How can I upgrade to System Center 2012 R2 SP1 with MDT 2013 Update 1 integrated?

Introduction

In the last few months, there’s been a plethora of releases from Microsoft, and I wanted to put together a guide that not only covers upgrading a primary from System Center 2012 R2 CU4 to System Center 2012 R2 SP1 CU1 but in addition, covers integration of the recently released MDT 2013 Update 1 to get your environment ready for deploying Windows 10 and to improve the mobile device management (Microsoft Intune) capabilities of Configuration Manager.

In this long guide I’ll go through the steps you can take to upgrade your infrastructure to support managing and deploying Windows 10 using Configuration Manager 2012 R2 SP1.

Note: Before you start the upgrade make sure to put together a plan of actions and refer to the official Technet documentation about planning on upgrading to System Center 2012 R2 SP1 here. A Key point to remember is the upgrade order and it’s from the top down in your hierarchy, like so CAS>Primaries>Secondaries>Clients. If you have no CAS, start at the Primary site and work your way down. In addition, you should try and halt any package/application distributions prior to commencing the upgrade so as to minimize load on the affected servers. If you plan on upgrading Secondary sites, make sure to first run the prerequisites checker using the following command prereqchk.exe  /SECUPGRADE secondarysiteserver.aaaa.bbb.com. Fix any problems found before you attempt to click on Upgrade via the Configuration Manager console.

Step 1. Download the bits

There’s a bunch of stuff to download before beginning, some of the files are Cumulative Updates and hotfixes which are used to fix issues either before or after the upgrade, while others are the actual content needed for the upgrade process.

Hotfixes and CU’s:
System Center 2012 R2 CU5 – download link
System Center 2012 R2 SP1 CU1 – download link
Driver bloat hotfix – download link

Content:
System Center 2012 R2 SP1 – download link (MSDN) download link (Technet Eval), confused ? see here.
Windows 10 ADK – download link
MDT 2013 Update 1 – download link

While most of the above simply involve clicking on links, filling in email addresses (why…) and downloading the content, Windows 10 ADK is different in that you can download the entire source locally for use on other computers, and this is useful as the Windows 10 ADK needs to be installed on any site server hosting the SMS Provider role.

To download Windows 10 ADK locally do as follows. Run the already downloaded adksetup.exe and select the second option.

download ADK 10 locally.png

set your privacy options

windows kits privacy.png

accept the EULA

EULA.png

and the downloading of features begins…

download features.png

Once you have all the content above downloaded (4.1GB or so), gather it together in one place, and copy it to a temp folder on your Configuration Manager Primary server (or whichever ConfigMgr server is highest in the hierarchy as explained in the note above) such as to D:\temp\CM12R2SP1 Upgrade source

After copying the content, extract the Hotfixes to something more meaningful such as

  • hotfixes\CU5
  • hotfixes\R2CU1
  • hotfixes\DriverBloatFix

hotfixes extracted.png

Step 2. Restart the server

Before continuing, restart the server to make sure no pending operations (such as Windows updates or file rename operations) are waiting for a reboot. Close any open ConfigMgr consoles and issue a reboot as follows via an administrative cmd prompt:

 shutdown /r

shutdown restart.png

Step 3. Upgrade to CU5

While some people don’t consider this, i’d suggest you do. Cumulative Update 5 is even mentioned in the FAQ. To upgrade to CU5 do as follows.

Browse to the location of the extracted hotfix, eg:  D:\temp\CM12R2SP1 Upgrade source\Hotfixes\CU5 and double click on the EXE within.

cu5 hotfix.png

Click Next at the Welcome screen

cu5 welcome.png

accept the License terms and click next

eula cu5.png

and verify the prerequesites… (you did reboot didn’t you ;-))

cu5 verify prereqs.png

click on View Log to open the CM12-r2cu5-kb3054451-x64-enu.log file in cmtrace and then click on Next, place a checkmark in the Install the update for the Configuration Manager console screen and click next.

cu5 include console update.png

Unless you want to update SQL manually, select the default option for the Database Update screen and click next

cu5 database update.png

and click next at the Deployment Assistance Options

cu5 deployment assistance options.png

you’ll be prompted to let it automatically create packages for the Servers, Consoles and clients, click next through them all.

cu5 create configuration manager packages.png

and then the upgrade to CU5 begins

cu5 upgrade in progress.png

Once complete make sure all looks good in the wizard and the logfile in CMTrace.

CU5 upgrade complete.png

Logfile below…

cu5 upgrade log.png

close the wizard and logfile.

Step 4. Restart the server

There will be a lot of server restarts during this process, so once again, restart the server to make sure no pending operations are waiting for a reboot. Go get a coffee, take a break and close any open ConfigMgr consoles and issue a reboot as follows via an administrative cmd prompt:

shutdown /r

shutdown restart.png

Step 5. Review a few things before the upgrade

Before doing the major upgrade let’s review a few things in the ConfigMgr conolse related to the below:

  • Microsoft Intune integration
  • Operating System Deployment

If your Configuration Manager environment is integrated with Microsoft Intune, then take a quick look under Administration, and select Extensions for Windows Intune to reveal what extensions are downloaded and enabled.

enabled extensions prior to upgrade.png

Secondly you can look at Compliance Settings available before the upgrade.

compliance settings available before upgrade.png

Next, look at Software Library, Application Management, Packages, and look for the User State Migration Tool for Windows 8.1 package, this package is used for migrating data in our task sequences.

Check the data source tab and make a copy of that folders within that source location and copy the USMT folders somewhere before upgrading takes place. For example, Create a new USMT 8.1 package and set the source to \\cm12\sources\os\USMT\Windows 8.1.

Failure to do the above will mean your USMT package will not be renamed and will point to the new Windows 10 USMT ADK package.

While we are at it, look at the boot images on the server, in this case we have 4, two are the two Default Boot Images created when installing Configuration Manager, and the other two boot images are custom boot images which were  created as part of MDT Integration with ConfigMgr. Notice the version numbers of these boot images corresponding to the ADK they came from (Windows 8.1 ADK).

boot images before upgrade.png

If you right click on any of these custom boot images and review the tabs available, you can see that you have access to all abilities such as adding drivers or optional components prior to the upgrade.

custom boot wim before upgrade.png

Step 6. Backup Database and then run TestDBUpgrade on a copy of the Database

There’s two options for backing up your database, using ConfigMgr’s options or via SQL server itself. Read below before deciding which is right for you.

 

Note: Failure to backup your database could leave you in a very bad situation. Do not attempt the upgrade without first having done a succesful backup and then copying that backup to another server. Do not run TestDBUpgrade on the ConfigMgr database itself, that will leave it in an unusable state. Use a copy of the successful backup to test the database upgrade process.

Backup the database using ConfigMgr
Configuration Manager can backup the SQL database for you using the Backup task however it is not compressed in any way and can as a result take up a lot of server space. If that’s not an issue for you then go ahead and backup your ConfigMgr database as outlined in this post.

Backup the database using SQL server (recommended)
However, if you are in any way lacking server space, then it’s definitely recommended to backup your database using SQL Server’s backup feature which DOES compress the data. Steve Thomson does a great guide on that right here.

configmgr database backed up using sql backup.png

Once you have backed up the database, copy that backup file, and then run TestDBUprade on the copy of the database backup on another SQL Server (temporary virtual machine is fine) as outlined in Step 6 of my earlier post here. Do not continue until it is successful.

configmgr successfully upgraded the copy of the database.png

Step 7. Uninstall ADK 8.1
You can actually install the Upgrade without removing Windows ADK 8.1 however then you’ll have issues deploying Windows 10. By far the best option is to upgrade your whole environment using the new ADK and to do that, you need to remove Windows ADK 8.1 first.

To remove it, open Control panel, and uninstall Windows Assesment and Deployment Toolkit 8.1, answer yes to any prompts.

Uninstall ADK 81.png

when it’s uninstalled you’ll be notified

ADK 81 uninstalled.png

Step 8. Restart the server
Issue a reboot as follows via an administrative cmd prompt:

shutdown /r

shutdown restart.png

Step 9. Install ADK 10
Now it’s time to install Windows ADK 10.

Note: After you update the ADK on your site server to Windows ADK 10 you will not be able to edit older boot images in console you will have to manually edit them outside with DISM if still needed.  Windows ADK 10 supports deploying Windows 7 and later operating systems. If you do not want to install Windows ADK 10 then you’ll have to manually import the Windows 10 capable boot images as outlined here.

 

Using an administrative cmd prompt, browse to the folder you copied the Windows ADK 10 sources files eg: D:\temp\CM12R2SP1 Upgrade source\Windows Kits\10\ADK and run the following command (it’s one line !)

adksetup.exe /Features OptionId.DeploymentTools OptionId.WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment OptionId.ImagingAndConfigurationDesigner OptionId.UserStateMigrationTool /norestart /quiet /ceip off

You can monitor the installation of Windows ADK 10 by reviewing the log files in %temp%\adk.The log file will be called something like Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit___Windows_10_20150819143357.log, and when you have a successful installation you should see Exit Code: 0x0 as per the screenshot below:

 

windows 10 adk installed.png

 

Step 10. Restart the server
Issue a reboot as follows via an administrative cmd prompt:

shutdown /r

shutdown restart.png

Step 11. Install System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1

Finally you get to install the Service Pack :-). Double click the SC2012_SP2_Configmgr_SCEP.exe and let it unzip to the default folder which is C:\SC2012_SP2_Configmgr_SCEP. Once done, start the upgrade by launching splash.hta using File Explorer.

 

splash hta.png

 

click Install to start the installation process and next at the Before you begin screen. Select Upgrade this Configuration Manager site from the choices available.

 

upgrade.png

 

accept the two pages of EULA’s

 

cm12 sp1 eula.png

 

Using File Explorer, create a folder on C:\ called downloads and download the requirements to that folder. If you want to download the prerequisites on a different server do as follows:-

  • Open a command prompt with administrative permissions
  • Navigate to .\Configuration Manager 2012 R2 SP1 Install source\smssetup\bin\X64
  • Run the command below
    SetupDL.exe C:\downloads

 

downloading prereqs.png

 

Next make your Server language selection and Client language selection if you want to have additional languages available at this site for the Configuration Manager console and for reports, or clear languages that you no longer want to support at this site, and then click Next.

 

client language selection.png

 

and then you’ll see the prerequisites check, if there’s any warnings or failures fix them prior to continuing. Click on Begin Install the start the actual upgrade and then click on View Log to see the installation progress via the logfile in CMTrace.

 

prereqs check.png

 

keep on going until you see Core Setup has completed.

 

core setup has completed.png

 

Scroll up and down and verify there’s no problems, also check the C:\ConfigMgrSetup.log file for any problems indicated. Once you are happy close the wizard and the log file.

 

Step 12. Restart the server
Issue a reboot as follows via an administrative cmd prompt:

shutdown /r

shutdown restart.png

 

after the restart you can verify the Site Version and it’s listed here

 

5.0.8239.1000

 

SP1 Version.png

 

Step 13. Install CU1

CU1 is definitely worth installing for the bug fixes and new Client Upgrade options it offers. Here are the OSD related bugs  it fixes listed below.

  • The Smsts.ini file is added to the \Windows\System32 folder instead of to the \Windows folder during operating system deployment.
  • Task sequence packages are downloaded two times when the “Install software packages according to dynamic variable list” option is selected, and the variable SMSTSPersistContent is set to “False.” The package is downloaded one time, deleted, and then downloaded again before the actual installation.
  • Windows 10 drivers do not import. Errors that resemble the following are logged in the DriverCatalog.log file:
    Initializing driver digest from ‘\\server\Windows10-x64\{Windows10-driver}.inf’\\server\Windows10-x64\{Windows10-driver}.inf is not applicable to any supported platforms.Driver is not applicable to any supported platforms. Code 0x80070661

You might want to enable client upgrade in your hierachy to avail of a new feature in CU1 (client upgrade with the hotfix patch included) prior to installing CU1.

 

To do so click on Administration, Site Configuration, Sites, select your site, click on Hierarchy settings. Click on the  Automatic Client Upgrade tab and set it to your desired settings.

 

automatic client upgrade.png

 

To install CU1, double click on CM12_SP2R2SP1CU1-KB3074857-X64-ENU.exe and complete the wizard as per Step 3 above.
CU1 welcome.png
The automatic client upgrade feature is will appear after you are asked whether you want to upgrade the site database or not.
automatic client upgrade in cu1.png
and after completion you’ll see it’s successfully installed,
CU1 successfully installed.png
and notice the new console version info = 5.0.8239.1203
site version with cu1.png
If you are prompted to restart the server, then do so otherwise you’ll more than  likely be prompted to do so when running the next step.

Step 14. Install driver bloat hotfix

After SP1 was released there were some bugs noted, one of which was Driver Bloat. The following hotfix fixed the issue. I would imagine that it’ll be incorporated into CU2 when that releases, but for now, install it or use PowerShell to import your drivers.

 

To install the hotfix, double click on CM12_SP2R2SP1CU1-QFE-KB3084586-X64-ENU.exe and continue through the wizard until completion.

 

driver bloat hotfix welcome.png

 

once again, notice the new console version info = 5.0.8239.1206

console version.png

 

Step 15. Install MDT 2013 update 1

At this point, things are nearly done, we just need to install MDT 2013 update 1 and then integrate it. To install it, double click on the MSI

 

mdt wizard.png

 

just click next through the wizard, it will automatically uninstall the previous version (MDT 2013).

 

MDT 2013 update 1 installed.png

Step 16. Integrate MDT 2013 update 1

If the ConfigMgr console is open, close it. In the Start Screen locate the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit group and click right click on Configure ConfigMgr Integration, choose Run as Administrator.

 

configure configmgr integration.png

 

Select the first option, Install the MDT extensions for Configuration Manager.

 

install mdt extensions.png

 

click next and close the wizard when done.

 

Step 17. Review changes in the console

Now that you’ve upgraded everything, it’s time to look at some of the changes, first take a look at the Microsoft Intune Extensions, most should have disappeared, if any are remaining then they are still updating or being enabled.

 

extensions after the ugrade.png

 

Under Assets and compliance you can see another section called All Corporate Owned devices

 

all corporate owned devices.png

 

The default boot images should be updated to WinPE 10 (10.0.10240.16384)

 

default boot images updated to WinPE 10.png

 

But the custom boot images remain unchanged, except for the fact that there are now a lot less tabs available in their properties. Any driver changes, or adding/removing optional components or other actions will have to be performed using this method.

 

MDT boot image after upgrade.png

 

Notice how the Operating System Installers has changed name to Operating System Upgrade Packages also. In addition, the USMT package is recreated by the installation of Windows 10 ADK and while it is pointing at the correct USMT bits and lists the correct USMT version it is named as User State Migration Tool for Windows 8.1. Simply rename it to User State Migration Tool for Windows 10 and all is good.

 

rename USMT package.png

 

In the following post, I cover how to create new MDT 2013 Update 1 boot images, the MDT Toolkit Package and MDT Settings packages and task sequences in System Center 2012 R2 SP1 Configuration Manager, until then, adios and thanks for reading.

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