using vNext in a LAB - Part 5. Deploying Applications

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In Part 1. of this series we Installed vNext.

In Part 2., we then Configured vNext to use the New AD Site as a boundary and Configured Discovery Methods in vNext. In Part 3, we installed the Reporting Point Role along with some additional roles and configured them.

In Part 4 we configured the client Agents and deployed the vNext Client

 

Now we will learn how to Deploy Applications using vNext. But before doing so we need to understand the differences between ConfigMgr 2007 and vNext.

 

Software Distribution in vNext is very different to what we were used to in ConfigMgr 2007. In SCCM 2007, we would typically make a package, the package would contain one or more programs and we would then create an advertisement which targetted the software to a collection. The user would get the software in a variety of ways, silently (mandatory) or optional (via Run Advertised Programs and/or Add Remove Programs in Control Panel).

 

In vNext, the Package and Program is replaced with Application and Deployment Types (Packages and Programs are still available for backwards compatability in vNext but it's considered basic software distribution and not advanced, and more importantly, not recommended.)

 

What we knew as the Advertisement, is replaced with a state based Deployment via detection method, and now the Run Advertised Programs applet is replaced with Software Center.

 

Ok then, let's see how it all works... we will deploy a simple application (in this case, WinZip 15, download the MSI from here), for this Lab, verify that you have enabled Active Directory User Discovery.

 

 

Perform the following on the vNext server as SMSadmin

 

Step 1. Create an Application

 

In the Wunderbar, click on Software Library, and then click on Application Management in the navigation pane.

 

 

Select Applications in the navigation pane (or on the right hand side pane), it will say 'no items found' as we have not added any applications yet.

 

 

In the navigation pane (or in the action pane on the far right) right click on Application and choose Create Application

 

 

The Create Application Wizard appears, you will notice that the default setting type is set to Windows Installer (Native), you could choose Microsoft Application Virtualization or Mobile CAB files but in this example we will stay with the default (MSI).

 

 

Browse to the network path of where your MSI is stored (I created a network share on d:\ called sources, in their I created two more sub-directories called apps and winzip.) Include the MSI filename when you browse. eg: \\vnext\sources\apps\winzip\winzip150.msi

 

 

click Next and you will be informed about the application import, in our case the import succeeded

 

 

click Next and the General Information screen appears, we can enter some info about the application itself, by default vNext will have picked some values for us (like the install switches)

 

 

Enter some details about the application, and click on select to create a new Administrative Category, in this example I created a category called Nice to Have, in the Install for User or System drop down menu, select Install for User.

 

 

review the summary

 

 

Note: If you get an error like this "Error: The ConfigMgr Provider reported an error connecting to the ConfigMgr site database service" then verify that you added the vNext computer account (vnext$) to the Administrators Group on the vNext server.

 

Review the Confirmation screen and click Close.

 

 

Our Winzip application should be listed.

 

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Step 2. Adding Advanced options to our Application

 

Select our newly created application, right click it and choose Properties

 

 

the Winzip Properties screen appears,

 

 

select the Catalog tab and enter some details about the application

 

 

Click on the Deployment Types tab, and select our application, click on Edit to view the applications deployment types properties, several options exist such as Content, Programs, Detection Method, User-Experience, Requirements, Return Codes and Dependencies.

 

 

 

 

 

Click on Requirements then click on Add to add a requirement

 

 

enter the following details, for category choose Machine, select CPU Speed, set the operator to Greater than or equal to and set a value that will work in your lab, eg: 2000 for 2 Ghz.

 

 

review the requirements you created.

 

 

Select the Programs Tab.

 

add /qn to the installation switch to install the program silently and click Ok.

 

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Step 3. Enable BITS on the Distribution Points

 

Before we can deploy our software we need to enable BITS on our distribution point(s).

 

In the Wunderbar, select Administration and select Distribution Points from the navigation menu. Select Properties

 

Under Communication settings, place a checkmark in the Allow Clients to... section

 

 

Click OK.

 

 

Step 4. Deploying the Application to a User

 

Now that we have created an application, and customised it somewhat, we want to Deploy it (think of it as creating the Advertisement).

 

Select Software Library in the Wunderbar. Right click on our application, and select Deploy

 

 

The Deploy Software Wizard appears

 

 

to the right of collection, click browse

 

At the top of the Collections screen select Users (Devices is selected by Default), then select the All Users Collection, click Ok when done

 

 

Click Browse to the right of Distribution Points

 

 

The Select Content Server dialog box appears allowing you to configure the distribution point(s) for our application, select Change to Distribution Points.

 

 

select our vNext server from the list and click ok.

 

 

click Next,

 

 

on the next screen we get to choose between Available and Required for Intent (this is the equivalent of Optional and Mandatory), choose Required.

 

 

we can choose the Schedule for this deployment, so set a schedule and click Next

 

 

for User Experience click on the drop down menu and select Show All Notifications

 

 

Leave the Alerts as default

 

click next at the summary and review the progress and finally the confirmation screen (deployment processing complete).

 

 

click Close to exit.

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Step 5. Review the application being Deployed.

 

On the vnext server itself, logout as SMSadmin and login as TestUser (we created this user in part one).

 

After our appointed time, the application will be made available to the User and the user will be notified with a New Required Software notification

 

 

click on the message to review the details

 

 

and after a few moments the software will install itself silently

 

 

In the next part of this series we will dig even further into Deploying Applications

[AmrelMahdy]

Dear Admin,

Your Document is Really Amazing , But I have Simple Q , The Interface of the SCCM Console of yours looks different than the Default Console , How Did you Get this Interface , Is there any Skins Could be Applied ?

[anyweb]

this guide was for configuration manager 2012 BETA 1, in other words a build that was released some years ago and which has been replaced with beta 2, release candidate 1, and RTM.....