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Deploying and Managing Linux Clients in Configuration Manager 2012 R2

Deploying and Managing Linux Clients With System

Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

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Objectives After completing this lab, you will be able to:

Prepare the Configuration Manager 2012 R2 environment to

support Linux and Unix clients

Deploy the Configuration Manager client agent to a Linux

computer

Verify that the Linux computer is reported as a Configuration

Manager client

Generate hardware inventory from the Linux client

Deploy software to a Linux client

Prerequisites This lab requires a Configuration Manager 2012 R2 site running

(Primary1 is the site server virtual machine image). This lab requires a

supported Linux computer that will be deployed as a client (Linuxclient

virtual machine that is running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 x64 for

this lab environment).

Estimated Time to

Complete This Lab

75 Minutes

Computers used in

this Lab Primary1

LinuxClient

The password for the administrator account on all computers in this lab

is: password.


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1 CONFIGURING A CONFIGURATION MANAGER 2012 R2 SITE

TO SUPPORT LINUX AND UNIX CLIENTS

In this exercise, you will configure the Configuration Manager 2012 R2 site to support Linux and Unix

clients. This consists of ensuring that a boundary is configured to support the Linux computer, and

ensuring that a Configuration Manager network access account has been created and defined.

Tasks Detailed steps

Complete the following task on: Primary1

1. Start the Configuration Manager Console

1. On the Start menu, click Configuration Manager Console.

NOTE: The System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console window

appears displaying the Assets and Compliance Overview page.

2. Verify that the

Linux computer is not known Configuration Manager

1. In the navigation pane, click Devices.

NOTE: The list of devices appears in the results pane. Notice that there are 12 devices reported, none of which are the Linux computer that you will use in this

lab environment (“linuxclient”).

3. Create a boundary for the Linux computer

1. Click the Administration workspace.

NOTE: The Administration workspace appears displaying Overview page in the

results pane.

2. In the navigation pane, expand Hierarchy Configuration, and then click Boundaries.

NOTE: The list of boundaries appears in the results pane. Notice that there are two boundaries configured, both Active Directory site boundaries. Linux and

Unix clients are not domain-joined, so cannot be members of an Active Directory site boundary. For the purposes of this lab, you will create a new

boundary for the Linux client as you likely will need to create a unique

boundary for these servers in your production environment.

3. On the Ribbon, click Create Boundary.

NOTE: The Create Boundary dialog box appears allowing you to specify the

boundary configuration.

4. In the Description box, type Linux Client

5. In the Type box, click IP address range.

6. In the Starting IP address box, type 192.168.3.40

7. In the Ending IP address box, type 192.168.3.40 and then click OK.

NOTE: The list of boundaries appears in the results pane. Notice that there are

now three boundaries in the site, two Active Directory site boundaries and the new IP address range boundary that you just created. You certainly could use a

boundary that includes more than the single IP address for this client, however,

in the lab environment, an IP address range for a single IP address is sufficient. You now need to add this new boundary to the boundary group to allow the

client to find the management point and distribution point to use.

8. In the results pane, click 192.168.3.40-192.168.3.40, and then on


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the Ribbon, click Add Selected Items.

NOTE: A new menu appears. Notice that you can add the boundary to an

existing boundary group, or create a new boundary group.

9. Click Add Selected Items to Existing Boundary Groups.

NOTE: The Add Boundary Groups dialog box appears displaying the available boundary groups. Notice that there is only one boundary group

available.

10. Under Boundary groups, click to select Local Clients in MCM, and then click OK.

NOTE: The list of boundaries appears in the results pane. Notice that new

boundary created is now a member of one group. You will likely need to refresh the console to view the updated group membership.

4. Create and

assign a Network Access Account

1. Click Start | Administrative Tools | Active Directory Users and

Computers.

NOTE: The Active Directory Users and Computers window appears.

2. In the tree pane, under ConfigMgrDom.local, click Users.

NOTE: The Active Directory Users and Computers window displays the user

accounts in the results pane.

3. On the Action menu, point to New, and then click User.

NOTE: The New Object – User dialog box appears allowing you to add a

new user.

4. In the Full name box, type Network Access Account

5. In the User logon name box, type naa and then click Next.

NOTE: The New Object – User dialog box appears allowing you to configure a password for the new user.

6. In the Password and Confirm password boxes, type password

7. Click to clear User must change password at next logon.

NOTE: If you do not clear this checkbox, the new user account will not be able to be used until the password has been changed.

8. Click to select both User cannot change password and Password never expires, and then click Next.

NOTE: In your production environment, you will set the password and account

options here according to your corporate policies. You are configuring them for simplicity in the lab environment.

The New Object – User dialog box appears indicating that the new account is ready to be created.

9. Click Finish.

NOTE: The Active Directory Users and Computers window appears displaying the new account in the results pane. This is the account that will be used to

access the content from a Configuration Manager distribution point when the

computer account and logged on user are not valid accounts - such as when a computer is running Windows PE. The account is only required to be a domain

user.

10. Close Active Directory Users and Computers.

NOTE: The System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console window

appears displaying the boundaries in the site. You will now need to configure


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the new account to be used as the network access account in Configuration

Manager.

11. In the navigation pane, expand Site Configuration, and then click Sites.

NOTE: The list of sites appears in the results pane. Notice that there is only one site, that being the local site "MCM".

12. On the Ribbon, click Settings.

NOTE: A new menu appears with settings that can be configured.

13. Click Configure Site Components.

NOTE: A new menu appears with site components that can be configured.

14. Click Software Distribution.

NOTE: The Software Distribution Component Properties dialog box appears displaying the general settings for software distribution.

15. Click the Network Access Account tab.

NOTE: The Software Distribution Component Properties dialog box

appears displaying the account to use for software distribution content access. Notice that by default, Configuration Manager will use the computer account of

the client for accessing content from a distribution point. For non-Windows clients, the computer is not a member of any domain, so the computer account

would not be valid for accessing the distribution point.

16. Click Specify the account that accesses network locations, and then click New (the button resembles a starburst icon).

NOTE: A new menu appears with two options for adding an account.

17. Click New Account.

NOTE: The Windows User Account dialog box appears allowing you to

configure the account to use.

18. Click Browse.

NOTE: The Select User dialog box appears allowing you to specify the

account to be used for the Network Access Account.

19. In the Enter the name of the object to select box, type naa and then click OK.

NOTE: The Windows User Account dialog box appears displaying the

account to use as the Network Access Account.

20. In the Password and Confirm password boxes, type password and then click Verify.

NOTE: The Windows User Account dialog box expands to allow you to verify the account credentials. Notice that the default verification is to a local

network share. You need to specify a network share to connect to in order to validate the account.

21. In the Network share box, type \\Primary1\Lab Files and then click Test connection.

NOTE: A Configuration Manager message box appears indicating that the

verification was successful. This validation ensures that the configured network access account credentials are valid for accessing the network.

22. Click OK.

NOTE: The Windows User Account dialog box appears.


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23. Click OK.

NOTE: The Software Distribution Component Properties dialog box

appears displaying the account to use for software distribution content access.

Notice that there is now a network access account specified.

24. Click OK.

NOTE: The list of sites appears in the results pane. You have now successfully

configured the site to Linux and Unix clients, with the appropriate boundary and network access account.

In the next exercise, you will install the Configuration Manager client on the Linux computer.


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2 DEPLOYING THE CONFIGURATION MANAGER CLIENT TO A

LINUX COMPUTER

In this exercise, you will install the Configuration Manager R2 client on the Linux computer. The

Configuration Manager clients for the supported Linux and Unix operating systems are not included with

Configuration Manager, rather they are separate downloads. In the lab environment, the universal

Configuration Manager client agent for 64-bit versions of Linux has already been downloaded and copied

to the Linux computer for easy deployment.


Complete the following task on: LinuxClient

1. Log into the Linux computer

1. At the login: prompt, type root and then press ENTER.

2. At the Password: type password and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:~ # prompt appears indicating that you have logged

in successfully.

You will now deploy the Configuration Manager client agent, which must be

done locally on the Linux computer, and with root privileges.

2. Install the Linux client agent

1. At the LinuxClient:~ # prompt, type cd /ConfigMgrAgent and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears. Note that all

Linux directories and file names are case sensitive, so you must type them as displayed in the lab document.

2. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type ./install –mp primary1.configmgrdom.local –sitecode MCM ccm-Universalx64.1.0.0.4580.tar

NOTE: A number of commands are run, and then the

LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears. Notice that the last response before the prompt appears indicates “Installation complete”.

In the following procedure, you will verify that the Linux computer has reported into the Configuration

Manager site as a client computer. This will then allow you to manage the Linux client.



1. Verify that the Linux client has reported into the site properly

1. In the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console, click the Assets and Compliance workspace.

NOTE: The Assets and Compliance workspace appears displaying

the Devices node. Notice that the list of discovered devices appears in the results pane.

2. Refresh the Devices node.


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NOTE: The list of devices appears in the results pane. Notice

that the new Linux computer appears as a Configuration Manager

client computer. If the computer “linuxclient” does not appear yet, wait a moment and Refresh the Devices node.

3. In the results pane, click linuxclient, and then on the Ribbon, click Properties.

NOTE: The linuxclient Properties dialog box appears displaying the discovery data for the client. Notice the following

attributes reported for the Linux client:

Agent Name displays “MP_ClientRegistration”

Agent Site displays “MCM”

Agent Time displays the local date and time

Client displays “Yes”

Agent Edition displays “UNIX and Linux”

Approved displays “Not approved”

4. Click Cancel.

NOTE: The list of devices appears in the results pane. In order

for a client to retrieve policies, it must be approved. As a Linux computer is not domain joined, it will not be approved

automatically, so you will need to manually approve the client.

You will manually approve the client (you could have set the site

configuration to automatically approve all new clients if you wanted). After the client is approved and retrieves policies, it will

generate a Heartbeat Discovery Record, which will then include

additional attributes for the client properties, such as the “Operating System Name and Version”.

2. Manually approve the Linux client

1. In the results pane, click linuxclient, and then on the Ribbon, click Approve.

NOTE: A Configuration Manager message box appears

confirming the approval of one client.

2. Click Yes.

NOTE: The list of devices appears in the results pane. The client is now approved, and can retrieve policies on its configured

schedule or on demand (which you will initiate in the next exercise).


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3 GENERATING HARDWARE INVENTORY FROM A LINUX CLIENT

In this exercise, you will force the new Linux computer to retrieve computer policies, and then will initiate

a hardware inventory cycle. Both of these events would happen on the client, however you will manually

initiate both actions to speed up the data generation.



1. Initiate policy retrieval from the Linux client

1. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type /opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec –rs policy and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears that logging for Configuration Manager client activity has begun. Note that all Linux

directories and file names are case sensitive, so you must type them as

displayed in the lab document.

2. Press ENTER.

2.3. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type tail –f /var/opt/microsoft/scxcm.log and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The Configuration Manager log file (scxcm.log) is displayed on the

client. The ‘tail’ command run will dynamically display additional entries to the log file as they appear. You will notice multiple policy download and evaluation

actions in the log. This process may take a few minutes to complete. After the

policy download, an initial inventory report will be generated, however this inventory report is not sent to the site, it is used to populate hardware

inventory classes and attributes for the client to use. You will need to force another hardware inventory report on the client to get the data reported to the

site server. Remain at this point until you see the entry “Inventory: Collection has completed. Some individual class requests failed.” is displayed.the log

display “The endpoint : SWMTRReportGen is not supported.”

4. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, Press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing and return to the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt.

3. press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing.

4.5. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type /opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec –rs hinv and then press ENTER.

NOTE: Hardware inventory will be generated automatically on the client after policy processing. If you want to wait for the automated inventory generation,

you can do so and skip the forcing of it above.

The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears displaying the location

and name of the log file for Configuration Manager client activity on a Linux

client. Note that all Linux directories and file names are case sensitive, so you must type them as displayed in the lab document.

6. Press ENTER.

5.7. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type

Formatted: Outline numbered + Level: 3 + Numbering Style: 1, 2,3, … + Aligned at: 0.15" + Tab after: 0.4" + Indent at: 0.4"


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tail –f var/opt/microsoft/scxcm.log and then press ENTER.


client. The ‘tail’ command run will dynamically display additional entries to the

log file as they appear. You will notice multiple pages of inventory actions in the log. This process may take a few minutes to complete, and is complete

when the entry “Inventory: Collection has completed. Some individual class requests failed.” is displayed. There may be a couple of additional lines below

that which are not relevant to the generation of this inventory report.

6.8. Press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing and return to At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears. The inventory

report is sent to the management point, and then to the site server for

processing into the Configuration Manager site database. It may take a moment for that process to complete.

In the following procedure, you will view the hardware inventory data generated by the Linux client. You

can view inventory for a Linux client just as you would for a Windows-based client – individually using

Resource Explorer, or via reports.



1. View inventory via Resource Explorer

1. In the results pane, click linuxclient, and the Ribbon, click Start.

NOTE: A new menu of tools to start appears.

2. Click Resource Explorer.

NOTE: The System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager - Resource Explorer window appears.

3. In the navigation pane, expand Hardware.

NOTE: The list of hardware inventory classes appears in the navigation pane. Notice that the number of available classes for a

Linux client is fewer than for a Windows client.

4. In the navigation pane, click Workstation Status.

NOTE: The date and time of the most inventory data appears in

the results pane. Notice that the date and time is very recent,

and should be the time you forced the inventory report from the client.

5. In the navigation pane, click Operating System.

NOTE: The operating system inventory data appears in the results pane. Notice the operating system version information

returned from the client. You can use this information to build

appropriate collections for distribution of packages and programs (which you will do in the next exercise).

6. In the navigation pane, click Installed Applications.


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NOTE: The list of installed applications reporting in the inventory

data appears in the results pane. Notice that there is no software

installed whose name starts with “scx”. You will deploy the Operations Manager client agent in the next exercise, and its

name starts with “scx”.

7. Close the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager – Resource Explorer window.

NOTE: The list of devices appears in the results pane.

2. Running reports for hardware

inventory data

1. Click the Monitoring workspace.

NOTE: The Monitoring workspace appears displaying the Overview page in the results pane.

2. In the navigation pane, expand Reporting, and then expand Reports.

NOTE: The list of report folders appears in the navigation pane. Notice that there are numerous folders that include hardware

inventory reports, based on specific hardware inventory classes.

3. In the navigation pane, click Operating System.

NOTE: The list of reports in the "Operating System" folder

appears in the results pane. Notice that there are nine reports

available.

4. In the results pane, click Count operating systems and service packs, and then on the Ribbon, click Run.

NOTE: The Count operating systems and service packs

report appears in a new window. Notice that there are numerous operating systems displayed, including from the Linux client.

5. Under Operating System, click SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11.2 (x86_64).

NOTE: The Computers with a specific operating system

and service pack report appears in a new window. Notice that there is only one client reporting this operating system, that

being "linuxclient".

6. Close the Computers with a specific operating system and service pack report window.

NOTE: The list of filtered reports appears in the results pane.

You can run any other reports you desire to view additional inventory data, however, you have now verified that the Linux

client computer has successfully reported hardware inventory

data to the site server. You also verified that the client does not have the Operations Manager client agent installed, which you

will deploy in the next exercise.


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4 DEPLOYING SOFTWARE TO A LINUX CLIENT

In this exercise, you will deploy a Configuration Manager package and program to the Linux computer.

You will start by creating a collection of Linux clients for targeting, and then will create the package and

program to deploy the Operations Manager client agent to the members of the collection.



1. Create a collection of Linux clients

1. Click the Assets and Compliance workspace.

NOTE: The Assets and Compliance workspace appears displaying

the list of devices in the results pane.

2. In the navigation pane, click Device Collections.

NOTE: The list of device collections appears in the results pane.

Notice that there are six collections displayed, none of which are specific to Linux clients.

3. On the Ribbon, click Create, and then click Create Device Collection.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard General dialog

box appears.

4. In the Name box, type Linux Clients and then after Limiting collection, click Browse.

NOTE: The Select Collection dialog box appears displaying the

available device collections that this new collection will be limited to.

5. Under Name, click Configuration Manager Clients, and then click OK.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard General dialog

box appears displaying the configured collection name and limiting collection.

6. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard Membership Rules dialog box appears.

7. Click Add Rule.

NOTE: A new menu of rule types appears. You could create either a query-based rule or a direct membership rule as

appropriate. For this lab, you will create a query-based rule

collection.

8. Click Query Rule.

NOTE: The Query Rule Properties dialog box appears.

9. In the Name box, type Linux Clients and then click Edit Query Statement.

NOTE: The Query Statement Properties dialog box appears displaying general properties for the query. By default, all default

attributes for the specific object class, in this case, devices, will


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be displayed.

10. Click the Criteria tab.

NOTE: The Query Statement Properties dialog box appears

displaying the criteria for the query. A query with no criteria will display all resources from the specific object class, in this case,

devices.

11. Click New (the button resembles a starburst icon).

NOTE: The Criterion Properties dialog box appears.

12. Click Select.

NOTE: The Select Attribute dialog box appears.

13. In the Attribute class box, click System Resource.

14. In the Attribute box, click Operating System Name and Version, and then click OK.

NOTE: The Criterion Properties dialog box appears displaying

the selected attribute class and attribute in a ‘where’ clause.

Notice that the default operator is “is equal to”, which is appropriate for our query.

15. Click Value.

NOTE: The Values dialog box appears displaying the operating systems that have been identified from client discovery data.

Notice that the Linux client’s operating system is displayed.

16. Click SLES 11 x64, and then click OK.

NOTE: The Criterion Properties dialog box appears displaying the selected query to identify all systems that have reported their

operating system name and version that is equal to “SLES 11 x64”. For the lab environment, this is appropriate, however in

your production environments, you may have additional Linux or Unix operating systems you want to identify.

17. Click OK.

NOTE: The Query Statement Properties dialog box appears

displaying the criteria for the query. Notice that one criterion is displayed, which is sufficient for our lab environment.

18. Click OK.

NOTE: The Query Rule Properties dialog box appears displaying the current configuration for the query.

19. Click OK.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard Membership

Rules dialog box appears displaying the one membership rule for the collection. A collection can have multiple membership rules

associated with it, however in the lab environment, the single query rule is all that is needed.

20. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard Summary dialog box appears.

21. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Device Collection Wizard Completion


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dialog box appears indicating that the collection was created

successfully.

22. Click Close.

NOTE: The list of collections appears in the results pane. Notice that the new collection is displayed. It will take a moment for the

new collection’s membership rules to be evaluated and updated.

23. Refresh the Device Collections node.

NOTE: The list of collections appears in the results pane. Notice

that the new collection is displayed and indicates that it contains one member.

24. In the results pane, click Linux Clients, and then on the Ribbon, click Show Members.

NOTE: The list of members of the “Linux Clients” collection

appears in the results pane. Notice that there is only one member, that being “linuxclient”. You will use this collection as

the target for the package and program you will create in the next procedure. It may take a moment to update the collection

membership. If the update has not completed yet, wait a

moment and then refresh the member list before moving onto the next procedure. You can also force a membership update to

the limiting collection, which is “Configuration Manager Clients”. Once that collection has been updated, the limited collection,

“Linux Clients” will be updated.

2. Create a package and program

1. Click the Software Library workspace.

NOTE: The Software Library workspace displaying the Overview

page in the results pane.

2. In the navigation pane, expand Application Management, and then click Packages.

NOTE: The list of packages appears in the results pane. Notice

that there are two packages in the site, both are default packages in Configuration Manager 2012 R2. Software

distribution to Linux and Unix clients is accomplished through

packages and programs, not applications.

3. On the Ribbon, click Create Package.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Package

dialog box appears allowing you to provide details for the package.

4. In the Name box, type Operations Manager Client for Linux

5. Click to select This package contains source files, and then click Browse.

NOTE: The Set Source Folder dialog box appears allowing you

to provide the source files for the package.

6. In the Source folder box, type \\primary1\Lab Files\LinuxPackage and then click OK.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Package

dialog box appears displaying the details for the package.

file://primary1/Lab


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7. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Program

Type dialog box appears allowing you to specify the type of

program for this package.

8. Click Next to create a standard Standard program.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Standard

Program dialog box appears allowing you to provide details for the program.

9. In the Name box, type Install Operations Manager Client

10. In the Command line box, type rpm -Uvh scx-1.4.0-640.sles.11.x64.rpm

11. In the Program can run box, click Whether or not a user is logged on, and then click Next.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Requirements dialog box appears allowing you to specify

additional details for the program execution. Notice that by

default, no other program is run first (not needed for this program), and that it can run on any platform.

12. Click This program can run only on specified platforms, and then click to select SLES 11 (x64).

NOTE: In the lab environment, the program only needs to be configured for this one specific platform. In your production

environment, you may need to configure additional platforms,

depending on the target collection. In the lab environment, our target collection only includes the one Linux client, so you could

have left the default configuration of running on any platform. This just helped reinforce the concept of selecting appropriate

platforms for any programs deployed to clients.

13. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Summary

dialog box appears.

14. Click Next.

NOTE: The Create Package and Program Wizard Completion dialog box appears indicating that the package and

program creation was completed successfully.

15. Click Close.

NOTE: The list of packages appears in the results pane. Notice

that the new package appears, and indicates that it has one

program. You will now deploy this package and program to the collection you created earlier in this exercise.

3. Deploying a program to a collection

1. In the results pane, click Operations Manager Client for Linux, and then on the Ribbon, click Deploy.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard General dialog box

appears allowing you to designate the target collection for the

deployment. Notice that since the package only had one program, the program is automatically selected.


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2. After Collection, click Browse.

NOTE: The Select Collection dialog box appears displaying the

available device collections.

3. Under Name, click Linux Clients, and then click OK.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard General dialog box appears displaying the software and collection for this

deployment.

4. Click Next.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Content dialog box

appears allowing you to designate the target of the content. Notice that as the content is not already distributed to at least

one distribution point, you will need to add at least one content

destination.

5. Click Add.

NOTE: A new menu of content destinations appears. Notice that

you can distribute to a distribution point or distribution point group.

6. Click Distribution Point.

NOTE: The Add Distribution Points dialog box appears

allowing you to designate the target distribution points for the content. Notice that you only have one distribution point

available.

7. Under Available distribution points, click to select Primary1, and then click OK.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Content dialog box

appears displaying the designated content destinations.

8. Click Next.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Deployment Settings

dialog box appears allowing you to configuration whether or not

the program is available or required.

9. In the Purpose box, verify that Required is displayed, and then click Next.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Scheduling dialog box

appears allowing you to designate the schedule for the required deployment. Notice that by default, no schedule is defined.

10. Click New.

NOTE: The Assignment Schedule dialog box appears allowing

you to designate the time for the deployment to run on the target client.

11. Click Assign immediately after this event, and then verify that As soon as possible is listed as the ‘event’.

12. Click OK.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Scheduling dialog box appears displaying the schedule for the required deployment.

Notice that your configured schedule appears.

13. Click Next.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard user Experience dialog


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box appears allowing you to designate the user experience for

the deployment.

14. Click Next to accept the default of not allowing users to run the program outside of the deployment, to adhere to any configured maintenance windows (there are none configured in the lab environment), and to disable write filters for any Windows embedded devices if the program is targeted to any (none in the lab environment).

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Distribution Points dialog box appears allowing you to designate how clients access

the content from the distribution point.

15. Click Next to accept the defaults of downloading the content from the distribution point before running, to not run the program if on a slow link to the distribution point, and allow clients to share the content with other clients on the same subnet (if configured to use BranchCache).

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Summary dialog box

appears indicating that the wizard is ready to create the deployment.

16. Click Next.

NOTE: The Deploy Software Wizard Completion dialog box

appears indicating that the deployment was successfully created.

17. Click Close.

NOTE: The list of packages appears in the results pane. The

program has now been deployed, and will be run on the client after the next policy polling cycle, which you will initiate in the

next procedure. It will take a moment to distribute the package

content to the distribution point before the client can access the content. You should use the Distribution Status/Content

Status node in the Monitoring workspace to verify that the content is available prior to attempting to retrieve the policy on

the client in the next procedure.

In the following procedure, you will force the Linux computer to retrieve computer policies, which will

then cause a download of the content from an available distribution point, followed by the installation of

the package.



1. Initiate policy retrieval from the Linux client

1. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type /opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec –rs policy and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears that logging

for Configuration Manager client activity has begun. Note that all Linux directories and file names are case sensitive, so you must type them as


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displayed in the lab document.

2. Press ENTER.

2.3. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type tail –f /var/opt/microsoft/scxcm.log and then press ENTER.


client. The ‘tail’ command run will dynamically display additional entries to the log file as they appear. You will notice many pages of activity, as the policy is

downloaded and evaluated, the content is downloaded, and the program is run. This process may take a few minutes to complete, with a few pauses in the

logging. There is not a good log entry to key on to identify when the software distribution process has completed. You will verify the installation with the

following commands.

4. Press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing and return to the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt.

3. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, press CTRL+C to stop the log viewing.

4.5. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type dir /opt/microsoft/scx and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears displaying the contents of the folder. If there are any files and/or folders displayed, that is an

indication that the distribution was successful.

5.6. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type rpm –qa | grep scx and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears displaying the

file that was installed – in this case “sxc-1.4.0-640”.

6.7. At the LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt, type ps –el | grep scx press ENTER.

NOTE: The LinuxClient:/ConfigMgrAgent # prompt appears displaying the running processes that start with “scx”. Notice that “scxcimserver” is displayed.

This is the process name for the Operations Manager agent.

In the following procedure, you will use the Configuration Manager console to verify that the deployed

program ran successfully on the Linux client.



1. Verify program deployment

status

1. In the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

console, click the Monitoring workspace.

NOTE: The Monitoring workspace appears displaying the list of reports in Operating System folder in the results pane.

2. In the navigation pane, click Deployments.

NOTE: The list of deployments appears in the results pane. Notice that only one deployment is displayed.

3. In the results pane, click Operations Manager Client


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for Linux, and then on the Ribbon, click Run Summarization.

NOTE: A Configuration Manager message box appears

indicating that this summarization will occur throughout the

entire hierarchy.

4. Click OK.

NOTE: The deployment is summarized and the results are

displayed in the results pane. Notice that additional details are displayed in the preview pane. If you don’t see updated statistics,

Refresh the Deployments node.

5. In the preview pane, under Completion Statistics, click View Status.

NOTE: The Deployment Status details appear in the results

pane. Notice that there is one result on the “Success” tab, that

being from the asset “linuxclient”. This is a visual confirmation that the program ran correctly on the client, and reported

successfully to the site.

You could also run any of the normal software distribution

reports to verify the deployment status, however this

confirmation is good enough.

2. Verify installation through

hardware inventory

1. On the Linux client, force another hardware inventory

cycle by running the /opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec –rs hinv command on the Linux client.

NOTE: Hardware inventory will be generated on the client. This will generate a delta inventory report, just as would happen on a

Windows client.

2. Use Resource Explorer from the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console to view the hardware inventory for the Linux client computer.

NOTE: The Resource Explorer window appears displaying the hardware inventory details for the client.

3. Expand Hardware, and then click Installed Applications.

NOTE: The list of installed applications appears. Notice now that there is an application installed with a name that begins with

“scx”. This was the application deployed via the software distribution process.

You have now successfully deployed and managed a Linux client

using Configuration Manager 2012 R2. You prepared the site to support Linux and Unix clients, installed the client agent on the

Linux computer, initiated hardware inventory, and deployed software to the client computer. All these tasks were very similar

to how you would manage traditional Windows-based clients.

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