We are running into an issue in our VDI environment with the hardware and software scan running on all the machines at one time. This causing degradation in our storage environment and causing slowness. I believe that these scans run based on the installation time of the SCCM client. We are using a master image, so the install time of the SCCM client is the same on all computers. I still want to keep the simple schedule to run ever 7 days, so machines scans at different times of the day. Is there a way to modify the SCCM installation time on a per machine basis, so that we can scatter the scan times in our VM environment? Can this be done without reinstalling the SCCM client?

They should be randomized unless you have set them to all run at a specific time in the agent settings. Instead of a specific time set them to run once per xx days. John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum/|

I don't have it set to a specific time. It is set to run on a simple schedule, set to 1 Days. Everyday at 1:37 the scan starts on all the systems in our VMWare VDI environment. We can only imagine that it is looking at the install time of the SCCM client.

It shouldn't be doing that. Something is wrong. Have you run the report: Report Category: SMS Site - Discovery and Inventory Information Report Name: Computers that may share the same SMS Unique ID John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum/|

It only shows 2 records that may have ths same SMS Unique ID's. Any other idea?

It's not really randomized though, it should be based on original agent start up time and given that they are all based on the same master image, the behavior is essentially expected. The only work-around that I can think of is to initiate the scans out of cycle on the VDI systems using a script effectively causing them to adjust their schedules because when 1:37 comes around again they will have performed a scan within the last day already. You can do this with a series of collections and a script or manually using the right-click tools (if you are using persistant VMs).Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | Twitter @JasonSandys

Is the the original start-up time? I thought it was the last startup time. Effectively randomizing them because machines are rebooted etc. John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum/|

I think it depends on how you look at it. If the system was started within the reporting interval, then it will use the time it last reported which is the original startup time. If the system is off for more than the interval, it should report immediately and a new last time reported will be established because it is outside the reporting interval. Over time in a larger environment, entropy will take over and will spread them out. In the case of a duplicated master image for VDI, that doesn't really hold true because the systems probably all got powered on shortly after being duplicated, are never powered off for any significant amount of time, and thus never reset their base time to anything other than their original start time. This is all speculative though but I do remember a discussion about this with the product group at the MVP summit specifically addressing this and the lack of ConfigMgr's ability to gracefully handle this situation.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | Twitter @JasonSandys

You are right Jason, it's based on install time. Only thing I know to do is uninstall and reinstall some clients. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb633275.aspx "Although the simple schedule allows less flexibility in scheduling inventory, this method usually causes less network traffic than the Custom Schedule option. This is because the time interval between each client's inventory report is based on the time that the Configuration Manager 2007 client was installed, and the first policies were retrieved, for each client. When Custom Schedule is selected, all clients will begin the inventory process at exactly the same time."John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum/|