Troubleshooting System Center Configuration Manager

Troubleshoot all the aspects of your Configuration Manager installation from basic easy checks to the advanced log files and serious issues

About This Book

• Learn to troubleshoot Configuration Manager 2012 based versions of Microsoft System Center


• Understand the usability of tools and find resolutions to all the issues of Configuration Manager


• A step-by-step practical guide with the necessary screenshots and examples

Who This Book Is For

If you are new to Configuration Manager or have experience with it, and are interested in identifying, diagnosing and resolving the System Center Configuration Manager administration issues then this book is for you.

What You Will Learn

• Fix your clients and install them correctly


• Understand how your Configuration Manager hierarchy works


• Extend your error information


• Troubleshoot Configuration Manager roles


• Know your options when faced with problems


• Prevent future problems occurring

In Detail

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is the most popular enterprise client management solution in the world with some of the best features. Troubleshooting this product, however, is not always as simple as you might want, not least getting to know the hundreds of log files and understanding how the various components work.

The book starts with discussing the most commonly used tools for troubleshooting the variety of problems that can be seen in Configuration Manager. It then moves to providing a high level view of the available log files, their locations, what they relate to and what they typically contain. Next, we will look at how we can fully utilize and extend all the available information from the console monitoring pane through to the status messages and down into error logging with some further reaches into WMI, SQL, registry and the file structure. You will then learn what the common error codes mean, how to make sense of the less common ones and what they actually mean with respect to Configuration Manager. Further to this, you will pick up widely acknowledged best practices both from a proactive stance when carrying out your daily administrative tasks and also from a reactive position when the green lights start to turn red right down to a complete failure situation. By the end of the book, you will be competent enough to identify and diagnose the root causes of System Center Configuration Manager administration issues and resolving them.

Key Features

• Learn to troubleshoot Configuration Manager 2012 based versions of Microsoft System Center
• Understand the usability of tools and find resolutions to all the issues of Configuration Manager
• A step-by-step practical guide with the necessary screenshots and examples

Book Description

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is the most popular enterprise client management solution in the world with some of the best features available. Troubleshooting this product, however, is not always as simple as you might want, not least getting to know the hundreds of log files and understanding how the various components work.

The book starts with discussing the most commonly used tools for troubleshooting the variety of problems that can be seen in Configuration Manager. It then moves to providing a high level view of the available log files, their locations, what they relate to and what they typically contain. Next, we will look at how we can fully utilize and extend all the available information from the console monitoring pane through to the status messages and down into error logging with some further reaches into WMI, SQL, registry and the file structure. You will then learn what the common error codes mean, how to make sense of the less common ones and what they actually mean with respect to Configuration Manager. Further to this, you will pick up widely acknowledged best practices both from a proactive stance when carrying out your daily administrative tasks and also from a reactive position when the green lights start to turn red right down to a complete failure situation. By the end of the book, you will be competent enough to identify and diagnose the root causes of System Center Configuration Manager administration issues and resolving them.

What you will learn

• Fix your clients and install them correctly
• Understand how your Configuration Manager hierarchy works
• Extend your error information
• Troubleshoot Configuration Manager roles
• Know your options when faced with problems
• Prevent future problems occurring

About the Author

Peter Egerton is a senior cloud consultant at Inframon Ltd in the UK. He has been working in IT since 2000, and through IT support roles has progressed into IT consultancy. He is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer. Peter has worked with some of the biggest organizations across Europe and the Middle East in a multitude of markets on their Configuration Manager and wider System Center designs, implementations, and support requirements. In his spare time, Peter is also a Community Leader at Windows Management User Group (WMUG) in the UK.

Gerry Hampson is a senior consultant engineer with over twenty years of experience as an IT professional. He has worked for Ergo Group, which has been based in Dublin, Ireland, for almost 10 years. Gerry specializes in designing and deploying Microsoft technologies, with a particular interest in System Center Configuration Manager and Intune. He has been awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Enterprise Client Management for 2015.

Gerry has a popular blog where he shares Enterprise Client Management tips with the community at large (http://gerryhampsoncm.blogspot.in/).

This is Gerry's first book. He hopes to author many more in the future.

Table of Contents

1. The Configuration Manager Troubleshooting Toolkit
2. Configuration Manager Monitoring Workspace and Log Files
3. Troubleshooting Configuration Manager Clients
4. Troubleshooting Hierarchies and Site Servers
5. Troubleshooting Management Points and Distribution Points
6. Troubleshooting Other Roles
7. Troubleshooting Common Tasks
8. Disaster Recovery
9. Avoiding Trouble