1. Wally Mead
Overview of System Center
2012 R2 Configuration Manager

2. Agenda
• Discussion of exciting features that would
provide benefits to upgrading to Configuration
Manager 2012 R2
• Demonstrations where appropriate

3. Updates to Configuration Manager 2012 R2
Features
• Features that will benefit everyone
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Role-based administration in reports
Distribution point updates
Resultant set of client settings
Software update specific maintenance windows
Updates to automatic deployment rules
OSD enhancements

4. Role-Based Administration in Reports
• In Configuration Manager 2012 RTM/SP1, RBA
only extended to the actual reports that an admin
could see
• When running an available report however, the results
displayed often showed objects not available to view in
the console
• This causes some people to have separate sites
• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, the results of
the reports, whether viewed in the console or
Report Manager, filter based on RBA security
• The console and reports should now match 

5. Distribution Point Updates
• Ability to redistribute failed distributions or cancel
an in progress distribution from the console
• Better performance when sending to multiple DPs,
especially over various WAN connections
• More DP threads
• Better scalability and status for pull distribution
points
• Distribution point usage report!

6. Resultant set of Client Settings
• Clients can receive multiple client settings, such
as Default Client Settings and one or more custom
settings
• In these cases, it can be hard to identify the exact set of
policies that are implemented on the client
• The ConfigMgr 2012 Toolkit PolicySpy tool could
enumerate those through WMI
• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can view
these from the Configuration Manager Console
• Easy ability to find what is implemented on the client!

7. Software Update Specific Maintenance
Windows
• Often, you have maintenance windows on
collections to control software distribution
• Computers can be members of multiple
collections, so may have multiple maintenance
windows
• This can lead to not really knowing when software
updates are to be applied
• In Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can now
configure maintenance windows that are specific
to software updates

8. Automatic Deployment Rule Updates
• Some admins didn‟t trust the automatic
deployment rule in Configuration Manager 2012
RTM/SP1
• Weren‟t sure what updates would be added to the
software update group
• So they disabled the ADR deployment, or didn‟t use them
• Now with Configuration Manager 2012 R2, you can
view the updates the filter criteria selects during
the ADR creation
• Can also change package configuration of the ADR

9. Operating System Deployment Updates
• Support for deploying Windows 8.1 and Windows
Server 2012 R2
• Support for importing down-level boot images
• Moving from the WAIK to the ADK caused some issues for
some customers due to WinPE incompatibility

10. Operating System Deployment Updates
(2)
• We now support integration of a few native MDT
actions in our task sequences
• Check Readiness, Set Dynamic Variables, Run PowerShell
Script
• You can also create virtual hard drives from the
Configuration Manager console
• Create, modify, upload to Virtual Machine Manager
• Requires Hyper-V installed on the same computer as the
Configuration Manager console

11. Updates to Configuration Manager R2
Features
• Features that will benefit select environments
• Ability to reassign clients between sites
• Multiple Network Access Accounts per site
• MAC client installation wizard

12. Client Reassignment
• Can now easily reassign clients from one
Configuration Manager 2012 R2 primary site to
another Configuration Manager 2012 R2 primary
site in the same hierarchy
• Does not work between versions
• Is not appropriate for failed site server scenarios
• Can multi-select clients if desired

13. Multiple Network Access Accounts per Site
• With the limitation of one NAA per primary site in
Configuration Manager 2012 RTM/SP1, some
environments required additional primary sites to
support remote untrusted forests
• With Configuration Manager 2012 R2, a site now
supports up to 10 NAAs
• Clients will remember the „best shot‟ account for future
connections
• SP1 clients can still only use one account

14. MAC Client Installation Wizard
• Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 required two
command lines to install and enroll a MAC client
• Not everyone was comfortable with running sudo
commands
• With Configuration Manager 2012 R2, the MAC
client download now includes a wizard to install
the client
• Initial running allows you to install the Configuration
Manager client
• Client reboots
• Wizard runs again to enroll the client 

15. Summary
• Configuration Manager 2012 R2 adds many new
benefits that make upgrade a desired operation
Role-based administration for reporting is a key
Multiple network access accounts helps a lot of customers
Distribution point changes are great for some
Everyone wants the “Distribution point usage” report
Maintenance windows specific to software updates are
very important
• Great enhancements to operating system deployment
• Others
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16. For More Information
System Center 2012 Configuration
Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/evalcenter/hh667640.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_105_1_33
Windows Intune
http://www.microsoft.com/enus/windows/windowsintune/try-and-buy
Windows Server 2012
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servercloud/windows-server
More Resources:
http://www.microsoft.com/workstyle
http://www.microsoft.com/server-cloud/user-devicemanagement

17. Please evaluate the session
before you leave
