In this blog post I will be showing you how to install SCCM client on workgroup computer. As we cannot apply group policy on workgroup computers, we can’t push the client through software update point-based installation. Our only option is to install the client Manually.

Installation with Command line

Let’s look into the command line used for Configuration Manager client. Command line with several parameters can be used to install the SCCM client.

Command line parameter – 1 (basic parameters)

Let me show you the the simplest way of installing the client. This requires client installation source to be copied from <installation path>\client on the configuration Manager Site Server to workgroup system.

Once copied, for example c:\temp\client, run the command line using following parameter:

ccmsetup.exe SMSMP=<FQDN of MP> SMSSITECODE=AUTO

I used:

Ccmsetup.exe SMSMP=SCCM01.MANBAN.COM SMSSITECODE=AUTO
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Installation can be verified through ccmsetup.log & client.msi located under c:\windows\ccmsetup\logs.

Note: This method works absolutely fine keeping following things into consideration:
1. The source is copied locally (ie. Under c:\temp\client), hence it doesn’t download from SCCM. Hence, we haven’t used additional parameters such as /mp or source.
2. Workgroup System should have been able to point to correct DNS Server ie. DNS Suffix. This can be verified by running command line ipconfig and look for Connection-specific DNS Suffix.

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Even though the client gets installed, it will not get registered to SCCM. Launch Configuration Manager Properties through Control Panel.

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Under Actions tab you will be able to see only 2 actions ie. :
Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle

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To get the client registered, you need to approve the client. Launch SCCM console and navigate to Assets and Compliance > Overview > Devices > All Systems.

You will be able to see new system name discovered which is the workgroup system. However, we see the icon as question mark and not marked as green as the client is not approved.

Right click the system and select Approve.

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You will get notification that you are going to approve the computer. Click yes to approve it.

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Once done, you can check the status on client side by looking into actions tab again after some time. This time we are able to see complete list of action policies along with Configurations tab added.

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Under SCCM collection, client will be showing as green icon and Client Activity marked as Active.

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The reason to approve the client is because of the default Client approval method specified in SCCM.

Navigate to Administration > Overview > Site Configuration > Sites, from the ribbon select Hierarchy Settings and select tab Client Approval and Conflicting Records. Client Approval method is set to Automatically approve computers in trusted domains (recommended), hence this option does not allow any other system to get approved automatically such as workgroup joined system.

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To auto approve workgroup systems, select Automatically approve all computers. However, this is not the recommended setting, and I would say a big no to set this as it will automatically approve and deploy all corporate SCCM policies to the workgroup machines.

Command line parameter – 2 (additional /mp parameter)

Run the following parameter if you haven’t copied complete source, and just copied ccmsetup.exe.

ccmsetup.exe /mp:SCCM01.MANBAN.COM SMSMP=SCCM01.MANBAN.COM SMSSITECODE=AUTO

This time the difference is usage of /mp parameter which is responsible to download the binaries/ source of SCCM client by specifying SCCM management point.

Command line parameter – 3 (additional source parameter)

Run the Parameter 3 if the source is copied locally or a remote location which is accessible with appropriate rights.

ccmsetup.exe source:c:\temp\client SMSMP=SCCM01.MANBAN.COM SMSSITECODE=AUTO

However, I would try to skip source parameter in case I am running locally and running from the same folder location.

Command line parameter – 4 (additional DNSSuffix parameter)

Run this parameter in case workgroup system is not having DNS Server information by running ipconfig and seeing DNS Suffix is missing.

ccmsetup.exe SMSMP=SCCM01.MANBAN.COM SMSSITECODE=AUTO DNSSUFFIX=MANBAN.COM

Above mentioned command line is self-explanatory, we are just pointing DNSSuffix to use DNS Server.

Conclusion

As we can see there are are multiple command line or I would say variation in command line to install the SCCM client on workgroup systems, however I would rather prefer to keep the things simple by using the 1st parameter if everything else is in place.