Intel Manager Brian Johnson demonstrates the combination of Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 with PCs powered by Intel vPro Technology and servers powered by Intel Xeon Processors. This hardware and software technology is designed for businesses with 500 or less PCs, and brings the capabilities that till now only large businesses could take advantage of into a package that's optimized for small business. His video includes demonstrations around remote power control of PCs with Intel vPro Technology and remote diagnosis and repair of troubled servers with Intel Xeon Processors.

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To see more videos from MMS 2008, please go here: http://www.intel.com/go/mms/

While at MMS, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager Program Manager Dave Randall demonstrated how Intel vPro Technology enhances Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. The videos below include demonstrations around secure remote power control, remote diagnosis and repair of troubled PCs, discovery of PC assets, and remote configuration.

1) Video demonstration of hardware-assisted Secure Remote Power Control:

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2) Video demonstration of hardware-assisted Remote Diagnosis and Repair:

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3) Video demonstration of hardware-assisted Discovery of PC Assets:

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4) Video demonstration of Remote Configuration of Intel vPro technology:

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Click here to learn more about the combination of Microsoft System Center 2007 products with Intel vPro technology: http://communities.intel.com/community/vproexpert/microsoft-vpro

At MMS, we had Brad Anderson, General Manager of Microsoft Management and Services Division, and Gregory Bryant, Intel VP and General Manager of the Digital Office Platform Division, answer some questions about the new capabilities in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 with Intel vPro technology. See their responses below.

1) How does Intel vPro Technology fit into System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1?

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2) What can IT expect in terms of the level of integration of Intel vPro Technology into System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1?

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3) Why should IT now take advantage of Intel vPro Technology and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1?

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4) When should enterprises activate Intel vPro Technology with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 in their PC infrastructure?

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5) Last, we asked a series of questions about System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Support for the Current Generation of Intel vPro Technology with WS-MAN Support, as well as with Legacy Generations of Intel vPro technology.

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To see more videos, demonstrations, interviews and more from MMS 2008, go to http://www.intel.com/go/mms/

One of the great features of SCCM SP1 is the ability to provision vPro Clients through the SCCM SP1 client agent. This allows for vPro clients to be deployed in an unprovisioned state and then later provisioned via the client agent once the client agent has been deployed using in-band methodologies.

Prior to Client Agent provisioning to occurs, there are a couple of configuration steps you need to do within SCCM SP1. First, it is recommended that you create a new collection that will house your vPro clients that have been discovered and are in an unprovision state. It is viable to use the "All Systems" collection to set the policy for automatic provisioning via the clients agent; however, it is not advised.

To create a new collection...

1. Right Click on Collection, and select "New Collection"

2. When the "New Collection" window appears, enter in a Collection Name. Something like "Unprovisioned vPro Clients" is recommended. Fill in the comment field appropriately and click "Next"

3. When the "Membership Rules" appear, click on the "Query Rule Properties" (it is the Database icon)

4. In the "Query Properties", enter in a name something similar to "Unprovisioned vPro Client Query" and then click "Edit Query Statement..."

5. When the Query Properties appear, click "Show Query Language"

6. In the Query Statement textbox, type in the following: Select * from sms_r_system where AMTStatus=2
   This will pull all the clients that are vPro capable and in an unprovisioned state

7. Once completed, click "OK" and "OK" again on the Query Rule Properties. When returned to the "Membership Rules" screen, click "Next"

8. Add any desired advertisements and click "Next"

9. On the "Security" screen, add any appropriate users or groups and click "Next".

10. On the Confirmation screen, click "Close".

You should now see your new Collection in the collection list. The next step is to configure this collection so that vPro Clients in the collection are automatically provisioned.

1. Right Click on the "Unprovisioned vPro Clients" collection and select "Modify Collection Settings".

2. In the Settings windows, click on the "Out of Band" tab.

3. Check the checkbox "Enable Automatic out of band management controller provisioning" and click "OK"

It is also recommended that you add the "AMT Status", "AMT Version" and "Automatic AMT Provisioning" columns to the collection for easier troubleshooting.

To do so...

1. Select the "Unprovisioned vPro Client" collection and right click in the open white space

2. When the context menu appears, select "View" -> "Add/Remove Columns"

3. When the "Add/Remove Columns" screen appears, add "AMT Status", "AMT Version", and "Automatic AMT Provisioning" to the collection view. Click "OK" when finished.

This collection is now setup so that any vPro client in the collection will be automatically provisioned through the SP1 client agent. With the collection defined, you can use any of the client discover methods that SCCM SP1 provides (AD System Group, AD Security Group, AD System , AD User, Heartbeat, or Network) to discover the client. If you decide to use Network discovery, you can also check the checkbox on the "General" tab to "Enable Discovery of out of band controllers"; by doing so it will also check to see if the client is vPro capable. After you run the discover method and update the collection (either manually or via scheduled policies), you should now be able to see the client in the "All Systems" Collection.

Now that the clients have been discovered by SCCM, you will need to perform a "Discover Management Controller" to see if any of them are vPro capable. On the "All Systems" right click and select "Out of Band Management" -> "Discovery Management Controller". This will scan through your collection and validate which clients are ready to be provisioned.

After a few minutes, depending on the size of your collection, you can update your collection membership by right click on "Collections" and select "Update Collection Membership". If you now refresh your "Unprovisioned Vpro Clients" collection, you should see a list of unprovisioned vPro clients ready to be provisioned. The AMT Status of the client should be listed as "Not Provisioned".

Depending on your SCCM SP1 Client Pulling schedule, it may take a few hours for the client agent to pull down the new provisioning policy. You can, however, force the policy to be refreshed earlier by opening the Configuration Manager Properties within the client's Windows Control Panel and selecting the "Action" tab. Once in the Action Tab, select "Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle" and click "Initiate Action". For instructions on how to deploy the SCCM SP1 client agent, please

reference the SCCM SP1 Help and look for the “Overview of Configuration

Manager Client Deployment” article.

After the provisioning has occurred, the vPro Client will be removed from the newly created "Unprovisioned vPro Clients" collection and be listed as an "AMT Status" as provisioned.

Similar to provisioning via the Out Of Band Wizard, you can track the progress of the provisioning process through the SCCM Out Of Band reports or for more detail amtopmgr.log. There is also the oobmgmt.log on the client machine that will track the Agent based provisioning process.

Another clarifying note is that once the SCCM SP1 Agent is installed and acknowledged by SCCM, the Client Agent initiated provisioning is the only provisioning method supported; SCCM will ignore any vPro hello packets it receives from the client. Also, the vPro client must be in a unprovisioned state with for the Agent based provisioning to occur.

Here is a video that goes over the high level process

Hello to the vPro community!

I'm David Randall, and have been working in the Configuration Manager team over the last year to develop our integration with Intel's AMT hardware.

I recently attended MMS 2008, and was very happy to hear all the enthusiasm around the Configuration Manager integration, and your plans to use vPro in conjunction with ConfigMgr.

I plan to post here weekly with new information that we've learned about ConfigMgr / AMT integration, help you with some walk throughs, list interesting new uses for vPro and where possible, help you streamline your Configuration Manager deployment with vPro.

Thanks, and here's to out of band management!

David Randall

Program Manager, Microsoft