CU2 for SCCM 2012 R2 is now released–Does it improve/impact Intune customers?

The CU2 update for System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 was just release. As with all CU’s, they include both fixes and improvements. With this blog post I want to highlight the things that are included in CU2 and will improve/impact Intune customers.

If you read the Kb2970177 you will se the following:

Mobile device management / Intune

• Policies that apply to devices that are used together with Windows Intune may take 10 minutes or more to apply. Additionally, policies that are created before enrollment may not appear on the new device.
• The Policy Request and Management Point fields for mobile devices may be missing from the Client Activity Details tab on the summary page for a given device.

Except for the two bug fixes it also includes one other major thing and that’s – Speed. If you been working with device enrollment you probably noticed that it can take a wile for the device to receive all the profiles/policies you deployed to it.With the CU2 for SCCM 2012 R2 and the May update for the Intune backend, this has been improved a lot.

So, if you use User Collection targeted Polices and Profiles they will be delivered to the User’s devices immediately after enrolling the devices.

The start benefit from this feature, install SCCM 2012 R2 CU 2 and test to enroll. Below you see a demonstration on the steps and the result.

1. Install SCCM 2012 CU2
   

2. Verify that your profiles/policy’s is deployed to a user collection
   

3. Enroll a device and validate that the profiles/policy’s is deployed immediately
   

Important links from the videos:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2970177/en-us
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2014/06/27/an-update-for-the-windows-phone-8-1-extension-is-now-available.aspx

Update 1 – If you have an existing SCEP profile you need to “manually” update it so it can be deployed during enrollment. Easiest way is to open the profile and just change the name or any other “cosmetic” change will also work. This will add a new revision on the profile and it will now work. Note that all SCEP profiles added after you applied CU2 is not affected by this issue

Windows Intune + Samsung KNOX = True

Last week Samsung announced that Samsung KNOX will support Windows Intune. Except for this, they also announced that they will add “Workplace Join” functionality into the Samsung Androids devices so the will be able to workplace join an Active Directory (this can be done on IOS and Windows 8.x today).

This is very good news for all Windows Intune customers that uses Samsung Android devices, really looking forward to the update

Read the full Samsung Press Release

What’s new in the Jan/Feb 2014 Intune update

The Jan/Feb 2014 update to Windows Intune has now been out for a couple of weeks. This was the first  update that was released through the SCCM “Extensions for Windows Intune”

So what did the update actually include:

• Ability for the administrator to configure email profiles, which can automatically configure (IOS and WP8) the device with the appropriate email server information and related policies, as well as the ability to remove the profile along with the email itself via a remote wipe if needed (Only IOS).
• Support for new configuration settings in iOS 7, including the "Managed open in" capability to protect corporate data by controlling which apps and accounts are used to open documents and attachments, and disabling the fingerprint unlock feature.
• Ability for the administrator to remotely lock the device if it is lost or stolen, and reset the password if the user forgets it (as of now, this this feature only exist in the Intune standalone cloud service).

If you would like to see a good demo of some of the new features, please look at the interview on Channel9 with Martin Booth

http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Edge/Edge-Show-90-System-Center-Configuration-Manager-and-Windows-Intune-and-Managing-iOS-What-s-New-

TechDays Sweden is back

Allot of customer was a bit upset when Microsoft decided to not host the Techdays 2013 in Sweden. The good new is that Microsoft listen to the feedback and Techdays Sweden will be back in 2014 – This time in Kistamässan 19-20 November so make sure to save the date.

Updated version of the Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8 is now avalable

Today a revision to the Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8 has been released. This tool facilitates Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager admins and Windows Intune standalone admins to try out Windows Phone 8 enrollment and software distribution scenarios during the Trial period.

The new revisions include:

· The new Windows Intune Company Portal for Windows Phone 8 released on Oct 18.

· A bug fix to address the ‘UBound’ error in the vbscript. [This script is needed only for Configuration Manager and not Intune standalone]

Download Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8

Windows Intune Company Portals now available for Windows, IOS and Android

Support Tool for Windows Intune is now avalable for both SCCM+Intune AND Intune Standalone service

If you are a Windows Intune user you probably know that to be able to test managing Windows Phone 8 you need a special certificate from Symantec and to get this you also need to have a special Windows Phone developer account. This has been a lot of hassle for people that just want to test the functionally or to demo it. In May Microsoft released a “Support tool” that included a presigned Company Portal that you could install and upload in SCCM and you were all set to start testing enrolling Windows Phones. The problem were that this support tool only worked if you used SCCM+Intune, not if you were a user of the Standalone Window Intune service. The good news is that from today, the Support Tools also work for everyone that want to test Windows Phone 8 management in Windows Intune Standalone service.

Update 2013-12-10 – New version of the “Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial Management of Window Phone 8”

Here is the basic steps

• Log in to your Windows Intune Trial account via http://manage.microsoft.com
• Install the MSI that you download from Microsoft Download Center It will extract the sample SSP.xap and other sample xap files included in the MSI. The default location for the files is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Support Tool for Windows Intune Trial management of Windows Phone 8\” Note: The support tool included in the package is not needed for Windows Intune administrators. It is required for only Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Administrators.
• Navigate to "Administration -> Mobile Device Management -> Windows Phone 8". As stated in the text (see below, go directly to step 5

• Upload the SSP.xap. Windows Intune Software Publisher will be launched.

• In Software Setup page, leave the checkbox “Use the Company Portal App file signed by the sample Symantec code-signing certificate” checked.

• Specify the location of software setup files by pointing to the SSP.xap that you’ve downloaded and extracted on your local machine
• Click on next to complete the rest of the steps to publish the app
• After completion of the steps above, Windows Intune Windows Phone Trial account enrollment is enabled and you should be able to start enrolling your Windows Phone devices through your trial account.
• Deploy the sample apps provided in this package as appropriate

• Users will now be able to enroll their WP8 device and could browse the deployed sample apps in their SSP.

To  enroll a Windows Phone 8, follow the below steps

• On the Phone, go to Settings and select “Company Portal”
• Click “Add account”

• Add your account name and password

• If everything works you should get a confirmation that the account has been added. Make sure to select to install the company portal

• Your device is now added and can be managed from Windows Intune (can take a couple of minutes until you can see it in the console

MVP renewal – 2013

Today I got my MVP renewal letter that informed me that I was re-awarded as Most Valuable Professional and therefore receiving the Microsoft MVP – System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management award for the 7th year in a row for doing a great job in serving the community by helping out the community.

New Community Effort! Whiteboard Wednesday

My friend Maarten Goet, a System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP in Netherland has started a new cool community effort – Whiteboard Wednesday

The goal is to provide visitors every Wednesday with a 5-minute video where a community experts draws out how a certain technology or feature on the Cloud OS (Hyper-V, System Center, Azure) works, with some narration, as if it were on a whiteboard.

First video is online: www.whiteboardwednesday.nl

Update Rollup 2 (UR2) for Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 require some extra attention

Microsoft released UR2 for System Center 2012Sp1 a while and as you know you can download the updates rollups from the Microsoft Update Catalog, or you can configure WSUS/SCCM to handle the update.

Usually the process to update the components is very easy but it appears that the previous update (UR1) for SCVMM2012SP1 component has a issue that blocks a “normal” update with UR2.

Below is the statement from the System Center team or you can read the whole blog post:

Important actions for Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 SP1- Virtual Machine Manager

In order to install Update Rollup 2 package for System Center 2012 SP1-  Virtual Machine Manager, you will need to uninstall Update Rollup 1 for System Center SP1 – Virtual Machine Manager package from your system. 

- If you download Update Rollup 2 package for System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager from Microsoft Update Catalog and install Update Rollup 2 without un-installing Update Rollup 1  you should un-install Update Rollup 2 package for Virtual Machine Manager and then un-install Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 SP1 – Virtual Machine Manager via control panel. 

- If you are using WSUS to update System Center 2012 SP1 – Virtual Machine Manager and you have already installed Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 SP1 – Virtual Machine Manager then you will not receive Update Rollup 2 notification until Update Rollup 1 is uninstalled.

Why is this necessary?

When Update Rollup 2 is applied to a system which is running System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager with UR1, the installer does not patch files correctly. This is caused by the way UR 1 was packaged. As such the product fixes in UR1 are correct; it is the packaging of UR1 that causes this issue. If you do not need UR2, then you should continue to operate with UR1.   However, if you choose to stay on Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager and a later Update Rollup is released that you need to implement you will still need to remove Update Rollup 1 first.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes your organization.  We have performed root cause analysis on the issue and have processes in place to prevent future recurrences of this situation.