SMS 2oo3 R2 - ITCU

[ncotton]

Has anyone used this? Tim?

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[tbrennans]

No I havent used it, however reading through some release notes for SMS 2003 R2 and it will require you to have MMC 3.0 installed to use the publishing tool for the ITCU

I really don't get the point of using it at this time when the next sms version will be released:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 supposedly to be released before years end.

 

[tbrennans]

(Between the lines)

I'm too busy (lazy?) to learn the quirks of yet another release when yet another newer version will be released in 6 months

:-D

I know thats weak but what can I tell ya!

 

[ncotton]

Yeah, that what I said.
I don't really see the point in the ITCU at all really. I don't see anyone that patches systems on a scale that requires that. I am currently developing a mechanism to deliver HARDWARE updates/drivers/flashes through SMS.

We have a tool that does this locally with update CDs and via the web, and currently being transformed into a .net exe version. I'm arguing for to take a base of the current tool, and use normal software distribution to trigger commandline calls to the tool that bascially forces all machines that need an update to have it (if we provide it). As apposed to fannying around with the ITCU which is alot more complex, doesn't support hardware updates with us creating a scan engine that would return the info moulded into the ITCU's new Data Model that there is no documentation for, giving a neater approach to people who want to control the driver installation. The only benefit this will bring to an admin is he/she can say, in a standard way (right I don't want it to apply to machines that have Sage running in it, or whatever. However, if they want to narrow it down this much, then they would have the same ammount of work to do on each update they want to publish, we might aswell just give them the update files and let them distribute them to little manual collections.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[ncotton]

Anyway, the point I'm asking :

I have installed it three times, on fresh systems, and the scan tool doesn't even distribute. It fails.

Well, it distributes, but the installation fails with an "ERROR 1 - Please Refer to the Product Documentation"

GUESS WHAT FOLKS!

There is no ITCU or ANY R2 documentation for the Beta, which was meant to have gone live on TechNet weeks ago (inside knowledge from the actual Microsoft Technical Writers on the SMS Team). For a product that was release to market in May 2006 (still no signs).

The only person that seems to have used it and has anything to say, is the guy that assisted Wally at MMS, and he at first wouldn't suggest any reasons....it can't be my fault, cause its automatic....I have a fully functional site...and I install the ITCU...everything else should be automatic.

I have messed around with the packages, made sure that the package/advert settings are allright, replaced the actual program with a test program i made that needed the same access rights, which distributed and worked fine. Downloaded a fresh copy of the R2 incase I had a corrupted download that wasn't manifesting in corrupted files. EVERYTHING!


Once note! After installing the ITCU....it has a note..

WARNING!
You may need to download additional hotfixes for the ITCU to work.

Surely at build time, they would know if any hotfixes were needed. And it points you to the SMS server homepage of Microsoft, which has NOTHING on it. And no files or documents reference R2 or the ITCU.

I give up on SMS product management sometimes.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant