems from another company we bought into our domain, they have SCCM and we have SCCM. Could not figure out why their systems would not populate Software Center after they were migrated. It looks like their SCCM server setting remained in place even after the CCMClean and a reboot. Thanks to the detailed information you guys provided I was able to find that and I wanted to thank you :)