Best Practices for Application Management in SCCM 2012

18-Jun-2018 Juliana Nancy (311052)

| Copyright © 2016 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

1
Agenda

 Introduction

 Application Development

 Testing Methods

 Content Distribution

 Application Deployment

 Points to Remember

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 2
What is an Application in SCCM 2012?

It is a new application model that makes SCCM understand

the administrator’s intent regarding how and when an application
should be made available to users

Why an Application?
There are multiple reasons to choose an application over a
package in SCCM 2012

 Requirements

 Global Conditions

 Deployment Action

 Deployment Purpose

 Revisions

 Detection Method

 User-Centric Management

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 3
 General Information tab should filled as per industry standards
 Specify information on how the application should reflect in the application catalogue
 Specify references for the application (if any)
 Assign the distribution settings
 Create a deployment type with industry standard naming convention
 Provide source content location (Install and uninstall)
 Provide the install and uninstall command line with parameters
 Provide appropriate detection method
 User experience should be set based on the application type (Silent or loud push)
 Requirements should be set based on target audience
 Exit codes should be modified as needed.
 Once the application is created, deploy it to Quality Testing DP group.

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 4
Quality Assurance Testing

 Test the application on all models and platforms available in the environment

 Test on all the available OS

 Test on both available and required purposes.

 Perform negative scenario testing

 Perform upgrade scenario testing if there are older versions available

 Basic functionality testing

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 5
Content Distribution and Deployment

 Validate if deployments have been deleted for the application for which content needs to be distributed.
 Validate if the source location provided by the development team is valid.
 Make sure content location is different for both Development and Production.
 After distributing the content, validate if the content is available in all required DP
 Validate if we have the right users/machines to perform the RC/Pilot deployment.
 Validate if necessary exclusions have been added.
 Check if the previous version application deployments have been deleted.
 Validate if content is present in all the required DPs
 Validate if the application requires a custom collection (create if necessary) and handle necessary exclusions

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 6
Points to Remember
Best Practices
 Industry standard naming convention

 Provide lear administrative comments

 Proper Detection methods and requirements

 “No user logged in” option for silent installs

 Limiting display of applications in software center

 Test on all models, platforms and OS available in the environment

 Perform negative scenario testing

 Test in both available and required deployment modes

 Distribute content only to Distribution Point groups

 Plan application content distribution to avoid network congestion

 Deployment scheduling should be done prior to scheduled deployment date

 Phased deployment methodology to be followed

 Retire applications on time to maintain a clean environment

TCS27Internal
June, 2018 7
TCS27Internal
June, 2018 8
Thank You