Applications are new in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and have the following characteristics:
- Applications contain the files and information necessary to deploy a software package to a computer or a mobile device. Applications contain multiple deployment types that contain the files and commands necessary to install the software. For example, an application could contain deployment types for a local installation of a software package, a virtual application package or a version of the application for mobile devices.
- Requirement rules define conditions that specify how an application is deployed to client devices. For example, you can specify that the application should not be installed if the destination computer has less than 2GB RAM or you could specify that a virtual application deployment type is installed when the destination computer is not the primary device of the user.
- Global conditions are similar to requirement rules but can be reused with any deployment type.
- User device affinity allows you to associate a user with specified devices. This allows you to deploy software to a user rather than a device. For example, you could deploy an application so that it only installs on the primary device of the user. On devices that are not the primary device of the user, you could deploy a virtual application that is removed when the user logs out.
- Deployments are used to distribute applications. A deployment can have an action which specifies whether to install or uninstall the application and a purpose which specifies whether the application must be installed or whether the user can choose to install it.
- System Center 2012 Configuration Manager can use detection methods to determine if a deployment type has already been installed on a device by using product information, or a script.
- Application management supports the new monitoring features in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. The status of an application deployment can be monitored directly in the Configuration Manager console.
- Packages and programs from Configuration Manager 2007 are supported in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and can use some of the new deployment and monitoring features.
- You can now deploy a task sequence on the Internet, as a method to deploy a script, for example, prior to installing a package and program. It is still not supported to deploy an operating system over the Internet.
- Software Center is a new client interface that allows users to request and install applications, control some client functionality, and to access theApplication Catalog, which contains details about all available applications.
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
Now we will create an application in this case FireFox, you can download an MSI of it from here (The files contained in this MSI are the official binaries with no modifications). Save the application in your package sources share (I have shared a root folder on D:\ called Sources with sub folders within, one is called Apps). Copy the downloaded FireFox MSI to a subdirectory of your sources\apps\msi share just like I have done in the screenshot below.
In the Configmgr Console, click on Software Library, Applications, in the ribbon click on Create Application
When the Create Application wizard appears click on browse then point it to the UNC of where the MSI is stored eg: \\sccm\sources\apps\msi\firefox\Firefox-7.0.1-en-US.msi
click next and you'll get to the Imported Information screen,
click next again to enter General Information about this application, verify that the installation switches are ok and click next
click next at the summary through to completion
Step 2. Edit the Deployment Type
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
As we have selected the default values during the wizard, a Deployment Type has already been setup but we want to edit it so that this application only installs if a primary user has been associated with the device (UDA), so right click on the Application and choose Properties
the Applications properties are revealed, click on the Deployment Types Tab
select the Deployment type and click on Edit
the Deployment Type properties are revealed, click on the Requirements Tab
there are no requirements listed, click on Add
on the Create Requirement screen, select the Category drop down menu and select User, verify that it's set as below (primary device equals true)
click Apply
and click ok, then click apply and ok again to exit from the Deployment Type menu
Step 3. Create a Deployment for our Application
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
Select the Firefox application and in the ribbon click on Deployment and select Deploy from the menu
when the Deploy Software wizard appears, browse to All Users for collection
for Content, click on Add and select our Distribution Point
next change the Purpose from Available to Required and place a checkmark in Deploy Automatically according to schedule whether or not a user is logged on
for User Experience set it to hide in software center and all notifications
click next through the rest of the wizard to completion (no other changes)
Step 4. Copy our Task Sequence
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
We want to be able to both Refresh our computers (reinstall and migrate data) and do a New Computer installation, to do this we need another task sequence, so lets copy (duplicate) the one we have as we've already created one Deploy Windows 7 X64 task sequence, so select it right click and choose Copy
you'll be notified of the copy completion
Rename the First task sequence to Deploy Window 7 X64 - Refresh by right clicking on it, properties, edit the name
Now we need to edit the second Task sequence, right click it and choose edit
As this is a New Computer Task Sequence, we don't need to migrate data, so Disable the Capture Files and Settings group and the Restore User files and settings Group, click on the Options tab for each group and place a checkmark in Disable, click Apply.
Now we need to add a new step in the Install Operating system group just after Restart in Windows PE step, so select that step and choose Add from the drop down menu
select Disks, Format and Paritition Disk
so that it looks like so
Apply the changes and rename this task sequence to Deploy Windows 7 X64 - New Computer, so now we have two Deploy Task Sequences
Step 5. Deploy our new Task Sequence to the Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
To make the task sequence available to computers we need to Deploy it. In Software Library, select our Deploy Windows 7 X64 - New Computertask sequence and choose Deploy, point the wizard collection to Deploy Windows 7 X64
change purpose to Available, place a checkmark in Make available to boot media and PXE
click next through to completion
Step 6. Import a computer into the Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
We need a new Virtual Machine to be imported into ConfigMgr's database to add it to our Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection. In the ConfigMgr console, click on Assets and Compliance, Devices, and in the Ribbon click on Import Computer Information. If you havn't already created a Virtual Machine do so now, we need one with 1 gig of Virtual Ram and we need to know it's MAC address.
choose import single computer, filll in the computername and mac address (if you want to import multiple comptuers using a file follow this guide)
add it to our Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection
done
Verify it's in the collection (right click and choose Update Membership)
and after a few minutes there it is
Step 7. PXE boot the New Computer
Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.
PXE boot the new Virtual Machine, and you should get to the familiar password prompt
and two new task sequences are ready for us, select Deploy Windows 7 X64 - New Computer
and there's that Format and Partition disk step in action
and our captured OS get's applied
In the Next Part we will review how Firefox get's deployed automatically to this computer based on the UDA variables we set, and we will review the logs involved and we'll edit our boot image to support prestart and add some extrafiles, these will be some VBS scripts to prompt for the UDA user instead of setting the variable on the collection as we really don't want all computers that get deployed to have one user as the primary user.
