In this post, would share PowerShell way of enabling Client Push Installation on a Site . Divided into 3 Steps:
- Enable Client Push Installation
- Create Boundary Group, Add Boundary and set Content Location
- Distribute the Config Mgr Client Package
Enable Client Push Installation
After loading the ConfigurationManager PowerShell module, if we search for the commands with noun clientpush we get following output:
PS DEX:\> gcm -Noun *clientpush* -Module configurationmanager CommandType Name ModuleName ----------- ---- ---------- Cmdlet Get-CMClientPushInstallation configurationmanager Cmdlet Set-CMClientPushInstallation configurationmanager
Now one can go and read up help for these, I personally prefer the Online version of the help as it shows the Parameter sets and is always up to date too. How to do that ?
PS DEX:\> help Set-CMClientPushInstallation -Online
To enable the client push installation we will be using the cmdlet Set-CMClientPushInstallation (you would have guessed that by now....love the Verb-Noun naming convention).
PS DEX:\> Set-CMClientPushInstallation -SiteCode DEX -EnableAutomaticClientPushInstallation $true -EnableSystemTypeServer $true -EnableSystemTypeWorkstation $true -EnableSystemTypeConfigurationManager $true -InstallClientToDomainController $true -ChosenAccount "Dexter\Administrator" -InstallationProperty "SMSSITECODE=DEX" -Verbose
Once the above cmdlet runs it will configure the settings. If you see the cmdlet and parameter names are very descriptive in what they are doing ....still thinking of getting starting with PowerShell in Config Mgr...It's easy ;)
The Client Push installation settings are done, but in order for us to make sure that the discovered clients are able to locate the content we need to create a Boundary group and specify the Server for content location under that.
Create Boundary Group, Add Boundary and set Content Location
Right now I have only one Boundary by the name of my AD Site and no Boundary groups as evident from below ScreenShot:
Let's create a new Boundary Group and add this Boundary to it and specify the content location under it.
#Before starting how to discover the cmdlets we will be using ...it's simple but wanted to point out. (Get-Command is your friend here)
PS DEX:\> gcm -Noun *boundary* CommandType Name ModuleName ----------- ---- ---------- Cmdlet Add-CMBoundaryToGroup configurationmanager Cmdlet Get-CMBoundary configurationmanager Cmdlet Get-CMBoundaryGroup configurationmanager Cmdlet New-CMBoundary configurationmanager Cmdlet New-CMBoundaryGroup configurationmanager Cmdlet Remove-CMBoundary configurationmanager Cmdlet Remove-CMBoundaryFromGroup configurationmanager Cmdlet Remove-CMBoundaryGroup configurationmanager Cmdlet Set-CMBoundary configurationmanager Cmdlet Set-CMBoundaryGroup configurationmanager
#creating the Boundary group
PS DEX:\> New-CMBoundaryGroup -Name "DexLabBG" -Description "Boundary Group for my LAB" -DefaultSiteCode DEX -Verbose VERBOSE: Performing the operation "New" on target "BoundaryGroup: New". CreatedBy : DEXTER\Administrator CreatedOn : 3/14/2014 8:21:13 AM DefaultSiteCode : DEX Description : Boundary Group for my LAB GroupID : 16777217 MemberCount : 0 ModifiedBy : DEXTER\Administrator ModifiedOn : 3/14/2014 8:21:13 AM Name : DexLabBG Shared : False SiteSystemCount : 0
#Now add the Boundary to the Boundary Group
PS DEX:\> Add-CMBoundaryToGroup -Boundary (Get-CMBoundary ) -BoundaryGroup (Get-CMBoundaryGroup ) -Verbose VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Add" on target "BoundaryToGroup: Name="DexLabBG"". PS DEX:\>
Everything done till here.....now the important piece here is to specify the content location for the above Boundary group, so that clients falling under these Boundaries (part of Boundary group) know where to look for content.
If you look at the ConfigMgr cmdlets there is no cmdlet which does that for you....I though Set-CMBoundaryGroup would do that but it doesn't apparently.
ConfigMgr MVP Kaido was kind enough to mention in comments that there does exist a cmdlet to add a SiteSystem (DP) to the Boundary Group named Add-CMSiteSystemToBoundaryGroup. Do check out his awesome ConfigMgr and PowerShell Script Library at cm12sdk.net
Though I would be going for the WMI way of doing this action.
Let's search for a class which matches something like *Boundary*
Get-CimClass -ClassName *boundary* -ComputerName dexsccm -Namespace root/SMS/Site_DEX -Verbose
Now the output of the cmdlet..take a not of the Computername and NameSpace params which specify the remote SCCM server and the appropriate SMS namespace.
Try epxloring all the classes above and you will come to know that we are going to use SMS_BoundaryGroup class from the above ones.
Note - If you don't want to specify the ComputerName and NameSpace parameter and its agruments every time you use the CIM Cmdlets then you can use the $PSDefaultParameterValues like below :
$PSDefaultParameterValues =@{"get-cimclass:namespace"="Root\SMS\site_DEX";"get-cimclass:computername"="DexSCCM";"get-cimInstance:computername"="DexSCCM";"get-ciminstance:namespace"="Root\SMS\site_DEX"}
Let's give this method a Shot...But wait we need something called ServerNALPath that needs to be passed to the Method.
How do we get that ?? Don't loose hope yet..with PowerShell v3 it becomes very easy to search WMI Classes based on a property name...see me do it now.
Note - I have setup the $PSDefaultParameterValues so now the Get-CIMClass & Get-CIMInstance cmdlet will by default take the param Computername and Namespace values.
#search for WMI classes with a specific property name
PS DEX:\> Get-CimClass -PropertyName ServerNALPath
NameSpace: Root/SMS/site_DEX
CimClassName CimClassMethods CimClassProperties
------------ --------------- ------------------
SMS_DistributionPoint {VerifyPackage, C... {BitsEnabled, IsPeerDP, IsProtected, ISVData...}
SMS_AllDistributionPoint {} {ObjectTypeID, PackageID, PackageType, SecureObjectID...}
SMS_BoundaryGroupSiteSystems {} {Flags, GroupID, ServerNALPath, SiteCode}
SMS_PackageStatusDistPointsSumma... {} {LastCopied, PackageID, PackageType, SecuredTypeID...}
SMS_TaskSequenceReferenceDps {} {Hash, PackageID, ServerNALPath, SiteCode...}
SMS_TaskSequenceAppReferenceDps {} {Hash, PackageID, ServerNALPath, SiteCode...}
Awesome ..Now I get a feeling we need to work with SMS_DistributionPoint class to get the value for property ServerNALPath. So here we go....I have only one DP in my LAB.
PS DEX:\> Get-CimInstance -ClassName SMS_DistributionPoint | select -Property ServerNALPath -Unique ServerNALPath ------------- ["Display=\\DexSCCM.dexter.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=DEX"]\\DexSCCM.dexter.com\
Easy right......You need to know all the moving parts to work with PowerShell and ConfigMgr (using WMI) and that is exactly the kind of understanding I was looking for ......Ok enough with my talk..moving further
Let's give the AddSiteSystem Method of SMS_BoundaryGroup a shot now:
Note I got the flag from this Technet Link..as I took a guess by the class name that the DP I add will become an instance of the class SMS_boundaryGroupsitesystems . All set
PS DEX:\> $BoundaryGroup = Get-CimInstance -ClassName SMS_BoundaryGroup
PS DEX:\> Invoke-CimMethod -InputObject $BoundaryGroup -MethodName AddSiteSystem -Arguments @{ServerNALPath = [string[]]
'["Display=\\DexSCCM.dexter.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=DEX"]\\DexSCCM.dexter.com\'; Flags=([System.UInt32[]]0) } -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Invoke-CimMethod: AddSiteSystem" on target "SMS_BoundaryGroup (GroupID = 16777217)".
VERBOSE: Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''instance' = SMS_BoundaryGroup (GroupID =
16777217),'methodName' = AddSiteSystem,'namespaceName' = root/sms/site_dex'.
ReturnValue PSComputerName
----------- --------------
0 DexSCCM
VERBOSE: Operation 'Invoke CimMethod' complete.
Voila that worked after few attempts. Would like to point out that based on the documentation of the class the arguments you pass to the method in above are type-cast to an array....If you have any doubts grasping that drop me a comment ......it would take time to explain that.
So what we have achieved so far is evident from the Screenshots below:
#See the Boundary Group has a member Boundary added
#See below that we now have the Content Location set for the Boundary group
Distribute the Config Mgr Client Package to the DP Group
Phewww!!! Now the last piece of Puzzle is to distribute the ConfigMgr Client Package to our DP Group.#Distribute the Config Mgr Client Package to ensure that the Package resides there Start-CMContentDistribution -PackageName "Configuration Manager Client Package" -DistributionPointGroupName "Dex LAB DP group"
Now we can see the changes reflect in the Console too.
In the above screenshot there is a way to verify the integrity of the package on a Distribution Point. Let's do it using PowerShell ...the class which is of interest is SMS_DistributionPoint have a look at the methods on this one:
PS DEX:\> Get-CimClass -ClassName SMS_DistributionPoint | Select -ExpandProperty Cimclassmethods
Name ReturnType Parameters Qualifiers
---- ---------- ---------- ----------
VerifyPackage SInt32 {PackageId, NALPath} {implemented, static}
CancelDistribution SInt32 {PackageId, NALPath} {implemented, static}
Note that the method exists on the SMS_DistributionPoint Class.
Look closely that we need NAL Path which can be found on the instance of the SMS_DistributionPoint (as every package that is stored in the DP is an instance of this class) so we are going to store it in a variable first and use it later.
PS DEX:\> $package = Get-CimInstance -ClassName SMS_DistributionPoint -Filter 'PackageID="DEX00002"'
PS DEX:\> Invoke-CimMethod -ClassName SMS_DistributionPoint -Name VerifyPackage -Arguments @{PackageID=$package.PackageI
D;NALPath=$package.ServerNALPath} -ComputerName dexsccm -Namespace root/sms/site_DEX -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Invoke-CimMethod: VerifyPackage" on target "SMS_DistributionPoint".
VERBOSE: Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''methodName' = VerifyPackage,'className' =
SMS_DistributionPoint,'namespaceName' = root/sms/site_DEX'.
ReturnValue PSComputerName
----------- --------------
0 dexsccm
VERBOSE: Operation 'Invoke CimMethod' complete.
Returns 0 which means the integrity is validated.So that's it we have successfully configured Client Push settings in our Environment.
For all the code samples below is the gist:
Till next post
Cya