Part 4 : Add the Application Catalog Web Site Roles for SCCM 2012


Add the Application Catalog Web Site Roles

Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server as SMSadmin

In Administration, click on Servers and Site System Roles and right click on our Site Server, choose Add Site System Roles.

Note: If you are using a multi-site hierarchy setup (CAS + Primaries), you need to perform the following on your Primary site(s) as the roles listed below won't be available for CAS. For a Standalone setup perform the following on your standalone primary.

add site system roles.png

click next at the wizard general screen

general.png 

Select both of the Application Catalog roles

application catalog roles.png 

confirm your Application Catalog Web service point selections

application catalog web service point.png 

and the Application Catalog Website Point settings

application catalog website point.png 

enter your Organisation name and pick a Color scheme for the Application Catalog ! (New since Beta 2) !

application catalog customizations.png 

click next through the summary and progress screens, verify everything at the completion screen.

summary screen.png 


Step 2. Configure Client Agent Settings

Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Note: You can configure custom client settings applicable for each site in your hierarchy by creating custom client settings on that Primary site, or if you want settings applied to all your computers in your hierarchy you can edit the Default Client Settings (on your CAS site). 

In the Administration section click on Client Settings in the left pane, and select the Default Client Settings listed, right click choose Properties

client settings properties.png

Click on Client Policy and we'll set this to every 15 minutes as it's a LAB (the Default setting is 60 minutes), this means that once every 15 minutes the Client will contact it's Management Point for any new policy.

client policy.png 

now choose Computer Agent and configure it as follows:-

Click on Set Website for Default Application Catalog Website and set it to select the FQDN one that is listed

fqdn.png 

Set Add default Application Catalog website to Internet Explorer trusted zone to True

Set the Organization Name Displayed in Software Center to My Organization (change that to suit your organization)

so your Computer Agent settings should look like this

computer agent settigns.png 

Set the Software updates schedule from 7 days to 1 day, this will be because we want to synchronize Endpoint Protection definition updates on a daily basis.

1 day.png 

Select User and Device Affinity and change Allow users to define their primary device to True.

define uda.png 

click Ok to save the Client Agent Settings.


Step 3. Deploying the Client Agent

Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Note: In a Multi-site Hierarchy (CAS+Primaries) you will need to configure client installation settings on the primaries as CAS does not manage clients and the options will therefore be greyed out on the CAS.

Now that we have made changes to the Default Client settings, we want to deploy the ConfigMgr Client to our computers in the LAB. Before doing so we need to decide what method is appropriate for installing the client on our computers.

The following methods are available

Client Installation Method Description
  • Client push installation - Automatically installs the client to assigned resources and manually installs the client to resources that are not assigned.
  • Software update point installation - Installs the client by using the Configuration Manager 2012 software updates feature.
  • Group Policy installation - Installs the client by using Windows Group Policy.
  • Logon script installation - Installs the client by using a logon script.
  • Manual installation - Manually installs the client software.
  • Upgrade installation - Upgrades clients to a newer version by using Configuration Manager 2012 application management. You can also use Configuration Manager 2007 software distribution to upgrade clients to Configuration Manager 2012.
  • Client Imaging - Prestages the client installation in an operating system image.
Please refer to Technet to Determine the Client Installation Method to Use in Configuration Manager 2012.


For the purposes of this LAB we will select Client Push Installation. Make sure to review the Client deployment Prerequisites on Technet, in particular pay attention to the Firewall Ports used during client push installation.

firewall ports.png


Note: we will use the ClientInstall account to install the configmgr client on our computers, make sure that this account is a local administrator on your target computers.

In Administration, click on Site Configuration, Sites, select our site, in the ribbon above click on Settings, it will open a new menu, from that menu select Client Installation Settings and from there select Client Push Installation.

client push installation.png

On the general screen, place a checkmark in Enable Automatic site-wide client push installation

general tab client push.png 

Click on the Accounts tab, and select the yellow star, choose New Account

accounts.png 

type in (or browse to select the AD user) the Client Push account, use our ClientInstall account which we created in Active Directory in Part 1.

verify.png 

Note the Verify button, this is new since Beta 2 and allows you to verify that the credentials can connect to your network resources, if you get your password wrong it will tell you !

Click on Verify and type in a Unc path to check.

successfully verified.png 

Click Ok.

Click on Assets and Compliance and expand Devices, All Systems, you should see that our SCCM server has a client installed but our Domain Controller does not.

Note: If the site server cannot contact the client computer or start the setup process, it automatically repeats the installation attempt every hour for up to 7 days until it succeeds.

You can wait until Client push installs the client or manually install it right now by Right clicking on the Domain Controller and choose Install Client.

install client.png

set the Installation Options

installation options.png 

click next through the wizard, close. Meanwhile, on the DC (AD1-Domain Controller) check task manager, and you'll see ccmsetup starting...success

ccmsetup.png 

after some minutes the client is installed and you can refresh the view, you'll notice is says Client=Yes on both our systems in the Lab and there are new tabs to look at since beta 2 on the bottom of the screen. We'll get to them in a later post.

ad has client.png

On your AD computer you can start Software Center

software center.png 

click on Find applications from the application catalog

fine.png

and your Application Catalog will pop up in Green !

application catalog green.png