Correct me if I'm wrong please...
Can SCCM be used for multiple sites? When I say sites I do not mean active directory sites. I mean completely different networks. right now we used Labtech and we can install agents on computers throughout the world and all the agents talk back to our
server. We can push scripts, reboot, VNC, patching, and many others things with this product. Can SCCM do the same thing or does it require that each site have a SCCM server installed? How do most people use it?
June 23rd, 2011 4:22pm
SCCM is very scalable, it can work on any network such corporate intranet and DMZ as well. You don’t need a SCCM server on every network. A single SCCM server
can service systems on different networks as long as there is communication between various networks.
Placement of servers has to do more with the number of client systems at a given location, network speed, SCCM administration and a few other factors. Your question
is a very broad in scope and it requires more detail to be answered appropriately. I hope this information helps.
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June 23rd, 2011 4:50pm
Sorry for not being very specific. Each network can have different network speeds and different amount of computers. Majority of the time it is no more than a couple servers and 20 computers at each location.
The SCCM server will be on a network network with 10down / 10up and have a dedicated IP and DNS name. The main thing we want to do is control patching, control anti-virus (forefront if need be, but we currently use AVG), remote control (can you get remote
control of a remote workstation?), and remote reboots. Also we want to be able to monitor computers for disks that are defragmented and disk that are very low on disk space. That is about it.
So it sounds like I can install SCCM and port forward all the needed ports and it will work from what you are telling me. I just configure each agent to look at the SCCM public DNS name.
*** Edit: ***
With Labtech all the agents checkin with the server and the server sends back infomration. This means each network does not have to have a connection opened for each computer or anything. Does this work the same way with SCCM? I only have to port forward
for the SERVER. I just install the agents on the workstations and specify the server to checkin to right?
June 23rd, 2011 5:41pm
So, a couple of things.
You are actually talking about managing system over the public Internet. That's a whole different story. ConfigMgr is not a tool suited for a managed services environment or where direct routing of traffic between the clients and server is not available.
It is not supported to put clients behind a NAT and manage them.
Also, ConfigMgr is not about monitoring the state of a system and generating alerts, that's more an OpsMgr task on an Enterprise scale.
However, Microsoft does have a public cliud hosted service designed for managed service provides: InTune. InTunes three main features are software Updates, anti-virus, and inventory along with some limited alerting (if I remember correctly). Thus, I recommend
you investigate InTune.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | Twitter @JasonSandys
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June 23rd, 2011 9:44pm
That you both for your answers! I will check out InTune. Thanks again!
June 24th, 2011 10:31am