Intel vPro Expert Center Blog

A Closer Look at ConfigMgr SP2

pcgeek86@gmail.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:51:09 GMT

Matt Royer wrote in June about some of the new AMT-related features being included in Service Pack 2 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. I recently installed ConfigMgr SP2 in my lab environment, and wanted to follow up on Matt's post by sharing some screenshots of the new AMT features, for those of you that may not be beta testing SP2

** The updated AMT Settings screen, which now features the option to set the power package for the management controller.

** The new Provisioning Schedule screen (no more editing your sitectrl.ct0 file!)

** The new main 802.1x & Wireless Profile Configuration screen (there are a couple of detail screens below)

** The new Wireless Profile Detail screen

** The new 802.1x Profile Detail screen

I don't have a provisioned client in my lab yet, but once I do, I will see if I can investigate the updated Microsoft OOB Console, and capture some screenshots. As Matt's post stated, there should be added functionality for inputting information into the 3PDS (Third-party data store), so I assume there will at least be that change.

Cheers,

Trevor Sullivan

Systems Engineer

OOB Console Error

pcgeek86@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:50:08 GMT

Hello vPro Experts!

Are you having trouble getting the Microsoft Out-of-Band (OOB) Console to connect to your Intel vPro clients? If so, one of the first things you should do, is enable verbose logging in your OOBConsole.exe.config file. This file is located in the following folder: %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\bin. If you open this file in Notepad, you should see a line that looks like <source name="OOBConsole" switchValue="Error">. If you change the text Error to Verbose, you will enable verbose logging for the OOB Console. The next time you try to connect to an AMT device, you should start seeing more detailed logging in the OOBconsole.log file, located in: %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\AdminUILog.

If you're seeing this message specifically: GetAMTPowerState fail with result:0x800401F3, then you might have forgotten to install WinRM 1.1 on your Windows XP client running the OOB console. Also make sure that you're running Windows XP Service Pack 3! Once you install WinRM 1.1, this error should magically disappear, and have you well on your way to managing vPro devices!

Cheers,

Trevor Sullivan

Systems Engineer

OfficeMax Corporation

Microsoft OOB Console Requirement

pcgeek86@gmail.com — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:24:06 GMT

Hello vPro Experts!

I would like to pass on some information that I discovered a while ago, based on a Microsoft Premiere Support ticket. I was having trouble getting the Microsoft Out-of-Band (OOB) Management Console functioning from a Windows XP system. I tried everything on a fresh, standard build of Windows XP, but nothing would work.

After working with Premiere Support, we finally discovered that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) was required for proper functioning of the Microsoft OOB console.

This behavior is actually related to some functionality that was added in SP3, specifically in the winhttp.dll library. There is a function called WinHttpSetOption in the WinHttp library, which is called with a parameter enabling the WinHttp Option Flag named WINHTTP_ENABLE_SPN_SERVER_PORT. This flag enables the WinHttp library to include the server port in the Kerberos Service Principle Name (SPN), since the AMT web service is running on a non-standard HTTP port (16993).

The Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) version of the WinHttp library does not include this capability, and consequently fails to authenticate. In order to properly connect to ConfigMgr-provisioned AMT devices with the Microsoft OOB Console, please make sure your helpdesk / support systems are running Windows XP SP3.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section, and I will do my best to answer them.

Trevor Sullivan

Systems Engineer

OfficeMax Corporation

Fast Call for Help Video Demo - Altiris Client Management Suite v7 and Intel vPro technology

justin.van.buren@intel.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:34:51 GMT

At the recent Symantec ManageFusion 2009, Symantec announced the general availability of Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite Version 7.

One of the new features in Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite Version 7 is support for Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology's "Fast Call for Help." The video below by Symantec's Senior Technical Manager Lee Bender is a demonstration of how an end-user would connect back to the Altiris Client Management Suite for remote diagnosis and repair of his notebook even though he connect boot into Windows and is outside of the corporate firewall.

To learn more about Intel's presence at ManageFusion 2009, please go to http://www.intel.com/go/managefusion/