Gary Blok

April 30, 2020

Building a CM Lab – ConfigMgr Settings Setup [9]

Post 9, we have CM installed, now we need get some basic settings configured to make it work

Things we need to do now that we have a server

Setup Site & Hierarchy settings.
Discovery Settings (to find clients / users / groups)
Distribution Point Settings (And DP Groups)
Setup Boundaries
Setup Client Settings
Setup Accounts

Hierarchy Settings

In the Site Settings:

Recast Software Dev Site Properties — I’ve checked the box for using CM generated certs. (Enhanced HTTP)

Discovery Settings

Discovery Method Administration — I’m picking these 4 methods and pointing them to my “DEV” OU

Add Active Directory Location — For Groups, this will pull in any custom groups I’ve created in the DEV OU

Active Directory Container — Systems in the DEV OU (Servers & Workstations)

Distribution Point Settings (And DP Groups)

In Administration, Site Configuration, Servers and Site System Roles, get the properties of the DP Role

Distribution Point Properties — I’ve enabled BranchCache & LEDBAT, because they are great. 🙂 I’ve also enabled Connected Cache (Previously DOINC)

With a DP, you’ll want to add it to a DP Group. Makes life easier in the future if you add DPs, Replace DPs, or just generally during deployments.

Create New Distribution Point Group — I’ve created a DP Group called “Lab DPs”

add Distribution Points — Added my DP Server (currently my only CM Server) to the DP Group

Boundaries and Boundary Groups

By default you’ll have the Default Site Boundary Group. Machines in this Group will be assigned your Site Code (DEV). By Default there is also no servers servicing this group, so I’ve added our server. At this point for OSD, I did not need to make any additional boundaries or groups, however, when I went to install apps, I had troubles until I created a boundary and group.

Default Site Boundary Group Properties — I’ve left this default to blank

OSD Bondaries — By Default there are no Boundaries, which worked fine for OSD for me, but not so well on my Apps.

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Create Boundary Groups — Created a Subnet Boundary Group based on my lab’s IP Subnet

Administration Boundary groups — I check the box for “Use this boundary group for site assignment” and also confirm my CM Server is there

Client Settings

This is very basic and just enough to get you going and add a little pretty to the experience.

Client Cache Settings — I’m having CM Configure BC & Enabling it. However for more control and tuning I’d recommend using the 2Pint Software FREE downloads which will do this for you.

Computer Agent Default Settings — I’ve setup a few of these things including the “Branding” of our Company, also I set PowerShell to Bypass

Software Center Default settings — In Software Center, I’ve continued to add additional branding

That’s actually it for now, I’ll come back later and setup Remote Control among other things. But just to get this lab going, I don’t care as much about those for now.

Accounts

Software distribution Component Properties — I’ve setup an Network Account. This account only has rights to the Source Share. It is also blocked from interactive logon on any machines (set in ADUC) Personally, I’d NOT create this account until you run into a situation where you need it.
I was trying to apply a WIM Directly from the DP (Without downloading during OSD), and that seemed to not work until I did this. However since that isn’t the normal way for OSD, I’d suggest you see how far you can go without adding this.

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Blog Post List

Series Introduction – Building a CM Lab from Scratch

Domain Controller – Setting up your Domain Controller
Gateway Virtual Machine – Creating a Router for your Lab using Windows Server
Certificate Authority – On Domain Controller [Optional]
ConfigMgr Server Pre-Reqs (Windows Features)
Configuration Settings (AD & GPOs)
Source Server (File Share)
ConfigMgr SQL Install
ConfigMgr Install
ConfigMgr Basic Settings
ConfigMgr Collections & App Deployment
ConfigMgr OSD
ConfigMgr Reporting Services

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