What’s New for Client Deployment in SCCM 2012?

What’s New for Client Deployment in SCCM 2012?

With the release of SCCM 2012, Microsoft has introduced many new features and made many changes in regards to Client Deployment. In this article, we look at What’s New for Client Deployment in SCCM 2012:

• New Fallback Site is a “catch all” for all Clients – In SCCM 2007 if a Client didn’t belong to a configured Boundary, then it would not be assigned to that Site potentially leaving the machine unmanageable. New in SCCM 2012 is the (optional) Fallback Site which basically acts as a “catch all” for all Clients in network locations that have not been added to a Boundary Group configured for Site Assignment. If a Client cannot be assigned to any other Site it will automatically assign itself to the Fallback Site. Configuring a Fallback Site is not mandatory but highly recommended and remember that you only configure one Fallback Site for your hierarchy.
• “/native: [“<native mode option>“] Client Installation Property deprecated – As Site Modes are no longer user in SCCM 2012 the “/native: [“<native mode option>“] Client Installation Property is no longer used.
• New “/UsePKICert” Client Installation Property – In SCCM 2012 you’ll now need to use the /UsePKICert Client Installation Property to get the Client to use a PKI certificate with Client Authentication capability, assuming one is available (and if it’s not then the Client will fall back to using an HTTP connection). If you don’t specify this the Client will only ever use HTTP even if a PKI certificate is available.
• New “/NoCRLCheck” Client Installation Property to bypass checking Certificate Revocation List – SCCM 2012 now includes a new /NoCRLCheck Client Installation Property that can be used to tell the Client to ignore checking the Certificate Revocation List (CRL), before establishing a HTTPS connection.
• “SMSSIGNCERT” Client.msi property now requires Exported Self-Signed Certificate of Site Server – In SCCM 2012 the SMSSIGNCERT Client.msi property now requires the exported self-signed certificate of the Site Server (which is stored in the SMS certificate store with the Subject name Site Server and friendly name Site Server Signing Certificate).