client

Updating Configuration Manager 2012 R2 Client Package to UR4

When you install UR4 for Configuration Manager 2012 R2 one of the things it doesn’t do is update your base client install package. As a result of this, newly installed agents will still install the out-of-the-box version 5.00.7958.1000 of the agent not the UR4 version 5.00.7958.1501. It goes without saying that we don’t want newly deployed agents to have to install and them straight away afterwards, update to UR4 because it makes sense to incorporate this update at install time.

One of the most common ways to apply an update rollup is using the PATCH MSI parameter in both your Client Push Client Installation Settings and also in your Setup ConfigMgr step in any Operating System Deployment Task Sequences. Not only does this mean updating it in two places at minimum but if you have a number of task sequences, it could be even more.

In this post, I’m covering to explain a great method of getting UR4 installed with a new agent that was posted by a blogger named Matt at http://www.m4ttmcg.com/2013/05/sccm-2012-client-push-including.html. This process is deemed to be not officially supported however using the PATCH parameter isn’t exactly filled with support and joy and with this method being easier, it makes it all the more promising.

The Configuration Manager Client Agent installation by default looks to a sub-folder of the Client directory called ClientPatch and installs any .msp files it finds as part of the installation, installing multiple patches alphabetically in order.

To do this, on your Primary Site Server, navigate to the local file system path where the update patch .msp file is stored. On my server this is located at D:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\hotfix. In the hotfix directory will be a folder for any updates that you have installed which in my case is UR4 or KB3026739 and then there are subsequent subfolders for AdminConsole, Client, SCUP and Server.

Open the Client folder and then you will see more folders for x86 and x64 for the two client architectures.

SCCM Client Hotfix Folder

In another Windows Explorer window, open the folder for the Client Agent in the site which is used by both the Client Package and the path for the Client share on the site server. On my server, the share is located at D:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Client.

In the Client folder are two subfolders for x86 and x64 for the two architectures of the client agent. In each architecture folder (the screenshots herein are all for the x64 architecture but simply repeat for x86) create a folder called ClientPatch.

SCCM Client ClientPatch Folder

In the ClientPatch folder you just created, copy the .msp file for the KB (UR4 in my case) and then repeat this for the other architecture so that both x86 and x64 client folders have a ClientPatch subfolder and the appropriate .msp file to match the architecture.

Once you have updated both of the client folders, head over to your Configuration Manager Admin Console and the Software Library and then navigate your library to locate the Configuration Manager Client Package. Right-click on the software package and select the Update Distribution Points option.

SCCM Client Update Distribution Points

Once your package has been updated on all of your distribution points, you’re set. Your client package now includes the UR4 update .msp file and any new client installations such as Client Push or via an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence will be installed with the UR4 update automatically with no need to update your Installation Parameters with the PATCH option.

Restoring Client Computer Backup Database in Windows Home Server 2011

Quite sometime ago (probably about two months now), the primary drive on my Windows Home Server 2011 was giving me issues due to a new device driver I installed. Nothing got me going with ease: Last Known Good Configuration, Safe Mode, nothing. The problem lied in the fact that the server wouldn’t acknowledge that the OS disk was a boot partition, and after leaving it to attempt to repair the boot files by itself, which for the record, I don’t think I’ve ever seen work, I took to it manually.

Launching the Recovery Console command prompt from the installation media, I tried the good old commands that have served me well in the past for Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines I had to repair, bootrec and bootsec, but nothing worked, so I was left with only one option to re-install the OS. I wasn’t concerned about loosing personal data that is stored on a separate RAID volume, but I was concerned about my client backups which were stored on the same volume.

Using a USB attached hard disk, I manually copied out the Client Computer Backups folder, then rebuilt the operating system. I don’t keep active backups of the Home Server operating system because the Windows Server Backup utility in Windows Server 2008 R2 isn’t that hot. It doesn’t support GPT partitions over 2TB which obviously is an

Once installed, Windows Home Server sets up the default shares and folders including the Client Computer Backups. The critical thing here is that no clients can start a backup to the server before you complete these steps. Once a client starts a backup to the server, it creates the new databases and files for the server, ruining the chances of importing the existing structure.

From the new OS installation, open the directory where the Client Computer Backups live. The default location is C:ServerFoldersClient Computer Backups, but I had moved mine to D:ServerFoldersClient Computer Backups. Once you’ve found the directory, copy across all of the files I had previously copied from the burnt install of Windows and overwrite any files that it requests.

Once completed, restart the server. This will restart all of the Windows Home Server services responsible for running the Dashboard and the Client Computer Backups. Once the restart has completed, open the Dashboard and select the Computers tab where you normally view the computer health states and backups. On first inspection, it looks as though you have no clients and no backups, but look more closely and you will se a collapsed group called Archived Computers. Expand this group and you will see all of your clients listed and all of their associated backups will be listed if you select the Restore Files option for a computer.

The thing to point out here is that these backups will remain disassociated from the clients. Once you re-add a client to the server and commence a backup, it will be listed as a normal computer and the Archived Computer object for it will also remain listed. This is because the server generates GUIDs for the backup files based on a combination of the client identity and the server identity and because the reinstallation of the operating system will cause a new GUID to be generated, they are different. This isn’t a problem for me, but I’ve read a number of posts on the TechNet forums at Microsoft where people have had trouble locating the Archived Computers group in the Dashboard interface and think that they’ve lost everything which clearly isn’t the case.