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

New Kids on the Block: TriActive joins the running of ISV's with vPro

kelsey.e.witherow@intel.com — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:49:36 GMT

TriActive, Inc., founded in 1997, has recently added AMT (vPro) capabilities to their software. This product is called Systems Management On Demand and you can read more about it here. In their own words, "TriActive was a pioneer of delivering Systems Management solutions using a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model to organizations of all sizes for laptops, desktops, servers, and network devices." (from their website) Below we have provided some screen shots of their newly acquired AMT capabilities...

Systems Management Overview Video
- LAN and Web-based remote control & diagnostics
- Intel vPro with AMT support when Microsoft Windows is not running
- Asset hardware, software, security inventory with change history
- Fully integrated SW delivery, Patch mgmt, License Compliance
Case Studies - From Newsweek to the YMCA, they've aquired a pretty good range of customers.
- "We were very keen on getting full infrastructure coverage almost instantaneously. TriActive's hosted service got us up and running within days. We did not have to install any software, and we have no software to maintain. TriActive promised us a solution that worked immediately, and that's what we got, without any of the hassles of typical software installations," says the CTO of Newsweek.

TriActive - Systems Management On Demand - Screen Shots

AMT Remote Options

AMT Status

AMT Event Log

Initiate SOL

SOL Boot to BIOS

AMT PowerOn

AMT PowerOff

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

Why SCS (Setup and configuration services)? Some thoughts?

vidya.govindan@intel.com — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:47:00 GMT

I am sure you are all aware of the benefits of adopting the embedded manageability features in vPro. What has SCS got to do with that and why do we need SCS?

Can you buy a home theater, plug in the power and expect it to work with all your other media devices? Can you buy a wireless router, switch it on and expect a home network to work without configuring? No.

Similarly, in order to reap the benefits of the embedded manageability features in vPro, we need to set it up and configure it appropriately. Setup and Configuration services (SCS) provide the means to setup and configure vPro systems. Some of the abilities that SCS provides include

- Ability to integrate with identity management systems such as Active Directory
- Ability to request the CA for a certificate on behalf of the vPro system
- Ability to push wireless profiles on to the vPro system for wireless manageability
- Method to push configuration settings to a bulk of vPro systems
- Maintenance operations such as renewal of certificates, re-provisioning systems if hostname changes

Currently SCS is integrated as part of an ISV's management console. With vPro spanning across domains such as Asset management, Remote Support, Security, Patching and Compliance, are we looking at a single management console? If we have different management consoles for different domains, how do we ensure that the vPro systems are setup and configured once and all management consoles can operate with vPro? Who provisions, who maintains, who talks to who in order to make efficient use of vPro in a multi-management console eco system? In order to allow effective inter-operability between the management consoles, are we looking at a "unified provisioning application" for all the technologies that Intel supports on a vPro system?

Let me know your thoughts...