© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

Concepts & Administration Workshop
Module 5: Collections and Queries

Your Name

Premier Field Engineer

Microsoft
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Overview

Define and understand the use of Collections and Queries

Learn how to create Collections and Queries
Understand different management tasks that can be
performed on User and Device Collections
Understand different properties available for User and
Device Collections
Understand the use of Maintenance Windows

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 Objective

In this module you will:

Review What is new in Collections in System Center 2012
Configuration Manager
Learn how to create Collections and Queries
Understand Collection properties, operation and
maintenance of Collections
Understand Maintenance Windows
Look at the difference between Collections and Queries
and when to use Queries versus Collections
Understand Configuration Manager and logs related to
Collections and Queries

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 About Collections

Collections represent logical groupings of resources: Users

or Devices
Collections are used for
Application Management
Deploying Compliance settings
Installing Software Updates
Managing groups of Client settings
Role-based Administration
Configuration Manager uses WMI query language to
retrieve data from the database to populate Collections
and Queries

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 What is New in Collections in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager?

Feature Description
User Collections and Device User resources and device
Collections nodes resources cannot be part of same
collection
Folder structure replaces Sub collections • You can create folders and subfolders
to organize collections
• You can use include rules to
progressively increase the
membership of a collection (ex. for
phased deployments)
Include rules and Exclude rules You can include or exclude the
contents of another collection from a
specified collection

Continued….
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 What is New in Collections in System Center 2012 Configuration
Manager? (continued)

Feature Description
Incremental collection member Periodically scans for only new or
evaluation changed resources from the previous
collection evaluation and updates a
collections membership with only these
resources, independent of a full
collection evaluation
(configurable via Maintenance task)
Migration support Option to migrate Collections from
Configuration Manager 2007
Role-based administration Collections can be used to limit access
security scopes to System Center 2012 Configuration
Manager objects

Continued….
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 What is New in Collections in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager?
(continued)
Feature Description
Collection limiting All collections must be limited to
another collection. When you create a
collection, you must specify a limiting
collection

New option to Import collections You can export/import from one

Configuration Manager site into another
Configuration Manager site

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 Working with Collections

Default Collections added by Configuration Manager

All Users and User Groups
All Desktops and Server Clients
All Mobile Devices
All Systems
All Unknown Computers
Configuration Manager Collections contain one or more
rules that control the membership of the Collection. Four
rule types are supported
Direct Rule
Query Rule
Include Rule
Exclude Rule
Continued….
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 Working with Collections (continued)
Direct Rule
Gives direct control over which resources should be members of the
collection
Resources must have been discovered by Configuration Manager
before they can be added
Has higher administrative overhead than query collections
Requires manual intervention to make membership changes
Based on ResourceID property from discovery tables
Collection membership is static
Query Rule
Query Rule dynamically updates the membership
Query Rule is evaluated on a schedule by Configuration Manager

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 Working with Collections (continued)
Include Rule
Ability to include members of another collection
Membership of the current collection will be updated on a schedule
when members of include collection change
Exclude Rule
Ability to exclude members of another collection
Membership of the current collection will be updated on a schedule
when members of include collection change
Exclude takes precedence

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 Management Actions on Collections

Device Collection

User Collection

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Demonstration

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 Collection Properties

Device Collection

User Collection

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Demonstration

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 Maintenance Windows
Maintenance Windows
When a client computer has a maintenance window policy set, the following evaluation
is made before an advertised program is launched by Configuration Manager
Policy evaluated on the
Client
Clients download content outside of
Maintenance Windows when
deployments are configured to
download and run locally
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Available time left in the
Maintenance Window (>=) the
Maximum allowed run time (+) the
Yes
Advertised Programs Client Agent
countdown duration?
The advertised program
will run
No
ConfigMgr will wait until the next
scheduled maintenance window in which
there is sufficient time available.
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 Maintenance Windows
Must have a duration of less than 24 hours

Multiple Maintenance Windows

If the Maintenance Windows do not overlap, they are treated as two
independent Maintenance Windows
If the Maintenance Windows overlap, they are treated as a single
Maintenance Window encompassing the time period covered by both
Maintenance Windows

When a user initiates an installation from Software Center, the

Maintenance Window is ignored

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 Collections and Queries
Collections
Attributes displayed under collection
results is static and cannot be changed
Cannot validate if the membership rule
is correct by viewing the results set
Each collection has an associated table
with snapshot of the resources that fits
the membership rule
Collections can be created against only
a handful of object types (3 object
types)
Large number of collections updating
on a scheduled basis can generate a
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Queries
Attributes displayed under query
results are dynamic, you can pick and
choose what attributes you want to
display
Can easily validate the membership
rule by viewing the results set
Queries just stores the definition of
the query
Query can be created against a larger
number of object types (26 object
types)
Queries generate load when they are
evaluated on demand Continued….
 Collections and Queries (continued)

Collections Queries
Collections use database space Very minimal database space is used
which depends on number of as it only stores the definition of the
resources in the collections query
Collection are used by other Queries used only to evaluate
components of Configuration membership rules
Manager
Collections can be created by
importing a query rule.

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 Collection Best Practices & Logs

Enabling incremental updates on a large number of collections can cause

performance issues
• “Use incremental updates for this collection” option might cause evaluation
delays when you enable it for many collections. The threshold is about 200
collections.
The exact number depends on the following factors:
• Number of collections
• The frequency of new resources being added and changed in the hierarchy
• The number of clients in your hierarchy
• The complexity of collection membership rules in your hierarchy
Recommendation is to always create a query first, validate the results set to make
sure membership rule is correct and then create the collection based on a query
Logs
• Colleval.log - Records details about when collections are created,
changed, and deleted by the Collection Evaluator
• Smsprov.log - Records activities performed by the SMS Provider.
Administrator Console activities use the SMS provider

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Demonstration

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 Module Review
Can User Resources or Device Resources be part of the
same Collection?
Name 4 types of Membership Rules?
How often does the default incremental collection
evaluation run?
Name some of the management actions that can be
performed against the Device Collections when compared
to the User Collections?
What is the threshold to use Incremental Updates for
Collections?

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 Module Summary
In this module we covered:
Looked at What is new in Collections in System Center
2012 Configuration Manager
Learned how to create Collections and Queries
Understanding Collection properties, operation and
maintenance of Collections
Understanding Maintenance Windows
Look at the difference between Collections and Queries
and when to use Queries versus Collections
Understanding Configuration Manager and logs related to
Collections and Queries

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