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Getting Started with the Microsoft Configuration Manager On-Demand Assessment

The Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment assesses the site servers, site database servers, and site system servers in your Microsoft Configuration Manager environment. It also collects and analyzes client heath data that is available from Configuration Manager site servers. The analysis generates a list of issues to address with remediation guidance and best practices to improve the performance of Configuration Manager infrastructure and features such as deploying applications, software updates, and operating systems. Assessments are available through Services Hub to help you optimize the availability, security, and performance of your Microsoft technology investments. These assessments use Microsoft Azure Log Analytics, which is designed to give you simplified IT and security management across your environment.

Running the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment

Prerequisites

To take full advantage of the On-Demand Assessments available through Services Hub, you must:

  1. Have linked an active Azure Subscription to Services Hub and added the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment. For more information please see the Getting Started with On-Demand Assessments document or watch the how to link video.

  2. Have a domain account (User or Managed Service Account) with the following rights:

    1. Admin access to every server (Site System) in the Configuration Manager hierarchy. (Single user account if Site Systems are in a Multi-Domain Environment)
    2. Unrestricted network access to every server (Site System) in the Configuration Manager hierarchy.
    3. Administrator permissions to all SQL servers used by the Configuration Manager Sites or Software Update Points.
    4. Full access rights to all the Configuration Manager Site objects in all Primary Sites.
    5. SysAdmin permission to all SQL Instances used by Configuration Manager Sites or Software Update Points.

  3. Review the Pre-Requisites document for the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment. This document explains the detailed technical documentation of the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment and the server preparation needed to run the assessment. It also documents the different types of data collected by the assessment.

Note

On average, it takes two hours to initially configure your environment to run an On-Demand Assessment. After you run an assessment you can review the data in Azure Log Analytics. This will provide you with a prioritized list of recommendations, categorized across six focus areas. This allows you and your team to quickly understand risk levels, the health of your environments, act to decrease risk, and improve your overall IT health.

Setup the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment on the data collection machine

Note

You will only be able to successfully setup the assessment once you have linked your Azure Subscription to Services Hub and added the Microsoft Configuration Manager Assessment from Health -> Assessments in Services Hub.

  1. On the data collection machine create the following folder: C:\OMS\SCCM (or any other folder you want besides C:\ODA, which is reserved by the system)

  2. Open regular PowerShell (not ISE) in Administrator mode and run the following cmdlet:

    Add-SCCMAssessmentTask -ServerName <YourServerName> -WorkingDirectory <Directory>` command

    Where <YourServerName> is the FQDN or NetBIOS name of one of the Management Servers that’s topmost in the hierarchy (Central or Primary Site).

    <Directory> is the path to an existing directory used to store the files created while collecting and analyzing the data from the environment.

    <WorkspaceId> – Provide ID for the Log Analytics workspace that will be used to store the uploaded data`

  3. Provide the required user account credentials that satisfy the requirements mentioned in this article earlier.

  4. Data collection is triggered by the scheduled task named SCCMAssessment within an hour of running the previous script and then every 7 days. The task can be modified to run on a different date/time or even forced to run immediately from the task scheduler library -> Microsoft -> Operations Management Suite -> AOI*** -> Assessments -> SCCMAssessment.

  5. Data collection is triggered by the scheduled task named SCCMAssessment within an hour of running the previous script and then every 7 days. The task can be modified to run on a different date/time or even forced to run immediately from the task scheduler library -> Microsoft -> Operations Management Suite -> AOI*** -> Assessments -> SCCMAssessment.

  6. During collection and analysis, data is temporarily stored under the Working Directory folder that was configured during setup.

  7. After a few hours, your assessment results will be available on your Log Analytics and Services Hub Dashboard. You can go to see the results by going into Services Hub -> IT Health -> On-Demand Assessments and then selecting "View all recommendations" against the active assessment.

  8. If you wish to get a Microsoft Accredited Engineer to go over the issues about your Microsoft Configuration Manager Environment with you, you can contact your Microsoft Representative and ask them about the Remote or Onsite CSA Led Delivery

Agreement Remote Engineer Onsite Engineer
Premier Microsoft Configuration Manager Remote Datasheet Microsoft Configuration Manager Onsite Datasheet
Unified Microsoft Configuration Manager Remote Datasheet Microsoft Configuration Manager Onsite Datasheet