This post is part of SCCM Current Branch Installation Guide series.
In this post we are going to enable Client push through SCCM which will install SCCM client to all systems. Once Client is installed, they can communicate with SCCM Server to get the policies for deploying applications, patches & other stuff.

Client Push Installation Prerequisite is:

  • From SCCM Site Server, we should be able to connect to clients Admin$ share (c:\windows directory of client).
  • From SCCM Site Server, we should be able to connect to clients WMI.

Both of the prerequisite has already been achieved by a Group Policy created for client.

Few other settings are required before pushing the clients:

  • Configuration Manager Client Package should be distributed successfully on Distribution Point.
  • Network Access Account should be specified.
  • Client Push setting is required.

Verify Configuration Manager Client Package
Open SCCM Console, Navigate to Software Library \ Application Management \ Packages, search for “Configuration Manager Client Package”.
Verify Content Status should show as success, which means package is already available on Distribution Point which can be made available during Client Push

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Verification of Network Access Account
Client computers use the network access account when they can’t use their local computer account to access content on distribution points.

Navigate to Administration \ Overview \ Site Configuration \ Sites :
Under Right Pane, you will see SCCM Site, select the site.
Click on “Configure Site Components” Ribbon bar and select “Software Distribution”

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Under “Software Distribution Component” properties, select tab “Network Access Account” and select “Specify the account that accesses network locations” and click on burst icon.

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Select the Account which should have access to content on Distribution Points. For this purpose, I am using svc-sccmadmin which is having admin rights.

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Client Push Installation Setting

Click on “Client Installation Settings” & select Client Push Installation

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We are going to enable to enable to client push so that any new client which is part of Domain will get client install automatically.

Check the box “Enable automatic site-wide client push installation
Under System types, Servers & Workstations are selected while “Configuration Manager site system Servers” is not selected as I don’t wan’t to push the client on SCCM Server.

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Click on tab “Accounts”, we need to specify Client Push account here, this account should be part of Local Admin Group account on systems where we are pushing the Client install.

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Specify Hierarchy Settings for Client Upgrade
With Site selected under “Site Configuration” , select “Hierarchy Settings” on Ribbon bar to open properties. Click on tab “Client Upgrade” and select “Upgrade all clients in the hierarchy using production client”

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Verify Client push is working (at Server Side) through ccm.log

Open ccm.log located under d:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\logs.
You can see that SCCM server is trying to connect to Admin$ share of workstation (ie c:\windows)

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Once Admin$ share is connected, 2 client installation files are copied under c:\windows\ccmsetup.
ccmsetup.exe – will further be executed at client side for installation.
MobileClient.tcf – will contain the Client installation property such as MP, cache size info and other info.

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We can see that the files are successfully downloaded under ccmsetup folder on one of the workstation

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Verify Client Push installation (at Client side) through ccmsetup.log

Once ccmsetup.exe & mobileclient.tcf download is completed, ccmsetup.exe service is created and can be verified under “Task Manager”. ccmsetup.exe will further pull all required SCCM Client installation files from Distribution Point and we can see the installation happening ccmsetup.log (under c:\windows\ccmsetup\logs at client side). Successful installation will return exit code 0.

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Once installation is completed, ccmsetup.exe service is deleted and ccmexec service is created which can be seen with the name “SMS Agent Host” under task bar. SCCM Client installation will create an icon under “Control Panel” with the name “Configuration Manager“. Open it to verify couple of settings which is directly coming from SCCM Server.

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After couple of minutes, client will send the status message to Management Point which further sends the information to SCCM Database, hence we can see client showing as installed and client activity showing as Active.

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